[ QUOTE ]
What I think
* 1) Blasters need to be able to make a better ranged attack chains with their primary and secondary combined, than could be made with just the primary.
* 2) Blasters need to be able to deliver more AE, or at least more of it at range.
* 3) Controls and Debuffs are part of a Blaster's arsenal for a reason, and if they need more protection, that is where it should come from
* 4) It is more appropriate to share more of a Blaster's Defensive "strengths" (control, debuff) with other blasting ATs than to share more of a Blaster's Offensive strengths with other blasting ATs.
[/ QUOTE ]
I agree with the above statements.
Here are my changes to blasters:
Primaries:
Ice: None - after the current I7 changes
Fire: Increase range of Blaze to 50'
AR: Adjust some of their damage so it's not mostly lethal/or add Aim to the set.
Archery: Increase damage to Snap Shot and Aimed Shot. Also include current I7 changes
Energy: Increase range of Power Burst to 50'. Increase damage of EB and/or ET
Electric: Make end drain meaningful or replace it. Give the set a decent ST attack chain (several ideas already discussed in previous threads). Increase and frontload damage of SC (assuming no end drain changes are coming). Improve VS (several ideas discussed in other threads).
Sonic: Not familiar with set, so no comment.
Secondaries:
Ice: Replace Shiver or Frozen Aura with Greater Ice Sword (essentially add 1 more ST attack with high damage).
Energy: None
Electric: I like your idea for Lightning Field. This is the only power in the set that needs some work IMO.
Devices: Add +dmg to TD. Make SG not count as an attack, thereby breaking stealth. I like the Time Bomb idea you and others have proposed.
Fire: Replace Consume with Cremate. Fix animation bug on FSC. Move Hot Feet to lvl 20 in place of BA. Give secondary attacks a small status protection instead of DOT. Maybe a mag 1 fear that has a percent chance to work with a short duration, but enhanceable like knockback. Put GFS in the 38 spot where Hot Feet was.
It will never happen. They will just find an excuse to fix something about scrappers/villians first. I am done with CoH and my month is just about up so I could careless, but for those sticking around I hope they do something to improve blasters. Good luck...
I think Defiance is the Dev's "fix" for Blasters' secondaries. 
[ QUOTE ]
What I think
- [*]1) Blasters need to be able to make a better ranged attack chains with their primary and secondary combined, than could be made with just the primary.[*]2) Blasters need to be able to deliver more AE, or at least more of it at range.[*]3) Controls and Debuffs are part of a Blaster's arsenal for a reason, and if they need more protection, that is where it should come from[*]4) It is more appropriate to share more of a Blaster's Defensive "strengths" (control, debuff) with other blasting ATs than to share more of a Blaster's Offensive strengths with other blasting ATs.[/list]
[/ QUOTE ]
Very interesting. I agree with 1, 2, 3, and 4. This is very similiar to changes suggested by me in my secondary review except I ignored dev effort.
I like your changes. I think that we need to adjust range on all attacks in primaries to go with a minimum of 50' for all primary ranges. I would love to have the changes you suggest for secondaries as well.
-Teklord
I like my Ice Sword how it is thanks. I'd much rather replace Frozen Aura with Ice Sword Circle, or better, Greater Ice Sword.
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
And the existance of blappers for PvP is likely the ultimate undoing of any attempt by the devs to fix the blaster secondaries.
Here's some ideas:
1. Replace the most useless power in each scondary with:
Burst
Duration - 15
Recharge - 60
Burst sends a jolt of energy through your system, freeing you from status effects and protecing you from them for a short time.
Basically a Break Free on a timer. Replace Burst/Energy with element/secondary specific terms.
2. Turn Lightning Field/Blalazing Aura into enemy based damage toggles. (Great idea, Pilcrow. Repeating it here so it isn't forgotten.)
