Blaster role
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what does a Blaster do that a Scrapper can't already do? Or, even worse, is a Scrapper inherently "stronger" than a Blaster. We want each Archetype to have a well defined role, and part of our Scrapper testing is aimed directly at this.
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Ah jeez, Statesman... Scrappers step on Tankers' toes. Scrappers step on Blasters' toes. Why don't you just set Scrappers aside as an enemy group and let all the "good" customers beat on us? Now go get the controllers in a frenzy at us by reminding them that we have access to petrifying gaze in one of our APP's so they're no longer necessary because scrappers can hold.
Sorry we've pissed you off so much by enjoying one of your five AT's.
Its really not scrappers fault that they are stepping on others toes as much as the Devs fault for making the "jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none" AT so close (well post-purple patch almost equal) to the speciallized one. Devs got the middle man AT closer to accurate with Kheldians.
Dear States,
Personally, I think Ice Manipulation is a great secondary, with a couple of crappy powers, but I dont think its anyworse than Devices or Energy.
If changes are made to Blaster secondaries, such as adding new powers, please consider using the Kheldian model of power availability. What I mean is, Kheldians can unlock multiple powers from a primary or secondary set at the same time. As an example, Dawn Strike and Photon Seekers are both unlocked at level 32. If new powers are added to secondaries to add to Blaster survivability, I propose that none of the current powers be removed. Rather, just add more powers to the set that unlock at the same level as current powers. The code must already be there for this.
Heroes
Dysmal
Lumynous
Sam Steele
Pluck
Wile
Slagheap
Pressure Wave
Rhiannon Bel
Verified
Stellaric
Syd Mallorn
Villains
Jotunheim Skald
Saer Maen
Jen Corbae
Illuminance
Venator Arawn
Taiga Dryad
Tarranos
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Secondly, I have no intention of removing melee attacks - it's just a "perception" by some Blasters that some of the Secondary Sets aren't as useful as Devices or Energy Manipulation.
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Yeah, I've always had this "perception" that getting into melee with anything on my Electric/Ice Blaster was essentially begging to die. I get enough Ranged attacks in my Primary that I can cycle damage forever. Why would I want to run in and try to slap someone, giving him the chance to gut me?
I wouldn't call it a "perception" ... No. Unless you've got some psychotic obsession with debt, building a "blapper" is pretty fruity.
I'd kill for */Ice to have more utility. If you yank all the melee attacks and PBAoE abilities, what do you have left? A self buff, an immobilize, and an Ice Patch? That's not a "Ranged" secondary.
Devices is ideal. Only ONE melee ability and it's a disorient attack. Everything else can be used at range, is a self buff, or is placed on the ground (melee-range optional).
Energy follows closely for the array of self-buffs, not melee damage (though I hear it's solid for that, too... But when a Chief Soldier kills you in one hit, do you really want to get that close to him?)
I'm glad to hear you have no plans to make Blasters in general more attractive to play as their designated role - Ranged damage.
/watches the steady decline of Blasters in groups
/goes back to trying to get his Fire/Ice tanker to level 50 so he can try a Kheldian.
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Quoted from Statesman's original post-
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I went away from the computer to check on some CoV stuff and *wham* I received 5 or so PM's asking "what is the Blaster's role?"
Answer - Ranged damage.
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Then about 4 sentences later...
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Secondly, I have no intention of removing melee attacks
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Then immediately after that gem...
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it's just a "perception" by some Blasters that some of the Secondary Sets aren't as useful as Devices or Energy Manipulation.
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Take a good close look at that progression states. First, blasters role is ranged damage, your own words. Second, you have no intenion of removing melee attacks... you know, the things that don't define the blaster's role. I'm not saying Blasters shouldn't have any melee attacks, but some sets just have a silly number of them.
Third, you're telling all the blasters that their 'perception' of certain sets is wrong? Kinda like you proved your uber regen build roxxored on your internal test environment, right?
Could it be, I dunno, that the guys who have played their blasters from 1 to 50 'might' have some knowledge on what is an inferior powerset and what isn't? Saying Ice Manipulation is as useful as Devices is like saying Ice Armor is as good as Invulnerability for tankers. It's just not true.
