More Proof.....

That's just it though. For a scrapper it is trivial. For the blaster its a way of life (or death). The blaster doesn't fit the category (unless you are a highly experienced player and know how to leverage it) and they are rated at 8. The problem being that the blaster lacks other tools to get an "8" value out of that "8" rating.

What shouldn't seem like a stretch is a revamp so that they actually do fit into the category OR a revamp so that they are not so overestimated by the devs. What you are trying to compare is the scrapper with a situational power to an AT with a situational power set.

I agree that the omission is intentional, however I can't justify it. I can also see it as neglect when other ATs that all ready properly fit into their own categories (or at least fit much better) are getting dev time for tweaks and upgrades while the blaster languishes.

I was responding specifically to the language that was used, however it is rare or perhaps more accurately an asymptotic relationship based on player experience. It is extremely rare for a new player, uncommon for a player of moderate experience, and common for a player with a great deal of experience.

What I mean by contrived, is intentionally creating the situation. We do that several ways as blasters, combining Stealth and Super Speed for PvE invisibility, teaming with a Brute or Tank, pulling, slotting for mitigation through IO set bonuses, using PFF/hibernate/phase shift to splash the Alpha, munching inspirations like candy and using an inspiration cascade, Sizing up the battlefield before opening to identify the most serious threats, etc.

All these things are very useful and helpful to blasters while simultaneously being virtually unneeded by all the other damage dealing ATs.

Indeed.

These situations are more uncommon than a "Good Player" can actually manage. The teamed situation only works when the team is playing up to snuff. The tank isn't continuously over aggroed. The support characters are actually throwing useful buffs out there, etc etc. When that does come together it reflects well on everyone else but the blaster who's only contribution was to get on a good team.

Trying to maintain an insp cascade on a blaster that is fighting enemies with any damage type they are weak to or let alone a mez is a plan to fail.

Actually a "Good Player" will use many of these strategies simultaneously. In my experience once I learned these and other tactics I found most other ATs (barring Doms and Controllers) boring, however because of the design flaws in the blaster AT there are still many situations even considering the above where no matter what you do you will fail/lose on a blaster because the blaster is the only AT that lacks a diverse enough set of tools to handle those situations outside a team.

On a small team (or even an unbalanced large one) you may still be missing critical components required to make the blaster play like any other AT. Blasters are the only AT so hampered.