I take it you're talking about soloing mainly? I love Blasters too, and love soloing.
Fire/Fire is a tough one to solo alright - mainly due to lack of pre-emptive mez. My first main character was Fire/Fire - I got as high as 38 before moving on (to a solo Elec/Elec as it happens).
I'd still say Defenders have bigger problem solo-ing, depending on their primary. Force Fields, Empathy and worse of all Sonic Resonance all have to rely on inspirations and alter their playstyles in ways a blaster doesn't.
Mezzes are the biggest pain for a blaster, especially ranged ones.
I dont know if I'd change much about the way the archetypes works myself. I like the edge of your seat play and think blasters solo pretty well, better than Tanks and Defenders, on a par with Controllers, as long as you're careful.
My advice to a solo Fire/Fire blaster would be:
- Get Hasten, and 3 slot Aim and Build Up. One of these is then recharged every 20 seconds or so.
- Wait till Aim or BU is up, then rush a group with either Fire Breath/Fireball or the slightly madder Fireball/Fire Sword Circle. Target any leiutenants and Blaze them in the face straight afterwards.
- Get Aid Self. You can patch yourself up after every fight, and keep green pills for emergency in combat healing.
- Always carry break frees. Yes, it's a pain, I know. You dont need to use one for every mezzer, but you do need one when you get mezzed.
- Later on get Hot Feet and slot for slows. The afraid effect of everyone running away in slow motionis actually very good damage mitigation.
- Air Superiority might be handy for juggling enemies. Also, the much maligned Whirlwind can be handy for hard mezzing bosses - put them on follow, Whirlwind, and go all out offence while they're flopping around.
Slot aid self for intredux and you can set it off between ticks of dot damage. Just need to use it before you get to red health or you'll faceplant during the animation.
I disagree with the OP on blasters being broken.
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson
I am aware of all that
Not complaining about the mezzing just dmg output vs dmg intake
Not asking for build advice or strategy
(and aid self is not saving a blaster's bacon)
I'm not saying I don't know how to or can't solo, and I mainly team
What other AT steals aggro from the tank?
What other AT has to constantly break LOS?
What other AT NEEDS so many inspirations to do the job it was designed for?
OK, I mentioned a bit about defenders but they can still do their job competently, in fact every other AT can do what it was designed for without the outside help blasters need
Let's consider all ATs from a working as intended standpoint
Or any powersets introduced in the last year (give or take)
Or VEATs
If I'm looking to create a support char I'm not going to complain about the lack of damage- it clearly wasn't designed for that
But if I want to be a damage dealer, why a blaster over a scrapper, controller, maybe a tank, or anything redside?
I guess I'm trying to say blasters are not performing properly in the role they were intended for
I'll be back
And I'm saying I completely disagree with you.
I've been playing blasters a long time, and I've never felt like it underperformed in it's role, a damage dealer.
I don't need help from other AT's to do my job as a blaster. I just don't. The aggro managers manage the aggro, then I drop everything. It's not a problem with the AT. 
Solo blasters need to put the playing field on a tilt that gives them the edge. They've been glass cannons since the beginning, are (or were) described as such in the original description on the website. (not checking it).
I've solo'd malta, carnies, KoA, freaks, CoT, Crey, ad naseum. I spent many hours solo'ing even spawns in Dark Astoria, Crey's, Boomtown.
There's a player who posted about solo'ing the friggin ITF for heaven's sake.
The AT is certainly not broken.
If you are coming from a high level defender, scrapper, tank or controller, you are certainly going to have issues dealing with aggro that those AT's don't have. They all have ways other than damage output to deal with aggro. Even in the blaster AT there are tools for aggro management that are not available to fire fire blasters. Welcome to hard mode.
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson
OMG man change! this would be like me running to the tanker forums and saying that they cant kill anything quickly after playing my taunt bot of a stoner. play something other than a fire/fire. or just something other than /fire. I just got my archery fully slotted for ranged defense and hes able to wall farm in cimerora like a boss. try /mm, i know you hate the animations but short of psi scream, you really dont notice them that much. fire/fire is at its best in PBAoE range and its very hard to be that close, stay alive, and still put out max DPS with some outside help whether it be insp, buffs, or h3alz0rs.
really though, blasters arent broken. I.E. kranik soloed the ITF with his fire/fire. i would provide the link but i cant seem to find it
Positron's i13 letter: We are trying to make PvP more accessible to new players, while giving experienced PvP'ers the advantage that comes with formulating tactics around the new systems we're putting in place. PvP from now on will be on our priority list. If something isn't working out, we'll be in there tweaking it and making it work, for the entire future of the product, not just Issue 13.
