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I was referring more to specific powersets. Force Field users are becoming few and far between because the other sets can all do more. Empathy and Storm could also use some tweaks. Maybe Mind and Earth controllers as well.
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With all due respect. Start a thread in native forums. We are finally getting a lot of Dev shade in our scorched barren. Water is on the way. But this is the Blaster Oasis.
Ok not to do this but I did watch and have pictures of a crazy blaster herding monkeys on monkey isle. Best part was a tank was also and when they ran together the carniage was just plain fun. (The blaster did pop purples but the sight of a blaster herding was just ... well funny.)
There is no doubt in my mind blasters need help. I spent my entire 50 scrapper levels with a blaster or two and they need real help right from 30 on. I needed help in the 40s but he simply seemed to loose hope then. It wasn't fair and it wasn't right. He should have been able to find a way to do well but all the stun and mezz was just overpowering for him. I even carried extra disiplines for him but it was never enough. He does love TF and uses it to stun bosses into oblivion and that's how he kills them but it takes a ton more work for him to level then it did for me. Not fair, not fair at all. His first level may have been easier but to end so poorly is just ... I am glad he made 50 is all. He earned every last level.
Would you two knock it off? This is " blaster damage", not "defenders issues and problems"
Furio--Lvl 50+3 Fire/Fire/Fire Blaster, Virtue
Megadeth--Lvl 50+3 Necro/DM/Soul MM, Virtue
Veriandros--Lvl 50+3 Crab Soldier, Virtue
"So come and get me! I'll be waiting for ye, with a whiff of the old brimstone. I'm a grim bloody fable, with an unhappy bloody end!" Demoman, TF2
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Would you two knock it off? This is " blaster damage", not "defenders issues and problems"
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I believe I already indicated this wasn't an appropriate area for delving, as I was asked to do so, into Defender issues. But the conversation is wide ranging because firmly establishing where Blasters stand isn't going to take place in a vacuum. If you're not smart enough to grasp that. . .well, that as may be. If you are, then you're grandstanding.
Under construction
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Argument by repitition is not considered valid, nor is argument by assertion. Try to refrain from both in the future.
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I am not trying to convince you Erratic I am merely pointing out what I know as fact. If I wanted to convince you I would pull out hard numbers and stated goals by devs over the course of a year. Not to mention pointing to player nerfs caused entirely by SOs. Not to mention pointing out the old posts by Statesman that said that the game was not balanced in regards to their goals for the game after SOs.
If I was trying to argue with you I would make a detailed post listing all of that and explaining what it meant in detail. I do however understand that the populace likes being overpowered and would burn at the stake anyone that tried to balance the game. Even Statesman. Which is why I don't argue the point anymore after I got flamed to hell the last time I pointed it out.
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Wow, I agree that Blasters need some help w/ PvP, but in PvE?... where is all this coming from?? You complain more than regen's
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Puh-leeze
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You're all focusing on the damage cap, and forgetting that we have the AoE advantage. I can obliterate a group of 10 or so +2 minions in less than 10 seconds
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No we aren't. Blasters: 1. understand that scrappers are being looked at anyway, 2. don't want to nerf other ATs, and 3. just want what's fair and equitable.
Heck, most aren't asking for uber changes or to have a higher damage cap than scrappers, but rather to have the same 500% cap.
What grandstanding? Look back at your past few posts.
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You admit you've delved off topic, fine. No need for personal attacks though.
Furio--Lvl 50+3 Fire/Fire/Fire Blaster, Virtue
Megadeth--Lvl 50+3 Necro/DM/Soul MM, Virtue
Veriandros--Lvl 50+3 Crab Soldier, Virtue
"So come and get me! I'll be waiting for ye, with a whiff of the old brimstone. I'm a grim bloody fable, with an unhappy bloody end!" Demoman, TF2
Well, I think we have pretty much stated in as many ways possible what we as a community think about the Dev's concept of blasters and range.
Can we just zip this up and send it to Statesman for a reply?
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why not just make the blaster melee powers equal that of a scrapper or maybe even a little more since they are risking more when they get in melee range.
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Because we risk a lot more.
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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.
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Well, this is somewhat true, except when you look at things like Malta and Nemisis minions and bosses, snipers, and Carnie Bosses who are mostly ranged, and have AoE ranged attacks that stuns (Malta Operation Officer LTs have a stun grenade that lasts around 30 seconds), or can do nothing but ranged damage, or in the case of Zeus Titans, do far more damage at extreme snipe range (Quad cannon will DoT one shot me as a blaster, and only my blaster will ever have to face that attack).
There's also the fact that a scrapper can either get 100%+ defences, 75% resists (plus a decent defence), 400% or so regeneration (with at least 140% HP, sometimes more with DP), or AoE control powers that render everything around them unable to attack with decent damage resistance. Which reneders even that scary melee null for the most part, I know my MA/Invuln scrapper can take 4+s, and if I had perma DP, and Temp invuln better slotted, I could take 5+s.
