CRasch

Rancho Penasquitos representing here.

Don't even show up on Saturday if you are going to buy tickets at the door.
SATURDAY IS SOLD OUT!
Just got my 4 day pass.
They are selling a 3 day pass (Thur, Fri & Sun).

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Here is an example of a real issue with the role of blasters.
Lets take evey AT +35 and do a task force or trial with 8 members.
Group of only Controlers, If they have pets, they ussualy can complete it in record time.
Group of only Defenders, Cuts through TF and Trials like butter.
Group of only Scrappers, Seen it done and can be done.
Group of only Tanks, Takes a while but can complete it. (With Fire tanks they get it done pretty quickly)
Group of only Keldians, Haven't seen it done yet but with thier ability to shapeshift and thier multirole abilities, they should be able to do it.
Group of only Blasters, Never seen it done, EVER! You might be able to do it with a group of device blasters all slotted up smoke grenade but I haven't seen it done.

Has any group of only blaster have been able to do TF or Trials?

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I have done it

we were all different kinds of blasters, some with medecine pp, it was hard but fun we also did TV trial.

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What Lvl?

Whould you say that any other AT would be able to do a lot easier?

Here is an example of a real issue with the role of blasters.
Lets take evey AT +35 and do a task force or trial with 8 members (or even 4).
Group of only Controlers, If they have pets, they ussualy can complete it in record time.
Group of only Defenders, Cuts through TF and Trials like butter.
Group of only Scrappers, Seen it done and can be done.
Group of only Tanks, Takes a while but can complete it. (With Fire tanks they get it done pretty quickly)
Group of only Keldians, Haven't seen it done yet but with thier ability to shapeshift and thier multirole abilities, they should be able to do it.
Group of only Blasters, Never seen it done, EVER! You might be able to do it with a group of device blasters all slotted up smoke grenade but I haven't seen it done.

Has any group of only blaster have been able to do TF or Trials?

Thx, Bruce for letting us know the status of GC.

Darn it's down on Gardian too. I guess the latest patch disbled it.

Agreed with you hepheastus. The only thing blaster have going is damage. Almost no defense & no status protection, now you want to continue to take away damage. Already you seen the mass movement from the blaster to scrappers. Now you want us even more gimped. Come on guys. Our alpha strike even in AoE form is what we are. Since the patch it's been harder to team up because no needs a blaster on thier team if they have a defender, and when a defender can come close to the damage of a blaster with his buffs/debuffs. Enough already. Stop listening to the nerf herders.

Thx Guys for your post on tough. Much appreciated.

Thanks for the tough stats. Very apreciated. Will update sometime this week.

Thx for the edit. I must of miss typed. I post a new update soon.

Again Thx.

Going off of “BubbleGamma's Guide to Defense Buff Numbers”. I will try to share some info so you can make the best choice for your blaster build. (If you have more up to date numbers please share with us so I can update this page to help everyone get accurate numbers).

Stealth Powers
Stealth (Concealment power pool) (-0.38 EPS)
Invisibility (Concealment power pool) (-1.50 EPS)
Phase Shift (Concealment power pool) (-0.38 EPS)
Cloaking Device (Devices support secondary) (-0.30 EPS)
Smoke Grenade (Devices support secondary)

All Stealth powers have a base 7.5% to defense, (except for Smoke Grenade and Phase Shift). Each SO added to your stealth will give add 1.5 to your defense. Maxed out, it give 16.5% add to your defense. Stealth and Cloaking Device will allow you to attack your opponent, Invisibility & Phase Shift will not. Phase Shift is the ultimate damage mitigation power; you can’t get hit when activated. Cloaking device does not suffer as much most stealth power due to not having a movement speed decrease and using less endurance compared to Stealth. Using Stealth will reduce your movement speed by 1/2. Most people counteract this buy taking Super Speed or Swift. (Stealth, Invisibility, Phase Shift, & Cloaking device can not be on at the same time. Example Stealth and Cloaking device cannot be use together)

Stealth & Agro
All 'stealth' powers have a -aggro. Mobs have a set perception, or aggro range. Stealth, Cloaking Device, and smiliar powers have a 'low' -aggro benefit. Thus a normal mob will be able to see you if you get too close. But you can penatrate its normal aggro range. What I mean is with Stealth and CD you can get closer to mobs before they see you, to a point. Invisbility, Grant Invisibility has a 'high' -aggro benefit. This is the size of a normal mobs aggro radius. For example, lets say a normal mob has a aggro range of 50. Stealth might only give a -25 beneftit to you. So when you came w/ in 25 ft the mob would see you. Invis and similar powers grant you a -50 benefit. Thus the mob can never see you, unless you aggro it. Again, these are just made up numbers to make a point. Snipers have an increased aggro range. In the above example, Snipers might have a 100 range. So Stealth and like power will only get you a bit closer, Invisibility wiill get you even closer. But you can't get close enough to never been seen. Super speed also has -aggro effect. You can stack these powers to increase you -aggro effect.