I make wall runs with fire/fire. No defense, 1 hold, 1 location aoe kb, no fire shield.
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson
A blaster's defense is positional awareness and not standing still. When that fails it time to use blaster candy. Use a skittle (or more) every mob you'll be doing enough AoE damage that your tray will fill right back up.
If you play your fire/fire as a pre-emptive ADHD like I play mine your tray will always be about 1/2 empty but you will have as many as 15 active insp icons. My personal record is 22 and just constantly be steam rolling the mobs.
-Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein.
-I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo Galilei
-When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. - Thomas Jefferson
OK, if I have this right
I'm just whining and there's nothing wrong
I just need to constantly eat insps or I can IO for defense JUST to be viable- which is what I'm saying - they require too much outside help to do what they are supposed to
It's not about what you or I or anyone else has become capable of with a certain build or incredible amounts of patience, I could solo the ITF with a defender if I had to
So if a blaster CAN solo the ITF, how long does it take? Not that that's the benchmark but a scrapper could do it much easier and faster
Aren't blasters supposed to be the bar none damage dealers?
It doesn't matter which sets I choose, they do all perform differently but when you're standing next to a controller, or brute, or scrapper, and your damage is not completely exceeding theirs at much more risk then there is something out of whack, or is it my imagination that they faceplant more than any other AT?
When stalkers had trouble and the tweaks came it worked out well
The -range change to taunt helped tanks out a lot
Doms are getting it next
I'm saying blasters need SOMETHING and defiance 2.0 isn't it
So what do you think blasters need, Bruise_Missile? More offence or more self-protection?
I think nay extra built-in surviviability goes against the grain. You can already build that way, even just by taking Elec Blast Sonic or Energy instead of Fire Blast.
But, I've got to say, I think a bump up in damage wouldn't be amiss.
On my Electric Blaster, with standard 4 second, 8 second and snipe attacks, I could drop an even con minion in one shot with Build Up and Zapp, and a second one with Charged Bolt + Lightning Bolt in the Build Up window.
An even con lieutenant would take all three to fall - Build Up plus Zapp, CB, LB.
(For reference with melee, Bone Smasher does around snipe damage too. No interrupt, but high end cost, melee range and longish recharge)
Now most of my career I wanted to fight +2s, because I could handle them. What, I thought was wrong with Build Up +Zapp NOT dropping a +2 minion in one shot?
I'm using the best damage buff and a special interruptable attack here, on a class that's sold purely on its damage dealing, and I cant snipe a minion? My Fire/SS tank could one shot a minion with KO Blow and Rage (and Blazing Aura helping a little), why couldn't my blaster?
Would a 25% increase in Ranged Damage be over the top? (I could then BU, Zapp, CB+LB two orange minions or a red lieutenant). Maybe even a 25% increase in single target ranged damage?
This was all before Defiance 2.0, so we get asmall boost now, but I doubt its that big.
How would that sound? Would that be improvement enough?
Okay A couple of things you may want to try.. I have a Fire/Fire but in the low 30s and I did most of that on TFs although I have done some soloing with it on occasion. I picked up Midnighter's Club badge solo so I am able to get into Cimerora when I hit 35 (for example)
1. Drop back on the diffidulty when soloing. You stated your on unyielding (level 4) that means everything in mission is at least 1 level higher than you, or two, and the spawns are larger than normal. I rarely solo anything, except my Tanks and Scrapper, above Heroic (level 1). Okay the XP and INF are not as great but I don't die so it evens out because I am not constantly trying to work off debt or wasting Patrol XP.
2. Try another build.. I have a 50 level Arch/Ice/Cold Blaster that was still soling nicely as she made 50. Ice gives you some nice Holds/Immobs that keep anything form getting in your face and I will win a ranged shoot out every time. I currently have an Arch/MM that IMO may be even better. It's the first character I have made that relies on, and uses, her secondary powerset as much as her primary.
3. Y0u change tactics when you solo? Yeah who doesn't? I change tactis when I solo as opposed to teaming when I am playing a scrapper. Solo I rush headlong into anything knowing the mob size is small enough that I can take it down long before they hurt me. On an 8 man team running INV missions... I wait on the team and use the old rule of thumb and follow the tank (when available). Yeah solo I could take down 3 purple minions or one minion and a Lieutenant but I am NOT charging in blindly on an 8 man team.. Too much damage output and I don't like dying.
