Telecommuter

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Won't someone please think of the poor squishy Stalkers?!

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*prays for the Stalkers*

Hey, remember the sniper in "Saving Private Ryan"? The guy who recites scripture before he presses the trigger ...

If I did that while playing my blaster, does it count as "Sympathy for Stalkers"?

This was 70 threads deep.

pop to top. I couldn't find this post in the first few pages... I actually had to search my own posts just to find where it was. I was afraid it might have been deleted. phew!

This thread keeps dropping to the second page... it seems like the replies are slowing down. Perhaps someone can start summarizing the discussion and posting a new thread with the conclusions, along with pro- and con- arguments??

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My fixes would be as follows

Assualt Rifle:
It either needs a damage increase, an unresisted component, or aim. I've love to see all 3 but I doubt that'll happen.


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Pilcrow#5 will give ya unresisted damage. I seriously doubt we can suggest changes to primary powersets given that the Devs are only really concerned with our secondaries.
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Electrical Blast:
End drain needs a rework.
Short Circut needs it's base end drain raised or needs to have it's damage, recharge, and end cost rescaled.


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Stateman/Castle have mentioned recently that they were taking a second look at endurance drain after they had done the tweaks with the bosses. I wish they told us that they were putting electric's effectiveness back to par.
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Fire Blast:
I would consider this set to be the base line that other sets are compared to.
Rain of Fire needs a status effect other than DoT. Possibly -spd?


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I'm not sure ... but it does have a very large radius. And when doing indoor missions, the mobs have a very hard time running away from it ... and so the mobs spend a lot of time running instead of attacking. I noticed that when a teammate used rain of fire in missions ... it was extremely effective in dealing damage and semi-preventing the mobs from attacking. A -spd would be nice to keep the chaos in control, but I don't see a reason for fire to make people move slower. Maybe a -def or a -acc is more appropriate.
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Archery:
I don't know where to begin other than this set should have never been created.


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I think they need to standardize the range of the powers. It's irritating to have a slew of long range powers, and then you have to move in closer to use the short range powers. They also need to fix the animation/activation time. The archer aims so slow, you'd think they were high school students firing their first arrow. This is combat, not an olympic firing range.

What the heck is this thread doing on page 3??? *punts it back to top*

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I've seen the posts about "Bleed" DoT damage before from Scrappers and other people. I don't know if the code to make such an attribute would be easy, which is why I didn't try offering it as a suggestion. It would be a nice idea though.

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There's plenty of powers that have DoT. Fire's DoT is a random hit, so it shouldn't be difficult to apply something similar for "lethal" attacks that involve weapon sets like archery and assault rifle.


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So let me repeat this again, I would recommend thinking in terms of relatively small, easy changes that include existing animations and codes if you want fixes to come out fast.

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Yes, I definitely agree. Good suggestion. I think Pilcrow just wants to make sure he gives _Castle_ a good indication of what the "ideal" solution would be before we start negociating for easy-to-do stuff.

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Finally, in terms of carrying over the 30% unresistable damage, they'd have to take away our Defiance most likely to implement an idea like that.

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First off, I don't see why there's even a difference between PvE and PvP in the first place. PvP showed the GLARING effectiveness of a defense-minded build, and so the devs countered with irresistable damage. High level mobs enjoy the same kind of increases in defense/resists as high level players. So why not give Blasters a way to counter that ... especially seeing that Blasters are all about damage, and not about debuffs, buffs, or control.

And yeah ... I'll give up Defiance for that.

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As much as many would cheer, I doubt they would do it. It's a chunk of code in the game that the Devs are happy with, and they would probably just rather not take the time to take it out.

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The devs live in ignorant bliss concerning the lack of effectiveness of Defiance. Once they figure that out, they'll be more receptive to replacements.

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Also, are you wanting just AR and Archery to have this applied to them?

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If I understand "this" ... "this" being "Pilcrow #5" which is the 30% irresistable damage code being copied to PvE from PvP....

If I understand Pilcrow #5, it is to be applied to all Blasters; not just Arch or AR.

The "Lethal DoT" idea was one suggested for Arch/AR. I'm not even sure if Pilcrow signed onto that.

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P.S. We really should ask Castle what some of the basic design rules/guidelines that they follow are when they try to change already existing code within the game to help us out when we come up with ideas.

