Black_Specter

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Please add this guide, The COH Base Menu, to the Guide to Guides... It's the most comprehensive base item stats list (including rooms, plots, etc) that I've seen. Thanks

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?k...KHMw&gid=0

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Oops! Looks like you guys beat me to the punch! There it is, right in the Guide to Guides. Good for you, and thanks.

Incidentally, this guide is not just about salvage and crafting (which is where you categorized it), but is about energy output/use and control output/use, which is essential for building a working base. These are the stats, actually, that are the most important for base building in my opinion. Also, you'll notice that the guide also deals with plots and plot stats, rooms and room stats, and base defenses. It covers everything about base building, except salvage recipies! So it really might fit best under the "Creating A Base" category rather than "Salvage and Crafting". Just a suggestion.

Thanks, man!

Good job, captA! You know, somebody really needs to write a good guide on SG bases and editing.

Wish I could edit my previous post on this subject.

Yeah, I8 altered the bind rountine a little... again... so the +/- prefixes now generate an "unknown command' error if used by themselves. "+ " and "- " no longer work smoothly, so binds such as the following need to be revised:

/bind <key> "+ $$powexec_name sprint"

Here's the workaround:

Instead of "+ $$" use "+down$$-down$$"
And instead of "- $$" use "+down$$-down$$"

So the above bind would be revised to:

/bind <key> "+down$$-down$$powexec_name sprint"

Yes, it means a lot more characters added to the bind, but there's not much else we can do at the moment. The "+down$$-down" method has always worked, so there's no threat of it being messed up in future updates. Oh, FYI, the reason you put "-down" right after the "+down" is to prevent any downward movement when activating the bind.

Hope this helps.

P.S. For your ease of mind, I already posted this problem in the Developer's official Bug report thread.

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When duoing with just the two of us, I use the bind for team_select 1$$powexec_name Speed Boost. That works just fine....they have a similar bind. But on large teams of 8, I have to remember to move my mouse up to the team list, select my partner and then SB them.

Is there a way to create a bind that applies Speed Boost to a particular team member by NAME? For example, team_select TweedleDee$$powexec_name Speed Boost. I can't find a command to select a particular team member/target by character name.

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Well, yes. It's "target_custom_near [name]"

Just replace [name] with whatever the name of your friend is. So let's say your friend's name was Speed Monger, the command would be "target_custom_near Speed Monger". This also works to target foes as well, btw. The drawback to this is that your friend will have to be in view on your screen or you won't be able to target him. So if he's behind a wall or you have an obstructed view of him, you won't be able to target him. It's no "team_select" that will select the teammate no matter if you see him or not.

Another solution is to turn your number pad into a team select pad... so you just press the number that your friend takes up on the team roster, and then maybe press Numpad0 in order to hit him with Speed Boost. Works great for me and all my various buffing toons (Empath, Force Field, etc.). And then you can buff the whole team a lot easier.

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Along the same lines (and I'm betting this is completely impossible), is there a way to apply a timer to a bind? So I could activate a bind command every 30 seconds? Figured it was worth asking....although likely impossible.

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The game has no way for us to add timers to powers, etc. However, if you buy a gaming keyboard, such as the Logitech G-15, that will let you do what you want.

Firey Aura tanks are the worst and weakest tanker powerset. If you've played any other tanker powerset, I would recommend not playing a fire tank unless you want to become completely frustrated with your tank's ability to herd, taunt, and survive aggro... you know, do all of the normal tanker things.

Solo or very small team play will be borderline tollerable, but large team play or play against significantly higher level foes will spell doom constantly for a fire tank. They can't take the heat. Avoid them. Play a real tanker instead like Stone, Invulnerability, or Ice instead.

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As for the Wiki style implementation, yup that'd be great. However I'm a realist and am not confident we could pull something along those lines off in the near term. So, getting the existing system dusted off and up to speed is our current target.

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Why not simply work with the existing community network and look at a collaboration with the paragonwiki guys to move the guides section out of these forums entirely?