3. Standardize Range:
Make all Primary attacks (other than Snipes) have the same (60'?) range. This is including Blaze-like attacks. What this does is allow the Blaster to actually attack at range, instead of starting with the longest rnage attack and eventually moving into 20'-melee range. This will not hurt Blappers in anyway.
4. This is a newly formed idea, so give me some leverage. A new inherent. No nifty name in mind, just the effect.
+Defense at range (capped at 60' to prevent exploits)
+Damage at melee
What this does is facilitate "risk vs. reward". You risk much less by being at range, but you recieve a reward for being in melee. This way, Blappers don't get screwed. It couldn't be outrageous numbers. Maybe capped at 50% damage and 20% defense.
5. Add a single Fire Imp to /Fire. Brilliant!
6. +Damage to TD. Ingenius!
7. Give each secondary a Defense and/or resistance aura/auto against their damage type. Energy gets energy defense, fire gets fire defense, ect. You could add this to existing powers.
I have more ideas, but I gotta go. Advice/critiques welcome.
[ QUOTE ]
And the existance of blappers for PvP is likely the ultimate undoing of any attempt by the devs to fix the blaster secondaries.
[/ QUOTE ]
Well, if you look at the changes I proposed, they don't take away any of the blappers attack chains. They might be trading a melee attack for a ranged attack of equivalent power, or a ST melee for an AE melee, or a PBAE for an enemy targeted AE, but they can still blap a chain with the same DPS, etc.
I think that's one of the keys to change, that blappers don't have to trade their high BI melee attacks for lower damage ranged attacks. And I don't see why you can't convert 1 or 2 of those to ranged at the same BI. It's only going to increase the ranged DPS of blasters. Their max DPS (which will still require melee) remains the same excepting the sets getting a power like AIM (which darn well need something of that sort).
But, hey, you blappers let me know if I missed the mark.
[ QUOTE ]
I like my Ice Sword how it is thanks. I'd much rather replace Frozen Aura with Ice Sword Circle, or better, Greater Ice Sword.
[/ QUOTE ]
If the only difference between Ice Sword and Ice Sword Circle is that one is ST and the other is AE, why would you prefer the ST attack?
I was imagining it might be to keep you from waking sleepers in Frozen Aura, but given that you want to rid yourself or that puppy, I don't see what disadvatnage it causes. Please, educate me.
As to getting Greater Ice Sword. Well, people in hell want greater ice swords, too.
[ QUOTE ]
I think Defiance is the Dev's "fix" for Blasters' secondaries.
[/ QUOTE ]
Funny you should mention that. This post came from re-reading the followng quote of Statesman's (via cuppajo)
[ QUOTE ]
Fix Defiance. Fix Blaster secondaries. Add more powers to primaries and secondaries. Fix ED. Adding additional powersets.
Were happy with Defiance.
We will look at Blaster secondaries; we know some need attention.
Wed like to add more power sets and powers; its just that they take a LONG time. A single new power set can take as long as a month to finish; that isnt a man month in terms of manpower. Thats a real month. Adding individual powers to sets take longer, because an artist needs to change styles to match each set.
[/ QUOTE ]
Do not abandon hope.
Yeah, from what I was told and understand, animation time is VERY limited ALL the time and any kind of animation change takes time because it has to be able to happen in EVERY single instance in the game (i.e. while in Fly, SS, SJ running backwards, etc.) and with every single body type combination possible. So while it may seem easy, it takes a lot of time. And I hope people don't think the animators intentionally tried to screw some sets over with longer animations. I'm sure they just wanted everything to look beautiful, which it does, and flow well with the theme of a powerset. So any animation changes that people may want will take a long time to incorporate into the game.
Quicker fixes, such as changing mere numbers within already existing sets, could be tested much quicker and brought live within a shorter time frame. Not saying it will take 3 days or something, but a month or two VS half a year or so. I really feel that if everyone wants to change the secondaries into something useful, it's going to have to start with small changes, like making Frozen Fists and Charged Brawl be on par with Energy Punch. Or swapping out powers like Pilcrow said that are already implemented in the game: Taking out Frozen Aura and replacing it with Greater Ice Sword or something.
