They're a natural extension of the blaster philosophy.
Blasters = high damage but very fragile, 'glass cannons'.
The blapper powers offer higher DPS, but at greatly increased risk. So it's up to the player how much risk is worth how much damage.
Works for me.
DON'T eat muffins while I'm developing you.
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Uh, yeah, that's the point. They're very powerful, but as Blasters are largely defenseless unitl APPs, it's a risk vs. reward decision to make. If you'd rather play it safe and stick to range, nobody's forcing you to use or even take these powers, but they tend to be more powerful than ranged blasts. 
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Uh, yeah, that's the point. They're very powerful, but as Blasters are largely defenseless unitl APPs, it's a risk vs. reward decision to make. If you'd rather play it safe and stick to range, nobody's forcing you to use or even take these powers, but they tend to be more powerful than ranged blasts.
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APPs? 
To add:
A blaster is a support character in both a melee and ranged sense just think "Support fire". It's been listed as a Blaster/Support. This is possibly because blasting/kiting being safer is what you can more likely get away with better for most of your career and melee is something you can do when its safe to get away with.
Is there a point to blapping? Yes. We are supposed to be able to team with a mix of any number of different ATs of any amount of any powerset. We may change how we cope as a team by turning a blaster into more than they are, to take on a role, certain abilities are best thrown in with it. There are powers on offer and whether people can see the advantage/use of these powers or take them, time and combine them with other peoples strengths is down to them. Generally the need this, need that, for what most people could understand, theoretically, is balls.
There is no point, when there is no imagination from anyone but the Devs.
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I wouldn't say Blasters are exactly "hyper squishy" these days, being not far behind in HP terms as Scrappers.
You've just got to learn how to kill everything before they kill you!
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Uh, yeah, that's the point. They're very powerful, but as Blasters are largely defenseless unitl APPs, it's a risk vs. reward decision to make. If you'd rather play it safe and stick to range, nobody's forcing you to use or even take these powers, but they tend to be more powerful than ranged blasts.
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APPs?
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Ancillary Power Pools, aka Epic Power Pools.
The AT-specific pools that open up hero-side in the 40s, and that (for blasters) finally give access to a decent defence or resistance toggle.
yeah, and don't forget that the best blaster friend (imho) is the controller ... so, melee powers are very usefull with trollers teamates (holds target) .
Also, to have a good tank in a team is an other way to easily use blapper powers .
If we talk about soloing, yeah, these powers not seems to be the best blaster powers (or to finish) ... but there is a way to use them with energy or mental manipulation secondaries : these 2 spec have a power that i love, thrust power .
My tips is to put thrust on auto-fire ; in this case you can land a melee power and just after the "auto-thrust" is done ; it's a really fun way to play (for me at least^^) and not so risky (to use this way, thrust powers have to be accuracy enhanced for more security) .
Random question on the subject of Blaster melee.
Thunder Strike.
Is it horrible beyond redemption or does it have any saving graces? Looks to me like they took the Brute/Stalker/Mastermind version and messed up everything good about it. Which is obviously false because I'm sure the Blaster one existed earlier.
It's a PBAoE (radial) knockback, where only a minor portion of the damage is energy, and most of it is Smashing - and this Smashing majority is only single target. So you have a glorified slow motion heavily resisted single target melee attack that has the side effect of scattering anything near you to the four winds. Oh, and, uh, it has a Stun, too.
I repeat, is there anything -good- about this power?
I usually use Thunder Strike for KB part of the attack to scatter mobs while soloing. Sure my all powers do KB but it is the only AoE attack of Apostle other than Nova. 
So in the end it is so so. Animation is also cool but you get more damage then you inflict during that animation. 
I had it on a defender once. Truly awful without the damage. I dunno, could be OK...
Plus you could proc it out to the MAX, dude. Force feedback +recharge, Explosive strike chance for smashing, scirocco's dervish chance for lethal, and armageddon chance for fire. Heh.
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]!
Mine on my rad holds a Dervish set and I mainly use it to stack stuns with Cosmic Burst on foes I cant stun easy (or hold with CC)
"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!"
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Random question on the subject of Blaster melee.
Thunder Strike.
Is it horrible beyond redemption or does it have any saving graces? Looks to me like they took the Brute/Stalker/Mastermind version and messed up everything good about it. Which is obviously false because I'm sure the Blaster one existed earlier.
