A powerleveler's guide to blasters (very long)

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I TRIPLE dog dare ya! (Now he HAS to take the challenge!)

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Now he created a slight breach of etiquette by skipping
the Triple Dare and going straight for the throat.

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Defender now hits for 65% damage of a blaster, powers cost 10% more, HP identical. Now for example add AM, JUST ONE BUFF THAT WORKS ON THE WHOLE GROUP. It gives 25% damage boost, 33% endurance recovery, some unknown amount of haste, run speed, and status effect resistance.

I think there can be no question that defenders are a much bigger boon to a group.

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I saw this a few pages back and couldn't help but comment.

Adding a 25% damage boost, at best, in a group of 8 with 7 Blasters, adds 175% damage output + the Defender for 65%. Call it 240% Blaster damage in an optimal situation.

A single Blaster with his attacks 6-slotted with SOs does 300% damage.

The Defender increase from AM is good in that in an optimal situation is comparable to a Blaster, but I wouldn't say that its overwhelmingly obvious in the Defender's favor.

Excellent post. Very well thought out. Thank you.

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Defender now hits for 65% damage of a blaster, powers cost 10% more, HP identical. Now for example add AM, JUST ONE BUFF THAT WORKS ON THE WHOLE GROUP. It gives 25% damage boost, 33% endurance recovery, some unknown amount of haste, run speed, and status effect resistance.

I think there can be no question that defenders are a much bigger boon to a group.

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I saw this a few pages back and couldn't help but comment.

Adding a 25% damage boost, at best, in a group of 8 with 7 Blasters, adds 175% damage output + the Defender for 65%. Call it 240% Blaster damage in an optimal situation.

A single Blaster with his attacks 6-slotted with SOs does 300% damage.

The Defender increase from AM is good in that in an optimal situation is comparable to a Blaster, but I wouldn't say that its overwhelmingly obvious in the Defender's favor.

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Throw in Enervating Field, which the Defender should have if he has AM. Factor in too that the Defender can heal and blasts as well while debuffing the liklihood that the mobs can hit back.

RSRobinson I know it would be hard to speculate on a build for pvp since it's not even implemented yet and we dont know much about it but based on the powers available to us now what power sets and powers woul you pick?

PvP - Fire Blasters will definatly be the way to go. It all comes down to faster animations and cast times, IMO that is. Of course all that could change by then.

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PvP - Fire Blasters will definatly be the way to go. It all comes down to faster animations and cast times, IMO that is. Of course all that could change by then.

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This is far from accurate. Most fire blasters if not all ARE ae blasters, to be useful in PVP you need single target dominance....

If you concern animations to be of ANY value in PVP situations then ICE would be your choice for having the 2 fastest single target DD's a blaster can get.

The argument, is the person with the faster animations can get more attacks in... True ... but that negates the fact that the enemy(s) are still attacking you, and this logic ASSUMES that the faster animated character is going to win... which is completely false. You have to take into account the spells being cast, the damage being done etc etc..

In PVP the most advantageous opponent would value any sort of stun/knockback or ability which prevents your enemy from attacking back... even if for a short period....

For this reason alone Electricity would be the best, because every electricity attack has a stun component. Unlike knockdown which has a chance of occuring.... the stuns found on electricity always occur, and only sometimes do they miss on a boss.... Furthermore electricity Drains endurance, and has voltaic sentinel... a 'stationary pet' if you will which cannot be the target of spells or attacked. The endurance draining component will be the defining characteristic of any blaster in PVP

As far as the attack animation argument goes... Ice has 3 one second attack animations... something to note

Every other blaster has 2-3 second attack animations varying with the type of spell it is.

Ball Ae's are 1 second animations... But using AE's for pvp will be an efficient method of attack, not neccesarily the best option.

I favor AR for PvP. With other blaster primaries, you reveal your location every time you attack regardless of which attack you use. The long range AR attacks have little to no particle effects associated with them.

Electricity and Ice would tie for second for me, with energy at 3rd if PvP is largely occuring 1v1 or small group v small group. If it's large scale PvP then I'd go AR first, Fire second, Ice and electricity third.

