Open letter to blasters

[Frostweaver]

Right, it's all about you.

If I ever see you in-game, I am more than happy to let you tank recluse all by yourself, badass.
Even my super-tweaked characters like to let people have their own jobs and their own roles. You want to be every part of a team, knock yourself out. But it won't be MY team.

MY blasters blast. I let the tanker take the aggro, the scrapper scrap, and the defender play team buffer. Why? because it's THEIR job, a job that gives them pride to do well. I congratulate them for doing their job well instead of tearing them down by saying they are unneeded or superflous. Maybe that's your bag, but I don't want someone like that wrecking my team.

Edited September 2, 2019 by Frostweaver

[Heraclea]

I own one level 50 blaster and have another that just turned the corner to 40.  As these blasters approach the endgame, they are constantly annoyed and frustrated by Judgment nukes, that let all other classes do their one trick. 

[Sovera]

2 hours ago, Frostweaver said:

Right, it's all about you.

If I ever see you in-game, I am more than happy to let you tank recluse all by yourself, badass.
Even my super-tweaked characters like to let people have their own jobs and their own roles. You want to be every part of a team, knock yourself out. But it won't be MY team.

MY blasters blast. I let the tanker take the aggro, the scrapper scrap, and the defender play team buffer. Why? because it's THEIR job, a job that gives them pride to do well. I congratulate them for doing their job well instead of tearing them down by saying they are unneeded or superflous. Maybe that's your bag, but I don't want someone like that wrecking my team.

There are some things that require a tanker, like that Recluse tanking. But most of the game, the other 90%, does not *require* a tank and your peevishness, while understood because you play a tank and love the tank role, has no room in it. My half slotted blaster 'tanked' all of the Tina arc where we eventually face Anti-Mater. We started as eight, then people dropped and eventually I was just taking point. At the end one of my squishy(er) team mates said how they were doubtful since we were doing +4 and had no meat shield, but all had gone well barring one death of mine.

 

There is not much 'tanking' needed when a blaster annihilates a pack with their T9, and then the next pack uses the Aim + BU they saved + regular AoEs to annihilate that pack.

 

We can follow pretty after the tank but eight people trying to kill one pack is something that has no point currently when just one single person kills it. It's just eight people trying to squeeze in a hit before everything is dead, and most of the time just animating hitting a corpse since the target already died.

[Haijinx]

Wow that is kind of snippy.  I've teamed with Sovera several times on Task Forces and it went fine.  

[Nemu]

I think it's more about the feeling of unity and teamwork. I definitely see more groups where a few members the team play like they solo, heck I do it too. If they can handle it it's fine but if they get in trouble that starts to split resources and can divide the team and start a cascade failure. However those teams definitely don't feel like a team. There are times when I do reminisce about the old days of COH when people stuck together and overcame impossible odds, some of my fondest memories of the game came from such teamwork.

 

That said there is nothing wrong with a blaster taking point. Inferno is the best taunt and it's also the best way to pull 🙂

[Sovera]

Even back when I played, when Incarnates were just something talked about that were going to come, even back then a full team of eight slamming a single pack of mobs was too much, and this was before level shifts that turned hardy +4 into softer +3.

 

Now between an extra 33%-45% damage, infinite endurance or perma CC protection for squishies, most of the game being capped at +3 and etc I feel that splitting the team into three or four and everyone goes looking for glowies or hunting in a kill all mission is more strategic than roll around like a big wrecking ball.

 

In fact, I feel smaller teams in +4x8 content to be a lot more fun than full 8 man teams considering in the later nothing tends to to last for more than the initial 5-6 seconds of combat.

[Eva Destruction]

8 hours ago, Frostweaver said:

Right, it's all about you.

If I ever see you in-game, I am more than happy to let you tank recluse all by yourself, badass.
Even my super-tweaked characters like to let people have their own jobs and their own roles. You want to be every part of a team, knock yourself out. But it won't be MY team.
 

