Blasting off in a New Age

If you were familiar with blasters in City of Heroes prior to the servers going down and picked up the archetype now, you may find yourself a little surprised.  Prior to shutting down City of Heroes, Paragon Studios was working on a number of changes to improve blaster.  Core among the changes was the alteration of a manipulation power to enhance survivability.  Also, most blast power sets had that one power that was heavy damage but close range.  That power is now long range.  These changes, though seemingly small expand the tactical flexibility of the blaster class and really help them mitigate some of the risks associated with using their toolset to its fullest.

Blasters in a Nutshell

It goes without saying that blasters deal damage.  They got a 1.125 ranged damage modifier and a 1.0 melee damage modifier.  Their primary powerset is ranged attacks, their secondary powerset mixes control and melee damage.  As of the changes from i24 that all servers incorporated into their data, one power in the blaster secondary set has been modified to give strong regen and some endurance loss mitigation. 

You would think your melee attacks on the secondary powerset wouldn’t be your big damage source given the 1.0 modifier on melee attacks, but that doesn’t paint the full picture.  The DPS for any single melee attack a blaster has is in fact lower then their ranged attacks, however, blaster melee attacks tend to be very high damage attacks with long recharge.  By chaining a number of these melee attacks together with their highest yield ranged attacks, a blaster can deliver more damage in a short amount of time than any other archetype.  Most blaster primary powersets have a move named “aim” or something similar to it.  This move increases accuracy and damage for a sort period of time.  Blaster secondary powersets tend to have the “buildup” move that most melee powersets have which also increases damage and accuracy.  By being able to tap buildup and aim at the same time combined with the high yield attacks, the blaster becomes the undisputed master of burst damage.  The only thing that comes close is a stalker, and while a stalker can open a battle on a very decisive note, a blaster can deliver a fiercer burn.

A blaster will generally have access to a variety of controls too ranging from holds to roots to slows and other mayhem.  Since the blaster’s defenses are a regeneration boost in most cases they tend to be frail and these controls allow the blasters to create openings against tougher enemies to move in close and deliver their high yield payloads.  Knowing when to play and use these support options is critical to being a blaster with poise and being a blaster who is face down on the ground.

Tier 9 ranged attack powers are almost always extremely slow recharge moves that deal incredible yield damage over a wide area.  Though a lot of these moves are PBAoE, and a lot of these moves are the reason why a lot of blasters admit to committing to tactical suicide runs.  The temptation to just buildup, aim, and explode in the midst of the enemies is too great, even knowing their retaliation will flatten the assailant.

The Blasts

You can’t spell blaster without blast, and the primary powersets are bringing the bang.  If you tried other ranged archetypes you might be used to ranged attacks feeling a bit weak with Defenders having a 0.65 damage multiplier and Corruptors having a 0.75 multiplier.  Blasters, on the other hand are swinging that big ass 1.125 damage multiplier and their ranged attacks will hit fierce and hard. The first few blasts in the set are generally quick charging weak shots which are generally space-fillers to use to fill empty-space as you wait for something meatier to get ready to fire.  Blasts sets generally have more AoE tools then melee sets, not including the T9 which is always a brutal AoE, blasts will often have at least 3 other area attacks in different shapes and forms.  Area attacks are always less punchier then single target attacks and inefficient at converting endurance into damage when used on a single target, but when used in groups, especially chained together, they can annihilate groups of minions in a very short amount of time.  I’ve been in teams of 6 or more blasters and when you get that many blasters together they’ll generally utterly annihilate most groups of enemies in seconds with a salvo of explosions.

Ranged attack sets tend to have a sniper power.  Sniper powers have high range and high damage but a real long windup.  If you are hit during that windup the attack is lost.  If your accuracy is boosted beyond a certain level your sniper attack will gain a yellow ring around it.  In this state it fires off much quicker and cannot be interrupted, making it a brutal attack in battle.  Blasters can readily enter this state by combining aim and buildup, though stacking +to-hit is a good idea to get this more readily up, this alone is why you’ll see a lot of people running with a the Tactics aura from Leadership.

