I just wanted to memorialize some of the more apparent changes from the test server. The "Stats Matter" build they have is what some users have been calling "Back to Beta" because of long cooldowns on abilities. And when they said they were removing AM damage, well, they removed the AM altogether Summary of Electricity changes Tesla Blast - does one tick of damage instead of two. Wired - self only buff for weapon damage Shockwave - now uses Polarized PI Voltaic Bolt - no longer a DoT BioElectric Surge - no change Electrogenesis - 5 ticks of damage with 12 second cool down (7 seconds of no DoT), 5 ticks of healing with same cooldown (7 seconds of no HoT), also power back in healer roll Ionic Drain - no longer a valid healing power Electroburst - melee only, removed DoT; healing - no associated HoT, removed PI from healing, still an ally heal, does not require a target to heal, will not see multiple heals from multiple targets. AL - no change Tesla Ball - 3 ticks of damage only with a 6 or 8 second CD (didn't measure) Repulse - removed, replaced with BioCharge a power back move that gives 6 ticks of power back with a 12 second cool down Attract - no apparent change ESB - 3 ticks of damage with huge cooldown Electrocute - 12 ticks of damage with 20 second cool down (8 seconds of no damage) Overcharge - uses Electrified PI instead of Polarized Biocapicator - heals 8 instead of 4, 35% threshold instead of 45%, removed interaction with BS Galvanize - no change Spark Barrage - no change, but untetested Flux - no change Static Push - grants SC return, now mid range instead of full range Invigorate - 100% SC, does not return power Group Transducer - no change Circuit Breaker - 50% SC, no longer polarizes Mega Volt- unknown
Thanks for the list Jaq. (also wanted to do something like this) I'm currently lvl 10 on the Test Server, because I wasn't playing at the weekend (no time). I'm also helping with testing the next days/weeks and will be focusing on the healingside more than dps side. Actually I have some questions and maybe some1 can tell me (otherwise I'll have to test it in a few days on my own). How would you rank the Damagepowers like e-bomb, Shockwave, etc.? (based on Damage Per Second) How imprtant are PI's? What exactly does Invigorate do? Only heal + safetynet (wihtout BS - Interaction?)? Megavolt might be a strong Supercharge instead of CB. So.. they're removing midrange and stuff, but the SC builder is midrange? Doesn't make sense to me at all
Spord said we would get less than a 50% increase from PI which to me is negligible. I thought Tesla Blast was Op one shotting adds on Brainiac ship. Shockwave is spammable but you won't have power to spam it. Wired is bugged so I used the self power return mechanic. honestly, once I got AL and Electroburst I didn't need much else. The problem with computing actual damage per second is that many abilities have their loaded in the first few second with the second have of the cooldown being weapon attacks. They took away dummies but with the cooldowns you would never be able to do a 10 or 30 second parse to get a good deal. As a friend pointed out, during solo content you have the balls that restore your power so it makes it difficult to judge how the power actually behaves. T1 duos were not all easy. I did run Brother Eye duo with a Cr42 electric and I went heal for the one part (in DPS gear because you only have one Armory) and ended up on top. I think he was using more polarized interactions while I was using Electrified.
If you want to do more healing I suggest picking a range weapon. The cross damage from WM combos does not restore power so you would be back to HB, Pistols, Bow and Rifle in a raid.
Yea, a range weapon would make more sense ofc. Currently I'm rocking shield, jsut for the lvl-fun I used to heal with bow back in the times before WM and it always worked pretty well for me. Think i'm gonna stick with that.. maybe.. I'm more concerned about the cooldowns actually.
Range weapon due to many having pulse duration attacks like full auto or pulse beam. The major thing that hits me is bio capacitor being such a large cooldown, there can be gaps in the healing, even with your priority heal now having seemingless unlimited range.
Thanks for the consolidated info. I was planning on jumping on test to help out but after I learned that you would have to start at the beginning and level I opted out. It is a great idea and I do not fault the devs for doing it but it also happens to be the part of the game that I hate most now and I just could not bring myself to do it all over again. That being said I am a bit surprised by all the changes. I was under the impression that Am's were still going to be viable just no bonus damage, WM was viable just not bonus damage, and Play from the tray, or straight weapon attacks were supposed to be viable. From what I have read in the tester thread this is not the case in any way shape or form. It seems like they are completely redoing the entire game's combat system from the ground up. It also seems like since they plan on basing most of the powers off of the ones on test that there is a chance that they will just be reskins of each other with some very small changes. Not sure about this at all. Over all I am not liking the changes so far. It seems that most of them were not asked for by the community and all of our suggestions have been thrown out the window as usual.
My friends are trying to be optimistic and Cyro believes there is no way they can continue down this path based on the negative feedback given. I think one of the biggest letdowns is that you see an animation for TBall or Electrocute but no damage is occurring. Also, because the power back and damage mechanics happen in the first few seconds, you don't regen enough power for the six second after to even start a second "rotation." And giving us one ability for power back and another for buff? Seriously, who would not use both? I don't think there is a good Celestial DPS who doesn't use at least 2 of its buffs! While they say there are freeing up loadouts,we all know people will run with those two abilities, probably a SC, so you have 3 other abilities to make a rotation and we'll figure out what the strongest and lowest power cost they are.
Exactly! I hope you are correct. There are so many ways for them to fix things and it just seems like they always chose the most complicated way of doing things with the biggest backlash. Ugh so frustrating.
My other major complaint is that while weapon attacks regen power more quickly, WM cross damage does not. This means people will have to go back to the old days where trolls and heals had to use long range weapons. No more Brawling>shuriken. I always used 2H>Arrow Storm. But on Live now, I knew people who would troll on just HB with no mastery because of Pulse Beam power return. So our options for support weapons will be limited. it's a step back, not forward.
I know it's early, but do the heals change with range or is that just damage? They had mentioned there were only going to be two areas of damage range and melee. Anyone noticing a difference in damage either?
Hmm. They said on one of their Webcast the melee range should hit harder. Kind of the risk reward idea. Are you all testing weapons, or just powers?
testing is over. The problem with testing is we started with a brand new toon and we had to earn skill points, so there wasn't much comparison testing of weapons. Also, they removed testing dummies.
There was no viable way to test. You didn't have test dummies, nor SP and with follows using parser was fubar.
actually, it's a disappointment on many accounts. If anything like what was on test is implemented, I'm done.
I have been done for going on 3 months now. The stats revamp is the only thing that will bring me back. If it fails I will not renew my yearly legendary that expires in February.