I'll support states when he puts down that crack pipe. because the [censored] he's smoking has got him seriously [censored] up.
while this has been explained to me before, i still don't see one damn legitimate reason why the devs feel like they have to keep switching standards. Why not stop nerfing and offending your customers and start changing the enemies the enemies?
i've had it with all this unbalanced nerfing crap, i quit. 
[ QUOTE ]
personally I think the blappers would be upset with losing their melee attacks. not everyone plays ranged blasters. Elec/Elcec especially.
[/ QUOTE ]
The problem here is that the secondaries should allow Blapping but not moreso than supporting a regular blaster. Blaster is the AT and Blapper is an aberation build. Allowing these aberation builds is good, but enforcing them more than the core idea is going too far.
Be a hero!!
[ QUOTE ]
Thought I'd post a further explanation about the Blaster damage explanation in "Ask Statesman."
That was - and is - the reason why Blaster damage is capped lower than Scrappers. I did forget to add that the ranged attacks of mobs deal less damage (typically) than melee attacks - and the Blaster is generally the target of raned attacks.
[/ QUOTE ]
You have some faulty logic there. You assume that melee attacks having more damage is the same as more risk to the hero. This is not true.
I'm an AR/Dev/Munitions blaster, but I think this applies pretty broadly. I know I face more risk than any scrapper out there. My job is to buckshot, flamethrow, full auto, and LRM nonstop and to put as many mobs into the AoE as possible. If I'm not using an AoE -- and doing so to maximum effect -- I'm not doing my job. The few AoEs that scrappers have are fairly short ranged. They can't cover the same area that my AoE's can and they don't do as much damage (and if I'm wrong, they shouldn't be able to!). Other than that, they only aggro w/dmg one mob at a time.
What does this mean? Depending on the battle, I regularly draw aggro from two to eight times (or more!) foes than the scrapper does. The bigger the team, the more mobs crammed into a tiny space, the more mobs I can aggro. So while a scrapper is facing more damage per melee attack (let make up numbers: 150 dmg from each of 3 enemies), I'm facing just as much or more damage when you combine all of the lower damage range attacks (50 dmg from each of 9 enemies).
Except this is before defenses. Scrappers can avoid, resist, or regenerate a lot of that damage. Me? I take it all -- and with fewer hp.
What about aggro control? Okay, the rest of the team tries to draw the aggro away from me. Except, since everything's attacking me at range, no one's quite sure which mobs are still attacking me (sometimes *I* can't even pinpoint the location of the gunslinger that's keeps on hitting me for 25%+ of my hp per hit!). Even if they identify one of my attackers, for the most part, they can only attack one -- not all 10+. And I've watched people try to steal mob aggro from me -- they can't do it easily, which means the mobs have time to attack me at least once or twice more before they're distracted by my teammate.
The scrapper? His smaller range means that most of his "aggro" isn't from him attacking -- he's just the closest thing the mobs can see that they want to whack on. Even if he does damage them, he can only focus on a few enemies at a time. The rest can be easily pulled off of him by team members (usually by the blaster firing into the mass of mobs!), especially because it's easy to tell who's attacking him.
Recap? Scrappers face more risk per attack, but less risk overall due to fewer attackers, high defense, and the ability of the team to identify combatants and draw aggro. The Blaster faces more risk.
Now, I don't believe that upping blaster damage, lowering scrapper damage, or upping blaster defense is necessarily the answer. I'm perfectly okay with being able to Full Auto to death (or very near to death) entire groups of minions that con orange (IIRC, this is with 3 HO dmg/acc enh + 2dmg SOs + 1 recharge). It's the counter attack while I'm immobilized by my attack and waiting for the DoT to finish them off that hurts me. While this can be somewhat mitigated by strategy (kiting, etc.), there are many situations where that doesn't work (mezzes, cramped quarters, etc.)
With blaster attacks that do superior/extreme damage, it'd be nice if...
...if the mobs reacted appropriately for their group suddenly losing a huge chunk of hp. Different things for different blaster powers/powersets.