Some blaster powersets require some sort of prop be pulled out to attack with it.  While it increases the windup on your initial attack, prop-based powersets have higher than average accuracy.

Note:  All AoE listings provided here do not include the T9.

Archery

Prop: Yes
Aim: Yes
Control: 1 stun
Snipe: Yes
AoEs: One Cone, One Ranged Burst
T9: Ground Targeted Damage Area
Damage Type: Lethal
Side Effects: Generally no (Blazing arrow has fire dot)
Archery is quiet, it isn’t very flashy.  This creates a feeling that it isn’t very meaty or punchy, especially if you are using this as a defender.  As a blaster it’s a whole lot of no thrills damage on a single target.  Stunning shot, their control, is a stun instead of a hold, so it might be harder to stack up into a control on bosses depending on what secondary you pair this up with.  Stunning shot also doesn’t have good damage so you’ll want to slot this for effect if you get it.  Rain of Arrows peppers the area around the targeted section of ground with a whole lot of arrows.

Assault Rifle

Prop: Yes
Aim: No
Control: 1 stun
Snipe: No
AoEs: Two cones, one ranged burst, one ground targeted damage area
T9: Cone with drawn out DOT attack
Damage Type: Lethal and some fire
Side Effects: Whole lotta knock, T1 attack has -def
The assault rifle is a frankengun that can fire bursts of bullets, stunning beanbags, blasts of fire, and even shotgun blasts.  This powerset sacrifices Aim for an additional AOE, cutting down on your burst potential for more suppressive fire.  The control is a stun, so like archery depending on what you pair this with you might have a harder time controlling bosses.  Though devices inflicts stun too so the natural pairup synergizes with your control.  The inherent accuracy of the rifle’s prop nature combined with the -def of the burst attack means you’ll be more accurate with this set then with others.  The T9 power, full auto just sprays everything downrange with a long barrage of bullets, causing a stream of damage with a chance at bonus damage.

Beam Rifle

Prop: Yes
Aim: Yes
Control: 1 Brief Stun, T9 has stun too
Snipe: Yes
AoEs: One normal cone, one narrow cone that only hits 3 things
T9: Ranged Blast with some stun
Damage Type: Energy
Side Effects: Knockdown, Disintegrate interaction, some -def and -res
Beam Rifle was created late in City of Heroes’ life and therefore it is mechanically intricate.  It has a power, Disintegrate, which staples a DoT effect to an enemy.  Certain attacks will trigger additional properties if they strike a disintegrating enemy and have a chance of making the disintegrate effect splash onto additional enemies.  Beam rifle has aim but it is light on AoEs. Not counting it’s T9, it has only one true AoE in the form of cutting shot.  The disintegrate attack has some potential to spread some damage as you proc disintegrate splashes, but it’s not as good as being able to slather some areas on the enemy.  Beam rifle does have a better kit, however, for focusing down a single enemy.  With high damage attacks and the ability to debuff resistance.  Beam rifle has a weak control in the form of a disorient until you get their T9, which disorients all enemies struck.

Dark Blast

Prop: No
Aim: Yes (Blasters only)
Control: Hold, Aoe Root
Snipe: Yes
AoEs: Two Cones
T9: PBAoE burst
Damage Type: Negative
Side Effect: -To-Hit
Blasters didn’t get this set until i21.  When Paragon studios finally proliferated this set, they greatly changed it.  The blaster version of this set has better damage potential with better focused control.  The knock cone and cone damage attack are rolled into a single good damage cone with knock.  Tenebrous tentacles may be low DoT but it’s long lasting DoT, creating some merit for slotting it for damage.  Combine the two and you can rake the enemy over with damage without allowing them to retaliate in melee.  The set has a hold with meaty damage stapled to it and a snipe.  Life drain does heal, but it can easily be slotted for offense.  As if all that wasn’t nice enough this set inflicts -to-hit on all attacks.  Repeat hits from these attacks (and perhaps some darkness manipulation attacks) will leave the enemy flailing in the air trying to hit you.  Couple this with some +def stacking and you can have a blaster who is real hard to kill.