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Some of the powersets have different uses than others, though none is inheriently worse.
I mean, taking a look at the sets...
/elec does more melee damage than /energy, has a hold, drains endurance, has a good damage PBAoE toggle that also drains endurance (and that is what i use it for), and an AoE drain/+endo.
Some of the powers are not as usefull for some primaries, and this is an issue.
/fire is another example, it has nearly no control and no defence. That sucks...
/fire can only be used well with a good team and good defender...
But oh man, with a good team it does damage, and lots of damage, absolutly stupid amounts of AoE damage. It needs activation time reductions is all.
/ice also does lots of damage, as well as having a hold, as well as knockdown and slows.(second power = ice blast every 4 seconds[instead of 9] for half the endurance of each attack!)...
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Its really not scrappers fault that they are stepping on others toes as much as the Devs fault for making the "jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none" AT so close (well post-purple patch almost equal) to the speciallized one. Devs got the middle man AT closer to accurate with Kheldians.
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I'll Agree with that!
We've known all this time that Scrappers Solo at a Superior rate while all other AT's are intentionally handicapped at soloing, but Scrappers are nothing that anyone kicks out of bed for eating crackers in a team lovfest either! Infact the only AT that's regularly kicked out of teams, is some Energy Blasters and lots of StormDefenders. ..FireBlasters of course, are forced to quit teams once they hit their DebtCap for the night
You mentioned the Keldians.... Which much more of a Team-AT because their Tanker Form has inherrant Provoking and they pretty much have to since a Void guy's waiting around every corner to shove a quantum gun up their azz.
Maybe the answer is right under our noses ... atleast in Team PvP... And that's to take all of this Aggro that Blasters are magically able to generate, and divert it all to the nearest Scrapper or Tanker automatically for the Blaster's sake. ....That would certainly help Handicap a Scrapper in Team Gaming if he took most of the Aggro just for being in the general area .
I think part of the problem is range just doesn't count for much these days. Just about every single bad guy in the game has some kind of a ranged attack that almost always out ranges the blasters. In fact a lot of the time when a blaster does his ranged AOEs or what ever, the bosses and LTs immediately return fire and down the blaster, unless they were taunted first.
I say give all the blaster powers a good range increase across the board, ESPECIALY the Snipe powers. This way a good blaster could get in a few good hits at long range, and have that range actually mean something.
And I don't see why blasters can't have that %500 damage cap as well. First of all to really use that cap pre Hami O you would need the help of Fulcrum Shift, which you need to be point blank on your enemies anyways. Second off, Blasters are supposed to be the "kings of dps". They get no defense other then range, no buffs, no heals. All they have going for them are their nukes. Finally, Blasters are THE most squishy things in the game, period. Its pretty piss weak to see scrappers and even fire tanks out mowing blasters when blasters should be the ones nuking everything.
There are nothing wrong with "Blapper" powers as is, provided you're in a good team. A good total focus here and there can really put the hurt on a boss, especially after all his minions have been mowed. But Blapper powers require that you have excelent mob and argo control, or that boss will hit back and kill the blaster. Its a little like being a rogue in other games: you need to hit things you KNOW won't be hitting back any time soon.
The truth is the solution from an equation of lies. ~Maileah Kirel
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Dear States,
Personally, I think Ice Manipulation is a great secondary, with a couple of crappy powers, but I dont think its anyworse than Devices or Energy.
If changes are made to Blaster secondaries, such as adding new powers, please consider using the Kheldian model of power availability. What I mean is, Kheldians can unlock multiple powers from a primary or secondary set at the same time. As an example, Dawn Strike and Photon Seekers are both unlocked at level 32. If new powers are added to secondaries to add to Blaster survivability, I propose that none of the current powers be removed. Rather, just add more powers to the set that unlock at the same level as current powers. The code must already be there for this.
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I would second this.
If Blasters are ranged damage then they ought to be able to pick from their secondary a large number of powers that don't require that they be in melee range.
But there are plenty of happy blappers out there.
So I really see this as the only viable way to "fix" the secondaries.
PS - States: This is one of the rare times that a post of yours actually left me MORE confused than before.
