Let's talk status protection

We've all gotten slapped by a group of Circle, perma holding you and tearing you limb from limb. Defiance 2.0 helps a little bit, but most of the time not enough if they get the first strike on you.

Now, because I can't remember, is there any way (outside of Clarion) for Blasters to have status protection? I did a forum search, but, with no surprise, nothing useful came up.

I've got two words for you: ranged defense. Is it perfect? Hell no! Can you rely on the ranged softcap to see you through an AV soloing attempt without any need for reserve breakfrees? Absolutely not! What it does do is save you from, I estimate, about 65% of the mezzes you'd ordinarily be smacked with and a lot of attacks besides. The other advantage is that ranged damage sets pretty much suck apart from thunderstrike, so blasters have an uncommonly easy avenue to shoring up their numbers.

To put it another way, if you're looking for reliable status immunity, it's clarion or a different AT. However, solo blasting can be enjoyable and "safe" if you're willing to hedge your bets and take a few risks. After all, why else would you even roll a blaster?

Very true. And I totally forgot about Ranged defense lol. I'll give it a shot

Acrobatics will give you some slight Hold protection, enough for about 1 hold attack. So it wont help against enemies who spam status attacks, like Madness Mages or Rikti telepaths, and it's useless against sleep or stun.

I'd go for:

- Stealth IO so that they don't get the drop on you as often. If you can't afford one, run hero tips to get one.
- Carry break frees, always stock up at the zone's hospital in between missions.
- Make a bind to combine insps into break frees.
- Ranged Defence via IOs.

Besides the above, i also slot up my t1 and t2 primary (and t1 secondary) powers so that i can use them almost in a complete chain while mez'ed. It helps alot in killing things before they kill you, even if your stuned, held, or otherwise unable to attack back.

Breakfrees.

The other thing is tactics: recognize the enemies that will hold you and take them out preemptively. If they're LTs or minions, all you need to do is stun/hold them. If they're bosses you need to him them with two holds or two stuns.

If you have an ice blaster you can get two holds in Ice/, making it easy. If you're electrical, you can also get two holds (one in the Electric epic). If you're /Energy you can get Stun and Total Focus, and Power Thrust is usually good enough to keep them knocked down long enough to put enough mags of stun on them if you don't have the first two. If you're Psi/Energy you can get a ranged stun in addition to your melee stuns.

The combination of tactics, breakfrees, ranged defense and Defiance will generally get you through pretty much anything. Once you get used to playing a blaster and knowing which of these things to use against which targets, you'll very rarely be beaten by mezzers. But you do need to be able to realize what's happening to you quickly and what to do about it within a few seconds, otherwise you'll be toast.

Combining insps to always make sure you have break frees is also key.

Status protection in most forms is one of the few things we can't get from IOs... and that saddens me. Especially red side when I'm playing a Corr or a Dom and every other mish is against LB and every group contains a beanbag launching Nullifier.

Kinda the reason i gave up blasters. Yeah they ditch out more damage then their 'counterparts' (domi, defender, corrupter), but those nearly have all some sort of status protection where controller can get additonal mez-protection from Psionic mastery (though base cooldown of 360, having it up 50% of the time by just 3 recharge SO's give its great value).

Also you have the stun grenades, wich (if they are equal to the AR M30 grenade) is a AoE typed ability and bypass your ranged defense completly. Against rikti i just gave up, you can basicly have a tray full and still get mezzed while getting whooped by a rikti blade.

Blasters are fun in a party where someone else is taking the beating, thats where i like to do my thing. Solo, no way.

Blaster was the first toon leveled to 50 back in the day and I still say its the best thing to learn to play on. You quickly learn about mez and which foes mez and how. You learn to quickly take then out.

Not at all defenders, Corruptors and controllers have mez protection. There are certain sets that allow for it but its not like ever defender takes that, nor does every Controller take the Psi Mastery pool.

You can boost defense, say through Maneuvers or Stealth, but primarily, I rely on popping Break Frees like a junkie. I tend to make lots of them using inspiration combination.

Also, six-slotting both my Tier 1 and 2 attacks has many times enabled me to clear away the surviving enemies while being held or stunned. With Hasten up, you can come close to cycling the two like a mini attack chain.

That, combined with breakfrees, the controls you do have access to, and carefully-planned alpha will often, although not always, mitigate mezz.

If mezz really bothers you, it's a lot easier if you play on the "no bosses" mode while soloing, too (you can generally one-shot mezz LTs).

I always 6-slot my first two attacks on a Blaster, simply because there's not really any way to make a seamless ranged attack chain without both of them. Plus even on Blappers who don't generally use single target ranged-only chains it's hard to pass up the extra ranged defense from a couple of Thunderstrike sets (pretty much the only thing I ever slot a Blaster ranged attack with after the mid 30s or so).

BRING THE SHOOTY. Seriously. If you want to avoid getting mezzed, ensure your AOE alpha combo kills doods at the rapid rate.

Also, softcapping ranged defense is a good idea.

This is where AR tends to shine, by the way.

Fight enemy groups that don't have mezzes or have easily avoided mezzes. Otherwise forget about it, even positional def isn't going to help much. The first mezz will suppress your toggles and shred your defense like tissue paper

In all honesty I play a lot of blasters and mez isnt that big of a deal when you know what to and how to handle it. I dont have any defense build blasters and all of my blaster can deal with mez just fine.

1) Carry Break Frees... I mean really if your a blaster that doesnt carry break frees.. thats just silly. It is a get out of jail free card.. I carry a minimum of 5 on ANY toon that isnt resistant to mez and even mez protected toons carry at least two because sometimes even they getoverwhelmed..

2) use your first two and in some cases three attacks. Slot them.. A lot of people skip slotting the first power because its minor damage. I slot that baby.. always have.. always will its an ATTACK... slot it. Some secondaries allow you to get three ranged attacks you can use while mezzed.. Slot em.. Use em..

3) Learn your enemies.. seriously.. learn what mezzes and how.. Get THEM before they get YOU !!!

4)Your your abilities to your advantage.. Some of us blaster have holds, stuns, fears, etc etc.. USE THEM.. again.. GET THEM before they get you..

My Elec/Elec Blaster.. Three single target holds.. two at range.. that means I can hold a boss fast.. I can also end drain the heck out of any foe.. people think end drain doesnt work.. WRONG.. It does work.. I can fight TWO Death mages at a time with NO problem.

Airhammer my NRG/NRG Blaster.. Has several things.. ONE he has a LOT of range.. A LOT.. two damage Range HO's in every single target attack, stealth and stuns.. Hit Boost range.. attack from a distance.. Use Power Push.. you know that crappy power a lot of people skip.. well that power will keep a foe on his butt ALL DAY.. When they get close ( IF they get close ) STUN EM...

Some other blasters I have use different tactics but they all have a way to deal with mez issues..

If they gave everyone mez protection.. then just remove it from the game because its pointless..

Dont stop blasting because some foe mezzes you.. work around it.. learn to defeat it..

Your Inspiration tray. As a En/En I have other options, +Defense and Acrobatics makes for a iffy layered mez defense.

But though I value Lucks more than Breakfrees I still heavily use my tray. I also second (third) the comment that Blasters are a little more difficult to play than other ATs, and this isn't a bad thing. Power has its cost.