Why A Blaster?

Yes, that is really the case. Blasters have always been outdamaged by other ATs at higher levels, and they're defenses are basically non-existant.

They're clearly the worst AT in the game. But they've always been that, so it's sort of like a golden cow; it's not really going to change unless without a significant paradigm shift.

If you like dominators, you will probably like blasters, they play similarly. I would encourage you not to skip your AoEs, Energy Torrent + Explosive Blast are a great combination.

Thanks for the advice. I may have to create the character when I get home tonight and give it a whirl.

I'm not.

Blasters are categorically outclassed. What can they do? Damage and maybe some control. Surely they do the most damage then, since they only really have the one thing? This would be wrong, and Scrappers far and away exceed any Blasters' damage; Brutes too. And then we even have types of Corrupters and Defenders outdamaging Blasters at high levels since they are damage multipliers instead of damage adders.

So those 4 must be worse in defense since they do more damage, right? Also no. The same ones can stay indefinitely aggroed to AVs or GMs.

Go look in any of those AT forums. It's widely talked about.

With all this being the case, what role does a Blaster serve at high levels? None.

This is very correct. Blasters are more challenging to play at the higher levels because you need to use more strategy. Namely, the mitigation in your secondary. Things like hover blasting can be very effective since Blasters can still attack while mezzed.


Outdamaged by others? All the archetypes powers' scale up, why would other ATs scale up more than Blasters? I can see where mob health increases faster than the damage scales, but Blasters still do a lot more damage than other ATs.

The strokes on this painting are far to broad to discern what's really going on. I went ahead and bolded what is the most patently false.
Blaster's ranged damage modifier = Scrapper melee modifier.
The circumstances where a Brute do more damage than a Scrapper (over time, not in the instant that its fury taps out) are slim and very late game. Brutes also have a lower modifier and lower bonus from Build Up and similiar powers, and neither of them get Aim. Scrappers can almost compete with burst damage, Brute's don't stand a chance however.

The moral of that short story? Those ATs don't out damage blasters out of the box.

Scrappers have a less than 10% gain over Blasters in terms of hit points. That's the same ratio difference from Scrappers to Brutes, and half of Brutes to Tankers.

A Blaster with softcapped S/L against anything *doing* S/L (a ton of content is like this) is only 10% short the survivability that a softcapped SR Scrapper is, and the Blaster will roll out a ton more damage because their sets have (a) longer range, (b) more AoEs, (c) more coverage on the AoEs.

Certain Corruptors will out damage certain Blasters. Certain Defenders will outdamage certain Corruptors. If you rolled out every single combination that did the most damage, the Blaster might not quite be in first... but you're going to have to do better than broad strokes and "some Corruptors" to prove that point.

Based on my last two paragraphs, the quoted line of thinking would conclude that in fact the Scrapper is the worst AT in the game. Because certain Scrappers are worse off in every way than certain Blasters in certain circumstances. Also patently false. I'm just pointed out the error of this line of thinking.

For the OP: Blasters are GREAT AT for learning the game. They solo well, they don't become much more complicated to team, and down the road IOing one can make it an impressive beast.

The current whipping boy on the AT forums is Stalkers, btw, not Blasters.

The role of high level Blasters has the same conditions as every other AT: power sets, build, player skill, content being played. In most circumstances, the Blaster's role will be to out damage everyone. To take the biggest advantage of +damage buffs and -resist debuffs (with the highest modifier with tons of AoE), as well as drop single targets and runners extremely well.

As bitter as DarknessEternal sounds, he is, to an extent, correct.


Unfortunately, Blaster damage simply does not scale well enough or pack the same kind of punch that it does in the pre-30 levels, back when you felt your Blaster was awesomeness. Several things factor into this such as: increased mob HP, increased mob resistances, increased mob mez attacks, increased mob ranking, increase in EB's/AV's, etc. All of these add up to the poor squishy Blaster, who is relying almost soley on his damage to survive, which he barely does and by the skin of his teeth.


