A powerleveler's guide to blasters (very long)

Renjiro, the problem with your argument is that Blasters will
always solo faster than any other archtype, simply because they
are the archtype that does the most damage. What this game comes
down to is defeating mobs and that means doing as much damage to
them as they have hit points. Blasters will always do this faster
than anyone else. You can't make that not true without destroying
the basic design of archtypes in the game and that isn't going to
happen. The main reason I knew Burn Tankers would get nerfed hard
is because they destroyed the basic relationship between the
archtypes. Offensive tanker or not, if a tanker can deal damage
more efficiently (or even close to as efficiently) as the damage
class, its a problem, it will be stopped. However, that the
damage class is the best for damage is by design and will not be
changed. Other archtypes may get a boost (especially scrappers),
the gap may close somewhat, blasters may even take some nerfs but
in the end blasters will still be the fastest levelers, that's
just the way the game is and always will be.

Unfortunately, the game is in my opinion only a short-term game
because it lacks anything else other than killing. It has no
items to strive for, no crafting, little differentiation between
characters of the same powerset and level (at the higher levels),
and little variety in mob abilities and combat methodology (i.e.
95% of mobs just shoot at you and possibly charge you in order to
hit you in melee). Its also an inherent flaw that the more varied
in abilities a character is, the less efficient it is at just
killing stuff. Blasters have tons of killing abilities, that is
basically all. Completely boring and one dimensional, you kill
the same way over and over again. But you level by far the
fastest. Defenders are more interesting because they have a
defensive power set combined with an offensive one, but they pay
for it with noticeably less offense. Controllers are to me the
most interesting, because they have the most variety in
abilities. My first character was an illusion controller - you
get damage spells, holding spells, a charm, pets plus the defense
that the defenders get. By far the most interesting and by far
the least effective at what the game is all about, killing mobs.
And pity other controllers, as pathetic as an illusion controller
is soloing, he is much better off than the others.

To my mind, with so little to do in the game, the only way to
keep enjoying it is trying out new characters. The problem is
that characters other than blasters and some scrappers are
terrible levelers. Unless you have way too much time on your
hands (and even then), you can't get multiple characters into the
high 20s and 30s to try them out. Really, the game lacks anything
to do other than kill, the only way you can try something new is
to try a new character, it is inexcusable that you can't level at
a reasonable pace. In many ways, the game is more similar to
Diablo II than to a MMORPG. Imagine the failure D2 would have
been if it took a hundred hours or more to get to 70 or 80th
level.

Many people don't understand that the gap between an AOE blaster
and everyone else, including non-AOE blasters, is insane, several
times at least. People look just at the AOE blaster and say 'my
god, leveling is way too fast in the game'. Yeah, well go play
anything else. With swarms nerfed in the upcoming patch, people
will see just how stupidly slow leveling is now.

If I could make the next patch, I'd first look at controllers and
boost the damage their single-target status spells do to be in
the same ballpark as everyone else. I'm talking about their basic
attack spells like Blind, Fossilize, Char, etc. Throw controllers
a bone, its not like boosting their damage is going to suddenly
make them soloing gods or start being the character of choice in
groups. Basically treat those abilities just like attack spells
and give them damage appropriate for their recast delay in the
same way everyone else's damage spells are done. Controllers have
a lower damage multiplier than the other classes, so their damage
will still be less, but it will be something other than a
complete joke. At the same time, I'd change the endurance cost of
every single-target attack spell (for everyone) to be on the same
scale as that used by blasters, ignoring any secondary effects
the spell has. I can't think of any single-target attack spell in
which the secondary effect is so good that it absolutely demands
you pay additional endurance for it. Most importantly, the
archtypes who get a boost (i.e. everyone except for blasters) are
already the archtypes who I think most people agree need help.
When it comes to damage output, the class the furthest behind,
controllers, get two boosts. I don't honestly believe anyone
could claim that making their single-target status spells do some
decent damage at a lower cost are going to overbalance
controllers. They already are probably the weakest archtype,
chances are this still wouldn't catch them up but it'd be a good
start.

