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I still maintain that, say, %80 of the aggrivation with Blasters could be dealt with by the following two changes:
1) Ranged attacks in the primary power sets no longer root while activating. Don't even need to change the actual activation times, simply make it so you can continue to dodge/run while firing. This can't be impossible to implement, as you can already do so with a proper leap-joust. And even Ice, with its fast animations, needs to hold still for the second they take to fire. With this, you'd actually be able to keep enemies at range, and thus have range be a viable defense.
2) Scale Blaster damage upwards as they level so that net effectiveness remains the same. Post SOs, Blasters actually decrease in effectiveness, as mob HP and resistances continue to rise, while there's no further way to self-improve damage. This leads to being able to obliterate yellows with a snipe at 22, but only being able to one-shot whites with a snipe at 50. Since offense=defense for blasters (more or less), this steady decrease in objective effectiveness is a big harm.
Boom. These two changes alone don't seem that hard to implement, but they'd go a long way to improving the 'feel' of the AT without (presumably) requiring drastic code rewrites.
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1. You can already do this, take the Speed Pool Power "Whirlwind" and run it before any other animation changing toggles(fly/hover) and you will no longer root when attacking. You will also knock up enemies who close to melee.
Be careful on the endo cost though
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I still maintain that, say, %80 of the aggrivation with Blasters could be dealt with by the following two changes:
1) Ranged attacks in the primary power sets no longer root while activating. Don't even need to change the actual activation times, simply make it so you can continue to dodge/run while firing. This can't be impossible to implement, as you can already do so with a proper leap-joust. And even Ice, with its fast animations, needs to hold still for the second they take to fire. With this, you'd actually be able to keep enemies at range, and thus have range be a viable defense.
2) Scale Blaster damage upwards as they level so that net effectiveness remains the same. Post SOs, Blasters actually decrease in effectiveness, as mob HP and resistances continue to rise, while there's no further way to self-improve damage. This leads to being able to obliterate yellows with a snipe at 22, but only being able to one-shot whites with a snipe at 50. Since offense=defense for blasters (more or less), this steady decrease in objective effectiveness is a big harm.
Boom. These two changes alone don't seem that hard to implement, but they'd go a long way to improving the 'feel' of the AT without (presumably) requiring drastic code rewrites.
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1. You can already do this, take the Speed Pool Power "Whirlwind" and run it before any other animation changing toggles(fly/hover) and you will no longer root when attacking. You will also knock up enemies who close to melee.
Be careful on the endo cost though
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lol
man that's no freaking answer. I've done that. waste of endurance. 
If you have superspeed or combat jumping you can just jump kite and let inertia take you as you blast. not optimal but it beats the hell out of whirlwind. Of course I could just use burn and whirlwind at the same time and let the mobs laugh themselves to death. 
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1. You can already do this, take the Speed Pool Power "Whirlwind" and run it before any other animation changing toggles(fly/hover) and you will no longer root when attacking. You will also knock up enemies who close to melee.
Be careful on the endo cost though
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O_O
You're joking. That would be almost worth picking up and six-slotting with endurance reduction if it didn't sound like a bug waiting to be fixed. I'll have to give it a try on Test sometime--forget about the combat benefits of non-rooting attacks, the added fun factor of being able to strafe targets like that would make it worthwhile...
Darn it, now I have to find out what the base endurance cost on Whirlwind is. Are we talking Stealth-level, Flight-level, or Instant Healing-level? What about with all endurance reduction?
Food for thought:
If Statesman's idea of determining the overall effectiveness of scrapper defenses means using a half of a tray of handpicked inspirations to find their supposed optimal point...
Isn't it likely he's testing blasters the same way?
So, maybe our "perspectives" are all skewed, eh? Looks like we all might be expected to inhale gobs of insps before we fight. :\ I'd seek answers if I were you guys.
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1. You can already do this, take the Speed Pool Power "Whirlwind" and run it before any other animation changing toggles(fly/hover) and you will no longer root when attacking. You will also knock up enemies who close to melee.
Be careful on the endo cost though
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O_O
You're joking. That would be almost worth picking up and six-slotting with endurance reduction if it didn't sound like a bug waiting to be fixed. I'll have to give it a try on Test sometime--forget about the combat benefits of non-rooting attacks, the added fun factor of being able to strafe targets like that would make it worthwhile...