There's a wealth of great City of ... information out there on fan sites, why not work on building links with those sites instead of trying to work around the problems of hosting game guides on a forum?

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My guess would be because then it is not merely a fansite anymore. Which could have legal issues that they would have to go through and edit out to prevent wackjob companies like Marvel going crazy .

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Not only that... but believe it or not, fan sites actually disapear and their URLs go dead. In fact, the frequency of this occurance is so common that any would-be web manager worth his salt will attempt to get all of those disparate sources and articles copied over and hosted on his site in order to insure that the resources remain available to his patrons.

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I am starting to experiment with some powexecauto binds and am searching for ways to restore Auto-Hasten semi-automatically.
My problem is that two powexecauto Hasten commands in a row will turn Hasten on auto and then take it off auto.

I'd love to /bind w "+forward$$powexecauto hasten" and have forward movement restore Hasten to auto but I find myself shutting auto off as much as I turn it on.

Is there a way to force auto onto Hasten like a toggleon and not have a subsequent keypress shut it back off?

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No. PowexecAUTO is a toggle, so the first press will turn it on, and the second press will turn it off. And there is no such command that I'm aware of as Powexec_Auto_ToggleOn.

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EDIT:
If all else fails go back and read the guide some more.

Would /bind w"+forward$$powexecauto brawl$$powexecauto hasten" work?

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No. All that would do is alternately switch between putting brawl and hasten on auto with each key press.

Edit: > I'M WRONG! Having two powexec_auto commands in the same bind will cause only the first (far right) power in the bind to be on auto fire, and will prevent the bind from turning auto fire off with that bind. Sheesh! I need to read my own guide! For more info, look at the "Using Powexec_auto" section of my bind guide. Your bind should work:

/bind w "+forward$$powexecauto brawl$$powexecauto hasten"

Let me know if that did work for you.



Personally, however, with Hasten's longish recharge, I now prefer to keep hasten off of auto so I can hit it right before I engage in battle... it lasts longer then and I'm assured that it will be up for the next battle. Putting it on auto sometimes causes timing probs for me. Anyway, good luck!

I was about to say what Konoko said, until I ready his repsonse. Sounds like quite a puzzle you have there! If you find a solution, please let us know what you discover. Sorry for not helping more.

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i was wondering if you could creat a macro or bind that would target a foe and allow my toon to then follow it?

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Yes.

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Can you create a Macro that turns on all my toggles in one click

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No. Not one click, but multiple clicks is possible.

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and then off with another?

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Yes. One bind/macro can turn off multiple powers with only one click. Read the section in the Advanced Bind Guide above about Turning off Powers.

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Or would you need 2 separate macros?

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You'd need a Text Bind, or a Macro that toggles text binds.

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My tank had the target follow macro but I deleted it by Accident. It made tanking a greater joy

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Yes, it does!

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Also is there a bind or macro that will allow my PB to change form and at the same time change my power tray from tray one to the second tray where the PB's new form powers are set up? (Boy that sounds confusing)

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Yes, there is.

All of the binds you request can be created using the information in Curveball's guide or my guide above. However, if you're looking for examples that you can just copy, check out my web page below (in my signature), and scroll down to Black Spectre's Binds... there are examples and samples of the most useful binds I have ran across in the game.

Good luck!

Well, it looks like one of the recent patches altered the binding routine slightly so that adding only the "+ " prefix will not allow keys to become " Toggle Keys " -- meaning merely adding "+ " and a blank space afterward to the beginning of a bind string will no longer allow the bind to execute one command on key press, and another command on key release. Or rather, to be more precise (because it still seems to work), we now receive an "Unknown Command" message when the game attempts to read the blank space after the prefix.

The workaround for this is to use one of the movement commands that is designed to be used with the "+" prefix instead of merely the "+ " prefix alone. This avoids the "Unknown Command" error. So a working sample Toggle Key Text Bind might look like this:

TOGGLEKEY1.TXT
G "+up$$powexec_name fly"

TOGGLEKEY2.TXT
G "+down$$powexec_name fly"

If you are using a toggle key bind that does not have a movement component (you don't want your toon to move), the best solution is to use the "+DOWN" command for the toggle key. It's not perfect, but it works more often than not.