Devices would still be the top secondary powerset wether it's small scale PvP or large scale PvP. Simply far to much versatility to pass up.

Who knows how PVP will play out, it seems almost a certainty that many powers will get tweaked and outright nerfed before it goes live. As it stands now, any good controller will crush any blaster, except maybe Ice. There is just no way you can drop your opponent before he gets two holds off on you - I'm assuming that will be enough to overcome acrobatics' hold resistance. And any controller with sleep or disorient has a one-shot win because there is no way a blaster can get any defense other than inspirations. I can just see every blaster fighting for a couple minutes then running for cover back to buy a bunch more strength of will-type inspirations (do contacts even sell these? I never needed to buy them) because without them you are roadkill.

Of course, that just brings it right back to nerfing. People will complain that controllers are too powerful, so status effects will get nerfed. Then controllers will complain because without them, they are powerless, and blasters will be on top because of all the damage they can do, so we'll see a demand for reduced PVP damage. Then fights will drag on and blasters still will be on top because of their endurance discount, so some change here. Of course melee characters will be useless, so they'll demand some new abilities to get into melee and will probably waver between fodder and gods. Then, well, you get the picture - what finally goes live for PVP will probably be nothing like the game we play. More importantly, as was amply demonstrated in many other games, a class system based around fighting mobs almost never has anything resembling balance in PVP and about the only thing it does do is get a bunch of skills nerfed because they are too powerful in PVP. I hope the developers have a whole lot of beta time planned, and a whole bunch of good ideas to avoid this.

For blasters, as it stands now, Ice wins hands down. Ultra fast animations and two hold spells. I'd say AR is the worse. Only two single target attacks (I don't count snipe because no way can you get it off without interruption against a competent opponent) and those attacks have long animation times. Plus they are lethal damage. No way are you going to bring down a tank doing 10% damage a shot. Electricity not sure on. They have a hold, but just one so its not enough to overcome any hold resist effects. People talk about the stun, but is it real? I've heard that it is just a graphical effect and doesn't actually stop an opponent from using a skill, just most of the time they are recharging anyway so it seems that way. Endurance drain is useless. Both big endurance drain abilities are long activation and PBAOE. No way are you going to get someone to stay that close to you that long. Energy seems like most of its best qualities are lost in PVP. To hard to get near to use the close-range nuke and acrobatics basically negates the knockback (and what PVP build will not have acrobatics). Fire is probably the worse off in PVP. I mean what skills does it have? Snipe that will be interrupted, heavy hiting nuke that is to close range to land and two subpar nukes.

And of course, we don't know what new stuff will be introduced between now and then, nor what villians are like. Probably be new powers, new power sets, new pools. And who knows how PVP will be done. Maybe you just can't duel and can only have PVP missions of some kind that are designed to make everyone useful and prevent blaster raw ranged damage and controller ranged status effects from just dominating everything.

Neuro1, and anyone else who sent me a private message. I'm not even going to try to answer them. As my replies here might give away, I am verbose. I just can't write a quick response to anything. Even when that is my intention, I just end up writing and writing. If I tried to answer all the PMs I've gotten, well I wouldn't be actually playing COH anytime soon.

If its a general question about blasters, a power, whatever ask it on the thread. A quick look tells me almost all are instead a 'critique my build' message. The whole point of the guide is to roll-up all the information you need to make a good build, and explain why particular choices are made. I thought reading the guide would be enough for a person to make a good build, but apparently not. How about a checklist then? Look at your build and ask these questions:

Do you have your chosen travel power at 14?
Do you have stamina at least by the mid 20s?
Do you have all of the key attack skills for your primary set, preferably the first level they become available?
Do you have adequate defense planned early, say one skill by the mid teens and a second by the mid 20s?
Did you 6-slot your primary offensive powers first and not waste any slots on other powers until your offense was maximized?

As long as you can answer yes to all, then don't worry about what other powers you went for, the exact order, which travel power is your favorite, if I or some other poster would have done the exact same thing. It doesn't matter. YOU HAVE A GOOD BUILD.

