_Starbird_

I agree with what you say Alabaster but in my opinion, if someone is super solid (i would say resistant but defense plays a role too ^^), he's super strong no matter what the kind of energy he uses.

Take a Ice/Ice tank, if he can use ice to protect his body, he can use it to hit a foe. But in fact that's not what makes him a tank, because blasters can do that too ...

Let's say a Tanker is the best self "defense" AT (again defense is not accurate here ^^) but it lacks a bit of flavor that comicbooks tanks have and it's Rage that only SS have right now.
It's well known that tankers can destroy everything when they get mad that's why they got melee powers in the first place I think

Well this is exactly how domination works, you build a bar then click somewhere ^^

that be nice for resistance oriented tankers but for defense it's lame if you're not getting damage, how are you gonna fill this bar ?

Rad blast -def effect is gonna be great against mako or even against AVs in general

the -def component is a good thing for everyone in the team so a good thing for big challenge, Giant monsters ...

paired with a sonic it's gonna be awesome ^^

I don't think playing a blaster at high levels is hard ...

I had problems when I was 16 and my blaster was 14, I was a noob trying to kill everyone by myself with aoe ... aggro, slash, slash ... dead ^^

Playing at high levels is just patience : wait for the scrapp or tank or blanker to jump in a mob and then spam your powers try to focus on fools that try to reach melee with you and you should be alive at the end.

Rise of the Phoenix is also a huge asset because you can die whenever you want and rez almost all the time (recharge time is okay really)

Try to manage your aggro and that's it

The first statement of the OP is that playing a tanker should make you feel like Superman, trying not to use his strength too much.

Maybe that's not how Catsle see it.

Maybe we should try to find what kind of Tanker from comicbooks or movies Castle has in mind to understand what could be done. Because I agree that Gauntlet is lame compared to fury, defiance or domination (even if defenders have the worst inherent power in CoX)

My idea is that if we cannot get more damage or more survivability let's try to get something else ^^
I liked the idea in the shield set that Tankers have a small support role, maybe a supportive inherent that fits with the tanker spirit could be found ...

Just throwing a new way of thinking this issue, I don't have any particular idea about it

Starbird - 50 - Fir3 (first char, first 50, I created him before I even bought the game)
Kal-Orie - 38 - nrg/nrg (I love KB, it's just fun)
Lynxeye - 22 - Arch/Dev
K'tallia - 20 - Psy/Mental
BlueBerryBee - 15 - Elec/Elec
Hi-Fist - 7 - Sonic/mental (I'm gonna reroll to make him a Sonic/nrj)

I already have names reserved for my rad/? and my DP/dev

I had a AR/Dev but I'll reroll him as a traps/ar defender

energy hammer ? as a blaster set ? I think this is crazy ... the same crazyness that asked dual pistols for scrappers ^^

But throwing things would make a nice set, I'd vote for the shuriken with a nunjitsu manipulation as a secondary (with a katana or a small dagger in it))

i'd say, white yellowish fire even if fire breath won't fit

(i think that's what legacy chain dudes have)

never play healer when you're high ... that's what I remember ^^

printf("I applied but I'm still waiting for a response");

See ? I'm fluent in C++

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My 35 Archery/Energy blaster plays almost exclusively at range. My 36 Elec/Elec plays both at melee and range, but mostly in melee. Both solo on the middle setting (can't ever remember what it's called), but the Elec chews through enemies substantially faster than the archer. The damage she's capable of putting out in melee is well above what either primary is capable of.

Now, part of that descrepency is because both archery and electric blast are sub par sets, but even fire and ice are capable of frontloading more single target damage with the energy or electric secondary than they are with their primary. That video someone mentioned earlier was a fire/elec blaster. She would hit fast with her ranged attacks on her way in to take out the minion, hold the LT, then melee him into the ground, which, I think, took about 2 hits. That combination of fast activating ranged attacks and powerful melee attacks is what makes fire and ice coupled with energy and electric the most potent blaster combinations. Ignoring the melee attacks in the secondary or dismissing them in order to play at range WILL cut into a blaster over all dps and killing speed.

