Why A Blaster?

More defense is not better vs. higher ranks/levels (unless you start fighting +6s). Higher rank and level foes get an accuracy buff, which is different than a to-hit buff.

Well yes and no. A second kin adds another speedboost to everyone. So now you need to compare everyone on the team with an additional 50% recharge and cycling all of their powers faster against the contribution of that single blaster. I personally wouldn't put my money on the blaster being the bigger net gain if we assume they both use the same attack set.

But yes kins (and especially FF) can become fairly redundant pretty quickly simply because the values they bring individually are so very close to the max value a team needs.

The sets that improve team speed via -res (which in the case of MM's is all of them except FF) tend to keep stacking all the way up to a full team without petering out.

If we say that a defender does 40% of the damage of an individual blaster (bit generous to the blaster there) and we look at a very simplified case of everyone using an aoe attack (40 dam for def and 100 dam for blaster) and each defender with a -res power.
8 Blasters = 8*100 = 800
1 def+ 7 blasters = (40+(7*100))*1.3 = 962
4 def + 4 blasters = ((40*4)+(4*100))*2.2 = 1232
6 defs+ 2 blasters = ((6*40)+(2*100)*2.8 = 1232
7 defs + 1 blasters = ((7*40)+100))*3.1 = 1178
8 Defs = (40*8)*3.4 = 1088

So if we generously state that blasters do 2.5X as much damage with each attack than a defender (they are at ~1.75X base, so aim, bu, defiance may take it up to 2.5X...maybe). And we ignore everything else of value that the debuff set is likely bringing to the team the convergence point of when it becomes 'better' to add a blaster instead of a another defender is somewhere around the point that your team is looking to fill the last one or two spots.

In this case though, we haven't been making specific note of defenders doing too much damage relative to blasters. One can only hope that the lowest damage AT in the game doesn't infringe on what is supposed to be the highest damage class. However, MM's do a lot more damage than defenders (which hopefully no one will contest). MM's don't debuff quite as well as defs when it comes to -res, but at the same time they also aren't that far behind.

If we accept such a simplified model demonstrating that the point a pure damage toon like a blaster becomes of value is in the last spots on a forcemultiplying team of low damage AT's, that point of convergence is unlikely to every occur in the case of MM's and blasters.

I have been on a few heavy MM teams. I was quite surprised that while most excellent, they really were not faster than other types of steamrollers. Blasters seem to work fine on steamrolling teams, IME. I have a preference for blasters over scrappers and brutes, but the preference is not strong, so I love having scrappers and brutes as well as blasters.

MMs. Well, they get in the way a lot...

Very true. The thing that holds MM heavy teams back when it comes to speed of completion is their low movement speed. All else being equal they move at least twice as slow in a steamrolling scenario between mobs. They can kill as fast as anything really, and the power they have on tap tends to wipe everything in the blink of an eye just like other offensive powerhouse configurations. However, the disparity in time spent travelling to the next group certainly adds up.

Specifically though for my last post I was deviating away from reward rate and focusing solely upon damage delivery in the physical sense of just how much of a profound affect forcemultiplication can have.

There are certianly compelling factors that would prevent most teams from seeking a high number of MM's when they wouldn't shy away from a high number of defs/corrs/trollers.

edit: of course in many MM focused teams the pace ends up being set around the MM(s), especially if the other members are soft like blasters. So w/e advantage the faster movement rate the blaster brings ends up evaporating because they aren't strong enough to lead the charge in many situations. For clarity, that isn't necessarily the blasters fault, they get full points for being fast, but again hover at the bottom of the totem for survivability, which can sometimes be more of a factor than the ability to move rapidly. Just depends.

That seems true. I am very cognizant when playing my MM that I have to be quick to tell the pets to charge ahead. Just like a tanker who leaves a spawn before its all dead in order to keep the team moving. It is much more challenging on a MM than it is on a tanker (or any other character performing the tank role).

Blasters can indeed be limited by the rest of the team. They can also be liberated by the team.

I guess I just don't care about any disparity since it is easily glossed over on teams and I find my blasters solo well enough to keep me happy. There was a time when I kind of wanted blasters to be what the VEATs are (although I never imagined quite as much mitigation). I like the VEATs, but I'd prefer a more varied bunch of effects, especially elemental type effects (fire, ice, electric, earth).

Tankers have relatively little trouble hitting their cap without kins. Some combinations can manage it without inspirations. Solo Brutes can run around at their cap.

Getting away from the damage aspect, resistance is easily reached, movement easier. -Resistance generally takes more than one debuffer, same for -damage. There is also the matter of control where locked down spawns make for smooth runs.

Why is Grey wearing off white ?

The condiment smeared madman sounds like a good name for a new brute.

So double stacked raged and then 45% more global damage is little trouble to get. Neat. What if your tanker is not SS?

How many red inspires do you think Brutes can maintain? Brutes don't have a prayer to hit their damage cap regularly solo, it is impossible without taking a lot of red inspires.

Well tanks don't need double stacked rage.

The answer for brutes is 8-12 small red/minute depending on the build but really that isn't answering the right question. The correct question is how much can a brute kill continuously when its at the damage cap.

You cannot generate 8-12 small red/minute in game. I'd love to see you doing it. Assuming you wipe full 8 man spawns in 15 seconds (including travel between spawns), that is about 70 enemies a minute. Even if we get ridiculous and say you do the spawn wipe + travel in 10 seconds, that is still only ~100 enemies per minute.

Inspiration rush is a tactic I employ on my blasters regularly (they need it more than brutes and tankers usually). You are reaching just to try to be right. Tankers and brutes do not and cannot regularly reach their damage caps solo and in those rare times they do, it is not easy to reach but requires spending more resources than they will recover (without stopping fighting and going to a store, the influence you earn will easily cover the cost of using the inspires).

I did spend about 25 minutes one time running around Talos fighting whatever I came across with a level 23 blaster chewing down inspires and quickly refilling them as needed. That bug where a contact store stayed open after you walked away was humorous.

Really ?

Really. I'd love to see you doing it.

youtube time?

Some people are easily amused.

I know right, fun!

Don't they know they point of the game is to min/max until you die?

You really need to read what his post actually said in particularly the assumptions used.

But anyway, Here is the simple question for you. Is there anything other than a blaster you could put in there ?

I'd hope you could put anything up there. If not then I'd have quit this mmo ages ago.

Ofcourse since this thread is about blasters I thought it might make more logical sense to talk about what the thread is discussing.

I guess I should have jumped in the thread and said that my ff defenders are awesome.

Shut up about that

We just got nerfed.

Thread title "Why A blaster"

Yes I know which is why I cam in talking about blasters.

Shocking I know.

EDIT: I thought this line was pretty clear: Why A Blaster? Cause it's fun!

But I guess not.

You know what you can do with those bubbles.

LOL he was MOCKING YOU because you keep bringing up other ATs in a random and irrational fashion. Citing powers that other certain sets of other ATs get against Blasters as a whole... You have argued several times that FF/ Defenders are better than Blasters on the basis of Dispersion Bubble alone.

Now you're trying to call him out for something you've been doing... hahaha...