Dual Pistols

Prop: Yes (With fancy draw animation)
Aim: No
Control: Stun or Hold depending on Ammo
Snipe: No
AoEs: 1 Cone, 1 Ranged burst, 1 Narrow Cone
T9: PBAoE burst, damage drawn out over long animation
Damage Type: Either 100% lethal or 70% lethal + (ice/fire/toxic) based on ammo
Side Effect: Knock/Slow/DoT/Toxic depending on ammo
Dual pistols is overly fancy, your character will perform over the top animations with pistol twirling and make bullet paths curve for one of their AoE.  It has a unique ammo swap power that gives you three toggles which control which ammo is active.  Detoggle the power to go all in on lethal damage and knockdown, otherwise use an ammo to swap 30% of your damage of its type and change the side effects of your hits.  Matching ammo to your target can really be worthwhile.  I can knock over Circle of Thorns behemoths with an icy T9, but a fiery T9 will only wound them.  The control power, suppressive fire, does not do high damage, it stuns with regular ammo and holds with anything else, allowing you to match your control type for easier stacking.  A lack of aim does mean you won’t be able to burst as well as other blasters but you do get a flexible toolkit for focusing pain and mitigating resistances.

Electrical Blast

Prop: No
Aim: Charge Up
Control: 1 Hold
Snipe: Yes
AoEs: 1 Ranged Burst, one PBAoE Burst
T9: Heavy damage ranged Burst
Damage Type: Energy
Side Effect: -End, some -Rec
Electrical blast is generally considered a lackluster set.  You do get an unkillable pet in the form of a zappy ball that follows you around and zaps things.  However your AoE ability is hindered by short circuit.  Short circuit is a PBAoE that takes forever to execute and the payoff is lackluster for it when viewed as damage alone.  It does, however, greatly nerf the enemy’s ability to have endurance, and in an extended battle you can zero out the endurance bar of most enemies.  However, a blaster prefers a rather short game to an end game.  Their shtick is to make things fall over before the enemy has a chance to hurt them.  This has some niche use, but for general purpose blasting you’ll be a little hurt.

Energy Blast

Prop: No
Aim: Yes
Control: Yeet
Snipe: Yes
AoEs: 1 Cone, one Ranged Burst
T9: PBAoE heavy damage with heavy knock
Damage Type: Energy
Side Effect: Yeet
Break out the kirby crackle boys and girls:  It’s energy blast time.  Incredibly meaty effects and sounds.  The animations will make you feel powerful.  The knockback will make you loathed. You can Summer Block Buster at least some of the knockback into control, but you can’t simply stuff the same set into every one of your powers.  My suggestion:  Aim for walls, except if it’s those caves with the sandy floor in which case DO NOT AIM FOR THE WALLS, they’ll get banished to the backrooms and if it’s a kill all your team will hate you even harder.  ON sandy floor rooms remember that knocking things up hills will result in them not moving much.  Knock does take into account at least some three dimensionality, so floating above things you knock tends to mute the knock distance somewhat.  The ranged burst yeets everything in the same direction, so at least you got that going for you, but do NOT nova in the middle of a large group of enemies unless your intent was to scatter them to the four winds.  Instead stand to the side of the large group and yeet them all in roughly the same direction.  Corners are your friend, they concentrate things.  Your control is a knock, that isn’t entirely bad, being able to yeet things into the tank’s agro-aura is an ability that is immensely useful.  The powerset colors really weall too and energy torrent is pretty much if a bitch slap was a ranged AoE.

