As with every AT in this game, it's all about your playstyle. Some have trouble leveling a blaster to 20, others blaze through to 50 soloing. I personally find blasters to be easy to level solo, but like I said, it's really all in how you play.
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Looking to roll a blaster, however I have some concerns. I have heard that they are great out of the gate till about level 20 or so, then they are stagnant and all other AT's are coming into their own, is this true? Also I heard it is very difficult to solo a blaster in the teens and above, is this also true?
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While it's true that Blasters start out stronger than most of the other ATs (because defiance lets them ignore mez as well as having huge damage and range to protect themselves rather than the anemic defenses of pre-SO everything else), I wouldn't say they stagnate. They don't have the same defensive abilities of the other blueside ATs, but they do have ST and AoE damage in spades. If you manage to find a good team with buffs and aggro well in hand, you'll be exploding stuff faster than anyone else in the game.
As to soloing, it's a completely different playstyle than most Blasters are used to, but it's not impossible. On a team, you can go crazy because you've got buffs, heals, and aggro control to keep you standing while you obliterate anything that moves. While you're solo, you don't have that. You've actually got to think about what you're doing and who to kill. You've got to use your secondary and control powers to reduce incoming damage. The people that complain about Blaster soloing are generally the same people that want to play the same while solo and while on a team or want to be able to solo like a Scrapper (which are the soloing kings).
Blaster do tend to outclass most, if not all other AT, in the ealy game mainly because a Blaster's primary and secondary powersets contain damage, damage and more damage while a Scrapper may be dividing time between attacks and defenses. Still even above 20 Blasters shine no matter what powerset because you are providing tons of Aoe damge, or now have several attacks/deneses that help to mitigate mobs. I soloed an Arch/Ice all the way to 50, between teaming with others, and never really had much of a problem. I have a Fire/Fire at 30 that became a Blapper somewhere around level 15 and now can usually be found in melle range pounding away right beside the Scrappers and Tank.
It is a different play style, of course, and if you try to play a Blaster (solo) like a Tank you'll be face down examining carpet quite often but once you discover a strategy that works you can handle anything. Even on teams you need to play your character based on what you are facing. I was the Empath on an 8 man PUG recently and one Blaster constantly kept rushing into melle range and faceplanting. Aparently she had a couple of close range attacks she considered her best. Problem was we were tackling mobs on INV and even the minions were conning purple so I couldn't heal her fast enough to prevent her defeats.. at least not without letting the entire rest of the team die. Funny part was she never complained, never grumbled, or anything else. It was as if that was HER way of playing and she accepted constant dying as a part of it. MY problem with that was I accept the possibility of defeat but don't accept being defeated as a "normal" part of my game and her play style meant she spent more time on the floor watching us earn HER XP than helping and when every mob is full of purples you need everyone contributing to succeed.
If you're new and looking for a few good suggestions on power sets...
Arch/Ice good damage, GREAT accuracy, and Ice gives you holds/immobs that keep anything from getting in your face and doing serious damage.
Arch/MM I have two of these in the 30s and 40s and frankly I LIKE Mental Manipulation a LOT (which is why I have 2 of them LOL). It has holds/immobs but also some great ranged attack and is the first secondary I have ever had that I relied on as much as my primary
Fire/Fire I mentioned that earlier and it does serious damage. It's actually a littleslow starting out but once you get DOs and hit the teens it really starts to shine.
Oh and I just rolled a PSI/MM to try out and that is still at level 9 but I did three radios solo and a safeguard to get my Raptor pack. Didn't have a bit of problem doing so. That's another you might like to look into if you decide to make one.
Well Hope that helps and HAVE FUN 
�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 was thinking of going fire/ice or fire/elec. I like the fire set in that you get some single target as well as a lot of aoe so you are versatile in damage dealing and not limited to one target at a time, plus fire is not resisted as much as the other powers. I like /ice as a second for the control aspect and /elec is a beast for secondary damage with a little bit of control thrown in for flavor(elec cage plus some knockback powers). I have not had much experience with /Ment in that I have stayed away from it since it is resisted quite a bit in the later game from what I hear, and it is resisted HARD.