Blasters have some mezz's, but for the most part lack the type or power level of mez to really have substantial effect in his survivability on a team and even sometimes solo. Mez's are too short in duration and too low in mag to be hugely useful in later game. Blaster have no way to deal with large mob spawns. Sure, they have AoE's and decent damage for those AoE's, but not all primary blast sets have "enough damage" in their AoE's to actually use them to level a mob spawn and survive. Instead, you fire off your two AoE's and then die between the first attack to the massive "alpha" that's coming your way, sometimes before the healer, or even you, can react and heal. The damage a Blaster deals is good, but just not good enough to be the "crutch" that it's suppose to be in order to keep us alive. Again, in early game, this works out pretty decently...but in late game it drastically changes.


Stalkers had a problem with dieing anytime they entered melee and fired off AS in the middle of a mob to take out a boss. Very few were able to actually survive outside of a tier9 or billions of dollars in IO's after a move like that...and they have an actual DEFENSE secondary. So, to help fix this, the dev's gave them Demoralize, a power which effectively provides an AoE fear AND to-hit debuff to almost any critter around the Stalker after he AS's. This one small change help Stalkers out in a great and amazing way, allowing them to actually live long enough to deal some tremendous, and team HELPING, damage. Something that they "too" had a hard time doing in late game. Well...Blasters are currently in the same boat, only we've been in that boat for several years now.


I think that to help fix Blasters in late game PvE, the dev's should either consider increasing our damage output drastically (maybe make Defiance more powerful a damage buff the higher in level we get? For as much as a 20-25% damage buff per attack?..), or somehow balancing in a defensive type of power. I'm not sure what they need, but it is in my opinion that they need something more than they currently have.


To truely and effectively play on a Blaster and really contribute major damage for the team, you'll almost need to bring two of these AT's with you: A really good taunting and hardy Tanker, and a really good Defender (preferably empathy) who focuses mostly on you. Between those two, you can definitely deliver some massive damage without having to worry too much about face-planting every 3 minutes in late game. Unfortunately...you're one of the only and few toons that must rely on TWO other AT's in order to perform your one role...that to me...isn't right.


Anyways...that aside. If you have played Dominators, and like the way they play, then I'd suggest sticking with them. Their damage is almost (or more) devastating than a Blaster's in that they have awesome controls which allow them to easily and effectively deal that damage. They even get good pets and full mez protection when in domination (plus a free blue-bar with every domination pop)....buuuuuut...if you must try Blasters, lol, then try Sonic/Energy. It is one of the most survivable Blasters out there due to it's control ability. PowerBoost + Sirens Song and then PowerBoost + Screech on your target is pretty darn nice mitigation on a spawn to be quite honest. The -res stacking from Sonic will also help you to debuff those meaty foes in late game, and soften them up for a relatively easy kill.


GL.

It depends actually on your primary/secondary pairing.

/Ice and /Dev (/dev plays quite slowly, it's not everyone's cup of tea) are pretty high for mitigation.

Combine that with a primary that has alot of AoEs and cones (Fire, Archery, Assault Rifle) and you have a high damage output relatively survivable blaster.

You can also pair up with a high mitigation primary Ice/, Sonic/, Energy/ provide lots of mitigation. So any of the mitigation sets will survive well.

You can also (once you have gained a bit of familiarity with the blaster AT) pair a high mitigation primary with a high damage secondary.

Ice/Elec is very nice for going into melee range and doing lots of single target damage. Ice/Fire is good for melee range AoEs.

The problem with the AT is the blaster credo is defeat before you are defeated. In actual play it doesn't work that way for most players though with experience it can. The reason that this is so is that blaster damage output is limited by activation times. Even though your powers may do crap tons of damage you won't survive long enough to apply that damage.

High damage output/low mitigation combinations (which is the majority of blaster pairings) really need an alpha absorber. This is why so many players are slotting up blasters with defense bonuses from IO sets.

Wrong.

This isn't WoW or some other MMO-trinity game. There's never a case where you need a Tanker. There's never a case where you need a Defender. Never ever. That's one way to build a team. However, all Blaster TFs are done from time to time without issue.

Blaster's damage modifier taps out early, that's why the damage seems so much higher early on. However, if are in ANY circumstance where you survive, you will out damage shot for shot every one else. Controllers / Dominators can keep you alive just like Tankers/Defenders can, by the way.