Fire Blast

Prop: No
Aim: Yes
Control: No
Snipe: Yes
AoEs: 1 Cone, One Ranged Burst, One Floor Targeted Damage Area
T9: Heavy damage PBAoE
Damage Type: Fire
Side Effect: Damage over time
Fire, the power set whose side effect to its damage is even more damage.  It does good damage, it has a decent kit of AOE tools.  It has an aim and a snipe.  There’s not much more to say about it.  It’s rock solid.  I know I am being rather terse with this description compared to the others but it’s a very cromulent powerset and hottie puns have already been done down into the ground.

Ice Blast

Prop: No
Aim: Yes
Control: Not one, but two holds, does slow count too?
Snipe: No
AoEs: One targeted Damage area, one Cone
T9: Heavy damage Floor targeted area.
Damage Type: Cold
Side Effect: -recharge, slow
Don’t let that icon that looks like a sleep fool you, this powerset has not one, but two holds.  One is weak damage and you’ll probably slot for holding.  The other you can slot for damage.  Having two holds means you can lock down a boss almost immediately.  The -recharge effects stack up aggressively even without icy manipulation you may push things towards the cap on -recharge (attacking at only 1/4th their usual attack rate).  An ice blaster is the perfect pick if you wanted to do damage, but also have a strong control game. 

Psychic Blast

Prop: No
Aim: Psychic Focus
Control: Stun, Sleep, Knock
Snipe: Yes
AoEs: One tornado
T9: Heavy damage PBAoE
Damage Type: Psionic
Side Effect: -recharge
We go from a -recharge set to a -recharge set.  This one doesn’t slow movement however, it does have some rather controlly effects.  You got a sleep, a couple knocks, a hold.  You only have one AoE but that one AoE is a god damn tornado.  I mean you just fire that thing and it just zips around causing all sorts of havoc.  It will yeet things things this way and that, but god damn is it hilarious.  The set is different from what defenders and corruptors get so no, you don’t get that cone.  Only they do.

Radiation Blast

Prop: No
Aim: Yes
Control: Stun
Snipe: Yes
AoEs: Cone, PBAoE burst, Ranged burst
T9: Heavy damage PBAoE that holds
Damage Type: Energy
Side Effect: -def
Radiation has higher than average accuracy.  It deals -def on hit so you will tend to hit things more consistently then other powersets.  That said at higher levels everyone is pretty much at 95% hitrate vs most enemies so this only really conveys fringe benefits.  That said the effects are pretty cool.  Your heavy late level blast has some stun strapped to it, but otherwise this isn’t a very control heavy set.  Irradiate is going to be awfully awkward.  Not only does it have a slow animation, it’s a PBAoE and that’s going to force you to get in close to use it, but you also have a cone, which is going to encourage use from mid or far range, so you are never going to be able to barrage all AoEs without doing some repositioning to maximize targeting.

Sonic Attack

Prop: No
Aim: Amplify
Control: Stun, Sleep, knock
Snipe: No
AoEs: If we count only good damaging AoEs, one cone, otherwise 3 cones
T9: Heavy damage PBAoE that stuns
Damage Type: Energy
Side Effect: -res
Well look at this combo breaker.  All special and an “attack” instead of a “Blast”.  Sonic blast is a weird set.  While some blaster sets have a move or two that are low damage and more about the effect, Sonic attack has THREE effect moves, the cone knock shockwave, the soporific Siren’s Song, and the stunning Screech.  You won’t want for controls but you may skip one or two of those.  I found siren’s song useful for divide and conquer strategies, burning down the enemies one at a time on a corruptor.  You will find yourself wanting an additional heavy hitter, but all your attacks reduce resistance which increases the damage all the other attacks deal.

Water Blast

Prop: No
Aim: Tidal Forces
Control: Some knockdown
Snipe: No
AoEs: Ranged burst, ground targeted damage area, Cone
T9: Heavy damage PBAoE that stuns
Damage Type: Smashing/cold and sometimes smashing/hot
Side Effect: -speed, -def
Water blast is a newer move so it has more fiddly mechanics.  Most moves give you tidal power, a few moves cash in 3 stacks of tidal power for extra effects.  It has some interesting wild cards, like a move that boosts regen while sapping the foe.  It doesn’t have a lot of hard control, but the speed reduction and knockdown aspects of the move can go a long way to at least keeping the enemy from closing the gap with any ease.  The AOE animations are pretty punchy and the moves in general tint rather well to let you attack with all sorts of fluids like blood, tar, milk.