A day without sunshine is like...you know...night time.
I like 'em. I have about five at high levels.
But here' the thing. Blasters have a playstyle change (midlife crisis?) somewhere roughly around level 30. Before that they just run in and blow everything up, very simple. After that they have to learn new skills- WHEN and WHERE to blow everything up.
My mini-guide
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
Personally, I blame this perspective of "great early, lame late" on beginners luck.
Beginners Luck is a pretty big buff for early blasters. From my point of view, it makes the blaster(this AT in particular imo) seem more powerful early on than they actually are. Attacks hit more often, do more damage (relatively), which kills your targets faster and provides the ultimate damage mitigation. As the BL buff drops in efficacy through the teens, you are able to make an attack chain including AOE's, which continue to provide great mitigation. Then the buff is gone, you've got a majority of your attacks, have been working on Fitness, and bam. No more buff. No SO slotting. Many more of the villians you are fighting introduce you to status effects. (Tsoo!) Since you are killing things more slowly, getting mezzed more frequently, and are probably starting to have your first real endurance issues, it seems like the blaster is getting weaker (he in fact has just lost a buff). Grind through to level 22 and get Single Origins. The blasters with Single Origins is not the blaster without single origins.
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Beginner's Luck is the community's name for a scaling ToHit bonus for low-level characters that was added as part of Issue 12. Under Beginner's Luck, characters at Combat Level 1 get a +15% ToHit bonus exactly enough to raise their chance of hitting equal-level PvE enemies to 90% from the standard 75%. This bonus steadily decreases as the character gains levels and eventually disappears after Combat Level 19. The full table of Beginner's Luck bonuses, by level, is at the end of this article. It is almost, but not quite, +1% per level under 20
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Paragonwiki
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
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Looking to roll a blaster, however I have some concerns. I have heard that they are great out of the gate till about level 20 or so, then they are stagnant and all other AT's are coming into their own, is this true? Also I heard it is very difficult to solo a blaster in the teens and above, is this also true?
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Depending on what you are fighting even earlier than 20. They can be made to get better with IOs most notably set bonuses and uniques can help immensely. Going out to the power pools also helps.
So basically, as far as mid to end game content goes, all other archtypes will outshine a blaster as far as surviveability and the basic ability to solo right?
A day without sunshine is like...you know...night time.
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So basically, as far as mid to end game content goes, all other archtypes will outshine a blaster as far as surviveability and the basic ability to solo right?
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Depends on the build in question. If you build and play your blaster with the intent of soloing, you'll probably solo on par or better than a defender or controller (unless you're talking AV soloing, which is a completely different beast). I found soloing on my Earth/kin to be much annoying and slow than soloing on either my arch/mm or elec/nrg blaster. The same applies for my FF/sonic and rad/psi defenders (both of which are, admittedly, built for team play).
No. You will outshine other AT's in some situations that they will struggle in, they will outshine you in situations that you struggle in.
Surviveablitily is a malleable concept. The ultimate damage mitigation is a dead mob, and nothing deads mobs faster than a blaster who has no status effects on him. Mez the blaster and he's got issues.
Playing with a blaster requires a higher awareness, better skill, and a bit more luck compared to other ATs, but they don't outshine blasters in every aspect of the game. Some scrappers WILL give you some envy (until you save that scrappers butt with a well timed nuke).
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
But isnt mez more apparent in the later game, as well as more powerful ranged attacks? The blaster just doesnt seem to have any defensive abilities other tehn some slows or a few holds that allow for some mitigation, but in the later levels as far as flat out protection against a certain damage type, the blaster seems to be lacking and thus much much easier to kill with one or 2 shots. That would seriously hinder the ability to solo effectively in the later game wouldnt it? I know there are certain tactics that will keep ablaster alive longer, but when you compare apples to apples as far as surviveability, dont the other AT's do much better as most have a higher form of protection/defense against damage types?
A day without sunshine is like...you know...night time.
