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2) Disagreed.
As pointed out low-level Blasters bloom very early. As in, you create it and hit the Tutorial and you've bloomed. Early-game Blasters are the easy street going up to the rocky road of the end-game content.
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Bloom early then they wither quickly
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No they dont wither quickly, its all about building them right and playing them right. My first blaster was a Fire/Fire when CoH was released and I never had a problem soloing at any level.
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Cuz you were fire/fire. I breezed through HELLA lvls with him too and almost had to stop and wonder if the game suddenly got easier when the devs put in the new patches lol but he still ate tons of pavement on the way. Wasnt much I could do about that except pop purple pills lol.
Look, blasters suck at defense, you're gonna get hit.
They have not the lowest, but pretty low hitpoints. Wont take much to kill you naturally at ANY lvl.
There are definately plenty tools in their arsenal, but after playing EVERY blaster in the game, the only difference is what they actually DO and HOW you play to your advantage.
Thats it! no extra nonsense about blasters being "easy to play when I play them" and "you're not doing something right". It just takes time to figure out how to quite simply "last longer".
I personally aim for highest damage dealing guy first with a heavy attack, if I have a "Hold" attack use that, and run in guns blazing, or stand back guns blazing.
To the OP you hit the nail on the head with everything you said, except having a short list of powersets? Yeah I cant help ya there. I pray for more myself everyday. So maybe the prayers will help? lol
Blasters peak too early. Or to put it better, they look great at first, then become Vengeance Bait by end game. they do enouh damage to attract attention, don't do enough to protect themselves, and have no defense. They've been at leaqst tossed a small bone with mental manipulation as a secondary, because all of the other secondaries just suck. I hate blapping, I want to blast, but the game and especially the secondaries doom someone who wants to play a blaster, not a squishy, defenseless scrapper.
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Blasters peak too early. Or to put it better, they look great at first, then become Vengeance Bait by end game. they do enouh damage to attract attention, don't do enough to protect themselves, and have no defense. They've been at leaqst tossed a small bone with mental manipulation as a secondary, because all of the other secondaries just suck. I hate blapping, I want to blast, but the game and especially the secondaries doom someone who wants to play a blaster, not a squishy, defenseless scrapper.
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Crashless ranged nukes, blizzard, and building for ranged defense Rehab blasters in the late late game. With blizard and the crashless nukes just build for recharge
Should they be better in the mid and pre IO set game ?Yes Its the largest part of the game for many
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Blasters peak too early. Or to put it better, they look great at first, then become Vengeance Bait by end game. they do enouh damage to attract attention, don't do enough to protect themselves, and have no defense. They've been at leaqst tossed a small bone with mental manipulation as a secondary, because all of the other secondaries just suck. I hate blapping, I want to blast, but the game and especially the secondaries doom someone who wants to play a blaster, not a squishy, defenseless scrapper.
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Based on your commentary above, I have to say that you don't know much about playing a Blaster.
You say you "want to blast". So slot for ranged defense and blast from range. It actually works well.
You can further "protect" yourself, and your team, by killing mobs fast and using mitigation powers from your secondary.
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They've been at leaqst tossed a small bone with mental manipulation as a secondary, because all of the other secondaries just suck.
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No, just no.
I lol'd.
what do you mean we dont do enough damage to protect ourselves? I can 2 shot entire mobs regularly with BU+ aoe+ aoe :P
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Blasters peak too early. Or to put it better, they look great at first, then become Vengeance Bait by end game. they do enouh damage to attract attention, don't do enough to protect themselves, and have no defense. They've been at leaqst tossed a small bone with mental manipulation as a secondary, because all of the other secondaries just suck. I hate blapping, I want to blast, but the game and especially the secondaries doom someone who wants to play a blaster, not a squishy, defenseless scrapper.
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Try Archery / Energy. You get great fast ranged attacks, a fast recharging, crashless nuke, and Boost Range, which not only lets you use those attacks from longer range, it also increases the range of Fistful of Arrows, which is a very nice cone attack. Sure Energy has melee attacks, but nothing says you have to use them... Boost Range and Power Boost are reason enough to pick it. Though I'd still grab Total Focus... it tends to make anything that does get in melee range very sorry it did so.
Boost Range is an almost 60% range increase that is easily made permanent. It's a great power for any pure-ranged Blaster. If you want some real carnage, pair it with Assault Rifle's Full Auto and watch a 125 foot cone attack in action.