Cool, I 'cause I don't team with dictator tanks who think they're indispensable so everyone has to do what they say or they'll take their ball and go home and we'll all die horribly once they're gone.

1 hour ago, Nemu said:

I think it's more about the feeling of unity and teamwork. I definitely see more groups where a few members the team play like they solo, heck I do it too. If they can handle it it's fine but if they get in trouble that starts to split resources and can divide the team and start a cascade failure. However those teams definitely don't feel like a team. There are times when I do reminisce about the old days of COH when people stuck together and overcame impossible odds, some of my fondest memories of the game came from such teamwork.

 

Oh yes, there are groups like that, where everyone is playing like they're solo and the people who aren't built for it are SoL.  But, it only takes a few spawns to determine whether your team needs you to stick with the group or if you can run off by yourself.  Also, unlike a lot of those people who solo on teams, I don't leave live enemies behind me (unless we're ghosting in which case it's best to say so upfront) so if someone squishy follows me instead of the group they won't get squashed by the stuff I aggroed and couldn't be bothered killing.  Like you said, Inferno is a great taunt.

 

But usually I find that if I feel redundant there's someone else who feels the same, often a Scrapper or Brute, so we end up splitting off together.  See, teamwork!

[MunkiLord]

10 hours ago, Frostweaver said:

If I ever see you in-game, I am more than happy to let you tank recluse all by yourself, badass.

 

7 hours ago, Sovera said:

There are some things that require a tanker, like that Recluse tanking.

A tank isn't required for that part either, including Master runs.

[TheAdjustor]

5 hours ago, MunkiLord said:

 

A tank isn't required for that part either, including Master runs.

As someone who has tanked recluse on a flying blaster I can confirm this statement.

[woreg]

On 8/24/2019 at 10:39 AM, JohnR said:

P.S.  I always let the Stalker get their hidden attack strike first.  And so should you.  😉

what.

 

A) If your stalker doesn't already have ass set up before the tank bombs into the spawn, they're wrong.

 

b) If your stalker doesn't have the skill to ass a boss after the rest of the team is chewing on the spawn, they're wrong.

 

3) If the spawn survives long enough for any of this to happen, Nova's on cooldown.

[Haijinx]

The only time i hit the assassin's strike from hide, its because i misclicked.  

 

Better off using a heavy hitter from hide, then Assassin's strike while scrapping.  

[LordSqueak]

In a group it's firstmost about teamwork. (if you've ever read X-men you should know this.)

When working as a team you have to make some adjustments to how You want to play, this goes for everyone.

So please wait until tank has herded the mobs into a group and troller has immobilised them before firing off your [insert nuke flavor of the day here].  And if possible, try to target the mobs on the outside of the big fight, so that they don't just run up and squish the support.  Oh, and also, try to stand in range of the healers aura. 

 

and sometimes you just got to jam a fistfull of insps and run into a group and nuke them, only to find you didn't quite kill them... that is part of being a blaster. 😉

 

 

Having said all that though,, it all depends of the team. Some teams likes to play it clean, some love a bit of chaos, and some just wanna RP. If you get into the same mood as your team, you will have more fun.

Edited September 10, 2019 by LordSqueak

[Radiaria]

On 9/2/2019 at 12:45 AM, Frostweaver said:

Right, it's all about you.

If I ever see you in-game, I am more than happy to let you tank recluse all by yourself, badass.
Even my super-tweaked characters like to let people have their own jobs and their own roles. You want to be every part of a team, knock yourself out. But it won't be MY team.

MY blasters blast. I let the tanker take the aggro, the scrapper scrap, and the defender play team buffer. Why? because it's THEIR job, a job that gives them pride to do well. I congratulate them for doing their job well instead of tearing them down by saying they are unneeded or superflous. Maybe that's your bag, but I don't want someone like that wrecking my team.

I'm going to politely disagree that in a lot of cases there are substitutes that make the AT almost entirely different from the original AT's intention.