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I went away from the computer to check on some CoV stuff and *wham* I received 5 or so PM's asking "what is the Blaster's role?"
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Sorry man, it was just a question. If it upended your helmet, sorry, really
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Answer - Ranged damage. Now, the issue is more specifically - what does a Blaster do that a Scrapper can't already do? Or, even worse, is a Scrapper inherently "stronger" than a Blaster. We want each Archetype to have a well defined role , and part of our Scrapper testing is aimed directly at this.
[/ QUOTE ] Whoa, sounded like you have really said the primary focus is ranged damage.
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Secondly, I have no intention of removing melee attacks - it's just a "perception" by some Blasters that some of the Secondary Sets aren't as useful as Devices or Energy Manipulation. This is a rather frequent refrain in PM's (and the occasional forum post). This is something that we should also explore...we want all the Secondary sets to be fun.
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Well sir, it's kinda not fun to grind out late game. Out of the level 50s on our group, a certain three recruited prior to me making 36 at more than twelve levels (avg 24) behind me and those same three reached 50 before I reached 44 with comparable playing time because of the late game limits, and who were they: Scrappers. They were the first three level 50s in the group. Incidentally I was the 7th person on our roster to make it.
Statesman, I don't care if some melee powers stay or even all in some sets, but put on the pants and wade through the mud. All I am saying is that I and others I am sure of could have used your evaluation and modifications months ago. So don't play both sides of the fence. We are ranged according to you. So help us be able to survive and more importantly be competitive that way. I am tired of the boss-killer minion-killer labels. Fix it.
Just thought I'd take a look at how well a Blasters current Primary and Secondaries are filling their role. Here are some numbers (since every good CoH discussion needs them it seems). Just to clarify, for blasters I am defining a power as an "Attack" if it deals any amount of damage.
Ar|Ele|Eng|Fire|Ice - Primaries
9 7 7 7 8 = 38/45 Ranged Attack Powers
Melee/PBAoE (0-5ft)
0 1 1 1 0 = 3
Close (6-40ft)
2 0 2 2 1 = 7
Mid Range (41-80ft)
4 6 4 4 7 = 25
Long Range (81-120)
3 0 0 0 0 = 3
Very Long Range (121-160)
0 1 1 1 0 = 3
Dev|Ele|Eng|Fire|Ice - Secondaries
2 1 0 1 2 = 6/45 Ranged Attack Powers
Melee/PBAoE (0-5ft)
3 5 5 7 2 = 22
Close (6-40ft)
0 0 0 0 0 = 0
Mid Range (41-80ft)
1 1 0 1 2 = 5
Long Range (81-120)
0 0 0 0 0 = 0
Very Long Range (121-160)
0 0 0 0 0 = 0
I wasn't sure where to place turret under devices as it's placed at the blaster's feet, but still attacks at a range (which I don't know the base of).
So, anyone/everyone, feel free to interpret the numbers as you wish about how focused Blasters can be on Range and feel free to further stratify the ranges if you think it will help.
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Now, the issue is more specifically - what does a Blaster do that a Scrapper can't already do?
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So I guess there's no definite answer on that yet, huh?
Actually, to me that's AoE damage, but I think most blasters are stuck on the "omg scrappers get 500% cap and we only 400%, we are doooooomed!"
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Ever meet a spines scrapper? They ARE an AOE. And I'm an elec blaster. I have 2 AOE attacks. (Damage bearing ones, that is.)
Now, to address Statesman's question.
Well, we can hold. Scrappers can't. Though they can get immobs, I think. Not sure on this.
We can drain end, do DoT, and all the other secondary effects. Some of which can't be done by scrappers.
We can visit the hospital. This we're very good at. We sometimes meet other blasters while we're there.
We can attack from range. No, some of the scrappers can do that as well.
Out of 4 things so far, the only one I don't see scrappers doing is visiting the hospital. (Not saying the occassional death doesn't occur, but far less than it does for the blasters)
I sent you a very long PM a while back States, outlining some ideas on how blasters could be improved. I'd hoped to at least hear back from you with "Thanks for the ideas," but I got nothing. If you like, I can send that your way again, since there seems to be at least SOME attention going our way now.
