One part of the pyro rotation that most people don't like it just how many auto attacks you have to use compared to every other spec. A set bonus that makes explosive fuel vent a significant amount of heat, maybe 3 per second while it is active, would really enhance the enjoyment of the spec while also making the rotation feel a bit different. That would make it viable for all PT specs, but if you wanted to make it pyro specific, all dots that tick under explosive fuel could vent heat, and make the heat venting similarly balanced to what I mentioned above. That way although it could still be used in AP, it wouldn't be nearly as impactful as in pyro.

Gonna second Ryann's comment about our heat management here, the shear number of uses of rapid shot that are required in the pyro rotation (around 20) just to keep heat manageable is not fun at all and needs to be resolved somehow, either through spec passives or the set bonuses.

 

to keep with focus on "kinds of tools" that pyro uses here's a couple set ideas:

 

Dot Based Set

Our three main dots in pyro typically only account for ~30% of our damage so this set would be focused around increasing the damage our dots do and giving interactions with heat management through dots. Following the current idea of a 6-set bonus the 2 piece here would give a minor increases to periodic effect damage (maybe 5-10% damage and some crit bonus) and make rail shot be guaranteed to proc Combustible Gas Cylinder. the 4 piece would centered around heat management making it so periodic damage that crits vents 1-2 heat (similar idea to lightning burns) and not have an icd so that when you're using EF this bonus occurs far more often, this would allow us to have far less heat generation during downtime between TSO and Vent Heat since we could have up to 8-9 passive heat dissipation on a given GCD but not always since it's reliant on crits. The 6 set would in this case then center around our high damage CDs (Explosive Fuel and Shoulder Cannon) giving extra crit damage multiplier to dot effects while under EF and causing uses of Shoulder Cannon while under EF to apply a high damage dot to the target, this would not only inform inexperienced players that they need to sync up EF and SC for damage but also give a defined interaction between our two damage CDs that keeps with the theme of the set.

 

Elemental Damage Set

this set would be focused on increasing the overall damage of all our elemental damage type abilities not just the dots and would give active interaction with heat management rather than the passive interaction in the other set. here the 2 piece would increase critical damage multiplier on all elemental damage by around 5-10% to follow the idea of pyro having a lot of crit bonses in the discipline tree. The 4 piece would, similarly to the other set, give some active heat management to us, like having our elemental damage grant stacks which reduce the heat cost of a high heat generating ability like searing wave or rail shot and cause the ability to do more damage, this would again work to increase heat dissipation between uses of TSO and Vent Heat. The 6 piece would similarly give an interaction with EF causing all of our elemental damage to deal damage as if in execute and also increase the bonus of our execute passive burnout from 10% to 20-30% while under the effect of EF which would give us more impact on the use of one of our damage CDs.

 

Tactical Item Ideas

• 
  AoE Burst Item: causes elemental damage that crits to increase the damage and reduce the heat cost of deadly onslaught
  

• 
  Grapple-Themed Item: removes the minimum range of grapple, causing it to root the target if within 10m and grant a small movement speed increase if grapple pulled or root and enemy
  

• 
  Fusion Missile-esk effect for Searing Wave: searing wave no longer deals damage in a cone, but rather requires a target dealing damage to the main target and radial AoE damage 10m around the target where the majority of the damage is to the main target
  

• 
  Shatter Slug Item: reduces the heat cost of shatter slug by 5 and causes shatter slug to increase the target cap of your next flame sweep by 8, it's damage by 100% and cause flame sweep to grant two stacks of superheated flamethrower
  

Pyro is perhaps one of my favorite specs, aside from PT in general, so totally agree with the very underwhelming use of basic attacks that it has. Going to include a couple heat options that could potentially work along with a couple others.

 

Pyro

-Incendiary missile loses it's initial damage hit, but vents 3 heat whenever it deals damage. To compensate for the loss of the minor hit at the beginning it would allow for more heat options leading to more filler flame bursts.