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He might give us general -- very very general -- guidelines; but I don't think he'll ever come up with cut-in-stone guidelines. The reason I say this is because game designers generally don't want to be limited within guidelines either. And unless there's an actual "game balance" committee, there won't be a list of guidelines on paper.

However, what we can consider is to look at it from a business standpoint:

How much will this change cost?
Will I need to pull a lot of resources to do it?
Can I test the changes easily?
Can I test it easily against other powersets or archetypes to determine balance?
Will alot of customers leave the game if no change occurs?
Will alot of customers leave the game if the change is perceived as unbalancing?


I threw those last two questions in because that is ultimately the question that an executive will consider. And the truth is that people will continue playing the game without changes (because they bought the game in the first place, and paid their subscription upfront in the second place, and spent time on their characters in the third place).

Any change to the game _can_ be viewed in a negative perspective because it changes the product that you've already paid for. So devs have to be very careful with what they change. (or at least ... they should be careful).

You know ... I would really love to find out how many accounts terminated when ED came out.

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How about a fire/fire guide, or is that a build not worth mentioning?

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It's not popular ... but there are a few threads in the blaster forum about it. I think a lot of the people who write up guides want to make sure that the combination is effective before they spend the effort in writing a guide... and fire manipulation has the hype of not being very effective.

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LOl let's just comkbin a scrapper and a blaster? Who wouldn't wanna see a Regen Blaster? Add the Boost range into ever blaster secondary and be done with it! LOL. Sorry just had to vent and be a lil crazy. I drank too much coffee today

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coffee and chocolate donuts for me.
heh heh ... wheeeeee!

Try it out. It works wonders when reading the Nerf Blappers thread and following it up with this Fix Blasters thread.

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AR and Archery need to do more damage.


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agreed. heck, they both have that draw-the-weapon delay too. Supposedly the tradeback for all the delays is more damage, but since they've held back ranged damage to "reward" melee damage, these weapon powersets are rather weak because they are both slow and commonly resisted.

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ENERGY
Power Thrust - No change. If an enemy gets into melee the power knocks them back, even moreso with Power Boost which is also in the set. Power fulfills its purpose of melee control.


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I like Pilcrow's (I think) modification to these "go away" melee powers ... make them extreme short range ... that way you can conceivably fire them BEFORE the foe gets to melee
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Conserve Power - Some would say this power isn't worth it because of the recharge time. I don't believe this power should be thought of in terms of taking the place of Stamina or something similar. Slot for Endurance or take Stamina if you have endurance issues. For what it was designed to do it works well. It is a TOOL that allows you to cut the endurance cost of all your powers by half, greatly increasing the amount of things you can activate during a period of time. No change.


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What's the base (unmodified) recharge on this power? I think I remember it lasting 90 seconds ... never bothered to time the recharge.
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Power Boost - Great tool for boosting holds or other effects that one is going to use. It lasts for a good bit and has a descent recharge. Some would argue that it should be permeable, but then we might be stepping into Controller territory. This kind of power should be used with planning before engaging into a fight. If you need to Total Focus a boss for a bit, use it. If you need to hold a Sapper at the beginning of a fight, use it. No change.


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My opinion is that there are not enough "secondary" effects for a blaster to Power Boost in the first place. And since this is in the Energy Manipulation secondary, it doesn't do much to affect the other "more controllery" secondaries ... I mean, I can't Power Boost a Chilblain.
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Boost Range - Great tool once again. Lasts for a few seconds so should generally be used, like Power Boost, with planning. Descent recharge. No change.


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I think the duration should be very slightly longer to allow for more stacked utilities (ie, aim, bu, power boost, boost range)
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Ice Sword – Bring up to BI of Bonesmasher. When people thing damage, they shouldn't just think Energy. Change only requires changing numbers and testing.


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Correct me if I'm wrong ... but isn't there a delay in bringing the sword out like the AR and Archery? I definitely think -- higher animation / delay == more damage.
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Charged Brawl – Bring up to BI of Energy Punch. When people think damage they shouldn't just think Energy. Change requires changing some numbers and testing.


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I don't think we need to up the BI. However, maybe we can change the recharge rate. It activates fast ... but recharges slow. Maybe 3 secs instead of 4.
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Lightning Field – Pretty sure it has minor damage, if not then it needs it. I would also like to make it a Foe Immobilize if it hits. The reason being, if I get too close to someone with a huge field of lightning it should hurt me and the shock should be so great that I can't move for a bit becuase of the blow to my body. You could then have a chance to move back out of melee and retaliate, just like Chilling Embrace allows. Change requires adding some numbers and status effects to power, animation for electric immobilize, which is already ingame and testing.


