Heavyporker
20-09-03, 01:30
*aside* Shadow, I know you don't like barrels, but seriously, you HAVE to re-consider (well, at least the non-rares) barrels in a strategic frame.
Ok.
Barrels.
Sure, they might suck for open spaces and twitchy brawls...
But I'm conviced they'll be key for APUs to use in OP fights. Barrels are the second most important support function for APUs.
Most everyone has cheapened the role of APU (debuff and Holy Lightning). It's time one of the older APUs passed down a bit of his knowledge. APUs aren't supposed to be just Holy Lightning and Holy Antibuff. They're far more nuanced than people give them credit. APUs *do* have a viable support role.
Barrels are to be used stratgetically. Yes, they can be used tactically, but their effectiveness are far amplifed with a bit of forethought.
I'll talk barrels to you again. After all, I'm the barrel lord.
- Barrels stack. The ticks will overlap. This means you can lay down the pain, gatling-style.
- Barrels can be used just as well against single runners as groups. You just have to be more discrete in the application.
- Barrels are AoE. If you gotta hold a spot at the end of a corridor or an opening between walls, lay it down. Don't full auto them. That's a waste of mana. Just lay one or two down every 10 seconds. That'll make coming in or out riskier for your opponents, and you get to have most of your mana for direct-fire spells.
- Barrels have duration. You have high RoF on other spells. Cast one or two fire barrels first, then switch and direct attack those that come in through it. The resultant blinding of your targets works in your favor.
- Poison and Fire barrels are DoT stackers. Notice the words DoT and stackerss. These barrels may be weak, but as first strike weapons, they can give you the attrition edge you need to take down a particularly nasty bastard. Attrition in this case means trimming off their high health BEFORE they get to you. Barrels will do that for you.
- If you ever go up against a PPU trying to help his buddies, lay down a few fire barrels. Even if he doesn't get hurt much by them, he'll have a lot harder time trying to track his teammates (fire barrel stacks fire, meaning the fire will down his visibility a lot longer than direct-hitting fire at him)
- You know that PPUs can't always run around forever - they have to slow down... especially when trying to help their teammates. ESPECIALLY when ressurecting. Barrel them to make them re-consider.
- Poison is fun to throw around. PPUs may have antidote spells, but they only have so much space on their QB... and trying to sort the spells out costs them time... and their lives. Also, not everyone bring antidote spells to fights, especially OP wars when they don't expect it. Plus, everyone suffers under the illusions that PPUs have all spells available to aid them. Their reliance on the PPU will be their undoing.
- Energy barrels are like stuntraps... They take out your legs and slap you around. You want to make the PPU move and spoil his spell? Lay it down. You don't need the TL3 parashock bolt or whatever they're talking about.
- Energy barrels are the most focused and the most straight-forward. You want to give pain someplace and fast, use this. Shelter shave a lot off it, but stacked energy barrels will still take a lot out of someone. PPUs hate me when I lay down stacked energy barrels in an enclosed leveling place with them in it. If I was serious about energy barreling them, they'd be near-death, not at half-health.
- Poison barrels are rather dissolute. But they stack poison extremely well. Poison may be weak nowadays, but stacks lining up to hurt you is nothing to laugh at. Antidote pills only give the target a few more seconds to live if they stand in a pile of poison barrels. I think Shadow Dancer recalls a certain fight with a GM.
- Fire barrels have huge AoE. They'll take up half the zone if you're not careful with them. And there are 70% chances you'll light yourself up casting them. And they're rather weak, but their use isn't damage (not purely, anyway). Their use is to set everything on fire, making vision worthless while they're in use.