Reducing the endurance cost wouldn't increase combat power, it
would only reduce downtime between fights. Downtime is no fun for
anyone, its why everyone takes Stamina. Its not like any
non-blaster will suddenly become overpowered because of this. The
bottleneck to beating up mobs is still how fast you can kill
them, and that boils down to how many attack spells you have, how
fast they recycle, and how much damage they do. Blasters will
still be at the top. It only will get rid of the huge pauses
every few encounters that other classes must endure to regen
endurance and that blasters have to put up with much less often.

The second problem I'd address is that AOEs are just insanely
better than single-target attacks for exping. The truth is that
if we discount Fire and Assault Rifle Blasters (and Fire
Tankers), the difference between the soloing ability of the
classes is not really all that out of whack. Scrappers compare
reasonably well to blasters minus the AOE advantage. Defenders
can be passable soloers, if built for it, at least when you are
not forced to compare them to an AOE soloer. To address this
disparity, I would add a method of acquiring exp that
single-target power sets would be more suited for, namely
completing missions. The current reward for finishing missions at
higher levels is a joke, it might as well not even exist.
Increase the reward. Not a little bit, a lot. It should scale to
mission map size, and therefore mission completion time. A tiny
map should give about 1% of the level, an enormous map (like a
big COT base one) should give about 5% of the level. To prevent
abuse, I'd scale the reward based on what percentage of the mobs
you took out, down to a minimum of say 25% of the reward. In
other words, if you invis through and just find all the glowies,
you'd get the minimum 25% of the possible reward. If you killed
half the villians, you'd get half the reward. If you got them
all, you get the full reward.

The net result would be that the soloing exp earning ability of
the various archtypes will be made more similar. AOE blasters,
the current kings, will see no improvement. In fact, with the
nerfing of underlings, they will be reduced. At the same time,
all the other archtypes will be improved. No one will gain exp
any faster than the best currently possible, just the people who currently
gain it the slowest should see a marked improvement. At the same time,
people are encouraged to do their missions rather than skipping
them in favor of grinding.


One last comment: American_Pie, my housemate is a level 36
electric blaster. Name any comment I've made that is uninformed.
I've watched him play a whole lot, played beside him a whole lot,
and the simple fact is that electricity blasters are inferior to
other blasters for powerleveling purposes. I'm sorry that you
have a level 40 electric blaster and don't want to admit that you
aren't as good as the other primary power sets. Go complain to
the developers that endurance drain has to be improved, attacking
the messenger is pointless.

One last comment: American_Pie, my housemate is a level 36
electric blaster. Name any comment I've made that is uninformed.
I've watched him play a whole lot, played beside him a whole lot,
and the simple fact is that electricity blasters are inferior to
other blasters for powerleveling purposes. I'm sorry that you
have a level 40 electric blaster and don't want to admit that you
aren't as good as the other primary power sets. Go complain to
the developers that endurance drain has to be improved, attacking
the messenger is pointless.

Then your buddy dont know how to play. If Electric is so bad at Powerleveling, how come I was one of the first 40's?

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Again this is a very very common mistaken assumption powerlevellers/FOTM players make about regular/roleplay players. When regular players demand balancing they always resort to the wierd accusatoin that we are just powerlevellers in denial. Like I said you probably will never "get it" because your mindset is so different from the rest of the gamers who aren't FOTM rollers.


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I’m not talking about role players in general; I’m talking about you in particular. YOU came into a thread about the best way to power level and started trying to complain about the fact that your AT didn’t have quite the same power leveling capabilities. There can be no other interpretation for this than that you want you’re preferred AT to be better at power leveling.

BTW, in case you missed it I am not a power leveler. I share some of their techniques when I solo, but decided against some of the most important ones be *gasp* they didn’t fit the character I envisioned.


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I can however tell you that if you seriously think the developers will not care one way or the other that an archetype is attracting a large number of powerlevellers because it levels "so much faster" than the rest of the archetypes then you're either living in a dream world or simply naive and haven't played too many online games. If indeed what you say is true (that blasters just naturally make xp much, much faster) then you can bet that they will be nerfed.