But then comes the debate of what do we do with the people that have already taken the power? Do we force everyone to take powers that are being swapped out? Do we let people grandfather in already existing builds? These are very serious questions that can turn the balance of our already fragile AT into a monster project. So as I said, I think we should first look at all the sets, decide once and for all what our "standard" is going to be, and then look at how we can bring up everything to it.
For now I think we should start with the secondaries and then move into the primaries since we have a limited number of them vs. the primaries and each one needs to be able to flow with any primary one may pick. I would prefer that people who have played a set to 50 comment only on that set and not try to delve into other sets that they aren't too familiar with. I'm not trying to discourage discussion, but many arguments arise from people who have played a set to 50 vs. a person who has played it to say the 30s. The late and early game for us are two VERY different worlds and having experience in both is very necessary so that one can fully support their arguments when discussing a problem within a set. If you've played more than two sets to 50 then your assertions should definately be more clearly defined and constrained mostly into those sets.
With that said, if you guys seriously, and I mean dead serious, want to change our AT, then we need to take the initiative, start an official thread and let Castle know we're going to help him out. I'll volunteer if you want to open up the thread, leave it for a month and let everyone insert their proposals into it. It won't be limited to just one comment per person, as many sometimes remember something they left out, but I'm serious. No more whining or arguing or double posting or anything of that sort. Say what you want fixed, support it with numbers, demos or RL experience and then stop. If you have something else you forgot to say about a set, then repost it. If you disagree with someone, then start a new thread about it, don't go cluttering up our information thread.
That thread will exist solely for the purpose of collecting information from everyone. It will remain open for a month, or less depending upon if everyone gets their comments in early enough, and then after that I can sift through it, take out all the repeated ideas, classify and break down everything into suggestions for each power and then suggestions for overall changes, stick it into an excel sheet and then hand it off to Castle. He can then come back and, like in the Defender thread, go through every single bullet point and tell us what can, can't or might be done. This will take time, which I know no one really wants to do since it's been so long since any real changes have happened to our AT. So like I said, if you guys want to do it, then let's do it and be serious about it and I'll PM Castle our suggestion tomorrow.
[ QUOTE ]
But, hey, you blappers let me know if I missed the mark.
[/ QUOTE ]
I would say you did. The reason for such high damage on the melee attacks is the "risk" of entering melee range. Adding range to these attacks almost demands that their damage be reduced to compensate for balance.
Also, "Blappers" would no longer exist... as you just turned all of our key melee attacks into ranged ones. Losing the melees would completely kill my character concept. Some of us don't care about attack chains.
I understand the Blaster debate. However, drastically removing and altering powers at this stage of the game with this magnitude is extreme.. and the Blaster problem is not "that" extreme.
Adding new power options is the way to go. Not removing them.
Add an old-type fear effect to enemies that take too much damage in too little time, counterable by Taunts, Gauntlet, or Scrapper damage.
Rewards Blasters for doing damage, and adds a decent amount of damage mitigation though the above.
Defiance currently gives +dam and +acc as we get beat down. The problem is that in the later game we do not get to use it that often cause we can't take more then a couple solid hits from even a minion. My proposel is to add +recovery, +recharge and +defence to defiance.
Then as we get beat down and get closer and closer to defeat we can be stronger, faster, better. They have the technology, they have the capability. We can be that Offensive Juggernat we were billed as!
Well I totally agree on many things that have been said.
Most of all, fire needs a big tune up and one thing I really liked was the fire imp idea. I mean /fire has nothing compared to /nrg or /dev. /elec is way better than it as well and /ice is too. Almost every secondary has more utility than /fire, I know because I did play it to 50 and still play it. I don't use a single power other than build up and consume and fire sword, 3 powers out of 9...