People, you just have to play. After you get the basics in place, there are so many choices that boil down to how YOU like to play. I hate Flight and would never give up my superspeed. Other people despise superspeed and are in love with Hover/Flight. Some people want stamina by 20 and will put off good powers until after while others are fine with waiting until 24 or even 26 in order to get the more 'flashy' powers to play with first. I could go on and on. Neither I nor anyone else can make these choices for you because we don't know how you like to play.

All builds have their plusses and minuses, and there is no 'perfect' build. Heck, everytime there is a patch some builds get better and some get worse. The guide will get you a solid base for a character that will be an efficient leveler. That's really all I, or anyone other than you, can do - give you the information you need to make informed choices, because in the end you are the one that is going to be running the toon.

very well said robinson! oh and this is an awesome guide!

Fifth_Element,

Electricity doesn't stun. The animations appear to stun them, but they can still interupt those animations and attack back. I had a level 12 electricity blaster so I experienced this first hand.

With regards to PvP, we don't know if it will be more individual based (AC, UO) or team based (DAoC). If most battles are large scale seiges, AE will still be king. If it's small wandering groups, single target blasters will have the advantage.

As for crowd control, I seriously doubt it will work like it does on minions. More like it does on bosses - which is not very well.

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Fifth_Element,

Electricity doesn't stun. The animations appear to stun them, but they can still interupt those animations and attack back. I had a level 12 electricity blaster so I experienced this first hand.

With regards to PvP, we don't know if it will be more individual based (AC, UO) or team based (DAoC). If most battles are large scale seiges, AE will still be king. If it's small wandering groups, single target blasters will have the advantage.

As for crowd control, I seriously doubt it will work like it does on minions. More like it does on bosses - which is not very well.

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No the animations are a stun, and in fact whatever mob you see breaking that stun is usualy ONLY a boss Red_Bane. They also disrupt any current action the monster was taking. So when you see that riflemen shoot you and the glowing blob flies at you but neither reports a miss Nor a hit you know whats going on EVEN if he appears to be moving, which i might add is Rare to occur on non boss mobs.

They will hold a swordsmen swing in place, a damned hands in place etc etc... The stun has no possible chance of missing, and can only be shaken off by boss mobs....

If you have rolled an Elec blaster your most likely aware of this from levels 1-40.

RSRobinson, an Ice vs Elec match would be dependant on who gets the first shot off... Ice's ONLY option for succuess would be a freeze ray. If Ice attempts to blindly nuke an elec blaster, as the elec nukes back, he would interrupt and stun the ice blaster on the first shot meaning his demise (assuming battles would be based off a few spells concerning dmg output in pvp). Furthermore, Ball lightning has a range of 80, which is the max of any ice nuke accept the respective sniper attack, but ball lightning is a dot and its stun is the duration of its dmg or the Dot... meaning the elec blaster has that option from that range

More importantly, Simply naming a Primary and justifying it as dominating is ignorant. Secondaries must be taken into account ....

Kudos for those who are thinking about Boost Range right about now...

Also I'd like to point out that while i do have an end game elec blaster, I only play blasters and have many of them actually. I always find the need to justify the negativism present when Electricity is brought up.

Stating that endurance drain is useless, in fact is actually a useless comment. A blaster's entire offense comes from their endurance pool, the ability to deprive someone of their offensive capability outright is impressive. Again, understand that Short circut can completly rob any even con of its endurance if its 5 slotted with endurance drain, or leave the higher ranking opponents below 15%. Meaning 3 spells maximum might ensue.

Simply stating that its impossible getting near a target to cast a PBAOE is again absurd. You assume you have a supreme knowledge of all who are around you, negate all use of stealth (stealth, invis, phase shift, player buffs)skills, and assume you yourself are not held defenseless by means of a spell..... assumptions

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Who knows how PVP will play out, it seems almost a certainty that many powers will get tweaked and outright nerfed before it goes live. As it stands now, any good controller will crush any blaster, except maybe Ice. There is just no way you can drop your opponent before he gets two holds off on you - I'm assuming that will be enough to overcome acrobatics' hold resistance. And any controller with sleep or disorient has a one-shot win because there is no way a blaster can get any defense other than inspirations. I can just see every blaster fighting for a couple minutes then running for cover back to buy a bunch more strength of will-type inspirations (do contacts even sell these? I never needed to buy them) because without them you are roadkill.