On a team, the higher damage cap also allows defender/controller buffs to effect them more, which puts them in a favorable possition for teams, as with crits, an essential damage doubler, their Damage cap shoots to %1000 for that one attack that does crit. Their defences with either render healing Null, and only once or twice clicked on debuff/buffs, also allows defenders to blast, which raises the team damage; while having a blaster means that the defender has to baby sit them and can't blast, especially with the insane aggro blasters draw.
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But many issues have come up - most notably, the perception that Blasters are too fragile at levels 35+. Their damage potential does not compensate for their low hit points.
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This is dead on, with the exception of killing things out right, or /dev's Cloaking device and Smoke Grenade (which are pretty minor), we have no way to mitigate our incoming damage.
Defenders have debuffs/buffs and self healing that can mitigate incoming damage
Controllers can hold/sleep/stun and use the defender debuffs/buff/self heals to mitigate incoming damage, along with summoning things to take aggro for themselves that actually do damage.
Tankers have 80% of our damage, and even the weakest defensivly, the fire tank, can survive stuff that would one shot a normal blaster, my Fire/ice tank took out 6+s, and only ended up having trouble with a couple because they could hover above the Ice patch.
Scrappers have good enough resists to survive things like AVs, and even the ones unable to take out AVs can usually survive packs of 3 to 4+ con minions, and are actually more survivable with powers like invincability.
At any given time against something that isn't a weakness to the set (like Psi and Invuln), a blaster is the least survivable of all the ATs, teamed or solo.
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And, of course, there's the complaint that some Secondaries have too many melee attacks - something that the Blaster avoids at all costs.
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Not just melee, but PBAoE, things like Chilling embrace are worthless to a blaster, but crazy good to a tanker, as a blaster can't survive the alpha strike to use the slow effect.
And alot of the melee attacks that are in sets like /ice and /fire have scrappy slow and dot effects that mean nothing when the point of a melee attack for a blaster should be to take them out of commision through either a status effect like a stun or a Hold, which both /Elec and /eng do (and because every power in /eng can stun, that's why those melee attacks are so coveted, even the slow Total Focus, which can, and will stun a boss for around 10 seconds). A slow and a dot aren't useful when they're just delaying the enevitable, or will kill the enemy after you've got the debt for being mauled by him.
Another factor with the melee attacks is animation time, Total Focus has a slow animation time, but the huge damage and almost guaranteed stun are worth it, stun with it's low damage and stun that only works on something we can kill in the animation time for it, is not. Also animations that stick us in them for X seconds after they're in effect (like Burn and Fire Sword Circle) aren't any better, especially considering how they don't at least mitigate the incoming damage, if we could run up, toss it out in about a one second animation then get out of dodge before the retaliating melee strikes came in, they'd be somewhat worth the risk.
Just for referance, the Melee atacks people like are and really do use are: Bone Smasher, Total Focus, Shocking Grasp and Freezing touch, there may be others, but because the usefulness of /fire, /ice and /elec are rather (in)famous, it's hard to catch a person using them.
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At the moment, Scrappers, and to a lesser degree, Tankers, are being analyzed. Once we establish a baseline, then we'll be in a better position to look at Blasters.
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Why are you using them as a baseline? Ther're the two sets most unlike the others, they alone have higher HP and self defences and status protection (minus Force field people). They and post 32 controllers are considered the most broken of the ATs.
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Also to note, if SOs are so broken, why not make then unavalible until 27 ot 32, esentially making them unavalible until the last half of the game, like they were before the level cap was raised?
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I am not trying to convince you Erratic I am merely pointing out what I believe as fact.
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There, fixed that for you.
Given the game could be made in any particularly way, you're going to have to offer a pretty nifty definition of "overpowered" for your claim to stand.
By DAoC standards, simply being able to fly above your target and shoot down on them would be "overpowered". Oh wait, we're not playing DAoC are we. So forgive me if your "it just is" arguments aren't compelling when as best I can tell they rely on some "feeling" that doesn't have basis in objective reality.
Under construction
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Secondaries:
Devices - Very cool and very fun set. The devices all mesh with the way a blaster plays very well and combined use of them allows for some great gameplay. Most fun set for blasters IMO.
Every other set - Faaar too many melee powers and powers that are fairly mundane or do not compliment a blaster's style of play well at all. Having a fire sword is not blasting. Consider giving blasters some weak sauce defender and controller powers in these sets to make them able to be more versatile and still maintain their role as RANGED attackers.
2 primaries could use minor adjustments, but the secondaries are all kind of meh except for Devices.
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Energy in some ways outshines Devices. In fact they are fairly close to being the same.
Melee attacks are not a bad thing. I love mine. I know how to use them. But there is something missing to go along with those attacks. Energy gets close to that with Build Up, Power Boost, Boost Range and Conserve Power actual useful buffs that make the blaster better.
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Why would any informed person, who wants to be effective, play a Blaster over a Scrapper as the game now stands? Blasters need a boost in damage to fufill their role in a team.
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Because for some its a matter of how you do something, not that you do something.