 

A TA defender is going to play more like a combination of a blaster and a controller really rather than a defender.

 

An illusion controller is not going to play like a regular controller.

 

A lot of scrappers are built around being extremely survivable and not damage-based to the normal degree and are going to tank.

 

The above is especially true with Brutes (especially with stones) but I don't feel like that's fair because the game intended for Brutes redside to be "redside near tanks."

 

You can build a blaster to hardly deal "enormous damage" but have heavy CC mitigation and really play like a lot more like a controller with actual blasting power (think dark/TA).

 

VEATs and HEATs aren't built strictly for one purpose.

 

You can build a corruptor/defender that hardly "defends" the team whatsoever and goes for damage almost exclusively (think /stormies).

 

You can make totally petless MM's for teaming that rock or maybe only take the one final pet or only the last three. Especially with /kin. It actually works.

 

Really, my dominator in most situations now doesn't use dominate to even try to hold an AV, I only use that power as a proc monkey to improve her DPS, she's really more of a blaster now.

 

You can build tankers that actually deal great damage especially Fiery Aura/SS but they won't be so hot to tank hamidon or LRSF with by themselves (usually).

 

The point of this post was to point out to you, as well as others, that stereotyping AT's by strict "hard and fast" definitions leads only to frustration. This game has a beautiful way of saying "hey, you may be this AT, but you can have another purpose instead." Especially for those who end up hating their AT and wish they were something else. This game gives you options. Maybe they're not the absolute most optimal combination of powersets and AT but does it really matter that much in the grand scheme of things? In most cases, even if you are the most contributing member on a team, you're still 1/8 players on the team. 

 

Enjoy the game YOU want to play it, learn the best way to make it out of a bad situation, and remember that if you don't like how it's going, you can always make a new char and do some research on things that interest you!

[Frostweaver]

sure, multiple AT's can fill multiple roles. but my team is not the place for you to solo. If you want to solo, you are perfectly capable of resetting your difficulty to whatever team size you choose, I am not here to be your audience. By doing so, you deprive others in the team from playing the game who may not be capable of soloing the AV, but still want a shot at them, and to be useful.

I was running an ITF the other day and the scrapper went right to the AV and took him out while the rest of the team was dealing with the generals. Yes, very badass. Two of the team members had never been on an ITF before. All they knew of it afterwards was the cutscenes. They lost out on the chance to PLAY and experience the content, and afterwards the scrapper was mugging it up in chat trying to elicit praise.

If I hadn't been...distracted, I would probably have kicked him.

Edited September 10, 2019 by Frostweaver

[Sovera]

6 minutes ago, Frostweaver said:

sure, multiple AT's can fill multiple roles. but my team is not the place for you to solo. If you want to solo, you are perfectly capable of resetting your difficulty to whatever team size you choose, I am not here to be your audience.

Spoiler

 

[Frostweaver]

I have zero idea what some still from some television show is supposed to mean

[nihilii]

It's a show about a scrapper who goes off and soloes stuff and keeps getting his way.

Scrappers, man. Ruining it for the rest of us since 1950.

Edited September 10, 2019 by nihilii

[MunkiLord]

6 hours ago, LordSqueak said:

In a group it's firstmost about teamwork. (if you've ever read X-men you should know this.)

When working as a team you have to make some adjustments to how You want to play, this goes for everyone.

So please wait until tank has herded the mobs into a group and troller has immobilised them before firing off your [insert nuke flavor of the day here].  And if possible, try to target the mobs on the outside of the big fight, so that they don't just run up and squish the support.  Oh, and also, try to stand in range of the healers aura. 

 

and sometimes you just got to jam a fistfull of insps and run into a group and nuke them, only to find you didn't quite kill them... that is part of being a blaster. 😉

 

 

Having said all that though,, it all depends of the team. Some teams likes to play it clean, some love a bit of chaos, and some just wanna RP. If you get into the same mood as your team, you will have more fun.

