I've heard it said they're not that usefull in teh late 40's game...bah!
I'm lvl 22 right now with a illus/storm 'troller, and haven't been inviting blasters since the mid-teens. With the power of tanks and defenders, I don't really see the need for blasters at all. Even with my other heroes, blasters are inevitably my last-round draft pick, behind tanks, defenders, any Khelds, and scrappers. Yeah, it's that bad...
It's crazy how often I see defenders right up in the mix, melee range and all that for their heals and debuffs, and yet blasters are stuck in the rear hoping for some scraps of XP before their next death. They are even more squishy than I am, because I have nice AOE holds and so forth. I just hit the panic button and scoot on out of there.
Also, frankly, it's time to bring defenders in line a little bit. When I'm forming up a team, assuming it's otherwise evenly divided, I'll take 2-3 defenders in place of 2-3 blasters anyday. With some skills that will soon allow them to pass their own damage cap, this just seems nuts. Combine this with buffing an ENTIRE TEAMS damage/defenses, and why would u take a blaster anyway? If u want to collect debt that bad, go work at a bank.
Some short fixes?
a) More Hitpoints. They don't have the defensive skills/sttributes of defenders, scrappers, or even controllers do, while tankers, scrappers, and defenders all have decent damage as well, sometimes approaching blaster damage. More HP seems an easy fix, bump them up to medium HP maybe, or somewhere in between?
b) More damage. Hmmm...well, I tend to agree with scrappers getting more damage for the difficulty of their job, and being in melee range the whole time. I'm against this, though maybe raising the Max Buff Cap (from 400% to the scrapper's 500%?) would help blasters shine more in group situations?
c) Decrease the range of enemy snipe attacks. Should be easy...not sure there's any char or vilian in the game who should out-range the "ranged specialist" AT.
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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.
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Seems to me, in almost every group I'm in, that Blasters easily get 3 times the number of defeat messages that Scrappers do. The ability to change targets without moving adds so much more to Blasters offensive output than people seem to realize.
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Strangely, there was a lot of back and forth not too long ago in which several blasters insisted that scrappers can just stand in one spot and kill everything, while blasters have to constantly jockey for position.
It was surreal, but I think it demonstrated that neither scrappers nor blasters have the luxury of sitting in one place during a fight.
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)
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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.
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Seems to me, in almost every group I'm in, that Blasters easily get 3 times the number of defeat messages that Scrappers do. The ability to change targets without moving adds so much more to Blasters offensive output than people seem to realize.
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Strangely, there was a lot of back and forth not too long ago in which several blasters insisted that scrappers can just stand in one spot and kill everything, while blasters have to constantly jockey for position.
It was surreal, but I think it demonstrated that neither scrappers nor blasters have the luxury of sitting in one place during a fight.
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True. Both AT's have to move in combat. The only difference is the reason they're moving. For scrappers, it's most often to hit something else, far more rarely to get the hell outta Dodge.
Blasters are moving because something's running at them and they're outta control options and don't have the firepower to immediately drop it, and less often to apply more firepower (from their shorter ranged attacks) to an already engaged target.
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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Blasters are moving because something's running at them and they're outta control options and don't have the firepower to immediately drop it, and less often to apply more firepower (from their shorter ranged attacks) to an already engaged target.
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I can't speak for anyone else, but I reposition far more so I can maximize my damage than because I'm running away. Usually, by the time I notice I need to run away, it's already too late, so I don't bother.
However, it happens quite frequently that mobs gathering around a teammate clump in such a way that a different position would be more ideal for my powers, particularly cones and/or knockbacks.
I also find myself frequently re-targeting for best use of AoEs as well, much to the contradiction of others who would claim Blasters don't have to re-target. If I'm not very careful, the sudden death of my current target could change a masterfully-placed fireball into a single-target waste of end, as the game automatically re-targets for me (ugh - wish I could turn it off).
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Some short fixes?
a) More Hitpoints. They don't have the defensive skills/sttributes of defenders, scrappers, or even controllers do, while tankers, scrappers, and defenders all have decent damage as well, sometimes approaching blaster damage. More HP seems an easy fix, bump them up to medium HP maybe, or somewhere in between?