Darn it, now I have to find out what the base endurance cost on Whirlwind is. Are we talking Stealth-level, Flight-level, or Instant Healing-level? What about with all endurance reduction?
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I am not joking, the endurance drain isnt too bad (half of flight, tripple stealth, 2/3 IH) until you start knocking enemies up with it, at which point it becomes very very rough
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Food for thought:
If Statesman's idea of determining the overall effectiveness of scrapper defenses means using a half of a tray of handpicked inspirations to find their supposed optimal point...
Isn't it likely he's testing blasters the same way?
So, maybe our "perspectives" are all skewed, eh? Looks like we all might be expected to inhale gobs of insps before we fight. :\ I'd seek answers if I were you guys.
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If that was true, then Blasters would just suddenly die about 30 seconds into testing when the lucks ran out, another thing to consider is we don't know which inspirs he used, nor how.
Now along that line, I think states should start throwing Blasters in there using the same "normal player" builds. Hell he should do that for all ATs, it's really show him how little range = defence, and how much more risk a scrapper is at then a blaster.
Of coarse that brings up the whole argument of, he's soloing 20+ 4+s with scrappers, and yet we're less at risk cause we're not in Melee? If State's truely believes that, he's more jaded then Lois Lane.
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1. You can already do this, take the Speed Pool Power "Whirlwind" and run it before any other animation changing toggles(fly/hover) and you will no longer root when attacking. You will also knock up enemies who close to melee.
Be careful on the endo cost though
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Holy carp... just played around with a high-slotted whirlwind on Test. Aside from the noise of it in use, this is awesome... running around like a madman, flinging energy bolts without stopping. This is how a blaster should feel.
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Now, I generally disagree with Heph on alot if things, but you're out of your mind if you think he wants a) Godmode or b) scrapper-level defenses.
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You totally misread what I wrote. If you must think of it in comparison with other ATs, I said almost specicially that I wanted it to be Scrapper or Controller level of Defense. But only for 5 or 6 seconds. ...To some Degree, Keldians already do what I've suggested all along, albeit it through a clunky Shapeshift process. What Heph wants is just to make blasters in general into self-buffing Defenders with Higher damage.
But Defender level, All the time? That doesnt jive with me, there's enough complaints already with ATs saying other ATs are redundant of their powers or playstyle. ...why make it worse.
...Not that I think it matters anymore. It looks like a lot of work went into their recent Scrapper retesting so I'm willing to bet Statesman forgot about this thread 5 minutes later, is going to keep focussing on Tankers and Scrappers because they Own PvP, and eventually do nothing about it anyway. Though DA might even get love before Blasters do.
It was good time spent in this thread I think, there's a lot more people interested in new ideas and new ways of playing than I expected, but I gotta be gettin back to my Controllers and Defenders now. GG All.
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...Not that I think it matter anymore. It looks like a lot of work went into their recent Scrapper retesting so I'm willing to bet Statesman forgot about this thread 5 minutes later, is going to keep focussing on Tankers and Scrappers because they Own PvP, and eventually do nothing about it anyway. Though DA might even get love before Blasters do.
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Which would, of course, appear to be par for the course and [yet] another reason Blasters are so generally pissed off at the moment.
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If that was true, then Blasters would just suddenly die about 30 seconds into testing when the lucks ran out
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Any blaster worth his salt would be done by then, except maybe an ice blaster. Maybe. But then they'd know how my MA feels watching balance testing being drawn out with a Spines primary.
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Now along that line, I think states should start throwing Blasters in there using the same "normal player" builds. Hell he should do that for all ATs, it's really show him how little range = defence, and how much more risk a scrapper is at then a blaster.
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This begs the question, "How do you know he doesn't?" Just as I asked how do you know he doesn't plug you full of inspirations? I can only assume their testing follows similar patterns. If he uses such awkward builds to test scrappers with, why would he opt for the uber, min/max blaster build to test with?
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Of coarse that brings up the whole argument of, he's soloing 20+ 4+s with scrappers, and yet we're less at risk cause we're not in Melee?
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And you don't think that with selective inspiration use that a blaster could do the same thing, especially when the devs pack the mobs in the same manner that they showed us in their demos? Hell, fire blasters would have a field day with that arrangement.
All I'm saying is that inspirations make whoever uses them perform substantially better, particularly when you stack them. It doesn't matter who you are, even blasters can become practically immortal under the right conditions using inspirations.
