Ipso_Facto

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Sorry if I delve into snark again here, but come on, let's drop this woe is blasters we can't do a thing crap. So we can't solo an EB or an AV, umm so what? When was the last time you saw a troller do it since the purple triangles were added? When was the last time you saw a tank do it without reds and/or blues to offset the fact that otherwise the fight will take the next 72 hours? When was the last time a scrapper did it without a little extra boost to heal from a nuke or a little extra damage?

The fact that blaster can't solo AV = blaster somehow broken is a quantum leap of logic I can't follow. And the same goes for using Insps = blaster broken. Hello, we have them for a reason. And I see zero problem or zero shame in popping 4 reds and 2 purples to drop every one of those EB's. I fight with any means I can to win, and I dare you to point out any other AT player that doesn't feel the same way.

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I don't think we need to bring soloing AVs into this at all. I don't think that's anything to do with what Sam's talking about.

As far as EBs, I've soloed most of them with my energy/energy (although I need Force of Nature for most of them, or forget it.) My MA/Regen has done all of them much more easily.

In my experience, Sam's right about what he's saying: I do have to work harder on my blaster to overcome the same things as my scrapper. I'm talking solo, here, in case that isn't clear.

The scrapper is really ridiculous, honestly. Soloing, I don't even bother to look ahead of me most of the time, just keep barreling through. If I happen to unexpectedly run into a boss or two, or an EB even, it's no big deal. I'll have plenty of time to pop Dull Pain and Instant Healing, maybe an insp or two, and keep on going. On the blaster, I always check ahead of me, because I have to. I'll probably win the fight if I'm prepared, but I do need to be prepared.

Now, to me, that makes scrappers a little boring. I like to play my scrapper for story arcs, because with less care about how it plays, I can concentrate more on the story being told. But the actual combat is a little monotonous. The care I have to take on my blaster makes it more fun in a way.

But that, obviously, is a matter of taste.

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You know, the current level of Snipe damage, which is to say DPA, isn't all *that* bad. Adjusted for Arcanatime, most snipes do about 70~75% damage of T1 or 2 blasts, and about the same DPE as well. Considering their range and front loaded appeal, and the availability of some seriously cheap snipe sets out there, I'm not so sure it really needs that much love. Then again, I only have a snipe in one of my dual builds on just one of my blasters, so who am I to argue?

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I forgot about Arcanatime. Oops. So I guess they're not quite as bad in the DPA department as I had them. Still not high, though.

Anyway, I think Sam's right, and DPA isn't that important a measure for Snipes, because of their situational use. And sustained DPS certainly isn't. With Snipes, since most people are only going to use them once per encounter, at the beginning, the important thing is the total absolute damage. I'd be totally happy with increased recharge in exchange for making the opening shot completely awesome, even with its drawbacks.

And I still think they should get their rightful Defiance damage bonus. I know it's not really a big deal, but it offends my sense of order and fairness .

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Sorry for the doom and gloom, but remember that the big single-target damage buffs for dominators were accompanied by a recalculation of their AoE damage according to Castle's area of effect formula. Which rather harshly penalizes powers that have any significant ground coverage.

So a bigger Zapp is fine, but not so great if it means we get the new Dominator version of Combustion along with it.

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I don't quite get what you're talking about here. Blaster AoEs are already calculated according to that formula. They always have been. So have Dominator AoEs, except for Psychic Shockwave.

The Combustion thing is something else. It looks like Castle has taken some of Fire's extra "secondary effect" damage from Combustion (and all of it from Flares). I think also on some other powers he's cut that down, but I need to get into the game Real Numbers to see for sure. Anyway, that doesn't have anything to do with recalculating by the formula.

Hey, I just remembered something! I think my Fire/Ice has Stealth. And its quite possible she also has a Stealth IO or two sitting at Wentworths, because I think I put some bids out last time I played her.

Heh. I haven't been playing much lately. A little burned out on it, so I took a little break. Plus, you know, summer, more things to do. Plus, my memory is going.

Anyway, this solves my problem. I can drop Inferno and Stealth for the medicine pool, and keep Ice Sword after all. Cool. Now if I just didn't hate respeccing so much. It's probably worth it, though.

Edit: if I remember correctly (ha), the Jumping one can go in Sprint as well, and is usually cheaper than the Run.

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So how's this put snipes' DPA in comparison to the rest of the ST attacks in the sets?

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You mean currently? Other than Blazing Bolt, which gets bonus DOT damage, the snipes all have lower DPA than any other blaster primary blasts. Blazing Bolt is in the lowish end of the range.

Sam's proposed increase would put the others at about where Blazing Bolt is now, relatively. Blazing Bolt would be about in the middle of the pack, assuming it kept the bonus damage.

One thing I've always thought is odd, and I think if nothing else is changed, it should be. With that much time to cast, you'd think they'd at least get the Defiance bonus to match. But they don't. The Defiance Bonus is based on the actual cast time, which doesn't include the 3 second interrupt period.

So Sniper Blast, for example, gets just a 8.78% Defiance bonus, based on its 1.67 second cast time. If it was based on the total cast time including the interrupt (4.67 sec), it'd get a 28.58% bonus. That would at least help them be a little more useful. If you used it at the beginning of the fight, your subsequent attacks would start out stronger.

I do think the snipes could use a little .... something. I still use them on some characters, they're a good solo fight starter, but they could use something.

The rains do lose the buff when the duration of Aim or Build Up wear off. It's a bummer, but it's better than nothing. Which they used to get, I believe.

Anyway, it looks like I can no longer edit my post. I thought the edit window was longer than that.

Thanks for all feedback. I'm encouraged by the fact that, even though it has a fair number of views, no one has yet piped up with "This is a STUPID idea!" So that's good . Special thanks to folks who filled me in on Voltaic Sentinel. I've never used it, so I didn't have much idea about how it works in practice. I just didn't know what to say about it, which is why I didn't say much.

I'm going to do a little re-writing on this, possibly but not definitely before the weekend, incorporating a least some of this stuff. The problem I'm having now is that there are so many things that would be good to mention, but OTOH I am trying to keep this relatively short and newbie-friendly. There has to be a balance between including too much and including too little, and I hope I can find it.

