I don't think blasters normally do reach a point where they can solo on rugged without taking an approach that might seem cautious to a veteran tanker. In fact, your experience mirrors my own. All of my tankers past lvl 20 solo on invincible, and my blasters tend to stop at rugged since I am being challenged already, and I am already gaining adequate rewards.
May I ask whether your cautious playstyle involves a tesla cage on very nearly every single lieutenant from the moment you enter the door, melting down the minions in rapid succession then dealing with the slightly more stubborn officer in charge? It's not flamboyant, but it's extremely effective, particularly assuming you're combining both ranged blasts and melee attacks. I'm afraid I do NOT have experience with this playstyle as a lvl 28 blaster, since I refused to take the melee powers when I was coming up. I respec'd into them later, and have tried missions at that level as an exemped 50, but on my way through the ranks I was trying to make elec/elec a ranged blaster, and it's weak in that capacity.
Even at lvl 50, with both short circuit and power sink and both sufficiently slotted for end drain, I do not find end drain to be a useful defense when soloing for the reasons you've mentioned above. I can drop most enemies to zero endurance in a matter of seconds, but this is only after I've closed with them and then endured their melee attacks while I'm spinning the two attack combo. I still need to kill them fairly quickly after that, as mobs with no way to attack don't always stay conveniently clumped so that I can short circuit again. I may not be dead, but I'm certainly going to be recovering for a bit before I want to try that same approach with the next spawn. Now, once you have both short circuit and power sink this combination is absolutely devastating on teams when you can perhaps move in close in your tanker's shadow.
One thing I think you should pay attention to, though, is speed. Honestly I think you may be chafing against the blaster's cautious playstyle, when you may be finishing missions faster than your tanker despite this caution. Granted, you have by reputation one of the strongest damage dealing tanker secondaries, but electric manipulation is not exactly weaksauce either.
what you gotta do is powersink or ball lightning first.
more often than not baddies will be in the "zap dance" animation before actually getting to attack you, giving you time for short circuit.
additionnally, BU-. Ball lightning travels slow enough that by the time BL hits, Tesla can be applied safley to an LT, then you can hop in and Melee the minions (any combo of blast->melee with elec/elec should 2 shot a minion with the damage boosts following BU and Defiance, and thats without having BL do it's damage)
that will leave the LT easily taken care of, with AIm available if necassary
As for bosses: Jump past them with a kited Thunderstrike, it will Kb them and do decent damage, follow up with some blasts and hit Aim while jumping to melee again for havoc/charged brawls. During this time Voltaic Sentinel (i reccomend this, he does amazing damage over time) will be helping plink away. During a boss fight dont be surprised if the little guy contributes like a 1/4 of the damage.
also, immob them. many bosses have hard melee powers that can mess you up, with usually mediocre ranged. Keep them at a distance and jump in with a hard hitter (havoc punch) while they do a ranged attack to prevent them from hitting with a melee
First thing to remember is that you're a blaptroller. melee is your friend, but only after you've locked them down with the jitters and then stolen their blue. Then you just act like lightning. Strike fast, strike hard. In and out, like a shark with ADD. BU, Ball Lightining, Run in for Short ciurcuit+Power Sink. Run out for Lightning bolt, run back in with charged bolts and aim, Short Circuit and Thunderstrike, run back out. Anyone that's left alive just plink away at them until they drop. Sleep bosses and LTs, and always have Sparky floating with you.
Victory
Schattenbolt - Blaster Elec/Elec/Elec
Pierce Steele - Blaster Arch/MM/Munitions
Paragons of Victory
Keep in mind he doesn't have power sink yet. And I wouldn't call havoc punch or charged brawl 'plinking'. 
Ah, yes. Without Power Sink, you're a tad boned on the sapping front.
And, by "Plink", I of course mean "Pwn"
Victory
Schattenbolt - Blaster Elec/Elec/Elec
Pierce Steele - Blaster Arch/MM/Munitions
Paragons of Victory
Once you hit 38 and grab shocking grasp, bosses won't be an issue for you. That said, you can usually double stack tesla cage before you take too much damage. Using 1 or 2 lucks before a hard boss makes that an almost certainty.
Then after the boss is held, you can blast at your leisure. I think the sapper approach, of draining all the opposition end, while fun is less fast than just simply blasting them after they're held.
As for regular minions, it's pretty easy for a blaster to take one minion out with an alpha, mez a second one and then just dance around the third killing it with blasts while taking a little bit of incoming fire.
