Some good points, there, but I'd call them more guidelines than rules. Generally, they're the way you'd want to go, but there are always going to be exceptions. Most tankers will have a straggler or two wandering around outside the damage zone - these are the provinces of the blaster. Wait for them to get sucked in, and someone is going to get hit a lot. A blaster, particularly one who can one-shot the target or stun/hold/immobilize it out of the fight, can be very useful. Additionally, it isn't so much that you don't want to use powers that can knock a target out of a zone at all, as much as use them with caution and foresight. If the tank or ice slick or whatever is against a wall, position yourself so that your attack will knock targets into or deeper into the zone.
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These days, not even a Nova blast can take out a group of +2 baddies. It will severely damage them, but not enough to prevent them from attacking and killing the blaster or the team.
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Actually, it can. You might have a dented LT or two wandering around after the fact, but I wipe mobs of +2's regularly. I wouldn't nova a batch of +3's without a few reds first, but +2's are doable.
Otherwise, some good guidelines there. Well done.
I've never yet taken a hit from a bad guy skidding across the floor on his keister.
~~~__O
~~~_/
~~/ /
Learn the knockback, live the knockback, love the knockback!
Bit in th eknockback section... "Knockback is bad" is a bit too broad. What's bad is *uncontrolled* Knockback.
Knockback's gotten a bad rap, in general. Why? Bad planning. When's knockback good?
- Fire into a corner or into a wall. Keep the bad guy away, or otherwise cornered. (Even better with Repel, even though this is a blaster guide 
) You do damage, the Scrapper doesn't have to run and chase, everyone's happy but the bad guy.
- With ragdoll, take advantage of terrain. A quick knockback can turn into a several-second pseudo-hold going down a mountain. Two words for this.... don't chase.
- If firing into a controller's Ice Slick, Earthquake, Volcanic Gasses and the like - fire *into* it. Don't aim at the guy on the far side. Aim at the guy at the edge closest to you and push him farther into the area of effect.
- With energy, PLAN knockback. Torrent - short range - snipe can keep someone from getting too close, and keep pushing them away while doing damage. Starting with snipe... they have to get close again.
And last but not least
- Hover and Fly turn Knockback into knockDOWN. Enemies knocked onto their butts spend time they *could* be shooting at you getting up instead.
Knockback hasn't gotten a bad rap at all... it is bad... for this tactic... when trying to maximize the number of baddies that are affected by all the team members' powers, be they anti-aggro or damage powers.
Knockback can be useful, as I mentioned above, and in very specific situations, as y'all mention, it can actually help keep the baddies in the area of effect of the anti-aggro powers... but these situations are uncommon and rare and takes more skill on the blaster's part to achieve. I recommend such tactics, but I don't expect blasters to use knockback so intelligently.
On the other hand, if you want to talk knockback... A knockback team with Hurricane/Tornado/etc. and Repel, etc. is indeed a workable team. If the team is able to keep all of the baddies knocked down all of the time, then the team is relatively safe. The debuffs and the damage mitigation dealt by such powers protects the team fairly well, and serves up fairly frantic, but slow to finish, battles.
However, a team that spreads out the baddies are not utilizing their blasters to full effect because the blaster's AoEs are able to affect only a few baddies. Whereas, if the baddies were grouped together tightly in one closely packed group, the blaster could affect the maximum number of 16 baddies with each AoE attack.
Both tactics "work." Heck! Having no tactics whatsoever will usually work as well. The point of this guide, the tactics utilized in it, is to maximize the effectiveness and speed of the blaster and the team to complete missions and defeat foes, while at the same time utilizing the rest of the team's powers to their full extent.
Level 50s:
BlackSpectre, Dark Defender (Guardian)
Thorin, Invul/Axe Tank (Justice)
Volcano Juice, Fire/Stone Tank
Professor ?, Mind/FF Controller
Stone Forge, Stone/Fire Tank
this could be better titled:
A Defenders Ideas on How to Play a Blaster
It's also been posted before by Def's in the Blaster forums
Specter, decent guide, thank you. A few quibbles- as an Energy/energy Blaster/Blapper I have no useful AoEs other than Torrent and Nova. Torrent does tons of KB, but I've learned to (generally) make sure it's knocking baddies into walls, etc. The rest of my KB is single target, which really isn't that big a deal. Yes AoE damage is the way to go to maximize minion killing, but AoE maxers will find themselves in trouble vs bosses and above frequently. It's a trade off. Frankly I love to team my blaster with a AoE blaster. I can TF/BS a boss while they clear minions around me, then we both clean up the riff raff.
On Nova- unless a mob is resistant to my damage, and assuming my SOs are current, with Build-up and Aim going I've never seen anything besides rezzing mobs, bosses or the occassional VERY dinged up LT stand back up after I dropped it, even vs +3 or +4 mobs (vs +4 or higher make sure you have other buffs/debuff from a defender, though! lol) [also make sure the mobs aren't resistant! Ouch!)
Overall, sound tactics, though.
have fun!
A corellary I'd make to rule 3, sometimes its the blasters job to grab aggro.