I have only one blaster, an Elec/Nrg. I have to agree with the sentiment that the game changes quite a bit between the early levels and later on as you pick up some really neat powers. When I started I out I basically just well, blasted anything in sight. But now I have these neat build ups, mini nukes, and am slotted to sap the heck out of a mob.
I am still working on my timing and learning how to treat each of the different mobs. With my scrapper I just jumped in and kept striking until everyone was "arrested". It has taken a bit to get out of that mentality and choose my timing, especially with TB (I have another post titled Knowing when to unload on the beginning of that tactical journey).
But, in the end, we each have our own playstyle and IO sets can help fill in on the weak spots.
<QR>
First of all, Blasters rarely get killed by two shots and no one gets killed by 1 shot because there is a game mechanic to prevent that from happening.
My soloing Blasters don't get killed by mezzers because I scope out the spawn and target them first. Aim +BU+<insert big damaging ST attack here> equals dead mezzer in many cases. Remember mezzes are sometime interruptible, and if the mezzer is burning (or taking any DoT) or bouncing on his back, he can't get that mez off to trap you. If he does, just keep firing your Tier 1 & 2 primaries and your Tier 1 secondary until he stops breathing and he stops mezzng you. I love Defiance 2.0 - those low tier attacks are only smaller in comparison to your higher tier attacks - but they still bring the baddie down.
That's not to say that some foes aren't a real PITA. Mezzing Carnie bosses might give you trouble, and Sappers are downright evil. But you learn to find them and take them down first (keeping a handful of Breakfrees in your pocket just in case they manage to mez you and you really need your higher tier attacks).
I mainly soloed my level 50 Blaster (energy/electric/electric) by being careful in choosing my enemies and taking down those which were a geater threat. I can solo some of the EBs in the high level arcs, others I need to go get a team. But there are many other ATs who run into the same issue of some EBs being easier to take down than others.
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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So basically, as far as mid to end game content goes, all other archtypes will outshine a blaster as far as surviveability and the basic ability to solo right?
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Pretty much. You can compensate, or you can try sets like ice that do give you ST controls, but there is much much pain. Debuffing or mezzing bosses are very bad.
take a look at the numbers
A boss has 2500 hp you have about 1200. If you go fire /ice and you have been mezzed you will be doing about 320 points/ 4.25 seconds approximately.
The means you have to survive the boss for 32 seconds or so to inflict enough damage to kill them. That is all best case, no end worries on your part, no minions still around no summoned pets and no resistance to the damage types you are throwing and everything you shoot hits.
So can you survive to get off your attacks is the question.
All you say is true.
As I said:
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Playing with a blaster requires a higher awareness, better skill, and a bit more luck compared to other ATs
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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
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But isnt mez more apparent in the later game, as well as more powerful ranged attacks? The blaster just doesnt seem to have any defensive abilities other tehn some slows or a few holds that allow for some mitigation, but in the later levels as far as flat out protection against a certain damage type, the blaster seems to be lacking and thus much much easier to kill with one or 2 shots. That would seriously hinder the ability to solo effectively in the later game wouldnt it? I know there are certain tactics that will keep ablaster alive longer, but when you compare apples to apples as far as surviveability, dont the other AT's do much better as most have a higher form of protection/defense against damage types?
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Other archetypes are very safe at the later levels. Other archetypes though may take a lot longer to level. For example.... a tanker is about as safe as it gets. But they don't do a lot of damage. A blaster will burn through spawns much faster than a tanker. Sure there's a higher chance of defeat, but there's also a faster pace, so there's a trade-off. Scrappers have to chase down each opponent. When you have various opponents that keep at range, scrappers have to go up to each one to take them out. Blasters will rip through spawns faster than Scrappers because of that. Defenders are relatively safe, but they do little damage, so it takes them MUCH longer to win. Controllers bloom late (getting their pet at level 32), but have a good balance between safety and speed. It's a very different playstyle though, and still has its dangers if you're not careful.
