Anyone else remember blappers?

[Acheron]

Way back in the before times, blasters had a ability called defiance that made them do more damage as they lost health. I don't remember the numbers exactly but on your last bit of flashy red health you'd be doing like 5x or 10x damage. Me and some buddies used to make melee blasters using the energy manipulation secondary because it had a bunch of melee powers plus build up. Then you'd get every defense and melee power you could from pools.

I remember wrecking mobs that way...

 

Anywho, anyone remember that? Could that be a good mechanic for a new class? Like a true glass cannon class, no armor or defense, just a hella damage multiplier and only melee and ranged damage sets for primary and secondary?

 

Just a thought

 

 

[subbacultchas]

Blappers still exist, even if defiance doesn't. I think they're a fair bit easier to build now with IO options and power diversification.

But yeah, I remember this. I even remember the running joke, "Floor wax contains steroids. It's where blasters get their powers from."

 

[jubakumbi]

The only way I play a Blaster is as a Blapper, IMO, there is no other way, unless you are all Arrow or something....

[subbacultchas]

25 minutes ago, jubakumbi said:

The only way I play a Blaster is as a Blapper, IMO, there is no other way, unless you are all Arrow or something....

Sure. I mean, the thing about ranged attacks is they still work in melee. With the exception of maybe cones, which work but with different considerations for arc and range.

[Solarverse]

28 minutes ago, jubakumbi said:

The only way I play a Blaster is as a Blapper, IMO, there is no other way, unless you are all Arrow or something....

I have my Blasters...and I have my Blappers. I'm like you, I still build them. I unleash my AoEs and then jump in there and start melee slapping this hell out of them. Elec is also a good secondary for Blapping for anyone who wants to give it a try.

[The Bobby Llama]

1 hour ago, Acheron said:

Anywho, anyone remember that? Could that be a good mechanic for a new class? Like a true glass cannon class, no armor or defense, just a hella damage multiplier and only melee and ranged damage sets for primary and secondary?

The original devs were kicking around the idea for a Striker AT that likely would have worked this way.

[Nemu]

The amount of /dev and /ta blasters out there is TOO DAMN HIGH. Blappers unite and represent!

Edited February 25, 2020 by Nemu

[Broken_Prey]

I love blapping on my fire/nrg blaster, she's one of my favorite alts. I'm also working on a water/ma that looks like it would be a good blapper. 

[subbacultchas]

I plan on making one maybe tonight. Looking at Beam/Atomic maybe. It's been a while since I had  short range blaster that wasn't an aoe machine.

[GrogDeluxe]

51 minutes ago, Solarverse said:

Elec is also a good secondary for Blapping for anyone who wants to give it a try.

Heck yeah! Havoc Punch is still one of my favorites. 

[Heraclea]

My electric/electric blaster is a blapper.  Most of the key powers are PBAoE.  I stealth into mobs and incapacitate them first and hope nothing misses. 

[KC4800]

I play my brute like an old blapper, but more punchy.

[Acheron]

You all are awesome! Was not expecting this many responses! Thank you all for hitting me right in the nostalgia! (I mean that in a good way!)

[Haijinx]

AKA normal Blaster.

 

The Ranged only ones are the weird ones.

[johua]

One of my mains is an elec/martial blapper and my favorite character to run content on.

[Fan Mail]

My Fire/EM Blaster is why they introduced Defiance in the first place.  That poor guy has the record for the most faceplants after, "Hey guys, watch this..."

 

It's also why they created more than one debt badge.  One just wasn't enough. 

Edited February 25, 2020 by Fan Mail

[Sakai]

Still working out my fire/Fire Blapper. Love him to death. 

[Snarky]

Blaster, in my opinion, have always been mislabelled.  They were built from the ground up with a focus on Blapping.  Please look at the PBAoE powers, the melee attacks, etc.  It takes effort to find and build powersets that are synergistic for a ranged “Blaster”. It is falling off a log easy to pick any sets and scrape together a Blapper that works decent using any powersets

Edited February 26, 2020 by Snarky

[Techwright]

5 hours ago, Acheron said:

Way back in the before times, blasters had a ability called defiance that made them do more damage as they lost health. I don't remember the numbers exactly but on your last bit of flashy red health you'd be doing like 5x or 10x damage. Me and some buddies used to make melee blasters using the energy manipulation secondary because it had a bunch of melee powers plus build up. Then you'd get every defense and melee power you could from pools.

I remember wrecking mobs that way...

 

Anywho, anyone remember that? Could that be a good mechanic for a new class? Like a true glass cannon class, no armor or defense, just a hella damage multiplier and only melee and ranged damage sets for primary and secondary?

 

Just a thought

 

 

From your description, I'd think the "glass cannon" class would be constantly frustrated by healers, who unwittingly negate the significant damage multiplier in their quest to keep the team at 100%.  Those using AOE heals would especially be troublesome, since targeted healing wouldn't be an option.

 

As to the melee/range description of "blapper",  I'm loving my energy/energy.  Why just last night I throat punched a Crey tank at the peak of his leap to smash me.  So satisfying to see him go horizontal.  One could almost hear metal and cartilage shatter.

[Haijinx]

Yeah.  No one can match the Melee burst damage of a Blaster.  

 

Fun times.

[biostem]

26 minutes ago, Snarky said:

Blaster, in my opinion, have always been mislabelled.  They were built from the ground up with a focus on Blapping.  Please look at the PBAoE powers, the melee attacks, etc.  It takes effort to find and build powersets that are synergistic for a ranged “Blaster”. It is falling off a log easy to pick any sets and scrape together a Blapper that works decent using any powersets

I suppose it's a matter of how you look at things and what criteria you are using.  A blaster's entire primary is basically ranged attacks, and several secondaries have no or few significant melee attacks.  I'm not discounting the playstyle, but I just view "blapping" as an optional/alternative way to play the AT...

[Doc_Scorpion]

53 minutes ago, Snarky said:

 It takes effort to find and build powersets that are synergistic for a ranged “Blaster”.

You don't need any synergy for a ranged blaster - all the tools you could ever want are right there in your primary powerset.

[MTeague]

I'm pretty happy with Martial Kombat as a blaster secondary.  Ki Push is hilarious and buys you a few free hits, and I just having a hero who can kick things in the face as well as blast from range.

[Greycat]

6 hours ago, Techwright said:

From your description, I'd think the "glass cannon" class would be constantly frustrated by healers, who unwittingly negate the significant damage multiplier in their quest to keep the team at 100%.  Those using AOE heals would especially be troublesome, since targeted healing wouldn't be an option.

 

 

What's being described is often called "Defiance 1.0." And I recall one of the devs actually saying "Tell them not to heal you."

 

There was a *lot* of facepalming going on. Yes, people took advantage of it (I remember taking my Elec in old-Faultline and falling off a skyscraper to try it out) but... yeah... (I seem to recall it being mentioned as a high risk high reward thing in PVP, too.)

 

It's ... not a mechanic I'd want to come back, personally, even if it *was* amusing for a bit.

[Deathstroke]

I loved my Blapper.

 

we were called debt brothers on Zukunft, the german server

I had so much fun as a blapper, so I wrote really good instructions.

however, this is in German