Miladys_Knight

TT with +3 TOs and 1 Acc, 3 Immob in 4 slots (what you are likely to have at that level) will not allow a single player to triple stack it (which is what it would take to immob a Ruin Mage) and it would take more than 30 seconds to get it to that point in any case.

Try a Mind/Icy Perma dom and you may change your view point. You have an AoE control every spawn that will hold even an entire spawn of bosses. With enough recharge above Perma and proper use of Power Boost you can (all by yourself) perma confuse an AV even through PToD.

No point in running Mud Pots if you skip the AoE immob. The avoid in Hot Feet can make it so that mobs aren't even in mud pots for a single tick of damage.

Same issues that a blaster has except the perma-dom has all the tools required to deal with it. If you take a comparable blaster you "will" definitely notice the difference.

To the OP. Were you Exemplared down on the league team that you were on? If so that could have cost you enough global recharge to drop out of perma.

Also I usually put Domination on Auto and when I hear it pop I check to see if hasten needs refreshed.

Yes indeed. Early in my Dom's career I could drop Static Field, wait a couple seconds until every thing was asleep, and then move in with Conductive Aura running. I could then Tesla Cage one of the Mobs and single target it while the spawn drained.

When the Static Field expired the entire spawn would close to melee range with me and just stand there staring at me. I'd use Chain Fences (slotted with end mod and 2 damage procs) to lock them into place then drop Static Field again.

I could then move around a bit to maximize targets and use Psi Scream, Sands of Mu, and Chain Fences.

In the higher levels I could layer controls - Sapping (including Drain Psyche), Sleep, Confusion, Holds and juggle 2 +0/x8 spawns all by myself just with Franken slotted IOs.

With Perma Dom I could sail through +4/X8 solo no problem I also added Invoke Panic from the presence pool.

When I get my Alpha I'm going to go with Vigor Radial Paragon and I'll switch out of Mu and into Ice Mastery for Sleet.

Safest toon I ever leveled, effective, and did decent damage too.

Actually a "Good Player" will use many of these strategies simultaneously. In my experience once I learned these and other tactics I found most other ATs (barring Doms and Controllers) boring, however because of the design flaws in the blaster AT there are still many situations even considering the above where no matter what you do you will fail/lose on a blaster because the blaster is the only AT that lacks a diverse enough set of tools to handle those situations outside a team.

On a small team (or even an unbalanced large one) you may still be missing critical components required to make the blaster play like any other AT. Blasters are the only AT so hampered.

That's just it though. For a scrapper it is trivial. For the blaster its a way of life (or death). The blaster doesn't fit the category (unless you are a highly experienced player and know how to leverage it) and they are rated at 8. The problem being that the blaster lacks other tools to get an "8" value out of that "8" rating.

What shouldn't seem like a stretch is a revamp so that they actually do fit into the category OR a revamp so that they are not so overestimated by the devs. What you are trying to compare is the scrapper with a situational power to an AT with a situational power set.

I agree that the omission is intentional, however I can't justify it. I can also see it as neglect when other ATs that all ready properly fit into their own categories (or at least fit much better) are getting dev time for tweaks and upgrades while the blaster languishes.

I was responding specifically to the language that was used, however it is rare or perhaps more accurately an asymptotic relationship based on player experience. It is extremely rare for a new player, uncommon for a player of moderate experience, and common for a player with a great deal of experience.

What I mean by contrived, is intentionally creating the situation. We do that several ways as blasters, combining Stealth and Super Speed for PvE invisibility, teaming with a Brute or Tank, pulling, slotting for mitigation through IO set bonuses, using PFF/hibernate/phase shift to splash the Alpha, munching inspirations like candy and using an inspiration cascade, Sizing up the battlefield before opening to identify the most serious threats, etc.

All these things are very useful and helpful to blasters while simultaneously being virtually unneeded by all the other damage dealing ATs.

Indeed.

Not exactly. Personally I believe the numbers are extremely artificial and don't bear up under even mild scrutiny.

BUT, the devs released these numbers as a tool to help new or indecisive players. That is, at the very least, indicative that the devs believe these numbers to be accurate enough for the player base to make good choices based upon them. Which allows us to see the counter intuitive dev thought processes where blasters are concerned.

Bottom line is that either blasters don't measure up and should be modified or the ratings don't measure up and should be modified.

Modifying the ratings would mean that the devs have to admit that blasters don't work the way they want to believe that they do.

A scrapper needs 1 power and only one power (ie: any travel power) and they can continue to use every power from primary and secondary without any artificial limitations. In comparison the blaster "gets to do better" only on those rare or contrived occasions that it is safe to move into melee range.

The astonishing thing is how large a portion of the player base actually believes that this is equitable.

We don't "need" to be close to the target.... unless we want to use most of our secondary powers. Ignoring our secondary powers makes us an AT that really only has one power set and if you study posted IO builds that is frequently what happens. We give up large parts of our secondary to take power pools like Fighting, Medicine, and Concealment.

