The Elec/Elec blaster makes the ultimate blapper. I am still iffy on the blaster part.
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Blasters are very good at soloing up until the 30s then IMHO they become ineffective
[/ QUOTE ] A blaster's ability to generate xp "solo" is probaby unrivaled throughout their career. Maybe Spines/DA can generate more xp faster. What blasters claim they can't do is finish their missions. Per the devs, soloing is not defined by the ability to finish all your story arcs solo.
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Blasters are very good at soloing up until the 30s then IMHO they become ineffective
[/ QUOTE ] A blaster's ability to generate xp "solo" is probaby unrivaled throughout their career. Maybe Spines/DA can generate more xp faster. What blasters claim they can't do is finish their missions. Per the devs, soloing is not defined by the ability to finish all your story arcs solo.
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I disagree
A) you're assuming a fire or AR blaster for AoE. Ice, elec, and eng cann't put out that great of an XPph number.
B) my fire tank generates XP much faster, there is no fear of dying, and I don't have to pick and choose my groups, plus with Healing flames and consume I rarely run out of HP or end. It's about the same with AoE based scrappers, and controllers with damaging pets (illusion and Fire especially). If my blaster didn't have to worry about dying I may out XPph other things, but if my blaster ever didn't have to worry about dying, I wouldn't be solo.
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Blasters are very good at soloing up until the 30s then IMHO they become ineffective
[/ QUOTE ] A blaster's ability to generate xp "solo" is probaby unrivaled throughout their career. Maybe Spines/DA can generate more xp faster. What blasters claim they can't do is finish their missions. Per the devs, soloing is not defined by the ability to finish all your story arcs solo.
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Yes and a blasters ability to generate aggro and debt are also unmatched. Blasters must be extra careful prior to any shot being fired or they faceplant. A boss that pings blue should be no threat to a blaster in the later game but they are. (Paragon Protectors)
In reality blasters get 1/2 the xp of other ATs throughout much of their career.
"Raise of hands"
How many blasters carry more than one awaken, and why do you think they do that? Or how many have reached the debt cap, or came darn close? Ive played all the ATs to some extent and blasters faceplant more often than any of the others thats whats wrong.
[color=gold][b][size=5]♪ Sometimes you feel like a Tank, Sometimes you don't! ♪[/size][/color][/b]
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The blasters I play that don't get debt, don't get xp as fast as my other characters.
Honestly, I don't play my blasters in a fashion that gets debt so I am not sure how others play. Maybe your experience is different.
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) you're assuming a fire or AR blaster for AoE. Ice, elec, and eng cann't put out that great of an XPph number.
[/ QUOTE ] True...all blasters are not created equal. But I have no doubt the weakest blaster generates XP three times faster solo than any def and NON-fire tank except may Rad at super high levels.
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B) my fire tank generates XP much faster
[/ QUOTE ] The reality of that situation may have disappeared for many now that Burn invokes terorr/panic/mobs run away form the burn patch. I don't know for certain as i have not tested it, but Fire tankers are in a class by themselves because they can herd far more mobs together than any blaster. Again, I'm sure P-US spines/inv could probably rival Fire tankers, back when US could be perma.
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and controllers with damaging pets (illusion and Fire especially).
[/ QUOTE ] Yup, Fire controllers are probably also near the top of the food chain for solo XP..but we're taking about AT's. If it's a question of just generating mass XP per hour given all the builds from top to bottom, my money is on Blasters coming out ahead. And as Concern said, and I have seen other blasters post, Max/xp per hour includes some defeats. In other words, xp per hour of stuff that can't kill you is lower than the xp per hour from stuff that can kill you and does from time to time. Obviously there's an optimal level difference depending on build.
The fact is, blasters "solo" just fine. Solo in this game has never meant you were able to finish all your missions without help. My lvl 32 Kin/Psi get defeated by three even level mobs...two minions and one Lt. I got mezzed and the Vampyri Shadow Punched me into debt. When I was awake, I could not do enough damage to kill them fast enough. One heal misses and the wrong time....lights out.
No blaster would have suffered that fate. Build-up and the Lt is down in micro seconds.
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B) my fire tank generates XP much faster
[/ QUOTE ] The reality of that situation may have disappeared for many now that Burn invokes terorr/panic/mobs run away form the burn patch. I don't know for certain as i have not tested it, but Fire tankers are in a class by themselves because they can herd far more mobs together than any blaster. Again, I'm sure P-US spines/inv could probably rival Fire tankers, back when US could be perma.
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Fire/ice, crap doesn't run from me.