Now I've checked out /ice recently which I would say is second most in need of tuning up, and I have found that I would porbably take a good large amount of the powers in it. (although didnt ice have greater ice sword in it or does it still?)
But my suggestions are don't hit each set all at once. I think /nrg and /dev are awsome and no way do I want to see them nerfed or anything. But /fire and /ice might need a bit of work. /elec I think could use a bit more utility, but thats just me, and could definatly use help seeing as how its 1st power and lightning field totally blow. But again they dont need to hit every set, maybe rework taser from /dev and auto turret, but /nrg is perfect I think.
/Fire suggestions:
Now I'd love to see a fire imp or something drastic like that, but even small things could go along way. Like one idea I dwelled over that I finally found to be to good was a 'placate' type ability that I think someone may have mentioned? Not sure I think someone said something about it somewhere although I think they thought of it more as just a way to keep aggro off. I think it would rock to have one that would let us crit. Now not exactly a crit but something like a added damage bonus or something.
OR
Why can't /fire be something like /thermal for corrupters. Not team heals though but like a heal from the dark melee set where you just take health for yourself.
And another way I think to make fire better would be more melee, or more control. Like maybe a fire wall power, or a 'fire shield' as a last power instead of dumb old hot feet. Like flames shoot up in a circle around you and protect you and do minor damage to anything in melee, attacks cant hit you for a short time, and its sorta like hybernation except the longer you keep it on the more health you lose and endurance you gain and when you come out of it, you have a small bar on the top of your screen that increases how much damage you do, but drops crazy fast (not to fast of course) once yer outa the fire shield thingy. Or would that be to hot?
But again, the fastest way for the dev's to fix us in shortest amount of time is to just take it step by step, maybe each issue have 2 powers fixed (or 2 added you know what I mean) I would be happy even in they just finally got rid of stupid blazing aura or hot feet. Awsome looking powers but sooo useless.
(would say more but gotta run hehe)
Peace
CW 
I think almost everyone can agree that the most useless secondary is /fire. That needs the most fixing and has the most powers that any character would have to be a complete moron to take (over half of them).
I PM'd Castle about a week or two ago.
He's pretty busy with Blasters.
[ QUOTE ]
I PM'd Castle about a week or two ago.
He's pretty busy with Blasters.
[/ QUOTE ]
Howabout some other devs? Hope he's sharing the burden if he can at all.
Anyways, I hope he has some news soon. I'm pretty sure the devs are aware that there are imbalances with Blaster primaries and secondaries, I just hope they care enough to fix 'em in a timely fashion, and open-minded enough to think that they should at all!
Arc Salvo: Okay hold one sec guys, we can't just rush in blindly vs these Nemesis, they've got these ranged aoe's tha-
Teammate1(charging in): Shut up, Arc Salvo, you lame*$% Viewtiful Joe wannabe! What do you know?!
Teammate2(also charging): yeah, ST#& arc salvo u PWR RANGR U!
Arc Salvo: *sigh*
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
But, hey, you blappers let me know if I missed the mark.
[/ QUOTE ]
I would say you did. The reason for such high damage on the melee attacks is the "risk" of entering melee range. Adding range to these attacks almost demands that their damage be reduced to compensate for balance.
[/ QUOTE ]
Even after our role changed from "juggernauts of damage" to "ranged damage dealers"? Even after Scrappers got Criticals and a 12.5% damage boost?
Seems to me that "higher BI because melee = higher risk" rule preceeded those other changes. Is it out-of-bounds to remind the devs that when their paradigm shifted for Scrappers from Soloers to Boss-killers, they got a buff appropriate to let them do that job, and that we might benefit from a similar buff to fulfill our new role as well?
[ QUOTE ]
Also, "Blappers" would no longer exist... as you just turned all of our key melee attacks into ranged ones. Losing the melees would completely kill my character concept. Some of us don't care about attack chains.