Speaking of that: Here's a section that I was going to edit into the OP, but it won't let me. This is to go at the beginning. Now, another question. Should I put in the stuff labeled "Optional Section", or leave it out? A true newbie might find it helpful in understanding the rest, but it's long and might detract from the main point.

So how about a survey? Yes or no? Thanks.

Edit: Or include just parts of it?

Begin new section.------------------------------------------

Fairly often, someone comes into the Blaster forum with a question like "Which blaster should I choose?" or "Is this set good for soloing?, or something of that nature. This is an attempt to help with that question. It's meant to be an overview of the different blaster primaries and how they compare to each other--what they're good at or not so good at compared to the others, plus any special quirks they might have. If you're looking for specific, detailed info about a certain primary, you're probably best off looking for a guide to that primary; but this should give you a start.

I want to start off with what they all have in common: they all do a lot of damage. That's what a blaster's for, after all. They all have some limited ability to protect themselves (although, admittedly, that ability might be "kill them first"), but none of them have the degree of self-protection available to other AT's. Just keep that in mind.

The primary powers can be broadly categorized as single-target (ST) damage, area of effect (AoE) damage, and control or self-protection powers. Generally it's a trade-off among these three things. A set that's excellent in one of them will normally be below average in one or both of the others.

Optional Section
Terms and General Concepts. This section discusses some terms that I use below without explanation, and some general info about blasters. If you already have some familiarity with blasters, or even with the game as a whole, you might want to skip this part. It'll be boring.

Single Target Damage

Tier 1 and Tier 2 (T1 and T2) blasts. Every primary starts with two ranged single-target attacks. One will be quicker (in both cast and recharge) but do less damage, and the other will be a bit slower and more damaging. I haven't said much about them below, because they're pretty similar across sets. The cast times are identical for each set, by design. Some sets' T1's and T2's are a bit slower and heavier than others, but the difference usually isn't considered a defining characteristic of the set.

Both of these blasts can always be used, even if you're Held, Slept, Stunned, whatever. If you don't know why this is important, don't worry, you will.

Most, but not all, sets also have a third ranged blast that does a lot more damage and has a slower recharge and greater endurance cost. They usually have a shorter range as well. The differences in these powers (and their presence or absence) go far to explain the difference in the single-target potential.

Snipes: Some sets include a snipe power. This is an extremely long-range blast that does a lot of damage. The downside: it takes a long time to cast, and the first part of that time is interruptible. If you're affected by anything, like damage for example, during that time, it won't go off. It also checks the target both at the beginning and at the end of the animation, so if during that time the target goes out of range or behind something, it won't go off. There's a good deal of controversy over how useful these powers are. I'm of the camp that thinks they could use a little something, but can still be useful especially for a soloist.


AoE damage. These attacks do damage to all targets within an area. As a general rule, the larger that area is, the lower the damage to each target will be. AoE comes in several flavors.

PBAoE: Centered on you, and you don't need a target to fire it off. It affects all targets in a radius around you (up to a limit). There aren't many of these in blaster primaries, but there are more in the secondaries. The radius is different among powers.

Cone: You target an enemy within range, and all enemies within a cone area, with you at the point, are affected (up to a certain limit). To make best use of cones, you really need to pay attention to your positioning. Ideally, you want your targets to be at the far end of the cone, where the width is the greatest. Cones get a lot of benefit out of Range enhancement, because increasing the range of the cone increases the area of effect (his is not true for the other types).

Spherical AoE: You target an enemy within range, and all targets in a radius around them (up to a certain number) are affected. Range enhancements will not increase the radius..

Location AoE: You cast this at a location on the ground. All targets in a radius around this location will be affected. Range enhancements do not increase the radius.

Rains: A special type of location AoE. Damaging rain falls from the sky around that location--in the case of blasters, they all last for 20 seconds. Any enemy in the area will be affected, even if they enter it after it's already been cast. They hate it though, and will try to run out. Luckily, rains also slow their movement. You need to be careful with rains, especially on a team. The scatter is often really not helpful. If they can be immobilized, though, or further slowed by other powers that do that, the rain will do a lot of damage. The scatter effect can even be useful in some situations. Use your best judgment there.

Nukes. In many people's minds, the defining powers of blasters. The "standard" or "conventional" nuke does massive damage in a PBAoE--enough, after enhancement, to take care of a whole spawn. The downside is it has a very long recharge, and it will drain all of your endurance and leave you unable to naturally recover any for 20 seconds. Several sets have nonconventional nukes instead.


Controls: These are powers used to keep an enemy from acting, rather than do damage to them (although most of them do a little damage as well.) There are several types, but these are the main ones available to blasters.

Holds: some sets have single-target holds. The target is unable to move or act for a short time. The easiest and most reliable of the controls.

Stuns: some sets have single-target stuns instead. The target is unable to act but can still move. Usually they just stagger around, but every now and then they'll run away, still stunned, sometimes at astonishing speed. For some reason I've never been able to fathom, Stuns have twice the recharge of Holds, without controlling the target for any longer time than holds. Go figure.

Sleep: The target is napping and unable to act. If he takes any damage, though, he'll wake up and can act normally.Very effective solo if you have some good single-target damage. On teams, they're a little harder to get good use of, since most teams have someone who'll be using AoE damage.

Knockback: The target goes flying back, sometimes for some distance. He'll have to get back up before he can do anything. Lots of fun, and very effective at reducing incoming damage, but a lot of teams find it annoying because they like to have the spawns all bunched up. Several sets have powers that do knockback, and one has a lot of knockback.

Aim: All sets except one, Assault Rifle, have the Aim power, sometimes under a different name. Aim increases your accuracy and your damage by a lot (accuracy more) for 10 seconds. It might sound like that's not enough to make a difference, but just trust me on this one. If you can take this power, do.
End Optional Section

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My personal observation after 3+ years and playing every AT with a very wide array of powersets is that blasters are the ONLY AT that can struggle at what they are designed to do without outside help


[/ QUOTE ]And your personal observations are biased and bunkum. Especially since over those 3 years so much has changed, 90% of that experience has itself been rendered moot and worthless.

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Just to play a little Devil's Advocate here: how do you know it's not your personal observations that are biased and bunkum?

