Blaster Balance

tl;dr warning!

Blasters got a much needed boost with the new inherent some issues back. Where as it certainly helped matters, it hardly balances the AT vs. the new kids on the block. Spine Scrappers or VEATs or even Shield/Super Strength Tankers have comparable or better damage AoE than most Blaster sets. These ATs though, have excellent survivability and get mez protection while Blasters in general only get to perfect their faceplant specials.

Lets compare Energy Blast with Spines for Scrappers (both being on a 1.125 scalar):

Power Bolt: End: 5.2, Rech: 4, Range: 80, Cast: 1, Dam: 62.6
vs.
Lunge: End: 5.2, Rech: 4, Range: 7, Cast: 1.63, Dam: 88.8
(ST ranged vs. ST melee)

Power Blast: End: 8.53, Rech: 8, Range: 80, Cast: 1.63, Dam: 102.6
vs.
Ripper: End: 11, Rech: 11, Range: 7, Arc: 90 degrees, Cast: 2.17, Dam: 167
(ST ranged vs. wide melee cone)

Energy Torrent: End: 11.9, Rech: 12, Range: 40, Arc: 45 degrees, Cast: 1.07, Dam: 60.1
vs.
Throw Spines: End: 13, Rech: 12, Range: 30, Arc: 90 degrees, Cast: 1.63, Dam: 100
(Both cones, Throw Spines with superior area of effect)

Explosive Blast: End: 15.2, Rech: 16, Range: 80, Radius: 15, Cast: 1.67, Dam: 56,3
vs.
Spine Burst: End: 15.2, Rech: 16, Radius: 15, Cast: 3, Dam: 82
(Ranged AoE vs. PbAoE)

Power Burst: End: 10.4, Rech: 10, Range: 40, Cast: 2, Dam: 132.6
vs.
Impale: End: 5.2, Rech: 8, Range: 40, Cast: 2.43, Dam: 137.9
(Both ranged ST)

Clearly a Spines Scrapper outdamages an Energy Blaster both in AoE and ST damage outside nukes (which use is highly situational). All Scrapper Epic pools have several ranged attacks, single target and area of effect, which make further ensures that the best Blaster in CoX in fact, isn't a Blaster at all.

Despite this fact, Blasters remain one of the most popular ATs. Why? Because the AT encourages fast paced and exciting play. The AT is also very attractive to new players as Blasters are strong early levels, but becomes relatively weaker compared to all other ATs as you progress.

Going Rogue is soon upon us and we will likely be faced with stiff competition from villain ATs as well. Why would anyone pick an Energy/Ice/Psychic/Electricity blaster over a VEAT in a team setting? VEATs have more AoE potential, while being able to break soft cap in all positional defenses as well as having several team buffs and benefitting more from pool powers.

I feel that Blasters then is in need of a little pick me up, here is what I would do:

General:

Sniper powers are mainly only useful solo and as an IO mule. Even solo, my Blasters tend only to use them as a break from tedium. The game has soooo moved on since hover sniping was considered a bad exploit. Increase damage with at least 50% for these powers.

Nukes are largely situational. Blasters as an AT already suffer from lack of endurance management tools (outside of /Fire and /Electricity and to a lesser part /Energy) and nukes compound this issue. Make nukes cause endurance crash as before, but get rid of the 15 sec recovery stop. Alternately, make it similar to EM Pulse, where you get to keep your endurance but can't recover endurance for 15 sec.

Flame Mastery: Add 5th power. Smoke or Melt Armor (faster recharge and lower duration than Tanker version).

Force Mastery: Add 5th power. Repulsion Bomb or better yet, Energy Absorption (Blasters are endurance intensive, but is the only AT blueside w/o any endurance management tools in their ansciliaries).

Radiation Manipulation: Make a thematic secondary to the upcoming blast primary.

Specific powers:

Short Circuit: Up damage by 25%. Spine Burst will still be superior.

Voltanic Sentinel: Increase duration to 240. Recasting this power really is a chore and Blasters need to blast.

Gun Drone: As above. Lower cast and endurance cost.

Frozen Aura: Add damage compartment as done with Tanker version.

Scare: Make it a small radius AoE on a longer timer.

Any and all imput is welcome so long as its at least a little bit constructive. Any more powers/sets which are lacklustre and not mentioned here?

You're getting your 5th powers soon, though they may not be the ones you mentioned.

I generally agree, though. Blasters either need a little bit more defensive potential from powers or more damage. Updating snipe and nuke powers seems like a good start!

I'm a blaster at heart, have been since May of 2005. The only 50's I have are blasters. That said I think your gonna have a hard time finding anyone to support this idea.

