Blasters surpurflous?

To the OP: First you have to remember that the people who say the performance numbers don't matter are the same people who said brutes wouldn't make scrappers obsolete and that defenders didn't need a buff against corruptors.

Bugs bunny can ignore gravity because he didn't study law, you can't.

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Originally Posted by Kyria_Shirako Of course they will. There's no real question of that at all; The question that's sparked interminable debate is whether their sacrifices in terms of defense compared to their closest damage rivals - Scrappers and Brutes - is worth their damage and range advantage. Burstwise, this damage advantage has proportionally shrunk with the advent of Judgement attacks.

The burst damage advantage was gone long before judgement. Against all Odds+buildup, Rage+Fury+Fiery Embrace, etc really just wadded it up and tossed in the trash.

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That said, I don't think this performance gap has really gotten any wider since I20. Yes, Judgement has proliferated, but there are countering factors.

What judgement does is give everyone the big AoE damage that will kill minions quickly that a blaster was bringing. In the case of buff/debuff ats it gives them a nuke that is significantly better than all blaster nukes that is pretty significant.

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First, that we've seen in recent content some new mechanics where that range advantage actually proves significant. Blasters are boss on Apex. They're are also extremely helpful during the BAF Escapee phase, moreso than their melee counterparts; and their range is also useful during the final confrontation in the KIR, especially as Entanglement and Obliteration beams rear their heads.

The swarms of +3 swords and battle maiden warriors would beg to differ about any squishy being boss on the apex. Any armored at that can get the hang of jumping when the ground turns blue has no trouble with the blue rain of death, the same can't be said of unarmored characters being pureed by escapees from a Ray Haryhausen movie.

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Second, the Judgement burst damage gap is not the only one that's closed. Now Blasters have Destiny, which either gives them the ability to ignore mez like their non-squishy counterparts, or temporarily achieve their defenses.

The new incarnate abilities help blasters plaster over weak spots, which is good because the new content practically forces them to do so. While blasters are trying to desperately fix the giant flaws in the AT, other ATs are able to amplify their strengths.

Your fire shield scrapper is able to take reactive, core pets for the extra damage, and can achieve truly insane levels of mitigation with rebirth, or has the option of upping the damage output with musculature and taking ageless.

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So while I think Blasters could use a little help, if you've been fine with how Blasters were balanced before, I don't really see why you'd stop playing them in a post-I20 world.

They literally have even less effect and significance than they had before.

I don't think blasters are superfluous in the sense that they add nothing to a team. I do think it would be very hard for me to justify making another blaster knowing that I can build characters that do roughly as much damage but with 10x the survivability and immunity to mez. Until the day that blasters gain some other advantage over the other damage-dealing ATs or ranged damage becomes more relevant (in all content, not just trials), this will remain the case.

It feels like we've been over this a hundred times before, A_F, so I'll limit myself to just one comment.

If meleers in the know being able to dodge blue patches impresses you, just imagine for a moment a blaster who can maintain constant high DPS fire on battle maiden for the entire fight, while dodging swords, warriors, and patches. This may be a radical concept but blasters don't actually have to sit still to run their attack chains. Meleers do.

Eh. "Squishy" is relative, so it doesn't bother me. Using cover, timing, pool powers, inspirations, inventions and so on any of my "squishies" can 'tank' for a team as survivably as a melee character. It just takes different tactics, and more awareness.

As far as damage goes, blasters have better damage attacks that activate faster and refresh more often. If I just want to blow stuff up, I use a blaster. They are the most reliable, fastest, easiest damage. Yes, other archetypes have AoE's. Heck, all of 'em with incarnates. But blasters have the hardest hitting, and usually most readily available.

I never fealt the damage/survival scale was off on mine, this is soloing at x6. Maybe I have to be canny about my approach, but I dig that. On teams, I kill things way faster/reliably/more easily than my judgement-sporting scrapper buddy. But hey, If you don't like blasters, that's you thing. For the life of me I cannot get into scrappers. Gosh I find them boring. To each their own, right?

[opinion]
When team leader, I'll almost always invite someone I know to be a good player over someone I don't know or someone I know to be a bad player, even if the good player is playing a numerically awful toon and the bad player is playing an optimized FOTM toon.

All other things being equal (e.g. if I don't know either player), if I'm team leader, I will invite a blaster over:
* Any kheldian
* Any stalker
* Any dominator (DPS > control, and average blaster DPS > average dom DPS)
* A tanker (if I already have a tanker or brute)
* A support toon (if my team already has a lot of support, but not much DPS)
* A melee DPS toon (on events where range DPS is better, e.g. STF and Apex)

When I'm team leader, I will pass over a blaster to get the first tanker/brute on a team, support toons if my team is low on support, or scrappers/brutes on events where melee DPS is better (e.g. ITF). But there are plenty of situations where I'll prefer a blaster. (And, truthfully, plenty of situations where I'll say "anything will do" and will take whatever someone wants to play.)

Your mileage may vary.
[/opinion]

If I am on either my controller or Tank I will always look for blasters, corrs or Doms. I have control with either AT - I need overwhelming destruction.

The only thing Judgement changed for me, is the opinion that the Nukes need to be modified to not crash. Cost a lot? Sure. Empty your endurance bar and prevent you from getting it back? Not so much.

Of course, I've just now gotten my first blaster to 41 (electric blast mostly solo since 28th) and having a great time so maybe I'm not the right person to make such statements given my lack of experience.

"Every AT gets a nuke now at 50 when they are incarnated out!"

Yes. EVERY AT gets an Incarnate nuke. Including Blasters.

"Other ATs can buff damage!"

Yes. Blasters benefit tremendously from having their damage buffed.

"This makes Blasters superfluous!"

.... *facepalm*

But if you remove the crashes of real nukes, what happens to the poor archery, AR and DP blasters? Suddenly unloved, they'll be forced to wander the land in solitude, their only companion their crashless nuke on a 20 or 40 second timer. Actually, maybe they'll be okay.

If you have a minimum number to reach to start or complete a task than no blasters are not superfulous unless your on a super high population server like freedom

Here is a point, for a long time before dominator domination revamp, most players said, Dominators are fine, they dont need anything, but still they were bad enough that the devs had to nearly double their damage.

Blasters are not fine, just because 8 warm bodies can do just about anything in the game does not make them fine.

Pretty much, I exclude politely.

Saying XXXXX Tf forming no blasters please, tends to get people rankled.

Since alot of players ask for support when forming, especially ITF/LRSF/Statesy, its never even questioned.