(barrels apply to PPUs as well)
PPUs... You're forgetting that you have a barrel - parashock barrel. The damn thing is next to impossible to see. It's not holy paralysis, but it's AoE and a superb way to sneak a parashock on them. You guys think that Holy Paralysis is the only decent para available. You don't need to glue them down. When people get hit by anything other than HP, they most likely notice that they move well enough ( oh, what was that? a beggar stunner?) and often ignore it. That can be in your favor. Just a trim off their speed most likely is all your teammates need to get a lock on them. I don't think anyone bothers to pop a anti-para for anything less than Holy Paralysis, and even if they do, the properly stacked parashock barrel will spam the shock for you, giving you a bit more time to buff your mates up.
APUs don't need parashock, not when they can effectively blind their opponents.
Attrition also works in the APU's favor more than any other class since they can stack DoT better than any other. Forget stacking direct-fire spells. In most cases, they're just too weak unless you have very high frequency on them.
Goddammit, why do I see so many simple-minded, "go in full auto and die" APUs. My reserved, support-giving play style may be more suited to PPU, but dammit, I sure can handle my APU well enough to be a worry. There's far more to the APU than Holy Lightning and a strapped-on PPU. Sheesh. What a bunch of wankers.
Now, the current range nerf on the barrels render them all but impractical to kamikaze APUs, because APUs won't survive getting close enough to cast enough barrels to make a difference in most PvP situations. I agree the the previous range on barrels were too high (comparable range to beams), but now, its nuts - it's melee range now. Make them top out around 125m (similiar to blasts) and we'll all be happy.
Another thing, PSI Blasts have GOT to be reworked - their AoE is far too small for them to be worth SHIT in anything other than shooting plants or swamp dwellers (why, because they can't move, that's why!) - the arcing bolts means they're slower to hit than other spells and can't be used in enclosed spaces. Expand the AoE of PSI Blasts to the radius of barrels, then it'll be peachy - APUs would get the choice of short-range but long-lasting/stacking barrels and the long-range one-tick blasts that do all their damage up-front.
That should suffice for now. Now go forth and practice. With any luck, we APUs will regain our honorable past of being wizards of terrifying force and subtlety, not the mere simpletons we are now, used as hammers to flail at PPUs.
*aside* Hell, this isn't my whole bag of tricks, Shadow. I'll probably talk more later when I can get back ingame. Or not. I rather like to keep secrets.
Ok.
Barrels.
Sure, they might suck for open spaces and twitchy brawls...
But I'm conviced they'll be key for APUs to use in OP fights. Barrels are the second most important support function for APUs.
Most everyone has cheapened the role of APU (debuff and Holy Lightning). It's time one of the older APUs passed down a bit of his knowledge. APUs aren't supposed to be just Holy Lightning and Holy Antibuff. They're far more nuanced than people give them credit. APUs *do* have a viable support role.
Barrels are to be used stratgetically. Yes, they can be used tactically, but their effectiveness are far amplifed with a bit of forethought.
I'll talk barrels to you again. After all, I'm the barrel lord.
- Barrels stack. The ticks will overlap. This means you can lay down the pain, gatling-style.
- Barrels can be used just as well against single runners as groups. You just have to be more discrete in the application.
- Barrels are AoE. If you gotta hold a spot at the end of a corridor or an opening between walls, lay it down. Don't full auto them. That's a waste of mana. Just lay one or two down every 10 seconds. That'll make coming in or out riskier for your opponents, and you get to have most of your mana for direct-fire spells.
- Barrels have duration. You have high RoF on other spells. Cast one or two fire barrels first, then switch and direct attack those that come in through it. The resultant blinding of your targets works in your favor.
- Poison and Fire barrels are DoT stackers. Notice the words DoT and stackerss. These barrels may be weak, but as first strike weapons, they can give you the attrition edge you need to take down a particularly nasty bastard. Attrition in this case means trimming off their high health BEFORE they get to you. Barrels will do that for you.
- If you ever go up against a PPU trying to help his buddies, lay down a few fire barrels. Even if he doesn't get hurt much by them, he'll have a lot harder time trying to track his teammates (fire barrel stacks fire, meaning the fire will down his visibility a lot longer than direct-hitting fire at him)
- You know that PPUs can't always run around forever - they have to slow down... especially when trying to help their teammates. ESPECIALLY when ressurecting. Barrel them to make them re-consider.