Admitedly Blasters were the last AT I grew to enjoy. I had tried a few when I started but hated how squishy they were and just focused on my scrapper. My first 50 level Blaster was an AR/DEV/MUN and while she mainly teamed her way up when needed I could solo with her.. again I was suppose to do an ITF with some friends on a Saturday. I did not have the badge and one of them was going to "get me through it" so I could join. I decided to give it a try solo. Yes it was slow going but I even managed to get Crazy Jane to the chest in mission 4 against the COT. And I had fun with the Rikti boss.
I laid down so many mines in one spot I hit the cap for how many you can place (older mines were disapppearing as I laid down new ones). Then I positioned myself so I was in a direct line from him with the mines between us. I used my snipe to get his attention and after taking one ranged shot he rushed me, as they all tend to do, He hit those mines and the resulting explosion knocked ME off the upper platform. I panicked a bit and got up quickly looking to see where he was and how bad I had damaged him. He wasn't just down he and the minion that was coming with him were gone. I vaporized him LOL You aren't going to solo with a Blaster as easily or as fast as a Tank or a Scrapper but you can solo. Now if the Devs want to give me more love I certainly won't complain but the AT is far from broken. 
�We�re always the good guys. In D&D, we�re lawful good. In City of Heroes we�re the heroes. In Grand Theft Auto we pay the prostitutes promptly and never hit them with a bat.� � Leonard
�Those women are prostitutes? You said they were raising money for stem cell research!� � Sheldon
My fire/fire solo'd his way to 32. Without IOs. And he was... well, fun. I made things explode. People acting like fire/fire is unsurvivabile always make me wonder what I did right.
my 33 AR/NRG barely uses Insp's as is, actually. Its all in proper positioning. If he does use Insp's, its often right before a lt-heavy mob and I'm prepping a Flamthrower+FullAuto, which most of the time, I dont need to prep that much except get them all in the cone.
There's a reason why I chose CJ+Hurdle and not my traditional hover/fly...
Oh I NEVER said my Fire/Fire was bad. In fact somewhere around .. I can't recall exactly .. but let's say level 15ish I realized he had become sort of awesome. Early game with very few attack and even fewer enhancements I was vulnerable at 30 level I'm a Blapper and can be found in mellee range almost as often as the scrappers. I just kept lucking into one Task Force after another and before I knew it I was a 30 level.
Someone said they got squishy again after 30 + .. I am waiting for that to happen since I did the Midnighter's club arc at 30 and .. Okay I took damage .. But I never died and I can get into Cimerora now as soon as I hit 35. Personally I think its a great combination.
�We�re always the good guys. In D&D, we�re lawful good. In City of Heroes we�re the heroes. In Grand Theft Auto we pay the prostitutes promptly and never hit them with a bat.� � Leonard
�Those women are prostitutes? You said they were raising money for stem cell research!� � Sheldon
I... have never had the kind of problems being described in this thread with my Blasters.
Blaster Damage is already over the top. Damage output alone usually carries them until the mid-to-late 30s.
Of course, I've never been one for the 'Blapper' play style, so maybe that's what's saving me.
That, and I believe that Fire/Fire is the most fragile of the glass cannons in the game...
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That, and I believe that Fire/Fire is the most fragile of the glass cannons in the game...
[/ QUOTE ]My fire/fire didn't get a debt badge until he was 50. And he spent most of his time soloing hazard zones. If this statement is true, blasters as a whole are OP'd.
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So it's said that range is mitigation- ok, what about wolves and nemesis?
And the best defense is a good offense- ok, that's how I drive, but if my fire/fire has trouble with two mobs close together on a solo unyielding map, what does that say about the rest of them?
And no other AT can put out damage like a blaster- ok, I have some scrappers that can compete with some blasters
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All true. I'd go further on the range and toss in all the spawns that outrange you and do insane levels of damage
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Defiance- old version was exploitable, new version... if it was taken away I wouldn't even notice
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Don't know about you but I would
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Damage scale- maybe should be raised, I think for the lack of any mitigation there should be more damage than any other character can produce
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From a thematic stand point yes but I doubt it will happen, blaster damage looks like its balanced against spawn hp
There are a few things that could help. An inherent amount of ranged defense, increasing the range of blaster powers, a bit more mez resistance in defiance or additional hitpotints
Any of these would go along way in helping
There are as always sets, and individual powers that need work. Psionics flat out needs to be fixed, snipes need either a damage buff or interrupt elimination. The primary melee secondaries could all use a hp recovery tool the way mm has one. Devices cloaking device, time bomb, gun drone. Ar full auto needs its cone widened and target cap increased just to name a few
p.s. The "I managed this so they are fine posts" generalizing from a specific instance is at best bad form. You can do remarkable things with any AT if you want to spend on IOS
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OK, if I have this right
I'm just whining and there's nothing wrong
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Correct, you've nailed it.