For example when my rad defender duoed at high levels with a fire blaster, I'd debuff pull a spawn out of a room and around a corner, but it was the blasters job to AoE them before they quite got around the corner for LOS on me. Why? Because there were so many mezzers at high levels, that if one got a shot at me and dropped the debuffs we both died. Whereas if they mezzed my friend the blaster, he had a few seconds to recharge End but no other harm done, I could easily keep up with the incoming damage with debuffs going.
Similarly, the blaster may want to pull aggro off an Emp because the Emps big heals don't affect themselves, but will work on the blaster. The blaster on a FF defenders team has more defense then the FF user does. And so on.
I have even been on a team with a tank and a blaster where the blaster pulled spawns out of rooms with Fireball. This worked because she had a fast retreat with superspeed, and the tank used taunt and auras to peel the incoming spawn off the blaster before they could get to her. It was faster then waiting for the tank to run in and do a "body pull", and if your team is pulling less than spawns, you are probably on too high a difficulty for best mission speed.
These are more advanced tactics, in the sense that you either need to work with folks you play with often enough to coordinate it or do a bit of discussion first and hope your PUG teammate has a clue. I find the latter to be the case reasonably often though.
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Yes AoE damage is the way to go to maximize minion killing, but AoE maxers will find themselves in trouble vs bosses and above frequently.
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Well, sure... if the blaster is by himself. But if he has a tank/controller/defender on the team, they can neutralize the aggro from the lts and bosses so that they're not a problem after the nova blast. Again, to do this, the blaster needs to let the tanker/controller/defender nullify the aggro before the blaster attacks. It also might be a good idea to whittle down the hit points of the lts and bosses before the blaster nova blasts so that it will kill the lts and bosses too.
See, the rules of engangement above work!
As for being "The Defenders Guide to Blasting," uh... well, I can imagine that this could be titled "The Tankers Guide to...", "The Conrtrollers Guide to...", or even "The Team Guide to..." as well. But this guide is to help not-so-smart blasters become smart blasters.
As for something like this being posted at the forum before... I hope so! It's not like these smart blasting rules are rocket science or anything, and I might add that I learned these rules from other players who have been around in COH longer than I have. So I hope it was posted before. But where is it? I couldn't find it. And why are there so many level 40 blasters lately who don't seem to have a clue about how to maximize team effectiveness? So, it occured to me that this guide was needed again. Talk about it, refer players to it, get people learning how to team again.
Level 50s:
BlackSpectre, Dark Defender (Guardian)
Thorin, Invul/Axe Tank (Justice)
Volcano Juice, Fire/Stone Tank
Professor ?, Mind/FF Controller
Stone Forge, Stone/Fire Tank
The "Smart" guide to blasting.
Well, yeah, I guess you could say "intelligent," but maybe a better word would be "thoughtful," "considerate" or even "tactical"? Well, now that you understand the gist of this guide, I'll try to be level handed and level headed...
Blasters and Kheldians... oooooo the ultimate damage dealers! Who wouldn't want a blaster or a Kheldian on their team, huh? I for one wouldn't mind. I like blasters! I like 'em a LOT! In fact, I've played a blaster. I've been a blaster. I AM a blaster! A-hem! Well, ok, I'm really just a player, but you get my drift. Blasting is cool! So why this guide then? Well... cuz a good blaster is not a mindless fool that rushes into battle and attacks with abandon. Not only will the baddies go BOOM!, but the blaster and his team will go BOOM! too.
Blasting is the art of inflicting a ton of damage onto baddies, usually at range, while simultaneously surviving your own attack. What do I mean by that? Well, simply that when a blaster attacks a baddie, the baddie then aggroes on the blaster and tries to kill him. Yes, yes... blasters are squishy and all that rot, but what I'm really talking about here is aggro management and the role that blasters play.
First, aggro is bad. It's really bad. It kills ya. It kills entire teams. It be bad.
Second, any attack on a baddie will create aggro either against the attacker or against the entire team. One blaster attacking one baddie can potentially aggro tens of baddies, which can potentially kill him and his entire team.
So the first smart rule in blasting is:
SMART RULE #1: Don't snipe or attack unless the team is ready and knows what you are doing.
Ok. That was an easy one. Kind of a no-brainer.
Next, let's talk about AOE attacks. That stands for Area of Effect. Some blasts are able to inflict damage not merely on an individual foe, but upon all foes who are within the area of effect. Sometimes this AoE is a cone shaped area, sometiems it's a sphere, and sometimes it's a sphere that is centered around the blaster himself... this kind of AoE is called a PBAoE.
AoEs are much more dangerous to the blaster and the team than a single target attack. Although attacking a single target may aggro many baddies, an AoE WILL aggro many baddies. This causes a problem for the blaster and the team. Multiple baddies will attack the blaster, with a good liklihood of killing him, and a team without a blaster is a much weaker team. Further, with an AoE attack, multiple baddies are guaranteed to aggro on the rest of the team. So this leads to the second rule...
SMART RULE #2: Don't attack with an AoE unless the blaster can quickly kill ALL of the baddies before they kill him (or members of his team), or unless the baddies will not aggro on the blaster or the team after the attack.