-When Superheated Flamethrower is refreshed past 2 stacks, reduce the heat cost of searing wave by 3 heat. An incentive to push heat with flame bursts to allow a lower cost searing wave in a rather interesting way to do so.

-Scorch can now bounce to a target that is already affected by scorch, and adds 30 seconds of duration to the existing scorch. For those of the scorch spreaders out there who scorch every target imaginable since we can't spread it with searing, there is now an incentive to do so as you can have some long lasting dots for more filler uses instead of scorch refresh.

-Immolate now deals 30% reduced damage but damages up to 8 targets within 5m in front of you. Losing your single target Immolate bursts for the sake of AoE, more defining AP to be the single target spec and Pyro the AoE.

Pyro/Plasma desperately needs something to help with survival. I like the gameplay mechanics of the spec, but it's so squishy it's basically unusable in many situations.

 

How about a tactical item that contributes to damage reduction based on how many dots you have active? Or maybe an item that returns health when your dots crit similar to the marauder's annihilation spec.

I think one set bonus perk could be critical DOTS regenerate 3 heat to help alleviate the tediousness of pyro and the basic attack fillers it requires.

Stop complaining about Pyro you *******. It is well based PvE spec at the moment. Usage of basic abilities is the only thing which makes it not #1 DPS spec in the game. The only thing you should separate is single target and AoE sets. This will be ridiculous to farm as for Solo Ranked its better to have single burst, for regs fluff - AoE set; some operation bosses consist of single target fights and some are AoE. This will just just cause top-tier players to grind multiple sets of gear for single character. Just make it either full AoE or full single target with Tactical Item as switch. By making it single target you could increase damage done by Searing Wave. For AoE make Flame Sweep spread dots as well and increase damage of it so it'd be useful even on 2 targets.

 

Regarding set bonus, you should first of all spread PvE and PvP gear back and make different set bonuses like few years ago so PvP set bonus would boost class' utility and survivability while PvE one would be focused on damage output.

Idea: Shatter Slug now spreads Incendiary Missile DoT when it hits a target that is already affected.

I feel like Pyro's heat management being bad is more like a general issue than a tactical item bandaid. Tactical items sound like they're supposed to be ways to customize your playstyle. Stuff that fundamentally changes how you want to use an ability.

 

An idea:

item 1: Significantly reduce Shoulder Cannon's cooldown and dramatically increases its damage, but instead of loading missiles over time now fires a single missile at a target upon activation before going on cooldown.

 

This item increases the upfront burst shoulder cannon offers and slows the rotation down by getting rid of the shoulder missile weaving aspect of gameplay for people who are into that.

 

Then on the flip side

 

Item 2: Shoulder Cannon now loads additional missiles per tick or the loading buff lasts longer but each missile does less damage. If you really want to go crazy here add cooldown reduction.

 

Provide a DPS gain over the long run at the cost of instant damage and speed up the rotation by making missile weaving a much more common part of the rotation. Turn your PT into a veritable missile platform constantly shooting rockets at people in between attacks.

Tactical Items:

 

Immolate is now an AoE ability that damages any target within 8m of the original. Flame Sweep radius is also increased to 8m. Searing Wave now is a 8m AoE around you (instead of the cone that doesnt really feel too wide. I would also be satisfied if the cone was a bit wider immediately in front of you) that can also spread Scorch as well now. (Imagine the AoE)

 

All DoTs do X% (150% because why not) more damage and all other attacks deal Y% (maybe like 10% or whatever is needed to keep the class in line with where it is supposed to be) less (makes DoTs stronger for more of a sustained feel).

 

Kolto Overload now heals up to 70% of your max health, heals twice as much per tick, and heals twice as fast. Additionally, Kolto Overload lasts4 seconds longer. (might be too powerful in PvP and the numbers may need to be tweaked given the low cooldown of Kolto Overload for this spec)

 

Set bonuses:

 

2pc Explosive Fuel vents 3 heat per second for the duration and increases all DoT damage by X% for the duration.