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There is another skill that fire manipulation blasters get that could help out immensely in PvP. I am of course speculating, but a combination of burn + acrobatics could be very valuable in PvP. I am including both in my current Fire/Fire build. Acrobatics heavily protects you against knockdown and knockback effects. As you know, it also provides some resistance against immobilization effects. As a Fire/Fire blaster you can add to your immobilization resistance by laying down a burn patch. We all know about burn via the exploit used by fire tankers to damage purple con mobs. However, the side effect of burn that intrigues me fore PvP is the fact that it will burn through most immobilization,hold, and sleep effects. If you add an inspiration on top of these two powers, I think controllers will have a difficult time.

The high resistance from knockback should help keep you in the patch. I don't think you'll need much to defeat a controller if you can get off 2 or 3 attacks before they have a chance to immobilize you in some way.

I just thought I would add this to the conversation since there is a defense fire manipulation blasters have other than acrobatics and inspirations to defend against hold effects.

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I took your advice and switched to an
AR/Dev build, previously played many
of the pure combos, taking ice/ice to 15.
At first, I was wishing I had hover again
until I started to just back up from a
fight (mostly) rather than the round-robin
kiting on the ground I was doing before
~had an aweful string of deaths in 11,
but figured I'd stick it out.

However, I'd like to know if I've lost
any of the added defense I got from
hover by going with this build?
That is, does it really matter if I
actually move around during the
fight to avoid projectiles (obviously
other than melee) such as when
I have a mob just standing and
shooting at me? (I mean, does the
game actually take into account
that it would be harder to hit a
moving target or is it that once
they're locked on, they hit you
regardless?) Do you leave sprint
on during fights, thereby deriving
additional defense with this build?
(I tried this before getting super
speed and it seems to suck endurance)

Or, do you have a bind that
you use which allows you to
switch to superspeed every time
you move during a fight, but
which then switches off sprint
once you stop moving? (if so, please post it)

Thanks,
PT

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Note that once the content update will come out, fire will be alot more helpful than AR. Maltas mechs are resistance to lethal and the new nemesis bots too.

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RSRobinson, an Ice vs Elec match would be dependant on who gets the first shot off... Ice's ONLY option for succuess would be a freeze ray. If Ice attempts to blindly nuke an elec blaster, as the elec nukes back, he would interrupt and stun the ice blaster on the first shot meaning his demise (assuming battles would be based off a few spells concerning dmg output in pvp). Furthermore, Ball lightning has a range of 80, which is the max of any ice nuke accept the respective sniper attack, but ball lightning is a dot and its stun is the duration of its dmg or the Dot... meaning the elec blaster has that option from that range


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1: Ice animations have a whopping 1 second animation time
2: Ice doesn't have a snipe
3: You can't even interrupt them. You may claim elec has a stun all you wish, but if you initiate an attack that is not interruptable (I.E. any attack essentially, bar ones like snipe) they will finish it while they're "Held" or "stunned"

Now, i'm sure someone will fire back with a "But you aren't elec!"

No, i'm not. But i'm familiar with how holds don't interrupt any attacks except ones that are.. well, interruptable - corpse explosions and sky raider engineers while setting up their bubble bot. I can freeze a crey elite LT while in their attack animation and guess what.. they still fire before going into the "hands in the air, block o ice" pose.

Knock someone down while in their animation, and you still get hit by it. Freeze a crey eliminator during their full auto animation and you still get hit by it

The only exception to this is when you hit them and defeat them while their animation is going, then it will "miss" or "Hit you but do no damage"

Its just perception that you think its stopping uninterruptible powers.

I just wanted to say thanks, RSRobinson. I copied everything you've said in this thread and put it in a text file for later reference.