I'd recommend avoiding the use of "-down" as the command seems to often get stuck and continues to execute the "down" command even when the bind has finished (turns "down" on auto). The incidious thing about this is that when you're on the ground, you don't notice that the "down" command is being executed. So when you decide to fly, suddenly you're going backwards! The fix for this is simply not to use the minus "-" prefix but instead always use the plus "+" prefix in toggle key binds.

Thanks, Pulse!

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Do you know if there's a command that allows you to set max particle count? I've figured out most of the other graphic options but this is a huge one with no command I know of.

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Hey, Pulse! Yeah, I played around trying to figure that out for ya and came up with nothing. A list of graphic commands, in fact all of the GUI commands would be really nice!

Odd thing happened last night... my fire tank ran up to baddies with my Burning Aura on, got their attention, and ran back to herd spot.... the baddies followed for 2 seconds, then started blasting away at my team's defenders who hadn't done anything that would have aggroed the baddies, and they were further away from them than I was! Weird!

Okay, just wanted to say that the most recent version of this Advanced Bind Guide is located here . Also, if no one else can help you, feel free to PM (private message) me. I only read these forums sporadically and often miss posts and questions.

However, before you ask me, please experiment yourself. I'm not a command/bind encyclopedia and don't remember off the top of my head most of the binds. What I would do to find a bind that worked for you would be to log into COH and try out a few different bind strings myself. It's a lot of work and time that can usually be avoided if the person asking does their own trials to try and figure it out first. If you put in the time and effort and you still can't figure it out, please feel free to ask. Also, please check out my page of bind examples for one that might work for you.

And lastly, if you're really new to binding, please read Curveball's excellent THE WHOLLY UNOFFICIAL AND FAIRLY INCOMPLETE GUIDE TO /BIND first. It will answer most of your questions.

Here's another idea...

I also have had trouble getting people to do things with the base. I've given them permission to edit it, but just as described by others, they don't touch it... for lots of reasons, but fundamentally it's because they don't want to bother with it. They, in fact, view it as a bother that they'd rather not deal with (and frankly, editing a base takes WAY TOO MUCH TIME because of the weird quirks of the base editor in placing and rearranging things in the base). So, what to do about that?

The idea of personal dorms in the SG base is ok, but as someone mentioned, it just sits there... does nothing. The final result being that those personal rooms would go unvisited and unused. How about this idea...

Instead of one player able to edit the entire base, why not make each room only creatable/editable by specific ATs? For example, the main plot would be editable only by the SG leaders. However, different rooms could only be edited by different ATs.

Control Room -- Controllers only can edit
Energy Room -- Blasters only can edit
Teleporter Rooms -- Scrappers only can edit
Medical Rooms -- Defenders only can edit
Defensive Rooms and Vaults -- only Tankers can edit
Work/storage Rooms -- any AT can edit
Decorative rooms -- any AT can edit

This would force at least 5 people, instead of only 1, to get involved in editing the base with some payoff. It would also make the base their own by vesting themselves in it a bit more than otherwise, and the SG badges that they'd earn would directly benefit the SG base as well.

If you don't like this idea, then how about allowing only certain ATs to place particular items, such as Defenders only allowed to create the Auto-Doc for the Med Bay, only Controllers allowed to create and place the Monitoring Station for the Control Room, etc?


Just a thought...

One of the best things the devs could do to make SG bases more popular is to create items for a Communications Center. By this I mean a small message board to post announcements and/or messages to members, a calendar to plan SG events, and a page for the leaders to create a SG handbook that details the various rules and guidelines of the SG (SG uniform, promotion requirements, storage bin use, etc).

This would get people visiting the SG base more often, and also provide a necessary but lacking tool for SGs. Ideally, there would be a button or something that blinked letting SG members know there is a new announcement or event planned. Additionally, it would be awesome to signify a particular announcement that has some urgency to it to be sent to all of the SG members by e-mail or have it pop up in the log in chat window right under Message of the Day.

