Blasters why melee

[Spectre7878]

I have come to love blasters. I use to always play dominators and controllers because well I am a control freak hehe. The one thing I never understood about blasters is their secondary power set and some of their T9 powers. A blaster in my opinion should always want to that range. They make no sense going in melee since we have very little defense until IO sets. That being said. I wish all blasters T9 powers were ranged. Secondary sets can be melee if need be but I personally don’t like getting in melee to do my nova power. Wish they could give us a choice or change T9. That’s just my wish

[Apparition]

Blasters are masters of damage.  Not ranged damage, damage.  To play them to their full potential, you need to get in there and blap at least once in a while.  No pain, no gain.

[TygerDarkstorm]

7 minutes ago, Apparition said:

Blasters are masters of damage.  Not ranged damage, damage.  To play them to their full potential, you need to get in there and blap at least once in a while.  No pain, no gain.

Was gonna say the same thing. Despite the misconception and the character creator labeling them as ranged, blasters are the masters of ALL damage, as Apparition said. Some of the strongest hitting blaster powers are their melee abilities. And it's fairly easy to build a blaster to be tough enough to survive in melee these days.

[Doomguide2005]

'Shrug', zero interest in changing my Nuke powers to be anything other than what they currently are, the builds were built knowing what they were (either ranged or not).

 

Closest to a ranged only blaster I've ever come was probably my AR/Dev who rarely was in melee by choice.  Baddies almost always came to the tripmines not the other way.

 

The first blaster I liked and went to 50 on was my Fire/Nrg long before IOs.  The powerful melee attacks are precisely why I liked her.  The fact I had 2 level 50 scrappers first probably didn't hurt my willingness to get up close.  She basically closed on the mob unloading Fire leaving a boss or 2 which then got hammered by Energy's melee blaps.  Mez, sure it happened ... lots even and probably why sloooow Total Focus saw little use.  Defense was definitely defeat them first fast and hard.

 

 

[Spectre7878]

Thanks for the information. I like to hear everyone’s  thoughts and how they play the class. Again I just thought blasters were more than f a ranged class then an overall damage class. I figured melee classes are melee and ranged classes were ranged

[Six-Six]

I love how Blasters (and Doms and Spiders) have the range and melee option. I prefer toons that can shoot at range AND pummel their enemies. It just seems more realistic that way (for me at least). Like you're shooting/blasting at a guy that's coming at you. blast, blast, blast, he's still not dead, he's still coming at you. I'd rather hit him with the butt of my rifle, a taser, or my fists when he gets close enough instead of jumping back and firing from range again. My two inf.

But at the same time, a ranged nuke sounds like awesome sauce. It may prove itself too easy, but sure sounds fun.

[Mack008]

While I prefer to attack at range, I love having a few melee abilities ready and waiting for when a fool gets too close to me.  

[Omega-202]

50 minutes ago, Spectre7878 said:

Thanks for the information. I like to hear everyone’s  thoughts and how they play the class. Again I just thought blasters were more than f a ranged class then an overall damage class. I figured melee classes are melee and ranged classes were ranged

Something that might help you understand why people may play Blasters in melee would be Bopper's spreadsheets.  

 

 

If you look in the Blaster tab, and scroll to the DPA column, you'll see that there are a lot of Blaster melee attacks that have better DPA than the ranged attacks.  Particularly, /Energy and /Electric's melee attacks are HUGE boosts to any attack chain and dwarf the ranged primary attacks, except for a small handful like the fast snipes.  

 

So, you can absolutely stay at range and do very good damage, or you can hop into melee and do ridiculous amounts of damage.  

[Furiant]

Personally I don't play blasters in melee; it just doesn't suit what I want from the AT. I get the "masters of all damage" argument (though I guess scrappers are "masters of all damage except ranged") but to me a blaster in melee is at a large disadvantage in terms of safety as compared to an AT with armor.

 

I just ignore the power sets that require melee to be effective. There are plenty of ranged only options.

Edited October 27, 2020 by Furiant

[Nemu]

When you learn to play melee blasters you will want to play nothing else.

[Generator]

Plus keep in mind that most Blasters have enough status effect capability to pacify a target, run in on them, uncork, and get back out (if the target lived and that's an issue).

[Moonlighter]

To add what others have already put out, there is a lot of good soft control in melee range on some sets. My /Martial blaster is often safer teleporting in and using Ki Push to send an opponent flying (and not damaging me) while I knockdown other targets and finish them, where hanging back and using ranged in some cases will result in more damage from return ranged fire.

 

 

[Doomguide2005]

One of my latest blasters positively lives to be in melee range --> Short Circuit, Fire Sword, Combustion, Fire Sword Circle, Blazing Aura, Burn, Hot Feet.  That's 6 PBAoEs and 1 melee attack.  Plus technically the sustain power is also a PBAoE with a minor DoT iirc (computer died and it has been a few months since I've been able to play him)

 

Ironically his nuke is a ranged targeted AoE (Thunderous Blast).

[Carnifax]

My Dark / TA blaster would like a ranged nuke for sure (as would my sonic defender).

 

On my Ice/Fire blapper I do get a ranged nuke but mostly I use powexec_location to use it as a pbaoe.

 

Thats the thing, ranged can always throw together a macro (or two since Blizzard is a placeable) to make it pbaoe but.if you're stuck with a pbaoe then you're stuck with.it. 

[ivanhedgehog]

23 hours ago, Furiant said:

Personally I don't play blasters in melee; it just doesn't suit what I want from the AT. I get the "masters of all damage" argument (though I guess scrappers are "masters of all damage except ranged") but to me a blaster in melee is at a large disadvantage in terms of safety as compared to an AT with armor.