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Did you even stop to think a little before you wrote that? Someone who is power leveling will easily advance 4X faster then someone who isn’t and the difference is potentially much more then that. This means that whatever AT the power levelers choose is going to advance significantly faster then the others overall. It’s an all or nothing proposition.

Secondly blasters in general do not power level signifincaly better then scrappers, this only applies to the AoE blasters. Scrappers can tackle the same mobs as single target blasters and do so nearly as quickly, so if blasters are nerfed so they are less effective for power leveling (again proably not even possible without completely destroying the AT) guess who is next up on the list. You guessed it scrappers because they are the second best power leveling class.

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What is the threshold for what is an acceptable discrepancy in XP rates?


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I have to question whether you even read my post. Among people who are not power leveling I see no significant difference in who levels how fast nor do I believe a significant difference is even possible given that unless you are power leveling most of your time will be spent moving from place to place. Furthermore, if you are not power leveling there is a good chance you are working in a mixed group and therefore advancing at EXACTLY the same rate as someone else your level.

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Blasters can XP at rates 2-3x that of other archetypes, that's not an exaggeration and you know it.



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Not an exaggeration so much as a deliberate bending of the truth on your part. Blasters power leveling advance at least that much faster then someone of another AT who is not power leveling. Blasters who are not power leveling enjoy no such advantage.

Blasters power leveling may enjoy that much of an advantage over defenders and controllers. For tanks the difference is much less and I defy you to point to something in the first post of this thread under the single target blaster category that cannot be done by a scrapper almost as quickly.


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I also take offense to your insinuation that other archetypes aren't gimp relative to blasters because leveling rates are not a useful gauge for measuring archetype balance. There is nothing in this game but levels do you even realize that??

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That has to be the best characterization of the mindset of a power leveler I ever heard. If you think this way then I do not see how you can possibly be anything but a disgruntled power leveler at heart. Have you ever heard of a little thing called fun? If your only source of fun in these games is leveling then I assure you that despite what you claim, you are a power leveler.

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Gee, I can't read. Maybe you shouldn't have said anything about Fire not being AOE then. I don't see any other blaster with pure AOE in the primaries. Forget it, I lost all respect after I read your "no worries about melee mobs after level 10!" Did I read wrong here too? Gonna tell me to try hooked on phonics next? Too funny man. Get to level 40 and then tell me what you have learned. Too many players make assumptions on their low level heroes and then generalize that this is the way it is and the way it's gonna be.


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Actually, I never said fire wasn't AOE. I said fire breath is not a unique power to fire by saying it is not a defining power to call fire an AOE build over some others. Fire Ball would be that defining power. That is unique compared to something like Ice, which does not have this type of power.

Also, I never said "no worries about melee mobs after 10". So, yes, you did read wrong. Maybe your habit of quoting from multiple sources has confused who said what in your mind. No biggie, but as I said before... you aren't reading (at least not correctly).

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A guy with this many alts tells me to calm down and live a little. LMAO. If I see an incorrect post, I correct it. Nothing gets me like people who don't know what they are talking about and then try to preach it to others. Point made, conversation over.

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Trust me, I have more alts, these are just my active ones. You also have no idea if I have had any toons reach 35+. I don't understand your negative point as to my number of toons. You obviously didn't understand that I am not married to any one of them in particular, where most people are and will defend it, regardless of the facts or circumstances. Nothing in my post has been incorrect. But I suspect you will continue to read what you want and twist whatever I say to argue your point.

If you care to contribute to the conversation by reading posts and discussing the points, please do.

How do you make do without Superjump/Fly in places like Faultline?

Avoid Faultline, it's a waste of time.

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How do you make do without Superjump/Fly in places like Faultline?

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If in a group people will TP you normally. Honest I skipped Fautline. I leveled so quick it by passed it.

how good is caltrops now ?? do i still need to 6 slot it to root foes ? or is it a suxing power now ?