[/ QUOTE ]
But I very much tried not to do that. I turned SOME into ranged ones, and did my best to leave the key ones melee. Frozen Touch, Total Focus, Havok Punch, I left those melee for the very reason you proclaim.
[ QUOTE ]
I understand the Blaster debate. However, drastically removing and altering powers at this stage of the game with this magnitude is extreme.. and the Blaster problem is not "that" extreme.
Adding new power options is the way to go. Not removing them.
[/ QUOTE ]
That's a good point. And I suspect that most of the things I am proposing for the secondary can be done by adding a 10th power as I did for the primary, rather than by replacing powers.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I PM'd Castle about a week or two ago.
He's pretty busy with Blasters.
[/ QUOTE ]
Howabout some other devs? Hope he's sharing the burden if he can at all.
Anyways, I hope he has some news soon. I'm pretty sure the devs are aware that there are imbalances with Blaster primaries and secondaries, I just hope they care enough to fix 'em in a timely fashion, and open-minded enough to think that they should at all!
[/ QUOTE ]
Well I for one bugged the hell out any of them who still receives PMs about AR/Dev. Castle is probably our best shot at getting anything fixed though.
I've just been patiently waiting to see what happens.
Postulate #1: The secondaries are the only powers up for change.
Postulate #2: A small amount of ranged defense somewhere in the secondary is a Good Thing.
Postulate #3: If I can add some "chrome" damage resistance, that is also a Good Thing. Outcast Scorchers have some fire resistance, for instance.
Postulate #4: Keep the changes small.
DEVICES- leave as is, probably. If it needs something, add some [not much-Air Superiority-level?] damage to Taser or some [20%?] damage to Targeting Drone. TD should be higher than Assault, lower than Follow Up [because Follow Up has many constraints.]
ENERGY- leave as is. This is my mental benchmark.
ELECTRIC- not very familiar. Replace Lightning Field with a one-shot version- same animation, same name, PbAoE End drain with minor damage? It's a power worth fixing. It would stack nicely with Short Circuit [although probably not 100% End drain in combination]. Or make Lightning Field have 7.5% ranged Defense and 15% Energy and End Drain resistance.
Fire- the Fire Imp idea is an appealing one. Replace Blazing Aura with something like Smoke Grenade [is this what the Controller "Smoke" power does?] Or give it 7.5% ranged Defense and 15% Fire resistance.
Ice Manip- I can't think of anything to change in this. Chilling Aura already has, apparently, a Damage Debuff effect. It's got a lot of control in it at the end [I have not personally tried this control.]
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I like my Ice Sword how it is thanks. I'd much rather replace Frozen Aura with Ice Sword Circle, or better, Greater Ice Sword.
[/ QUOTE ]
If the only difference between Ice Sword and Ice Sword Circle is that one is ST and the other is AE, why would you prefer the ST attack?
I was imagining it might be to keep you from waking sleepers in Frozen Aura, but given that you want to rid yourself or that puppy, I don't see what disadvatnage it causes. Please, educate me.
As to getting Greater Ice Sword. Well, people in hell want greater ice swords, too.
[/ QUOTE ]
Well, I'd prefer Ice Sword over Ice Sword Circle (If I had to choose between the two) due to animation time (especially if Ice Sword Circle has that pause at the end of the animation like Fire Sword Circle), endurance cost, and recharge.
My blaster that has the Ice Secondary is AR/Ice, and Ice Sword is a good suplement to AR's mediocre single target damage. Also, being AR, I need more AoE (Especially a PbAoE) like I need a hole in my head. For Ice/Ice blasters, I can see how they might prefer an AoE in their secondary to supplement the middling AoE in the Ice Primary.
I'd also love to ditch Frozen Aura because its woefully underpowered as a level 38 power. Were it ranged like Siren's Song I could see some point in it being where it is, but all in all, if I want a Blaster with an AoE sleep, I can get one 20 levels earlier with equivalent recharge, duration and better range, I'll make a Sonic Blaster.