/Ice also has some handy features, like a massive cone slow and a knockdown patch. Really, the only Blaster secondaries that are completely melee-centered are Fire and Electricity... and those offer ways to survive in melee. Electricity has endurance drain, which in the case of Elec/Elec can actually shut most mobs down, and /Fire has... well, the ability to kill a hazard zone sized spawn in a few seconds. Dead mobs don't hit very hard... 
Cascade, level 50 Blaster (NRG/NRG since before it was cool)
Mechmeister, level 50 Bots / Traps MM
FAR too many non-50 alts to name
[u]Arcs[u]
The Scavenger Hunt: 187076
The Instant Lair Delivery Service: 206636
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I have no problems with any of my blasters, they either can't hit me or don't live long enough to hit me.
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This.
The good thing about the optional content like inventions is that they can be used to fill in big holes. My Blaster has about 54% ranged defense, with a good bit of AoE defense, and some melee defense. Just as long as I keep foes at range I am good, I solo on Unyielding with no issues.
When it comes to IOs build how you want, if you want to survive build for defense, if you want to kill build for damage and recharge.
"Yes, winning all the time can be boring."
-Knight_Chill
"It's amazing how well you can put up with endurance issues if you hide them under a large enough pile of bodies."
-Spiritchaser speaking on Dom Revamp
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Blasters peak too early. Or to put it better, they look great at first, then become Vengeance Bait by end game. they do enouh damage to attract attention, don't do enough to protect themselves, and have no defense. They've been at leaqst tossed a small bone with mental manipulation as a secondary, because all of the other secondaries just suck. I hate blapping, I want to blast, but the game and especially the secondaries doom someone who wants to play a blaster, not a squishy, defenseless scrapper.
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I find this the typical response of someone whose first toon was a scrapper or tank of some kind hero side. Because they are resistant to mezzing and have good to great defense and resistance they are simply completely unaware and ignorant of what foes actually do what, to who, and how. They will notice things like a Malta Sapper ( and who doesnt ) or something like an Avalance Shaman that can slow your recharge but as simply unaware of which foes use what mezz and attacks.
I tell people that ask me what should I play first,, play a blaster FIRST... it will make your other play experience better.
My first toon was a blaster. Airhammer. I learned how to pull. I learned how to manage MY aggro. I learned exactly which foes had what powers and who to take out FIRST. I learned very quickly who mezzes and how. I learned how to protect my team WITH my attacks. I learned about how to break aggro. I learned how to use range as my defense ( BEFORE IO defense sets existed ). I learned how to position myself on a map to have the best vantage point to scout for my team.
The comments that all the other secondaries suck is flat out wrong. You may not like to build a blapper.. Dont.. You dont have to. You comment is that the secondaries doom blasters, but nothing could be further from the truth. The right combination of primary and secondary can make a blaster lethal.
Airhammer my NRG/NRG blaster is TRULY built as a ranged fighter. 3 Damage Range HO's in every single ranged attack. Including atacks like power push.. The tool I use MOST often in my secondary is Boost Range. This further adds to my range capacity allowing me tio take targets down before they ever reach me. Combined with the fact I tend to hover all the time I am out of the ranged of the more damaging melee attacks... Build Up is of course part of my Arsenal as is Conserve Power which I use immediately when popping a blue after a Nuke or Force of Nature crashes. Energy Punch, Bone Smasher and Total Focus are lovely finishers when I need them. Power Boost enhances the stun factor of these powers as well. My secondary is VERY useful...
Taser my Electric/Electric is built as a sapper so he gets HUGE mileage out of his secondary from Power Sink which draines foes AND fills my end bar. I have even recently respec'd out of Thunderstrike and into Lightning Field with a mix of end drain and damage. Its amazing the damage that power does. Shocking Grasp from my secondary allows me with Tesla Cage to chain hold a Boss. I even use Electric Fence on ITF's against Romulous all the time. Now if there is a good tank or a controller on the team watch out !!!!! Because withing 4-5 seconds any mobs I fight even up to +2 after a Short Circuit Power Sink combs will have NO END reducing them to their weakest attacks.
Now lets talk about SureShot my Archery/Devices Blaster. Cloaking Device makes me invisible to almost any foes in the game. Targeting drone slotted with IO's gives me amazing increased perception. Night Widow Smoke Grenade.. HA.. Blinded.. Not me baby !!! Caltrops... helpful in making nice slowdown choke points for mobs.. especially if I have had the chance to lay down.. BOOOOOOM Trip Mines... Gun Drone adds a nice little distracting attack as well.... And we havent even mentioned how a secondary that is very light on slots allows me to totally max out my primary and do crazy stuff like five slot Tactics with IO's for huge To hit Buffs and increased accuracy hence the name SUREShot...
