Honest Blaster Questions/Research

My usual statement is "Voltaic Sentinel does about as much damage as an Empathy Defender." It was handy for AV fights and situations where chain-aggro wasn't likely. (Also on a FF/Elec when the tanks were hanging back waiting for people to tell them how brave they were. VS + PFF = "Follow me.") Like most of the things in Elec Blast, it's not LIKE the other kids, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I think they really need to give all the T3 single target damage powers blaze-like activation times. Or at least all the ones that don't also have a huge stun or something attached.

I see. You don't need to play perfectly, you need the ability to "shrug off defeat."

I don't hang out in the other AT forums much, but I don't ever remember seeing that specified for anyone else. Maybe Kin Defenders. I don't know.

I have the ability to "Shrug off defeat." I remember when the debt cap was twice what it is now, you got full debt indoors, and it took 10 hours to get a level, playing hard, in the 40's. If I remember correctly, after trying the Sewer Trial in 2005 or 6, it took five hours to burn off the debt.

What I don't have is the opinion that the "limitations and weaknesses" of a Blaster are just something to accept, given that they are so much greater than the limitations and weaknesses of EVERY OTHER ARCHETYPE IN THE GAME and there's very little benefit to counterbalance them.

30% more damage than a scrapper on a good day. 500% more vulnerability on a typical day.

I play Blasters- I've lost count, somewhere around eight at or near 50, a couple up-and-comers. I think I'm pretty good at Blasters. I don't believe Blasters are balanced. I have levelled up tanks, scrappers, defenders, corruptors, brutes. I may sometimes come to the wrong conclusion, but it's not from lack of research.

I'm late to the thread (frankly surprised at myself for not joining sooner), but wanted to add my 2 bits.

First, some personal notes (skip if you wish):
I love my Energy Blaster, but stopped playing him for the most part due to seeing him outstripped in effectiveness by others ATs. As much as I laugh when my WM/Inv Brute wades into a dozen mobs without thought and wipes them in secs while taking negligible damage, I weep for my blaster at not being close to doing the same. And then there's the perma-rage SS/Inv tanker in my blaster's SG who can walk into a huge group and practically one-shot the lot of them. I'm terrible at crunching numbers, but from my own experience, the anecdotal evidence is overhwleming. Again, just my own personal experiences. I've played a few Blasters over the years, and I like to think that I'm as tactical and effective with what I'm given as anyone else, but the tactics are a chore, not a challenge. Tactics with my Ice Dom is a challenge and enjoyable for me, but I'm doing it to be more effective and efficient, not just to survive.
Anyway... personal rant over.


This is an extreme suggestion, but just to take things in a different direction, what if, instead of increasing damage, Blaster damage was made unresistable, or at least partially so? This would effectively increase damage without raising caps. If you wanted to add a team benefit, then have the -res be partially effective for the rest of the team. A top-level Incarnate, IO'd, etc team wouldn't really need it, but in the mid to later levels, it would be quite a boon to most teams.

Granted, this would reduce the novelty and usefulness of different damage types among the sets, since not all mobs have the same resists vs all damage, but there are still many variations in power types (AOE, Drains, Holds) and secondary effects to keep them separate and different from one another.

This is just a thought and I'm sure that there are a number of things that I haven't considered, but I wanted to toss something new out there that I haven't seen so far.