I can still level at an insane rate with my Fire tank. I just had to modify tactics a bit for the changes made to taunt.
secondary powers!?
hmmm...granted i am only a lvl 23 mutant blaster(i love my blaster),i'd like 2 say that i use my secondaries always during team battle mish's.y? well,not all scrappers/tankers and whoever can hold the line. a few get thru and a blaster is no aggro takin machine.so at close range,secondaries r a life saver. every time.the knockback giv's me xtended time for a nice killing primary shot.i used 2 lose a great deal of endurance at times(rare that i let myself be too overwhelmed),but with hot rodding enhancements and pool powers,i found a way too keep good endurance about 90% of the time.i do think that primary powers could be a little more effective.their again,xperimenting w/ enhancments & pool powers greatly helped me.i learned as a blaster 2 keep a safe distance.sumtimes thats not so easy,like when u need 2 stay close to a healer or a higher lvl teammate that's SKing me.a friend suggested that i reformat secondaries at 25,but i'm not 2 sure i wanna do that. i found a good combination that works so far,so i might just keep wut i got.( i will probably regret it later).
Maybe blaster secondaries should just have been controller primaries, like all the other AT cross-overs, and toned down a bit since they're a secondary pool (much like the toned down defender primaries become controller secondaries, etc), giving the blaster damage mitigation through intelligent application of control, as it stands, the amount of damage mitigation through control seems limited, usually to one target, which given the aggro Blasters draw through the everyday use of their archetypical powers, is a bit off kilter.
Can you imagine the trouble Scrappers would have if the step down in defence between the tanker primaries to scrapper secondaries was as great as the step down between the level of control available between controller primaries and blaster secondaries? (the same parallel can be drawn between other set crossovers) The gulf is perceptible. Other ATs are getting powers which, lets face it, kick [censored] and take names in the 35-38 slots (excluding the Scrapper
A 38 uber-power, which seems like a bit of a rip really), while blasters are getting, what, single target holds (or minor group immobilise/sleeps) that need to be applied in melee, that place where we tend to get crushed in a single hit at the levels these powers come into play? Wonderful.
Other AT get powers which make a difference to their late game effectiveness in the late game (because theyre the kickass final powers from other primary sets in general), whereas blasters late game powers seems to be what the Controllers get between lvls 1->8, then again, with the damage output of a blaster and even toned down control from the controller sets theyd just be too good in all likelihood.
I hope there is a middle ground in which the blaster sets can operate without the door swinging too far in either direction. There are no quick fixes.
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The blasters I play that don't get debt, don't get xp as fast as my other characters.
Honestly, I don't play my blasters in a fashion that gets debt so I am not sure how others play. Maybe your experience is different.
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Your are playing, probably "classic" blaster. I have noted other blasters (who do not die much), play in a the classic role. For me, what I mean by classic is, blasting and an overall avoidance, unless necessary, to engage at close quarters.
Sadly, IMO, a mistake was made when creating the blaster line. Note how Blasters obtain some attacks like "Havok Punch" and Swords. I believe that this encourages blasters to get in and do Scrapper like activities. Please notice that the Defenders (kind of like Jr. Blasters here), get no such thing until the Epic Sets. Also note that Scrappers get no blaster like tools until the Epic Sets. I propose that that same be done for the Blaster. Now, I am not speaking of the Few Blaster PBAoE attacks, I am discussing the Scrapper like tools that encourage close, toe to toe, fights. Now you might add "what will a Blaster do or get instead?" I'm not entirely sure, maybe, some Controller like or Defender like tools designed for them? If a Blaster could control a crowd a little bit, with more say disorienting attacks, they would survive bettter. This might approach of cutting down the Scrapper like attacks, with a bit more crowd control would go a long way to solving the blaster problem of deaths and high debt.
I am Airman America... Super Hero... and I approve this message!
Airman_America, the reason I get little debt is because I have those melee attacks. It allows me to continue a solid hitting attack chain without resorting to AoE (the real agro getter) until I want to. Thus, even though I am pumping out damage like a mad man, I don't get more agro than I can handle and I can help finish off groups for the team.
If I didn't use melee attacks then I would be like most other blasters that don't have them and are not /dev, debt magnets.
I have figured out the answer to this thread, to be inferior to every other AT, the aggro drawing of a tank, the def of a controller, the end consumption of a scrapper, and the range of a defender. Combine the worste attributes of every AT and Bang-zoom, you got a blaster
i wish to point out (which im sure it has been pointed out before, repeatedly,) that the primary 'defense' of a blaster isn't a defense at all.
range does not equal saftey.
in the current environment, blasters slot themselves for what they do best: damage, what isn't alive can't hurt them. second to damage is accuracy, if those are slotted well, then a blaster is happy.
but in reality, a blaster is just as 'safe' blasting from ten feet away as 50 feet. (arbitrary numbers.) of course there are exceptions, but stay with me.