No. Waiting on Tanks to herd is a waste of time and boring. If I'm the leader, that Tank either gets ignored or kicked(if they are whining a lot). If the Tank is the leader, I leave the team. If neither of us is leader, I ignore the tank and leave the team if the leader says to wait on herding.

 

edit: This is in general, specific circumstances may cause me to reconsider on a temporary basis

Edited September 10, 2019 by MunkiLord

[subbacultchas]

7 minutes ago, MunkiLord said:

No. Waiting on Tanks to herd is a waste of time and boring. If I'm the leader, that Tank either gets ignored or kicked. If the Tank is the leader, I leave the team. If neither of us is leader, I ignore the tank and leave the team if the leader says to wait on herding.

I mean, it used to work this way. But that was pre-incarnates, and honesty before a lot of things. Sometimes a room is too packed and a tanker or brute might herd a few, but it's more like jumping into one group and pulling them onto the second one. Breaking line of sight, corner pulls, and most of that just is not efficient anymore when you've got a good team. Especially if you're actually farming, where it becomes a good way to get less xp per minute.

I'm not saying I wouldn't do that, but I am saying I probably wouldn't stick around for a second one if that's the way it rolled.

[MunkiLord]

4 minutes ago, subbacultchas said:

I mean, it used to work this way. But that was pre-incarnates, and honesty before a lot of things. Sometimes a room is too packed and a tanker or brute might herd a few, but it's more like jumping into one group and pulling them onto the second one. Breaking line of sight, corner pulls, and most of that just is not efficient anymore when you've got a good team. Especially if you're actually farming, where it becomes a good way to get less xp per minute.

I'm not saying I wouldn't do that, but I am saying I probably wouldn't stick around for a second one if that's the way it rolled.

Exactly. Now if we're fighting and the Tank jumps ahead a couple groups and pull them onto the next mob, that's one thing. In that case nobody is standing around waiting while the Tank goes around herding mobs. Hell if a Tank does that and sets up the next 30 enemies in a neat little bubble, I'm all for it as it means we can blast the **** out of them.

Edited September 10, 2019 by MunkiLord

[Radiaria]

1 minute ago, MunkiLord said:

Exactly. Now if we're fighting and the Tank jumps ahead a couple groups and pull them onto the next mob, that's one thing. In that case nobody is standing around waiting while the Tank goes around herding mobs. Hell if a Tank does that and sets up the next 30 enemies in a neat little bubble, I'm all for it as it means we can blast the **** out of them.

This is typically the new "right way to do it"

[LordSqueak]

Well i wasn't thinking of herding a the whole dmn map into of group like in the old days, but mostly just jumping into the group and pack them up a bit for the immob, THEN you can fire off your grenades and what have you, without mobs flying everywhere. Makes it easier and faster for everyone. 

[Loanet]

A Blaster's one and only job is to kill everything before anybody else can get in danger, from thirty yards. It's their job, their one and only purpose. And if a Blaster is doing that, they're doing their job right. 

 

It's like when I play as a Scrapper in a team, I basically run on in with a Blaster behind me. Because the Scrapper is SUPPOSED to run in and pray. If I didn't do that, once again I wouldn't be doing my job.

Edited September 22, 2019 by Loanet

[Ukase]

Clearly, this wins my prize for the most confusing post today. 

Am I supposed to alter my play style to conform with how other people play? I can see doing that for pursuit of a specific badge, perhaps, but not regularly. 

At the same time, this situation you speak of is not unknown to me. I've felt this way on my tanks, my brutes and my scrappers. Ultimately, what occurs is the realization that in order for me to become a better tank, brute, or scrapper, I have to improve my level of play, not insist others conform or adapt to mine. 

CoH is a blaster's world, baby. Adapt. 

[StratoNexus]

Ya ever stand next to a tanker or brute and watch them winding up for KoB and then halfway through their animation hit blaze?

It always makes me feel a little bad and a little good.