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Well, I could care less what secondary a controller I team with, as long as he is high enough to have an AoE mezz. Screw healing. I like buffs and them not fighting much more.
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Whoops, I started by thinking of the controller secondaries and ended thinking of defenders and forgot all about the controller primaries... My mistake. 
Fire Secondaries are a sorted affair... Its damage is really pathetic for something with a longer animation and no secondary effects. Even in the CoH's own Comic book you have WarWitch 1-shotting Minions and Lt's with her FireSword which really does make atleast a little more sense.
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Fire Secondaries are a sorted affair... Its damage is really pathetic for something with a longer animation and no secondary effects. Even in the CoH's own Comic book you have WarWitch 1-shotting Minions and Lt's with her FireSword which really does make atleast a little more sense.
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Well, judging by her attacks, it seems Warwitch is lvl 8 (she has the first ice blast, fire sword, aim, and the low level ice hold). Assuming she slotted only Firesword (which seems evident by the way it is the only attack she really uses) and aims a lot, she might actually be able to one shot minions with it or something.
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1. Notice how fire has the higest damage AoE attacks?
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This may appeal to me if I was a fire TANKER. Otherwise...you have the general opinion that its the worst of the sets.
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I like the option of melee attacks in the blaster secondary. I think Energy is the ideal in many ways, although I would like to see one of the boost powers be the initial one, maybe build up be the first power. It has 4 melee attacks that have specialized secondary effects. Power Thrust is a terrific power for knocking strong melee bad guys away from you. Punch & Bonesmasher have nearly Identical DPS & the same chance to stun over a minute (EP has less chance to stun per attack, but more attacks per minute, so the chance to stun is similar). Stun is situational, but can be beneficial to a blaster. & of course Total Focus, the big Kahuna. Thats 5 melee attacks that are really good situationally.
Besides that the power set has 4 effects boosts that are all valuable, Power Boost, Build Up Conserve Power & Range Boost. This is a nice versatile set, & a good one for a player that wants to make a Blapper.
I think all of the Blaster secondaries should roughly follow this example, except Devices which is a really good, but very different type of set.
If I was going to change Energy Manipulation, I would add something like Temporary Invulnerability or Force Bolt to replace probably Energy Punch.
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Actually, as I noted earlier, each set has its own theme - and you just perfectly outlined Energy Manipulation's to a tee. They both have good concept designs, decent application of those designs, and the powers are good, worthwhile powers in of themselves. Ice has a good design and decent application, but there are more powers in that set than in Energy or Devices that just don't do enough to justify the results. (To be specific, Frozen Fists / Chilling Embrace / Frozen Aura.) The problem is that Electricity has a flaw in its application - the endurance drain on the powers is for all intents and purposes worthless, as you need a power from the Electric Primary to make any of it matter in a practical sense. The powers are worthwhile in of themselves, and as a whole the idea behind the set works, but the effect of the mitigating factor that ties it all in is incomplete.
Fire is simply poorly designed. Unless you supply some sort of damage mitigation with the Blaster's primary (Ice/Elec), the set requires you to actually put yourself into harm's way with no mitigation from the secondary itself. The application of the concept would've been decent if the concept itself worked. As for worthwhile powers... all I have to say is, Blazing Aura, Burn, and Hot Feet for someone with no defenses - and you can't keep this set as it is while adding actual defense to make those powers worthwhile. You'd just be making the Blaster into a miniature Fire Tank - and we all know that this game could ill-afford another TankMage like that. It pretty much needs a complete rehaul.
@Shenalia
Triumph: Ion Force (SG)
Victory: Evil Triumphs (VG)
Proud member of the Triumphant Defenders Coalition.
(Just replying to the last post, this is not targetted at anyone)
Phew, I can't believe I read all 21 pages of this thread.
Here is my opinion:
Right now I have a level 50 elec/elec blaster who thrives in PvP using mainly just his secondary melee moves. Why? Because almost every other blaster primary does more damage quicker than elec, so if I'm one on one with another blaster I have to get into melee with them. I survive in melee in PvE mainly because of tesla cage and short circuit/power sink. I don't have tough/weave or phase shift on my blaster. Just flight, hasten, stamina, and Force Mastery. I have been killed quite easily while using the Foce many times. Many many times.
One major problem I have with blasters right now is the new rule of "defenders should drain endurance better than blasters." Electricity blasters depend on one main move for endurance drain: short circuit. That power is primary power. Make it so a kinetics defender drains the same endurance as a blaster, but don't let an /elec defender drain more with their secondary powers than we can with our primary. That breaks the whole "primaries are stronger than secondaries" rule.