In order to post, you'd have to have permission, but you'd also have to go to the SG base. Also, to read the SG handbook, calendar, etc. you'd have to go to the SG base as well.

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Well I did say Pick from the zone you in first.... I did not say only. It was an emphasis on priority not limitation. Part of my experience here is based in Virtue as that is all I play and it is the second largest population server so I have more toons to choos from then all the others but one.

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Yes, yes, yes. But the reason offered to choose first from the same zone is ludicrous... namely, to be more courteous to the person you are inviting. It has nothing to do with that. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one, at least when teaming. I pick players from the same zone first, not to be more pleasing to the person I'm inviting, but rather to prevent the rest of my current team from getting resstless and quitting! I don't know if it's the game, or the people playing the game, but these guys are impatient! And frankly, when all I've wanted to do is bang some baddie heads together, waiting for 15 minutes for a team to form is a real downer.

So IF there is courtesy involved here, it's directed toward the team rather than the invited player. But for me, it has nothing to do with courtesy... it has to do with team survivial. If I want a big team, I had better get members on board quickly or members will start to desert the team... prolonging team building and the start of the mission.

Now, something that you could possibly do to help prevent the restlessness on the team while waiting for the team leader to invite other players is to start the mission, and look for additional players while doing the mission. Although I do this from time to time, more often than not searching for new team members prevents me from playing the game and doing the mission. It's hard to do 2 things at once... search for new members and KO baddies. In fact, I've actually killed fellow team members by my inaction while searching for more team members. Further, if you're a tank, like me, your absense in a battle typically dooms the rest of your team... or your team typically refuses to engage the baddies without you... which means now they're waiting for you to finish searching, and they get impatient... and the whole thing starts over again.

It's best just to streamline building a team so that it takes as little time as possible... and all of these pesky questions and overtures toward "courtesy" really slow down the process with no appreciable gain.

Indeed, I would be against the whole Please Send Tell idea if PST didn't actually speed up the team building process, which is does if executed with binds.

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7. Pick from the zone your in first. Toons are more likely to join you if they don't really have to travel... Yes this is easier to do in lower levels but to date I have very rarely had to cross zone search to find team mates unless it was a tf of some kind.

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Amen, brother. When I'm building a team, first thing I do is pop out the map to see which zones are adjacent, or on the same train line, and limit my search to those zones. This is particularly curteous and helpful when you're in the teens or lower levels, so players don't have to sprint so far.

Plus, some people just plain hate some zones (Hollows, Perez Park, Fautline, etc) and you'll save grief putting that in the tell, rather than having the person join and drop after finding out where it's at.

On the subject of people asking "Which mission?" - some people have been playing long enough, or the same Origin often enough, that they know many of the missions. Heck, even I know all the Wincott and Flux missions!

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Don't make me laugh so hard! Man!

This is sooooo irelevant, it's ridiculous! The ONLY reason to invite someone from the same zone first onto your team is to prevent the long wait of them traveling through multiple zones and to get them into the mission as fast as possible. Period. Courtesy??? Bah! Hate to zone???? Man! They're going to HATE City of Heroes! The game forces you to zone all the time!

Look, zoning is a way of life... it's the game and it's not going to change. If you hate zoning, I have only one thing to say... get used to it.

Besides, it's far more often for me that there is no one in the same zone who is the same level and available, and of the AT that I am looking for. I get my teamies from ANYWHERE, and belive me, they're happy to travel from the Hollows to PI just to play on a good team. It's sometimes a pain to wait for them is all, but for a good player, I deal.

And quibble about sending them an invite if they don't respond??? Puleeeze! I'm running down the search roster, sending tell after tell, getting decline after decline, trying to find enough players to fill up my team, and as they decline I put them on my mental "not available at the moment" list. If they don't decline, it means that there is still a possibility that they could join my team! See? Until I KNOW they don't want to join, they're still on my "pester them until you know" list. Why should I ASSUME that they don't want to join merely because I don't hear anything back from them? That would be quite stupid of me, don't you think? I mean, there's other reasons why someone would not respond than they don't want to join... how about they're AFK, or how about my one little tell got lost amongst a ton of tells they were reading and responding to at the time, or how about simply they were in a battle and couldn't type at the time?