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hmmm ... electric = immobilize instead of end drain. interesting.
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FIRE
Ring of Fire – Standard Immobilize, no change.


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I'd ask for -acc. Sideeffect of "smoke"
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Combustion – Bring up BI to a level slightly higher then BI of Fireball. You are in melee and should be doing more AoE damage then an attack which you have at range. Change requires changing some numbers and testing.


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It's either damage ... or more -acc (debuff due to smoke)
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Everyone must remember that this AT requires a LOT of planning at ALL times when playing. It's not EASY mode for CoH. This AT is one of, if not the hardest to learn to play and master.

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I think that's the reason why blasters are full of smart and tactical-minded people. We have to figure out how to survive without defenses.

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It is the players who build them poorly. Just my opinion.

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This statement is the proof that you are wrong. Considering the implications of this statement shows exactly how blasters are broken, and suggests the preferred solution for solving the problem. Unless one picks up pool powers or adopts insane enhancement slotting it is very difficult to make a bad Ice/Ice or Ice/Energy blaster. The same cannot be said for AR/Dev or Archery/Fire.

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Right! There are some very good Blaster powerset combinations. /Energy, /Ice, and (in the old days) /Devices were considered so "perfect" that you can pair those secondaries up to just about anything. With ED and other changes when CoV came out, /Devices died. Still, there were enough /Energy and /Ice blasters out there that many people still think that playing a blaster is simple.

Let me rephrase that. Many people simply use (or see blasters that use) /Energy and /Ice ... and conclude that the entire blaster AT is perfect.

It's almost the same argument with Defenders. Many people simply use Rad or Kin or Dark. Those primaries are strong enough that it's easy to dismiss the rest of the imperfections and call the entire Defender AT as "perfect".

bumping this up so that we can look at this along with the suggestions in Pilcrows thread.

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You touched on a very good point. Power boost for a blaster is of limited use. Why? Not because the buff isn't strong. But because the way the majority of such buffed effects work for blasters is cumulative over time -- the actual benefit of one knockback, or one slow, or one non-SC drain, is low. It's only your ability to pile them up that helps you out. A 15 second boost to that... not always attractive. Make it a toggle? Must-have (and overly strong).

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Yeah, power boost is definitely an odd duck. However, if they increased all of our secondary effects, or added more secondary effects, then maybe the current version of powerboost would become rather useful.

I really liked your analysis on conserve power. It is a bit more on the purist side for my own tastes. And by purist, what I mean is that you truly expect that the effects of the power be closer to "perma" than "situational".

For the few of us who actually have conserve power, I expect we use it as a bonus power to be combined with stamina already planned in the mix. (It would be fantastic if conserve power is a complete substitution for stamina, but that would be asking for too much).

Besides ... if we are truly utilitarian about our endurance usage, then we'd realize that a lot of our stamina's endurance recharge is wasted every time we go AFK, or take a break waiting for someone who went AFK.

What I mean to say is that there is actually a lot of good opportunities to take a break and socialize with your fellow heroic MMORPGers.

Of course ... if they do reduce the downtime of conserve power, that'd be gravy!

Arcanaville:
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Give each blaster primary a means to debuff range.


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I like it too. Hey Pilcrow, if you like this, can you add it to the list? I know we're not really looking for changes in the primary, but we were looking at ways our debuff side-effects would work better.

I also like Arcana's -acc debuff for DoT effects.

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Yes, you will also find this idea brought up later in the thread, and absorbed into the revised propsal.

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I think it might be wise to start a new thread with the revised proposal. Or maybe we can continue discussion here and collect some more ideas, and then start an new thread before the weekend starts.

The point being: the revised proposal is buried under a mound of discussion. And I don't think there's an easy way to point to a specific portion of a thread... or is there?

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... but since the Devs don't know how Defiance really works right now it could be possible for them to introduce similar abnormal behavior. It would better, in my opinion at least, for them to fix and roll out the "no brainer" solutions like Pilcrow#5 before they start playing around with changes that might take weeks or months to properly balance.

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I agree. I can live with a useless Defiance by simply avoiding the situation in which it activates. That's certainly easier than watching the Devs try to rebalance Defiance with all the other changes we're suggesting.

And I definitely think we can push the "easy to do" changes: range and unresistable damage.