What blasters need is 1. some sort of "bullseye" critical on our snipe powers and 2. some ranged damage/status effect resistance. Nothing game breaking, just something that might take 2-3 more uses of a hold to chain mez us instead of just 1.
Current Badge Hunter: Plot Device (Rad/Thermal/Dark) - 1,268 Xbox Live: Friggin Taser
King of Electricity, Lead Inmate running the Carl and Sons asylum, the "Man" behind the Establishment, Given Honor in Hat Form By Paragon City (Favorite Forum Poster 2006!), Master of Ceremonies of the Fair Use Law podcast
And as for the whole scrapper/regen thing: it is disheartening to blasters to see issue 2 be so scrapper-centric (criticals introduced, new katana set, etc), issue 3 be so scrapper/tanker-centric (punch-voke, changes/nerfs for good or bad), and now issue 4 continue to revolve around regen/DA scrappers. The fact is that Statesman himself said that he feels that elec blasters needed a little help since they dealt sub-par damage back before issue 3 hit live. Since then, we haven't heard anything about blasters until he flat out told us "Scrappers do more damage than you and have defenses" in the new Ask Statesman article.
"What can blasters do that scrappers can't?" Apparently they can be ignored better than scrappers.
Current Badge Hunter: Plot Device (Rad/Thermal/Dark) - 1,268 Xbox Live: Friggin Taser
King of Electricity, Lead Inmate running the Carl and Sons asylum, the "Man" behind the Establishment, Given Honor in Hat Form By Paragon City (Favorite Forum Poster 2006!), Master of Ceremonies of the Fair Use Law podcast
If we're going to change something, for the love of GOD do not change it for just snipes.
I absolutely hate snipes. HATE. HATE WITH ALL THE MIGHT I CAN MUSTER IN MY BODY.
They're worthless powers. Interruptable, mediocre damage for what you have to do.
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And as for the whole scrapper/regen thing: it is disheartening to blasters to see issue 2 be so scrapper-centric (criticals introduced, new katana set, etc), issue 3 be so scrapper/tanker-centric (punch-voke, changes/nerfs for good or bad), and now issue 4 continue to revolve around regen/DA scrappers. The fact is that Statesman himself said that he feels that elec blasters needed a little help since they dealt sub-par damage back before issue 3 hit live. Since then, we haven't heard anything about blasters until he flat out told us "Scrappers do more damage than you and have defenses" in the new Ask Statesman article.
"What can blasters do that scrappers can't?" Apparently they can be ignored better than scrappers.
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You are forgetting that throughout Beta (ok maybe you weren't in Beta) that Blasters reaped almost all the benefits. HP increase, damage increase, animation times reduced, END costs reduced, etc...
However, I do believe that if Blaster secondaries were made more useful, then Blasters would be on par with Scrappers and Tankers. Then on to Defenders and Controller. I still can't decide if Controllers are over or under powered though. 
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What can blasters do that scrappers can't?" Apparently they can be ignored better than scrappers.
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5 stars and a copy to my sig for that 
Mister Weekly's BOOM box - Lvl 50 ar/FIRE/fire/
Hellion Girlfriend - EM/Stone brute
I have a few 50's...
I'm so glad that my blaster is 50. I don't ever have to worry about any changes to blasters.
Don't neuter this AT, please 
. That's all I ask.
Keep it fun, challenging, and diverse in playstyle.
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"What can blasters do that scrappers can't?" Apparently they can be ignored better than scrappers.
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He certainly ignored them today. :P
I was there. I was running an Elec/Elec throughout beta and most of the way to I2. These "improvements" at the end of beta are about as relevant today as the cries of "City of Blasters".
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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. 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.
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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Melee attacks violate your declaration of our 'role', though, do they not? Or do you have some way of using melee powers at range that I have not yet seen?
I don't like them because they violate the theme/concept of my hero. They take the place of powers which really should be in a ranged damage dealer's (paraphrase YOUR explanation of our role) arsenal. I've completely and utterly removed/respecced out every meleetype power on my Fire/Fire blaster. Add in more melee powers and watch me ignore them again.
Melee powers for a blaster just plain does not make sense, Statesman. Come on, now. I wasn't 'born yesterday'. These powers are there because you had to fill the slots with something and you guys ran out of ideas and went with what you had ready. Or so I believe. There's nothing wrong with that (if that's what happened)---anything to get the game out the door and successful. Well, you've done that. Now it's time to fix these placeholder powers with some really unique and thematic, sensible ranged powers.