blaster A has 100 hp
1 enemy in 1 mob does 50 damage with melee, 20 damange with ranged. there are 6 enemies in this mob.
situation 1: melee: blaster attacks, kills all but 2 of the 6 enemies, blaster dies.
situation 2: melee: blaster attacks, kills everything, yells huzzah and continues.
situation 3: ranged: blaster attacks, kills 4 enemies, is hit for 40 damage, lives to mop up, huzzah.
situation 4: ranged: blaster attacks, kills all, huzzah
now. THAT is how it SHOULD BE. do we agree? (note all numbers are completely arbitrary.)
on another note, and im not sure if this is a bug or lag issue or what, but is a mob supposed to be able to hit you while dying? my blaster was killed more times post alphastrike by a 'dead' mob than anything else.
I don't think you guys are giving the secondary powersets the credit they deserve. I think Ice is an awesome secondary, just cause of Ice Patch.
SS/cloak + Ice Patch = soloing glory
Not only that Secondary powersets give us melee not because we should be in the fray, but incase we are caught in the fray. If you are surrounded it is always good to have an extra attack.
That's how I look at it atleast.
Do I really need 5 or 6 just in case powers though?
No blaster set has 5 or six melee attacks. Although, if there was one that had 5 hard hitting melee attacks that would be something to behold.
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No blaster set has 5 or six melee attacks. Although, if there was one that had 5 hard hitting melee attacks that would be something to behold.
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Energy manipulation has power thrust, energy punch, bone smasher, stun, and total focus. Unfortunately, not all are hard-hitting.
Right.
The line is drawn when an "attack"'s primary effect is not damage.
Total Focus=Melee Attack
Trip Mine=Melee PBAoE Attack
Taser=Melee Control Power
Not even /Fire has 6 melee attacks:
Blazing Aura, Combustion, Fire Sword, FCS, Burn (unless you REALLY like that immobilze protection...), Hot Feet (what's it supposed to do again???)
Even then there's only 3 attacks. The rest are primarly for DoT... wait... 
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No blaster set has 5 or six melee attacks. Although, if there was one that had 5 hard hitting melee attacks that would be something to behold.
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Energy manipulation has power thrust, energy punch, bone smasher, stun, and total focus. Unfortunately, not all are hard-hitting.
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I play a lvl 39 eng/eng blaster, I love Bone Smasher and Total Focus when then enemy tries to get up close to me. And they do hit hard, I don't know why you don't think they hit hard, how hard do you want them to hit? I love power thrust for its knockback. I switched out Energy Punch for Boost Range because range is a blasters friend. But some melee attacks do come in handy in certain situations.
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And they do hit hard, I don't know why you don't think they hit hard, how hard do you want them to hit?
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I said not all hit hard. TF definitely hits hard. Bone smasher does as well. Power thrust does not. Stun and energy punch are just a waste of my time.
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And they do hit hard, I don't know why you don't think they hit hard, how hard do you want them to hit?
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I said not all hit hard. TF definitely hits hard. Bone smasher does as well. Power thrust does not. Stun and energy punch are just a waste of my time.
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Interestingly, energy punch is one of the highest dpa attacks that exist. If the quoted number for energy punch is accurate (and I have no reason at the moment to believe its not) then energy punch does 9 brawls/sec of damage during its activation time. I know of no other attack that does that sort of damage except for its electrical twin, charged brawl. True blappers tend to always take it for that reason.
If you could sustain energy punch's damage continuously, at level 50 you could do about 480 dps just with energy punch 5 slotted for damage, and kill a boss in about five seconds.
If energy punch had even power bursts range, it would probably be the best energy attack in existence (it does, in fact, outdamage power burst).
[Guide to Defense] [Scrapper Secondaries Comparison] [Archetype Popularity Analysis]
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Why disqualify Electric?
[/ QUOTE ] I hear they do sucky damage
When I team with them, I can't say they are as impressive as Fire or Ice. Plus, when I see them zap mobs, I always get the feeling they are just tickling them.
But if you want to enter you Electric in the Blaster v Scrapper Olympics...I'll let your zaps do the talking.
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I have no interest in playing I do more damage than you games with anyone. I just had a hilarious (to me anyway) image of a cartoon orator at a podium pounding one fist into his his other hand for emphasis. "It is blatantly obvious blasters do more damage than scrappers!" /aside "But not Electric, they suck."
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The Elec/Elec Blaster, THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE!!!
I have more power pool powers than primary & secondaries combined.
Primaries & Secondaries
Charged Blast, Lightning Bolt, Zapp, Lightning Ball , Telsa Cage, Aim, Buildup, Electric fence
Power Pools
Stealth, Inivis Other, TP, TP friend, hasten, SS, hurdle, health, stamina
Centinull