- Poison is fun to throw around. PPUs may have antidote spells, but they only have so much space on their QB... and trying to sort the spells out costs them time... and their lives. Also, not everyone bring antidote spells to fights, especially OP wars when they don't expect it. Plus, everyone suffers under the illusions that PPUs have all spells available to aid them. Their reliance on the PPU will be their undoing.
- Energy barrels are like stuntraps... They take out your legs and slap you around. You want to make the PPU move and spoil his spell? Lay it down. You don't need the TL3 parashock bolt or whatever they're talking about.
- Energy barrels are the most focused and the most straight-forward. You want to give pain someplace and fast, use this. Shelter shave a lot off it, but stacked energy barrels will still take a lot out of someone. PPUs hate me when I lay down stacked energy barrels in an enclosed leveling place with them in it. If I was serious about energy barreling them, they'd be near-death, not at half-health.
- Poison barrels are rather dissolute. But they stack poison extremely well. Poison may be weak nowadays, but stacks lining up to hurt you is nothing to laugh at. Antidote pills only give the target a few more seconds to live if they stand in a pile of poison barrels. I think Shadow Dancer recalls a certain fight with a GM.
- Fire barrels have huge AoE. They'll take up half the zone if you're not careful with them. And there are 70% chances you'll light yourself up casting them. And they're rather weak, but their use isn't damage (not purely, anyway). Their use is to set everything on fire, making vision worthless while they're in use.
(barrels apply to PPUs as well)
PPUs... You're forgetting that you have a barrel - parashock barrel. The damn thing is next to impossible to see. It's not holy paralysis, but it's AoE and a superb way to sneak a parashock on them. You guys think that Holy Paralysis is the only decent para available. You don't need to glue them down. When people get hit by anything other than HP, they most likely notice that they move well enough ( oh, what was that? a beggar stunner?) and often ignore it. That can be in your favor. Just a trim off their speed most likely is all your teammates need to get a lock on them. I don't think anyone bothers to pop a anti-para for anything less than Holy Paralysis, and even if they do, the properly stacked parashock barrel will spam the shock for you, giving you a bit more time to buff your mates up.
APUs don't need parashock, not when they can effectively blind their opponents.
Attrition also works in the APU's favor more than any other class since they can stack DoT better than any other. Forget stacking direct-fire spells. In most cases, they're just too weak unless you have very high frequency on them.
Goddammit, why do I see so many simple-minded, "go in full auto and die" APUs. My reserved, support-giving play style may be more suited to PPU, but dammit, I sure can handle my APU well enough to be a worry. There's far more to the APU than Holy Lightning and a strapped-on PPU. Sheesh. What a bunch of wankers.
Now, the current range nerf on the barrels render them all but impractical to kamikaze APUs, because APUs won't survive getting close enough to cast enough barrels to make a difference in most PvP situations. I agree the the previous range on barrels were too high (comparable range to beams), but now, its nuts - it's melee range now. Make them top out around 125m (similiar to blasts) and we'll all be happy.
Another thing, PSI Blasts have GOT to be reworked - their AoE is far too small for them to be worth SHIT in anything other than shooting plants or swamp dwellers (why, because they can't move, that's why!) - the arcing bolts means they're slower to hit than other spells and can't be used in enclosed spaces. Expand the AoE of PSI Blasts to the radius of barrels, then it'll be peachy - APUs would get the choice of short-range but long-lasting/stacking barrels and the long-range one-tick blasts that do all their damage up-front.
That should suffice for now. Now go forth and practice. With any luck, we APUs will regain our honorable past of being wizards of terrifying force and subtlety, not the mere simpletons we are now, used as hammers to flail at PPUs.
*aside* Hell, this isn't my whole bag of tricks, Shadow. I'll probably talk more later when I can get back ingame. Or not. I rather like to keep secrets.