I just thought it would be something to find out about considering that if they used the same testing standards for blasters as they do scrappers, it would make blasters appear exhorbitantly more powerful than you really are. Sorry if I interrupted your narrow-minded nerf-herding with a bit of critical thinking. Lord knows those two things don't mix. 
Here is an example of a real issue with the role of blasters.
Lets take evey AT +35 and do a task force or trial with 8 members (or even 4).
Group of only Controlers, If they have pets, they ussualy can complete it in record time.
Group of only Defenders, Cuts through TF and Trials like butter.
Group of only Scrappers, Seen it done and can be done.
Group of only Tanks, Takes a while but can complete it. (With Fire tanks they get it done pretty quickly)
Group of only Keldians, Haven't seen it done yet but with thier ability to shapeshift and thier multirole abilities, they should be able to do it.
Group of only Blasters, Never seen it done, EVER! You might be able to do it with a group of device blasters all slotted up smoke grenade but I haven't seen it done.
Has any group of only blaster have been able to do TF or Trials?
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Here is an example of a real issue with the role of blasters.
Lets take evey AT +35 and do a task force or trial with 8 members.
Group of only Controlers, If they have pets, they ussualy can complete it in record time.
Group of only Defenders, Cuts through TF and Trials like butter.
Group of only Scrappers, Seen it done and can be done.
Group of only Tanks, Takes a while but can complete it. (With Fire tanks they get it done pretty quickly)
Group of only Keldians, Haven't seen it done yet but with thier ability to shapeshift and thier multirole abilities, they should be able to do it.
Group of only Blasters, Never seen it done, EVER! You might be able to do it with a group of device blasters all slotted up smoke grenade but I haven't seen it done.
Has any group of only blaster have been able to do TF or Trials?
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I have done it
we were all different kinds of blasters, some with medecine pp, it was hard but fun we also did TV trial.
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Here is an example of a real issue with the role of blasters.
Lets take evey AT +35 and do a task force or trial with 8 members.
Group of only Controlers, If they have pets, they ussualy can complete it in record time.
Group of only Defenders, Cuts through TF and Trials like butter.
Group of only Scrappers, Seen it done and can be done.
Group of only Tanks, Takes a while but can complete it. (With Fire tanks they get it done pretty quickly)
Group of only Keldians, Haven't seen it done yet but with thier ability to shapeshift and thier multirole abilities, they should be able to do it.
Group of only Blasters, Never seen it done, EVER! You might be able to do it with a group of device blasters all slotted up smoke grenade but I haven't seen it done.
Has any group of only blaster have been able to do TF or Trials?
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I have done it
we were all different kinds of blasters, some with medecine pp, it was hard but fun we also did TV trial.
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What Lvl?
Whould you say that any other AT would be able to do a lot easier?
It was the bricks TF
I think the easiest time I've had of it was with 2 def 1 cont, 1 tank, 2 scrapers and 2 blasters
But in an all blaster group we had to be very careful, but we only had 1 death because As blasters, we al used very similar tactics and new how to be safe.
The one drawback was that blasters need to be carful and that takes time. So while I did the TF in 3 hours with a mixed group it took double that with the all blaster team.
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As a blaster, I can one shot a white con minion with my snipe, most of the time. Any minion I can one shot with snipe, I can two shot with my other heavy hitting powers. A scrapper (without a crit) can not two shot a minion.
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My MA scrapper can two shot a minion, and with a crit I've one-shotted oranges. And the Oranges I've one shotted are DE Fungi, and MA does not have the most damaging attacks.
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Well darn, that just took the wind out of my sails 
You don't hit smiling monsters - Sister Flame
Actually...
... about Divine Avalanche. It's a great power, buffs melee +def.
What if, just what if, the basic, bread-and-butter blaster powers (burst, power bolt, charged bolts, flares, ice bolt) - FOR BLASTERS ONLY -
... were given a +def of some kind? Maybe 10% for 10 seconds, stackable, and slottable? Flares, of course, could also use an animation time reduction.
Say, +def to melee/ranged attacks? Would still not help against AOEs, and a lot of blasters use those basic powers often (except Flares possibly).
Currently: 50s (5), 40s (3), 30s (5)
Red and blue side, mostly Infinity, Virtue, and Freedom.