As a blaster, your secondary gives you a lot of tools you can use to manipulate the battle. In many cases, you can set the pace for your encounters. You may have holds, and you will at least have immobilizes, so that you control how the battle progresses. You bring up mezzing, but mezzers are not the problems they used to be. Defiance lets you keep on fighting even mezzed, so mezzing is more of a strong annoyance than a crippling status effect. If you're set for the base difficulty level, you won't even encounter bosses much. The mezzers will be mainly lieutenants, and they fall very quickly even using just your Tier 1 attack.
The trick is to utilize your secondary intelligently. Slot your powers well, try to pick up some IO bonuses early, plan your attacks. Blasters can be very fun and very rewarding. Or they can be totally frustrating. It all depends on what kind of playstyle you like. If you just want to not worry about things and keep dishing out damage, then maybe a scrapper is more to your liking. If you want something safe, fast, and interesting, maybe a controller is more up your alley. If you want to solo a lot, I'd avoid tankers and defenders. Sure there are certain builds that do well, but as a whole, they're not geared for fast soloing speeds. But if you want to deal a lot of damage from a distance, watch lots of enemies fall quickly before you, and appreciate using strategy and tactics, then you'd probably appreciate a blaster.
Arc ID#30821, A Clean Break
The only problem with defeating the Tsoo is that an hour later, you want to defeat them again!
"Life is just better boosted!" -- LadyMage
"I'm a big believer in Personal Force Field on a blaster. ... It's your happy place." -- Fulmens
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So basically, as far as mid to end game content goes, all other archtypes will outshine a blaster as far as surviveability and the basic ability to solo right?
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Pretty much. You can compensate, or you can try sets like ice that do give you ST controls, but there is much much pain. Debuffing or mezzing bosses are very bad.
take a look at the numbers
A boss has 2500 hp you have about 1200. If you go fire /ice and you have been mezzed you will be doing about 320 points/ 4.25 seconds approximately.
The means you have to survive the boss for 32 seconds or so to inflict enough damage to kill them. That is all best case, no end worries on your part, no minions still around no summoned pets and no resistance to the damage types you are throwing and everything you shoot hits.
So can you survive to get off your attacks is the question.
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It depends on what powers you have. With /ice, bosses aren't that much of a problem. Ice Patch is almost as good as a hold. And if you do have a couple holds, it doesn't matter how long it takes to take out a boss since they can't hurt you. Almost all of the secondaries have powers that let you manipulate the battle. It sounds bad when you say "you have to survive for 32 seconds", but many sets have powers that either totally negate the boss' damage (holds, stuns), or severely reduce the attack rate (-recharge, knockdowns).
Arc ID#30821, A Clean Break
The only problem with defeating the Tsoo is that an hour later, you want to defeat them again!
"Life is just better boosted!" -- LadyMage
"I'm a big believer in Personal Force Field on a blaster. ... It's your happy place." -- Fulmens
energy/energy makes a great solo blaster with two solid AOE's.
Energy gives a ton of knockback, making it a very survivable blaster. Ice allows you to freeze your enemies, thus boosting your ability to survive. Fire's survival is all about killing them before they kill you, making it have the possibility of being the _most_ survivable, but this rarely works out in practice (or without practice).
I'd say my Energy/Fire had hell-solo levels around 30. But seeing as I got Nova at 32, my problems quickly disappeared, since Nova solved my problems with facing a large group of tough enemies. Admittedly this was when SOs where the hit new thing, so I can't imagine a blaster having difficulty in today's environment.
Just remember, when levelling a blaster, most secondaries give you an immob. Almost universally the bad guys ranged attack is weaker than their melee so keep your distance.
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It depends on what powers you have. With /ice, bosses aren't that much of a problem. Ice Patch is almost as good as a hold. And if you do have a couple holds, it doesn't matter how long it takes to take out a boss since they can't hurt you.
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It depends did you hold them first or did they hold you first. Bitter Freeze Ray + Freeze Ray = held boss time to clean up. This is where things like the freeze ray accolade come in handy.