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i didn't say they canNOT solo, i said they are NOT SUPPOSED to solo

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Says who?



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Also the fact that Blaster Nukes can Entirely Eliminate a Group of Enemies before there is even a reaction fire is very nice, Who needs DPS when you one shot almost everything with a Single Power?


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and then you're out of the fight for the next group

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Unless you're archery or AR. Or, you know, carrying blues.

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i know some combinations are great but that's not what i'm talkin about and that's not the topic here.

If you wanna say elec blast or archery is weak (i'd understand why ^^) and that you can do more damage with elec melee or energy, that's just fine but that's wrong considering the design of the AT

i'm not talkin differences between sets i'm just sayin blasters are not what they supposed to be and that's because they need damage ... some sets more than others

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i'm not saying secondaries are ranged-only, or melee-only or even support-only but secondaries are designed to improve blaster survivability not by enhancing their damage.

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And where do you get that Idea? Honestly my Blasters survive just fine using a Multitude of secondaries and move just as fast as scrappers solo. Give them a team and they can do even more than that.

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you said it "give them a team and they can do even more than that" exactly my point

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if you want to try inferno or blizzard, i'm okay that's really great but not like it was before ED or back when we could kill 50 foes in one nuke. I mean, i still use inferno sometimes cause it's fun and everything but it's definitly reducing my DPS if you consider the end crash. AR Tier 9 is different ^^

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If you want to compare Pre-ED to post ED then Blasters were pointless back then too since you could have a Fire Tank Burn Everything to death. Making that kind of comparison now is a skewed viewpoint and not one conducive to actually making a real improvement.

Wah wah, Im weak cause of ED. Get over it.


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fire tankers are not supposed to do that, they deserved a nerf. the nerf was too big really but that's devs choice ^^
I'm not saying, ED was a bad thing, it just broke blasters because it reduced damage by half ^^
Defiance was the response to that theorically

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Also the fact that Blaster Nukes can Entirely Eliminate a Group of Enemies before there is even a reaction fire is very nice, Who needs DPS when you one shot almost everything with a Single Power?

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and then you're out of the fight for the next group

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i just want to give blasters a damage boost because some scrappers and controllers are outdamaging us and that's just wrong
blasters are supposed to be THE king of ranged massive damage ... that's the only thing they are designed to do ^^



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They are the King of Ranged Damage. No Scrapper, No Controller can match what a Blaster can do at a range or in burst damage in General. Certain Sets are underperforming, certain sets in other ATs are overpowered, but to make that as your basis for arguing that blasters need a buff is a weak place to start.

1, just ONE Controller Set can match blaster damage, and it takes 39 levels to get close to what a blaster can do from 12 to 50.

And scrappers are the king of DPS but Blasters can outrange their damage, and add in their melee attacks their Burst can overwhelm anything a scrapper can do. DPS doesnt matter when everything dies in the first 3 attacks, which quite a few blasters can manage.

Blasters main role on a team is large AoE and Single Target Burst to quickly remove threats, most of the Blaster sets can accomplish this.

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that's right, i'm talking "in general" maybe ice and fire are just fine like that. but spines need a nerf, some controllers too and/or blaster primaries need a boost (except fire and ice)

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fire/fire
ice/ice
nrg/nrg

i tried Archery but there's no quiver ^^

i'm not saying secondaries are ranged-only, or melee-only or even support-only but secondaries are designed to improve blaster survivability not by enhancing their damage.

if you want to try inferno or blizzard, i'm okay that's really great but not like it was before ED or back when we could kill 50 foes in one nuke. I mean, i still use inferno sometimes cause it's fun and everything but it's definitly reducing my DPS if you consider the end crash. AR Tier 9 is different ^^

i just want to give blasters a damage boost because some scrappers and controllers are outdamaging us and that's just wrong
blasters are supposed to be THE king of ranged massive damage ... that's the only thing they are designed to do ^^

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The problem is that the design of the At is NOT following this mantra. The recent video elsewhere on this board shows a Blaster using 3 ranged attacks and a slew of melee attacks including Air Sup to destroy a lvl 50 mish set on Invincible with no Insps and (IIRC) she took no damage. This was solo...no outside help in the least... I was and still am stunned by this feat.