This started out as a "Top X Reasons why I love Defiance" thread in the blaster forums.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showf...Number=4923014

But I really think it can help a lot of newbie blasters learn more about their inherent power. So I'm submitting it to the Guides section.

So ...

"Top X Reasons why I love Defiance"

1. It activates Vigilance.

2. It activates Vigilance, allowing the Defender to feel useful despite the fact that the _Controller_ has the same buffs/debuffs/heals, can lockdown 10 enemies at once, and do more damage.

3. It's a great way to use up all those inspirations cluttering up my tray.

4. Who needs to include buildup? It's built in now!

5. Gives me an excuse why I haven't started running away when the enemy took down half my hp: "No, I'm not incompetent! I was building up my defiance!"

6. Lets me laugh at brutes who take forever to build up fury. I can do it in one shot ... just watch ...

7. My momma always told me ... the best way to mitigate damage is to not have any hp at all .... oh, wait, I think she meant not to have any of the enemy have hp ... aw, darn!

8. The store is right next to the hospital ... and my enhancement tray is full ... so the quickest way to the hospital ... "No, I'm not incompetent! I was building up my defiance!"

9. It helps clean other teammate's inspiration trays. "Hey, anyone got extra purple pills? I'll trade my reds and greens away!"

10. It makes me happy that I have an inherent I can actually use while soloing ... not like Gauntlet or Vigilance. "Ha! $crew you Tankers and Defenders! So what if you live longer ... I do more dama... Owww! Oooh, soft carpetting..."

11. The downside of the short hover time in Teleport Self now has the bonus of increased damage when you land and lose more than half your life.

12. The downside of using combat jump or super jump as a travel power and landing in the middle of a large spawn now has the bonus of increased damage after you absorb that initial alpha strike.

13. You can confidently sit and wait for the chain-mezzing-sleeping to stop knowing that when you do wake up, you'll have one chance to fire off that defiance-buffed attack. "Just you wait, you Eremite ... once I get out of this hold ... just you wait!"

14. I've run out of excuses to get out of my "In-The-Hollows-full-of-noobs" team. So..... "No, I'm not incompetent! I was building up my defiance! Darnit, I'm leaving this team."

15. I really wanted to experience all the game content, and leveling up was just too fast for me. So thank you for allowing me to earn more debt at the same time as making my life as a blaster sooo much more exciting.

16. "Anyone got awakens cluttering up their tray? I'll trade you my respite!"

17. Your rad emission friend has been telling you stories about Mutation, and you just can't wait to try it out.

18. Your friend wants to test out all the powers in the Leadership pool.

19. Have I mentioned that Defiance makes Vigilance useful? Ah, okay, just wanted to make sure you realize Vigilance is useful ...

20. No need to hit build-up after a stalker uses his Azz$trike. Of course, your fireball will land just as his brawl puts you on the ground ...

21. The fastest way to earn prestige for the SG's base is to run thru levels 1 to 10 repeatedly with a Fire/EM blaster, doing all The Hallows missions. Heck ... exemplar down and help the newbie level 5 with your capped Fireball+Buildup+Defiance damage.

22. What do you mean you got debt trying out #21? That's why you're examplaring, foo!

23. At level 15, you can go back to Perez Park and herd skulls and hellions. "No, I'm not incompetent! I was building up my defiance! What do you mean a blaster can't herd grays?"

24. You can out-taunt a tank. Very handy when the Tank's in trouble. No, really!

25. You can pound the poo-poo out of your enemies. Just gotta make sure a controller puts a hold on it first... or someone debuffs it down... or someone buffs you up... or you've chugged a trayful of purple and orange pills.

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Well, let's see what my thoughts have evolved to at this point.

[*]1) Blasters revised role as ranged damage dealer (vs. previous role of best damage dealer) calls for a boost in range[*]2) Blasters need to be able to make a better ranged attack chains (both ST and AE) with their primary and secondary combined, than could be made with just the primary. [*]3) Controls and Debuffs are part of a Blaster's arsenal for a reason, and if they need more protection, that is where it should come from[*]4) Upping debuff and control a bit will lead towards AT homogenization, so a counterbalance needs to exist to keep ATs the best at fulfilling their roles.[/list]
Which leads to the following ToDo list

