brophog02

I borrowed the money from my mom.

The set has 4 better powers already, and if it didn't I still wouldn't use EM Pulse.

The shields are great, and Static Discharge will combine great with MM to bring your AOE up in line with everything else. For me, unless you have some specific purpose with another set, the electricity mastery set is the best overall epic set to take because it can fill in so many holes.

Several things:

1) Your sign is backwards. The sign shows greater than, and I'm pretty sure by context that you mean less than.

2) In some respects, I agree. The banner event, for instance, is a pain for low level toons trying to move around big zones. For really low level toons, the GM mechanism has always been a little wonky because you often do not have full attack chains or are on a character that has had to prioritize powers in an odd way. Most toons are somewhat 'gimped' early on simply by trying to cram everything in, not to mention the 5 power slots usually reserved to get a travel power + stamina by level 20. ToT-ing at low levels, provided you're actually fighting low level enemies, isn't too bad, except bosses can be a real handful for some groups.

3) 'Getting the kills' is meaningless in this game. You don't get anything special for being the one to kill something in a team/multi-user setting. You get credit like everyone else on the team, meaning that even if you aren't doing a ton of damage, the fact you are on that team sidekicked up means you still get credit and therefore badges, etc. Just join a team, don't sidekick way higher than yourself, and things work out well enough. I turned down an invite from a level 48 the other day on a level 8 Mastermind. That just isn't going to go well for that toon, and at best I'll be the 8th wheel on a steamroll team (at worst, I'll be perpetually dead). That's not my idea of fun. SSK'ing to 48 on a level 32 Mastermind, however, is a completely different story. You gotta be somewhat realistic with your expectations when deciding who to team with. The sidekick system is a nice idea, but it isn't without its own limitations (Halloween Event or otherwise).

4) As to your damage, what kind of Blaster was it? The damage resistance by type can make a very noticeable impact in this game as can the conning of the enemy you were fighting. You don't give anywhere near the level of detail necessary to tell you if your damage amount is suspect or not.

Funerals are never fun. See you on Monday.

Its not hard at all to organize any of these TFs via the Virtue Global Channels. These TFs and more are run all of the time in the evenings on Virtue, and if the one you want isn't being run, simply advertising it on the Globals tends to get it up and running fairly quickly.

A few comments on Energy vs Elec:

Depending on how you play a 'blapper', boost range could be almost totally useless. Great power, but maybe not a great choice in this application.

Shocking Grasp is a far superior hold than any ST epic hold (or ice hold) in that it does a great deal of damage as well. Neither of the popular defensive options have an ST hold (Ice Epic and Force Epic). That leaves Char (Fire) that does about 2/3 of Shocking Grasp, Cryo Freeze Ray (Munitions) which does almost none, and Shocking Bolt (Electric) which does about 1/3 of Shocking Grasp.

Charged Brawl, Havoc Punch, Shocking Grasp is a full melee attack chain that just happens to have a hold effect in there (and all three animated fast). With an epic hold, that's another action you have to take to achieve the hold.

Powerboost, slows and the like:

Powerboost is a nice power, in that it affects so many things, but hold duration is not something I generally struggle with on a Blaster, simply because the amount of time one needs to hold something is proportional to how fast you can kill it.....and melee attacks take care of things plenty fast for base hold duration.

As someone that plays a lot of Stormies, Darks and the like......slow is either a really great effect or a pretty paltry one, depending on circumstances. When an enemy is floored, it is great, but it doesn't scale up with enemy level that well and a little doesn't help a ton (For this reason, toons that rely on the effect I tend to grossly overenhance because I rarely play even cons). Enemies are not effected by -recharge nearly to the same level that players are.

I would not try to combo melee and Ranged defense simply for the fact I'm not sure you could get appreciable amounts of both (32%+) without seriously gimping your aspects, and the way defense works you'd rather be softcapped to one positional defense than just have a little of both. If you went with the Ice Epic, S/L isn't too tough to cap with a lot of melee attacks, so that could be another option.

Blapper can mean a few things:

1) One who eschews the usage of ranged attacks. This person prioritizes melee attacks in slotting, preference, and pick order. They are moving directly into melee, always, and any usage of the primary is for mitigation. AOE attacks are commonly used more for mitigation than damage, and the Blaster as a whole plays extremely ST oriented. An Elec/Elec blapper is commonly of this type (Traditionally, the most commonly associated with the term Blapper, but has seriously fallen out of favor since the new Defiance and the introduction of IO sets).

2) One who takes and utilizes melee attacks, but not to the exclusion of ranged attacks. Many blasters fit this bill. They take, slot, and use melee attacks, but not at the hindrance to ranged attacks and only use melee attacks when the enemy comes towards them. This type of blaster would use Ranged/AOE/melee pretty equally, but would not eschew melee attacks the way a Ranged Blaster would (Most common blaster, least associated with the term Blapper).

3) Just like point #2, but this blaster prefers melee over ranged and actively seeks melee. Unlike #1, however, he will use ranged attacks when situations warrant it (particularly AOE attacks), and moves towards the mobs, rather than waiting for them to come to them. This Blaster would prioritize AOE and melee attacks, and rarely use the Ranged ST attacks.

Animations aside, I would make this blapper combo as /Elec rather than /Energy for a few reasons. First, /Elec is faster animating as a set, thereby getting more damage out per animation time. You can easily skip Thunderstrike on /Elec (and is recommended) whereas Total Focus makes up a much bigger chunk of /Energy's damage. Secondly, Shocking Grasp works well with the holds in Ice, should you choose to take those as mitigation. Finally, for a pure Blapper type role, /Elec has a few neat tools that work strictly in melee such as Lightning Field, Lightning Clap, and Powersink.

For slotting, it will depend on which version of a 'blapper' you are playing and what epic you choose. Ice is popular for the defensive shield, as is Force for PFF and Force of Nature. Common melee defense sets are Oblits, Touch of death/Kinetic Combat, Extreme Measures, Gauzzians, and Razzle Dazzle.

Congrats!