Mid's is giving me these figures for damage with 3 even lvl SOs slotted:
Ice bolt: 122
Ice blast: 200
Bitter ice blast: 278
While it might not seem that much better than your scrapper powers this is without defiance which really increases DPS (talking about 25-30% damage boost if your attacks are decently slotted) if you keep on attacking.
And then survivability? Low? O_o my ice/MM can solo 6 man mobs (only tried against behemoths though, so far)...
- @DSorrow - alts on Union and Freedom mostly -
Currently playing as Castigation on Freedom
My Katana/Inv Guide
Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either. -Einstein
Not much help but im doing around 40 with slug at lvl 16 (rifle/dev) So i'd be quite curious about the damage that i can be looking forward to
Blaster damage can't be directly compared to scrapper damage; it's dealt in a completely different way. Blasters, at their peak, are tiny islands in the middle of a battle that radiate pain in all directions. We tend to giggle at scrappers as we defeat whatever he's running towards, so he has to turn around and run after something else, while we just carrying on firing out or most powerful attacks at whatever catches our eye. AoE's, cones, multiple build-up powers, plus plenty of control (especially in Ice) makes us strategically diverse enough to cope with most situations.
With Ice Blast, when soloing there isn't really any excuse for being hit more than once per enemy group, unless there's a Boss in it. With two holds and more slow debuffs than you can shake a stick at, Ice blasters are exceptional at taking small groups of enemies out of the fight entirely. Of course, you'll need to be higher than level 12 to get to this stage, so consider the early levels a crash course in aggro management which scrapping leads you to forget about.
Being mezzed isn't an excuse with Blasters anymore - defiance means that a good portion of your attack chain is working when you're held anyway. Our best defence really is a good offence; the faster you can defeat the foe,the longer you'll stay upright.
Blasters aren't as squishy as you've been led to believe; they just requie a more adaptive playstyle than the scrapper-standard 'run in > hit stuff > heal > hit more stuff > run in again'. This includes careful positioning to stay out of range; use of scenery to avoid return fire; strategic inspiration hoarding; and running away spamming the 'HELP!' button.
Damagewise, the Ice Blast attack chain from my level 42 Ice Blaster fighting a level 44 Roman puts out 100, 160, and 240 damage.
So, 500 compared to your scrapper's 680.
The Ice Blast attack chain takes 3.75 seconds, so that's a DPS of 133.33; The Fire attack chain detailed takes 5.5 seconds, for a DPS of 123.63.
The Ice Blasts can be fired from a range of 80ft (50 for BIB) as opposed to 5ft; this means less attack time wasted getting into range. We also have Aim as well as buildup, so extra damage regularly comes out there, and defiance means your damage is almost always higher than credited in the power descriptions; usually we run at a 20-50% damage bonus, I find.
Keep at it; life as a Blaster is infinitely more satisfying than a Scrapper could ever understand.
DON'T eat muffins while I'm developing you.
Pants! Turkey Magnates! A man in a box! Rogue AI! Come one, come all, to arc ID 10107 - It's [i]'Not as long as some other arcs'[/i]!
My level 50 AR/Dev's slug puts out 236 damage to an even-level minion with low resistance (possessed scientist). But AR is special - Full Auto puts out about three times that, hits everything in a wide cone (up to 10 or 16 targets, can't remember which) and is up every 30 seconds or so. So, pretty powerful.
DON'T eat muffins while I'm developing you.
Pants! Turkey Magnates! A man in a box! Rogue AI! Come one, come all, to arc ID 10107 - It's [i]'Not as long as some other arcs'[/i]!
I think all the nukes are 16 targets, even the mini ones (AR and Arch)
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
[ QUOTE ]
Blaster damage can't be directly compared to scrapper damage; it's dealt in a completely different way. Blasters, at their peak, are tiny islands in the middle of a battle that radiate pain in all directions. We tend to giggle at scrappers as we defeat whatever he's running towards, so he has to turn around and run after something else, while we just carrying on firing out or most powerful attacks at whatever catches our eye. AoE's, cones, multiple build-up powers, plus plenty of control (especially in Ice) makes us strategically diverse enough to cope with most situations.
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A very informative post and one that does push me to keep on trying blasters. My only nitpick is that though it's true that my scrapper runs to mobs only to see them defeated before she gets there, on the other hand in a mission I've observed a 'normal' ratio of five blasters deaths per one of hers.