[/ QUOTE ]Because I didn't come in and say '3+ years and playing every AT with a wide array of powersets.' I spoke about my experience with my one fire/fire blaster and how it defied what people said, but I did not go on to say that everyone who said that was retarded. I also didn't cite 3 years ago as if it was germaine to a discussion about today - so much has changed for blasters today.

The OP's premise is flawed.

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Yeah, it is. It's true. His experience doesn't prove that blasters need help.

The idea that anyone else's experience proves that they're fine is flawed in exactly the same way. That's all I'm saying.

I may have misinterpreted you. If all you meant was "You can't make a judgment about blasters just from your experience, which might be unusual, and here's my totally different experience to prove it", then I can't really argue with that at all.

Meh. Anyway, I get the feeling that the OP's tone is what got under people's skin as much as anything. The same is probably true for me, WRT the replies. I agree that the game has changed in a bunch of ways, not all of them obvious, that benefit blasters. They're certainly improved a lot from when I started.

Oh, good, some comments. Guess it wasn't totally a lost cause. I'll address some of them right now.

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Assault Rifle you forgot Full Auto.

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I actually didn't-- it's under the "Nuke" section. I've added a mention of it in the conventional AoE section as well, though, since that's more what it acts like.

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There is *no* penalty for 're-draw' animations. The cast times will be exactly the same whether you have to redraw a weapon or not
This was recently in the 'Myth thread' in the general forum.

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We used to run a series in the City Scoop called "Myth Smashers" and at the time we found out that there was weapon redraw time penalties... sometimes. Pretty much killed the series.

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I don't know myself what the current redraw status is for AR and Archery. To tell the truth, when I wrote it I was thinking more of the annoyance factor than about any penalty. It'd be great to have a definitive answer. I'll poke around a bit in the forums and the wiki and see if I can find one. It would be a good thing to mention, one way or the other.

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2) On Blizzard and Rain of Arrows, you may wish to point out that they can be cast from around corners, for 100% damage mitigation

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Added, thanks.

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3) Ignite: I'm told that AV's don't run no matter how much you light them on fire. I have not personally confirmed this.

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Anyone know this for sure? That's pretty cool, if so.

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5) Ice, and this seems petty to mention, can be slotted for MOVEMENT slow only.

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Ooops! That's what I meant, but I didn't make it clear at all. Edited to clarify.

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6) Renamed Aim powers ("psychic focus") might be worth mentioning, as might the surprisingly good bonus Aim gives to damage. I don't know if the latter really belongs in a comparison, but it's easy to overlook for a new blaster.

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I should say something about Aim. The only mention I made of it is to note that AR doesn't have it. I think I'll put a little description of it at the beginning, as part of the intro. Then I can just note when it has a different name.

The other stuff, I need to think about for a bit. Not about whether they're good ideas or not, because they are, but about how to fit them in. I'll be back. Thanks to everyone who commented!

So, I wrote this thing. There've been a lot of questions here of late along the lines of "what blaster should I pick", "is this set good for soloing", etc. Well, I thought, I have a little free time, maybe I could write a little guide for that.

This was just supposed to be the first part, a short overview of all the primaries. But then it grew ..... So, well, then I figured maybe it could just stand on its own. Let's see what others think.

So here are my questions for the gallery:

1. Is it worth posting as a guide? Think it'd be helpful to players new to blasters who are trying to pick out a set?

2. Did I get anything really wrong, or miss something important? A lot of this is opinion, because it has to be, but what I'm trying for is a balanced view of each set, what they're good at or not so good at compared to other sets, plus any special quirks they might have. I'm totally open to changing something if the consensus is that I'm wrong.

3. I'm pretty iffy on AR, Electric, and Psychic. I haven't played them that much, so a lot of what's there comes from just browsing forum posts, or looking at the numbers and guessing. If anyone who actually has experience with them could chime in with any suggestions, that'd be great.

4. I have nothing for PvP, because I know very little about it. Think that's a problem? If anyone wanted to fill me in, I'd include it.

5. This one again: is it worth posting as a guide? I'm serious about the question, because I'm not sure.

So, hope for some feedback.Thanks.


Edited to incorporate some comments, (6/9 1:25 pm).
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(Intro paragraph goes here. Will write this later.)

Archery

Single target damage: About average. 3 blasts (Snap Shot, Aimed Shot, Blazing Arrow), 1 snipe (Ranged Shot). Blazing Arrow has Fire DOT in addition to its regular damage, making it a higher DPS attack, but its cast time is a little slow.

Conventional AoE damage: About average, if you don't include the non-standard nuke, excellent if you do (see below). 1 cone (Fistful of Arrows), 1 spherical AoE (Explosive Arrow). Fistful is the only short-ranged attack in the set (40 feet). Explosive does knockback.

Nuke: non-standard. Rain of Arrows is a location AoE with an 80 foot range, and does less damage than a traditional nuke but with a much shorter recharge and no endurance crash. This makes it easier to use, and more efficient, than a standard nuke (but, at least for some people’s taste, less dramatic). Since its cast at a location, it can be cast from around a corner, so you're out of line of sight for possible retaliation.

Controls: Below average to average. 1 ranged ST Stun (Stunning Shot). Explosive Arrow’s KB also provides some mitigation.

Damage type: Almost all Lethal. Blazing Arrow has some Fire (DOT), and Explosive Arrow has a Smashing component. Lethal is one of the damage types commonly resisted by NPC's.

Secondary effect: All attacks have increased Accuracy. Blazing Arrow has extra DOT, and Explosive Arrow has a chance of knockback.

Range: High. All but two attacks have range of 80 feet or more, including the nuke. The exceptions are Fistful of Arrows at 50 feet and Stunning Shot at 60 feet.

Notes: Archery is renowned as an AoE powerhouse, and it is one; but this is only true after level 32, with Rain of Arrows. Before level 32, its AoE potential is no better than average.

Because of its high range, Archery is an excellent choice for an all-ranged blaster.

Redraw of the bow can be a disadvantage. There is no archery-based secondary, so no matter what secondary you take, you’ll be forced to redraw the bow every time you use a secondary (or pool) power and then switch back to the primary.


Assault Rifle

Single target damage: A bit below average. 2 blasts (Burst, Slug), 1 snipe (Sniper Rifle). Ignite can also provide ST damage if your secondary has an immobilize, as most do.