You want a ranged Blaster... I have Barrage my AR/NRG.. You dont want to Blap.. fine... My AR/NRG doesnt not have ONE attack from the secondary other that Power Thrust. Boost Range Baby.. Big fat Wide Cone and far reach.. I can Stand back and blast away....
SO do all secondaries suck... no... Its not the powers... its the way that you use them... oh and by the way I have a Fire/Mental.. and thats very nice too...
The hard things I can do--- The impossible just take a little bit longer.
If numbers are so much more important than a teammate who is fun to play with, forget about the game altogether and go play with a calculator instead. -Claws and Effect-
My first lvl 50 was my elec/elec blaster. He took a long break a while back, because I was bored stiff playing him as an all-ranged blaster. Once I learned the glory that is the Blaptroller, Schattenbolt is back to being my favorite toon by far. So many tools at his disposal, he can cover just about every other AT except Defenders (because I didn't take the Medicine Pool). Just keep at it, and play one to lvl 41 at least.
Victory
Schattenbolt - Blaster Elec/Elec/Elec
Pierce Steele - Blaster Arch/MM/Munitions
Paragons of Victory
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Because they are resistant to mezzing
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But Defiance takes a good amount fear out of getting mezzed. Nothing like pelting a boss with some of your better attacks while you're "stuck". Then add some decent set bonuses vs. mezz and popping a Break Free will be the exception, not the rule.
Your not a tank move you butt around.
Slot a range in your attack,
lvl 15 HaHa funnie get fly you noob.. J/K on the noob
Till you can get on a team or highter take fly slot a range in a few of your attacks and fly up till u have max range and can hit them and not be hit back
Do that till you get to say 25 or so then teaming will get better and u willnt need fly and hopefully you willnt need wakies for being on a noob team
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My first lvl 50 was my elec/elec blaster. He took a long break a while back, because I was bored stiff playing him as an all-ranged blaster.
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Read the Sig, plus my blaster is Fire/Dev don't have too much choice other that range kinda how I like to play my blaster or atleast that one.
"Yes, winning all the time can be boring."
-Knight_Chill
"It's amazing how well you can put up with endurance issues if you hide them under a large enough pile of bodies."
-Spiritchaser speaking on Dom Revamp
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I tell people that ask me what should I play first,, play a blaster FIRST... it will make your other play experience better.
My first toon was a blaster. Airhammer. I learned how to pull. I learned how to manage MY aggro. I learned exactly which foes had what powers and who to take out FIRST. I learned very quickly who mezzes and how. I learned how to protect my team WITH my attacks. I learned about how to break aggro. I learned how to use range as my defense ( BEFORE IO defense sets existed ). I learned how to position myself on a map to have the best vantage point to scout for my team.
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This.
Learning City on a blaster gives you the best knowledge of what foes do what effects to you, how to avoid those effects, and who is the biggest threat to you.
Altoholic - but a Blaster at Heart!
Originally Posted by SpyralPegacyon
"You gave us a world where we could fly. I can't thank you enough for that."
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Because they are resistant to mezzing
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But Defiance takes a good amount fear out of getting mezzed. Nothing like pelting a boss with some of your better attacks while you're "stuck". Then add some decent set bonuses vs. mezz and popping a Break Free will be the exception, not the rule.
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Even better when you are hovering while mezzed, and that boss or lt keeps trying to jump on things to melee you, and you keep pelting it with your tier 1 and 2s, and you eventually kill it while mezzed. Ritki mesmerists, I am looking at you.
More villain than hero these days
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Even better when you are hovering while mezzed, and that boss or lt keeps trying to jump on things to melee you, and you keep pelting it with your tier 1 and 2s, and you eventually kill it while mezzed. Ritki mesmerists, I am looking at you.
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Dunkirk knows how to Blast.
I had a similar problem with my first blaster (currently 43). She's a fire/electric and have picked up force mastery.
Early on she was a really good killer but somewhere in the early/mid twenties it all went horribly wrong. I spent more time on the floor or at the hosptial or on my knees resting than killing.
I confess I used to lead off with three melee AoE's. Stop snickering at the back there. Which when it worked was *VERY* impressive and there was a lot of bodies. When it didn't work (which was getting increasingly frequent), there was less bodies. One in fact. It was mine. I quit one night with 47k debt and that was *after* paying off a load of debt accumulated earlier that night.
I was incredibly frustrated. Hated the character but wouldn't give up because I was half way through doing my memorization badges on her.
Then the Winter event came.
