Too many blasters?

[ClydeJr]

CoH Warcry has a nice listing of the enhancement stores. They even provide a map to show you where they are in the zones.

[Sable Blaze]

I'll chime in with a few comments on tankers, and their nemesis "lack of endurance."

SOs do make a big difference in attack and defense. Accuracy should be your first priority, damage second, then getting your assorted defensive measures of choice up to speed. With two DO ACC's in each of my present main attacks, I've noticed my hit percentage is way up on orange/reds, and even fairly respectable on purples, though hasten helps a lot with those around 4-5 levels purple. Same with damage; the +10 pts right off the bat on whites seems about right.

Then there's the matter of endurance. If you're a tank, plan on running out after the first few rounds of battle until you're lvl20 or so and can choose (and enhance) Stamina. I initially played an ice/axe tanker and she was pretty much done after three combos of gash/chop/beheader. After that it was a struggle to keep chill up, much less wet ice. This largely why I switched to a fire/axe tanker with consume. Consume is an END drain, and can (usually) keep me running pretty well through multiple fights.

I tried slotting endurance reduction enhancements, but quite frankly haven't noticed much difference. Even a relatively high END attack like chop only seems to benefit to the tune of about 10% reduction at best. That's 10% of 12.3 (I think) END. It adds up, but isn't a huge return. Better to slot damage and kill faster. Less swings means less END usage. An added benefit is dead mobs don't hit back, so less damage taken!

Anyway, that's the view from here. This game is a blast and I was largely turned onto it by this site. Thanks much everyone!

[Alkiera]

My tanker is Ice/War Mace, and my attacks also seem to have all the efficiency of a large SUV.  I need to work on him a bit to get access to DO enhancements, and see if that helps him some.  Frozen Armor doesn't seem to affect much at all, but I love Chilling Embrace too much to reroll with a different defense set.

--
Alkiera

[Horik]

Well I guess I must be in the minority but I enjoy my Invuln/SS tanker. I put my DO's into damage resistance (I'm basically going full on damage shield) and I can literally wait for my end to regen DURING a fight since I am hit for so little and have so many Hp's. Of course this is soloing. As for grouping, I've had entire fights where I hit nothing. Just taunting. Tip: Once you unload a provoke, turn your back to the mobs so you can single taunt anyone making a beeline for a defender/blaster. Once you chain provoke, there is no need to keep an eye on the mobs that are now behind you, they will only come after you. As basically a form of crowd control now, it's keeping me busy enough watching all the other players now in front of me to see if any of them are being attacked. I'm very much looking forward to 30+ when Tankers become a virtual necessity from what I have heard.

[daveNYC]

Is taunt considered a must-have for tankers?  I'm enjoying running into groups and beating them senseless, I have no desire to play my guy up to level 20 or so and discover my only role in the game is that of a rodeo clown.

[Mesozoic]

People look to tankers for taunt, yes.  The other point of view would be:  fuck them.

EDIT to add:  My scrapper can get Taunt, but I'm not going near it.  Of course, scrappers are very solo by nature and on top of that I hate people.

[daveNYC]

The other point of view would be:  fuck them.

Done and done.

[Sky]

Ooo...sounds like my old eq necro and 'twitching'. Play the game as a badass lord of the undead until the endgame when you are a mana cleric support character. A hearty 'screw that' was heard from ol' Sky.

[Sable Blaze]

I don't like taunt. I may have to take provoke for the good <sigh> of my supergroup. Personally, I think a good beating is the best taunt, but we all know of some situations where some initial aggro/crowd-control is probably necessary.

My tanker is made to get in the face of a boss or lieutenant and unload the hurt. The minions/yardtrash should be able to be locked down by the controllers and/or defenders. This stuff anyone should be able to handle. Boss mobs are another matter, and I'll handle that. This may change later, but for now I like this paradigm. If there's a few lt's near the boss, then that's what pendulum is for.

A pox on taunts.

[jpark]

Going back to the earlier topic of this thread...

As an 18 level Empathy / Psychic Defender completely focused on healing I noticed blasters to be not only prevalent on the first day of release, but predatory vis a vis kill stealing in newbie zones more recently.

Blasters have a quick ramp-up.  But in tougher instanced - confined - missions - their advantage may be somewhat diminished.  They have to avoid close range AoE from villians which is hard to do indoors.  

As the game reveals tougher indoor missions (Task force?) and a higher end to the game - we may see Tanks increase in value at the expense of Blasters.

