My little blaster idea workshop.

If we are simply looking for how to improve blaster survivability without giving mez protection, increasing damage or increasing HP then the next best method is just giving defiance a +def vs all (typed and positional).

(they could fix other things like melee hybrid slot, why oh why does the +defense one have the taunt aura and the +res one does not)

Well for Devices you could theoretically add a refreshing Absorb mechanic to one of the two toggles in the set (Cloaking Device would fit slightly better from a logic point of view but Targeting Drone would be more consistent if the Absorb were being added to Build Up in other sets).

That being said I think that if I were tasked with adding an Absorb feature to Blasters I'd do it more like the current defiance and just have every power give a small Absorb bonus.

Devices?

Well the first thing I would change is make gun drone move faster.

The second thing I would do is blow up the cottage and replace Time Bomb with something else that is useful.

Edit: since synapse brought out the ice/dev blaster, he should team with viridian, arbiter hawk, positron and the others and try and use time bomb as much as he can.

I'm not married to any particular Absorb mechanic- I'm hoping someone comes up with a better one than I did.

My goal with Absorb was to make Blasters 2-3 times tougher than they are, without opening them up to "I stacked this with four random powers and now I never die" mechanicking. Maybe I'm too conservative in my goals, but I'm happy with Blasters being the least tough of all the AT's, and doing the most damage. How, you may ask, does that differ? I'm not happy with blasters being "The least tough" by a factor of 3-5 and doing "the most damage" by a factor of 1.2 or thereabouts.

It's very hard to manage a game where a so-so Scrapper can live 30 seconds and a so-so Blaster can live 5. That's an awful wide spread.

My changes to Devices would involve Targeting Drone be +tohit AND + damage, for one thing. Maybe Fortitude-level or a little less. And replacing Time Bomb with anything else. And maybe some sort of arcane Smoke Grenade "only stacks twice" trick. If (Blinded) and not (Blinded2), apply (Blinded2), something like that. Then you'd have something that gave up quick kills for a legitimate longer lifetime.

It would probably be a lot of coding to build something into Time Bomb that put a new button on the character's bar in the same spot, labelled "Detonate early".

WHAT IF:

The Aim power in Blasters primary set was changed to be both Aim and Buildup in strength and Cut the recharge in Half. I.E. +ToHit equal to Aim, +Dmg equal to Buildup.

THEN :

Change the Buildup power in the secondary to an appropriate Absorb/Dmg shield that worked as follows: Any attack that effects the Blaster has 'X' Hit Points absorbed by this toggle effect. If the attack is a melee attack, not only is the dmg absorbed by the shield, but deals the same amount of damage (of the appropriate type : Ex: Fire dmg for Fire Manipulation, Energy for Energy manipulation, etc...) to the attacker as was absorbed.

*The absorb amount would be enhanceable and since it is a toggle, would require the blaster to manage the cost of the shield*

I realize this is the same as, say, a resist toggle, but the absorb effect would be low enough to not turn a blaster into a Tank, because the % of protection would vary on the amount of damage. Example, if the shield Absorbed 10 points from each attack, a 50hp attack would deal 40, equating to a 20% resistance. OTOH a large melee attack which dealt 200 damage would still deal 190 damage, which equals only the equivalent of 5% resist.

Another thought is to do away with the absorb altogether and focus on the "backdraft" effect. What if, this toggle instead gave a small chance to deal full damage back to the attacker and block the blow. This would be un-enhanceable since you cannot deal more damage back to the source than was originally recieved. I would find it very enjoyable to watch a minion try to smack my Blaster, and see the "Backdraft" proc protect me from ANY damage from that hit, but instead "defeat" the enemy trying to attack me in a "fiery" burst. ...."That had to hurt. I guess I should have warned you about getting too close to my rocket boots.... Muahhuahhuah"

Intriguing idea, but:

Hehe

You know I will never change Arcana

What I really hope the devs will do one day is a 10th power to each powerset which is REALLY well thought out and focused on what the particular powerset lacks. In this way the Cottage rule can stand right where they left it.

I posted in the S&I section with an idea for a blaster Defiance tweak.

My idea was to leave it pretty much unchanged, but add a small amount of mez protection to the most crippling mez types (Hold, Stun, maybe Sleep) that is determined by the number of Defiance stacks you currently have, up to 7.

Each attack you make gives you mag .5 protection to those types, and if it stacks up to 7 you can gain mag 3.5 protection, provided you can consistently keep attacking. Leave the ability to fire the first 3 attacks while mezzed as well, so you can maybe break a mez that lands by attacking through it.

It works with the "offense is defense" idea, in that while you are actively laying down damage you are more difficult to mez, but if you let up at all you give your enemy an opening.

The majority of my blaster deaths occur toward the beginning of a fight, when an inconveniently timed mez reduces me down to only being able to use my first 3 attacks against a full spawn. This idea would reduce the frequency of that happening, probably by a not-insignificant amount.

I may have posted in the wrong place so if this shows up twice im sorry


My idea to fix this at.


Make BU and/or Aim a toggle.

that is all

Arcanaville, whatever is comming is comming but suddenly crossed my mind your note to the OP:

"Think about Blasters' closest cousins: Dominators and Stalkers."

This makes me think... stalkers have been called a lot "melee blasters", at least in the old days.

Dominators have a huge overlap with blasters in feel too...

So... how about combining them a bit...

Blasters get a Domination bar!!! As it fills, blaster gains what Stalkers get in their secondary: mitigation and mez protection!