I can't tell you how many times I've sent invite tells to players, filled up my team, only to have them send me a tell 10 minutes later asking if I still have room on my team. And sometimes I do! Nope. I'm I'm not going to give up on anyone. Besides, it is rude to not respond when someone is speaking to you or sending you a private tell, so if my confirmation invite is a slight annoyance to them... GOOD! Frankly, if they're intentionally ignoring my tell, they deserve it.

There are a lot of ANTI-SOCIAL people playing this MMORPG (go figure?), and if someone asking politely if they would like to team up is an annoyance to them... well, there's something called the hide command. If someone wants to be left alone, they SHOULD hide... otherwise the "massive multiplayer" nature of this game is going to drive them nuts. Besides, they shouldn't take out their weird behavior and bad attitude on us social types.

3-4 binds that have made building a team WAY easier are:

/bind <key> "search"
/bind <key> "tell $target, Would you like to do a mission?"
/bind <key> "reply No problem, thanks anyway."
/bind <key> "invite $target"

It works like this: Click and select a hero on the search list, then press "I" for asking them to join. The player is sent the tell, "Would you like to do a mission?"

They reply, "No, but thanks for asking."
You press "N" which sends them a tell saying, "No problem, thanks anyway."

If they said yes to the offer, then hit backspace, then move the cursor over the "/T" and replace it with "/I", and hit enter! Voila! Instant invite onto team! I just wish the devs would make a bind command that combined autoreply with invite so that we could just hit one key and automatically ivnite the last person who sent us a tell onto the team.

Anyway, IF you still have the same search screen up (which rarely occurs for me), then you could select the player, and then hit the invite bind key to invite them onto the team.

Team Leader: "Would you like to do a door mission?"
Unknown Player: "Which mission?"

I'm sorry... "which mission"??? Do people really memorize the titles and names of missions? The only pertinant information you need is the level of the baddies you're going to fight. That will tell you whether or not you'll need to SK or examplar, and how good the XP will be. Other than that, take the invite, look at the mission in the Nav screen, and decide for yourself.

Look... searching for team members takes long enough and is a real hassle as it is. You want to find out what the whole mission is about, the villain types that you'll be fighting, or what the team composition is? Then join the team and find out. Don't waste the leader's time by forcing him to TYPE out lines and lines of answers to your silly questions that you can answer yourself with a click of the "Accept Team Invite" button! While you're busy taking up his time, the rest of the team is twiddling their thumbs, getting restsless, and thinking to themselves what a waste of time just waiting here is and what a terrible team leader they have! Then team members start quitting. Yeah, buddy! You and your silly questions are the cause of it!

Hey! I like PST myself! Please Send Tell. Why? Because noobs don't usually send tells. If a player has taken the time to send you a tell or create a bind to do it, then more than likely he's not a noob.

And what's the deal with people who you send a tell to not responding? They do it intentionally! So if I don't hear back from them, I assume they are ok with teaming and send them an invite... in many cases just to see if they're AFK or to get some kind of response from them! At least when they decline the invite, there is a note on my screen that tells me they declined it!

Streamline it, baby!

VOLCANO JUICE'S GUIDE TO KILLING MALTA...
or MALTA-MEAL BY VJ!


So Malta are giving you a hard time, eh? Sappers gettin' you down? Too many deaths on your team? Well, never fear! VJ is here... with another guide!

Killing Malta is situational, meaning, depending upon the situation in which you find groups of Malta, you need to choose different tactics. The good news is that if you follow these tactics, Malta missions will be a breeze.

There are 2 situations that you need to be aware of prior to every battle with Malta:

1) The Malta spawn is easily seen and no other spawn groups are nearby, or
2) The Malta spawn is not easily seen and/or there are other spawn groups nearby.