I didn't misread what you wrote. I didn't even criticize your view. I could care less about it. I just challenged you directly to prove your false claim that Heph want's anything like God Mode for Blasters.
You said specifically:
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WAY too many posters in this Thread are just crying "GodMode me !!!" like it's the only way they think they can be Balanced. ..Especially Heph who's back for his usual song and dance on the subject.
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So prove it. Find anywhere where Heph has asked for anything like God Mode. You're the one that made the outright silly claim. He's made numerous posts for at best, modest (if not situational) defense, and a few posts specifically arguing _against_ things like status protection or scrapper durability.
If you're going to make WILD and OUTLANDISH claims against someone, you better find a way of proving it. There was no need for that from you.
I can think of one way to make Blaster Melee attacks work. Greatly reduced aggro (compared to other ATs). That way on teams, a Blaster could actually use them without becoming the "belle of the ball". This would also give Blasters something to do while waiting for teammates to gain or regain aggro without undermining their teammates efforts.
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You can't please everyone, so lets concentrate on me.
I am a bit curious. When the AT were created did you work from powers in the power sets or did you think I like Green Lantern and He has these powers so a blaster has these powers. Right now it seems the easist AT to run and solo thru the game is a tank everyone else has to pick and choose their battles. I say read a few more comic books. A spider-man or batman could not live in the city of heroes.
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My MA scrapper can two shot a minion, and with a crit I've one-shotted oranges. And the Oranges I've one shotted are DE Fungi, and MA does not have the most damaging attacks.
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Well darn, that just took the wind out of my sails
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He can two-shot white-con minions only with his best attacks. Maybe yellow-con minions if they aren't smashing resistant and his enhancements are ++'d out. It's not like he can do it with Thunder Kick and Storm Kick. Not without a crit. This is a Crane Kick/Storm Kick/Eagle's Claw duo, similar to using Power Burst and Power Blast back to back. But, yeah, scrappers can definitely two-shot regular minions. Most all damage-dealers can. My EM tanker can one-shot a red-con under the right conditions (Build-Up, Energy Transfer, damage-vulnerable mob).
More importantly, the only reason he can one shot an orange-con Fungi is because he critted with Eagle's Claw that has a Lethal Damage crit which Fungi are highly vulnerable to. If you were to watch him fight that thing with his other smashing attacks, which those are very resistant to, you'd probably feel sorry for him.
Don't let him get you down. He's exaggerating and leaving info out.
All Orochi is doing is puposefully inflating his information to make it sound like scrappers are massively better than they really are. Crits typically only occur 1 out of every 20 hits (1 in 6.67 for Eagles' Claw, our slow-recharging heavy-hitter attack). Don't get mystified whenever a scrapper says, "I can one-shot God with a crit!" That typically means, "Holy crap, I got really lucky and it would take X more tries to do that again!" :P
Like I said, don't let him upset you. He's trying to do it on purpose.
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I am a bit curious. When the AT were created did you work from powers in the power sets or did you think I like Green Lantern and He has these powers so a blaster has these powers. Right now it seems the easist AT to run and solo thru the game is a tank everyone else has to pick and choose their battles. I say read a few more comic books. A spider-man or batman could not live in the city of heroes.
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Bwahahaha. Spiderman is a /Super Reflexes Scrapper. His primary, sadly, is not implemented yet - the street fighting set that has been mentioned as an idea by the devs but probably has not even begun development. That aside, a Scrapper's ability to prosper in City of Heroes is almost entirely dependent on his secondary power set, and I can say from experience that a /Super Reflexes Scrapper is entirely capable of surviving in City of Heroes.
Batman is a harder hero to classify - in many ways, he's almost a tank-mage. Martial Arts/Super Reflexes Scrapper comes closest to describing him, but he has aspects of a Mind Controller and a /Devices Blaster as well. Don't discount him just because he's a Natural origin hero, CoH doesn't discriminate.
Fire Tanks and non-Dark Armor Scrappers certainly have the easiest ride beginning to end in City of Heroes, but there are plenty of Defenders who can solo easily and effectively, and even most Controllers make out like bandits in the 32+ game, which is the bulk of a character's lifespan. It's Blasters who have the real problems dealing with the game as it presently exist, as there are a limited number of power sets that really play to the AT's strengths, and even they are walking a narrow line between success and death. Which is why so many Blasters are upset that STatesman seems to be brushing their concerns off. To be fair, most Scrappers are upset too, since Statesman seems to be on an anti-Scrapper binge right now - we'd be happy to see him start paying attention to somebody else, especially somebody who cannot be nerfed with even the tiniest shred of credibility.