- [*]Running for cover.[*]Running away from the source of massive damage for a bit, regrouping, then coming after the blaster.[*]Running around like all the crazy civilians do when they see a villain on the streets or are inside an office indoor mission.[*]Strong magnitude and/or long duration knockdowns and/or short non-duration-improvable scale-with-level-magnitude disorients.[/list]...if a blaster's aggro was reduced by 5% for each teammate that he has (or if 5% of his aggro went to each of his teammates). I'm not the only blaster that RARELY dies when soloing. Since my early 20s, I've solo'd or had one sk for the majority of the time. Yet 99% of my face plants are on teams. As the team size grows, the number of mobs I aggro becomes unbalanced compared to my ability to deal with it. 7 teammates? Only 65% normal aggro, please.
The above don't even need to happen every time a blaster uses a Superior/Extreme damage power. Maybe they only occur if the mobs have low aggro toward the blaster (relative to the rest of the blaster's team -- ie, if they're focusing attacks on the tank, they'll be caught by surprise by the blaster's big attack) or are unaware of the blaster.
Again, even if this was only for my initial strike (or amplified on initial strikes!), it would help immensely.
[ QUOTE ]
hehe... a little excited there? to answer your question, well... my regen gets a little concerned in melee. rather often. before you laugh, I don't have a cookie-cutter tough/weave build. and if anyone suggests that might be the reason, then might that also be the reason your blaster doesn't die? mine has tough, stealth (since stealth provides ... well, stealth ... and a higher defense than weave to blasters), cj and acrobatics and is *rarely* in debt, why doesn't the other blaster that complains about debt? so, to answer your question, non-invuln non-cookie-cutter scraps still face risk. depending on the team make-up, my scrap will face far more risk than my blaster. the reason is simple. I pick my targets and kill what I pick. (btw, your invuln is quite simply *very* powerful once invincibility gets tossed in the mix).
certain powers are better suited for melee toons. certain powers are better suited for ranged. healing aura from emps and rads is better for ranged so the def doesn't have to run into the group & get ae'd. same with dark def heal. siphon power is better for the ranged, assuming the kin avoids the melee also. isn't the fs buff also centered on the kin?
the ae argument is still valid. energy has 2 ae's, one with a higher brawl index than the standard 8' radius scrap ae and one with a lower. these are both much larger areas than the scrap ae. not as heavy as fire, but it's there. energy also has knockback and is probably the most solo-friendly set.
elec & ice are both hybrids. elec still has one ae with a higher brawl index than the scrap ae & larger radius. elec also has a hold, a pet, and a severe end drain ... a power which I've had elec blasters tell me lets them solo anchored missions with easy. ice is lower damage but has control. (psst... that means don't play this set if you just want to do damage damage damage).
[/ QUOTE ]
OK, Voltaic Sentinel is not a pet. I wish it was. I would say that Electric is a poor set for AoE unless you're using Thunderous Blast. Short Circuit is not usually slotted for damage and it's PBAoE. Both it and Ball Lightning are DoT. Also, if you think Ice is low damage, I'd suggest doing some research before facing one in the Arena.
[ QUOTE ]
You're thinking of Haephestus. He didn't reflect the sole opinion of the Blaster community in any way.
[/ QUOTE ]
And neither do you, nor I nor any one person here. I am for less me;ee as well.
[ QUOTE ]
PLEASE do 1 of these:
--Give Blappers GOOD temporary defenses or debuffs
--Give Blappers temporary light StatusResists
--Remove the Damage-Cap on Blaster Melee
--Replace High-Aggro, Low-Damage, AoE Fields in the 2ndaries with something DEFENSIVE.
Or
--ADD Status Resists to those Low-Damage AoE fields.
[/ QUOTE ]
This is great, the AT is called BLASTER not BLAPPER. The thread is abouth BLASTER not BLAPPER. Yes you should be able to build a Blapper if you want, but the AT is still Blaster and shoud support that concept befor aberant concepts. The final analysis is we are supposet to be improving Blasters not:
Blappers,
Blankers,
Blattorllers,
etc...
Be a hero!!
A friggin Men.
[ QUOTE ]
This is great, the AT is called BLASTER not BLAPPER.
[/ QUOTE ]
And you'll not that melee attacks are part of the BLASTER archetype. Thus, using them makes you still a BLASTER, and not whatever other name you've decided to come up with.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
If you have great defensive capacity you don't need to take out your foes with the same urgency that you do if you have lousy defensive capacity. The range at which your foes are is irrelevant.
[/ QUOTE ]
And this is what is seen when a Scrapper leaps into a group of +4 mobs and beats them down.
[/ QUOTE ]
And your point is....?
