Blasters and Melee

i might be alone in this but my way of thinking that the name BLASTER would imply a character who uses almost strictly ranged attacks yet the secondary set puts you right in enemies faces. that seems horribly wrong to me. other than that crappy hold you get most of your secondary powers offer half ***** attempts to keep enemies at ranged distance. you dont see the hunter in wow having this problem why? because he has a pet to keep his enemies at ranged distance. now im not saying give the blaster a pet, but the class needs something to help keep it shooting for longer than 3 seconds. i like the class, but if i wanted to melee id just play all the other melee classes and i have they are jsut fine. the other ranged characters have ways to keep enemies stuck at ranged and not just 1 enemy at a time. ive tried uber buffing my hold so i can try and lock down a group and it doesnt work. ive tried single pulling and that works sometimes, but not nearly often enough for it to be a viable strategy. a distraction ability or a ranged taunt would fit in perfectly with the game and all the secondary blaster sets should have one or at least something that keeps me shotting and not punching all the damn time. i hope im not alone in this.

The close range attacks werent meant for you to run into the group. Its meant as a defense for when they come to you. BTW Try devices, no close range as far as I know.

i know that what i meant was that the enemies get close to you to fast in almost all cases. im referring to a way to keep them from getting close to you as fast as they do. most of the powers have absolutlely no way of keeping them from closing the gap. the worst part is they come in groups of 3-5 at a time and sure you can stop 1 of them assuming that the worthless single target hold they give actually works, but outside of that they get close and beat the piss out of you which is all good if you want to fight in melee but that not what i would want nor expect from the most powerful RANGED class of the game. i should clarified.

If you don't want melee attacks then why did you choose energy/electric manipulation?

I'll say what any other blaster player is going to tell you: Blasters aren't specifically a ranged damage class, they are a 'pure' damage class. Whether it's ranged, AoE, melee, etc, the blaster can dish it out.

As for keeping foes at range, if you want that then pick the right sets for it. Fire blast isn't going to keep foes at bay because that set is about blowing things up, not away. Ice, on the other hand, can hold multiple enemies with just the powers in its primary. Different sets play differently from eachother. Some have more AoE dmg, some have more solid single target damage. Some sets are great with control while others excel at pumping out damage fast.

For a ranged blaster that specializes at keeping foes away, try Sonic Blast/Ice manipulation. From the primary, you have a stun, a knockback cone and a long lasting cone sleep. You can literally pick off foes one by one at your leisure. Ice manipulation has a hold, a cone slow, a knockdown patch and a PBAoE sleep that can stack with Siren's Song to sleep even bosses. Before attacking a mob, you can lay down ice patch and take a step back. Any foes not asleep that run at you will run into the ice and slip and fall continuously.

I had that misconception about blasters way back when myself. Then I learned more about the game and the AT.
I'd avoided taking any melee attacks on my main for 20 levels because...
Blasters are ranged fighters.
Right?

Wait? They're not? Oh, hmmm...

Once I realized/was told, that blasters are all about putting the enemy down quickly. Be it at range or otherwise. I was all set, the whole AT seemed to change at that point. I respec'd and never looked back.


As for what the others said.
If you want tools in your secondary to keep the foes at bay I recommend either Ice or Devices.

Devices will give you Caltrops very early. This is a wonderful power to deny the enemy your face.

Ice will give you the above mentioned Ice Patch as well as Shiver. I can't begin to tell you how great that power is at doing what your suggesting.
Put a few slow SO's in and wow, aint nothing coming at you quicker than a snails pace then!

Hover snipe, float a few feet above your foes and blast them into the ground. They'll pew pew and not be able to melee you. (not applicable against flying mobs)

TL&DR version;
Blasters aren't ranged fighters, they are damage dealers.
From any range

I'd strongly encourage you to take Swift or Hurdle from the fitness pool (Hurdle is better, IME, but Swift is helpful too). CoX does not often reward staying still. Shoot, move, shoot, move, punch, move, jump-shoot (you can start jumping backwards and activate an attack while in the air, it arrests your movement some but it is helpful).

Its not just about keeping your enemies away, but also about keeping yourself away. Additionally, do not be afraid to charge when that would be helpful. If you can kill that Lt. with a big melee attack, and your blasts are recharging, you should run at the Lt., kill it, and then keep moving out of melee.

Blasters can be played in multiple ways. Ranger styles can work, but you best build for movement (Hurdle and Combat Jumping are great, but there are other options if the bunny-hop does not appeal) since you are giving up some of your best attacks. Aid Self is also helpful for a ranger style, and since you may be skipping a fair amount of your secondary, you should have room to put it into your build.