I also think, with Chill Blain, Ice Patch, Shiver, Freezing Touch and at present Chilling Embrace, Ice manipulation just doesnt need an AoE sleep to add to its control. I think Ice needs it's equivalent to Total Focus to bring it up to par, and Ice Sword Circle or Greater Ice Sword are my canditates for that job.
I do love the idea you mention'ed about making Lighting Field and other similar powers Foe Anchored damage auras similar to foe anchored debuffs.
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
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
But, hey, you blappers let me know if I missed the mark.
[/ QUOTE ]
I would say you did. The reason for such high damage on the melee attacks is the "risk" of entering melee range. Adding range to these attacks almost demands that their damage be reduced to compensate for balance.
[/ QUOTE ]
Even after our role changed from "juggernauts of damage" to "ranged damage dealers"? Even after Scrappers got Criticals and a 12.5% damage boost?
Seems to me that "higher BI because melee = higher risk" rule preceeded those other changes. Is it out-of-bounds to remind the devs that when their paradigm shifted for Scrappers from Soloers to Boss-killers, they got a buff appropriate to let them do that job, and that we might benefit from a similar buff to fulfill our new role as well?
[/ QUOTE ]
I don't disagree with you here. I was just using past experience with Dev balance reasoning to make that comment.
Sure, more range would be nice, I guess... but not at the expense of my favorite secondary attacks. I'm selfish like that.
Fewest possible moves? OK.
Situational mez resist.
Postulates and reasoning:
1) People like blasters being risky. (I'm one of them.)
2) People don't like being mezzed to death. Even being one-shotted is better than being mezzed to death.
3) Individual powersets aside from devices and energy might need tweaks, but those are several "moves".
4) Defiance is a joke.
So, replace Defiance with an intrinsic that lets blasters DO something other than get mezzed to death. Come on, we're gonna faceplant quickly anyway from any of a number of other causes. The only one that annoys a risk-loving blaster is mez, cuz mez isn't so much about risk as it is about being effectively face-planted while still having nonzero health.
All other ATs have ways of handling mez. Melee ATs have their very prescious anti-mez powers. Defenders generally don't provoke mez, and have some powers that resist mez (e.g., Dispersion bubble). Controllers can employ a "mez the mezzers" attack plan, and at high levels can use their pets to take the brunt of mez attacks. Khelds can use any of the above tactics, and have the anti-mez Dwarf form to fall back on.
Blasters have none of that. At best, they have a "kill mezzers before they mez me" tactic, which is really just a variation of the primary blaster tactic, "kill them before they kill me; if in doubt, run away". Mezzing just takes the "run away" option out of the picture.
If it's an intrinsic power of some kind, then it only activates as the Devs see fit, and doesn't become a must-have, must-slot power in the primary or secondary. It kicks in when you're in trouble: you just got held, and now you're below 50% health (which is bad territory for a blaster). So every "tick" you get a -chance- to shrug off the mez. Not a certainty, but a possibility. And if you are too mezzed for the modicum of resistance provided to free you, well, you were stupid and deserve to faceplant. That's part of the risk blasters love.
It even works for PvP: the blaster is easy to take down -if- you focus on him and can absorb his damage output, but don't think you can just pin him down and kill him quickly. He'll be as risky to nail as any other AT.
And this solve a huge amount of blaster problems without adding to damage output, adding +DEF or +DR, and without adding any controversial powers to be abused. It just gets rid of the reliability of mez used vs blasters. It adds a -tension- factor in PvE fights with mezzing enemies; yeah, the blaster just got held, but -maybe- he manages to break free by virtue of his willpower, instead of giving up hope and waiting to faceplant or praying that the empath isn't too preoccupied to send a CM his way.
