Blaster Changes Don't Fix Electric

(Disclaimer: I am not a PvP player, and my opinions are based on PvE play only. Wall of text follows.)

Hi guys, I've had an electric/fire blaster as my "Main" character on City of Heroes for ~7 years, and I highly support Garent's post and the intent of this thread. I came to the forums to see if there was any discussion on this topic and was happy to find that there is.

Having had the character for so long, I am very attached to it, and love to play it because of that, but I've always been frustrated with the impotence of the power set, on a class that is supposed to excel in dealing large amounts of damage. When I made my character all those years ago, Blaster was advertised as a class that was physically weak, but could kill enemies from range before they could get a chance to counter-attack. That has never been a playstyle that my character has ever been able to achieve. In groups, I feel less useful than other members due to my poor damage output and almost nonexistant utility. In my opinion, EB is one of the longest-ignored powersets in CoH, and I really hope that a dev can see this thread and maybe someday we can see it become the truly awesome set it deserves to be.

Here are my thoughts on some of the powers and effects:

-Endurance Damage: Useless. In PvE, groups wipe out mobs before endurance drain could ever even begin to come into effect. No more needs to be said. Electric Control did -End correctly, and the concept is archaic and obsolete on EB. This being the only effect of the whole set is the main underlying problem.

-CB and LB: A chance to chain is absolutely required. This isn't only about damage, but the feel of the gameplay. Chaining lightning attacks would make the set feel SO much more thematically "complete." The functionality is in the game, with Ion Judgment, an unbelievably satisfying power in itself. The resulting fix to EB's damage woes would only be icing on the cake. If I could pick one single change to make to the set, this one would be it.

-Ball Lightning: Front-load the damage. Trying to AoE a mob and having every minion turn around and nuke you dead before they can die from DoT is silly.

-Short Circuit: Useless. I used to use it in a PBAoE rotation until I realized every PBAoE in /fire did FAR more damage and didn't have weak DoT for a huge animation. Every melee power from blaster secondaries is better than this. Garent's changes to this would make it a great disengagement/survivability power.

Tesla Cage: Quite a large animation time, but I'm not familiar with animation times much. I use it fine.

Voltaic Sentinel: Worse than useless. The intent is sound, but in practice it doesn't work. You spend 3 seconds summoning it, and have to remember to refresh it every 60 seconds, which is a very short time. What you get in return is a pet that you can't control, that lags behind you and takes seconds to respond to your movement, and can pull enemies you don't intend or aggro enemies during a team fight. Its only attack is a version of CB that does much less of damage than yours does, and it only fires once every 2.5 seconds. Not even worth the time to summon it, even for the 20% defiance damage buff. Using this power will hinder you more often than it helps in any meaningful way. Even the end cost is ridiculous. Since the pet is invincible, I wonder why this can't just be reworked into a standard end-costing toggle that keeps the pet active as long as you keep it on. It should also have a tighter follow range and attack range, or even be reworked to simply be a ball that just rotates around your character. This has the potential to be a great, powerset-defining move, with heavy changes to its current functionality.

TB: Actually fine. Even the -End -Rec works well on this power. In my dream world it would be a chaining nuke like Ion Judgment just for flavor, but its current functionality works fine.

I'm eagerly awaiting the great blaster changes in I24, but I want to stress that they will not be enough to fix EB. With some older powersets getting reworks from the devs to bring them more in line with newer mechanics, hopefully EB will be shown some love soon. I know not all of these changes may be possible at once, but even a few of them would go a long way.

Thanks.