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This was something I've always found odd. "Hey, we're got this AT with uber defensive capacity and Oh! I know! Let's give them piles of HP too." Seems a bit like wrapping Bill Gates in hundred dollar bills. The HP bump the FC (?) Accolade that I picked up right before getting invited to a team was what kept me on my feet when the */Dev standing right next to me got waxed.
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b) More damage. Hmmm...well, I tend to agree with scrappers getting more damage for the difficulty of their job, and being in melee range the whole time. I'm against this, though maybe raising the Max Buff Cap (from 400% to the scrapper's 500%?) would help blasters shine more in group situations?
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Uhm... huh? Scrappers have defensive capacity to deal with the hairiness of their situation. Giving them move offensive capacity than Blasters, whose only real defense is their offense is, yet again, like wrapping Bill Gates in hundred dollar bills. I mean, it's great the way it is... for Scrappers. For Blasters it only makes their squishiness that much more squishy and contributes to the attitudes you openned your post with in the first place. Blasters have a major downside. Why in the hell would anyone in their right mind invite that downside unless their upside was well and truly worth it? Having any AT come close to or surpass Blasters in terms of offensive output is flatout wrong. You're doing pretty good, but I think you're letting your Scrapper bias seep into this point a bit.
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c) Decrease the range of enemy snipe attacks. Should be easy...not sure there's any char or vilian in the game who should out-range the "ranged specialist" AT.
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Enemy snipe attacks? I'm more concerned with the minions with submachineguns and LTs with six-shooters tagging my happy [censored] halfway across the map. Enemy snipers having range... totally makes sense. A guy firing a six-shooter from the hip having range (and by that I mean better than anything a Blaster has) is flatout wrong.
A guy firing a six-shooter from the hip having range (and by that I mean better than anything a Blaster has) is flatout wrong.
What are you talking about? I've never been killed by a gunslinger, only to have him teleport next to my corpse when he was done with me 
I usually try to chase the buggers down before it gets to that stage 
I think the if We would Add Armor as a powerset to help increase the ability of the blaster to take a little bit more damage (ok a lot more). We could take our rightful place as a damge dealers and not "SQUISHIES". I can not divorce myself from the comic book world to play in COH. Captain Mar-vell can hold his own against most bad guys or am I wrong and he is not a blaster.
So can Iron Man... well, unless you attack him with a bottle of scotch... but this is CoH, not the comics. Leave the comicbooks alone. All that comes from comparing CoH with comics is heartache. Ask the Tankers. Blasters are "Glass Cannons". Defensive capacity isn't in the job description. The problems we have aren't because we're squishies, it's that our "cannon" part isn't jiving up with how "glassy" we are. Well, part of it is anyway.
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A guy firing a six-shooter from the hip having range (and by that I mean better than anything a Blaster has) is flatout wrong.
What are you talking about? I've never been killed by a gunslinger, only to have him teleport next to my corpse when he was done with me
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I've never been killed by a gunslinger period... unless we're talking about the Lts. with their annoying cryo bullets... but I only see those on teams.
Their range is stupid, though...
Never been killed by one either. Cryo? I'm usually getting hit with fire from them. Ironically, until I got Body Armor, they only hit me with lead. Their range is just f'd right the hell up.
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Their range is just f'd right the hell up.
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And half their damn shots are cone attacks. Nothing like one of them fighting the tank across a room, and spamming you with bullets too.
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Their range is just f'd right the hell up.
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And half their damn shots are cone attacks. Nothing like one of them fighting the tank across a room, and spamming you with bullets too.
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And even if you do dip into power pools to boost your defense, it doesn't apply to cones or AoEs.
But the Malta Group are just one giant conspiracy filled with evil cheater-heads.
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)
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Their range is just f'd right the hell up.
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And half their damn shots are cone attacks. Nothing like one of them fighting the tank across a room, and spamming you with bullets too.
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And even if you do dip into power pools to boost your defense, it doesn't apply to cones or AoEs.