Fifth_Element,

Why do electricity blasters get so defensive about endurance
drain? Its almost like saying it sucks is a personal attack on
the player. It isn't.

And it does suck. Must be done in melee means it is no threat to
a competent player. And even if it does land, you can still run,
can still pop an endurance inspiration. I've self-enduranced
drain completely many a time using Nova, and it is no big deal.
An annoyance, no more.

I wonder if you are a hover blaster? Used to standing still
during a fight? Because if you are a superspeed blaster, you will
quickly see that the game in PVP will play much like FPS. And any
FPS player will tell you rule #1: ALWAYS be moving. As in you
don't stop moving, ever, for any amount of time, for any reason.
Or you die. PVP in this game will be very similar. I expect
superspeed will gain popularity exactly because mobility benefits
are so critical. You will NOT get a PBAOE attack with a 3 second
animation time off on any competent player. Oh yeah, once in a
blue moon blind luck or lag will allow it, but that is like
playing the lottery, not building a consistent PVP character. It
is not absurd to say so, its absurd to claim it isn't true.

Might the skill be fun? Heck yeah, nailing a newbie with it would
be. But in any situation, a crowd control power would be a
million times better. Let's see, would we rather manage to get a
PBAOE endurance drain off on a crowd or a PBAOE Hold? Really a
no-brainer there. Plus some controllers have ranged AOE holds.
Heck, some controllers have a ranged AOE stun, which is even
tougher to defend against (no acrobatics). And the status effects
are absolutely core to controllers. Without them, they are
worthless. You think they may get nerfed but endurance drain will
not? Well, actually, probably you are right because endurance
drain is just not that good.

As for stun, I have to question your response. I know for a fact
that all but a handful of specific attacks can not be
interrupted. I myself have been held or stunned many a time and
still completed the attack I had started. I've done the same in
reverse to mobs many times. Just because a mob begins to shake
doesn't mean the attack isn't still going off. It is. Too many
people say the shake is just graphics, and the one example you
choose to use to show it is not, I know you are misinterpreting.
So unless more conclusive evidence is shown, it seems likely to
me it is just graphics and nothing more.

I'll stick by my assessment. Ice crushes any other blaster,
period. They have way faster animations so their attack will go
off first. Their attacks inherently slow your recharges, another
advantage but probably irrelevent since they will be holding you
with their freeze rays to begin the battle. And in raw firepower,
they have 3 uninterruptable attacks (i.e. not snipe) all at range
that are very quick to animate. So, given equal competence in
players of Ice and anything else. Ice wins.

RedHeat, forgot about that with the patch. Still, if you don't
have devices, you don't have targeting drone, you are in trouble.
Players have much better defenses than mobs. In PVP you basically
need a 6-slotted drone and probably tactics on top of that.
Otherwise, you are not going to be hitting consistently, and woe
if your opponents should include a forcefield defender. Or a
devices blaster that hits you with smoke grenade. It seems to me,
devices becomes almost mandatory in PVP, but we'll see.

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RedHeat, forgot about that with the patch. Still, if you don't
have devices, you don't have targeting drone, you are in trouble.
Players have much better defenses than mobs. In PVP you basically
need a 6-slotted drone and probably tactics on top of that.
Otherwise, you are not going to be hitting consistently, and woe
if your opponents should include a forcefield defender. Or a
devices blaster that hits you with smoke grenade. It seems to me,
devices becomes almost mandatory in PVP, but we'll see.

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I definetly agree that players will be much harder to hit. I also see how more slots will likely go into accuracy and less into damage if this is the case. Controllers will have to heavily slot accuracy as well as non-device blasters.

That being said, a targeting drone isn't going to do you much good if you have sleeps and holds chained back to back with no chance of using it. A burn patch + acrobatics may allow you enough time to pop your aim and/or buildup and unload a heavy volley of attacks.

I also agree that PvP will center around superspeed. PvP templates will also likely include superspeed + combat jump/superjump.

Once again, its all speculation at this point, but its fun to discuss.