The thing to remember is when mezzed its only your tier 1 and 2 on the primary, and tier 1 on the secondary. This eliminates most of the mitigation tools you might have available. Imagine if scrappers had to live with the same kind of thing, give them a 20% boost in hp, give them the ability to use their tier 1 and 2 primary and their tier 2 secondary and take away their mez protection entirely ?
Oh yeah they would be screaming bloody murder and rightly so.
I found it a lot of fun leveling up my Arch/Ment. It wasn't too bad soloing either.
With Blazing Arrow, Fistful of Arrows and then using Explosive Arrow for both it's damage and KB to get baddies off you it made things easy. Then being able to use Rain of Arrows to take off at least half their HPs before really fighting the baddies is always a plus.
I found using World of Confusion as a small mitigation tool along with Telekinetic Thrust to knock anyone that gets close to you. Drain Psyche can help with regen and recovery given the situation. I use Mental the most of all the secondaries in a blaster.
From 1 to 50 I enjoyed it. I never really felt "stagnant" during my leveling. IMO, it's a wonderful set for both solo and team.
With a blaster it can take a little more strategy than other ATs. Given the group dynamic will decide how you can play. There's a different style of play between solo'ing and teaming, but I think you can solo with any blaster. Just gotta know how to work with what you have.
To the OP: It sounds like either you've made up your mind and you're just going to repeat yourself, or you're asking us to tell you "it's really not that bad."
A Blaster puts out roughly 50% more firepower than a Scrapper, if they're both going full out. A Scrapper, NOT COUNTING MEZ PROTECTION WHICH IS LARGE, is about six times as hard to kill. Is that a ratio you're comfortable with? If not, go roll up a scrapper.
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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It depends on what powers you have. With /ice, bosses aren't that much of a problem. Ice Patch is almost as good as a hold. And if you do have a couple holds, it doesn't matter how long it takes to take out a boss since they can't hurt you.
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It depends did you hold them first or did they hold you first. Bitter Freeze Ray + Freeze Ray = held boss time to clean up. This is where things like the freeze ray accolade come in handy.
The thing to remember is when mezzed its only your tier 1 and 2 on the primary, and tier 1 on the secondary. This eliminates most of the mitigation tools you might have available. Imagine if scrappers had to live with the same kind of thing, give them a 20% boost in hp, give them the ability to use their tier 1 and 2 primary and their tier 2 secondary and take away their mez protection entirely ?
Oh yeah they would be screaming bloody murder and rightly so.
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What? You're comparing scrappers to blasters? So the answer is to turn blasters into ranged scrappers? Why? We already have scrappers! There's a reason why everyone recommends scrappers to newcomers and people who like to solo..... they're safe and require little thought. If I wanted that, I'd play a scrapper (that's why I only have one scrapper and it's still only level 30 after five years).
Back to your question.... let's say you didn't hold the boss at first and he held you. It shouldn't be a problem. You still have up to three attacks you can use. Also, even if you don't hold the boss, there's still quite a bit of things you could do before you ever got held. If you're /ice, you could've Shivered him or layed down an ice patch, both of which would greatly cut back on how much damage he outputs. Chillblain would cut that back even further because if its -recharge. If you're /dev, caltrops will have him spending more time trying to get off of them than attacking you, let alone all the other tricks you have. /dev blasters, by nature of the set, spend time setting up a battle against a boss. Knockback is also a good mitigation tool.
Yes, scrappers have a nice safe life. As do tanks. But it sounds like you want the safety of those sets with the large AoE damage of the blasters. That's boring.
Arc ID#30821, A Clean Break
The only problem with defeating the Tsoo is that an hour later, you want to defeat them again!
"Life is just better boosted!" -- LadyMage
"I'm a big believer in Personal Force Field on a blaster. ... It's your happy place." -- Fulmens
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The thing to remember is when mezzed its only your tier 1 and 2 on the primary, and tier 1 on the secondary
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Yeah, I'm "stuck" with Ice Blast, Chilblain, and Ice Bolt, so please mezz me.
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"it's really not that bad."
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It's actually pretty damn good, if you ask me.
Post deleted by cybrstorm
A day without sunshine is like...you know...night time.