And part of your complaint is Defiance? The same Defiance that allows you to continue attacking while mezzed?
How much easier do you want the game to be for your Blaster?
To the OP: Perhaps blowing my own horn would help.
You've picked the zero-mitigation, massive-damage option with a fairly broken secondary. Not in the good way either.
First thing is to learn your tools. We're going to do some experiments here. Science!
Step 1. Go out and get like twelve purples.
Step 2. Find a group of six to ten badguys.
Step 3. Put on your protective gear: four purples.
Step 4. Step up to group, hit some combo of Build Up, Aim, and Fireball/Fire Breath.
Step 5. Take notes. Did the minions die? What level were they? Which buffs did it take? Did your cone hit all of them?
Step 6. Clean up your labdesk with blaze, fire bolt, more fireballs and firebreaths, etc.
Repeat steps 3-6 with different groups, different levels, different buffs until you can reliably look at a group, determine what it will take to burn down ALL the minions, and apply it. Do you get better results with firebreath/fireball or the other way around? Remember, as always in science, use your protective gear.
Once you get good at it [stealth helps in this] try it without your protective gear. You should end up with a bunch of XP and a couple badly injured lieutenants.
This is a basic Blaster drill.
If you just wanted to say "I know what I'm doing, and I die anyway" ... sorry for the constructive advice.
DrMike: Build Up, Aim, Zapp may take out a +2 minion. Watch out for energy resistance (Rikti, I think some Malta, some armored Crey) throwing off your results. Blasters have two alpha damage boosts for a reason.
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
Given that my ice/dev on rugged can solo Rikti, KoA, Malta, Nemesis, DE, CoT, or I should say pretty much anything why yes she is a tankmage already. Giving her any more damage or defense would just be unfair.
Granted yes I have 3 holds unlike a fire/fire (cryo freeze ray too in APP) But Aim + survellance + ST attack chain + gun drone = dead +1 LT before the first hold wears off. And when you make a build with zero AoE's in it besides your nuke, you learn real quick how to handle large packs, juggle holds, keep bosses locked down, keep attacking fast as possible to keep my defiance up (very brute like the new version) position myself to make sure gun drone keeps attacking, etc. It's this little thing we call skill and learning how to play ones toon.
If I see a zeus Titan in front of me, you damn well bet i'm going to pop a red or a purple, probably both before the fight. And odds are i'll need a blue to finish him off if I'm heavy on spamming Bitter freeze ray. Is this some inherent flaw in the blaster AT? No it's playing the game, it's how it works, insps are there for a reason after all.
Defiance 2.0 is a major help for me as well, just start with the fact that gun drone alone gives me a 40% boost right off the bat. Then add in the fact that spamming the ST blasts fast as possible really ups the output further.
I won't call you a whiner, but to be honest it's really sounding like you're a lousy blaster player. Which besides your stubborness to try and solo on unyielding looks to be your biggest problem, that and thinking it's the baseline for AT effectiveness when it's anything but. I'd say rugged really is closest to old school CoX before the slider was added, it's where I love to keep things.
Personally it honestly sounds like you want (no matter the diff) to just walk in, build up, and spam aoe's till everything falls down, sorry no sympathy for players who just want an I win button, that's not how blasters work, specially the powerset with the least mitigation and the biggest aggro management skills on a team. You are waiting a couple seconds for the tank to build up some taunting right?
Though my ice/dev probably could bump the slider if I wanted the risk vs reward factor between actually getting missions done vs xp from the mobs within keeps me just high enough for hard mobs and real bosses.
Just chill, turn the settings down a bit, and you'll probably do better.
Though if we were going to give blasters anything, I would have said a slight increase in the effects of pool power buffs. Like making tough or weave something approaching actually useful, or leaderships giving a slightly higher buff so i'd take them on something besides a defender.
That or fix time bomb already. 