Some would argue that Corruptors with debuffs can keep par, but let's imagine YOU are the Blaster and your teammate does all those debuffs they would do to try to keep up with your damage. Well, then all of a sudden YOU are doing that much more damage. Tada!

The difference is....the Corruptor or Dominator has the "survivability" to actually fully dispense their ordinance until every last baddie is dead...and that is the key difference here.


Sure, in an all out "who can deal the MOST damage the FASTEREST ready set GO!!!" war, the Blaster will most likely win...however, the Corruptor or Dominator will most likely still be standing and dealing solid damage WITHOUT a bunch of outside support long after the Blaster has already blown his load and hit the hospital for round 2....winner....Corruptor/Dominator.


This isn't to say I don't like Blasters, I love them and the fragile style in which mine live, but I'm also wise enough, and not too proud, to acknowledge and recognize their glaring deficiencies.

....Brutes and Scrappers do not put out anywhere near the amount of damage my two blasters do.

I have a Fire/Nrg and a Rad/Fire blaster. I have a Stone/Inv brute, a Claws/WP brute, and a SS/Fire Brute, as well as a BS/Regen Scrap and a Spines/Dark scrap.

The only brute that comes close to the level of damage that the blasters put out is my SS/Fire brute, and even then, the Rad/Fire still outdamages it.

My Fire/Nrg outdamages pretty much any AT in the single-target department, and still does fantastic AoE. My Rad/Fire outdamages everything for AoE.

Soooo basically, your full of it.

What?! You're saying it comes down to survivability and you're not giving it to the Scrapper who can do almost as much damage and has a whole set devoted to self survival?

... and are you imagining a team where the Dominator mezzes enough to keep itself alive but not the Blaster? Or are you imagning a solo situation with large mobs? In that case, how is the Corruptor going to survive exactly? IOs? Then the Blaster gets them too. Do you realize how much longer it will take a Dominator to clear a large mob solo than a comparably leveled Blaster?

Managing aggro and using the terrain (player based) are going to have a bigger effect on survivability than the one or two powers that many Corruptor secondaries offer (edit: in a solo situation). Additionally, the reduced speed of killing (for many of them) is going to put them at higher risk as well.

I think there is a case for putting Blasters at the back of the line. It is not, however, making sweeping statements about ATs without describing the scenario whatsoever.

Also some powerset comparisons are going to be more or less "obvious." Most people wouldn't want a Psy/Dev Blaster over a Rad/Rad Corruptor. That doesn't mean Corruptors are automatically better all the time.

A Blaster who knows its limitations and operates within those for his or her team is going to out damage those other suckers. It doesn't come down to survivability unless the teammates are non-aggro holding toons with builds devoted to their own survivability only.

Don't play on those teams then. Voila!

That's simply not true. Open MIDS and make the builds. Outline the attack chains. See how Blasters come up behind.

In single target damage, maybe, but no one out-damages blasters in AoE, which is about 95% of fighting.

Did I ever say my Blaster's were dropping dead often? Hmm? Show me where I stated that "my" Blasters' were dropping dead often. Perhaps you lack reading comprehension? Or is it that you simply like to jump to self drawn conclusions? Or maybe it's just plain ignorance? Whatever the case, my Blasters do just fine thank you very much.


In your first sentence, you stated exactly what I have been stating from the start; Blasters at high levels are indeed "less forgiving" than just about ANY AT IN THIS GAME. Thanks for agreeing with me...lol..


I love how quickly AT "fanbois" leap head first and eyes shut into a thread to defend their oh-so-beloved toons, before they even pause to consider or to realize that the people expressing certain problems with an AT may only be advocating and rallying for a fix/buff for those shortcomings...lol...hilarious but idiotic...when those very people are on your own friggen side in the first place...lol...

Especially if you're playing at the default difficulties of +0/x1 and no Bosses & AVs while solo (or are on a team at the defaults).

Of course, this being the forum, virtually no one is playing at the defaults while solo and thinks that anything that can't handle +4/x8 with Bosses & AVs on isn't worth the time.