Of course this changes based on power set and individual skill. And of course as well that very sheer squishyness is what may appeal as challenge, to reduce said deaths to zero while still spraying death. I played with a fire blaster once and I think he didn't die a single time while still dishing out the AoE goodness that fire blasters are famous for.
I'm going down on the safety list. My only high level characters are tanks. I've 'downgraded' in safety to a scrapper, might go for a blaster then, but I really don't like faceplanting. Scrappers might be a middle ground in that, but I do tire of said running to mobs and always be in the thick of the enemy debuffs.
You've got it absolutely spot-on - a blaster played with care isn't necessarily much more dangerous than playing a scrapper, especially with cunning use of pool powers like Aid Self and Acrobatics and IO's, since we're out of range of the most dangerous attacks. Of course, it's nice to play insanely every now and again, and it can pay off.
Also, of course, in most teams there's some support you can rely on too...
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I'm going down on the safety list. My only high level characters are tanks. I've 'downgraded' in safety to a scrapper, might go for a blaster then, but I really don't like faceplanting. Scrappers might be a middle ground in that, but I do tire of said running to mobs and always be in the thick of the enemy debuffs.
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/plug
Tried a defender? Not all the sets are as dry as Empathy and FF are; Dark defenders are a great mix of offence and staying safe, especially once Fearsome Stare's slotted up. Couple it with a fun secondary (like Ice, Archery or Energy) and, while your damage will never be great, it can be ludicrously fun to play.
/unplug
DON'T eat muffins while I'm developing you.
Pants! Turkey Magnates! A man in a box! Rogue AI! Come one, come all, to arc ID 10107 - It's [i]'Not as long as some other arcs'[/i]!
It must be said that in an all blaster team, my lv.50 has been both the main healer and the main melée at the same time. The only thing that draws aggro better than a good tank is a bad blaster. So having lots of spare blasters makes for lots of dead enemies and lots of technically surviving blasters.
I think I'm rambling, so I'll stop now.
In your dreams, I'll still be there with all the days that never came.
And I'll be just a story.
That's ok, we're all stories in the end...
I've tried defenders a few times but I do loves laying the damage, even though I squeal with joy when I have a good defender on the team.
To be honest it's a toss up between the blaster I've mentioned and a cold/sonic defender. I do a fair bit of soloing when teams aren't available, so something that can solo interests me. The cold/sonic seems good, the debuffs certainly help in keeping safe and are useful in a team while helping with the damage.
But I couldn't come to the blaster forum and say I was torn between a blaster and a defender :>
Even though I just did <_<
To be honest, If you're looking for something completely different from a scrapper; I'd go for a "Ranged" blaster rather than a "Blapper" build.
The first thing that catches many converts-from-melee out is mez. There's just such a heck of a lot of it, from after about level 25 onwards throughout the game. Whilst it's not as bad as it has been in previous issues for Blasters (Fire-when-mezzed being part of the new Defiance inherent) it is still a drastic departure from melee toons. It's rare you'll be perma-CM/Claritied in a PUG team. You will learn to target mezzing enemies first!
Secondly is melee damage. Blasters have big hitting melee attacks, but they lack the mitigation to go toe-to-toe with anything (exception: /Ice, and some Blaster builds post-epic-pool-shields). You therefore have to be smart if you wish to use melee attacks in a PUG brawl and not lose your teeth. "Jousting" is the normal method, queue an attack, jump past an enemy, attack initiates and inertia makes you travel past the enemy so you're out of their melee range while the attack animates. Combined with a Stealth IO, you'll rarely get hit.
Thirdly is build. /Fire for example, is a squishy aggro magnet on legs... whilst /Ice provides nearly as much mitigation as a scrapper or tanker's defensive powerset. Elec/NRG can one-hit sap entire spawns dry of endurance. Archery can kill a mob in one shot from a long distance every 30 secs.