The first situation is the easiest. If the group of Malta are out in the open and there is no chance of another group aggroing, then the first step is to neutralize the Sapper in the group if there is one. This is mandatory. The Sapper could be held, mezzed, or killed instantly... but he needs to be taken out first. If he isn't, heroes will die. Mezzing or holding the Sapper is the safest tactic, but you've got to make sure that there is someone who can kill the held/mezzed Sapper quickly after he is held (otherwise, the Sapper will still be alive and causing havock as soon as the hold/mezz wears off). If a mezz or hold isn't available, then if your tank can jump in and 1 or 2-shot the Sapper, then by all means let him. Scrappers could probably jump in and 1-shot the sapper, but then they're usually in trouble when the rest of the group turns on them... so it might be a good idea to have the scrapper go in with the tanker at the same time if available so the tank can grab the aggro while the scrapper takes care of the Sapper. Or lastly, the whole team simply attacks the Sapper, and then the group. All of these different methods are fine... as long as the Sapper is taken out first, and the aggro from the other Malta will not kill the team or the hero who killed the Sapper.

The second situation is trickier. There is no way that you would want to engage 2 more more groups of Malta with 2 or more Sappers in them. It's certain death. Therefore, if you can't see all of the Malta and don't know if another group might be lurking behind them, then the best tactic is to pull. This means either sniping or taunting the visible Malta from range to a designated spot out of their line of sight (so that they will move to that spot rather than merely stand where they are and attack from range). The general strategy is the same here... kill/hold/mezz the Sapper first. If a Sapper moves into view, the entire team must take out the Sapper instantly. Don't wait for the Sapper to reach the pull/herd spot, get him now! This also means that whenever Malta are being pulled or herded, the entire team must be on the lookout for sappers in the group of baddies. Pulling or herding Malta is probably one of the most dangerous things to do in City of Heroes, so the team must be vigilant. If they are, and the sapper is neutralized instantly, the battles will go smoothly and fighting Malta will become just another villain group... rather than those "dreaded Malta!"

Yet another tried and true tactic from Volcano Juice! Hope it helps.

A "command chain," huh? Hmmmmm. Well, try the guides listed in the "Commands and Binds" section of the Guide to Guides at the top of this forum.

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Yes AoE damage is the way to go to maximize minion killing, but AoE maxers will find themselves in trouble vs bosses and above frequently.

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Well, sure... if the blaster is by himself. But if he has a tank/controller/defender on the team, they can neutralize the aggro from the lts and bosses so that they're not a problem after the nova blast. Again, to do this, the blaster needs to let the tanker/controller/defender nullify the aggro before the blaster attacks. It also might be a good idea to whittle down the hit points of the lts and bosses before the blaster nova blasts so that it will kill the lts and bosses too.

See, the rules of engangement above work!

As for being "The Defenders Guide to Blasting," uh... well, I can imagine that this could be titled "The Tankers Guide to...", "The Conrtrollers Guide to...", or even "The Team Guide to..." as well. But this guide is to help not-so-smart blasters become smart blasters.

As for something like this being posted at the forum before... I hope so! It's not like these smart blasting rules are rocket science or anything, and I might add that I learned these rules from other players who have been around in COH longer than I have. So I hope it was posted before. But where is it? I couldn't find it. And why are there so many level 40 blasters lately who don't seem to have a clue about how to maximize team effectiveness? So, it occured to me that this guide was needed again. Talk about it, refer players to it, get people learning how to team again.

Knockback hasn't gotten a bad rap at all... it is bad... for this tactic... when trying to maximize the number of baddies that are affected by all the team members' powers, be they anti-aggro or damage powers.

Knockback can be useful, as I mentioned above, and in very specific situations, as y'all mention, it can actually help keep the baddies in the area of effect of the anti-aggro powers... but these situations are uncommon and rare and takes more skill on the blaster's part to achieve. I recommend such tactics, but I don't expect blasters to use knockback so intelligently.