It's a PBAoE (radial) knockback, where only a minor portion of the damage is energy, and most of it is Smashing - and this Smashing majority is only single target. So you have a glorified slow motion heavily resisted single target melee attack that has the side effect of scattering anything near you to the four winds. Oh, and, uh, it has a Stun, too.
I repeat, is there anything -good- about this power?
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When you are soloing with a ranged AT a power whch KBs all mobs close to you can be very useful.
I really should do something about this signature.
So, the answer is pretty much "Not outside of soloing, no." from what I can tell... Ah well, thanks.
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So, the answer is pretty much "Not outside of soloing, no." from what I can tell... Ah well, thanks.
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Also on some rare occasions it is usefull in teams too. For damage it is not that good but if you look it as a KB power it is usefull. It depends mostly your primary and how you build your hero actually.
Interested in an Elec/Elec/Elec Blapper, mostly bouncing around in melee and pretending to be a squishy Brute.
Personally i've never been a fan of melee powers on a blaster. Most of mine i build with range in mind. Tho with my fire/fire blaster, i have taken fire sword and firesword circle and i find i like to run in and slash away with those, but i think i do that mostly due to style than actual damage.
I much rather throw a fireball followed up with a firebreath 
For a blapper it will do you more good as you can slot it with KB sets, 4 of Kinetic Crash will give you KB. Nice thing is unlike Stun sets KB sets also increase damage so looks like a nice fit for Thunder Strike. If you can find also +Recharge proc from Force Feedback is a good one to slot in Thunder Strike.
Thunder Strike will allow you to focus more hitting mobs (like bosses in a small group) by hurling other low ones away. I usually use Air Superiority or other powers but on a blapper i think you will be more in melee than my blaster. I only have 5 powers from secondary tho. Fence is good for spamming on AVs, Charged Brawl is weak, Havok Punch is your heavy hitter, Thunder Strike is your crowd control power and Power sink is absolute awesomeness. I only don't have Shocking Grasp but for a blapper it is a must too i guess.
So if you want to build an Elec*3 blapper Thunder Strike will be good for you. Lightning Clap is less usefull than it in crowd control.
You could look at melee powers in two ways. Defensively, you are stood at the back of a team, picking off mobs which are engaged with a scrapper, held etc. and one or two breaks off and comes your way. You weaken them with a couple of shots, and finish them of with a single hit of melee (this also works with solo).
Aggressively, get lots of melee powers, pop a purple then pile in.
Yea it's the defensive part i've been starting to use em some lately. on my AR/EM blaster i put the tier 1 knockback on auto, so if they get close, POW! back they go
Previously i wouldn't use it at all.
Also got a sonic/em blaster who uses her shouts to lower their resistance, and when they get close, POW! bonesmasher to the face. Quite fun really. Still not keen on the running in the middle, feels more like what i do with scrappers, so could just play a scrapper then!
My archer has an energy secondary. That allows her to easily stun and knockback any mob that tries to get too close. The only other option would be to run away - not very heroic.
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When you are soloing with a ranged AT a power whch KBs all mobs close to you can be very useful.
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Yeah, the same set has Lightning Clap eight levels earlier, with an animation time that won't get you turned into chunky salsa.
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Fire Sword Circle is about the best AoE damage out side a nuke a blaster can get. My Ice/Fire does really nice AoE damage......... Ice isn't where it comes from
"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!"
Yuck! Tried a blapper last night 'till level 10. I had the same problem with dominators, too many attacks so i couldn't know where to place my powers for smoother use.
I bet i was a pain for the tanks teamed with me last night, i am sure i will be annoyed with that much KBs. So i decided blapping is out of my league.
Oh also one thing to note, i checked damage on Apostle for ranged attacks and melee ones, Thunder Strike does more damage than my ranged attacks (Power Bolt, Power Blast, Power Brust and Sniper). Highest damage attack he has is Havoc Punch. Not including Nova to those numbers tho'.
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KBs
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blapping
[/ QUOTE ]I'd assume powersets with lots of KB are -bad- for blapping... Hoverbombing would be more useful for something like Energy Blast.
Why are there so many melee powers in blaster secondaries? It seems as though Cryptic couldn't think of anything else when they invented the sets.... or maybe they expected more people to play blappers?
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