Conventional AoE damage: Very good even if you don't include the nonstandard nuke (see below), even better if you do. 2 cones (Buckshot, Flamethrower), 1 spherical AoE (M30 Grenade). Ignite is also an AoE, albeit small and taking a little effort to use.

Nuke: non-standard. Full Auto is an 80-foot, 20-degree cone. It does less damage than a traditional nuke but with a much shorter recharge and no endurance crash. This makes it easier to use, and more efficient, than a standard nuke (but, at least for some people’s taste, less dramatic).

Controls: Average. 1 ranged ST Stun (Beanbag). Several powers have a chance of knockback.

Damage type: Mostly Lethal. Ignite and Flamethrower do Fire damage, and M30 Grenade has a Smashing component. Lethal is one of the damage types commonly resisted by NPC's.

Secondary effect: varies by power. All attacks have slightly increased accuracy. Burst does a bit of defense debuff. Several other powers have a chance of knockback.

Range: Three powers, including the two conventional cones, are short-ranged (40 feet). Beanbag is 60 feet; the rest are 80 feet or above.

Notes: Assault Rifle is called the king of cones for good reason. Its emphasis is more on AoE than single-target, which makes it a good team blaster. The cones benefit a lot from range boosts, either from Energy Manipulation’s Boost Range power or from range slotting.

AR has a unique power in Ignite. This is a location damage power—all foes who enter the area while it’s active will take ticks of damage. Unfortunately, it has a very small area (4 foot radius), and includes an “avoid” component, so anything that enters it will run out as soon as possible. If foes are somehow immobilized in the patch, it can be very effective; you’ll need either something in your secondary, or a cooperative teammate.

It’s the only set that does not include the Aim power.

It has the same redraw problem as Archery. No matter what secondary you take, you’ll be forced to redraw the gun every time you use a secondary (or pool) power and then switch back to the primary.


Electrical Blast

Single target damage: Below average. 2 blasts (Charged Bolts and Lightning Bolt), 1 snipe (Zapp). Voltaic Sentinel also adds to your single-target damage.

Conventional AoE damage: Below average to average. 1 spherical AoE (Ball Lightning), 1 PBAoE (Short Circuit). Ball Lightning is a standard AoE, but Short Circuit is usually more considered for its high amount of endurance drain than for its damage (even though its damage is actually decent considering its large radius.)

Nuke: Ranged, but other than that a typical nuke. You can cast Thunderous Blast from up to 60 feet away. It does extreme damage in a 25-foot radius. With good slotting, and Aim/Build Up, it should defeat pretty much the whole spawn. It also does a lot of endurance drain to any survivors. It will drain you of endurance and keep you from recovering any for 20 seconds.

Controls: Either below average or great, depending. 1 ranged ST Hold (Tesla Cage). Short Circuit can be either fantastic control or not, depending. If you have the /Electric secondary, you can get another endurance drain power; the two powers together can drain the mobs completely and keep them that way, leaving them helpless to attack. If you have /Energy, Power Boost will increase SC’s endurance drain enough to do the job that way. If you have enough recharge to get SC to cycle in less than 10 seconds, you can do it that way. If you don’t have any of those, then Short Circuit will only partly drain their endurance, which is no better than not draining them at all.

Damage type: Almost all Energy. Thunderous Blast has a Smashing component. Energy does not tend to be highly resisted by NPC's.

Secondary effect: Endurance drain and endurance recovery. All the powers drain some endurance from their targets, with a chance of returning some of it to you. This is handy, but not overwhelming.

Range: Not sure how to rate this. All the powers except Short Circuit have a pretty good range (at least 60 feet, most 80); But on the other hand, the total amount of ranged damage isn’t that high.

Notes: Electric Blast is odd in that its performance depends a lot on which secondary it’s paired with. If paired with /Electric or /Energy, it makes up for its lower damage with a massive amount of safety and control (and these two secondaries also provide a great deal of damage to the combo.) Other secondaries mesh less well and will make for a somewhat lower-damage blaster, but are still very safe with enough recharge (from whatever source) to make Short Circuit cycle quickly.

Note that when I say it’s “below average” or “lower” damage, I mean “for a blaster.” It still does more damage than most other characters can do.

Electric is the only blaster primary that comes with a pet, Voltaic Sentinel. It follows you around and shoots electric bolts at your enemies. It’s untargetable and cannot be destroyed.



Energy Blast

Single target damage: About average. 3 blasts (Power Bolt, Power Blast, Power Burst), 1 snipe (Sniper Blast). Power Burst is short-ranged (40 feet) and a little slow, but a nice attack, with a high chance of knockback.

Conventional AoE damage: About average. 1 cone (Energy Torrent), 1 spherical AoE (Explosive Blast). Energy Torrent is short ranged (40 feet). Both have a 50 percent knockback chance, which actually makes them pretty good mitigation

Nuke: When people think of a blaster nuke, Nova is usually what they’re thinking about. It’s PBAoE in a 25-foot radius. With slotting and Aim/Build Up, should take out just about a whole spawn. All mobs hit will be knocked back. It will drain you of endurance and keep you from recovering any for 20 seconds

Controls: At least average, depending on how well you leverage your knockback. Solo, all the KB gives you about the best mitigation you can have. On teams, it’s still good mitigation, but it can also slow the team down, or even endanger it, if used indiscriminately. In addition to the chance of KB in all the powers, Energy has one power (Power Push) whose sole purpose is knockback (single target, 100 percent chance of KB).

Damage type: All attacks do Smashing and Energy. Energy does not tend to be highly resited by NPC's, but Smashing does.

Secondary effect: Knockback. All powers have a chance of knocking the target(s) back, with the probability depending on the power.

Range: Fair. Two attacks (Power Burst and Energy Torrent) are at 40 feet, Power Push is 70. The rest are 80 feet or above.

Notes: Energy is often described as the “jack of all trades” of blasters. It does some of everything blasters do, and does it pretty well, without being outstanding in any of them.

One nice thing about Energy is that its single-target potential matures extremely early: if you choose, you can have all three single target blasts and the snipe by level 8. On the other hand, you have to wait until level 26 before you can have more than one AoE.