Yes power sink will make a world of difference for you.
There really doesn't need to be too much more said about that.
Even during boss battles, after i stack the hold on them, i find it much easier to keep blasting and only worry about a tesla cage, if even needed at that point to keep their end down.
But yes power sink and shocking grasp make a world of difference. You should have gone into the elec/elec expecting that kind of wait time for your toon to come full circle. Almost as importantly as a controller waits for his pets.
On the ITF, my E3 blaster saps whole herds of those minotaur and cyclops EBs and bosses using just those two powers. Now its a VERY big downfall, that its needed to have short circuit in conjunction with another power to fully realize its potential. But in this situation its nice.
I still wish they would reduce the animation/activation of the power to that of the "rain" powers that freezing rain/rain of fire use. Its a logical animation that would help a lot.
Adversely for those who are not /elec or /energy, i've given a way to make end drain useful for those who can not fully drain, nor keep enemies endurance at zero. But so far the idea has gone unheeded , or possibly unheard. We can only hope for those as said.
But for you at least, rejoice in the fact that you will get power sink, and it is the most effective complimentary power to make your short circuit drain the mobs endurance. While powerboost is nice, i say this in the regards that when fighting higher than even level enemies the amount of end drained scales down still requiring a second application of SC after i believe it was +2s when SC is fully slotted for end drain.
It also through frankenslotting allows you to slot both end mod, AND damage in your SC while getting good ACC and just as importantly rech enhanced values in there as well.
Plasmic's Guide to Sonic/Mental
Plasmic's Guide to Regeneration
Plasmic Fire - 50 Fire/Rad Victory Server
Wow, thank you all so much for all the advice, essentially I just have a bit more wait time until my blaster reaches full potential. Honestly I don't have much in the way of my melée strikes yet, I tried it but without being able to sapp mobs it's left me quite vulnerable, especially with bosses.
Now also, so far every time I try to tesla cage a boss it fails, even with BU/aim... Am I missing something here? How does this mechanic work?
[ QUOTE ]
Now also, so far every time I try to tesla cage a boss it fails, even with BU/aim...
Am I missing something here? How does this mechanic work?
[/ QUOTE ]
Bosses require more than a single hold to lock them down. Hence the need to double
stack Cage or use it with another hold as others suggest.
Also, Short Circuit along with Ball Lighting and a couple extra shots can drain a boss
down so it can't fire as often, which helps a lot - even before getting power sink.
Finally, an important thought (in my mind) for all blasters is aggro management - especially
when coming from an AT like a Tanker which often doesn't even think about that.
Plan your battles a bit and be selective about when and who you attack, so you don't
aggro more than you can handle and things will go noticeably better, I think...
Unlike your tank, remember that thou art squishy and taste good with ketchup
Regards,
4
I've been rich, and I've been poor. Rich is definitely better.
Light is faster than sound - that's why some people look smart until they speak.
For every seller who leaves the market dirty stinkin' rich,
there's a buyer who leaves the market dirty stinkin' IOed. - Obitus.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Now also, so far every time I try to tesla cage a boss it fails, even with BU/aim...
Am I missing something here? How does this mechanic work?
[/ QUOTE ]
Bosses require more than a single hold to lock them down. Hence the need to double
stack Cage or use it with another hold as others suggest.
Also, Short Circuit along with Ball Lighting and a couple extra shots can drain a boss
down so it can't fire as often, which helps a lot - even before getting power sink.
Finally, an important thought (in my mind) for all blasters is aggro management - especially
when coming from an AT like a Tanker which often doesn't even think about that.
Plan your battles a bit and be selective about when and who you attack, so you don't
aggro more than you can handle and things will go noticeably better, I think...
Unlike your tank, remember that thou art squishy and taste good with ketchup
Regards,
4
[/ QUOTE ]
Hmm so what your saying is that even though I use Tesla cage, and it does "Nothing" that I've seen thus far, if I increase its duration to exceed its recharge a second application will land provided I don't miss? And this means my first application is guaranteed to fail every time?
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Now also, so far every time I try to tesla cage a boss it fails, even with BU/aim...
Am I missing something here? How does this mechanic work?
[/ QUOTE ]
Bosses require more than a single hold to lock them down. Hence the need to double
stack Cage or use it with another hold as others suggest.