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If what you are saying is, "do it to be different than everyone else, do it because it is harder," then I agree with you. That's why I played my Blaster through to 50 and didn't ditch when it became very hard and very frustrating in the late game.
However, I think one goal of the game is for each AT to have something to contribute and I want to point out an area where that needs work.
s.
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Hard Wired - L50 Elec/Elec Blaster
The Grump - L42 DM/Regen Scrapper
Sludge Bucket - L27 Rad/Dark Defender
Are people not getting yet that Blasters are supposed to be the black mage class? 
They're very useful and skilled players and allies, but they're not the kings of 1v1..contrary to popular belief. Just because their archetype is at the top of the list does not make them the 'knight' 'all around' character, for those of you who havent noticed.. it's just going in alphabetical order..
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theres a few disposable powers in /fire /elec and /ice that could easily be replaced with status protection (hot feet, thunder clap, whatever that PBAOE toggle slow is in ice.) It is harder to find disposable powers in /energy and /devices.
personally I think the blappers would be upset with losing their melee attacks. not everyone plays ranged blasters. Elec/Elcec especially.
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I'd willingly lose Boost Range from the Energy Secondary for a Mez Protection power.
And no, I will NOT put down my crack pipe! 
Sign It : http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
Another thing to please keep in mind is that some defenders have powers whose effect is to amplify damage (siphon power, fulcrum shift, fortitude, accelerate metabolism) - and many blasters can increase their damage to 400% of base without recourse to these buffs. This makes those powers far less desirable... It would be great if there could be room left to buff! That's why the 500% limit is so nice for scrappers.
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theres a few disposable powers in /fire /elec and /ice that could easily be replaced with status protection (hot feet, thunder clap, whatever that PBAOE toggle slow is in ice.) It is harder to find disposable powers in /energy and /devices.
personally I think the blappers would be upset with losing their melee attacks. not everyone plays ranged blasters. Elec/Elcec especially.
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I'd willingly lose Boost Range from the Energy Secondary for a Mez Protection power.
And no, I will NOT put down my crack pipe!
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I would say add mez protection to Conserve Power and then come up with a similar power in all sets.
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I would say add mez protection to Conserve Power.
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Great Idea
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Why would any informed person, who wants to be effective, play a Blaster over a Scrapper as the game now stands? Blasters need a boost in damage to fufill their role in a team.
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Because for some its a matter of how you do something, not that you do something.
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If what you are saying is, "do it to be different than everyone else, do it because it is harder," then I agree with you. That's why I played my Blaster through to 50 and didn't ditch when it became very hard and very frustrating in the late game.
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Basically. The idea of zapping things appeals to me generally more than the idea of punching things. So I'm inclined to play ranged damage types. For some that inclination is absolute and so they are going to play Blasters and not Scrappers given a reasonable choice. And if the choice isn't reasonable they are going to take their dollars and go elsewhere.
My earlier statement is that wanting to play a Blaster is sufficient reason for some to choose to play a Blaster.
Under construction
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Why are you using them as a baseline? Ther're the two sets most unlike the others, they alone have higher HP and self defences and status protection (minus Force field people). They and post 32 controllers are considered the most broken of the ATs.
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Defenders have the same hits as scrappers.
This means that if you are underpowered then you need to be buffed to fit in with them. Or do you think blasters are at the right power level and you have no interest in seeing blasters get improved? I for one think improving blasters would be a great thing and far easier then dropping the power level of everyone else.
I have seen this a number of places that defenders need a buff. Please don't say that too quickly. I and a friend play a pair of Rad/Rad defenders and we certainly are fine as it. Yes we get mezzed but so what? We do just fine. Together just the two of us in an hour long war of attrition took down the new AV in Striga (can remember his name Maestro or something.) All defenders don't need a buff. Plus this is the blaster page lets keep to what they need.
I'm setting the over/under on replies to this thread at 2,500...any takers?
I haven't played a blaster for a long time, but I completely agree that their damage needs to be upped significantly, specifically at the higher levels. Operating under the mantra that the best defense for a blaster is more offense, their lvl 20+ damage should scale much differently per each level than everyone else.
Good luck blasters, I'm rootin' for ya!
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Defenders have the same hits as scrappers.
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NO THEY DO NOT!
Blasters, Controllers, and Defenders all have the same hps.
Scrappers have 15% more or so.
Tankers have 40% more than Scrappers.
Under construction
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I would say add mez protection to Conserve Power.
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Great Idea
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That is perfect. It's not perma-able but it can be made to refresh pretty fast. Now we just need to find powers in the other secondaries that fit the bill.
Thanks Cuppa for making this thread the sticky!
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Couple this with the hit points that bosses have in the late game. That snipe attack that can one shot minions? Forget about it as it barely dents a boss. (And don't even begin to think that boss is going to let you get another snipe off -- no way.)
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actually if my 50 fire/dev can take bosses just fine, i hit ss and CD lay a trip mine snipe em air supeiority them and finish with a second trip mine
I am an ebil markeeter and will steal your moneiz ...correction stole your moneiz. I support keeping the poor down because it is impossible to make moneiz in this game.