I dont get these people who made these blasters that constantly died at every turn.. I made plenty of blasters.. and I didnt die every 32 seconds and rarely did I build any defense into any of them.. in fact I only did it with one..
Ive always thought that many of the people who played blasters probably started playing as a scrapper or tank first.. then tried a blaster and played with the same scrapperlock mentality.. and died... a lot... and then went.. blasters suck.. I started playing with a blaster.. so I kind of learned.. who was dangerous to me and who I could take down quick.. and learned how to use other skills to limit my aggro and stay alive..
But even then I didnt die ALL the time..
I leveled basically every alt exactly like the first: buying what I could based on what I earned, farming nothing, PLing never, soloing and teaming in pick up teams when I could. As an experienced player, I could play anything and make it work without dying often, but every time I started to forget how difficult it was to play blasters, I could always roll a new one and be reminded. Its also difficult to play without doing things automatically that most players don't know or aren't skilled enough to do, that you do without thinking and makes the experience easier, that because you don't think about it you don't give enough credit for your survival either.
Just little things like the fact I was always moving when playing blasters and not just standing still and shooting from range contributed to my survival. True but virtually unknown fact about CoH: moving more than a certain amount would cause the critters to subtly alter how they chose which powers to use to attack. Running around in circles around a spawn could reduce incoming damage by as much as *half*. Sometimes, things you don't even realize are making the game easier are making it a lot easier. Beginners are not efficient inspiration users. They don't fire attacks efficiently. They do not manage endurance as well as veteran players do instinctively. They don't pace themselves well. They don't know when they are in over their heads, because it often happens fast. And very small differences in build decisions, like when to take attacks and when to take toggles, and when to take but not use a power until it can be slotted, can make a huge difference. Beginning players did not understand that sometimes you take a power but don't use it, because unslotted it wastes time and endurance and can actually kill you, but slotted it could be a huge benefit.
Also, people tend to remember what they want to remember, particularly when it comes to the leveling experience. They tend to forget how easy or hard things were, and mostly remember their final level 50 enhanced experience, and they assume they can extrapolate downward from there. Someone I knew in-game once told me a particular blaster combination was trivial to play. To prove it they leveled one to about 16ish, and proceeded to destroy a spawn with it. I told him that was great, now do it five times in a row. He was killed fighting the fourth. Its easy to kill one spawn. But if you end that fight with even slightly less than full health, sustaining that pace is impossible. Many players "tested" themselves in conditions that did not replicate actual gameplay, in terms of having to fight maybe 30 spawns in a mission in ten minutes all in a row. They assumed if they could defeat one strong spawn, they could repeat that task indefinitely. Not the case.