Okay, it has to be mentioned: the knockback. You may have heard that people hate teaming with Energy blasters because of the KB. This is true to an extent, but it’s exaggerated on the forums. KB can be annoying to teams, but there are a variety of techniques you can use to mitigate that; if you’re planning to team with your Energy blaster, it would be a good idea to learn them. Even so, a few people feel strongly enough about KB that they will still complain, or even refuse to team with you. This is very rare, though, in my experience. Don’t worry about it, and find a different team.


Fire Blast

Single target damage: high. 3 blasts (Flares, Fire Blast, Blaze), 1 snipe (Blazing Bolt). Blaze casts very quickly and is the highest DPA attack in any primary. Flares and Fire Blast recharge quickly (2.18 and 4 seconds, respectively), but do about the same damage and use about the same endurance as comparable attacks that recharge in 3 and 6 seconds. Blazing Bolt is the highest-damage snipe power.

Conventional AoE: high. 1 cone (Fire Breath), 1 spherical AoE (Fire Ball), 1 rain (Rain of Fire). Fire Breath and Fire Ball do slightly higher damage than similar attacks in other primaries. Fire Breath’s cast time is a little slow. Rain of Fire is something to be careful with: it makes enemies scatter. It does have a Slow Movement effect, so they won’t do it quickly, but they do scatter. This can be good as a panic button to give you some breathing room, but not so good in other situations. If you have some control or Slow Movement from your secondary, or are teamed with someone who can immobilize or slow them, they’ll take a lot of damage from being in the rain for its duration. If not, RoF will piss off a team even more effectively than knockback.

Nuke: Inferno is pretty much like Nova, but with more damage and no knockback. Massive PBAoE damage in a 25 foot radius. It will drain your endurance and keep you from naturally recovering any for 20 seconds.

Controls: Essentially none. Rain of Fire’s fear/scatter can provide a little mitigation, but that’s it.

Damage type: Almost all Fire. Fire Ball and Inferno have a Smashing component. Fire does not tend to be highly resisted by NPC's.

Secondary effect: extra damage. This is why all the attacks do a little more damage than comparable attacks in other sets. Fire attacks were balanced for recharge/end by the standard formula, then extra damage (usually DoT) was added.

Range: fair. Fire Breath and Blaze have a 40-foot range. Rain of Fire can be cast 60 feet away. All the other attacks are 80 feet or above.

Notes: If what you want out of a blaster is damage and plenty of it, and don’t care about all that sissy mitigation stuff, Fire is for you. That’s what it does. This can make soloing at higher levels a challenge for many people, although it’s certainly doable. Fire blasters are highly appreciated in teams, at least the ones who don’t die all the time.

Speaking of dying: Fire’s AoE potential, like Energy’s single-target potential, matures very early. You can have all three conventional AoE’s by level 8. Many inexperienced fire blasters faceplant a lot because of all the aggro generated by this, especially at lower levels when teammates’ mitigation powers aren’t that powerful yet. This is not inevitable. You just need to time it right. Give your teammates some time to take the alpha and establish some control before you let loose.


Ice Blast

Single target damage: high. 3 blasts (Ice Bolt, Ice Blast, Bitter Ice Blast), 1 combined blast/hold (Bitter Freeze Ray). Bitter Ice Blast is quick-casting, the 2nd highest DPA blaster primary attack, and has higher range than other heavy blasts. Bitter Freeze Ray is hard to categorize: most people use it primarily as a hold, but unlike most control powers it also does decent damage (about midway between Ice Bolt and Ice Blast.)

Conventional AoE: below average to average. 1 cone (Frost Breath), 1 Rain (Ice Storm.) Frost Breath’s cast time is a little slow. Ice Storm is a lot like Rain of Fire—it delivers its damage over a period of time, and causes enemies to scatter. (See the Fire discussion for more info). Its advantage over RoF is that its Slow Movement component can be slotted to make enemies more likely to stay in for the duration.

Nuke: Blizzard is another rain power. It can be cast at range (60 feet) at a location, and you can also cast it around corners so you're out of line of sight. It will deliver massive damage over a period of 10 seconds. Enemies hit will scatter, but will also be Slowed and have a chance of being knocked down. The movement slow can be slotted. If enemies can be made to stay in the rain for the duration, this is the highest-damage nuke.

Control: Above average. 1 ST Hold (Freeze Ray), 1 ST hold/blast (Bitter Freeze Ray). Bitter Freeze Ray does decent damage, but is usually used as a Hold. Its cast time is quite slow, so is best used at the outset of the fight. Ice Storm causes Slow and scatter, which can provide some mitigation. All attacks slow the movement and recharge rate of the targets. This is fantastic mitigation for a blaster, especially the recharge slow, and without the cost of taking time to use a control power.

Damage type: All attacks do Cold damage. Ice Bolt, Ice Blast, and Bitter Ice Blast have a smashing component; Ice Storm and Blizzard have a Lethal component. Cold damage does not tend to be highly resisted by NPC's; Smashing and Lethal are more so.

Secondary effect: All attacks Slow movement and recharge. As mentioned, this can add up to a great reduction in incoming damage. The movement slow, but not the recharge slow, can be slotted for, and both effects stack.

Range: Fair. Only one 40-foot-range attack (Frost Breath). Bitter Ice Blast is 50 (high for a heavy blast). Freeze Ray, Ice Storm and Blizzard are 60. Just 3 attacks have 80 foot range, and none are higher.

Notes: Ice is the classic “blastroller” set. Especially if paired with a high-control secondary, like /Ice Manipulation, it can play (if you choose) almost like a high-damage controller. It’s among the safest of the blasters, no matter what secondary it’s paired with. Ice is the only set that can, without assistance, hold a boss at the outset of an encounter.

Ice is known for its single-target strength, for good reason. It’s well above the average (Fire and Psychic might be a bit higher). Many discount it entirely as an AoE set, first because Frost Breath is a slower attack while the ST attacks are generally fast, and second because they don’t really count Ice Storm. I think this is mistaken, and Ice’s AoE potential is better than it gets credit for, but it’s still not an AoE powerhouse.

Ice is an excellent soloist that also brings good damage and a useful secondary effect to teams.


Psychic Blast

Single target damage: high. 4 blasts (Psionic Dart, Mental Blast, Telekinetic Blast, Will Domination), 1 snipe (Psionic Lance.) Psionic Dart, Mental Blast, and Psionic Lance do recharge (but not movement) Slow. Telekinetic Blast has a high chance of Knockback. Will domination has a very high chance of Sleeping the target.