You said it yourself. "Blasters got a much needed boost with the new inherent some issues back."

Even if it wasn't enough to really balance the AT it was still an improvement.
I'd be afraid of the community backlash if blasters were improved again. With so many other AT's needing help/fixes.

I'm extremely hopeful that we will get some QOL work at some point, just wouldn't expect anything before next year at the earliest. Of course, they'll be scrambling to work on GR problems at that point.

Are you delusional?

Blasters still get the job done, they're straight up damage. But lets look through your general list to be fair.

Snipes
Do what they do, they snipe and have the longest range. They deal a fair amount of damage, even my Doms snipe does nice damage. Snipes are situational yes, but that's not because of damage. It's because they can be interrupted, boosting the damage wont give snipes anymore use.

Nukes
A nuke is a massive buildup of "power" from the blaster that comes from within. The power is extremely exhausting, it fits thematically. Hence why Archery and Assault Rifles "nukes" do not drain. Doubtful a change will come that will let you deal a lot of AoE damage w/o heavy penalties.

Epics
All epics are getting updated in i16 so its a mute point.

Rad Manip
Will come, just wait, currently there are no melee radiation attacks. (Shivans dont count for player models) This issue IIRC they wanted to port sets that required the least amount of work.

Short Circuit
Ok, this made me laugh hard, you're comparing a scrapper AoE power to a power that's main focus is to drain endurance. lawls. I'll leave it at that seeing as its a seriously sad attempt.

Voltaic Sentinel
Blasters are not pet type ATs, you need a better stance as to why this needs to be done. I don't see a balance issue here.

Gun Drone
Same as above, but let me also add its a secondary power.

Frozen Aura
Why, are you somehow lacking damage from your primary?

Scare
Another one that made me laugh, make a mind/* Dom if you really want this.


Blasters still remain among the most popular in any powerset combo. My Fire/Mental is just nuts for AoE damage, Fireball + Psywave almost equals my nukes power. Scare doesn't need to be an AoE, its also a secondary power so by design weaker.

Mind you, I'm speaking from my personal experiences. I just don't feel the examples you made warrant a buff.

Comparing "average" to the best of the pack can go both ways. How does a Broadsword/Inv scrapper compare to AR/Mental in AOE?

Blasters are fine the way the are. The only buff that I could see happening is the snipe change that Dominators got being ported over to Blasters.

I'd like a more damaging snipe, especially for sets like Assault Rifle or Electricity, that don't have a hard-hitting single-target attack. They should be capable of one-shotting minions at least. It's mostly a case of wanting my situational power to actually be situational, rather than just a set mule.

Other than that, a Blaster in the hands of an experienced player is as much easy-mode as a Scrapper or Brute.

I don't like threads like this one.

First of all, the OP, as been pointed out by others, makes a comparison between a single target blaster and an AoE-oriented scrapper and then leaps to the conclusion that the blaster must be inferior because the numbers say so.

Second, it's pretty clear to me (as an owner of a level 50, heavily IO'ed spines scrapper and several level 50 blasters) that the OP hasn't played the ATs in question. Theory craft is amusing, but it's just that...theory. In actual practice, a spines scrapper, while it does respectable damage, is completely overshadowed by an AoE oriented blaster and overshadowed in single target damage by *any* blaster.

I say this with confidence because a single target attack chain (unless there's crits) of lunge, ripper and impale will not impress anyone. Further, in AoEs, spine burst, while it does good damage roots and has a long animation. Throw spines is excellent and has a huge cone but it's not nearly as spammable as something like fireball and isn't close to the damage as something like flame thrower. I also have energy torrent as well too, but while it is a good power and complements throw spines, it's not going to wow anybody by itself.

Third, it's pretty clear to me that the devs are moving in the direction of interchangeable ATs. Every AT can do damage. And to me the choice of damage comes down to whether you want something ranged (blasters, spines/claws scrapper) or melee (scrappers, blappers). Villain ATs cloud this picture even more. And I have a couple of brutes (an Electric/Shield and SS/Fire) that can rival many blasters in AoE damage, and yet there's no outrage that brutes will take away the job of blasters. No single AT is utterly dispensable; no single AT is utterly required. That's why you have all defender teams which trivialize any content in this game and they don't require *any* damage AT.

Blasters are just fine. The change to defiance pretty much guarantees that they outdamage just about everything, though, as I mentioned before, many ATs can fill in for blasters on a given team.

Personally, I think Castle and crew has done a pretty good job of making the blaster AT attractive and functional. I see none of the issues brought up by the OP.