We're blasters. We're gonna faceplant a lot anyway. Those of us with the epic Rise of the Phoenix power even like the opportunity to use it! But give us that chance to run away or go down fighting as we choose, not frozen in that Michael Jackson "Thriller" pose, where we know we're faceplanted, but we're just awaiting the formality.
The devs have admitted that the Blaster secondaries are sub-par and promised again and again to fix them. But they haven't yet because, I suspect, they see it as a lot of work.
So, this thread is about fixing the blaster in the easiest ways possible. The quickest, dirtiest set of changes you could imagine to make Blasters what they should be. Imagine you're Statesmand and you have decided to fix the whole AT over in time for I7, so you have limited development time. What would you consier that needs to be changed and how would you change it?
What I think
[*]1) Blasters need to be able to make a better ranged attack chains with their primary and secondary combined, than could be made with just the primary.[*]2) Blasters need to be able to deliver more AE, or at least more of it at range.[*]3) Controls and Debuffs are part of a Blaster's arsenal for a reason, and if they need more protection, that is where it should come from[*]4) It is more appropriate to share more of a Blaster's Defensive "strengths" (control, debuff) with other blasting ATs than to share more of a Blaster's Offensive strengths with other blasting ATs.[/list]
Overall
[*]Build up increases range by 40% and is slottable for range. (1)[*]A 10th power is added to each Blast set.[/list]
We will Add a 10th power to each blast set. This power will be available at level 16 to everyone who has access to that set will have access to the new power. The goal is to put another Debuff or Control in the primary, where it will help Blasters protect themselves better without increasing the DPS of the other ATs that share the Blast set.
[*]Archery - Add Flash Arrow from the Trick Arrow Set (3,4)[*]Sonic - Add Sonic Siphon from the Sonic Resonance Set (1)[*]AR - Add AIM (1)[*]Elec: Add Single Target, ranged version of Storm: Thunder Clap (3,4)[*]Energy: Add Energy Aura: Repulse (3,4)[*]Fire: Move Combustion from the secondary here. Make it slottable for Fear (retreat, not cower). (See below for secondary) (3,4)[*]Ice: Add Ice Tank: Icicles. (2)[*](FYI) Dark: Single Target Fearsome Stare[*](FYI) Rad: PBAE Lingering Radiation[*](FYI) Psi: Spectral Wounds[/list]
We will make the following changes to the secondaries.
[*]Dev: Targeting Drone - +DMG added (1)[*]Dev: Time Bomb - Time Bomb is targetable and if it is damaged by Fire, Energy, or Smashing damage, it goes off early (2)[*]Elec: Charged Brawl - Changed to a ranged attack of same BI (1)[*]Elec: Lightning Field - This changes from a PBAE damage aura to an Enemy Targeted Damage Aura (similar to Defender EF and DN) (2)[*]Elec: Thunder Strike - Ranged (2)[*]Energy: Energy Punch - Replaced with a longer ranged version of Power Burst (1)[*]Energy: Boost Range - Replaced with a click version of PFF that cannot be perma'd[*]Fire: Combustion - Replace with Burn (2)[*]Fire: Blazing Aura - This changes from a PBAE damage aura to an Enemy Targeted Damage Aura (2)[*]Fire: Burn - Replace with Fire Imp, a click power that summons a single imp (duration and recharge parallel to Phantom Army). (1)[*]Ice: Ice Sword - Becomes Ice Sword Circle, same power, but a PBAE (2)[/list]
This is almost entirely shuffling powers that already exist in the game around. And where you aren't shuffling, you're using existing power effects so you can leverage existing animations.
The net result is one more power (usually to protect Blasters) in the primary and more ranged damage (AE and ST) in the secondary to buff up the amount of damage Blasters can do AT RANGE wihtout increasing the damage delivered by other blasting ATs and also without increasing Blaster BI.
Now, while I welcome critiques of my suggestion, I'm more interested to see how you would fix Blasters with minimal effort.