Conventional AoE: low. 1 spherical AoE (Psionic Tornado). The Tornado does recharge Slow and has 50 percent chance of Knockup (not Knockback).

Nuke: Psychic Wail is a standard (Nova-style) nuke: massive damage in a 25-foot PBAoE. It will drain your endurance and keep you from naturally recovering any for 20 seconds. Surviving targets, except bosses, will be Stunned.

Controls: Average to above average. 1 single target Stun (Scramble Thoughts). The knockback in TK Blast, the knockup in Psionic Tornado, and the Sleep in Will Domination all provide some control, although it’s not completely dependable. The recharge slow in several powers also gives some mitigation.

Damage type: Almost all Psionic. Telekinetic blast also has a Smashing component. Psionic damage is one of the damage types commonly resisted by NPC's.

Secondary effect: Several powers do recharge (but not movement) Slow. One does knockback, one does knockup (AoE), one does Sleep.

Range: High. Every attack except the nuke has at least an 80 foot range.

Notes: Psychic is the newest blaster set, and really hasn’t found its niche yet. Its obvious strength is in single-target damage—4 single target blasts, all available by level 8, in addition to the snipe. Its obvious weakness is AoE. The high range should also be considered a strength by those who choose to play blasters at range. Control and secondary effects are above average but not overwhelming.


Sonic Attack

Single target damage: about average. 3 blasts (Scream, Shriek, Shout). Shout is short-ranged (40 feet) and quite slow. All three slightly debuff the target’s damage resistance (all types) for a few seconds. The debuffs do stack if you attack fast enough to overlap them.

Conventional AoE: Average to above average. 2 standard cones (Howl, Shockwave), 1 damage/control cone (Siren’s Song). Howl debuffs resistance for a few seconds. Shockwave does guaranteed knockback (unless target is resistant). Shockwave and Siren’s Song are both fairly low damage for cones, Siren’s Song in particular (although it’s not terrible.) Siren’s Song is usually more appreciated for its control effect, Sleep, than for the damage.

Nuke: Dreadful Wail is a standard (Nova-style) nuke: massive damage in a 25-foot PBAoE. It will drain your endurance and keep you from naturally recovering any for 20 seconds. Surviving targets, except bosses, will be Stunned.

Controls: Great for solo, probably a little below average for teams. 1 single target Stun (Screech). Siren’s Song is a long-lasting sleep in a large cone. It’s quite powerful, but can be hard to leverage in teams, especially teams with a lot of AoE. Shockwave does KB, another form of mitigation that can be hard to leverage in some teams but is excellent solo.

Damage type: All attacks except Siren’s Song do Smashing and Energy. SS does Energy only.

Secondary effect: Most powers slightly debuff damage resistance for 5-12 seconds. The effect stacks.

Range: Below average. Only two attacks have 80 foot range. The rest are from 40 to 60.

Notes: Siren’s Song is a cornerstone of the playstyle of most soloing Sonic blasters. It’s quite easy to Sleep an entire spawn (sans bosses) and take them out one at a time with single-target attacks. This is particularly true if you pair it with /Energy or /Electric for more single target damage.

It’s hard to quantify the damage of Sonic because of the resistance debuff, which adds to the damage either a little or a lot depending on the situation. It’s most important when fighting a single hard target—especially on teams, since every team member will be doing more damage as a result. In the AoE's, it will increase the entire team's damage against all targets as well, so this is a very team-friendly secondary effect.

Well, you're likely right about Ice Sword. I'll take another look at it.

When I originally took it, it's because the only available choices were that and Flares, and Flares at that time was just horrible. Then they buffed it, but I didn't want to respec just for that, so I just took it at level 38 instead. In the meantime, I'd kind of gotten used to having Ice Sword. It's a nice little follow-up to Freezing Touch on the occasion when something gets up too close. But it is my least-used attack.

So, yeah. Whenever I get around to respeccing, that and Inferno will probably go. The thing is that I just really, really hate the whole respeccing process, so I always put it off unless it's for something pretty important. Did someone in this thread already say that? Well, if so, I wholeheartedly agree.

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I ask again- is it my imagination that blasters faceplant more than any other AT?

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yes

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I just can't help pointing out again--you do not know this. Neither do I. No one does, unless it's the devs with their datamining tools. For all we know, 90% of the people who try blasters feel the same way the OP does. My guess is it's not that high, but it's only a guess. Another guess, but I think it's good, is that the number who do is nontrivial.

Your experience doesn't match this? Good. No harm in saying so, either. The categorical statements don't hold up, though.

EDIT: I forgot this part, which is really what I was planning to say: "blasters faceplant more than any other AT" isn't a matter of opinion. It's an empirical statement: it's either objectively true or it's objectively false. None of us know, because we've only seen our little corner of the game, but there is an actual answer.

Now, if it is true, the question of whether or not it's a problem that needs to be addressed would be a matter of opinion. This discussion isn't even getting that far, though.


I do think part of the problem, Bruise_Missile, is that the blaster you chose is one of the most (probably the most) team-dependent of the blasters. If you were playing another set combo, you wouldn't have to be so dependent on inspirations. Fire/fire shines on a good team, where other team members can take care of the mitigation and pure damage comes into its own, but can be a little frustrating for a lot of people either solo or on less skillful teams. It's part of the general trade-off of the AT.

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Guess from the amount of praise ice/ice is getting...

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In the 5 years I've been here, I never thought I would ever read that. *sniff* Brings a tear to the eye. I love you all!



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Congratulations on seeing it before everyone else, I guess.

You know what's weird to me? For a long time now, it seemed like I was the only person in the world who actually liked Ice Manipulation--not just with Ice Blast, either, but on its own. Now all of a sudden it seems to be getting a lot of good press. I doubt it was me that convinced them, so I guess it's just one of those things. Weird, though.

I have this same problem with my fire/ice, too many powers I want to fit in. I'm trying to work out some way of fitting in the medicine pool, but I have to figure out what to drop for it. Inferno is one, I don't really need that, but then what would be the second? It's a problem.