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I wonder if you are a hover blaster? Used to standing still
during a fight? Because if you are a superspeed blaster, you will
quickly see that the game in PVP will play much like FPS. And any
FPS player will tell you rule #1: ALWAYS be moving. As in you
don't stop moving, ever, for any amount of time, for any reason.
Or you die. PVP in this game will be very similar. I expect
superspeed will gain popularity exactly because mobility benefits
are so critical. You will NOT get a PBAOE attack with a 3 second
animation time off on any competent player. Oh yeah, once in a
blue moon blind luck or lag will allow it, but that is like
playing the lottery, not building a consistent PVP character. It
is not absurd to say so, its absurd to claim it isn't true.

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As I think back to my DAoC days I recall that among the most powerful PvP groups were the PBAE groups that would make use of one person to lock an enemy group down, which would immediately be followed by the PBAE people running forth and blasting everyone in the victim group away.

Not to say that will apply here. I think people will be very suprised at what tactics this game will spawn because of the relation of the various powers to each other and that it is way to early to be predicting the nature of PvP.

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RSRobinson, an Ice vs Elec match would be dependant on who gets the first shot off... Ice's ONLY option for succuess would be a freeze ray. If Ice attempts to blindly nuke an elec blaster, as the elec nukes back, he would interrupt and stun the ice blaster on the first shot meaning his demise (assuming battles would be based off a few spells concerning dmg output in pvp). Furthermore, Ball lightning has a range of 80, which is the max of any ice nuke accept the respective sniper attack, but ball lightning is a dot and its stun is the duration of its dmg or the Dot... meaning the elec blaster has that option from that range


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1: Ice animations have a whopping 1 second animation time
2: Ice doesn't have a snipe
3: You can't even interrupt them. You may claim elec has a stun all you wish, but if you initiate an attack that is not interruptable (I.E. any attack essentially, bar ones like snipe) they will finish it while they're "Held" or "stunned"

Now, i'm sure someone will fire back with a "But you aren't elec!"

No, i'm not. But i'm familiar with how holds don't interrupt any attacks except ones that are.. well, interruptable - corpse explosions and sky raider engineers while setting up their bubble bot. I can freeze a crey elite LT while in their attack animation and guess what.. they still fire before going into the "hands in the air, block o ice" pose.

Knock someone down while in their animation, and you still get hit by it. Freeze a crey eliminator during their full auto animation and you still get hit by it

The only exception to this is when you hit them and defeat them while their animation is going, then it will "miss" or "Hit you but do no damage"

Its just perception that you think its stopping uninterruptible powers.

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1. Again I have to explain the importance of the stun, because it eludes you and so many others. What difference does it make what your attack animation is if you are stunned? Weather or not the animation is held, the attack came out, dmg was displayed is irrelevant... you WILL be shocked. So your attack MAY come out but the next one will NOT because you CANNOT move. He can CHAIN stun you

2. I actually wasn't reffering to ice having a snipe attack, and worded my post incorrectly, i was referring to all snipe attacks having a larger range than respective ice nukes.

3. Animations ARE interruptable, but ofcourse it is near improbable to interrupt a 1 second or even 2 second attack. Roll an elec blaster and find a Damned blaster type... just fight them and you will notice you can interrupt 3 second attacks like Combustion. Or fight a tsoo and see you can interrupt his teleport and he actually remains in the air, shocking, with the teleport graphic around his body

How can you conclude attack animations are not interruptable and then admit to others that are?

Obviously your chances of interrupting 1-2 second attacks are small, but they do happen. Its only more obvious on longer attacks : Combustion, Teleport, Embalmed etc etc...

You must be the Judge and the Jury Iceshrike

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How can you conclude attack animations are not interruptable and then admit to others that are?

Obviously your chances of interrupting 1-2 second attacks are small, but they do happen. Its only more obvious on longer attacks : Combustion, Teleport, Embalmed etc etc...

