But a damage sponge can barely deal damage. Perhaps I have been spoilt by that first, good Hollows pickup experience. Perhaps I am just not a tolerant person. Either way, there is no need to go into detail about the bad experiences I've had on this little tank (and my new, even spongier earth/ice tank), other than the fact that if I cannot solo and must group with oblivious people who will not even look at my missions/health/endurance to reach tanker maturity, then I must sadly shelve my tanks.
No need to go into that here. Ragnarl the tank must have seen it all. But the last group I was in, where a vicious blaster was maliciously trying to get me killed, was the final straw. Amusingly, her motivation behind that seemed to be the fact that she was jealous that I was sturdier than her. What was more amusing was her getting killed by the one of the grey-con groups she tried to aggro onto me (aggroing three more groups onto me while we're still cleaning up one group? I'm still a tank and you're still a squishy, sister.). You have to wonder why the mission is set to 15 while she is 20; Winter Lord, anyone?
But -- Let me not gripe.
Let me grieve for my tanks that will not be.
Ditching tanks, I went into the other extreme, and revisited blasterhood. The damage output, as usual, was awesome. The lack of defence was terrible and took a lot of getting used to. This set me thinking.
This is just my own personal musing on blasterdom. There will be many professional blasters that will disagree with me, I am certain.
When I go onto big teams, especially taskforces, some aggro inevitably escapes to the blasters, and I see their health bars dip. I rush to them to repair the damage, but sometimes I am too late. I started to notice a pattern -- the blasters who "survived" and were less often in "critical" were those who had picked up some kind of defense from the pool powers. In my second to last TF, one very sturdy blaster who never dippped below the midway point commented that he had stealth on, six-slotted. The other, who was in red more often than not and died a great deal, was just your regular top-loaded blaster.
Now, a blaster who six-slots a defense power must necessarily be weaker in offense. However, a dead blaster is not an offensive blaster, nor is one running away in red. The blaster who had his defenses slotted up and running, on the whole, contributed more to the team damage, because he was hanging on there still blasting away as the going got tough.
This led me to formulate the Heresy of the Defensive Blaster. I have read many places that a blaster must focus on damage and kill everything before they get to him. That is certainly one way to play a blaster, but I do not think that is the only way. There is no only way.
Damage mitigation is often done for the blaster by a tank or a controller, leaving the blaster free to blast away. As put above, this is often not enough, so a blaster who is built for soloing through self damage mitigation can apply its defensive capabilities in a team situation to ease the burden off the tanks/controllers, as well as raise its chances of survival. All this works out better for everyone who survive better all around.
I ditched the old blaster and made a new one. This one has combat jumping at level 6 instead of frost breath. Let the damage-dealing school of blasters laugh at it. Who will have the last laugh when I cling to that last sliver of red life while they eat dirt?
And really, I am having quite a blast playing it.
By the way, I saw my first Rikti today. Imagine a horde of naked Pariah Anchorites with fancy names... this must be how Darwin felt when he formulated the theory of Evolution.
Weak little miniony mutate slicer/slugger/blarg
-> Headman blargh (notice one of their hands are elongated)
-> Anathema (head is elongating, bone plates on body)
-> Rector/Eremite (head elongates more, feet are stubby now)
-> Pariah Prelate/Anchorite
At this stage the Lost looks pretty much like a Rikti. I have no idea how it finally crosses over and the game labels it a Rikti instead of a Lost.
I guess it's kind of expected, the way the story starts off with "something recruiting homeless in the sewers and mutating them", and we all know Rikti are lurking somewhere deep down in the sewers... but it's still neat to look at the way they progress.
3 comments:
Oh by the way, I thought a bit more about that Dr. Vahz team. I think I was actually doing twice the damage of any scrapper...I feel better now:) Blaster damage > scrapper damage :)
Ice blasts are like 1-2 second animations. I had almost no down time at all when hastened, basically just pouring out a damage attack every 1-2 seconds, so while it looked like my attacks were equivalent to a scrapper attack, mine added up to a greater total, and I kb'd Vahz after all :P
*sighs for the paper-thin cab eating top-loaded blaster builds*
Oi. What are my blasters for? I'll be happy to have a damage sponge tank to rescue it from ebil death.
Except that Vesuvius is on hold until we find the time for a Positron TF...
From Raggy's POV, here's my advice for your poor tanks...
Invest in a few offensive powers. Seriously. Don't have to superslot them just yet. Just add one or two slots at most.
Get one AOE DoT aura power.
Get one or two punchy type powers.
For stone especially, slot end redux into the mallets or you'll be weeping from the end usage.
Suddenly your tactical options go all the way up.
You can still run in, taunt the group and stand there, if you know your teammates are on the ball and will kill stuff.
When soloing, (or horrors, stranded by WL noobs and surrounded by mobs), turn on the damage aura. Yer a tank, they shouldn't be able to hit you much. Especially stoneys. So you can sit there forever reading a newspaper while your measly 2-3 damage per tick eats them away.
That constant damage also has a taunt in-built. If you can afford to slot in a taunt duration, I'm almost certain stuff will stick to you like glue. Can't remember if I have a taunt in there, but I know when I turn mudpots on, I can get the attention of all mobs who get into range of it.
(Another lazy man's way of keeping mobs focused on the tank without having to dash around and punch 'em)
Your one or two punch powers are saved for the lts and bosses. DoT will take too long to eat away their hp, so when all the minions have fallen and died (or are going to), judiciously use those to help the big guys along their way.
Just remember to focus on your end bar, and not flail away madly with your punches. Yer not a scrapper. Once your toggles fall from no end, you'll realize this most harshly.
Stoneys especially. I'm actually quite fond of the way they are made to fight. Their mallets hit for phenomenal amounts. You just can't hit often with them and maintain your end bar. So imagine this ponderous slow block of stone going POW POW every so often. Much different attack rate than the scrapper trying to get an attack in every second.
I like my tank far better now that I gave him some damage options.
Previously before the free respec, he was built for total defense and absolutely reliant on the team. But imo, the difference between 4 and 6 slots in rock armor at a lowbie level with only DOs is insignificant compared with 1 or 2 slots into an offense power. Law of diminishing returns, after all.
But now he can solo on his own, so he's not dependent on other people to not be morons.
(*sighs* If only my controller was the same.)
(Truth be told, now he is, with one air superiority. Mildly slotted at best, but he can actually kill stuff without having to brawl it to death.)
Great. You know what, since you have 20 tank and I have a 20 blaster, we can just make a meta tankmage. And Vesuvius' inactivity will just allow me to level up my sponge. Should go out and blow stuff up together sometime.
:)
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