Yea, just picking from power sets that have less PBAoE and Melee attacks will let you play the style you want to. In some cases there are sets with melee attacks that you can skip if you'd like, (as in /energy melee, you can just use the first KB power to keep them away, and you also get boost range so you can fight from even farther away)

Doing the above will mean you're just as useful on teams, but you're playing your style.

It just so happens though, that /elec is the second most melee oriented set available to blasters (after fire), that's why you feel the way you do.

Personally I respecced out of 2/3 of my melee attacks on my Elec/Elec (I kept Thunderstrike) and haven't looked back. Either I used them and they got me into trouble, or I didn't use them and had an incomplete attack chain. Elec/Elec is the only Blaster I've had any significant play time with (got a Psy/Mental up to 10), but it works fine for me.

The ranged fighter with no melee attacks is called the Corruptor. The Hunter-type pet user is called the Mastermind. Both are on the villain side.

The Blaster really doesn't map to a ranged archetype from other MMOs. Others in this thread who have pointed out that there are different types of Blasters are right. Devices Blasters are much more ranged oriented, setting down traps, and using Caltrops to slow (or even cause to flee) foes that might get into range. Energy Blasters are the Blappers, their Secondary is specifically designed for getting into melee, so you might as well do it. The other options are somewhere in between, you tend to have melee attacks, but also an immobilize and also sometimes a weak AoE control power, like a slow. You've got a Secondary, though, if you're not going to use it, why did you pick a Blaster?

If you don't want to go villain side, you might try a Rad/Sonic Defender, or some similar combination. Although the damage is not quite as good as a Corruptor, it's closer to what you would think of as a Mage or Warlock. In short, instead of thinking about blasting directly, think in terms of what you could do to debuff your foes so you could do more damage. (Or, buff yourself)

There are also Controllers, which do considerably more damage than you would think, with Containment. At 32 they get a pet, so there is your hero side "Hunter" class. You don't have as much control over the pet as an MM's henchman, but you can always go over there and check out the redside anyway. And with Going Rogue it will probably be possible to have "heroic" Masterminds.

Take hover and hover-blast out of their reach, provided the ceiling is high enough.

Every blaster secondary, except Energy Manipulation, has a single target immobilize with a long duration. Target a foe, immobilize him, switch targets, immobilize number 2, move away from number two, target number three, immobilize number 3, back up again, blast number 1 before he gets free.

Since Electric Blast has Tesla cage, alternate Tesla Cage and Electric Fence.

Or, hit build up+aim+Ball Lightning, Tesla Cage the Lieutenant, hit the minions with single target attacks. Finish off the Lieutenant. Do it right and you've defeated all three before they have time to get within melee range.

I skipped the melee attacks on my elec/elec (except Shocking Grasp, which I didn't read the description for close enough or I would have skipped it, and I respecked out after picking up Shocking Bolt). At this point, continuing not to take them is as much stubbornness as anything else; although there's also the thought that if I haven't missed them through everything I've done so far, they can't be that important.

I love being in Melee on my Blasters...it gives me plenty of opportunities to gain progress on damage taken and debt badges.

A blaster afraid of melee is like a tank afraid to take alphas.

Fighting solely from range is fine, if the enemies agree not to close on you. However, they don't. Or I may be facing a spawn I can take faster with close combat. One could build the blaster by ignoring/avoiding close combat powers that don't fit your concept, of course. But I know it wouldn't work for my tastes.

A lot of people have yelled at you about Blasters and Melee. I'm going to give my view of the matter- hopefully less "yell" and more "explain", but I make no promises.

Most of the "Support" powers in a Blaster's secondaries don't work very well. The "melee damage" powers in a Blaster's secondaries, on the other hand, work exceptionally well. Charged Brawl/Havoc Punch is about 60% more damage than Headsplitter (the biggest hitting melee attack Scrappers have, or close to it) in the same time, and you can run those two from level 10 on.

I have a miniguide to Blasters in my signature. Alone or on teams, melee or range, your job is to drop enemies to 0 hit points. 5 HP is no good. Big damage attacks, Build Up, and Aim, are your tools. Do not merely anger the enemies. Kill them.

As others have said, the Blaster AT isn't all about ranged blasting. It's just something they're very good at. If anything, the AT is about raw damage, and most Blaster powers are about damage dealing, ranged or not.

There's an entire playstyle for Blasters that revolves around their high-damage melee attacks. It's called "Blapper", meant to be a combination of the AT names for Blaster and Scrapper. In the absence of survival buffs from teammates, it's high-risk, but many players find it actually helps them survive, because their melee attacks hit really hard, and defeated foes don't deal any damage.

If "blapping" isn't for you, focus on utility powers from your secondary (especially those that help keep foes away), and pick movement powers that try to keep you away from foes.