Very nice...thanks for this info-

American_Pie, maybe if you'd actually read what I posted, you'd know the answer. Electricity blasters are still blasters and therefore still good at powerleveling. They are simply inferior to any other blaster. If you had chosen any other blaster primary you'd have gotten to 40 even faster.

Of course, you failed to mention any statement I made that you didn't agree much less the reasons for it. Here is a simple fact: for the single target fighting style, ice and energy both are better at it for the reasons I describe. Energy, for instance, is basically just an in-all-ways superior version of electricity. We have the same three basic attacks (the 4/8 second nuke and snipe) except Energy gets the useful knockback while you get the useless endurance drain. Plus, energy gets a 3rd heavy nuke for which electricity has no equivelent. It is insane to claim that electricity will somehow magically be able to kill as quickly when it has inferior tools to do so.

So, please, instead of insisting I don't know what I am talking about, explain exactly why you think that electricity will powerlevel as fast as energy or ice. (It is a given that all 3 are inferior to fire/assault rifle so we can just ignore them in the discussion).

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American_Pie, maybe if you'd actually read what I posted, you'd know the answer. Electricity blasters are still blasters and therefore still good at powerleveling. They are simply inferior to any other blaster. If you had chosen any other blaster primary you'd have gotten to 40 even faster.


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Other then Fire (saw it first hand) I can imagine me getting to 32 as quick as I did (3 weeks noexploits). Fire put me to shame AE wise. Other then the seconday effect of Elec I find myself very happy with my choice I made.

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how good is caltrops now ?? do i still need to 6 slot it to root foes ? or is it a suxing power now ?

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Well, I just started a blaster 8 hours ago, but to me caltrops is "teh win".

Round up a 2-3 groups of -1 or even cons, pop an enrage, hit Caltrops+ Rain of Fire + FireBall + FireBreath and clean up any remaining stragglers with FireBlast. Rinse and Repeat.

Don't group until they revoke the 6/9 patch. It's just not worth it if you are trying to level.

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American_Pie, maybe if you'd actually read what I posted, you'd know the answer. Electricity blasters are still blasters and therefore still good at powerleveling. They are simply inferior to any other blaster. If you had chosen any other blaster primary you'd have gotten to 40 even faster.

Of course, you failed to mention any statement I made that you didn't agree much less the reasons for it. Here is a simple fact: for the single target fighting style, ice and energy both are better at it for the reasons I describe. Energy, for instance, is basically just an in-all-ways superior version of electricity. We have the same three basic attacks (the 4/8 second nuke and snipe) except Energy gets the useful knockback while you get the useless endurance drain. Plus, energy gets a 3rd heavy nuke for which electricity has no equivelent. It is insane to claim that electricity will somehow magically be able to kill as quickly when it has inferior tools to do so.

So, please, instead of insisting I don't know what I am talking about, explain exactly why you think that electricity will powerlevel as fast as energy or ice. (It is a given that all 3 are inferior to fire/assault rifle so we can just ignore them in the discussion).

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Think I made my point by saying that I was 40 before most others. exceptions were the caltrops/ignite exploiters. I was first to 40 in my supergroup too, beating the energy/energy and assault/device blasters.

There is no one AT that is faster, it depends on play style and tactics.

Saying one whole class sucks based on your buddies playing is misinformed. If you want to see how an electric blaster is played, roll a toon on Justice or on Test. I'll show you how worthless endurance drain is.

I'm gonna try to log on tomorrow night (6/18) around maybe 10pm EST. Can you show me the ropes? I've got a lvl 13 elec/elec blaster on Justice who I don't think I've been using to her best potential.

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So, please, instead of insisting I don't know what I am talking about, explain exactly why you think that electricity will powerlevel as fast as energy or ice. (It is a given that all 3 are inferior to fire/assault rifle so we can just ignore them in the discussion).

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What was that? Did I just hear the creaking of a mind closing? Yup.

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Saying one whole class sucks based on your buddies playing is misinformed. If you want to see how an electric blaster is played, roll a toon on Justice or on Test. I'll show you how worthless endurance drain is.