Which is my point. What you just said amounts to:

"You shouldn't take and use your secondary powers as a blaster unless you have lots of blaster experience because you'll just get killed trying to use them in melee range."

To me that means the devs have either given the blaster a very misleading rating in regards to melee damage or the blaster AT isn't really intended to use it's melee attacks which is why its omitted from the Melee Damage category.

The 2 points of view can't be reconciled because one refutes the other.

Actually I don't think it means what you think it means.

Master minds are listed in support with a secondary set that is rated at a "5" for support.

Defenders are listed as Ranged Damage with a secondary set that is rated at "6" for ranged damage.

Dominators and Controllers are listed in the Pets category with a Primary pet power that gives them a rating of "5" for pets.

Blaster Melee damage rating is an 8! yet the devs don't list them as a melee damage category AT. That's pretty revealing of the dev thought process where blasters are concerned.

So what you are saying is that since Brute and Scrapper survival numbers are high and that is part of their secondary that their survival isn't part of their intended style of play?

So Scrappers and Brutes don't need ranged defense since they don't need to be at range?

If the powers in the blaster secondary are meant to be last resort burst of damage things then why are some of them AoEs?

Why are /Fire's long DoTs?

What is your excuse for Trip mine? Time Bomb?

Why do the powers that hit the hardest take so long to cast if they are supposed to be last resort?

Why don't ALL the nukes operate from range since the primary is supposed to be RANGED damage and the blaster isn't supposed to "need" to get close?

Why is Irradiate a PBAoE?

Then why such a high melee rating? If you aren't intended to use it all the time and therefore have no need to be in melee frequently why give it such a heavy weight. If it isn't intended to be used that often it should have a much lower rating right?

You can easily solo +0/x5 on SOs with a Sonic/Devices without being the least bit frisky.

As far as taking Taser early goes it depends on your chosen play style (I'll come back to that). Screech and Taser are both mag 3 stuns and they do stack. These 2 powers combined with Caltrops (potentially, once again it is a play style decision) are your tools to handle a boss.

Drop caltrops in front of you so that the boss can't get into melee range with you. Screech > Taser. The boss is neutralized and you are free to either AoE the remainder of the spawn and take the boss out later or take the boss out now while you ignore the rest of the spawn.

Mace is good but for a blaster and a Sonic/Dev in particular but it's 2nd best power (after Scorpion Shield) is Web Envelope.

For PvE you won't really need a stealth IO but you may keenly miss not having Smoke against targets with increased perception.

Play style choices - If you are planning on using Sirens and Trip Mine/Time Bomb then Gun Drone will not be that helpful as it will wake up sleeping mobs and nullify your stealth advantage.

My personal recommendations for this combination would be this:

Open with Smoke to reduce enemy perception range. This will be important to help control the Alpha response.

Next move closer to the spawn (but not too close) so that all targets are within the cone of Sirens.

Now drop Caltrops either where you are standing or BEHIND you. The goal here is to have the patch as close to the spawn as possible without alerting the spawn by causing any damage ticks. (You can also drop a safety mine if you like)

Note - when facing a spawn without a Boss you can skip the caltrop step.

Next use Sirens to put the spawn (except for the boss) to sleep. Mobs that are missed (including Bosses) will open with their ranged Alpha attack.

Take a step or 2 back to keep caltrops between you and the still fully awake Boss and any awake mobs.

Screech the Boss.

Taser the Boss.

Now you can Webnade the Boss and Web Envelope the Boss and a good portion of the spawn. Web Grenade and Web Envelope do no damage and thus will not wake the spawn.

At this point the spawn is pretty much neutered/neutralized and its up to you to decide how to pick it apart. Single target attacks on the Boss to take him down right away is a good idea (it depends really on how many other Mobs aren't asleep).

If the entire spawn is sleeping I'll move in and drop Time Bomb in their midst. Then go back and continue working on the boss. When the light on the Time Bomb starts blinking faster I'll > Amplify > Howl so that the entire spawn is resistance debuffed just before the time bomb goes off.

I just think the devs should examine powers that they won't give to PVE mobs. They know those powers suck but they saddle players with them.

Gun Drone is an excellent example. Why do Malta have one version and the players another? Because the devs know that the PLAYER version is unworkable for the mobs. That should be a huge clue to them that it is not good as a player power either, yet we still have a disparity.

Yep and Time Bomb + Aim + RoA + Explosive will all land at ~ the same time and will wipe out most/all of a +2 spawn.

You only need 2 forms of stealth for PVE (I have 3) I use Super Speed + Stealth IO + Stealth (I took Stealth instead of Cloaking Device because Cloaking Device doesn't open up phase shift).

The only time I ever missed Smoke Grenade is against things that have +perception (that is rarely, usually just against Rikti)