 

I just ignore the power sets that require melee to be effective. There are plenty of ranged only options.

could be why blasters die so much. 1 stun and bye bye. Doms have mez protection. If you want blasters to melee, give them even a little mez protection. For years we were told that range was a blasters defense.....not so much it would seem. No other AT should do as much damage as a blaster. Blasters traded defenses for more damage....and then they took away the more damage.

[KC4800]

Blasters melee because its inevitable. The mobs will try to punch you in the chin eventually. A blaster just makes them pay for that decision. A blasters best defense is being smarter than the mobs he fights.

[Omega-202]

52 minutes ago, ivanhedgehog said:

could be why blasters die so much. 1 stun and bye bye. Doms have mez protection. If you want blasters to melee, give them even a little mez protection. For years we were told that range was a blasters defense.....not so much it would seem. No other AT should do as much damage as a blaster. Blasters traded defenses for more damage....and then they took away the more damage.

Blasters are still the kings of damage.  A well built Blaster will chew through enemies faster than anything else, and they leave the melee ATs in the dust when it comes to AoE damage.

 

I don't know where you're getting this "they took away our damage" thing.  Blaster damage has only gone up over the years.  

[Nemu]

2 minutes ago, Omega-202 said:

Blasters are still the kings of damage.  A well built Blaster will chew through enemies faster than anything else, and they leave the melee ATs in the dust when it comes to AoE damage.

 

I don't know where you're getting this "they took away our damage" thing.  Blaster damage has only gone up over the years.  

No no, he has a point. blasters are so weak. Buff blasters and make them punch harder.

 

I fully endorse this movement.

[ivanhedgehog]

On 10/28/2020 at 3:17 PM, Omega-202 said:

Blasters are still the kings of damage.  A well built Blaster will chew through enemies faster than anything else, and they leave the melee ATs in the dust when it comes to AoE damage.

 

I don't know where you're getting this "they took away our damage" thing.  Blaster damage has only gone up over the years.  

a brute does 90% of the damage of a blaster and does so indefinately. He runs in aoe'ing and its business as usual. a blaster does more damage for 30 seconds before inspecting the carpet. running in and AOEing will result in too much agro and carpet inspection. in a vacuum a blaster does more damage, but enemies attack back. with our secondaries becoming less useful, we will end up inspecting floors more.

[ClawsandEffect]

3 hours ago, ivanhedgehog said:

a brute does 90% of the damage of a blaster and does so indefinately. He runs in aoe'ing and its business as usual. a blaster does more damage for 30 seconds before inspecting the carpet. running in and AOEing will result in too much agro and carpet inspection. in a vacuum a blaster does more damage, but enemies attack back. with our secondaries becoming less useful, we will end up inspecting floors more.

Not sure how you're playing your blasters, but my DP/Martial blaster pretty much lives in melee range and rarely dies. All of my other 50s are melee ATs, and his survivability is on par with all but one of them. 

[Jeneki]

No need to live in melee.  Use the old joust technique: jump into the group while a ranged attack animates, jump out of the group while a melee attack animates.  Once you get used to it, combining ranged and melee is pretty seamless and you only spend a tiny amount of time in melee range.  My blasters almost never attack while standing still.

 

 

Edited November 2, 2020 by Jeneki

[beradical]

I'm just starting my first blaster, but I'm confused why so many don't want to park in melee? Are they that squishy, or is it the mad aggro? Because non of my fenders, trollers or corrs have any issues in melee, that's where all the good stuff is happening (Fulcrum shift, accelerate metabolism, heals, tank aggro, leadership, etc). If you are pulling mad aggro, isn't being ranged awful? You are moving the mobs away from where you want them. Just had an awful Magi run where a ranged blaster had aggro and kept Tyrant running around making him very tough to kill.

 

What am I missing? Seems like aggressively blapping would be the best team-based style, and killing mobs faster is the ultimate mitigation.

[Apparition]

22 minutes ago, beradical said:

I'm just starting my first blaster, but I'm confused why so many don't want to park in melee? Are they that squishy, or is it the mad aggro? Because non of my fenders, trollers or corrs have any issues in melee, that's where all the good stuff is happening (Fulcrum shift, accelerate metabolism, heals, tank aggro, leadership, etc). If you are pulling mad aggro, isn't being ranged awful? You are moving the mobs away from where you want them. Just had an awful Magi run where a ranged blaster had aggro and kept Tyrant running around making him very tough to kill.

 

What am I missing? Seems like aggressively blapping would be the best team-based style, and killing mobs faster is the ultimate mitigation.

It is mostly pre-conceived notions from live that “Blasters are squishy.”  That is no longer the case.

[Nemu]

40 minutes ago, beradical said:

I'm just starting my first blaster, but I'm confused why so many don't want to park in melee? Are they that squishy, or is it the mad aggro? Because non of my fenders, trollers or corrs have any issues in melee, that's where all the good stuff is happening (Fulcrum shift, accelerate metabolism, heals, tank aggro, leadership, etc). If you are pulling mad aggro, isn't being ranged awful? You are moving the mobs away from where you want them. Just had an awful Magi run where a ranged blaster had aggro and kept Tyrant running around making him very tough to kill.

 

What am I missing? Seems like aggressively blapping would be the best team-based style, and killing mobs faster is the ultimate mitigation.

Because most people that play blasters should be playing sentinels instead.

 

You've never lived as a blaster till you KO blow something and follow it up with a total focus or positronic fist.

Edited November 3, 2020 by Nemu

[beradical]

Also, unrelated, I just learned that "blapping" means melee. I thought it was a term for blasters because they talk so much sh*t in pvp lmao. It's why I originally came to hate the AT back on live.