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Amen to that!!! End drain has kept me from debt many many times. Nothing like stopping a boss dead in his tracks, and have him stand there like a practice dummy as you wail on him since he can't hit you back. Then again, i actually do the missions from my contacts.
Why powerlevel in a game with no PvP? I'm not trying to bash anyone who does, but I'm very curious as to the motive behind it. I personally love looking over my souvenirs and reading about the past missions I've been on. It helps to get immersed in the comic book aspect of the game. Not only that, it seems to be a slap in the face to Cryptic's content team, who have done a wonderful job on this game.
Please, enlighten me.

a post i actually ejoyed reading... hmm i guess there is a 1st for everything

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Nothing like stopping a boss dead in his tracks, and have him stand there like a practice dummy as you wail on him since he can't hit you back.


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Well that's cute and all but if you were using fire he'd already be dead.

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Nothing like stopping a boss dead in his tracks, and have him stand there like a practice dummy as you wail on him since he can't hit you back.


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Well that's cute and all but if you were using fire he'd already be dead.

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I doubt it. Elec still kills single targets quickly, it just doesn’t have the immediately useful secondary effects of ice or eng, both of which can take to boss out of the fight on their very first offensive move. Elec does have fewer single target attacks, which is a problem, but If I’m not mistaken the ones it does have do more damage. Overall I think I would prefer elec over fire going one on one verses a boss, but eng or ice would be even better.

I read the guide, good stuff. I like the info and will use the advice. I mean no disrespect to my fellow CoH gamers when I say...

I was a little "saddened" by the post, although as a newbie to the game I expected it.

I think this game is immersive, lots of back-story. Killing baddies is just part of the fun, gets the blood pumping when you narrowly avoid death or run away with a sliver of life. The more immersed you get, the more actual time you spend reading the contacts information, looking at clues, trying to contribute to the society of Paragon City, the MORE you blood is going to pump from the sheer excitement of the action in the game. Yes, I believe the powergamer misses out on the true "action" in the game even though they think they're all about the action aspect, ironic.

Do you care when a character that hasn't been developed in a movie is killed? No. In RPGs your involvement in the development of your character isn't half as interesting, exciting or pulse pounding if you haven't let yourself become immersed in the world.

I believe the highs you feel running around burning foes with your blaster as a power gamer who has broken the statistics down to their lowest common denominator, built the 'best' on paper character who specifically avoids back-story or development as an inefficient waste of time (IE why bother creating a cool costume for your powergamer character, just take a default) I believe your highs aren't as high as my highs in the game. Sorry if that sounds arrogant or if you think I really can't "know" how someone feels in a game or how much enjoyment he derives, but I do know, and I know you're missing out by being a "powergamer". You're missing out most on the very aspects of the game you purport to specialize in.

This is nothing new. I see it in all computer games. I saw it in dice and pencil RPGs years ago. The DM and his pals who gave out ridiculous magic items and had millions of hit points didn't play D&D very long. Me and my friends who played with a stingy DM and played in a fertile world that unfolded like a story before us would play the same campaign for years and years.

I really don't mean any offence to the powergamers. In fact, for all those of you who got your level 40 in one week of playing and have all your sockets in the mathematically most efficient slots for maximum NPC damage dealing here, I bestow upon you your rightful gift. A cookie. Enjoy.

Bernie Goetz, crime fighter extraordinaire

I think you'd be surprised at how many powergamers are roleplayers. Simply because you fall in one of those categories, does not mean you can't also fall in the other.

Bernie.... very well said.

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I think you'd be surprised at how many powergamers are roleplayers. Simply because you fall in one of those categories, does not mean you can't also fall in the other.

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I consider myself to be a powerPLAYER vs powergamer. Why? I play 4 to 5 hours a night and I maximize my exp vs play time. I level quick but I dont try to level just to level.

Now I know power gamers and they play 8 to 12 hours a day. I could be a power gamer and not know it, I only play 8 + hours on the weekend.

1) i didn't re-roll, my energy/devices guys f'n owns. Is it ok with you if I play my beta template a bit? (fire/devices)?.

2) heh, i don't 'power game', i see all my contacts, group, task force and what not.