[/ QUOTE ]
Merely confirming agreement.
Under construction
I have 2 suggestions to make Blasters balanced with scrappers. Neither deals with increasing/decreasing damage.
#1 Eliminate the rooting effect for firing ranged attacks like so many have suggested.
or my own personal idea (didn't read all 2004221 pages, pardon if this was suggested)
#2 Take the first blast power in every primary and add a secondary effect to the power similar to Divine Avilanch.
Give those powers like Flares and Charged bolts a personal buff based on the to-hit. Buff mez protection, buff damage resistance, buff defense, buff knockdown resistance. Make each Primary Set's first power have a different buff.
This will give these powers a reason to take and NOT respec out of.
Gotcha. Wasn't sure where you were coming from.
At least the idea that scrappers are more powerful than blasters has crept into Statesman's head. We've know this for awhile and arena really brought the idea home (go on disagree all you ice/nrg)
[ QUOTE ]
IMHO, keep power Thrust and Bonesmasher, kill off the other three and give more support powers. If you must keep another melee then keep Stun. Energy Punch doesn't do enough, with stun you get a better chance to disorient and therefore survival is improved.
I know I'll catch alot of flack for saying to off Total Focus. This is a great power, but I feel that the final power in a support powerset should be th ultimate in support not the ultimate in melee.
[/ QUOTE ]
Whatever dude. Just because you dont think it should be there doesnt mean it shouldn't. Its the crown jewel of the Energy Secondary.
A friend said once:
I have never - ever - complained about the developer's vision of the game in principle, and I've never jumped onto the bandwagon when people were basically calling the devs uninformed idiots and worse just because of a change they didn't like. I don't always agree with the developers, but at least I can see their side of the argument, even if I disagree with it.
Not this time.
This statement is wrong in a lot of ways: here are the main three things this statement either says or implies that are impossible to support:
1. Scrappers in melee range are at exposing themselves to higher risk than blasters who stay at range.
Maybe at level 2. By the time a scrapper has any defenses at all, scrappers mitigate the risk of being in melee range by having sufficient damage mitigation to nullify the higher damage they expose themselves to. All scrappers get some sort of damage mitigation that starts to balance the higher melee damage by level 1. Is that damage mitigation numerically balanced against blasters being out of melee range? Perhaps not at level 1. It definitely is equal or superior by the time DOs appear, around level 15. It never gets anywhere equal or worse ever again.
2. The higher damage cap helps scrappers survive the higher damage/risk.
Err, no. No scrapper says "these foes are too dangerous, if I slot my attacks more I will survive better." All scrappers slot defense, not damage, to survive. This is coming from a SR scrapper that never took FS - I used MA knockback and disorient to suplement the lost damage mitigation, and the tactic of driving into melee range as quickly as I could. The very thing Statesman says is inherently riskier for scrappers.
Now, if damage SOs boosted damage by 100% per enhancement, maybe this would be a viable strategy. But scrappers get huge benefit from slotting defenses. They would have to slot twelve SOs into their attacks to reach their damage cap - and it would still not necessarily improve their survivability more than one extra SO in a defense power.
Meanwhile, the main damage mitigation blasters have is quick-kill - we kill them, they stop damaging us. We have the tools to increase damage. We have no defenses, so we are often devoting slots to damage in attacks as the best benefit to us. We are approaching our damage cap quicker than scrappers - and we need to - and then, wham, we actually get capped by the damage cap.
Almost no scrapper (solo) can get anywhere near the scrapper cap without HOs. Its virtually impossible to hit or be actually capped by the scrapper cap. So the scrapper cap is really theoretical, it has no effect on the average scrappers life.
But blasters can easily hit the blaster cap. 5+1+BU+Aim is over the cap. Its damage we could use and would help us, but we don't get to use it. It is the absolute worst situation for blasters because blasters, with low damage mitigation, require speed. We can tolerate low damage output when we are fighting minions, but we need more when fighting LTs, and even more when fighting bosses. At low levels, tools like build up work because blasters work very well when they have low damage sometimes, and high damage sometimes, and they get to choose when they get the boost. They choose to be stronger against stronger foes, at the price of being weaker when facing weaker foes - and it works. At high levels the damage cap means that instead of being strong when we want, and weak when we don't need to be, our damage is much more evened out near the cap. Meanwhile, we are still facing weak minions and strong bosses. With no way to "rise to the challenge" blasters have difficulty.