TEH WERDZ ON SKREEN HURTZ MI BRANE!
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My MA scrapper can two shot a minion, and with a crit I've one-shotted oranges. And the Oranges I've one shotted are DE Fungi, and MA does not have the most damaging attacks.
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Well darn, that just took the wind out of my sails
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Don't let him get you down. He's exaggerating and leaving info out.
All Orochi is doing is puposefully inflating his information to make it sound like scrappers are massively better than they really are. Crits typically only occur 1 out of every 20 hits (1 in 6.67 for Eagles' Claw, our slow-recharging heavy-hitter attack). Don't get mystified whenever a scrapper says, "I can one-shot God with a crit!" That typically means, "Holy crap, I got really lucky and it would take X more tries to do that again!"
Like I said, don't let him upset you. He's trying to do it on purpose.
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Thanks for that. I didn't think I was talking out of my league, but I really only play the game to have fun. I don't sit and number crunch.
Although I have played my blaster for close to 600 hours, so I think I know what I am talking about, even if I can't back it up with hard numbers.
I will say something else I think needs addressing. When I get hit by a ranged attack, it can take me some time to find out exactly what hit me, so I can hit it back. Especially in a large group.
When I hit an enemy with a ranged attack, the mob hit and all his friends almost immediately know I did it and charge, even when I am in stealth mode. This is a big problem to me. This is where there is unbalance.
Taking away instant aggro from a blaster ranged attack would help tremendously.
You can't snipe and cover in this game. The moment the enemy locks on, the decision is made by the program whether you're going to be hit or not. Nem snipers have hit me through walls, almost constantly. Where as, if I am drawing a bead on them and they walk past an obstacle, I lose the shot.
That should be looked into. It would help allow us to be the ranged weapon that we are meant to be.
You don't hit smiling monsters - Sister Flame
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You can't snipe and cover in this game. The moment the enemy locks on, the decision is made by the program whether you're going to be hit or not. Nem snipers have hit me through walls, almost constantly. Where as, if I am drawing a bead on them and they walk past an obstacle, I lose the shot.
That should be looked into. It would help allow us to be the ranged weapon that we are meant to be.
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Actually, it's possible, dangerous, and slow. As I've better and better at 'pulling', I've started being able to hit things without having them retaliate, and, more recenlty, I've been able to hit things and have them not even chase me (not consistently, and using terrain). The problem is, that if that happens, the mob will immediately hit me with an attack when I pop back out from cover (unless I wait for aggro to wear off).
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I am a bit curious. When the AT were created did you work from powers in the power sets or did you think I like Green Lantern and He has these powers so a blaster has these powers. Right now it seems the easist AT to run and solo thru the game is a tank everyone else has to pick and choose their battles. I say read a few more comic books. A spider-man or batman could not live in the city of heroes.
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I take a bit of offense to this statement. Spiderman could certainly live in COH, he is a scrapper after all. He just has 'bonus' power sets, like holds, but do not forget his primary powers are agility and strength.
And Batman, give me a break. The guy can take on SUPERMAN and has done so a few times. Statesman, I love you, but Superman you are not.
To quote ya, read your comics.
EDIT: Jabbrwock, ya beat me to it! 
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Or better yet go look in the Defender Forum. Search Key Words: "r u healer?" It suprised me too, but a lot of Defenders are recruited for a team zones-apart and then kicked off a team as soon as they make the trek to the zone the team lead is in and the Lead finds out their Primary, especially Team leads who are blasters or building the team for their Blaster friend.
REDICULOUS...how hard is it to righclick a Defender's name in the 'Find' box and pick the "chat" option and ask them "What's your Primary?" first before inviting them and then crucifying them for not taking Empath?
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I was in that thread and it's worse than that. This dynamic makes for some jaded Defenders. The other end of that is you have some Defenders, even Empaths, turning down team invites because they feel they are pidgeonholed into being healers only. Nevermind that most Defender sets provide buffs and/or debuffs and provide other ways of defending teammates.
I, for one, am sick of the jaded people on both sides. I am glad they represent a minority though. Most of us players just want to get along.