Smoke Grenades
Unlike other defense powers, smoke grenades work by hitting your opponent, and reducing the base accuracy of your opponent. Base is set to 10%. Unlike other defense powers it take 33% SO accuracy debuff enhancements; argo, with it fully slotted it will decrease your opponents accuracy by 30%.

Example:

An equal level minion has a 50% base accuracy to hit you.
Unslotted Smoke grenade will reduce his accuracy by 5% (10% of 50%), therefore an even level minion will have a 45% chance to hit you. Fully slotted it reduces to 35% chance to hit you [50% - (50% x 30%)]

Even level Lieutenants have a 62.5% base accuracy to hit you.
Unslotted Smoke grenade will reduce his accuracy by 6.25% (10 % of 62.5%), therefore an even level lieutenant will have a 56.25% to hit you. Fully slotted it reduces to 43.75% 5chance to hit you [62.5% - (62.5% x 30%)]

Even level Bosses have a 75% base accuracy to hit you.
Unslotted Smoke grenade will reduce his accuracy by 7.5% (10% of 75%), therefore an even level boss will have a 67.5% chance to hit you. Fully slotted it reduces to 52.5% chance to hit you [75% - (75% x 30%)]

So if your opponents base accuracy to hit is higher, your smoke grenade will have more of affect on your opponent.

Smoke grenades will help your team also.

Movement Powers
Combat Jumping (Leaping power pool) (-0.08 EPS)
Acrobatics (Leaping power pool) (-0.32 EPS)
Hover (Flight power pool) (-0.24 EPS)
Hasten (Speed power pool) (2.5 minutes duration, 20 endurance drain on termination)
Super Speed (Speed power pool) (-0.54)

Combat Jumping, Hover, and Hasten will give you a base 5% added to your defense. Each SO added to these movement powers will add 1% to your defense, which in turn 6 slotted gives you 11% add to your defense. Acrobatics will increase your resistance to knock backs and holds. (If anyone has the stats on how much please add it to this thread). Most people do not slot hasten with defense buffs but slot it with recharge buffs for perma-haste.

Super Speed is another stealth power that works the same as stealth powers above. It just doesn't get you any bonus to defense.

Other Power Pool Powers
Tough (Fighting power pool) (-0.20 EPS)
Weave (Fighting power pool) (Range & Melee) (-0.20 EPS)
Maneuvers (Leadership power pool) (-0.46 EPS)

Tough does not decrease your chances to get but reduce the amount of damage you get from the 2 most common types of damage, smashing & lethal. (Anyone have the stats for Tough?) Both weave and maneuvers have a base of 6.25% for blasters. Each SO added will add 1.25%, six slotted will give a total of 13.5% to added to your defense. Maneuvers uses more endurance but it works with your team and adds to your overall defense. Weave only adds to your melee and range defense. (Weave is actually higher for Tanks and Scrappers)

From the time of release to Issue 2 you are limited to 4 power pools.

Defense Caps

Remember, due to the cap, your opponents will have a minimum 1 out of 20 chance of hitting you (5% chance to hit). Maxed out to hit you is 19 out of 20 chance of hitting you (95% chance). Not including the streak breaker. YOU WILL GET HIT NO MATER WHAT!



Unequal Level Combat Modifiers to Opponent Accuracy

When you fight a Villain whose level is higher or lowers than yours, the accuracy and base defense is modified.


The modifiers listed affect your chance to hit or be hit.

Level / Modifier
+5 / x1.50
+4 / x1.44
+3 / x1.33
+2 / x1.22
+1 / x1.11
even / x1.00
-1 / x0.90
-2 / x0.81
-3 / x0.73
-4 / x0.66
-5 / x0.60

Example.

Fighting a +3 minnon his base to hit would be
50% x 1.33 (+3 level modifier) = 66.5% base chance to hit you.

Fighting a –2 lieutenant
62.5% x 0.81 (-2 level modifier) = 50.625% base chance to hit you.

Powers with Secondary Effects

Also, powers that knock down/back, stun/disorient, hold/sleep, or slow will decrease your chance of being hit. Knock down/back, and slow will reduce the speed of your opponent’s recharge and activation times, reducing their rate of attack. If stunned or hold, they cannot attack reduces their rate of attack to zero. Many blaster powers have these secondary effects.

