Incendiary round buff.

[Jayshames]

I'd like to start off by saying I have every class at 50/55 so I am being bias in no way. As of right now, my Vanguard is the only class I barely play. Personally, I feel they aren't as bad as people are making them out to be. Though I will play that they are lacking. Sniper is my most played character at the moment so if anything, I'm damaging myself.

 

Now that, that is out of the way I'll get onto the real reason I'm posting.

 

Incendiary Round

Am I the only one who feels this talent is really terrible?

 

I've posted this before in other sections I believe but never really had any feedback.

 

I know comparing classes is a bad idea as every class is supposed to be different, but for this example I will compare both Powertech and Sniper's 20 point talents (Incendiary Round / Corrosive Grenade)

 

Before I begin My Vanguard is only level 52 at the moment so I don't know the exact damage value of Incendiary round at 55. So for now I will assume both have roughly similar damage output.

 

 

Incendiary Round;

• Applies its damage over 18 seconds.
  
• Affects a single target.
  
• Has a talent to increase damage by 6%.
  
• Has a talent to increase damage by 10% on targets below 30% health.
  
• Has a talent to increase critical damage by 15%
  
• Uses almost 1/4 of the Powertechs ammo.
  
• Has a 10m range.
  

 

Corrosive Grenade

• Applies its damage over 21 Seconds.
  
• Affects up to 5 targets.
  
• Has an ability to increase the next 10 ticks of damage by 30%
  
• Has a talent to increase damage by 8%.
  
• Has a talent to increase critical chance by 12%.
  
• Has a talent to slow affected enemies by 30% for 6 seconds.
  
• Has a talent to restore 2 energy per critical hit.
  
• Has a talent to increase damage by 15% on enemies below 30% health.
  
• Has a talent to replace the DoT by another 9 second version dealing 15% of original damage.
  
• Has an ability that deals significantly higher damage when Corrosive Grenade is applied [Debatable whether should be added to list].
  
• Has a 35m range.
  
• Uses 1/10 of the Sniper energy.
  

 

At a glance you can clearly see that the Sniper (12 points) has many more benefits than the Powertech (7 points).

I understand I may have missed something or misunderstood so please tell me if I did.

 

Personally (and others) I feel that Incendiary Round needs a buff in order to bring Powertechs out of the dark.

Just a few things I've managed to think of. -please reply with others if you can think of-

 

How to improve Incendiary Round.

• Increase range back to 30m.
  
• Increase damage by a significant amount.
  
• Lower ammo cost by a significant amount.
  
• Add a talent that allows an AoE version. (Even a talent that can affect 3 people for 50-70% of original damage).
  
• Add a talent (or add to Thermal Detonator) that when TD's burn affect is present, the damage dealt by Incendiary Round deals +(?)% and has a (?)% to tick twice.
  

 

I feel that any of these changes would be a step in the right direction to bringing Powertechs (and ofcourse Vangaurds) back in line with other classes.

 

Thanks for your time!

 

The idea about Incendiary Round boosting the burn effect from TD is fantastic. Though I would actually suggest making Incendiary Round boost the kinetic damage of TD by about 30%, so that PVP'ers could get some of their burst back

 

The spec has a skill improving HiB damage against burning targets. They should make it an increase in HiB damage of 6-9% per dot effect so 18-27% more damage on targets with, plasma, IR, and AP burns.

Edited June 2, 2013 by Jayshames

[ScytheEleven]

The idea about Incendiary Round boosting the burn effect from TD is fantastic. Though I would actually suggest making Incendiary Round boost the kinetic damage of TD by about 30%, so that PVP'ers could get some of their burst back

[Aelaias]

Corrosive grenade also prevents the possibility of mezz-type CC.

[Macroeconomics]

I've posted on the comparison between Merc Pyro and lethality previously. It's simply ridiculous. Lethality gets a lower resource using attack that does more damage AND is AoE. LOL. And that's just a comparison between the opening DoT abilities. Compare defensive shielding. Compare escape abilities. Lethality is far superior in all aspects. The one advantage that PT Pyro has over Lethality is a stronger burst move. Whether that is sufficient to counter all the other advantages Lethality has is doubted by the vast majority of players. But not devs.

 

Corrosive grenade also prevents the possibility of mezz-type CC.

 

So does Incendiary Missile. Currently Lethality is the only DoT dps subclass that has any traction in the game. The reason is all other DoT dps can have their DoTs cleansed too easily. Lethality by virtue of its low resource cost AoE DoT can out DoT any cleansing healer in the game.

Edited June 3, 2013 by Macroeconomics

[Rahizm]

I would go for the lower ammo cost and maybe a "has a % chance to spread to a secondary target" or something like that. Incendiary Round EATS those cells like a < use your imagination>. It's not an AOE attack, and if I'm not mistaken it eats about the same amount of cells as Pulse Cannon, which is a frontal cone attack.

[ScytheEleven]

I'm not too keen on making IM an AoE effect like CG is for Snipers. I can see it becoming a pain in the butt on certain fights (for instance, Operator IX in HM...blast the Rectifier with IM, only to aggro an orb that isn't your color >_>)

 

I really, really think that making IM give some sort of damage buff to Thermal Detonator is a fantastic idea. I lean more towards improving the kinetic damage, so PVP'ers can get something out of it to.

 

For example:

 

"Incendiary Missile also burns away the targets armor, increasing the kinetic damage of Thermal Detonator by XXXX amount"

[PrincessTerrik]

in the other talent tree, which is great for PT w a flamethrower, not so much with a glorified tazer for the vangaurd, u get an ability that way outshines it: retractable blade/gut: less ammo/heat cost to use, better alpha dmg, more dot in a shorter time frame. . .the only thing not completely superior about it is it requires melee range