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Not all powers are interruptible

Corpse explosions (Embalmed.) are one of the very few that are. Check other powers' enhancer allowances; any that let you slot an interrupt reducer *are* interruptible, the rest are checked at the start of the animation and will hit or miss regardless of if the animation goes off. (Knockdowns, holds, sleeps, disorients on whoever is doing it)

Teleport is in your head, tsoo have a habit of teleporting from one spot they are in to the same very spot they currently occupy. They also don't follow LoS rules and frequently teleport even if they've been turned into an ice cube, just because they were cubed after they started their animation.

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Fifth_Element,

Why do electricity blasters get so defensive about endurance
drain? Its almost like saying it sucks is a personal attack on
the player. It isn't.

And it does suck. Must be done in melee means it is no threat to
a competent player. And even if it does land, you can still run,
can still pop an endurance inspiration. I've self-enduranced
drain completely many a time using Nova, and it is no big deal.
An annoyance, no more.

I wonder if you are a hover blaster? Used to standing still
during a fight? Because if you are a superspeed blaster, you will
quickly see that the game in PVP will play much like FPS. And any
FPS player will tell you rule #1: ALWAYS be moving. As in you
don't stop moving, ever, for any amount of time, for any reason.
Or you die. PVP in this game will be very similar. I expect
superspeed will gain popularity exactly because mobility benefits
are so critical. You will NOT get a PBAOE attack with a 3 second
animation time off on any competent player. Oh yeah, once in a
blue moon blind luck or lag will allow it, but that is like
playing the lottery, not building a consistent PVP character. It
is not absurd to say so, its absurd to claim it isn't true.

Might the skill be fun? Heck yeah, nailing a newbie with it would
be. But in any situation, a crowd control power would be a
million times better. Let's see, would we rather manage to get a
PBAOE endurance drain off on a crowd or a PBAOE Hold? Really a
no-brainer there. Plus some controllers have ranged AOE holds.
Heck, some controllers have a ranged AOE stun, which is even
tougher to defend against (no acrobatics). And the status effects
are absolutely core to controllers. Without them, they are
worthless. You think they may get nerfed but endurance drain will
not? Well, actually, probably you are right because endurance
drain is just not that good.

As for stun, I have to question your response. I know for a fact
that all but a handful of specific attacks can not be
interrupted. I myself have been held or stunned many a time and
still completed the attack I had started. I've done the same in
reverse to mobs many times. Just because a mob begins to shake
doesn't mean the attack isn't still going off. It is. Too many
people say the shake is just graphics, and the one example you
choose to use to show it is not, I know you are misinterpreting.
So unless more conclusive evidence is shown, it seems likely to
me it is just graphics and nothing more.

I'll stick by my assessment. Ice crushes any other blaster,
period. They have way faster animations so their attack will go
off first. Their attacks inherently slow your recharges, another
advantage but probably irrelevent since they will be holding you
with their freeze rays to begin the battle. And in raw firepower,
they have 3 uninterruptable attacks (i.e. not snipe) all at range
that are very quick to animate. So, given equal competence in
players of Ice and anything else. Ice wins.

RedHeat, forgot about that with the patch. Still, if you don't
have devices, you don't have targeting drone, you are in trouble.
Players have much better defenses than mobs. In PVP you basically
need a 6-slotted drone and probably tactics on top of that.
Otherwise, you are not going to be hitting consistently, and woe
if your opponents should include a forcefield defender. Or a
devices blaster that hits you with smoke grenade. It seems to me,
devices becomes almost mandatory in PVP, but we'll see.

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Defensive is your interpretation of my post. Ignorant would be my description of your statements.

1. You Assume you have more control over your opponent than he does you. You assume that because you have super speed he A: Can't catch you B: Can't surprise you C: Your oppenent(s) haven't already held you in place. You make to many assumptions as to how YOU can get away, but do not grant your opponent ANY LUXURY as to how he might get near you.

2. If it does land, you CANNOT run because you will be shocked for 3 seconds. Again i have to reiterate that ALL elec attacks have some stun component within them... Some longer than others. If an elec blaster has super speed and decides to Ball Lightning you from a range of 80, the max of any nuke (non sniper, dd), you will be stunned for 3 seconds. Thats a 1 second attack. Regardless of how competant you think you are, all your elec opponent has to do is enter distance range for less than 1 second to begin the animation. You WILL be shocked, there is NO resistance toward it, and he CAN run up to you, and SHORT circut you. Or, he could just continue to combo you till you died, because EVERY attack is a shock!

