Author: LordStarwolf
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Guide to a successful Blapper
For those of you who haven’t heard the term before, a Blapper is a blaster that plays like he’s a Scrapper, using his melee powers to fight in close. Usually it’s meant in an insulting manner, i.e. “You’re a squishy, get in the back, stop trying to be a blapper!”. And I’ve heard many an argument in the gameamp forums saying that blasters are just too squishy, that you can’t have a successful blapper. So I set out to see if it can be done.
Well the results are yes, you can make a successful blapper. My first blapper was so successful I stopped playing my level 30 Scrapper altogether. I’m even thinking of deleting him. My blapper is just too good. He’s as tough as my scrapper and kills faster. Also I’ve created one on Triumph, actually the toon I have in the Gameamp SG, that is also a blapper attempt, and he is working out well also. So, here is my guide to making a successful blapper, as I have actually created and fought with. I’ll start with my philosophy for building a blapper, then to my opinion on what powers are good, then post a listing of my two successful blappers at the end of the guide.
Philosophy
The key to a good blapper is finding powersets that do good damage in close, not just damage rating but more importantly accuracy at close range, and then getting some of the defensive powers from the power pool sets to increase your ability to take a pounding in close. Some of the blast powers that are long range have good accuracy up close and some short ranges have their best accuracy at the end of their range, so you have to find the powers that have good accuracy close up. Usually that is the shorter range powers, but not always.
As for what powers to choose, first and foremost is the melee powers. That’s what you are gunning for with a blapper. You need to get all the melee attack powers any particular set offers. Some melee sets have more hold-type powers, like ice, or secondary effect powers, like devices. For a blapper what you really need is damage dealing melee powers, so the best choices in powersets are those with a larger number of damage dealing attacks.
As far as the defensive powers go, when I started this experiment I had the thought that you should load up on all the shielding powers you can. Getting everything that you can get certainly can help, especially with AV’s and such. But with your normal day to day battles I have found that a couple of the shields, especially those with defense enhancements, are enough to give you the edge to stay alive in melee. And with the end drain of a blapper I find myself shutting them off more and more. With my level 32 blapper I routinely only run combat jumping and acrobatics and maybe stealth as well. Tough and weave are reserved for heavy action, but are useful then.
The biggest thing to remember in creating a blapper is that as you build the toon it will be a bit harder than normal for a blaster AT. You have to focus your power and slot options into melee attacks, but you won’t have a full range of them or the slots to make them most effective until later in the build, so your lower levels, up to say 10 or 12 at a minimum, can be harder to play so be ready for that. Also with a blapper end usage will probably be heavy, so powers like stamina and conserve power will likely be necessary. Melee attacks tend to take the highest amount of end to use, so you will likely have a problem with it.
My Choices for Powers
Of all the blaster powersets the ones that I have determined to be most useful for a blapper are Energy and Sonic on the blast side, and Energy and Electrical on the Manipulation side. The energy blast set has knock back, which can save your butt when it hits the fan and you need a breakaway to keep from dying, as well as have some good short ranges blasts. Power burst is short range and high damage, and energy torrent is excellent at close range. Sonics has debuff secondary effects, and a whole range of short range and cone attacks.
On the melee side energy manipulation has excellent damage and knock back, once again good for freeing you from that pile up situation. Electrical manipulation has several melee damage attacks, endurance drain, and has lightning field. My experience is that lightning field is one of the best melee powers. It is a toggle pbaoe that does more damage than blazing aura and also saps endurance. The rest of the blast powersets I believe are too range oriented, which of course is what blasters are for, and the melee powers in the other sets, IMHO, don’t have enough pure damage attacks to use for a blapper.
On the defensive powers, anything that gives protection is a possibility. Combat Jumping and Weave both give good boosts to defense, which is also effective against everything, including psionics with low end usage, and stealth gives this kind of bonus too, with the advantage of the concealment function. Tough gives a good defense against smashing and lethal damage. Combat jumping also gives a jump increase which can be handy getting to those upper levels in a mish or over the wall in Perez. I general start with Combat Jumping early, maybe even at level 6, the first point you can get any of them, especially if I am going to get Super Jump for travel. By getting CJ you get the shield and the prerequisite for your travel power. The downside to tough and weave is that you have to get boxing or kicking first, which I consider to be fairly worthless powers. Stealth is also something you can get early on since there is no prerequisite you have to get before it. Tough and Weave generally I leave for later, when I can afford to waste a spot on boxing or kicking. Also Acrobatics can be a very good power to have. The main thing it gives you is knock back protection. Normally this isn’t so much needed on a blaster since you are in the back and theoretically are not hit that much with knock back attacks. But as a blapper you are a melee fighter, so the likelihood you will face melee attacks with knock back is very high, so acrobatics may need to be high on your list.
As far as the epic power pool sets go, I haven’t reached these levels with either of mine yet, so I don’t know first hand which one to get, but I’m leaning toward force mastery. When you get into the upper levels and start taking on Arch Villains and later Hamidon, your going to need all the shields you can get, and all those in force mastery look nice. Then again they will also add to your end drain too, and one thing you will find with a blapper is that he drains end fast. So I am also looking at the munitions mastery as well. I’ve seen this set in action and body armor provides good protection with no end usage. You also get some good ranged attacks, but of course that’s not what we are building this type of toon for. But the extra shield with no end used is very attractive.
My Toons
Here’s Beliskner, my level 32 on Guardian. I’ve managed to stand toe to toe next to tanks in the furball and get comments on the massive amounts of damage he does:
Energy Blast
Power Blast (1)
Energy Torrent (4)
Power Burst (30)
Energy Manipulation
Power Thrust (1)
Energy Punch (2)
Bone Smasher (10)
Conserve Power (26)
Build Up (32)
Leaping Power Pool
Combat Jumping (6)
Super Jump (14)
Acrobatics (22)
Fitness Power Pool
Swift (8)
Health (16)
Stamina (20)
Fighting Power Pool
Boxing (12)
Tough (18)
Weave (24)
Concealment Power Pool
Stealth (28)
Here’s Lord Starwolf, my level 14 on Triumph. He leveled from 7 to 14 in about three days soloing:
Sonic Blast
Scream (1)
Shout (8)
Electricity Manipulation
Electric Fence (1)
Charged Brawl (2)
Lightning Field (4)
Havoc Punch (12)
Leaping Power Pool
Combat Jumping (6)
Super Jump (14)
Concealment Power Pool
Stealth (10)
Both of these toons can stand toe to toe with the bad guys as well as any scrapper I’ve ever had and deal out more damage. You can play them like a scrapper with faster kills.
In the end, you can use any powerset you like, just focus on the short range attacks, especially those with high accuracy at short range, get plenty of shields form the power pool sets, and make sure and slot your attacks and shields for maximum effectiveness and low end use and you can be blapping away too.
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