Step Child Woes

I was rejected by two TFs today simply due to that fact that my primary is energy. I believe one leader was only wanting Fire or Ice maybe psy as well. I'm unsure if I'm naive of this situation but besides the added knockback with energy I've never had an issue with this in the past. Is there some ungodly difference that makes waiting 30 mins and praying for your idea of the optimal Blaster worth it. I'm clear that certain sets perform higher on the dmg scale but I't was my knowledge that they were all still high dmg dealing sets.

Slight rant. Maybe disscussion?

My rule of thumb is that if someone rejects me based on the type of toon I'm running, that is not a person I want to team with anyway. My first 50 and probably my consistently favorite toon is an Energy/Energy blaster, so I feel your pain.

On the subject of knock back, it can be a very useful tool to a team if used correctly. It as easy as remembering two rules when teamed:

1: Use AOE KB very sparingly and only when absolutely necessary.
2: If you knock it back, knock it dead.

Many hate Knockback for teaming. In my experience, they're wrong, but it's where your problem originates from.

I team my Fire blaster with a friend's Energy blaster on a regular basis, and admire their ability to mitigate damage with Energy - time the enemy spends airborne is time they don't spend killing you.

But if I was a Tank or Scrapper - and of the appropriate mindset - I'd be 'worried' you'd 'ruin' the mob I'd gathered, scattering it everywhere. (The polite way to avoid this, of course, is to pick of the stragglers instead of attacking enemies in the middle of a mob, when you're in a team with a melee character.)

energy does take more skill than the point-and-click trap that some blaster fall into. Ray Gunn, my current avatar and energy/energy blapper, was rejected a lot until I learned that lesson. Now I know better and try to work all my shots to aim up to some wall if a tank is around. Most abilities are not slotted for knockback, just the inherent knockback is good, and I like working with controllers, hitting guys after a lockdown. There's less scatter that way.

Rejecting you outright is stupid though. A good energy blapper is the guy who stands ground throwing the enemy willy-nilly when the team is retreating or dying fast.

When I'm playing my eng/eng blaster with my tankaholic hubby, I try to be conscientious about the knockback effect. It can be pretty intense.

It comes down to using the effect strategically.

If we're in an enclosed space (office, cave, whatever), I do my best to knock stuff into a corner. Of course, it's nice that tankaholic hubby knows enough to aggro the mobs into a corner in the first place.

If we're on an open air map, I will rain my blasts from above. This mitigates the knockback into somewhat of a knockdown - not entirely, of course, but it's better than blasts "on the level".

Unfortunately, not all blasters are strategic, which gives a bad perception to everyone else. Of course, the longer "everyone else" plays the game, the more likely they will come across the strategic players, and hopefully their perceptions will change.

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At the same time I can understand where they are coming from even if you are a smart Energy blaster your damage will be gimped in comparison to some of the other blasters (which doesnt matter so much) because you will not be able to take advantage of your AOE's when all those mobs are grouped up so nice.

If mobs start getting too spread out many of the other AT's power become not even worth firing off. Why hit Cinders when you only catch 3 mobs? Also its not fun as melee to run up to a mob to start your chain and "Zap Zap" mob is down the hall.

So while I deal with this some people don't. When you made the Energy Blaster you had to have known by now that this would happen, so you made a decision accepting the fact. My first toon was a energy Blaster at launch..he was quickly deleted 15 lvls later as I shouldnt expect that just because its how I like to play others should like it too.

I agree, just chalk him up to not worth playing with. Its not like Nrg blast is the only problems teams can have, bad claws scrappers can be just as bad, defenders who dont use there primary, or secondary. tanks who hold back and let others lead the charge. Nrg is tricky, and now matter how hard you try, you are going to annoy melee's at times. Nothing you can do about it. I dont mind that so much, I think the bigger sin, is if you are on a aoe centric team, is to scatter them before the others can unleash their assault. That is the one time, I am very conservative with my AOE's, and may even shift to single target.

I have not ever been turned away from a team because of me being Nrg, but I know it happens. Usually the types who are picky about who is on the team, are also total pains to play with, because they think they are some kind of tactical geniuses who like plan every single encounter. The game has changed, most every encounter can be won by simply rushing in guns blazing now.

Uhh I kind of understand why you get kicked. I mean why take nrg when you can have any other set and not deal with the kb? It's not like Blasters are in short supply or anything, I mean you can pick one up in about 2 minute and not risk the nrg blaster (who may or may not know wtf they'r doing) kb stuff everywhere.

I still don't know why tankers hate knockback. Their taunt aura lasts around 11 seconds on their targets so even knocked back targets will return to the tanker. Auras that give bonuses per target (Invincibility, Rise to the Challenge, Chilling Embrace inparticular) are really the only ones that don't benefit from knockback. Besides, who can really say that the mitigation from knockback isn't as good as the +regen that you miss for a few seconds from RttC? Meh, whatever, Energy Blast is still a cool looking, and fun powerset.

Haters gonna Hate.

I wouldn't reject any player based on powersets/AT. Worth noting: On a TF where you are usually fighting +conning enemies all of that KB would be reduced in mag, possibly even down to KD. If the team leader were any good he would have figured that out. That said, I do have issues when playing an Energy blaster myself.

Most KB powers only have a % chance to cause the KB effect. Basically you can never predict what's going to happen on a spawn to spawn basis. It's essentially impossible to not scatter a mob when only a handful of the ones you hit are even going to be KB'd in the first place.

Then there's the issue of not always having an "ideal" situation such as walls/corners to knock things into. In that case you either just accept that some scattering is going occur, or you don't use your AoE blasts. Then what good are they at all?

Hoverblasting so you can shoot straight down on a spawn works, but you have to be directly above them and (at least when I tried it) it slowed me down so much I just got frustrated. Plus what good is my secondary when I'm floating around? Then I just can't help but realize that I'm playing a blast primary that's forcing me into all of these workarounds just to avoid pissing everyone off (including myself) for a set that gives mediocre performance at best.

That's just my own personal rant on the matter. IMO they should just change the mag of KB on those powers to 0.67 so it's KD instead of KB. Then if a player chooses to they can slot a KB enhancement in there to beef it up or make it so the KB in those powers triggers 100% of the time so the player has greater control over it.

this whole knockback problem would be resolved, if an IO were available that converted knockback energy into knock down energy. That way, the player has a choice on any power with the "dreaded" inherent KB, and energy blasters no longer need be shunned. 1 build for KB, 1 build for KD. Energy suddenly becomes very, very useful.