Why take blaster melee ST attacks?

Well, then you have combos like Ice/Electric and Ice/Energy.

Why wouldn't you punch a boss in the face while he's frozen in a block of ice? Or in the case of Ice/Electric, enter melee to make that hold stick with Shocking Grasp after using Freeze Ray.

There's also the fact that you're not always going to be able to stay at range. Enemy AI likes to get up in your face, and a set like Fire Blast has nothing to dissuade him from being there. Sure, he's on fire, but if he's not dead yet it means he's pissed now. A Bone Smasher or Havoc Punch is a good way to tell them "I don't want you in melee range", especially if the Bone Smasher is followed up with Power Thrust.

SS+SJ = perfect tools for kiting/jousting.

While I can understand why you feel less inclined to go melee with Fire/Ice, it would seem to me that you have not seen a blaster in action hopping around jousting stuff to death. Perhaps that won't change your stance on the usefulness of melee attacks but perhaps it can also illuminate why some people do it.

3.3 seconds cast time on total focus and thunderous strike is nothing. Targeted melee attacks allows you to practice beginner level jousting. You can even joust PbAoEs like inferno and powersink but those require more precise timing. The point is you don't need to be in melee range long to use any of these powers that require you to be in melee range.

If you play smart, the rewards of these melee attacks from the secondary will outweigh the risk. If you stand still while using any long rooting powers in melee range of dangerous opponent(s) then you will pay for that mistake very shortly after.

The problem is that you're looking at fire/ice, and hoping to find an ST damage attack in ice....

Fire/ have the best damage of all primary
/ice pretty much have the worst damage of all secondary

The reason someone would take /ice is for chilling embrace and higher.

7 out of 9 primaries seems to benefit from the extra ST that nrg or elec would give.
Mental, his ST attacks are for mitigation mostly.
Ice, for mitigation.
Devs..... not really much melee attack.
Fire, his biggest point is the aoe attacks. two damage auras, burn, 2 aoe attacks and consume.

So really, there's a lot of reason why to take melee attacks, just not much with fire. Just like you don't need all the survivability Dark Melee (siphon life and touch of fear) adds if you're a stone tanker. Not every sets need to benefit from the same thing.

My fire/fire blaster's question is in the other direction: What's this 'range' stuff?

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Those melee attacks makes a nice place to put a full set of Mako's in for the range defense.

My Arch/Energy blaster has all four energy melee attacks fully slotted. I'm no blapper, I'm a proud hoverbot, but if something does manage to get within striking damage of me...

Don't forget also that Blaster Melee attacks typically do a lot of damage for a high End cost and long recharge time. This helps compensate for the fact that such powers tend to have drawbacks in Ranged sets, such as Bursts' low range, and especially Sniper attacks' cast time. The Blapper strategy works because it allows high burst damage, and that by its nature minimizes the risk.

Total Focus isn't even a good example of this. My personal favorite is Fire Sword, but Bonesmasher would work as well. Once you get to 50 there's probably no reason to make any major changes to your fighting style, but I've found success with just psuedo-Blapping, just with an attack or two before darting out of range.

Question: Why take blaster melee ST attacks?

Answer1: Why not?

Answer2: Because they are fun

With Ice/Elec/Elec you don't need capped smashing, lethal defense because depending on the build you will have more than enough mitigation that you shouldn't need to worry about having typed defense.

My character has 4 holds, and Lightning Clap which is also another form of mitigation. With 4 quick holds you can lock down the bosses in mobs and deal out enough quick damage to kill the minions and lieutenants without much hassle.

Can't speak about Rad/ because I have no interest in it, but at least thats how it works for Ice/.

Blasters do damage. Melee attacks do a lot of damage.

If you're dying simply by getting into melee range or some reason it takes you a long time to get into melee range you either need to reevaluate your team's tank/controller or push the W key on your keyboard.

Sometimes there's enough AoEs being flung around that make it dangerous to be around the tank, but if you're buffed out the wazoo with force fields or fortitude then there's no excuse to not do more damage.

Im pretty used to Blasters, even though I only play a AR/Dev now days, im not agenst using the melee ST attacks they can have however, since iv had a blaster or 2 with ST attacks before.



Ill have to agree that blasting from a distance is alot safer for the Blaster AT, but not always.(Counsil for example)

In the case of ST attacks like Lightning Strike, and Total Focus, or even Bone Smasher.You dont have to be standing still to do these attacks, and still gain ground right after you trigger it.

Iv played alot of Online Games, and the term im using, is "Fly-by Attacking".

You can run at a boss, Trigger a Long animating ST attack, and start to jump past the boss right before it triggers.It will trigger the attack animation while your moving, AWAY from the boss, and still hit, and do the damage.If someone else has the Aggro of that boss, then your pretty safe to do a Fly-by, but if your Solo, you may still get hit doing it, but you wont get hit 2-3 times like you would trying to trigger that said attack standing still.

After a little practice, youll be jumping around like a Spider Monkey doing Fly-bys like its second nature, and you increase your survivability, and it wont take more then a split second to set it up and do it.

Im acctually rather surprised to see how people dont do the little things to gain a advantage, when theres plenty of those types of advantages around.

Another Example is fighting a Brute with a Scrapper.You have no idea how many Scrappers iv seen get beaten by a Brute in PvP.

Even though its another subject, iv watched a Scrapper fight a Brute before, and made the Brute complain.The Scrapper did step back attacks, he would come up, hit the Brute, then back off.Then come up, hit him again, and back off.Keeping that Brute from gaining very much Fury, and taking down his Health rather quickly due to his Aura wasnt grabbing long enough to take effect to add to his Regen.

It was a Kat/WP Scrapper agenst a SS/WP Brute.The Brute player started getting upset, telling the Scrapper that he is supposed to stand still for the fight.

However, the Scrapper did my old Stand by, find the Advantage of your foe, and use it agenst them.Thats exaclty what a Fly-by player does.

I have a Traps/Rad Defender, and I dont really have to move at all due to my FF Drone, however, I have Cosmic Burst, which is another great example of a power, not in the ST Melee sets for Blasters, that is close range, and 2 second animation attack.A fly-by is the answer for that one on a Blaster as well.

For any of you who played Ultima Online, youv prolly seen players with slow and heavy weapons like a Halberd, or Broad Sword running up to hit there opponent in PvP,then moving away for a second before hitting again, because there opponent had a Katana, or other extreemly fast weapons, and not kitting them, or doing fly-bys, would get you killed trying to fight them toe-to-toe.Giving you the upper hand by hitting as often as them, but harder.

The advantage of the Katana player is that he can swing fast, and do alot of damage in a Tanking situation, but the Halberd player can do Fly-bys for the same damage over time, if not more, and take less hits from a none tanking method.Thats finding, and using the advantage of your foe, and turning it into a weakness.

This is the same in every game, just to a differnt variation.

Find a nitch, and use it.Not everything is stand and deliver.

Combat Jumping is also a great way to joust. I use it with Hurdle to leap in and out of melee range quickly (right now I can't hold a boss on my Elec/Elec, so I'll leap by a boss and activate Thunderstrike, doing good damage and knocking him down, all while not really being in melee range). Also, you can build to mez or kb mobs easily, making it easy to dash in an quickly take out a mob with your hard hitting melee.