Oops. What was this second rule??? How could a baddie NOT aggro on the blaster? Well, that's were other players come into play. See, a tanker can capture the aggro of all of the baddies and force them to attack him, leaving the blaster free to attack with neigh impunity. Further, controllers can hold all of the baddies too, pretty much giving the blaster carte blanche to blast at will without concern for safety or aggro. And I should mention a defender's debuffs that prevent baddies from hitting you is also a good strategy. Yep, teaming with others is a real good thing!
Yet, when a blaster teams with others he is no longer doing solo missions. He has to consider others in his calculations, for a blaster's actions affect the rest of the team, and visa versa... and here's the rub. In order for the tank to capture all of the aggro, in order for the controller to hold all of the baddies, and in order for the defender to debuff all of the baddies, the blaster has to let them. The blaster has to let them do their job BEFORE he does his. If he doesn't, the blaster will cause the baddies to aggro on him and his teammates, and court defeat. A blaster can kill not only himself with such tactics, but can and will kill his teammates. At the very least, such a tactic will force his teammates to scramble and fight for their lives in a situation that would have otherwise been quite safe. The blaster who jumps the gun endangers the team far more than the blaster who inteligently waits until the aggro has been managed or neutralized before he attacks. And this leads to the next rule...
SMART RULE #3: Do not attack, especially with AoEs, until the aggro has been managed/neutralized.
There's a trick to this last rule. Since a tanker's taunt powers, a controllers hold/immobilize powers, and a defender's debuffs all affect only a small area of effect, the best tactic would be to somehow maneuver all of the baddies into a small, close knit group where the team's anti-aggro powers can affect the greatest number of baddies. This way the entire group of baddies are attacking only the tank, or are all held by the controller, or are all debuffed by the defender... leaving no or only a few strays to contend with rather than an entire group of angry baddies. Some baddie groups are found already in a nice, tight bunch just waiting for the team to pounce on them. Many others, however, are not and must be maneuvered or "herded" into a tightly packed group to take full advantage of the team's anti-aggro powers. I should mention that this is also good for the blaster in that his own AoE attacks will be able to inflict damage on the maximum number of baddies, thereby also increasing his effectivness. Unfortuantely, this also means that any powers that spread out and scatter baddies are counter-productive. And this leads us to our next rule...
SMART RULE #4: Do not attack with AoEs that knockback opponents out of the area of effect of your team's anti-aggro powers.
Needless to say, a baddie that is knocked out of range of the tanker's taunt power, the controllers AoE holds, or the defenders AoE debuffs will be free to attack the blaster and his teammates. Knockback is bad. This is especially true for AoE blasts that fling and scatter numerous baddies out of the range of the team's anti-aggro powers. AoE attacks that do this essentially cancel out the team's ability to manage and neutralize aggro, and creates a much, much more dangerous situation putting not only the blaster but the whole team at risk. Knockback is really, really bad.
This is not to say that knockback is never useful. In a fight where the baddies are scattered and the team's anti-aggro powers are unable to neutralize the aggro from all of the baddies, knockback can save a blaster and a team from certain death. Knockback is great for an emergency.
Further, a controller's holds can often negate the knockback effect of blasts. If the blaster is lucky enough to have a controller that has holds that can keep the baddies rooted in place, then blast away with as much knockback as you like! But, again, the blaster will need to let the controller hold the baddies before the blaster attacks.
The last bit of advice is a corallary to the second rule. If a blaster can kill all the baddies quickly before they can aggro on the blaster or the team, then all rules are out. A tanker's taunt powers, a controller's holds, nor a defender's debuffs will not help the outcome of the battle if a blaster can kill all the baddies instantly. BOOM! The problem here is that since I7 and Enhancement Diversification, a blaster's attacks do much less damage than before I7. These days, not even a Nova blast can take out a group of +2 baddies. It will severely damage them, but not enough to prevent them from attacking and killing the blaster or the team. Therefore, the smart blaster will wait a bit before using his nova attack. He might begin his attack with a cone AoE, or let others on his team take a swipe or two at the baddies before the blaster attacks with his nova. The point would be to reduce the baddies' hit points to a point where the nova can take them all out. Blasters need not wait long, however. One or two beats (or attacks) from the beginning of a battle should be enough to reduce the baddies' hit points to a point where a nova attack can take them all out. Novas are not only dangerous to the blaster who uses them, because he is left without endurance, but they are extremely dangerous to the team if the baddies are knocked back and scattered out of the area of the team's anti-aggro powers and left standing. Nova attacks should be used to finish and end a battle, not start one. And this leads to the last rule...
SMART RULE #5: Do not open with a nova attack unless it will kill all of the baddies.
And that's it. Five simple rules for blasters to live by that will not only better ensure their success in battle, but also allow the rest if the team to utilize their powers for the success of the team.
Level 50s:
BlackSpectre, Dark Defender (Guardian)
Thorin, Invul/Axe Tank (Justice)
Volcano Juice, Fire/Stone Tank
Professor ?, Mind/FF Controller
Stone Forge, Stone/Fire Tank