 

4pc: Immolate causes your next searing wave to deal 20% more damage. Immolate additionally causes all of your DoTs to tick for X% more damage for Y seconds (allow for 50% up-time on this like Annihilation Marauder gets)

 

6pc: Rail Shot causes the cooldown of Flaming fist to immediately finish once every X seconds. Additionally, Thermal Sensor Override has 2 stacks when used now.

Edited April 23, 2019 by SpleneticGamer

Tactical item that enables Plasmatize, Incendiary Round, to be AoE and Flak Shell, Explosive Surge, and Artillery Blitz to deal more AoE damage. This will help with large groups of adds (like the Revanite Commanders encounter).

Instead of an auto attack, we can do something else for the rotation, that's the only boring part of this spec if you ask me. Other than that I wouldn't touch it so much, it's a great spec.

Plasmatech

Note: These ideas are based on three things:

1) That tactical items is a new specific item slot whose primary function is to change the way a skill functions or adds an addtional function to an ALREADY existing discipline specific skill. For plasmatech these are as follows: Plasmatize, Incendiary Round, Plasma Flare, Shockstrike

2) That the changes listed as potential ideas consider the fact that set bonuses are a seperate design, however can coexist together without necessarily clashing in functionality

3) The ideas proposed are not/do not consider the possibility of new changes expected for future class balancing, and are therefore likely to change to correspond to the updates

That said, each ability is to be considered a separate idea, for the sake of creativity

 

Tactical Items: "These should modify one of your Advanced Class/Discipline abilities to work differently. The goal is for you to use the ability in situations you previously wouldn’t (more often, against specific targets, etc)"

 

Plasmatize

Plasmatize now automatically spreads to another target when the duration of the effect expires or is prematurely replaced with another Plasmatize, regardless of if the target dies or not

 

Plasmatize now automatically applies Incendiary round, effect occurs once every 30 seconds

 

Plasmatize tick rate is increased by 100% and it's duration is reduced by 50%

 

Plasmaflare

Plasma Flare now leaves a burn mark on the target's armor, allowing you to cast Shockstrike from further way

 

Plasma Flare causes Incendiary flare, causing Incendiary Round and Plasmatize's burn effects to end prematurely, dealing the unique damage if they are currently on the target

 

Plasma Flare is now affected by Burnout (10% damage increase on targets lower than 30% health)

 

Shockstrike

Shockstrike now disarms the target for 4 seconds, preventing them from using aggressive abilities for the duration

 

Shockstrike causes an electrical discharge, damaging one additional target for the elemental damage portion only

 

Shockstrike now immediately grants one missle charge of Shoulder Cannon

 

Incendiary Round

Whenever Incendiary round is spread due to Rain of Fire's Ion wave effect, the damage over time ticks faster

 

Incendiary Round now has splash damage on targets within 5 metres of the initial target

 

Incendiary Round marks the target allowing High Impact bolt to be used at any range. The mark has a low duration of 5 seconds however.

 

Set Bonuses: These should be focused on the broader “kind of tools” your class uses, but not specific abilities. Some examples are sets that center around bleeds, force damage, lightning, shields, cover, and so on.

 

2 Set - Damage over time effects increase damage by 1% for every unique burn (max of 3%)

4 Set - Shockstrike and Plasma Flares cooldown is reduced by 3 seconds and cost reduced by 2 heat

6 Set - High Impact Bolt now triggers Critical Burns, for 15 seconds on activation, all burns caused by Plasmatize, Incendiary Round and Plasma Cell have a 100% chance to critically hit

Full Set - Increases Mastery by 3% and damage on burning targets by 3%

DoT classes need to get an overhaul to the way DoTs behave, a sane person does not go pyrotech/plasmatech and queue ranked, why, cause of the inherent slow to ramp up DoTs and the lack of defensives. This DoT spec, as do some others need defensives to allow them to survive long enough to inflict damage. My suggestions are as follows;

 

DoTs should do a lot more damage to single targets and less when the DoTs are spead to multiple players.