I don't really do full-out builds in advance, all my characters are sort of built on the fly, so I can't really help with that, sorry. My must have powers are:

Flares
Fire Blast
Fire Ball
Fire Breath
Blaze
Aim

Chilblaine (of course)
Ice Patch
Shiver
Freezing Touch
Build Up

Not total must-haves but I don't want to get rid of them:
Rain of Fire
Ice Sword

Would take if I could fit it in, but I can't:
Chilling Embrace

Don't feel the need for:
Blazing Bolt
Inferno (yeah, yeah, nuke pretty, but it actually seems faster to just use the regular AoE's, and the end crash gets on my nerves).
And whatever the other powers are that I can't think of right now. Whatever they are, I guess I don't miss them.

Yeah, they're knockback. The KB hatred is overblown, but some people will have a problem with it. There are various tricks you can do to keep it from causing you enemies: hover above and shoot down, aim them into corners or against walls or other obstacles, etc. As an energy blaster I've gotten used to this, I imagine it might be the same for AR.

One suggestion if you're really bothered by the KB thing and don't want to play fire. Pick any other primary besides Energy (because it has even more KB) or Psychic (because it only has one AoE power), and pair it up with Mental Manipulation. You'll have at least four AoE's, at least two (and probably three) of which will be ranged.

Maybe the ideal blaster set differs from person to person?

My answer to the OP (I'll try to make it short, but I warn you I'm not good at that):

Ice/Ice will be more "controllery". It's probably the safest blaster combo for soloing. That doesn't mean it's not great as a damage-dealing blaster, before anyone feels like they need to correct me. It just has more control than other blasters. I agree with Fulmens that it's possible to get so wrapped up in the control aspects that you end up doing less damage, but that's not inevitable. It's up to you.

Ice/ Elec is also a good soloist. Ice/Elec is more damage (single-target melee) than Ice/Ice, not quite as much control.

Ice/Mental would have more AoE damage than the other two because of the two AoE damage powers--and one of them is even ranged, which is important or not depending on how you like to play. Also not quite the control of ice/ice. You would, however, have even more recharge slows, so that would add to the safety.

Is it pickup groups, or are you playing mostly with the same group of people?

Well, whichever it is, the thing you probably want most is AoE damage. That's what teams are usually looking for in a blaster. Fire is a great choice. AR should be good, too, with all the cones. Archery has outstanding AoE, but only after level 32 with Rain of Arrows.

If you're playing with the same people all the time, who will get to know your playstyle and who you know have your back, then I'd say forget about anything but getting the most AoE damage. Fire/Fire or maybe Fire/mental.

If it's pickup groups, then personally I'd like having some mitigation capacity, because you never know how good the rest of the team will be at that. One possibility is to take a high-AoE primary and pair it with a high-control secondary like /Ice. (I always have to plug Fire/Ice, I can't help myself.)

Or take a primary that gives a little control (a hold or stun, knockback, something to protect yourself from a troublesome mob you can't kill immediately), even though its AoE damage isn't quite as high. AR is better in that department, and still has a lot of AoE, so that might be good.

Or just go for max damage and take your chances. On some teams you'll die a lot, but you probably get used to it.

Sorry, kind of rambled there.

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My personal observation after 3+ years and playing every AT with a very wide array of powersets is that blasters are the ONLY AT that can struggle at what they are designed to do without outside help


[/ QUOTE ]And your personal observations are biased and bunkum. Especially since over those 3 years so much has changed, 90% of that experience has itself been rendered moot and worthless.

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Just to play a little Devil's Advocate here: how do you know it's not your personal observations that are biased and bunkum?

What's the experience of the majority? We don't know.

This comes up often enough that my guess is that there's a fairly large cohort of players who do still have trouble playing their blasters at a speed commensurate with other AT's, or with having low survivability.

It's easy for us (I'll include myself in this, because I do it too sometimes--and Talen, this is not directed to you personally) to get all self-satisfied about how much better we are than that poster, but it's not really all that helpful.

I'm happy with the way my blasters play. But I do have to agree that they do still take more care and attention than, say, a scrapper. I like that about them. Some other people don't like that about them. That doesn't mean they suck.

And also, some people really don't have any more trouble with blasters than with scrappers or anything else. Might be skill, might be something else, who knows. The question to me is, how typical is that? If the OP's experience of blasters as harder is typical, then that might be considered a problem. We know that it was typical (or more typical than not) before the Defiance changes, but we don't know how it is now.

It'd be nice to be able to discuss it without all the condescension, though.

/rant

Sorry, I might be testy this morning.

damage = (0.2*((0.8*RECHARGE)+1.8))/(AREA MOD)

endurance = Damage * 5.2

Area Mod = 1 + (0.15 * radius) - (0.011 * radius/6) * (360 - arc)/5

Damage is the "damage scale", that gets multiplied by the appropriate ranged or melee modifier for the AT/level to get the final damage.

For a single target attack, the Area Mod just works out to 1. For AoE's, the larger the area that it can hit, the larger the Area Mod gets, making the damage lower.

Now I better get out of here before the regulars run me out, seeing as how I'm only here because Castle posted about buffs.

I have a great fondness for Fire/Ice, because they complement so well. Like a couple of others said.

I also have an Ice/Ice, and I do like it. It seems, though, that for me the levels of mitigation of the Ice/Ice is kind of overkill. It's more than I need. The Fire/Ice trades off some of that for additional damage. Whether that tradeoff is worth it is probably a matter of personal taste.

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...then again, maybe the concept of the blaster isnt just range, of which I need to learn still.

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This, I'm afraid, is true. The blaster, in general, isn't meant to be an all-ranged archetype. How do I know this? Well, I think it follows from the way the powersets are made. If blasters were meant to be all-ranged, they're poorly designed for it. The concept of the blaster is really high damage and low defense, at whatever range.

BUT ... If your concept of the blaster you want to play is all-ranged, that's certainly doable, and it's not like there's something wrong with it. So don't be apologetic. Actually, there have been changes over the years that make an all-ranged blaster a lot more viable than it was at one time, and it's a choice that a lot of players make. So go for it.

But since it's not the original AT concept, it does mean that not every set combination is going to lend itself well to that, and you'll have to be a bit choosy about what powers you take.

So. You talk about Energy being short-ranged. You'd have loved it back when Power Bolt was only 20 feet, I guess. Anyway, I guess I'll have to assume that the range you want is greater than the 40 feet PB and Energy Torrent give you. That's pretty par for the course for blaster primaries, though. Most of them do include things that are that range.