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Dear States,
Personally, I think Ice Manipulation is a great secondary, with a couple of crappy powers, but I dont think its anyworse than Devices or Energy.
If changes are made to Blaster secondaries, such as adding new powers, please consider using the Kheldian model of power availability. What I mean is, Kheldians can unlock multiple powers from a primary or secondary set at the same time. As an example, Dawn Strike and Photon Seekers are both unlocked at level 32. If new powers are added to secondaries to add to Blaster survivability, I propose that none of the current powers be removed. Rather, just add more powers to the set that unlock at the same level as current powers. The code must already be there for this.
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I would second this.
If Blasters are ranged damage then they ought to be able to pick from their secondary a large number of powers that don't require that they be in melee range.
But there are plenty of happy blappers out there.
So I really see this as the only viable way to "fix" the secondaries.
PS - States: This is one of the rare times that a post of yours actually left me MORE confused than before.
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I sent one of those PM's, and I'm with you, Pilcrow...confused.
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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Energy follows closely for the array of self-buffs, not melee damage (though I hear it's solid for that, too... But when a Chief Soldier kills you in one hit, do you really want to get that close to him?)
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Yes, you really do, because after you land Total Focus on him, he's going to stagger around long enough for you to take him out. If you hang back, he's going to be more than happy to two- or three-shot you with his ranged weapon unless you get a backup defense from your primary (which you definitely don't, if you're Fire/*).
Ok, long post, here goes:
I remember thinking of how powerful my blaster was when I first started playing her. The first 30 levels flew by, I could solo very nicely, I worked well in teams, I was loving it. Then something happened in my mid 30s. I started dying in my own missions, a lot. Naturally, I decided to start teaming more to help myself survive. That worked pretty well for a while. Everyone wanted blasters because they were undoubtedly the biggest damage dealers in the game.
Then Scrappers got critical hits. This is a good thing, scrappers had no role in groups. Now they could kill bosses better than anyone, and had a nicely defined role. The problem with this is that since they can kill bosses better, they can kill everything else better, too. Scrappers took over the role of blasters as damage dealers (they also took over for tanks, but this has been fixed) Scrappers are capped at higher damage, which means that they are better at being death factories than blasters. The problem is that they can survive just about anything better than a blaster can, too.
In a small team, a blaster is useless because a scrapper can take down baddies faster, and requires less attention from healers and other buff-based defenders. In a large team, a blaster is useless because they add less damage than a scrapper, can't control very well, can't take a hit, and need to stay further from the team, making defenders' jobs harder. The only time blasters are really useful is in herding situations. They have more AoE and they don't get in the way of the tank that's herding. Since defenders in herding teams only need to pay attention to one person, they don't take attention away from the rest of the team.
I guess the real problem with blasters is that there really isn't anything that a blaster can do that somebody else can't do better. I've seen defenders kill things almost as fast with infinitely better safety at range, plus they have buffs to help the team or debuffs to nerf the bad guys. Scrappers in a team can outdamage a blaster by a lot, plus they can take hits. (some) Blasters can lay down more consistant AoE than (some) scrappers, but they draw enough hate that tanks lose aggro which invariably leads to a dead squishy, unless that tank is doing nothing but generating as much aggro as possible (as in a herding situation.)
So, what's a blaster's role in a team? Judging by what they shine at, nothing other than laying down AoEs in a herded mission, unless you count picking up debt faster than anyone. The problem is in the late 30s and 40s, when ranged damage becomes almost as nasty as melee damage.
So, melee damage is less than ranged damage, right? This is true for the bad guys, but they obviously don't work on the same rules, so why does it have to be true for the good guys too? Sure, blasters take half as much damage as scrappers, but they can only deal with 1/10th as much with the same success (if they're a somewhat gimpy scrapper). In the 40s that half damage that they take turns into 3/4 which isn't bad, but again, scrappers deal with it a lot better. Defenders don't take anywhere near as much aggro, so they survive it better. By the time a controller takes aggro the enemies can't attack back, or if they can, they have a pet begging to be shot instead. So why are scrappers capped at higher damage? An illusion that says since enemy range is weaker than enemy melee, we can create balance by making it the same for players. Looks good on paper, not so much in practice (kinda like communism)
Things don't have to be the same for players as they are for enemies. For instance: If players are stunned, they're helpless; if enemies are stunned, they get to run away, jumping over obstacles and everything, even flying sometimes. This is an ok difference because enemies are generally stupid compared to players. Why can't blaster damage be greater than scrapper damage? After all, that difference would be ok since enemies generally have a lot more teammates than players.