Also, Short Circuit along with Ball Lighting and a couple extra shots can drain a boss
down so it can't fire as often, which helps a lot - even before getting power sink.
Finally, an important thought (in my mind) for all blasters is aggro management - especially
when coming from an AT like a Tanker which often doesn't even think about that.
Plan your battles a bit and be selective about when and who you attack, so you don't
aggro more than you can handle and things will go noticeably better, I think...
Unlike your tank, remember that thou art squishy and taste good with ketchup
Regards,
4
[/ QUOTE ]
Hmm so what your saying is that even though I use Tesla cage, and it does "Nothing" that I've seen thus far, if I increase its duration to exceed its recharge a second application will land provided I don't miss? And this means my first application is guaranteed to fail every time?
[/ QUOTE ]
for a boss, yes.
Tesla cage has a hold power (Mag) of 3, it takes 4 or more to hold a boss, so if you can manage to have TC last longer than it's recharge, then you can have a mag 6 hold on the boss, holding him
My impression was that unless your hold duration is a good double your recharge, you would have trouble since as soon as the first hold wears off the boss is free again until you slap on another hold. Having more than double duration would then give you some protection in case of hold resistance.
They dont have hold resistances outside of level differences except for things like fortunata seer bosses and such which have a higher mag resistance.
So yes, on a boss, 1 application will always fail, and generally you want to either stack it with another hold, or get a double stack on the boss via over double duration vs recharge. This will include animation time, and level scalars reducing the duration of the hold.
However, even though tesla cage may not hold the boss initially, its -recovery will work fully, even against those mag resistant bosses. Meaning, as i do very often, you dont have to actually hold them, just cast a tesla cage once in a while to ensure that a drained boss remains drained.
You can, though i really don't see the need to, put a devastation hold proc into tesla cage to give yourself a 15% chance that you will hold a boss on the first application.
Plasmic's Guide to Sonic/Mental
Plasmic's Guide to Regeneration
Plasmic Fire - 50 Fire/Rad Victory Server
I like to slot Tesla Cage with the Devistation Proc and the Lock Down chance for +2 Mag hold. It increases the chance to one-shot hold a boss noticably.
When there is no room left in Hell, the Dead shall walk the earth.
I'd prefer to just double stack it with shocking grasp. We're talking a 1 second animation on SG guaranteed to hold a boss every time used after tesla cage, and it lets you slot tesla cage fully for acc/hold/rech stats, wheres your method only gives 4 slots able to enhance those values with.
Not saying its completely invalid of an option or i wouldn't have mentioned it in the first place. But in a set like elec/elec i'd much prefer to keep its full values where i can and simply double stack it with shocking grasp, or even better yet shocking bolt in the epic.
Plasmic's Guide to Sonic/Mental
Plasmic's Guide to Regeneration
Plasmic Fire - 50 Fire/Rad Victory Server
The other posters here have offered good advice, so I will add a couple minor tips. First, you may want to try slotting Short Circuit for damage predominantly. It does just a hair less total damage than Ball Lightning, although it's all DoT. Make sure you enhance the END mod in SC enough so that it will drain your foes when combined with Power Sink, and then invest in increasing its punch.
Second, I'd recommend against opening up a fight with AoE attacks, unless someone else has control of the aggro. You may draw too many attacks your way, but if you can pull it off, more power to ya.
Good luck!
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So I have recently been playing with my blaster again after having been playing a Tanker for the last month and I seem to have a survivability issue... My Tanker is 34 and breezes through missions solo on "Invincible". My blaster is 28 and has to be fairly cautious at rank 3... Bosses can go either way depending on how many inspirations I burn...
Do things get better? Im figuring that with power sink ill be able to finally drain groups of mobs of all their endurance, right now if I try to short circuit im left with 3-4 mobs all with half endurance meleeing me and it drops me very quickly...
Tanker is WP/SS Blaster is Electric/Electric.
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Your holds are the key. take them and slot them. When you get APP's take a third hold.... because 3 holds make bosses cry. Skip voltaic sentinel, not worth the endurance used to summon it. Take your blaps. CB,HP,TS....
A common engagement for me is stacking tesla cage and shocking bolt on the boss, then eradicating the minions using ball lightning + Static discharge. Then drain the boss and beat him to pieces with blaps to the skull. Any minions that survived the initial assault get pwnt by the short circuit. Lieuts get met with shocking grasp then fall prey to the drain. Then they get theres right before the boss.