But the Malta Group are just one giant conspiracy filled with evil cheater-heads.
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Those jerks with their stun grenades, their tasers, their sapping taser guns, and their stun punches....
Oh yeah... Malta stuns... good grief. Call me kooky, but I don't think a stun should last the duration of a big fight.
Malta: *bonk*
Ohms: *drunk-walks for the next five minutes*
Malta: *snicker*
Ohms: .oO(Evil cheater-heads)
Especially when they stack it on you and continue to stack it.
Malta: (brawl)
Matches: ow!
Malta: (grenade)
Matches: (falls) ow! Hey, quit it...(gets up)
Malta: (stun grenade)
Malta: (stun grenade)
Malta: (stun grenade)
Matches: (looks around) pretty colors.....(Break Free)
Malta: (saps stamina, pokes with taser)
Matches: Medic!!!
Malta are the main reason I use hover nowadays... stupid tasers... suddenly those machine guns that tickle start to hurt...
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Their range is just f'd right the hell up.
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And half their damn shots are cone attacks. Nothing like one of them fighting the tank across a room, and spamming you with bullets too.
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And even if you do dip into power pools to boost your defense, it doesn't apply to cones or AoEs.
But the Malta Group are just one giant conspiracy filled with evil cheater-heads.
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I think I need to make that a broadcast bind for my malta missions...
/bind numpad1 broadcast You Maltas are a bunch of evil cheater-heads!
Thanks for the line Kali!
Fireclad - Neon Peon - Inner Voice - Confused Larry - Pep Squad - Bob's Secret - Squidclad
Better than "Will you PL me?"
OK - I'm gonna commit a couple cardinal sins here -
1) Joining the thread late, and
2) Not reading every post. Sorry, but with 10 pages of posts (with the maximum # of posts available for each page), I'm not going to read them all.
At least I'm not starting another thread with this, as I almost did.
So, here is what I was going to post -
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Blasters are listed as the damage kings yet their damage is capped BELOW that of scrappers. Why?
The max damage of a Blaster is 400%...a Scrapper is 500%. We did this because the Scrapper is involved in melee and thus in a riskier situation far more often. Blasters, on the other hand, can pick and choose their targets from a distance.
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Statesman, I can understand that Scrappers get involved in melee, so they (supposedly) have more risk than Blasters. However, isn't that why they have defenses and higher hit points than Blasters?
You say that Blasters "can pick & choose their targets from a distance." While this may be true, Range is not the defense that you make it out to be. If a minion's general attack has a longer range than my Snipe, where's the defense that range is supposed to give? This is why Blasters have no defense and little in the way of hit points.
But if Scrappers can out damage Blasters [color= yellow]and[/color] have the defenses to hold up against villains' attacks (in melee, no less), then, honestly, what is the use of the Blaster AT? What is it that Blasters are supposed to bring to a team when another AT can bring the same thing but only better?
From the way I understand the AT structure, every AT has something to offer to teams that other ATs can't.
- [*]Tanks can hold aggro and take massive amounts of damage.[*]Defenders can debuff the enemy & buff the team (as well as do damage - not as much as Blasters or Scrappers, but they can still do damage).[*]Controllers can hold and immobilize the enemy (as well as buff & debuff - not as good as a Defender, but they can do it).[*]Scrappers bring damage and the ability to survive the consequences of dishing out that damage.[*]Blasters bring.....uhm....Blasters bring.....uhm.....damage. Which is fine, there are other ATs that overlap....but apparently Scrappers will be able to out damage Blasters and Blasters have nothing to balance this out.[/list]
Yes, Blasters have their 1 defining, nuking power. However, if anything is left - we're toast. We don't have the ability to survive the instant aggro we just generated with that power.
Now some might say that this justifies the "squishiness" of Blasters - that this 1 power will out-damage anything else.
Ok, so Blasters have 1 power that justifies it. But is it balanced? Scrappers have many powers that they can use pretty much at any time to dish out damage AND survive. This 1 power for Blsaters is situational (at best), takes a long time to recharge so it can't be used all the time, and is not gauranteed to hit everything - or even anything.