I personally think that the damage cap situation should be reversed. Then scrappers would still have their roles (boss killers with up to 800% damage sometimes) and blasters would become the ones that do the consistant big damage (up to 500% all the time) Maybe blasters should all get a little accuracy boost, too, just to further their roles as the consistant ones. Oh, and a blaster should NEVER be able to out-aggro a tanker's taunt
And here's my take on blaster secondaries. From my perception, it's not that blaster secondaries that aren't devices or energy aren't useful, it's that they are less widely useful, more situational. Devices has a little bit of everything to fill in some gaps that blasters have, while energy manipulation has powers that help you do everything better than you could otherwise. The other sets seem much more narrowly defined. Maybe if they all had some more generally useful powers in them instead. Maybe add a hold here and there, or strengthen existing secondary effects slightly. I don't have much of a problem with blaster secondaries, most of them just aren't as easy to use as energy or devices.
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We can attack from range. No, some of the scrappers can do that as well.
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Scrapper ranged output is nothing compared to blaster ranged output, and scrapper range is at best half of the range of bread and butter blaster attacks.
Yes, some scrappers can do damage at range. No, it does not compare to blaster ranged damage.
So, if our role is just "ranged damage" whereas we were previously "massive damage" and "offensive juggernauts," does that mean we will get some near scrapper level defenses?
I don't really like sticking my head in the sand, but not knowing what the devs thought felt better than looking at the huge gap between reality and how they view Blasters.
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PS - States: This is one of the rare times that a post of yours actually left me MORE confused than before.
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What, you've never seen any of those posts that demonstrate why they're called "Cryptic"?
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We can attack from range. No, some of the scrappers can do that as well.
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Scrapper ranged output is nothing compared to blaster ranged output, and scrapper range is at best half of the range of bread and butter blaster attacks.
Yes, some scrappers can do damage at range. No, it does not compare to blaster ranged damage.
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That's something I touched on in my thread.
It doesn't matter that it isn't exactly Blaster level damage, it's good enough to the point where a Blaster isn't needed.
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I went away from the computer to check on some CoV stuff and *wham* I received 5 or so PM's asking "what is the Blaster's role?"
Answer - Ranged damage.
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Thanks for the definition. Very much appreciated. However, if our role is ranged damage, why so much melee in the secondaries? Currently, the only Blaster secondary I will play is Devices because of the sheer amount of melee in other sets.
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Now, the issue is more specifically - what does a Blaster do that a Scrapper can't already do?
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Currently nothing.
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Or, even worse, is a Scrapper inherently "stronger" than a Blaster.
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In the game's current form - yes. Having Blaster damage with incredible defense makes them stronger IMO.
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We want each Archetype to have a well defined role, and part of our Scrapper testing is aimed directly at this.
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I can tell you from experience that the Blaster's role of ranged damage is currently broken. There's nothing that we can do that another AT can't do safer than we can - that's just wrong.
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Secondly, I have no intention of removing melee attacks - it's just a "perception" by some Blasters that some of the Secondary Sets aren't as useful as Devices or Energy Manipulation. This is a rather frequent refrain in PM's (and the occasional forum post). This is something that we should also explore...we want all the Secondary sets to be fun.
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Personally, most of the fun is gone when I have to venture into melee range. For someone to even make good use of these melee powers, they have to take the Fighting pool. No player should have to use power pools to preform their ATs role.
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Law saved me the trouble of typing all this.
All the best PVP blaster builds look and play just like scraps right now.
SS/SJ, Havoc Punch, Bone Smasher, TF, Resists.
Maybe a little control thrown in on the ice primary and fire EPP and telsa cage to make squishy hunts even easier.