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solo ... that's the word.

blasters are not designed to solo mish. they are supposed to hide behind a tank and/or a healer to do massive damage.

and if you want to say : "what if i wanna solo with my blaster?" i'll say : "go play spines, blasters are team oriented"
Defender and Tanker are better in teams so is a blaster

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This is completely laughable. Blasters can solo fine.

also blasters are not only kings of ranged damage.

can I see your slotting, pls?

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can you just read what i said plz ...
i didn't say they canNOT solo, i said they are NOT SUPPOSED to solo
they are supposed to be kings of ranged damage

fire/fire
ice/ice
nrg/nrg

i tried Archery but there's no quiver ^^

i'm not saying secondaries are ranged-only, or melee-only or even support-only but secondaries are designed to improve blaster survivability not by enhancing their damage.

if you want to try inferno or blizzard, i'm okay that's really great but not like it was before ED or back when we could kill 50 foes in one nuke. I mean, i still use inferno sometimes cause it's fun and everything but it's definitly reducing my DPS if you consider the end crash. AR Tier 9 is different ^^

i just want to give blasters a damage boost because some scrappers and controllers are outdamaging us and that's just wrong
blasters are supposed to be THE king of ranged massive damage ... that's the only thing they are designed to do ^^

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The problem is that the design of the At is NOT following this mantra. The recent video elsewhere on this board shows a Blaster using 3 ranged attacks and a slew of melee attacks including Air Sup to destroy a lvl 50 mish set on Invincible with no Insps and (IIRC) she took no damage. This was solo...no outside help in the least... I was and still am stunned by this feat.


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solo ... that's the word.

blasters are not designed to solo mish. they are supposed to hide behind a tank and/or a healer to do massive damage.

and if you want to say : "what if i wanna solo with my blaster?" i'll say : "go play spines, blasters are team oriented"
Defender and Tanker are better in teams so is a blaster

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You're reading outdated material, first off. There was a thread on here last week basically debunking the theory that blasters were Ranged/Support. It is pretty much the consensus that Blasters due to various unintended effects of game updates or nerfs ended up with some shortcomings.

First the whole "Range as an advantage" issue. This would be true if 9/10 of enemy attacks could somehow be nerfed by us being out of range, but everything in the game deals decent ranged damage now. EVERYTHING.

secondly, the whole "Support" as a secondary, Have you looked at /Fire ? The whole danged set is PBAOE( =melee range) and MELEE!!! The only things in there that are remotely supportive are buildup (FOR MOAR DAMG) and Consume which is pretty much and end buff slapped on a MELEE ATTACK. Ok you can count the root, but does that mean the primaries are support too since they come with aim and a hold? Devices and Energy are the only two secondaries which I would remotely consider as support sets. and they both deal some decent MELEE damage.

Third, When ED hit blasters took a major damage hit. We look like we do alot, but in reality, my thunderous blast can't even take down a group of 4 whites. And it's slotted Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Rec,Rec,Acc (not to mention target drone going)
I suppose I could swap out the Acc for another damage and nerf my percentages for a small dmg boost, or the Devs could Fix blasters so that we deal damage. If I'm going to be OOE for 5-10 sec then i should at least be able to kill 4 whites.

Buffs Are Relative To Archetype. Does it seem like we could have as many DEF and RES buffs as we want on and still not be able to do survive without a controller or tank. I mean I took the medicine line just to try to compensate. How many other archetypes can solo their missions on invince? Sure it's working as intended, but when nearly every other class can solo, what is the point in grouping with a blaster......oh that's right...Damage?

The point is, that the AT description sure, says Ranged/Support, bu it also says "Massive Damage At Range", and I'm not feeling the range or the damage.