My sole ability to take on bosses rests with total focus, a high damage high mez first strike weapon. Without it, or some other way to slow the fight down (ice holds, drains, etc) my steady, even, near-the-cap damage output is simply insufficient to take on bosses most of the time.
Maybe I'm not supposed to be able to take on bosses solo, but that is a separate issue - the issue is the difference between the scrapper cap and the blaster cap, and what effect it has on each of us.
3. Blasters, having range, get to select which targets they fight, while scrappers are forced to fight everything
Well, first of all, if Statesman wants us in missions and not out street fighting, neither blasters nor scrappers get to pick who they fight. They can both pick when they fight. A blaster can theoretically use pulling to fight one target at a time, but you know what? So can scrappers. Every scrapper primary has a taunt, and you can pull with it just like you can with ranged targetted attacks. I know because my MA/SR took taunt, and at level 19 when Skyway was boring and Talos was a bit lethal to just jump into a bunch of +3s, guess what I did to even the odds.
Selective engagement is not an advantage of blasters over scrappers. Pulling is not an advantage of blasters over scrappers. Blasters and scrappers can both choose to face however many villains they want in exactly the same way with the same chance of success based on skill.
And actually, there was many a team where my MA/SR took over pulling from blasters who were not good at it and were consistently getting killed by the return fire after the pull attempt.
Blasters need high damage output more than scrappers. Blasters shoot for high damage and then slam head-first into the blaster cap when they try to boost damage temporarily against a powerful foe, or set of foes. We survive because we have other forms of damage mitigation we lean on, we've perfected the tactics to use them properly, and we practice a lot when no one's watching. We succeed in spite of the lower cap, but we could use a higher one.
Scrappers balance damage and defense. Actually, thats a lie. Most scrappers focus on defense over damage, because they learn good defense means you can take your time. Bad defense means your extra offense will be slotted into a dead body.
Statesman, you said you were going to look at blasters down the road. One of the things that is a problem for blasters is that it is very difficult to balance a low damage mitigation set, because it always comes down to a race between our damage and their damage. Just blanket increases in our damage mean we will either be granted a level of damage that allows us to kill everything all the time very quickly - faster than they can kill us - or quite frankly the extra damage won't be worth a lot. I've suggested ways to improve the situation (my accuracy vs defense suggestion and my suggestion for making range work for blasters is in my sig). Another thing I've suggested for blasters is to give us a scalable build up - so build up gets more powerful as we get higher in level (much like scrapper mez protection scales with level). This way, as the mobs scale upward in difficulty, especially in the late game, we will have a tool to help us keep up. Its more effective, and because it isn't a blanket damage increase, it allows us to be much stronger when we need to be, at the expense of being not as strong at other times. In other words, it doesn't blow our damage all out of proportion and turn us into continuous ranged killing machines.
But that suggestion is predicated on the notion that our damage cap goes up - way, way up, to a level higher than scrappers, even - so that we can take advantage of a scalable build up.
Understand that the current blaster cap does not reduce blaster damage output. It forces us to even it out which means minion fights will always be short (as we want), and LT and Boss fights will always be long (which are hazardous) and there is no way, none at all, for any blaster to change that situation, even temporarily. Scrappers don't care how long a fight lasts, only if they ultimately win. Blasters care how long the fight lasts, because that is ultimately what decides if we win.
Please, reconsider this position.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
IMHO, keep power Thrust and Bonesmasher, kill off the other three and give more support powers. If you must keep another melee then keep Stun. Energy Punch doesn't do enough, with stun you get a better chance to disorient and therefore survival is improved.
I know I'll catch alot of flack for saying to off Total Focus. This is a great power, but I feel that the final power in a support powerset should be th ultimate in support not the ultimate in melee.
[/ QUOTE ]
Whatever dude. Just because you dont think it should be there doesnt mean it shouldn't. Its the crown jewel of the Energy Secondary.
[/ QUOTE ]
What MageStorm said. What the hell is wrong with you. ITS TOTAL FOCUS. Uberest of all uber, and my favorite attack except Full Auto. If you cant use it right, then learn how and love it. Absurd damage and a Mag 4 stun. Whats not to love? Its the ultimate Damage and CC power for bosses.
Not to mention the animation. 