On the other hand, if you want to talk knockback... A knockback team with Hurricane/Tornado/etc. and Repel, etc. is indeed a workable team. If the team is able to keep all of the baddies knocked down all of the time, then the team is relatively safe. The debuffs and the damage mitigation dealt by such powers protects the team fairly well, and serves up fairly frantic, but slow to finish, battles.

However, a team that spreads out the baddies are not utilizing their blasters to full effect because the blaster's AoEs are able to affect only a few baddies. Whereas, if the baddies were grouped together tightly in one closely packed group, the blaster could affect the maximum number of 16 baddies with each AoE attack.

Both tactics "work." Heck! Having no tactics whatsoever will usually work as well. The point of this guide, the tactics utilized in it, is to maximize the effectiveness and speed of the blaster and the team to complete missions and defeat foes, while at the same time utilizing the rest of the team's powers to their full extent.

The "Smart" guide to blasting.

Well, yeah, I guess you could say "intelligent," but maybe a better word would be "thoughtful," "considerate" or even "tactical"? Well, now that you understand the gist of this guide, I'll try to be level handed and level headed...

Blasters and Kheldians... oooooo the ultimate damage dealers! Who wouldn't want a blaster or a Kheldian on their team, huh? I for one wouldn't mind. I like blasters! I like 'em a LOT! In fact, I've played a blaster. I've been a blaster. I AM a blaster! A-hem! Well, ok, I'm really just a player, but you get my drift. Blasting is cool! So why this guide then? Well... cuz a good blaster is not a mindless fool that rushes into battle and attacks with abandon. Not only will the baddies go BOOM!, but the blaster and his team will go BOOM! too.

Blasting is the art of inflicting a ton of damage onto baddies, usually at range, while simultaneously surviving your own attack. What do I mean by that? Well, simply that when a blaster attacks a baddie, the baddie then aggroes on the blaster and tries to kill him. Yes, yes... blasters are squishy and all that rot, but what I'm really talking about here is aggro management and the role that blasters play.

First, aggro is bad. It's really bad. It kills ya. It kills entire teams. It be bad.

Second, any attack on a baddie will create aggro either against the attacker or against the entire team. One blaster attacking one baddie can potentially aggro tens of baddies, which can potentially kill him and his entire team.

So the first smart rule in blasting is:

SMART RULE #1: Don't snipe or attack unless the team is ready and knows what you are doing.

Ok. That was an easy one. Kind of a no-brainer.

Next, let's talk about AOE attacks. That stands for Area of Effect. Some blasts are able to inflict damage not merely on an individual foe, but upon all foes who are within the area of effect. Sometimes this AoE is a cone shaped area, sometiems it's a sphere, and sometimes it's a sphere that is centered around the blaster himself... this kind of AoE is called a PBAoE.

AoEs are much more dangerous to the blaster and the team than a single target attack. Although attacking a single target may aggro many baddies, an AoE WILL aggro many baddies. This causes a problem for the blaster and the team. Multiple baddies will attack the blaster, with a good liklihood of killing him, and a team without a blaster is a much weaker team. Further, with an AoE attack, multiple baddies are guaranteed to aggro on the rest of the team. So this leads to the second rule...

SMART RULE #2: Don't attack with an AoE unless the blaster can quickly kill ALL of the baddies before they kill him (or members of his team), or unless the baddies will not aggro on the blaster or the team after the attack.

Oops. What was this second rule??? How could a baddie NOT aggro on the blaster? Well, that's were other players come into play. See, a tanker can capture the aggro of all of the baddies and force them to attack him, leaving the blaster free to attack with neigh impunity. Further, controllers can hold all of the baddies too, pretty much giving the blaster carte blanche to blast at will without concern for safety or aggro. And I should mention a defender's debuffs that prevent baddies from hitting you is also a good strategy. Yep, teaming with others is a real good thing!