Manipulations

Manipulations are your secondary powersets as a blaster.  They usually mix melee with an assortment of controls and a side order of survivability, unless they are freaking weird, like devices.

Darkness Manipulation

Buildup: Soul drain
Melee: Two single target, one tight hold
Controls: Two roots, one fear, one AOE stun (low magnitude)
Damage Aura: Yes
Damage Type: Negative
Side Effect: -to-hit
Couple this with darkness and you’ll be doing violent things to the enemy’s ability to hit you.  With i24 Touch of Fear became Touch of the Beyond.  It became a ranged fear attack up from melee range and anytime you hit with it you’d be given a non-stacking decent duration of +regen and +recovery.  The recovery is strong enough that I feel like Dark Consumption is a wasted pick, and the regen roughly triples the natural regen of my barely geared up level 50 gun/dark blaster.  It’s a glorious move, just make sure you use it more then you have to, that way when you miss you aren’t stuck without the +regen.  Your hardest hitting melee attack has a root stapled to it.  Combined with the dedicated immobilizing power and you can lock things down rather readily.  Instead of buildup you get soul drain.  This has a long animation and requires you to get into PBAoE close range to tag enemies.  The more you tag the more powerful you become.  The duration is enhanced to make up for this, and if you score a solid hit on a large crowd you’ll have a good reason to cackle maniacally as your damage is boosted to ludicrous levels.

Devices

Buildup: Nope
Melee: If you count the bombs, 2 PBAoE and a weak but stunning taser
Controls: Caltrops, Root, Stun, Smoke
Damage Aura: No
Damage Type: Lethal/Fire mostly, taser is energy
Side Effect: Being weird
BEHOLD the weirdest manipulation.  The only attack it has that could be strictly defined as melee is a taser that isn’t that damaging but is stunning.  It is even weird on terminology, a taser is a gun that shoots electrodes that stun people.  A stungun, weirdly, is a handheld devices you jab people with to stun them with electricity.  So strictly speaking taser should be named stungun but that’s just me being an overly nitpicky so and so!  Cloaking device got renamed Field Operative in i24.  It no longer costs any endurance and boosts both recovery and regen.  You should roll with this on constantly.  You get this targeting drone that boosts your to-hit and damage, sacrificing your burst ability for more spread out damage.  You got caltrops which will make most enemies wig out and try to exit the patch, but since the patch is slowing they won’t be doing that easily, slot it for maximum slowing to really screw with the enemy AI or even better throw a proc in there for lulz.  You got two bombs which require you to get up close and waste time in a long animation to deploy.  But you also got a summonable gun drone.  Going devices does give you some rather unique an interesting play options, but it also shifts you away from traditional blaster Burst-power.  This isn’t necessarily bad, it does change up the core blaster vibe though.  So be aware that when you step into this you are changing the very DNA of your blaster.

Electricity Manipulation

Buildup: Yes
Melee: 4, (one holds)
Controls: 1 root, one PBAoE knock/disorient (low mag), 1 hold
Damage Aura: Yes
Damage Type: Energy
Side Effect: -End -recovery
If you like melee powers this isn’t bad.  For single target melee attacks, one of which doubles as a hold.  Lightning field got renamed to Dynamo and now instead of consuming endurance it grants it and regen even as it drains foe endurance.  So you definitely want to snag that and keep it running.  Power sink may be obsolete with that change, but it is still a good way to ravage the enemy’s endurance, leaving them powerless to attack after some sort of recovery nerfing move.

