Blaster Manifesto

You know if you had a clue Erratic I would care - but I have in past threads again and again over the years offered you a chance to join an all knockback team - one where EVERYONE uses whatever powers they want.

You never bother and so I won't bother with you any longer.

A mention of blasters from you is always followed by KNOCKBACK. I assume someone once knocked your cat out of the window or something. Your aversion to knockback and the style you must play on a team where everything must be neatly stacked in its place before anyone is allowed to attck would have me quitting in 5 minutes.

Perhaps you were the leader the other day when in an 8 man TF the leader insisted each time we stay together and wait for the tank each time - mean while we had split into 2 - 4 man groups just tearing up 2 separate locations with no danger. The leader kept screaming and complaining that this wasn't the best idea all while we cleared the mission in just a few minutes.

After the end of that mission I asked - are you going to tell us how to play the entire TF? He said well I am leader - I quit and so did 5 other players.

So please let me know what your global is in case you aren't on my /ignore already. My global is @iron so please do me the favor of ignoring me.

Yeah it's just that, although I love reading knockback love/hate threads just as much as I loved reading Dominator love/hate threads in I6, I know that most people who are bothered by knockback are ironically strong advocates of knockdown. Knockdown is the better alternative in soooo so many situations, and the reason why people love powers like Ice Slick and Earthquake, but puke blood when someone tosses a Bonfire first thing into the center of a group. It really makes me wish for some kind of enemy debuff like a controller's cages that adds all that -10000% resistance to knockback, but without the PROTECTION to knockback, which would turn everything into knockdown.

That's why I wanted to see which people would play (or just not hate as much) Energy Blast if it was only Knockdown. The swap ammo idea was great, except it would probably take the spot that Aim occupies if they treat it the same as Dual Pistols; Actually I guess I'm not sure at all how the Devs would decide to implement that but it'll probably never happen anyways.

I am bentley Berkeley of Virtue. A 50 Psi/ment/force blaster who has NO EQUAL in my fields of leading pug TFs of any AT configuration at an exceptional pace and being an all around old time lore RPer who mentors many young heroes. My ego ofcourse fuels my psi/ment powers so dont be surprised by it.

Its no secret many speak il of the psi/ment set. Making such insane claims that the set is the weakest DPS and most useless all around. All false and based on something as meaningless in a world of fiction called math. pff math. No mentats exist among these forums. None can take into account years of experiance, a spiritual connection to the AT, nor an absolute devotion to the art of Blasting.

Blasters do not need major overhauls. They do not need every 2ndary redesigned to a defensive so we can mimic vile corruptors.

I would say perhaps every old secondary from launch could stand a review and have one or two current throw away powers in each set changed to somekind of real self heal/recovery power.

But in general the reason why most blasters complain about thier play experiance is a lack of understanding created by the falsehoods spread on these forums.

Blasters are no less then any other warrior caste AT and are the true front line.

Simple facts like yesterday I lead an ITF I formed in about 5 minutes composed of random puggers varying in level from 38 to 50+ like myself.

The poor brute who was a valiant warrior mistakenly assumed they where the front line. Soon they learned to follow where my psi tornadoes where flying towards. We had several other blasters on the team including another almost mirroring myself which was lovely. we had no Healers per se though the bubbler def was ideal to compliment my own self healing style of play. Never do the teams complain at the end but give thanks for the swift and painless tf. In this case it was about 45 minutes as Id promised based on my initial expectation based on the team that had formed.

When you have a stallion let it run is what I say.

or last night I ran a 4 man synapse tf. under 2 hours. tank spent most of the time trying to catch up to me, the defender joked about not ever needing to use thier major powers, the stalker had fun getting to AS now and then which usually put down the odd boss I didnt bother to focus on. Again thanks from all of them not a oh no you dont hang back behind the tank, oh no you follow KBed targets around and charged right into mobs. Why because a real blaster does those things ALWAYS and real players know this. A real blaster ofcourse doesnt need the rest of the group but is there to help them anyways out of selfless kindess. Be thankful when a blaster comes to speed up your otherwise slow dreary day.

Well, I play a lot of tanks, and maybe I am old school holy trio player (and no I take everyone on a team because to me this is a game and fun is fun) However on knock back I have one request..let me know when you are going to do something cool so I can see it. :P I miss out on a lot being face to face, knee, bellybutton (hey I make short tanks). As for losing agro? My tanks don't. Period. You knock em away they come running back to me.

Contrary to popular belief I did NOT intend for this thread to devolve into a KB hate thread. I was merely asking for the playerbase to acknowledge that ALL ATs need to work together to make the game more fun for everyone. Solo play is fine and we should do as we please. But we should ALL be a little more considerate to others when we team in the spirit of fun.

