Blaster feels lopsided

[Terra Blade]

So I have been playing though the smithy's missions and trying the various weapons. I got to the blaster vs ringblade mission and...it's usable but doesn't feel "good" to use. Considering how weak and slow the light attacks are the range being so short just feels overly punishing.

Like I am not exactly sure the role of the blaster outside of maybe just using charged shot all the time. But then that just makes the various light attack mods worthless. But the light attack is so weak even on upgrades that they aren't really worth using as they barely push enemies back. Compared to the ringblade, which has much faster attacks for about the same range, and hits harder, I find myself using it for my ranged option more than the blaster.

I don't mind the light attack being weak as they are or the shots being slow if the range was extended a bit further. My thought is at least as far as the initial charge shot distance. Otherwise I am just using charged shots and that makes the weapon feel rather use sided in terms of being useful. Even with a core like glitch with the range as it is and the slow attack speed I would get more use out of the ringblade for the same setup.

[fir3tr0ll]

YEP, we hear you and agree, when it was more powerful it was almost TOOO GOOD bc you can keep distance, still working on the right balance, but it's high on our quality of life improvements list.

[Leown]

Agreed.

i would be fine with the smaller range if the shots were faster and we also had better maneuverability as well as a way to cancel out of shots so we could at least not be locked into some attacks plus maybe a buff towards the charge speed to make it more viable at range if the normal shots stay short ranged.

otherwise a small dmg/fire rate increase ontop of a range increase would be awesome.

[Terra Blade]

Originally posted by fir3tr0ll:

YEP, we hear you and agree, when it was more powerful it was almost TOOO GOOD bc you can keep distance, still working on the right balance, but it's high on our quality of life improvements list.

Outside of the range issue it might also help if the shots were in bursts instead of single shots. I did notice that the ricochet mod gives more range however, so if you integrated that into the weapon itself as a base feature while still giving slightly more range and making it burst fire that might make the weapon more interesting to use while justifying the range. As only the resonator seems capable of hitting multiple enemies, but it does it on a charge attack.

So then you would have a weapon that can hit multiple enemies with weaker attacks by default with a strong single point charge attack. This would contrast with the resonator which has strong close range attacks but has to charge to do the bit AoE attack. As well as with the ringblade which would be a middle ground weapon.

Just my thoughts.

[Cirom]

Yeah, I found the Blaster a bit underwhelming as well. I like the whole Spiral Knights-esque moveset it's got going on, but the damage output (and range) does not hold up to the other weapons right now. Ironically, the weapon that's literally a gun is one of the lower-range weapons in the game! I feel like I'm relying on charge shots with the thing, but why bother with that when the Resonator's regular combo does more damage in EACH of its three hits than the Blaster's charged hits?

[PrettySickGuy]

Funnily enough I found the blaster to be kinda broken with the perfect charged shots staggering everything. I'm not super far in the game but when logger bots started popping up you can just sit there repeatedly charge shotting them and they're just perma staggered.

[Leown]

Originally posted by PrettySickGuy:

Funnily enough I found the blaster to be kinda broken with the perfect charged shots staggering everything. I'm not super far in the game but when logger bots started popping up you can just sit there repeatedly charge shotting them and they're just perma staggered.

The charged shot is not actually that bad. i finally went and fully upgraded everything and went on a few higher difficulty bounties. It's mostly the normal attacks that is suffering. Charged shots though you sit and spam.

The only time the normal attacks actually got to be "okay" is around level 8-10 on a weapon with ricochet level 3 then stacking either charged damage mods or just overall weapon damage with upping the core status chance.

So i think really all it needs is more range on the normal attack and a burst fire cause the fire rate. they could just add fall off damage past a certain point and make it a 2-3 shots burst shots but split the damage between those burst shots so it's not a 21 21 21 but a 7 7 7 which would give us a reason to still use charged shots but at least the normal fire would have range and a better status build up to it.

[Terra Blade]

Originally posted by PrettySickGuy:

Funnily enough I found the blaster to be kinda broken with the perfect charged shots staggering everything. I'm not super far in the game but when logger bots started popping up you can just sit there repeatedly charge shotting them and they're just perma staggered.

Like I said it isn't that they aren't usable, but they don't feel good to use. I can clear missions with the blaster, sure. But with the ringblade and resonator I can clear them in what feels like a fraction of the time it takes with the blaster.

Yeah with the right setup the blaster can get to a point of being strong. The problem is that it takes time for the blaster to get the point most other weapons are are right out of the gate.

[fir3tr0ll]

we did a blaster tuning pass and it should be in today's patch.

[Terra Blade]

Oh boy, yeah it DEFINITELY feels a lot better, and the power level feels like a complete 180. Though the lack of push back does make it harder to deal with enemies in your face than it used to be; that plus the fact you still can only really go after one target at a time does balance it a bit. So while it's pushing the boarder into being to powerful I feel that it's still got enough drawback. Especially if you go after perfect shots which even with upgrades still slows down you down even if they hit like a truck. But the weapon overall is in a much better place then it was before, and the light attacks actually feel worth using now. So good job to you guys!

Edit: So I left the game and when I came back the blaster was back to acting like it was before. Decreased range, no burst on the third shot, and doing pushback on light attacks. I didn't change anything on my end, and it doesn't look like I downloaded any patches; so the only thing I can think of is the game bugged out and reverted itself somehow. Even after I validated the files, the problem persisted.