Things only get tricky against EB's. If they have an entourage I normally stealth in smoke the crowd with thunderous blast then pop a cab and superspeed off while laughing like a loon. Then I come back and start laying waste to the EB with holds and drains. Unless the EB is ultra resistant to such tricks. In those cases I pop lucks and enrages and hope the EB goes down before I do. Usually they go down first because I now have the tooth achingly sweet "surge of power" which boosts my resistance and gives me an endurance boost.
So yeah things get easier if you build right.
Just a note, Player99:
The "zap dance" is merely a graphical effect. It's designed to trigger when a foe has no powers available to use because those powers are all recharging.
Impervium_Imp, you can slot Short Circuit for both damage and endurance drain with the right combination of set IOs.
FourSpeed, Ball Lightning only does as much Endurance Drain as Charged Bolts and Tesla Cage do: 7%. This is relatively unimpressive. Lightning Bolt drains 10%, and Short Circuit drains 35%. Sure, it'll add up, but it shouldn't be considered primarily a drain power.
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No H8 - 08.04.10
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FourSpeed, Ball Lightning only does as much Endurance Drain as Charged Bolts and Tesla Cage do: 7%. This is relatively unimpressive. Lightning Bolt drains 10%, and Short Circuit drains 35%. Sure, it'll add up, but it shouldn't be considered primarily a drain power.
[/ QUOTE ]
I agree. Key word "relatively".
Keep in mind the context that it was draining prior to having Power Sink.
In that case, using all of those powers, you can still drain down a boss (I do it in
Bloody Bay all the time with BP Masks for instance). Once you get him there, those
7% shots can help keep him there between Short Circuit firings even though that
isn't their primary function.
You can't drain the boss immediately (like you can with PS & SC), but even with a delay,
the drain will help mitigate damage by reducing the mob's total number of attacks during
the fight.
Clearly, that contributes to survivability. For the riff-raff, it's simpler to just kill them,
but draining (even without PS) is still viable and helpful against bosses.
Regards,
4
I've been rich, and I've been poor. Rich is definitely better.
Light is faster than sound - that's why some people look smart until they speak.
For every seller who leaves the market dirty stinkin' rich,
there's a buyer who leaves the market dirty stinkin' IOed. - Obitus.
Try BL followed by a port in and SS
[ QUOTE ]
Try BL followed by a port in and SS
[/ QUOTE ]
...Try Ball Lightning followed by a port in and Super Speed... ???
wut???? 
I've been rich, and I've been poor. Rich is definitely better.
Light is faster than sound - that's why some people look smart until they speak.
For every seller who leaves the market dirty stinkin' rich,
there's a buyer who leaves the market dirty stinkin' IOed. - Obitus.
I'm hoping that was short circuit, but I still don't think I like the idea.
[ QUOTE ]
I'm hoping that was short circuit, but I still don't think I like the idea.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah - agreed.
Typically, on a boss (in Bloody Bay as alluded to earlier), I start with Aim (I don't
have Build-Up in there), and Zapp. That takes 1/2 of the HP and a nice chunk of end.
I follow that up with Lighting Bolt, Charged Bolt and Ball Lightning - because they're
quick, and then Short Circuit.
By that time, I've usually been hit once or twice, but the Boss is at 1/3 or 1/4 health
and drained of end, eliminating it's attacks.
It's all over from there.
The quick recycling powers have come back up and I even throw Tesla Cage in there,
(for the drain, not the hold) and those keep it drained until it's "arrested".
For LT's and Minions that doesn't make much sense because they'd have been long dead
by then, but for bosses, I find it works quite nicely, if not as effectively, without Power Sink.
Regards,
4
I've been rich, and I've been poor. Rich is definitely better.
Light is faster than sound - that's why some people look smart until they speak.
For every seller who leaves the market dirty stinkin' rich,
there's a buyer who leaves the market dirty stinkin' IOed. - Obitus.
So I have recently been playing with my blaster again after having been playing a Tanker for the last month and I seem to have a survivability issue... My Tanker is 34 and breezes through missions solo on "Invincible". My blaster is 28 and has to be fairly cautious at rank 3... Bosses can go either way depending on how many inspirations I burn...
Do things get better? Im figuring that with power sink ill be able to finally drain groups of mobs of all their endurance, right now if I try to short circuit im left with 3-4 mobs all with half endurance meleeing me and it drops me very quickly...
Tanker is WP/SS Blaster is Electric/Electric.