As to some of the other discussions, I have my own beliefs with regards to Blasters:

1) I am The Blaster, there shall be no Blasters before me. The Blaster AT is designed first and foremost to do damage. With Inventions, Incarnate Powers and so forth it is now possible for other ATs to out-damage us in the short term. However I believe that any changes made to ATs in the future should remember that overall Blasters are supposed to deal more damage on average over time. All else is secondary.

2) I am The Blaster. Whether it be ranged or melee, I shall do damage. Some players prefer ranged combat while some like to Blap. To each their own. However this is another one of those areas where the player needs to show some consideration to the team. If you die solo, that's on you. If you die on a team then the team is diminished. Therefore it is in YOUR best interest to think about the team (this goes for every AT really). If you require or expect Heals, don't hide from the teammate who throws them. If your Rain of Fire would do MORE damage after your teammate's AoE Immobilize, tell him to lead with it and then follow up. If it works even better after a Tank herd then work together. A meal tastes better when everyone at the table pitches in to prepare it.

3) All things have a place...generally face-down on the floor. Yes, Knock-Down is more team-friendly than Knock-Back. But as has been stated here before we can all work together to make things more fun. You have a Explosion with massive KB potential? Throw it on the EDGE of the mob to divert them into a wall or corner instead of putting it dead center and scattering everyone. You have Hover and a KB Cone? They why AREN'T you blasting bad guys down to keep them off of you as well as the team?

Blasters do damage. It's part of our DNA. It's usually all we have to bring to the table. But like all tools there is often a better way to use what we have. Sometimes doing a lot of damage isn't enough. We need to do it WISELY in order to maximize our potential.

Blasters are like fighter pilots. Elite, skilled (the good ones anyway), cocky. We're proud but we've earned the right to be. Do we swagger a bit? Sure we do. So does the Tank who maxes his aggro without taking a hit or Defender who debuffs everything in sight. But like said fighter pilot we need to remember that the tools we wield can be helpful OR harmful. Firing without thinking is seldom a good idea.

I am a Blaster and I support this message.

A new blaster...dies alot. Know what though? So do new everyone elses. Some ATs have an easier learning curve. This is especially true for sets with built in self sustainability powers.

Its also no secret that there are those who are stuck in, and I apologize for the negative connotation but it is there for a reason, of being too much a wowtard or holy trinity mentality.

COX has survived and even come to thrive in the shadow of WoW becuase it is NOT WoW. Even in first year people struggled to break the limits of thier ATs. Tankers wanted to do dmg, blasters wanted to survive, defenders wanted to do more then support.

And through long trial and error along with no little effort in time we did so. We all together won that war to get to the game we have now. However its not always easy for people to accept, to trust in the unknown which is maybe most especially true when dealing with unknown blasters.

Its also hard for some to admit thier own weakness, thier own inability to be truly adaptive, which is what those defense gifted ATs admit to when they suggest that mobs being knocked back from them might make them vulnerable.

I only have one 50 blaster. I have played many as I have said, but I deleted every one somewhere along the way, even my first years, and have no regret thanks to my success with Bentley Berkeley.

Scrappers on the other hand I have numerous 50s, in a variety of powersets, Including my oldest 50 and only first year I have left.

Among them is my claw/will power known as Invisble Falcon of virtue. WP ofcourse is one of those sets that thrives on massive aggro. Yet claw ofcourse has several notable KB including a good sized cone one. I never hesitate to use ALL of my attacks especially AOEs to thin herds of trash quickly. I ofcourse am a master of using KB to herd groups where I want and favor it to the dull aggro and let em come style found in less interesting MMO.

If you dont like KB and one on your party uses it, leave the group. DOnt ask others to ruin thier own experiance for you. GO find a new group or learn to play better with others. Every power is here to be chosen if someone enjoys it. That is why people take certain powers. COX is not a game ruled by numbers style play like others as most so driven on that aspect tend to be TERRIBLE players in my experiance. Using character builders, or forum cookie cutters rarely lead to a player developing into an effective citizen of paragon. COX is alot more skill based and when I say skill I mean actual practical experiance in game using the various powers in a variety of content, at a variety of levels. If your build Only works once it reaches a certain threshold, or falls apart when it exemps down, your as gimp as they come. A real COX player can just pick 2 sets and in his head instantly see what powers he will take at which lvl, how he will slot them, how he will set them, and how he will even respec them later for differenent higher end sets.

You know what I was wrong earlier, we real cox players are kind of mentats when it comes to this game.

I have a Energy/Energy blaster its pretty fun. I get a little "angry brute rage" from AoE knocking plp back, but I don't really pay any attention. I play a few melee toons. A fire brute, ice tank, shield scraper, energy stalker. I don't get upset when the mob gets pushed back. People who don't like kbs probably wouldn't have anything against it being removed from the game. I have loads of fun with it.