As far as Blaster secondaries, they're mostly useless for a RANGED attacker.
Statesman, you said yourself at the beginning of this thread that a Blaster is supposed to be a Ranged Damage AT. I can agree with you, but that was supposed to be because of their damage output at range. In Character Creation ITSELF, blasters are called Offensive Juggernauts. Perhaps an oversight, but I think it describes how they're presently designed better than saying Ranged Attacker.
Blaster secondary is listed as being Support, not Melee. Now, melee attacks like Power Thrust, which knock enemies back out of melee range, are conducive to both range AND reducing the threat of the AT's frailties, while supporting a ranged battle. If you want the AT to focus on range, shouldn't the secondary powers follow similar suit? Perhaps adding a knockback to Fire Sword Circle would make it more attractive, and still keep in the theme of the power. It supports Range with a PBmelee knockback, instant damage & effect, although the following animation would still leave the defender open to those who weren't so close, adding a strategic element.
Since Scrappers have both a defense increase AND secondary power pools dedicated to either reducing damage, avoiding it, or recovering from it, it seems as if they're getting a double advantage, which we can understand with Melee being higher damage and higher mez. But giving an increased damage cap over Blasters knocks away the core of the AT. Anybody who dies less than a blaster has a good chance of outdoing them in DPS. But Blasters are supposed to be fragile, to keep them from "overdoing". Alot of people, myself included, sometimes get the feeling that Blasters are too fragile to simply "do." This perception will limit the AT in groups as much as a dev-spawned nerf.
Melee is more dangerous, I will concede. However, every AT is sucked into melee after the first few volleys at most. There are at minimum, 2 villians at a time per group that will close in specifically to melee range against you, while the others herd around and use ranged attacks. As I said before about FSC, a PBmelee knockback attack would kick back any who got too close, and return it all to range. Those who say a Blaster can fly and avoid melee are ignoring flying foes, Range-based foes, or the fact that this is requiring a Power Pool for standard AT job functionability. On a same token, to make a Blaster a specialist at range and a weakling at melee, they should at least have a little more Ranged-specific innate defense, perhaps a natural defense that will kick in for any attack made from over 50% of the blaster's longest non-snipe attack (range arbitrarily selected for the sake of introducing the concept). I understand it would take quite a bit of coding and probably some gutting and reworking, but it would mean that a blaster's range means something. Or maybe tossing a limit on the range of enemy range attacks would work.
I've played a blaster, not past the teens. It was too much work for it to be fun. I then tried a scrapper, and actually had fun with the game, but my mind wandered.
Playing as a controller, I've met with much less death, debt, and in-game cost for just standard gameplay than a Blaster. I've had more fun with the variability offered in each battle, with the mix of pets, holds, and agro-swapping. I have not been FORCED to party past the teens just to get through an hour, and I can solo most missions merely for being able to avoid most trouble, vice plowing through.
However, Blasters don't have the option of sneaking, unless they resort to 1-2 power pools. Blasters don't have the option of damage resistance without 1 power pool sucking up slots they should be using for damage.
- if being at ranged is supposed to mean they're getting hit or damaged less, while not loosing out accuracy or damage, then make it mean they're getting hit or damaged less without loosing out on accuracy or damage.
-If their secondary is supposed to be support, then make it support them/others. Make it support the job.
You don't have to unbalance the game to make Blasters into Ranged Attackers, or Offensive Juggernauts, or both. You can make all of that true, but it will take a bit of work, and probably some heavy retooling. From the posts I've seen, I think it's safe to say that there's plenty of people who still love being a Blaster who would love to give you a live show of just what they think is wrong. Maybe what's needed is some spare time for you guys to sit on test server together, just you and the Blaster community, to have a cup of coffee or a smoke, and work things out.