Sure, keep your secondary elemental-melee power pool for defenders or controllers or whatever. But code up a proper secondary pool for us blasters
And, btw, during beta, you once PM'ed me in response to a quesiton of mine: why aren't elemental users proof against their own element? Why do I take fire damage when I'm a fire/fire blaster? Mobs, too, I said, should get this immunity. You said, IIRC, that means a player could unknowingly 'gimp' himself. We'll never code a situation where a hero's powers would turn out to be useless--especially because of choices made without full info on the game.
Enter the Infernal Portal Mission. I discover to my chagrin and outrage (hence my tone in this post) that Infernal is completely immune to all my fire/fire Blaster's powers. Funny that, since you said this would never happen.
>:/
Cal2
Mine's 50 and I'm having a ball with my Warshade, but I still consider myself a part of the Blaster community. So I still care what changes go down in Blasterville.
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He certainly ignored them today. :P
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I am glad that the Devs are really starting to compare blasters to scrappers and starting to determine if there is a friggin team role for blasters anymore now that scrappers are the team damage dealers.
However if the Devs let blasters slide into obscurity again, you can bet that I will call upon blasters to once again start the crusade. I may not be able to defend my arguements but dang if I am not loud shouting them. 3B Blaster all the way 
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However if the Devs let blasters slide into obscurity again, you can bet that I will call upon blasters to once again start the crusade. I may not be able to defend my arguements but dang if I am not loud shouting them. 3B Blaster all the way
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Hey, just be glad you're not getting the Dark Armor treatment...
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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If we're going to change something, for the love of GOD do not change it for just snipes.
I absolutely hate snipes. HATE. HATE WITH ALL THE MIGHT I CAN MUSTER IN MY BODY.
They're worthless powers. Interruptable, mediocre damage for what you have to do.
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If snipes actually had a range advantage, they'd be worth using. As it stands, they're good for getting your butt whipped at a longer range than usual. Nothing like rocks and barf outranging a sniper rifle.
unfortunately I've still yet to try one myself [altaholic], but from everything I've seen and teamed with, it seems to me the offensive side of kheldians is EXACTLY what a blaster should be.
Their melee is a rather powerful and punishing feature, much like ours [but without the horrid animation length of FCS and combustion and friends]. Nova form has excellent range, wide area attacks, and is maneuverable and can fire a long time (inherent recovery boost) though its very squishy.
Now granted, they have less attacks than we do. But wouldn't this be more due to the fact that they ALSO have access to turning into a tank, or other versatile abilites?
Novaform without the shapeshifting options, and with more attack options [such as the melees in the secondaries; ONCE the majority get revamped to actually work in a good way for us]... that's more or less what I imagine when thinking of ideal blasters. Power, Range, Maneuverability, and STILL unable to take a hit, but at least we get the first 3 for it!
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If we're going to change something, for the love of GOD do not change it for just snipes.
I absolutely hate snipes. HATE. HATE WITH ALL THE MIGHT I CAN MUSTER IN MY BODY.
They're worthless powers. Interruptable, mediocre damage for what you have to do.
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If snipes actually had a range advantage, they'd be worth using. As it stands, they're good for getting your butt whipped at a longer range than usual. Nothing like rocks and barf outranging a sniper rifle.
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I second the distain for snipes. I don't even have mine anymore, and when I did I never used it.
Energy's all about the snipe. That shorter interrupt/animation REALLY makes it worthy of use.
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However, I do believe that if Blaster secondaries were made more useful, then Blasters would be on par with Scrappers and Tankers. Then on to Defenders and Controller. I still can't decide if Controllers are over or under powered though.
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The answer is 32. Pre-32, they're underpowered (especially at the earliest levels. Post-32, they're the bomb. Pets make all the difference. If it was EQ, it'd be like necromancers not getting their skellie friend till 40th or so. They'd have some neat tricks, but having a summonable "meatshield" is seven flavors of awesome goodness.
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Energy's all about the snipe. That shorter interrupt/animation REALLY makes it worthy of use.
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I'm not sure. I haven't played energy blast, but if I have a 3rd blast with a pretty quick animation, I doubt I'd use snipe still. Though without SC I might have too.
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Here's one thing that strikes me odd as hell. why do the put ranged holds in certain blaster primaries?
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Maybe it's because they're -ranged- holds, and the blaster secondaries are *MELEE*?
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Score for the chrono man.