How the Debuffs/Buffs work

A devices blaster has the following defense powers.
Smoke Grenades (6 slotted w/ accuracy debuffs)
Cloaking Device (4 slotted w/ defense buffs)
Combat Jumping (no slots for defense buffs)

Up against a +1 boss (75% x 1.11 = 83.25% base chance to hit), Cloaking Device (13% with the slots) and Combat Jumping (5%) he has 65.25% chance to be hit. His smoke grenade hit the boss (subtracts 24.975% because of the boss's base). Now he is at a 40.275% chance to hit. With all his defenses he reduce his chance to be hit by 48.37% against an +1 level boss.

Smoke grenades is still one of the best defense powers a blaster can get.

Enhancements
Certain SO enhancements will give you 33% or 20% increase on your powers. Here are the SO Enhancements that deal with defense powers

Defense Buff = 20%
To Hit Debuff = 33%
Resist Damage = 20%

You start buying most SO that you can use from NPC stores at level 22. You can only buy SO To hit buffs and Debuffs when you reach level 30 startng in Brickston and Founder Falls.

Other helpful defense links
BetaUserName's Defense Powers - Exact Numbers and Explanations
Vennom's Endurance Costs for Toggle Powers
RSRobinson's A powerleveler's guide to blasters (very long)

Notes:
09/20/2004 – Initial post
09/20/2004 - Added helpful links "BetaUserName's Defense Powers - Exact Numbers and Explanations"
09/20/2004 - Added to helpful links "Vennom's Endurance Costs for Toggle Powers" (thx Key_Man)
09/20/2004 - Added BetaUserName's "Stealth & Agro" info and made some other changes in the stealth section.
09/20/2004 - Added to helpful links "RSRobinson's A powerleveler's guide to blasters" to
09/20/2004 - Added Super Speed to movement powers. Thx, Doctor42
09/20/2004 - Added Enhancement section.
09/20/2004 - Added info on stealth movement rate.
09/20/2004 - Added BubbleGamma's info on hasten under Movement Powers
10/17/2004 – Added Endurance Drain Per Second stats
10/17/2004 – Added Level Modifier change
10/17/2004 – Updated and put in the guides forum
will try to keep this updated with any upto date information that you add to this thread that can be validated. I am open to any suggestions you may have to improve this guide.

Info I need for this guide:
The stats on Tough.
Defense list on Melee/Range/AoE/etc.. for each power

Special Thanks goes to BubbleGamma & BetaUserName (and anyone who participates in helping) for their assistance in this guide.

I say just up the XP bonus on Bosses & Lieutenants . Give's single target some reason go after small groups of Bosses & Lieutenants.

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I'll have to agree that if they dial down the damage, they better dial down the agro.

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I keep seing how people bring up the subject of agro as the reason why area effects must insta kill or not exist at all.

I am a fire tanker, and in my groups NO ONE gets agro unless I die.

For now, i depend greately on provoke to achieve this, but remember that every tanker hit has taunt asociated with it. This is not EverQuest or Final Fantasy XI where only healing or damage angers an enemy, here provoke and taunt do, and all tanker attacks have taunt now and will be provokes soon.

As a fire tanker i do have an edge over other tankers as i have quiet a few area attacks to draw agro between provoke refreshes, soon that will change, i hope.

You will NEVER get the agro in a group with a tanker, and while solo you should NEVER get involved with enough enemies to be that dangerous.

Talk about agro is nonsence. Not even the most trigger happy of scrappers (maybe one with invinsibility, and then for only a few secs) can take agro from me.

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I call BS. I have played with tanks. Sure the Tank still take the blunt of the aggro, when I do a heavy strike, The come straight to me. Even when he has provoke. This happens epecialy with my Eng/Eng blaster when he uses his snipe. Got the tanker keeping the mob busy, I snipe. amost all the mob comes towards me. He ties to provoke them back only half comes back. I left to deal with 5-10 in missions. My aggro is so big that even the tanks cant keep them off me.

Try taking out a group of Bosses (5-10 in the TV trials) with 2 AoE blasters.

I agree. Us AoE blasters are more group oriented than you think. I level faster with 2 or 3 people on my team. Usually it’s a Tank/scrapper and Controller/Defender. I like my 3 man team but I want to be able to solo effectively also. I may not be a power gamer due to having a job and spending time with my friends outside of the computer world. My fire/dev blaster can team well and solo ok after the issue 2 release. At this rate my blaster will become a solo debt mongering suicide bomb. I’m not saying that we need the smoke grenades un-nerfed/fixed, but take into account that your making the scrapper the only viable solo char out there that will not have to deal with the grind. My team mate’s scrappers are all ready out XP’ing me with the same amount of time, especially since they can take out more lieutenants and Bosses in a single time period. I say that we need to re-evaluate the way people now play since issue 2.

Details?