Personally I have a Fire/Ice/Fire Blaster that is a lot of fun to play and rarely dies unless I want him to (Tip: 'Rise of the Pheonix' is lots of fun and dying completely negates the debuff after an Inferno!). He can mow down mobs from a distance, slap foes with his Ice Sword in Melee, help out the Tanker with Ice Patch and/or Shiver, pull from out of line of sight with Rain of Fire... etc. . I rolled him for the Ice Patch/Rain of Fire combo, but he's a lot of fun regardless of what I'm fighting. If I start getting hammered, dropping Ice Patch and Shiver, Jumping up and toggling on Hover then firing from a distance will mow down the toughest mobs in relative safety. Shiver, Fireball, Fire Blast and Aid Self let me solo +2 "gate mobs" in Cimerora easilly.
Finally, Damage. Blaster damage tends to be a fairly unresisted type (unlike Scrapper or Tanker damage - even Fire Melee contains a lot of lethal, Fire Blast doesn't!). Blasters also get access to both Aim and Build Up, and Defiance which adds +damage with each attack. And then there's AoEs and "the Nuke". Scrappers can't really compare to that. I have a AoE damage build Spines/DA/Body Scrapper that is roughly comparable to my Fire Blaster in terms of raw AoE damage output, but whilst the Scrapper is more survivable and ignores mez, the Blaster can inflict carnage over a much wider area than the Scrapper can, even without using Inferno.
I'm all for that. My blaster builds, for all its flaws, are exclusively ranged. Even though I've heard the argument that it is gimping a blaster by not taking the melee powers I reckon that if I wanted melee I'd be playing a scrapper, whilst if I'm on a blaster then it's long range I want.
Try again (bloody "Form is no longer valid" page popped up so i have to write this again)
Me again
To add a few things since my last post. First up is that i haven't added any melee attacks yet either and as a blaster i dont see it going well if you do. One tip i do have however is wait for flamethrower, it deals out our first round of damage that isnt smashing/leathal and it has a decent(ish) AoE. If you can pair this up with calitropes and m30 granade it can be very effective. Use the calitropes to slow them down, the flamethrower to burn them up and the 'nade to deal some smashing damage and scatter them. After that you should be able to pick the strong ones off before they have a chance to cause you any problems and the weak ones you can deal with after (as they only have half health left) ---Just as a note i have sniper rifle as well so use that to pull a group to perform this act of sadism 
---. If this sounds good then the epic power pools will interest you as well as they include burn,freeze and electric damage as well as a few other things so if you plan your blaster well then you can go far.
I think you are answering the wrong person 
My blaster is a ice - mental.
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I think you are answering the wrong person My blaster is a ice - mental.
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Good choice of powersets 
I can tell from experience that the combo you have chosen is great for ranged combat, you get 2 cones (very nice stacking -rech) and a good single target attack chain. My ice/mental doesnt have any melee powers at the moment (well, PSW which is PBAoE but that doesnt count ) and she can dish out a bucket load of damage! Also survival isn't a problem with drain psyche + hibernoob 
- @DSorrow - alts on Union and Freedom mostly -
Currently playing as Castigation on Freedom
My Katana/Inv Guide
Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either. -Einstein
Mind probe is a melee attack. Biggest orange number i saw with it was 600 something against bobcat
Unfortunatly though I believe in you I ended up scrapping the ice/mental and making an archery/mental.
The icey one wasn't quite quite working out but the archery been good fun so far (26). Died a fair number of times so far, but far less than my attempt of making a spines/DA scrapper.
At 26 I got me Aid Self which should help with survival ^^ I'll be posting my build on another thread to get some ideas.
I've never played a blaster to high level so I was curious to know if someone could point me a rough estimate of the damage a level 50 blaster puts out in their ST blasts.
For example, my current Fire scrapper against +1 romans and at level 44 does something like, 170 with Cremate, around 270 with Incinerate and roughly 240 with Greater Fire Sword (DoTs not included), all three attacks fitting seamless when Hasten is up.
Fire Sword Circle I've not payed a great attention but it does around 160 again without the DoTs.
I say this because I'm getting a bit tired of melee (haven't had a single ranged ranged character barring a long deleted level 39 ice corruptor) but the squishyness of blasters puts me off.
Granted, I never actually passed level 20 with one, but the lack of survival, mezzingness and going from alive to dead in a few seconds if a spawn turns against me never conspired to help me level one up.
I'm trying a ice/mental at the moment, level 12 bless her, and the same old problem carries on with five deaths in ten minutes of teaming (lets not get into a full bar of endurance being used per fight since it's things that will get better later).
With all the drawbacks of a blaster only a lot of power would seem to be the selling point, which brings me back to this post.