And stun? What a worthless power. If you want to take something out of action just use bonesmasher on it and kill it.
[ QUOTE ]
I know I'll catch alot of flack for saying to off Total Focus. This is a great power, but I feel that the final power in a support powerset should be th ultimate in support not the ultimate in melee.
[/ QUOTE ]
Total Focus is everything Blaster Melee needs to be (minus the long animation), it's heavy damage and a high mag long duration stun, it's support and damage in one nice package of "Holy **** that looked painful!"
[ QUOTE ]
On the Tf I mentioned, my tank buddy had Invincibility, Taunt, Provoke, and his punchvoke going. The Stone tank had mudpots, taunt, and whatever he had slotted into his melee attacks and they were still unable to keep the blasters standing. All they had was their Energy Torrents and one had Explosive blast....not enough damage there to warrant causing the tanks to lose aggro.
[/ QUOTE ]
I don't know what to say - I haven't lost aggro to anyone but other tanks as a normal thing, it only happens if I forget to use taunt, if I miss something nearby, or if the team starts alpha-striking before I can get aggro.
That said, I'm not trying to say that this doesn't happen, and I think that it might help to adjust game mechanics to make it harder for blasters to take aggro from tankers. I don't think the game should make it too easy to punish you for using your powers in a team situation.
Elsegame: Champions Online: @BellaStrega ||| Battle.net: Ashleigh#1834 ||| Bioware Social Network: BellaStrega ||| EA Origin: Bella_Strega ||| Steam: BellaStrega ||| The first Guild Wars: Kali Magdalene ||| The Secret World: BelleStarr (Arcadia)
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
IMHO, keep power Thrust and Bonesmasher, kill off the other three and give more support powers. If you must keep another melee then keep Stun. Energy Punch doesn't do enough, with stun you get a better chance to disorient and therefore survival is improved.
I know I'll catch alot of flack for saying to off Total Focus. This is a great power, but I feel that the final power in a support powerset should be th ultimate in support not the ultimate in melee.
[/ QUOTE ]
Whatever dude. Just because you dont think it should be there doesnt mean it shouldn't. Its the crown jewel of the Energy Secondary.
[/ QUOTE ]
The concept of eliminating the only Boss-class stopper shot in the entire AT, not to mention arguably one of the best single-target attacks in the game...errrr no. Energy Punch and Stun are much higher in the ranks for a toss-out than TF, the punch that hits like a nuke.
I was gonna write something, but pretty much most people here know that statement was pretty weak, I'm glad I mostly play my tank now. BTW, are disciplines still unbuyable in I4? If so, I'm definitely happy I play a tank..
[ QUOTE ]
I was gonna write something, but pretty much most people here know that statement was pretty weak, I'm glad I mostly play my tank now. BTW, are disciplines still unbuyable in I4? If so, I'm definitely happy I play a tank..
[/ QUOTE ]
Disiplines haven't supposed to be in the game since after I3. They will be totally gone for I4.
I love my lvl 36 Fire/energy Blaster
He can run into battle but most of the time not walk away. I acquire debt faster then any AT I have played. The only way to get far in the game is to team up with a tank and/or controller.
I made my blaster specific for AOE attacks.
I found that the only way to deal major damage is with the closest range attacks (blaze, Bone smasher) granted I can kill the mobs < red with build-up/aim then inferno. but if I miss, i have no defense,& no endurance.
My beef is that my Blaster is supposed to be the highest damage dealer in the game, but is being shadowed by the scrappers. The scrappers damage potential is supposed to be with critical strikes. A blaster should generally deal more base damage.
The balance sux with ATs
Tank - highest HP / high dmg resist / high dmg dealer
Scrapper - medium HP / high dmg resist / high dmg dealer
Blaster - Low HP / low dmg resist / High dmg dealer
defender - low hp / low dmg resist / med dmg dealer
controller - lowest hp / low dmg resist / low dmg dealer
Blast and Contrl have almost no solo until later in game, and it still isnt much. Contrl at least get pets to take the damage for them. Blasters are stuck stealing aggro and running from mobs
I love my melee atks, and dont want to lose them, I dont use stun, I would love to see at least one defense on the secondary of blast Powers. Having low hp barely get you anywhere other then the hosp.
I would like to see the scrapper deal medium dmg until they hit a critical, then deal extreme dmg. And Blaster deal high dmg, and then extreme damage @ higher lvls. That would balance my issues with damage.