3. "It is not absurd to say so, its absurd to claim it isn't true."
A truly narrow statement. You negate myriads of possible situations concerning PBAOE attacks, the enhancements which reduce these attack animations, player buffs etc....
It is apparent to me that whatever situation I propose to you isn't valid. As a matter of fact, cannot be valid because you cannot conceive it so. Odd, because your arguments concerning PBAOE have no premise and infact will actually be a way groups or pvp teams are structured. This FPS quake vision you have to me is absurd, and your predictions that players will not take advantage of superior AE's and PBAOE's is completely shallow.

Solo'ing systems are in place because of these spells. They will be similarly in place in PVP. Actually, I think the BEST groups or teams in PVP will be AE/PBAOE. Just as another poster pointed out about Daoc

Concerning endurance drain, Short Circut does not allow you to regen for some time. The fact that you have to carry endurance inspirations is an oppourtunity cost of other inspirations.

Furthermore, what relevance is there in slowing an enemy's attack when each of his attack stuns you? It matters not who gets the first shot off, only that the elec enemy gets his attack off, of which the rest of his must follow because yours cannot. (subject to holds and/or control spells)

Please stop denying that elec attacks do not stun, they do. Interruption or not (it does happen), you will be stunned, and then chain combo'd

For the record I have 2 40 blasters, 1 36, 2 low 30's

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[ QUOTE ]
How can you conclude attack animations are not interruptable and then admit to others that are?

Obviously your chances of interrupting 1-2 second attacks are small, but they do happen. Its only more obvious on longer attacks : Combustion, Teleport, Embalmed etc etc...

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Not all powers are interruptible

Corpse explosions (Embalmed.) are one of the very few that are. Check other powers' enhancer allowances; any that let you slot an interrupt reducer *are* interruptible, the rest are checked at the start of the animation and will hit or miss regardless of if the animation goes off. (Knockdowns, holds, sleeps, disorients on whoever is doing it)

Teleport is in your head, tsoo have a habit of teleporting from one spot they are in to the same very spot they currently occupy. They also don't follow LoS rules and frequently teleport even if they've been turned into an ice cube, just because they were cubed after they started their animation.

[/ QUOTE ]

1. You CANNOT assert not all powers are interruptable, even 1 second powers because IT IS a possibility. Because the DESCRIPTION merely makes it obvious or states the BENEFITS of using the said enhancement to REDUCE interuption does not mean EVERYTHING ELSE is not. Just not a likely possibility, nevertheless possible.

2. My reference to corpse explosion is for illustrative means. It is NOT just because corpse explosion is interruptable. NO incorrect. Rather, because it is a longer animation and CAN be interrupted

3. Tsoo DO teleport in place, but they DO teleport away as well. A reference to whats in my head or not is a lack of intelligent substance. "tsoo do not follow LOS rules"

A. you have NO idea what these rules are.
B. NOTHING has to follow LOS rules (under the map exploits? shooting then turning a corner so you could see the mob for a half second but it cant see you just so you could start the animation)
C. Attack Animations CAN go through walls, perhaps you have never experienced it, so naturally, you cannot understand this. But at the same time, you have to realize your not as intelligent as you think you are, and have to be sensitive to situations and possibilities that you had never thought of or experienced

In conclusion, Arguing the instances of interruption are irrelevant. Rather try to refute or propose situations that strip ANY elec vs generic blaster of being chain stunned

Please understand, interruption or not, animation flying or not.... what will you do once your shocked, and the elec blaster continues to blast you with his nukes. Most of which shock for 2 seconds or more

Again, I DO NOT favor elec blasters... Rather i find arguments against them silly and not being properly well structured. Often narrow minded and favaoring the subject of the argument. Basically, sophist arguments plaguing the AT.

First blaster was an AR/Dev... perhaps my favorite