[Daydreamer]

Re: Taunts

If they ever implement special mission-based respecs, I'll be first in line to ditch taunt and pick up the two taunts from the power pool.  I'm running into too many fights now where I rely on my AE DoT to get aggro because of the sheer number of enemies, and with a fire blaster around that usually doesn't last very long.  I'm waiting until 28 before I decide for sure, however, as my AE DD in addition to my DoT, once both are socketed all to hell, might be enough.

[WayAbvPar]

As the game reveals tougher indoor missions (Task force?) and a higher end to the game - we may see Tanks increase in value at the expense of Blasters.

I don't know whether they increase in value at the expense of blasters- however, they DO vastly increase a blaster's life expectancy. A normal fight generally starts with the blaster in the group firing off a sniper shot or similar long range attack, then a couple of follow ups. Then all hell breaks loose, and EVERYTHING targets the blaster. Without a tank taunting off the big mobs, fragile little blasters get turned into grease stains in a big ass hurry.

Similarly- when there is a big group of baddies all beating on the tank, a blaster can pick them off from range one by one- some one shot kills, some just to draw aggro (and then finish off). It is a good combo.

[Bipolar]

As a healer type defender I will take the second scenario any time.  Blasters that do not know how to manage aggro suck up all my endurance is short time, leaving me unable to support the tank and endangering the group.  When I can assist the tank, healing him and hitting his targets, with the occasional heal on a blaster or scrapper, things work so much more smoothly with a net larger xp gain over time.

So my suggestion, blasters and scrappers:  assist your tanks!

[Tisirin]

I admit it.  I play a blaster.  :)

I've found that I mostly solo, even though I have a bunch of friends who play.  Though I'm only 13th level, I'm actually starting to be concerned that I don't know how to function in a group dynamic.  I wonder if other blasters who have reached higher levels will have the same problem.

[Aslan]

Well, I don't think level 23 is anywhere near the high levels, but I tell you this, blasters learn FAST about group dynamics, else they become a nice pasty stain on the pavement.  Aim+build-up+AoE = Blaster Pate...

[WayAbvPar]

I admit it.  I play a blaster.  :)

I've found that I mostly solo, even though I have a bunch of friends who play.  Though I'm only 13th level, I'm actually starting to be concerned that I don't know how to function in a group dynamic.  I wonder if other blasters who have reached higher levels will have the same problem.

It takes a bit of learning, but nothing too bad. As Aslan points out- you learn to adapt or die. A lot.

[Sky]

Over the weekend I played a bit with our Morlocks group, and our tank didn't have his taunt skill. He levelled and decided to grab it and it made a huge difference. When I play with those guys, I usually play my fire/fire blaster, who's AoE stuff I don't have much of a handle on (my 'main' is energy/energy, so no real AoE).

Before the tank took taunt, I was mostly working to stay out of harm's way, because I aggro the shit out of everything with AoE's. After he took it, our group became much more effective, because stuff wasn't gunning for me much at all. We also had a Scrapper grouped, and post-taunt, neither I nor the scrapper got beat to hell too badly, unlike pre-taunt adventuring. So in our 'unbalanced' group field test, taunt was seen as a big success, I can only imagine it gets more important as time goes on.

Also, I know the assist mode quite well, but at lower levels (we are 8-11ish), assist is almost useless as most mobs are down so fast, my time is better spent on other things, softening up the next mob or rooting something.

I vaccilate between 'assist mode' and my preferred 'watch over the entire combat and do something useful' mode. In fact, I've rolled a defender because of the way I've been playing the fire blaster, I might even go so far as to go full on controller....though I do love my blastola.

[Fargull]

Sky...

My prime is a fire/fire and to be honest, taunt and the aoe version are only somewhat effective when the levels climb.  I can pull aggro against our main taunt tank every time if I go for a kill load to wipe the minions.  Right now the main help is to have a draw line that our crowd control can keep them bottled in and I run for cover till the aggro gets back under control.  Strange as it sounds, I think I am doing more damage than the group combined.

When everything is working smooth (both player and mission layout) we can wade through groups of mobs.  Hell, we took a room of 27 last night... bloody 5th collumn.

[Sky]

Kill load? Draw lines? Engrish preese :)

[Fargull]

Hehehe...

Sky,

Kill load is using both Build Up and Aim to increase my damage, then I will use Fire Breath and Fireball.

Draw lines are either a convienent doorway or any other avenue in which we can squeeze the in comming bad guys into a tight area and use either rain of sleet or caltrops to slow the advance.  Main tanks engage at this point and then I will usually step in and use the above.  I will knock the cluster of mobs down to about 50% of life on low purple, 60-70% of reds, 80-90% on oranges and usually kill yellows and whites.

Tsoo fubar this method and some others mobs have adapted tactics against it so far, but for the most part we slaughter them.

Fun fun!