Torakage

I'm completely against removing all of the melee from the secondaries. They're too situationally useful--keeping one or two, or even three, around from each one would be just dandy. The self-buffs in the secondaries are also gravy--keep those too. With what's left, provide us with SOMETHING to help us manage aggro so the enemy alpha strike doesn't blow us into our component atoms--whether it's misdirection, stealthy shots, a straw man for the enemy to shoot while we open fire...even if it only lasts long enough to be safe from the alpha strike, we can handle it from there (the enemy then splits up and some try to close to melee, others continue to take potshots from range, but it's no longer synchronized firing squad blasts of doom). Add to that a minor increase to our range--to avoid hover-snipes, give us range equal to the enemies. Then, toss a bone to those who feel our damage is totally sub-par and give us that 30% unresistable boost that the arena has.

There you have it--significantly improved "ranged damage" capabilities, plus better survivability without giving us actual defense, resistances, or super-range. I think it's worth losing one or two melee powers for that.

EDIT: This wasn't REALLY in response to Pilcrow--he just happened to be the last post when I clicked reply to start my post. Pilcrow, as it happens, has some amazingly well-constructed ideas for aggro mitigation and so forth that the devs would do well to take a long, hard look at.

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If a Blaster had to stay away from melee, then his melee attacks would be more like the melee attacks of comic book Blasters. Something they use as a last resort, but would really rather avoid using. Plus, those who WANT to build in a little extra melee defense (or get some from a Defender) can use melee, if they want to.

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Which comic book Blasters are you referring to? What "last resort" melee attacks do they use?

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Well, off the top of my head, look at Cyclops. Sure, he's got blasts out the wazoo. He's also a fair unarmed combatant. Not Bruce Lee by any stretch of the imagination, but he seems more than capable in a melee with non-superpowered foes when need be. Or take a look at Iron Man. He's also got blasts to spare, plus if things get REALLY in his face, he's got super-strength and basic martial arts training from Captain America himself. Most comic blasters seem to at least be marginally capable in a fight--at least long enough to gain a bit of breathing room and unleash ranged doom on their foes once again.

Thanks for the response, States. Apologies for the bombarding and all.

The issue isn't quite limited to the Scrapper vs. Blaster debate, though--some of the Defenders, through a combination of slotting and buffs/debuffs, can easily match or surpass even a cleverly-played Blaster. Radiation and Dark come immediately to mind. Any thoughts on whether that will be factored into the evaluation as well?