Dots do more damage at the start, to mitigate the slow to ramp up, then less damage once we get into the main rotation. This option fixes FOTM classes. A tactical Item that changes the behaviour of DoTs would see a lot more viability with classes that currently do not participate in ranked. Lets be honest, there are only a few specs that dominate the ranked leader boards. I am going to main a plasmatech/pyrotech and win ranked, said no one ever!

Energy, slow DoT startup and energy conservation kill their viability. There are exceptions to this, balance and madness and highly viable, because of the superior DoT spread, their abundant energy pool, and good defensives such as phase walk and force barrier. Pyrotechs/plasmatechs have no decent Dcds to speak of.

 

I really like this class and would love to see some meaningful improvements.

I'd like to be able to have the option to either focus more on DoT or burst if I don't want to do both. With the amount of abilities increasing, it's going to get more difficult with hitting buttons.

 

To make the DoT better, I think it'd be useful for Plasmatize and IR to either do more damage, and/or affect more targets. Plasmatize can go out as three plasma flame drones, and IR could be an AoE (like it used to be) and then "chain out" to a few beyond that that are close by. Add to that that Flak Shell causes a bleed effect. Burning and bleeding should increase the damage of each other (though not by much), and burning targets take more damage.

 

Burst would focus more on SS, HIB, PB, IP. HIB has no restrictions, SS still procs HIB crit, HIB should proc PB. It would be cool if PB could do a small AoE (really small). Maybe IP does a chain of up to 2 other close targets. Both of those having a distance of no more than 2m max. Much more single target with small AoE.

 

Now, I've been giving thought to how to make it so that this AC could be more useful with these options in boss fights that are more ranged friendly. Have those be set bonuses, and a tactical item that increases range to 30m. Of course, all of this can be mixed together too.

Link to Main Forum Post with Google Doc of Failure's Set Bonus and Tactical Item suggestions

 

PYROTECH/PLASMATECH

 

Tactical Suggestions:

• Railshot → free flame burst in Flame Barrage passive.

 

 

Set Bonus:

• Explosive fuel increases alacrity by (2-10%??)
  
• Explosive Fuel vents 3 heat per second over the duration
  
• Rail shot makes your next flame burst or flame sweep generate no heat.1

Flaming fist knocks the enemy down for 2 seconds

Searing wave roots the enemy for 2 seconds

sweeping blast dmg increased by 75% and slows the enemies by 50%

Incendary missle reverses the enemies controls for 3 seconds

when stunned, you heal instead of take dmg

Kotlo now activates at 70% and last twice as long

Sonic Missle forces the enemy to target someone else (PVP)

Deadly Onslaught roots the enemy during the duration

Edited June 1, 2019 by Delani

Another poster in AP/Tactics thread mentioned bringing back Death from above/mortar volley channeled.

 

I still have my love for my channeled flame thrower. A tactical to make it once again channeled, and also deal twice as much damage than it does currently (but over 3 seconds).

 

If it could be used while moving, that would be something, but if not - I guess that's okay.

I will echo the 'Shatter Slug spreads incendiary missile' . Being the only class that has to position themselves in the direction you want to spread dots is annoying and relentless. Shatter slug is a 360 degree attack, please please please make this spread the DOT rather than a directional cone attack.

Pyrotech Tacticals

 

Power Punch: A Power Yield is activated whenever you do a critical hit with Flaming Fist.

 

Lifesaver: You gain a Heal-over-Time (low health per tick for 10 ticks) whenever you activate Energy Shield.

 

Predator: Critical hits with Incendiary Missile refreshes Cooldown on your Shoulder Cannon.

 

Pyromaniac: Immolate now does AoE-damage, hitting everyone (up to 10 targets) around the primary target within x meters. A critical hit with immolate will also put a DoT on the primary target and minions/non-elites around the target hit will run around screaming with fear.

 

Flamebringer: Doubles the duration and halves the cooldown on Explosive Fuel.

 

Powertech tacticals:

 

Emergency Stations: Energy Shield is activated automatically whenever you take 10 % of your health in one hit.

 

Bastion: Power Yields duration is doubled and increases your Armor by 70 % instead of 40.

Edited December 5, 2019 by KWONRYU