My blaster could handle purple rikti bosses with ease from 35+ but only because of 2 ranged holds, not very blasterish either. Pure ranged builds utterly fail in the arena. I just gave up trying to make one work.
Can't hold anyone without a toggle drop and that means brawl, havoc punch, fire whatever melee, bone smasher, and whatever in dev...dev is a little bit better since TP'ing people into a mine ambush is at least a much different game than
scraps play.
I will say that I am doing fine without the fighting pool, but only because I took energy EPP and have Force of Nature and Temp Inv...more scrap/melee type stuff. Weave of course is pointless.
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It doesn't matter that it isn't exactly Blaster level damage, it's good enough to the point where a Blaster isn't needed.
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Two scrapper sets with two ranged attacks each, one with a maximum range of 30' and one with a maximum range of 40', make blaster ranged damage unneeded?
I'm not counting ancillary power pools, because they show up way late and don't add all that much. What few scrapper attacks there are simply don't measure up as any kind of replacement.
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Actually, to me that's AoE damage, but I think most blasters are stuck on the "omg scrappers get 500% cap and we only 400%, we are doooooomed!"
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Yes because no scrappers have AoE, not Spines, not Claws, not BS, not Kat, not Dark, not MA...
oh no, wait they do...like, Spine Burst, Quills, Ripper, Throw Spines, Spin, Eviscerate, Shockwave, Slice, Whirling Sword, (Kat verstions of those last two), Shadow Maul, Dark Consumption (hey if we're just counting AoE damage here, minor or not, it's AoE and damage, had enough people holding Rain of Fire against me as "damage," pfft...) and Dragon's tail.
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And states, thanks for comfirming that you are out of sync with the game, including your own ideas for one AT. If we're ranged damage specialists (not even offensive juggernauts anymore, nice to know we are the most useless AT in the game now), why do we have melee, yeah I like some of the melee attacks, but some are just retarded to keep.
You're also telling us, the people who actually have to take the time to get to 50 and can't just type "/level to 50 with all powers from all sets" and have to slog through the game with useless power sets, that we're wrong when we say that the power set is useless? Please post a demo recording of /fire being even close to as useful as /dev or /eng, so we can see your internal test server being wrong once again.
This is an outrage, Scrappers whine cause they can't take on multiple 4+ bosses and AVs, and can't herd as well any more and they get a written apology, we want to equal three reds and are told "well obviously you don't know how to play? BS States, BS...
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It doesn't matter that it isn't exactly Blaster level damage, it's good enough to the point where a Blaster isn't needed.
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Two scrapper sets with two ranged attacks each, one with a maximum range of 30' and one with a maximum range of 40', make blaster ranged damage unneeded?
I'm not counting ancillary power pools, because they show up way late and don't add all that much. What few scrapper attacks there are simply don't measure up as any kind of replacement.
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The point is more that in general damage being ranged isn't that big of a plus. Especially when you have no reason to fear being in melee. Especially also considering that to really pump out damage blasters need to be in melee also.
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The point is more that in general damage being ranged isn't that big of a plus. Especially when you have no reason to fear being in melee. Especially also considering that to really pump out damage blasters need to be in melee also.
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And especially considering that pumping out the damage at range draws heavy aggro. It can be a negative at times in a team. I'm with you on all that.
as a fire blaster I never had many melee attacks. melee attacks weren't the problem. it's the overabundance of DoT Pbaoe's and not an ounce of control or utility....
Did you guys think we were tanks or did you just run out of time pre release?
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If blaster-melee is made more blaster-friendly, then it could become a very interesting option.
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I've been saying this for 7 months. No one was willing to listen then.... Unfortunately for them they've run out of options so they have to listen now.
Edit:
I'm not saying that Blapping should be our Defense and certainly not our Only defense... But it shouldn't be something that endangers us any worse than our Ranged attacks if it's Damage cap is going to remain 400%. And Conversely... It should be something even better in PvP, ... a Deterrant, granting us even more 'Percieved' Defense in PvP....Maybe even making Scrappers fear Blasters in PvP as much as Blasters fear those same Scrappers.