Archery is a really good choice for a ranger. All the attacks except two are at least 80-foot range, and those two are at 50 and 60.

Psychic Blast's attacks are all at least 80 feet, so that's another one--it has a bad rap around here, but I think that's exaggerated. As long as you don't try to fight too many robots, and are happy with single-target damage as opposed to AoE (which is fine for soloing), it's fine.

Ice Blast has a little better range than Energy Blast. Its third single-target blast has 50 foot range, as opposed to Energy's 40 feet.

You asked about Assault Rifle. It's a nice set. But if you thought Energy was too short-ranged, you'll likely think the same about AR. Several of the powers are at 40 feet.

If you can live with a 40 foot range, are okay with slotting for range, and/or take the Energy Secondary and use Boost Range (unfortunately not until level 35, though), any of the primaries should work for a ranger. The only one I'd be leery about is Electric, because it's lower damage than the others. If paired with its corresponding secondary, the endurance drain can make up for that by giving it greater survivability, but not at range.

Anyway, now secondaries. They tend to be more melee and less ranged, but several of them have some useful ranged powers and/or good self-buffs.

/Devices is said to be pretty good for this playstyle, but I haven't played it very far myself. My Archery/Devices is meant to be an all-ranged character. Working well so far, but I haven't taken very many of the powers yet.

/Energy has Build Up very early, which is nice, the aforementioned Boost Range, Conserve Power and Power Boost, all self-buffs that can be used at any range. So that's a good option.

/Ice doesn't have a lot of ranged stuff, but Shiver is one of the great unsung powers in the game--a massive cone which does movement and recharge slow. Just that one power is probably enough to keep most things out of melee with you. So I like /Ice for ranged characters. And Ice Patch can be a good barrier as well, like /Devices' Caltrops.

/Mental has a couple of ranged powers. A ranged cone damage attack, the only one in any secondary, can add to your ranged AoE damage. It also has a ranged Fear power.

All the secondaries except Energy have a ranged ST immobilize as well, and some of them also do decent damage. All except /Devices has Build Up, which you should take if possible.

So ... I don't know how much help that really was, but I hope it was a little. Good luck.

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The sets are balanced around the whole. The anti-healer forces want to minimize the role of healing, to the detriment of their teams, in my opinion. They are no different that the folks who do the opposite and think heals are the end all of mitigation.

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Truth here. This is where the anti-"healer" forces always lose me: They want to take the fact that healing is not as important as buffs and debuffs--which I agree with--and take it all the way to the conclusion that healing is not important at all. Worthless. Not even worth having.

In other words, buffs/debuffs alone are better than healing alone. But also, buffs debuffs plus healing is better than buffs/debuffs alone.

And about the word "healer." Aside from some highly specialized mathematical and technical terms, there's not a word in the English language that doesn't have a fuzzy definition, or multiple definitions, or different definitions to different people, or different definitions to the same person at different times depending on the context. The word "healer" is not exceptional in this regard. It's the very nature of human language.

I agree that using the AT name is better/more precise/less controversial, and in fact that's what I do--but using "healer" as a shortcut isn't exactly a high crime, and I can't for the life of me understand how it can possibly be worth so much angst.

So that was my rant on the subject, I guess. Glad I got that off my chest.

I'd think that just about any powerset combo could be made to work with Tech origin. You just have a device that lets you shoot fireballs, or amplify your voice, or whatever.

If you like the Energy/Energy, why not keep playing that? Its animation times are really pretty consistent with other sets--the first two are standardized, Torrent is fast for a cone, Power Burst is a little slow but not that bad. The only thing is that, if you do play it, you should take a little time to figure out the little tricks that make KB tolerable to teams. I'm sure you can get pointers on that if you ask.

If you really want all-ranged, then some primaries are better than others. Energy wouldn't be the best, but not the worst either--sort of middle of the road. Fire, AR, and Archery are probably better. Electric is probably worst.

I'm not going to lecture you about using the melee attacks. That's a playstyle choice. I have a couple of all-ranged blasters, and I enjoy them.

If that's your choice, then for secondary I'd choose either /Energy--for the self-buffs including boost range; /Ice--for the ranged cone slow and Ice Patch, which can be used as a barrier to melee attackers; /Mental, with its ranged cone attack, which would give you more ranged damage; or possibly /Devices--I don't have a lot of experience with it, though, so I'm not sure.

And last but not least: Listen to Fulmens about being the fight ender, not the fight starter. That's probably the number one mistake that blasters make that leads to their deaths. If you go with Energy, it's arguably even more important--Energy Torrent is a terrible fight starter, what with the mass KB, but it's a great closer. Wait until they're whittled down, then let it loose.

Yeah, I think that was kind of rambling. Oh well. Good luck, anyway.

I don't worry about defense a whole lot either. I got used to not having it, back before we had inventions, so I don't miss it.

And you know, it's really all about priorities. Slotting for defense bonuses would cost me some time and trouble, figuring it out, getting the inf for it, and then respeccing my older characters. OTOH, I can put together a frankenslotted attack in a couple minutes, now that I've done it a few times, and it's super cheap most of the time. Getting a bunch of ranged defense would probably be good, I just don't put high enough priority on it to go to the trouble.

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Four acc/rech/holds.

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This is what I do.

Favorite: Fire/Ice. From Fire: premium ranged damage, plenty of AoE. From /Ice: premium (for a blaster) control/mitigation. They complement each other really well. I solo comfortably on Unyielding, or Tenacious if I'm feeling a bit lazy (better than Rugged/Invincible because you get larger spawns.) She's also one of my favorite PuG characters, second only to my Rad/Rad defender in PuG effectiveness. AoE damage is what most teams want in a blaster, and she's got that covered; and in a team that could use a little help in the aggro control/mitigation department, Shiver, and even Ice Patch, can make a world of difference.

Honorary mention: Energy/Energy. For three reasons. 1) It looks really cool. 2) Knockback is fun! It makes for quite safe soloing, and even the trouble I have to take on teams to keep from pissing everyone off is fun for me--adds a little more challenge/interest. 3) Versatility. It has a little bit of everything, and I can play differently depending on the team and the situation.

As you can see from the variety of responses, there's not one blaster combo that everyone agrees on. That's probably a good thing. You should probably try out several.