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i totally agree with your suggestion : blasters need a lot more damage when we are dealing with primaries. that i'm sure everyone agree with
I know range is not some kind of defense anymore since everyone can kill blasters from range ^^ and that's why we need more damage with primaries and not with secondaries since this kind of set would be useless considering blasters resistance

but i still consider /fire as a supportive set : powers do damage ok but i'm not considering minor damage as an ATTACK ^^ and as i said it before, melee can be considered as support if you're not playing a blapper

i also know that nukes are not valuable anymore because of the AoE limitation on targets, poor damage, end crash blaster need a fix

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I think some of the confusion of listing the secondary as "support" is based on different people's interpretation of "support". What I mean is, a defender supports the team by mitigating damage, buffing damage, healing..... They are essentially a team support hero. They support the other heroes by making thhem live longer, deal more damage....

But the term "support" on a blaster secondary means something different. It's essentially a blaster's own defender powers to support that individual hero. The secondary boosts damage, KB's so the blaster isn't in melee, stuns so the blaster doesn't get hit by a mob in melee, drains endurance so the mob attacks less.... That is what it's listed as support. It's got mini defender properties built in for damage boosts and mitigation.

It also has tons of damage in melee. Although you can play a blapper if you want with the damage in the secondary (and I do) it's another form of damage mitigation. If a mob rushes you after you've fired off a few blasts, the melee attacks are strong enough to eliminate that melee threat as it closes.

So while it becomes damage/damage it's also ranged/support. It's like arguing that an orange is a fruit while the other person is arguing it's orange.

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i'm ok with that blasters are damage/damage but not ranged/melee

it's orange ^^

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then they would out-damage the Scrapper even more if they use their Secondary.


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blasters secondary is NOT based on melee !!! it's support !!!

don't count on secondaries if you want to compare damage between scrappers and blasters

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When your Secondary has SIX attacks in it (Elec has Charged Brawl, Havoc Punch, Light. Clap, T-Strike, Shocking Grasp and Lightning Field) then there is NO sane way you can call that 'support'.

Elec Fence, BU and Power Sink alone in a Secondary with SIX attacks does NOT constitute suport IMHO.

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check in game when you want to create a blaster : it says "primary : ranged damage" and "secondary : support"
Secondaries are supposed to increase the survivability of a blaster by giving him some nice tools like buildup, consume, targeting drone, conserve power etcc... and by giving him some nice melee attacks in case some crazy mob would attack our friendly hero on melee

If you consider melee as useful as ranged then you play a blapper. It's your choice but don't try to push me on melee if i wanna play my blaster as a blaster. I have firesword and FSC but i don't use it in my chain cause i'm not supposed to go melee.

i don't need mez resist, defense, regen etc cause i'm playing behind the tank where i'm supposed to be as a blaster. Blaster just need to outdamage scrappers when you consider ranged attacks. If you wanna be powerful with your fists/legs then go play a scrapper

i'm definitly not saying that secondaries are all the same when i say support. I know device is really different from elec or EM ^^
But that's the way devs designed/described blaster secondaries and blasters are ranged attackers not meleers sorry

blaster description quoted from www.coh.com
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Blaster

The Blaster specializes in delivering massive damage at range. They have very little defensive potential, other than the ability to keep the enemy at arms length.

A Blaster can solo successfully, if he remains aware of his situation at all times, but this archetype really comes into its own in groups, where Defenders, Scrappers and Tankers can take the brunt of the enemy attacks, freeing the Blaster to use his offensive potential to its fullest.

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EDIT : there's a maximum of 4 powers (4/9 ) in secondaries that force you to go melee in order to do damage (lightning clap is some control stuff )

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then they would out-damage the Scrapper even more if they use their Secondary.


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blasters secondary is NOT based on melee !!! it's support !!!

don't count on secondaries if you want to compare damage between scrappers and blasters

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By the way, I like the Positron TF as is. It's like a young hero's first taste of the downsides of being a hero.

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Finally someone is sharing my opinion about that

Thanks lighthouse tell the devs they're doin a great job and if they can do something about these trials (eden and sewers) in the next issue (maybe I12, i assume I11 is already ready ^^), it would be GREAT

[50 content - SHOE - bug fixes]

eden and sewers trials are the best trial/Tf in the game

just give us a nice Reward for doin it instead of narrowing the choices

(here's an idea : change rarity of the recipes to make rare what's really rare ^^ and send crappy recipes in the unusual recipes box then we're gonna choose the rare recipe every time )