No don't groan, it's not a Winter Lord story. No. I was playing a pre-travel power kinetics defender and a I wound up paired with a 35-40 blaster. (He liked SB, I liked XP and frankly I wanted to nose how he played. I snoop. I find it a way to pick up play tips.)
It was a revalation.
He had a reasonably good speed but made sure he was safe and so he rarely died. I think we may have faceplanted once but hey; Snaptooth can be pretty mean. So after watching the playstyle for a while, I started asking questions. He was an absolute gentleman and took the time to teach me about the playstyle that works for him.
Most of it has been mentioned above. Use ranged attacks; you aren't a stone/stone tank (I need that on a Post It on my screeen). Stuff fire sword circle, yes it's pretty but Tesla Cage is more likely to save your rear (or any HOLD; immob is nice but lots of things have ranged attacks). Either kill something, hold it or move. If you can't kill it, then don't aggro it. And for crying out loud let a tank or something else take the alpha and get the aggro before getting creative (EG large AoEs).
I like her a lot more and I die a lot less since I adopted his playstyle.
Things did change a huge amount when she got her nuke at 32. Now we do the "Benny Hill" option with mobs that herd nicely. (Basically tank herds a nice chunk of mobs, brings them back to me. I nuke them, hit a small blue and consume and THEN wail on the survivors with the rest of my arsenal.) Play as mentioned above while waiting for the nuke to return. Rinse and repeat.
It's a lot of fun. I owe a great debt to that gentleman. It'd be great to team again one day. Thank you.
To the OP, just try the great suggestions in this thread. I'm not a great blaster player (I'm probably not even a good one) but the advice is sound. Good luck.
SAVE CoX info:
Titan Network efforts
Saving CoX events/FB info
Meh some of what you say "Used" to be true. With Pseudo mez protection in defiance and self amping damage, I no longer consider blasters to be "squishy" Not to mention the ranged damage amp we got.
My god I never thought I'd say that. 
I have 3 blasters now.
Elec/Elec
Fire/Fire
Ice/NRG.
I pretty much feel like a walking, talking, piping hot can of whup [censored]. And that's a good thing.
I deleted my fire/fire blaster at 37 last night. He just wasnt worth fundraising for IO's. The Archery/MM blaster is working out so far, but then she's still early. I've toyed with ice/ice, and it seems great at low levels..(but what about blasters doesnt seem great at low levels.) I just can't come up with a hook and concept to make the oft-trod ice/ice character appealing to me over the long haul. I'm an odd duck that way, if i cant come up with a good concept and interesting character story, I just lose interest in the character even if they play well.
I have hope my archer/MM can respark my initial interest in blasters. Can't stand the devices secondary. Not a big assault rifle fan as it just doen't inspire a heroic story from me, though it looks tempting from a pure play point of viiew in focusing on ranged mayhem.
It takes something for me to get frustrated. My first toon, with all of the first toon mistakes was an empath defender, and I soloed a heck of a lot to start, so I started out pretty faceplant tolerant.
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I deleted my fire/fire blaster at 37 last night. He just wasnt worth fundraising for IO's. The Archery/MM blaster is working out so far, but then she's still early. I've toyed with ice/ice, and it seems great at low levels..(but what about blasters doesnt seem great at low levels.) I just can't come up with a hook and concept to make the oft-trod ice/ice character appealing to me over the long haul. I'm an odd duck that way, if i cant come up with a good concept and interesting character story, I just lose interest in the character even if they play well.
I have hope my archer/MM can respark my initial interest in blasters. Can't stand the devices secondary. Not a big assault rifle fan as it just doen't inspire a heroic story from me, though it looks tempting from a pure play point of viiew in focusing on ranged mayhem.
It takes something for me to get frustrated. My first toon, with all of the first toon mistakes was an empath defender, and I soloed a heck of a lot to start, so I started out pretty faceplant tolerant.
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Hey I feel ya on this. I'm not the "Flavor of the month" type of guy, I like my hero to have some kind of story or cool concept. I do have a eng/eng thats 50 that was my first, and several others. I never tried Ice/Ice until lately.
But man, if you can come up with somethin fun for Psy/Mental then LOOKOUT! They have SO many tools.
Little late for Rex, but pluggin' my guide this morning.
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
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Like I said, I haven't played any past 20 so I guess I haven't given them a fair shot, just keep getting sidetracked by other AT's.
Thanks for the replies, this thread gave me kind of a morale boost so I guess I'll give blasters another shot.
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You might try an ice/ice blaster too. They are almost a controller in disguise, so might be an easier transition for you. I had the same thoughts as you and ice/ice was the first blaster I managed to stick with because it was so survivable.