Now, if you want Scrappers to be able to out-damage Blasters, fine - you are the developer, it is your game, and ultimately your decision. But can you tell me, please, what it is then that Blasters are supposed to bring to the team that is unique to them? I do not believe that ranged damage is it - as range is not a defense anymore and even then, easily half of our powers are melee-based (or close "ranged"). If our attacks are melee-based, how are we supposed to provide ranged damage? Every other AT has defense of some kind - ours is supposed to be range and the damage that we do; but if we are out-damaged by another AT and range is not the defense that it is supposed to be, what are we Blasters to do? (And yes, I can hear it now from some of the forum goers - "Play a Scrapper." Honestly, I've tried Scrappers - I don't like them. They're great ATs; I've seen many great players operate Scrappers. They're just not the AT for me.)
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I think I need to make that a broadcast bind for my malta missions...
/bind numpad1 broadcast You Maltas are a bunch of evil cheater-heads!
Thanks for the line Kali!
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You're welcome. Glad to help in labeling the Malta Group for what they really are. Big fat evil cheater heads.
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)
This cat-girl is all up for some blaster luv!
What..? NO! I am not just saying this because I am starting my own blaster! How dare anyone make such an accusation.
Seriousness now.. Let me give a little warning. "Be carefull what you wish for. You might just get it." I am trying to find a delecate way to put this, but I have failed. I guess I will just come right out and say it then. If you guys get "to good" then every other AT will start breathing down your necks again. Cries of "City of Blasters!" will fall from the sky once more. I hate to cry doom
Ahem... DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
, but seek a moderate fix. Small steps in the desired direction is probaby best. The last thing you guys probably want is a series of fixes and nerfs that overcorrect the problem the previous nerf/fix made.
I will stop there. I have my own thoughts(like.. outright damage mitigation in the form of defense would probably draw to much attention), but I don't have any good solid blaster experience. I will leave having wished you guys the best of luck.
Even a non blaster thinks that.. Blasters are heros too. 
first: Cronniss_S, that was very nicely put so we forgive you.
Miss Kitty: well you don't have to worry too much on that end [enjoy hard-mode by the way! its much fun!]
For the most part, at least up until recently, Most of the changes we've suggested for blasters are relatively small. Handfuls of minor-moderate changes that will combine to improve us across the board; rather than screaming for one big fix of the "double damage" type.
Even most suggestions of things like crits are for watered down versions. Its actually because we've already been going through the heavy compensation-nerfs, and don't want whatever we get to cause another chain of them.
SG was a fix... but everything else [like burn's mezz-protection removal, or giving things better range than we could ever hope for] has been rather overbearing nerfage. Hell, half our suggestions are just for partial reductions of some of those nerfs, rather than outright removal or addition of new things to screw things up.
Not all, of course. There's also stuff like the simulcasting suggestions, etc..
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Seriousness now.. Let me give a little warning. "Be carefull what you wish for. You might just get it." I am trying to find a delecate way to put this, but I have failed. I guess I will just come right out and say it then. If you guys get "to good" then every other AT will start breathing down your necks again. Cries of "City of Blasters!" will fall from the sky once more.
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The overpowered nature of Blasters during issues 1 and 2 had been addressed by two things: The fixing of Smoke Grenade and the Purple Patch. Majority of blasters that came out in generation 1 were AR or Fire/Devices and everyone pretty much followed what RSRobinson promoted in terms of powerleveling. After that, Tanks and Scrappers got boosts to their damage and got their defenses tweaked. The only thing notable that happened to blasters during that time was the removal of status protection from Burn.
In reality, there was only one real problem that was Blaster-specific. The purple patch was added to make the whole game more difficult. It seems however, that while the game got more difficult for blasters, the tankers and scrappers were tweaked (and I'd say overly tweaked) to adjust to the new enemies. I've met and played with tons of tankers in the post level 35 world, and all of them at some point during our battles have cracked a joke about leaving the keyboard to go take a dump or make a sandwich.
All I have to say is...
Blaster Role?
Carpeting.