Why do you Blast?

I have traditionally ran "heavy" characters in games. Lots of armor/health, hard hitting attacks. The Tank was the first character I made in CoH. That was confusing, no damage. I have run mostly Brutes for years now. I started to switch into Scrappers over the last year, not really happy, but getting it. I have experimented with Blasters off and on. Mostly off. Also tried Doms.

I think I am going to Blast for a year or so. I am very happy with the damage, of course. What I am finding I like about it is the challenge. You either know what you are doing and win, or you get your head handed to you on a plate. Like speed chess in that. And of course on teams the job is pretty defined, and I really like that as well.

Why do you Blast?

Because it actually requires me to play, to use tactics and strategy, to live on the edge and win.

I think a lot of this goes towards it being the 1st AT I played way back when. So learning the game with a glass cannon, had me bored with everything else.

When I'm blasting, I'm observing every situation and calculating the best avenue for attack and retreat.
When I'm blasting, I'm always on the move, repositioning for optimal cones and AoE's, using LoS to my advantage and taking the fight at my pace.
When I'm blasting, my life is always one wrong click from ending, keeping me engaged and thinking.
When I'm blasting, I'm hanging back behind the team, taking in the entire spectacle and picking mobs off endangered allies. Leveraging my burst damage where it's needed the most at that moment.
When I'm blasting, I outlive most everyone else, since I can see the bigger picture and better tell when things are about to go south.

The highs far outweigh the lows.

When I'm scrapping, I toggle on my shields, run into the mob and start mindlessly clicking attack after attack. Rinse and repeat until mob is down. Move onto next spawn without even looking. Otherwise known as scrapperlock.
When I'm scrapping, I don't even realize I have a team with me, let alone how to best approach each situation to ensure I don't get everyone ganked.
When I'm scrapping, I quickly lose interest in playing the click, click, borefest.

The lows far outweigh the highs.

That is why I blast!

Why? Pretty easy.

Defenders cant blast as hard, so no go. All other heroes have no focus on ranged.

As corrupters and dominators were villainside, wich i dont like, i had to blast.

Do i still blast? No.
Corrupters, domi's, MM's and defenders (with the 30% dmg buff solo its nice).

All my blasters except my Arch/dev are created before CoV or before Going Rogue. I still play them since they are pretty nice slotted and once in a while fun to play, but i never made a new blaster since Going Rogue (and now u can even freely choose your side, i will probably never make a new one).

Blasters do not feel like blasters anymore like they were in the old days; glass cannons. With IO's you can make them as tough as any common scrapper, their crash nuke become quite obsolete and their ranged advantage has been replaced by my preference to corrupters, stronger defenses and still reasonable offense.

Because a well played blaster is one of the highest damaging at's in the game, survivability is relative, and blasters are fabulous on teams that have alot of buffs already as they are arguably the best buff receivers in the game due to their base damage and access to very good ST and AoE damage. The one "flaw" of blasters that is really noticeable in the grand scheme of things is that fire blast is so far ahead of other blast sets (moreso for blasters than defenders/corrs) that comparing a fire blaster to a blaster with a different primary is practically comparing 2 different ATs.

I'll attest to that. Fire blast is so good, it's one of the only sets I don't mind repeating.

Oddly enough, I *don't* like Blasters for most of the reasons you guys like them. Running all over the place irritates me. Getting obliterated when the enemy glances at me infuriates me. All my blasters have been retconned as corrupters for added survive ability (all my defenders have been retconned as corrupters for added damage ability.)

Different strokes and all that~

I agree will all posts ,my first toon was Energy /Ice but now I do tend to go Fire as this is a high damage at,have several others that I play from time to time but at the moment I,m into the new Street Justice set and I will be taking Beam Rifle at some stage.

PewPewPewPewPew!

Pew! Pew! Pew!

fwoosh! bzzzzt! fwoosh! ffThoooompth!

KaBOOM!!

When I first started playing, learning the game and so forth, I went with Scrappers. Now I LOVE Blasters. My Arch/NRG Blaster makes it feel like an entirely different game to me. It was my second 50, and I never had so much fun as I did with that character. Still love to play her now that she is all "Incarnated" out. The reasons for me were that I love the Archery set (reminded me of the Thief game), being able to take in the entire battlefield and pick and choose my enemy based on my team make up, and other factors. Simply put, (and I will say this on my death bed) anybody who says one-shotting bad guys is overrated, cannot one-shot bad guys.



(NOTE: I am also having MAD love for Brutes. Specially cuz they can start good now)

Maestro nailed it. We should have closed this thread two seconds after he replied.

Because we don't have a dwarf tossing AT.

Because I can.




Cap yourself to S/L, Ranged, or both and it's that much more gravy.

I'm ice cold gangsta that likes to put caps in ****'s *****.

in rl

Because I see some bad guys waaaay over there and I want to send a bunch of electricity through them. Because I can.

Because I like seeing stuff go kasplodey.

I started off playing Blasters, and would echo what has already been said about enjoying the tactical nature and challenge.

I was drawn to my latest Blaster because I figured I could get enough survivability through other means, but couldn't find the raw damage output anywhere else.

I wanted to make a Kryptonian-style character with Strength, Flight, Invulnerability and Heat Vision. The obvious route is a melee character with Laser eyes in the APP, but I realised a Rad/EM Blaster would work just as well, except I start off with Heat Vision and work my way towards Invulnerability (via Kinetic Combats and the Scorpion Shield). Punching my way through enemies hard enough to send them flying or ring their skulls certainly covers superstrength. All the extra area damage is icing on the cake.

Playing a primarily melee Blaster has been extra fun in terms of forwards planning and challenge.

Because sometimes I just want things to die. Not after I run over there. Not after I debuff them. Not after a protracted battle. Now.

Because I feel like making a solo challenge character, and I have enough respecs to take everything out of it when I am ready to delete it.

When I blast it's because I want the simplicity of flinging massive damage from range. No inherent defenses to worry about. No buffs to fling around. Just shoot until everything is dead.

Now, if only I could settle on a Beam Rifle concept I was happy with.

Because there is nothing more amazing then a Rad/Fire or Rad/Psy blaster rolling a 5-7 AOE/PBAOE attack chain, melting down 3/8 mobs including the bosses and rolling it's nuke out every single mob. That you can do 200 dps, with your eyes closed and a T1 attack on autocast.

Because blaster is made to melt things fast. or get squished when it fails.

When City of Heroes launched, my first character was... well, a martial arts/super reflexes scrapper because he had been my main character in pencil-and-paper Champions roleplaying campaigns. But, my second character was a flying energy/energy blaster.

Back then, flying in three dimensions in an MMO was innovative--a big deal. I was inspired by images drawn by Lou Fine of the golden age hero, the Ray, who wore a gold and yellow costume and flew in graceful, lighter-than-air poses.

My blaster wore a yellow and gold costume; but, unlike the Ray, he didn't wear a mask... his spiky blond hair and smiling face were uncovered.

Upon reaching level 6, he trained in Hover and took to the skies. Slowly ascending the city skylines was thrilling.

Combat, however, was often not so fun. Rooftop mobs of Skulls and Circle of Thorns shot him down with dismaying regularity.

Learning to play more successfully as a blaster required new strategies, mostly learned by reading advice by other players on the forums.