I must be me not getting my point across
I like blasters- I solo them without trouble- they are great on teams- I like defiance- I enjoy blapping and when I try to pull off some craziness and buy it, I don't lay there complaining that the AT is broken
My personal observation after 3+ years and playing every AT with a very wide array of powersets is that blasters are the ONLY AT that can struggle at what they are designed to do without outside help
Yes, they can be built to do extaordinary things and yes insps help a lot but that only makes it difficult to pinpoint what changes would not screw up the balance
If we have reached the point where a character HAS to be IO'd then let's just say that and forget all this, but across the board what other AT has to ? (besides Doms, and that's changing)
I ask again- is it my imagination that blasters faceplant more than any other AT?
To clarify- I think the word "broken" is too strong and I don't really think they're completely broken
Just threw that in there for a little humor
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My personal observation after 3+ years and playing every AT with a very wide array of powersets is that blasters are the ONLY AT that can struggle at what they are designed to do without outside help
[/ QUOTE ]And your personal observations are biased and bunkum. Especially since over those 3 years so much has changed, 90% of that experience has itself been rendered moot and worthless.
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I like defiance
[/ QUOTE ]
You mean the same Defiance that if taken away you would not notice?
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I don't lay there complaining that the AT is broken
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No, you just come to the Blaster forum and do it.
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I must be me not getting my point across
[/ QUOTE ]
I'm not so sure you have one to get across.
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My personal observation after 3+ years and playing every AT with a very wide array of powersets is that blasters are the ONLY AT that can struggle at what they are designed to do without outside help
[/ QUOTE ]And your personal observations are biased and bunkum. Especially since over those 3 years so much has changed, 90% of that experience has itself been rendered moot and worthless.
[/ QUOTE ]
Just to play a little Devil's Advocate here: how do you know it's not your personal observations that are biased and bunkum?
What's the experience of the majority? We don't know.
This comes up often enough that my guess is that there's a fairly large cohort of players who do still have trouble playing their blasters at a speed commensurate with other AT's, or with having low survivability.
It's easy for us (I'll include myself in this, because I do it too sometimes--and Talen, this is not directed to you personally) to get all self-satisfied about how much better we are than that poster, but it's not really all that helpful.
I'm happy with the way my blasters play. But I do have to agree that they do still take more care and attention than, say, a scrapper. I like that about them. Some other people don't like that about them. That doesn't mean they suck.
And also, some people really don't have any more trouble with blasters than with scrappers or anything else. Might be skill, might be something else, who knows. The question to me is, how typical is that? If the OP's experience of blasters as harder is typical, then that might be considered a problem. We know that it was typical (or more typical than not) before the Defiance changes, but we don't know how it is now.
It'd be nice to be able to discuss it without all the condescension, though.
/rant
Sorry, I might be testy this morning.
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I ask again- is it my imagination that blasters faceplant more than any other AT?
[/ QUOTE ]
No, but the faceplant problem is considered solved by eliminating death as a serious hindrance.
If you are used to games where characters only get a few resurrections or none at all this game is a bit of a culture shock.
Love playing them.. they embody for me what a true comic book superhero should be, but...
Blasters are broken
There, I said it
I'm now working on a fire/fire and it never felt so true
I've seen the fixes come down the line for other ATs: Tanks/ Stalkers/ Khelds/ etc...
And I'm aware of Doms being looked at, and I remember the whole Defiance thing
And I know Defenders have a crappy inherent and need help
But c'mon now, what other AT needs so much outside help to do what others can do? What other AT NEEDS a team? Or NEEDS to carry inspirations? Or NEEDS to alter tactics to solo?
So it's said that range is mitigation- ok, what about wolves and nemesis?
And the best defense is a good offense- ok, that's how I drive, but if my fire/fire has trouble with two mobs close together on a solo unyielding map, what does that say about the rest of them?
And no other AT can put out damage like a blaster- ok, I have some scrappers that can compete with some blasters
I've played every other AT, and most of them to 50, and while I don't need to be a tankmage, I should expect that with all the attantion being paid to "balance" that Blasters should not fall so far behind
So, what needs to be done? I don't know, but there should be some dialogue at this point
Defiance- old version was exploitable, new version... if it was taken away I wouldn't even notice
Damage scale- maybe should be raised, I think for the lack of any mitigation there should be more damage than any other character can produce
Let's try to be productive, SOMETHING needs to be done
I'll be back
Edit- For all that read this and reply to it without checking the rest of the thread, I don't really think they're broken, and I probably shouldn't have led with that... so much gets read into stuff