StratoNexus

I usually just buy inspires in Ouro, AE, or use base storage (that way I can get mediums instead of smalls).

It is the same +1 level shift as the rare.

I loathe that method. I cannot imagine why it is allowed to work. I have seen him pacified by a rad with toggles as well. He literally just stood still on top of a pipe staring at the rad controller while the rest of the team killed the towers. They either should increase his range or make his AI give up on a target like that after a few seconds and charge after people beating on his towers.

Looks like the difference is actually ~2 seconds with that 3rd slot in Hasten.

Powers do not start recharging until the animation ends, as far as I know, so you'll need to throw in some attacks between your Executioner's Shot.

DW-ES-DW-PR

Of course, EP is your best DPA and BS is your 2nd best. Though I am not sure how well that would work once you add redraw concerns.

Right, but if you only two slot Hasten, you only lose ~7% recharge reduction in Hasten. I think Hasten with 3 slots and the very rare is 131% and with 2 slots and the very rare it is 124%? At the levels of recharge in your build that is ~1 second faster on Hasten's recharge. To me, that one slot is not worth a mere 1 second improvement. I'd rather use it elsewhere.

You should not be weighing 30% extra recharge vs. 0%. But rather 31% vs. 24%. Is the 7% worth it? If you think it is, go for it.

I'd slot two Adjusted Targeting in Build Up (rech and to-hit/rech). I'd swap the Piercing Rounds and Bullet Rain slotting (I'd rather have the Ragnarok's in the power that hits 16 targets instead of 3).

I'd consider 2 slotting Hasten. I'd weigh the Enzymes (and the soft cap) vs. the extra regen and hps you could get if you went with LotGs, but I team mostly, so odds are high I'd be capped even though I was "only" getting to ~44% solo.

It is not true that your difficulty settings do not affect TFs. There are some limits though, you cannot go below even con and AVs do not downscale to EBs. There are some encounters that remain unaffected, but most things in most TFs do indeed obey the difficulty slider. The newest ones, the CoP, Apex, and Tin Mage are the exception. But I have run many a TF at +4, fighting level 54s all the way. Level 54 Mitos are fun.

Over the course of a large mission map, not so much. The speed of blaster killing, without the need to setup debuffs allows them to use inspiration rush. I know you have used this with Brutes (and probably on your blasters too). Disallowing inspirations, when solo (where they are reliable), is unfair to the blaster AT, IMO.

No one says that when you hamstring them with extra rules blasters are great. Blasters lack defensive powers. Ruling out using the primary resource blasters have to overcome this drawback is unfair.

How about this rule? Neither player can use their secondary. It is just as valid a nonsense rule as removing inspires, IMO.

While I do not like snipes and they do indeed seem unpopular on the forums, I rarely see blasters in game without them and defenders and corruptors often have them as well. I think they are quite popular, despite their many drawbacks.

LOL. It is the right way when it is the way you prefer. Nice.

Inspirations are part of the game. If you are going to compare how sets perform in a solo environment, not allowing them is a bad choice. I also am interested in what you mean by drag things out?

I love the Apex TF. I love my Pistols blaster. But sometimes it takes a good 2 seconds to even register in my brain that a patch appeared under me. I have much greater difficulty moving out of the patches on my Pistols/Fire than I do on my Fire/Fire. If I just did Fire Sword, and queue up Executioner's Shot or Piercing Rounds, you have to add the redraw time.

The rooted times of Pistols are a factor and do make it harder. Impossible? No, of course not. But the difference between Blaze and Executioner's Shot cannot just be hand waved as nothing either. It matters and I had to be a lot more cautious on my Pistols blaster (further increasing the damage gap between my Pistols and Fire blaster). My Emp/Ice had no concerns. My Emp/Elec was fine. My Dark/Dark corruptor was good, but I just made sure to only TG when it was absolutely safe, but blasting was never an issue. My Kin/Elec defender is an amazingly good choice on this TF. My Kat/Inv scrapper had to be a bit cautious, but not nearly as much as the Pistols.

You will be able to work on any common and uncommon pieces while soloing thanks to shards. You will also be able to work on gathering the shards needed for the next tiers while soloing. Only one piece of the puzzle for the rare and very rare slots require teaming. In order to get one rare, you only need to team once. To get the very rare, you need to team 3 times. And there is no rush to team right now, unless of course you want those items sooner.

Also, those shards are likely going to be useful for future incarnate slots.

I don't think it is a disservice at all (I called it brilliant, after all). Whether on purpose or by simple chance, the same time VEATs were in development is when the blaster defiance thread was started. Even if they were not purposely mining that thread for VEAT ideas, it is only natural that as they were thinking about VEATs and how to fix blasters at the same time, some of it would end up influencing VEATs.

Read the first paragraph in a serious fashion and consider it (it is funny too, but also see it from a different angle).

I bet your blaster is better at being team dependent than your scrapper. I bet your blaster is better at dying quickly than your scrapper. I bet your blaster is better at having a mistake by you or your team alter your tactics. I bet your blaster is better at having an add or lucky shot by an enemy alter your tactics. I bet your blaster is better at dealing damage from 30 to 80 feet away than your scrapper.

Not everyone values being team dependent. Not everyone values being a piece of glass. Not everyone values their (and often their team's) tactical choices to matter as much as they do on a blaster. But does that mean those things are valueless? Is there a large enough segment of the playerbase that values those things enough to actively engage the "weakness" of the AT head on?

People approach the survivability factor from the standpoint that of course everyone will want to play the class/AT that is more survivable. That does not seem to be the case, so maybe game designers should feel OK if a class ends up being mechanically weaker, and yet ridiculously popular. Obviously, you don't want certain aspects to be too far out of whack (leveling and item acquisition,for instance), but perhaps the 'weak' class has its place, if it is done right.

The blaster AT was not designed to be weaker than other ATs, but it ended up there in the effort to improve tankers and scrappers in I2 and I3 (and really even before that, it just became more apparent as time went on). In I5 they upped the survivability slightly and added more damage, to help counter those facts. That didn't stop blasters from dying in droves (nor did it stop people from playing them in droves). They had another chance to stop them from dying so much in I11. They chose instead another path (maybe one they hoped would help lower the death rate, while still retaining the squishy feel (a steep challenge indeed)). Then they made death nearly irrelevant (the real blaster 'fix', and one which was also suggested by the playerbase).

Then they released VEATs, which had all the features many had asked for blasters. Some status protection, but less than scrappers. Range and melee attacks. Maybe some more control. Possibly some debuff. How about a little bit of defense? Real pets could help blasters, maybe make Voltaic Sentinel and Auto Turret more like real pets? Nah, how about you take Spider bots instead?

For everyone who wanted to play a blaster, but wanted it to be more like a scrapper, they made VEATs. IMO, it was a conscious and brilliant choice (although it has taken a long time for me to feel that way). Having both ATs is likely a good idea (and I think they are both very popular ATs). The only drawback for me is I can't play a Fire, Ice, Punch, or Elec version. VEATs have solid projectiles, Nrg blasts, mace, claws, poison, crab legs, and Psi powers covered though.