And if a blaster could gain resistance to their primary powers, even if it is only minor resists. (ex. fire gains fire resist, ice gains cold resist, AR gains lethal/smash resist, electric gains electric resist, energy gains energy resist). This makes a little sense as a hero would need a little resistance to control their attack... can you generate a flame on your bare skin and throw it at someone to hurt them and not you? or launch a bolt of electricity from your fingers to electricuit someone and not electricuit youreself in the progress?
Tank - highest HP / highest dmg resist / highest def/ med-high dmg dealer
Scrapper - medium HP / high dmg resist / high dmg dealer
Blaster - Low HP / lowest dmg resist / High dmg dealer
defender - low hp / med dmg resist / med dmg dealer
controller - low hp / low dmg resist / low dmg dealer [but actually safe thanks to powers/pets]
Defenders have various forms of mitigation; whether a debuff or a buff. that's defense right there.
Pretty sure controllers and blasters have THE SAME hp maximum. 1050 at level 50?
Controllers post 32 (and lategame is the blaster issue) have pretty high damage mitigation thanks to pets and the opened up secondaries. you could say their damage goes up a notch to "medium", almost, too.
[ QUOTE ]
OK, Voltaic Sentinel is not a pet. I wish it was. I would say that Electric is a poor set for AoE unless you're using Thunderous Blast. Short Circuit is not usually slotted for damage and it's PBAoE. Both it and Ball Lightning are DoT. Also, if you think Ice is low damage, I'd suggest doing some research before facing one in the Arena.
[/ QUOTE ]
I agree with almost all of that, though it looks like it was posted in disagreement with my comments. voltaic sentinel... ok, so it's not a pet in the sense that it takes it's own agro. but, it does hover and attack. and it has a nasty end drain component to it (I'm refering to pve only) if slotted for end drain instead of damage. short circuit was not included by me as an ae attack. it's got the effective range of a scrap ae and far less damage. it's end drain again... and quite effective. I mentioned that electric has one ae better than a scrap ae. elec also has a hold.
as far as ice being lower damage... it is. it's lower damage, per the brawl index numbers, than other blaster primaries. I'm not in any way saying it's weak or that the damage numbers will be in the double digits. I'm simply saying that it's the lowest damage of the blasters, from what I see. in return, ice has the most status effects, not including kb. every attack is -recharge & -speed or it's a hold. and there are two holds in the set. I don't need to do more research before facing one in the arena. first, this whole post was about pve. second... yeah, I know they're nasty. they're actually arguably (based on opinion) the best blaster primary for pvp.
these points were made because someone inferred "the ae argument" is crap because ice & elec have weak ae's. I agreed they have weaker ae's than other blaster primaries, but pointed out that elec still has one better than a scrap's ae as well as end drain and a hold and that ice has status (the -recharge and -speed) and two holds. the two sets are hybrid controller/blaster sets.
One thing though states: If the damage we're taking at range is supposed to compensate; ie equalise for what others are taking at melee, then shouldn't it scale the same way in later levels as it does in the early ones?
As things are, the statement is true until around level 20, when our HP difference combines with the lack of defenses to mean we're taking FAR more damage at range than scrappers and tankers take at melee; in addition to taking proportionally greater base damage in the late 30's or above.
If a scrapper has 1500hp, and a blaster has 1000, then melee is not riskier than range if the melee hit deals 400, while the ranged strike deals 300. In proportion of total HP, the scrapper is safer in melee than the blaster is at range. It means we're squishier, and if it was only to this extent, it would be more than fine.
This, however, assumes someone forgot to turn on their defensive toggles/clicks. If you add Mezzing into the mix, the blaster's a LOT squishier. Now add in the far higher damage mitigation, and what was 400 damage/minute has become 150, out of a larger HP pool, and without all those pesky status effects that can end the fight in one shot.
I've taken more than a few Rikti Chief Soldiers on, and in my experience, if their plasma rifle deals 380, that sword will only be roughly 520~550 or so (so the rifle is between 75 and 70% of the sword). The rifle disorients too, though.
GET STUN THE HELL OUT OF MY SECONDARY.
Power thrust is fun, and energy punch is mediocre in animation, but it still packs quite a punch.
-Edit- WAIT, NO. COMBINE THE TWO!1!!!!!