[*]A) Add range to primaries (Increase range of all ranged attacks there to the average of current range and 80m)[*]B) Make one ST and one AE power in each secondary medium ranged so they improve ranged performance (and without making them untenable for their current uses)[*]C) Make the debuffs meaningful, and make sure every blaster has an "oh crap" control power.[*]D) Apply the irresistible damage (Blaster) and irresistible debuff (Defender) rules from PVP to PVE.[/list]

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I like alot of Pilcrow's summarized suggestions. In the order of simplicity -- which is probably also the order in which the Devs will accept our suggestions:



[*]D) Apply the irresistible damage (Blaster) and irresistible debuff (Defender) rules from PVP to PVE.
[*]A) Add range to primaries (Increase range of all ranged attacks there to the average of current range and 80m)
[*]C) Make the debuffs meaningful, and make sure every blaster has an "oh crap" control power.
[*]B) Make one ST and one AE power in each secondary medium ranged so they improve ranged performance (and without making them untenable for their current uses)
[/list]
I think we can really sell D, A, and C ... in that order. B will be where the debate will really start getting confusing. If we do make an official petition, I'd leave B for last and put a lot of emphasis on the rest. D, A, and C will go a long way to "fixing" blasters. B, for me, would be gravy.

........ but, we haven't addressed the issue of Defiance. And maybe we can't really address it until we find out where these first 4 points are going?

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I would prefer placate over hide.

BOOM!
"Ouch! Ooooh, pretty colors!"
BOOM!

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Ya I'd have to agree with that. Placate would be a great power to have. For those of you that may not play CoV. Placate is a power that basically distracts the target away from a Stalker. That way it doesn't attack the stalker again. Placate for blasters would be nice to an extent. It would have to be single target, because an AoE placate would make entire 5 man or so mobs not attack, hence takes the danger out of being a blaster and it's low defense. Or maybe make it a Cone AoE. We already have a Snipe attack, and if slotted right, can one shot LT's and almost 1 shot bosses. So placate would be a better option.

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I *think* I'm happy with most of the blaster primary powersets. So I agree with most of you and agree with the devs that the secondary powersets are where the "fixing" will happen.

I would really like to see a Placate-like power in the secondary. It doesn't necessarily have to be a direct copy of the Stalker "distraction" power. Call it a detaunt. Something that lets us manage aggro.


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But defiance is completely useless to 99.9% of blasters out there compared to the other inheirents that CoX has out there. Even the defenders inheirent is better then ours.

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Well, to be fair: CoV's ATs were designed with their inherents in mind. Tanker punchvoke and Scrapper criticals already existed. And Controller containment is certainly a bonus put in to encourage more people to play controllers.

Defender Vigilance is something that the good Defenders will never really use, and the bad Defenders will mistakenly think they are properly using. (Because the good Defender will have enough endurance even before they got Vigilance. If anything, what Defenders really need in the time of crisis for the party is faster recharging powers.)

And Blaster Defiance? I still don't know where that came from. The description seems to hint that blasters were complaining about "if they could only get one more big hit in, they'd win"

Someone should point out to the Devs that the last thing a high level blaster looks for when he's under 25% hp is a damage bonus.

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Pil, Concern... do you think sometimes ignorance is bliss?

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What does ignorance mean?

OTOH, don't tell me, I might be happier not knowing.

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Which is the worse problem, ignorance or apathy?

Who knows? Who cares?

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That made me laugh. In the middle of all this heavy discussion, it helps. Thanks.

I like this analysis ...

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(Melee Secondary attacks)
Devices: 1 maybe attack --Taser - .6944 BI
Electric: 5 attacks --Lightning Field, Charged Brawl, Havok Punch, Thunder Strike, Shocking Grasp
Energy: 4 attacks -- Power Thrust, Energy Punch, Bone Smasher, Total Focus - also not counting stun
Fire: 7 attacks -- Fire Sword, Combustion, Fire Sword Circle, Blazing Aura, Consume, Burn, Hot Feet
Ice: 3 attacks -- Frozen Fists, Ice Sword, Freezing Touch

... Code:[/color]

---

 

                Ranged              Melee             Other

Blaster         57.4%               26.9%             15.75%

Scrapper        8.9%                56.6%             34.4%

---

This raises some questions:

If blasters are ranged and scrappers are melee, why do blasters spend over a quarter of their time in melee, while scrappers spend less than 10% of their time at range?
...
Then what makes scrappers more surviveable in a more dangerous situation (their specialty - melee) than blasters in a less dangerous situation (their specialty - range)? It appears the other category is what is providing the difference - which is obvious because that has most all of the scrapper shields.
...
That isn't the point of view I hold to. I generally hold to the blaster = damage from anywhere. Which I think looking at the numbers would be eaiser to fix in terms of total changes needed. Mostly these fixes would be tweaks to database numbers and placement, and not a new power.

