Melee Secondaries for Blasters

Energy Secondary for Blasters IS a melee set.

Yeah, look - if you so much as mention Defender and Corruptor damage, you're gonna' lose me right on the spot. That's a key reason why I wouldn't be caught dead playing either, and I'd like a new AT to have somewhat more respectable damage than that.

I gave a very rough, simplistic explanation of what was originally a much more elaborate system. Let me put it this way - it's a system that rewards you for periodically moving out to range and then moving back into melee. Realistically speaking, anything less kills the point of having ranged attacks at all, as people will just fire their ranged attacks point-blank if they have the defences to stand being in melee.

Again, I want to see some sort of penalty for using ranged attacks in direct melee. I'd like to say I want a benefit for using melee attacks in melee, but being that you can't use them at range anyway, that'd be pointless to talk about. Let's say we give them good melee and ranged modifiers, but they debuff their own ranged damage if they're not at range? How does that sound? Rather than an inherent that gives only under certain conditions, it's an inherent that gives a lot, but only takes away under certain conditions. You can even word it as a "bonus if and a bonus if" to avoid people complaining about penalties.

And, no, I do not wish anything like the old Defiance mechanic. It did nothing but promote stupid, suicidal play. Even with defences, staying one hit away from death IS NOT SMART. Being coerced into doing it by the game is just bad design. Really, you're dreaming about the old Defiance on a Tanker. When's the last time you saw a tanker spend the bulk of his time in the deep red a punch away from death, yet didn't have people yelling at him when he died a stupid death? When, specifically, with no-one rushing over to save him from that?

Do you honestly want to come back to Jack's stupid comment of "ask the healer not to heal you" or the absurd practice of hurling yourself from great height into spawns of enemies? No. Just no. Any system which makes the player hurt himself or his team-mates for a buff is just bad, specifically if it's intended to be a class-defining mechanic. Yes, that includes Negligence, even though I'm in favour of self-resurrect powers.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

If a Energy model is somewhat followed I can see it working.

I wouldn't be opposed to Energy Manipulation used as a basis for Blaster "melee" powersets, but Energy Manipulation is nothing in the slightest like your typical melee set. At a stretch, it might be likened to the very ATYPICAL melee set that is Dark Melee, but even then. The set has only three real attacks, no AoE of any sort and is chock full of the kind of self-buffs that melee folk usually get in their defence sets, not their melee sets.

Why do I say only three attacks? Simple - only Energy Punch, Bone Smasher and Total Focus really count. You may be inclined to believe that Power Thrust is a decent attack, but the fact is it has crappy DPS, a VERY steep cost for what it actually does, and is generally not balanced as an attack, just a rather damaging utility power. Beyond that, you have Stun, which really shouldn't have any place being counted as an attack. So on top of these three attacks, half an attack and utility power, you have a raw four self buffs, in the face of Build Up, Power Boost, Conserve Energy and Boost Range.

This is not a melee set. Not in the slightest. It has melee attacks in it, granted, but then so does Energy Assault, and that's probably as much a melee set. That's the big thing - while Blaster Manipulation sets do contain melee attacks (sometimes more than others), the melee attacks are never the actual focus of the set. Yeah, even for Energy Manipulation. So, sure. If we're going to take the time to gut Scrapper and Tanker melee sets to redesign them as Manipulation sets, I have no qualms. But that's hardly "Melee Secondaries for Blasters."

One small note - people keep bringing up Energy Manipulation as some kind of quasi-melee set, yet conveniently forget that Electrical Manipulation has it beat in the melee category hands down. With four GENUINE melee attacks, there's just no question.You have Charged Brawl and Havoc Punch which correspond directly to Energy Punch and Bone Smasher, as well as Thunder Strike which, while not as strong as Total Focus, has a rather large AoE radius around the target. And then you have Shocking Grasp, which is both a serious hold and deals respectable damage. All of that, and you still manage to cram in a damage aura that also drains enemies like nobody's business. Yeah.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.