Energy Manipulation

Buildup: Yes
Melee: 3 meaty attacks, 2 effect attacks with minimal damage
Controls: All Melee Has a stun chance, attacks 100% stun, Yeet
Damage Aura: No
Damage Type: Energy
Side Effect: Stun
Break out the glowing pom poms, it’s energy Manipulation time.  All you need to know about energy manipulation is every melee attack has a stun chance.  Some have guaranteed chance.  Your first move is a weak damage yeet which is useful for yeeting things into the tank.  And we got boost range, which lets your attacks get more range (Who ever takes this even?).  Conserve energy got renamed to “energize” and now it heals you and gives +regen on top of conserving power.  So you’ll want to use that a whole lot more.  Power boost is a weird one, it does boost heals as well as all your special effects (controls, movement speed boosts).

Fire Manipulation

Buildup: Yes
Melee: 1 Attack, 2 PBAoE strikes, 1 PBAoE burn patch
Controls: 1 root
Damage Aura: Yes
Damage Type: Fire
Side Effect: Moar fire, -def on fire sword
Fire tends to be the powerset of moar damage and this pretty much sticks close to that.  Blazing Aura became cauterizing aura and it now gives +regen and +recovery.  Your controls are limited to a single target root and an aura that reduces movement speed of enemies around you: hot foot.  Burn functions just like tanker burn, dropping a patch of high damage death at your feet that cancels any rooting effects on you.  It will make enemies scatter, so comboing it with ring of fire makes sure they stay in there for that nice hot burn that’ll leave’em nice and well done.  If you don’t want to mess around with control effects and just wish to do aggressive damage, go with fire, lunge into the crowd and explode all over them repeatedly.

Ice Manipulation

Buildup: Yes
Melee: 2 attacks
Controls: 1 root, one melee hold, one PBAoE sleep, slowing cone, knockdown patch
Damage Aura: No
Damage Type: Cold
Side Effect: -recharge, slow
Fire brings the damage, ice brings the control.  Ice also has damage mitigation for the whole team.  Chilling embrace got renamed to frigid protection and now gives +recovery and a continually refreshing absorb shield.  It is real easy to push equal level enemies to recharge cap by simply using shiver and getting in their face with your aura.  That overkill -recharge remains useful when you get thrown in a mission with nothing but purple, they WILL feed something from your debuffs.  At -recharge cap enemies will only throw out one quarter of their attacks once they exhausted all their moves.  Which seriously reduces the amount of damage the tank or anyone else is taking.  But that’s not all, Frozen Protection has a -damage effect built into it, so any attack that does hit will be nerfed.  This makes a dedicated ice blaster a somewhat tanky affair with good slotting.  Ice patch further reduces enemy damage by keeping them too busy sprawling to attack.

Psychic Manipulation

Buildup: Concentration
Melee: 3 melee attacks, 1 PBAoE, there’s a ranged cone too
Controls: Root, PBAoE Confuse, PBAoE Stun, Fear
Damage Aura: No
Damage Type: Psionic
Side Effect: -Recharge
This powerset had +regen effects before +regen was cool in blaster sets.  This set did not get the glow-ups that the other sets did as a consequence.  This is the one set that looked at blaster powers and was like “You know, blaster has an awful lot of ranged area of effect damage, but what it really needs is more area of effect damage.”  Psychic manipulation gives no fucks and respects no god.  It is a pretty solid set.

Martial Combat

Buildup: An uncontrollable proc
Melee: 3 melee attacks, one PBAoE, 1 Teleporting PBAoE
Controls: A floaty knock, a cone stun, a melee stun
Damage Aura: No
Damage Type: Smashing
Side Effect: Knocks
This thing was in the pipe in i24 which was unreleased in live.  It got pulled into various servers when they sprang up.  Basically it’s kicks and utility.  Since it’s a manipulation created after the paradigm shift on manipulations having survivability, the +end is on one power reaction time, and the healing is on inner will, which also offers you a means of busting through controls.  The powerset is pretty much being martial artsy as all get out, with throwing sand in people’s faces being the main control out of using ki to knock someone, but in a floaty fashion.