[/ QUOTE ]

Right. If we agree with the Dev's thinking that:
1. Scrappers need defense/resistance because they need to survive in melee combat ...
2. Blasters don't need def/res because they _can_ do a lot in ranged combat ...

Let's accept the above two as things that the Devs will not be willing to change, and suggest other ways that will improve our own survivability as Blasters.

Our number 1 method of damage mitigation has always been do deal out more damage -- an arrested mob does no damage. But that method has pretty much gone down the tube with all the nerfs, especially ED.

I think Defiance is the Dev's poor solution to the nerfs ... they gave us a way of dealing more damage ... but nevermind the fact that we have to be willing to do it with just half of our health (heck, at half of our health, the defiance buff is not even noticeable ... give me an inspiration instead).

A lot of us have cried out for longer range. I still think that is the simplest solution. No need to add powers. No need to tweak defense. No need to do graphics.

But if we're really looking for a change in our powers, why not add to the effectiveness of the debuffs in some of the powersets? Increase the duration of some debuffs. Increase the amount the debuff applies.

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Give blasters hide as an inheirent power. That would shut a lot of us up, and make our first move called One Shot. Would be better then defience.

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I would prefer placate over hide.

BOOM!
"Ouch! Ooooh, pretty colors!"
BOOM!

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Defiance should not be + damage + acc as the Blaster's health goes down. At later levels in the game, it is so situational to really make use of this benefit. Instead, Defiance should allow all Blaster attacks to have an unresisted portion of damage like PvP.


[/ QUOTE ]

Hmmm, that's a pretty good suggestion. If we actually wanted to keep Defiance in the first place.

I think this has been mentioned in this board before: The last thing a low-health Blaster wants is more aggro. I'm assuming that the blaster is grouped because ... well ... the only solo Blasters I know of either take forever to level up, or eat inspirations like chocoholics, or have a force field buff bot waiting outside the mission door.

As I was saying ... a blaster who's low on health (heck, at high levels, you take one good hit and you're halfway to the hospital) ... a blaster who's low on health will STOP attacking and let the aggro get held or taunted away.

The last thing the blaster would do is attack again.

And with Defiance, if it is active, attacking again means that the aggro might never get held/taunted away in time.

Want to fix the blaster? I now have to add a step in front of everything else...

1. REMOVE defiance.

now for the real fix ...

2. Give us real long range.

I forget where I read this idea ... maybe it's in Player Suggestions.

The concept is two-fold.
1. Increase the range of Blaster ranged attacks. Let's say make the basic "medium range" be 100 feet. Short range would be 80.

2. Increased damage from ranged attacks as we get closer to target -- and if we want to keep it simple, let's say, 50% more damage if we are within 50% of the attack's normal range (so a medium range attack does 150% x normal damage at 50 yards)

Requoting Statesman (responding to ...):
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Fix Defiance. Fix Blaster secondaries. Add more powers to primaries and secondaries. Fix ED. Adding additional powersets.

We’re happy with Defiance.

We will look at Blaster secondaries; we know some need attention.


[/ QUOTE ]

I have a Fire/Eng, and I routinely tote around respites in an effort to see how effective Defiance is. Frankly, I really think the Devs should take a good look at how useless Defiance is -- the only time I've ever seen the Defiance bar go over the quarter mark is when I've fallen from a tall building. Any other time the Defiance bar is close to getting to the quarter mark, it means that I've just suffered the alpha strike of many enemies, and I'm about to die in one more hit.

A damage-dealing blaster should never have to "rely" on getting close to being knocked out just to get the "most" out of his powers. Defiance doesn't address the Blaster's problem of "I'm getting killed just before I defeat my enemy." The current version of Defiance says "I have to get very very hurt just before I defeat my enemy." And that's a rather idiotic way of solving the problem.

Want to fix the Blasters in as few steps as possible? I suggest just ONE step:

Extend the Blaster's range.

And if we insist on supporting the idea behind Blappers, then the second step would be

Increase our Damage when in Melee

These ideas are not unique, many blaster players have said the same over and over again. Blasters simply ask to have the ability to fulfill their role in a group: doing damage.