Yet, when a blaster teams with others he is no longer doing solo missions. He has to consider others in his calculations, for a blaster's actions affect the rest of the team, and visa versa... and here's the rub. In order for the tank to capture all of the aggro, in order for the controller to hold all of the baddies, and in order for the defender to debuff all of the baddies, the blaster has to let them. The blaster has to let them do their job BEFORE he does his. If he doesn't, the blaster will cause the baddies to aggro on him and his teammates, and court defeat. A blaster can kill not only himself with such tactics, but can and will kill his teammates. At the very least, such a tactic will force his teammates to scramble and fight for their lives in a situation that would have otherwise been quite safe. The blaster who jumps the gun endangers the team far more than the blaster who inteligently waits until the aggro has been managed or neutralized before he attacks. And this leads to the next rule...

SMART RULE #3: Do not attack, especially with AoEs, until the aggro has been managed/neutralized.

There's a trick to this last rule. Since a tanker's taunt powers, a controllers hold/immobilize powers, and a defender's debuffs all affect only a small area of effect, the best tactic would be to somehow maneuver all of the baddies into a small, close knit group where the team's anti-aggro powers can affect the greatest number of baddies. This way the entire group of baddies are attacking only the tank, or are all held by the controller, or are all debuffed by the defender... leaving no or only a few strays to contend with rather than an entire group of angry baddies. Some baddie groups are found already in a nice, tight bunch just waiting for the team to pounce on them. Many others, however, are not and must be maneuvered or "herded" into a tightly packed group to take full advantage of the team's anti-aggro powers. I should mention that this is also good for the blaster in that his own AoE attacks will be able to inflict damage on the maximum number of baddies, thereby also increasing his effectivness. Unfortuantely, this also means that any powers that spread out and scatter baddies are counter-productive. And this leads us to our next rule...

SMART RULE #4: Do not attack with AoEs that knockback opponents out of the area of effect of your team's anti-aggro powers.

Needless to say, a baddie that is knocked out of range of the tanker's taunt power, the controllers AoE holds, or the defenders AoE debuffs will be free to attack the blaster and his teammates. Knockback is bad. This is especially true for AoE blasts that fling and scatter numerous baddies out of the range of the team's anti-aggro powers. AoE attacks that do this essentially cancel out the team's ability to manage and neutralize aggro, and creates a much, much more dangerous situation putting not only the blaster but the whole team at risk. Knockback is really, really bad.

This is not to say that knockback is never useful. In a fight where the baddies are scattered and the team's anti-aggro powers are unable to neutralize the aggro from all of the baddies, knockback can save a blaster and a team from certain death. Knockback is great for an emergency.

Further, a controller's holds can often negate the knockback effect of blasts. If the blaster is lucky enough to have a controller that has holds that can keep the baddies rooted in place, then blast away with as much knockback as you like! But, again, the blaster will need to let the controller hold the baddies before the blaster attacks.

The last bit of advice is a corallary to the second rule. If a blaster can kill all the baddies quickly before they can aggro on the blaster or the team, then all rules are out. A tanker's taunt powers, a controller's holds, nor a defender's debuffs will not help the outcome of the battle if a blaster can kill all the baddies instantly. BOOM! The problem here is that since I7 and Enhancement Diversification, a blaster's attacks do much less damage than before I7. These days, not even a Nova blast can take out a group of +2 baddies. It will severely damage them, but not enough to prevent them from attacking and killing the blaster or the team. Therefore, the smart blaster will wait a bit before using his nova attack. He might begin his attack with a cone AoE, or let others on his team take a swipe or two at the baddies before the blaster attacks with his nova. The point would be to reduce the baddies' hit points to a point where the nova can take them all out. Blasters need not wait long, however. One or two beats (or attacks) from the beginning of a battle should be enough to reduce the baddies' hit points to a point where a nova attack can take them all out. Novas are not only dangerous to the blaster who uses them, because he is left without endurance, but they are extremely dangerous to the team if the baddies are knocked back and scattered out of the area of the team's anti-aggro powers and left standing. Nova attacks should be used to finish and end a battle, not start one. And this leads to the last rule...

SMART RULE #5: Do not open with a nova attack unless it will kill all of the baddies.

And that's it. Five simple rules for blasters to live by that will not only better ensure their success in battle, but also allow the rest if the team to utilize their powers for the success of the team.