And the mask comes off.

[Rejolt]

Put simply, City of Heroes allowed players to have so much more power compared to most MMOs that players could afford to do weird things that were just fun, without having to worry about being killed by the game if they did not play absolutely perfectly.  A bad day in City of Heroes was often better than a good day in other MMOs that emphasized much more difficult combat with much more restrictions on the abilities of the players.

I almost want to make this my forum sig.

As to blasters: My main was an elec/nrg/elec blaster that blapped, held, stunned and drained. Am I better off re-making it as an elec/nrg/elec dominator or elec/kin/power corruptor?

[brothermutant]

Your idea for an elec/NRG/elec dom is not a bad one. The two pets from the elec control side are pretty helpgul and there is also an aura in that powerset that drains baddies END so fast. Plus Nrg secondary does really nice single target damage. I think you will like it. But make sure Mu Mastery is not better than elec Mastery for your ancillary powers. Never know till you check (in Mids for now).

[blacksly]

There was an added bonus with scrappers

With  the right secondary and build you could tank most the game

Oh, yeah, there's no real question that, player preference of playstyle aside, Scrappers were clearly better than Blasters. If you did not have a preference for blasting, or ranged combat, or the blast sets over the melee sets for graphics or such, all of the melee characters were better than Blasters. Even Stalkers before the Assassin Strike changes.

[archaist]

Your idea for an elec/NRG/elec dom is not a bad one. The two pets from the elec control side are pretty helpgul and there is also an aura in that powerset that drains baddies END so fast. Plus Nrg secondary does really nice single target damage. I think you will like it. But make sure Mu Mastery is not better than elec Mastery for your ancillary powers. Never know till you check (in Mids for now).

In my experience Mu was almost always better. Easier to slot effectively and good damage.

[Arcana]

What I mean is that if you have a decent team, and you're adding a member for damage, usually you got a bit better improvement by adding a Blaster.

I was once told that statistically speaking, Blasters and Scrappers did roughly the same amount of damage on teams.  Given that statistically Blasters were dead more often than Scrappers suggests that when they were alive they did deal somewhat more damage in teams overall as you suggest.  However, that's just one situation among the totality of the game, and even in that situation Blaster damage dealing was only somewhat more effective, and only when they were alive, and their overall net contribution to the team still did not outstrip Scrappers.

That statistical data point was another confirmation of my analysis that Blasters were not in fact outdamaging anything nor could they on average.  One individual Blaster might do a lot, but that would be in spite of their design not because of it.

[Arcana]

Your idea for an elec/NRG/elec dom is not a bad one. The two pets from the elec control side are pretty helpgul and there is also an aura in that powerset that drains baddies END so fast. Plus Nrg secondary does really nice single target damage. I think you will like it. But make sure Mu Mastery is not better than elec Mastery for your ancillary powers. Never know till you check (in Mids for now).

I would have gone Elec/Eng Dominator also.  You're not going to blap with the corruptor, whereas the Dominator has enough control to make blapping even more effective.  And Conductive Aura was great not just because of the end drain but also because it had some recovery and regen in it.

As to the patron, I would go Mu in general for the theme, but if you really want to blap there's always Primal and energy transfer.  Its a little dangerous with the -HP, but you're a dominator: its not like anything is actually going to be shooting at you.

[Remaugen]

One of my best soloists was a blaster, Elec/Elec/(Elec), she did 50 pretty much on her own and with relative ease. None of my scrappers did that, though a few came fairly close. My Stalkers also made it with a little help.

I have been following this Blaster/Scrapper thing on both threads, the math detail escapes me, I was never really interested in those Min/Max details, I just wanted playability.

The Arachnos/Night Widow was another one that soloed her way pretty easily to 50, as did my Arachnos Soldier/Bane Spider, she waltzed her way to 50 in record time (record for me anyway).

Tank(s) and Brute did ok, but they didn't make it to 50 without a lot of help.

Defenders, Controllers and Dominators and needed a lot of help. They absolutely sucked solo.

None of my PB or Warshades made 50, they were the worst solo for me.

I had one toon, a scrapper, who was power leveled to 50 in just a few days, I always felt guilty about it and seldom played him afterward.

But surprisingly, the toon I loved the most needed the most help to finish those last 5 levels to 50, my Ninja MM did great solo to 45, but could not go past that on her own. Folks would reject MMs for their teams seemingly automatically, and forget ITrials, no one wanted to allow Pets in ITrials.

While I understand, it made me wish longingly for a solo path to incarnate content.

That is what I would like to see the most if new content does come along, a choice of solo incarnate paths.   

[HEATSTROKE]

I almost want to make this my forum sig.

As to blasters: My main was an elec/nrg/elec blaster that blapped, held, stunned and drained. Am I better off re-making it as an elec/nrg/elec dominator or elec/kin/power corruptor?

You are much better off as an Elec/Nrg/Elec or Elec/Elec/Elec Dominator.. I played an Elec/Kin Corruptor and the Dominator was a much better sapper..

BTW there is no Elec Mastery Pool for Dominators.. Its the Mu Mastery which is still electrical attacks..

[HEATSTROKE]

Dominators and needed a lot of help. They absolutely sucked solo.

Blasphemy !!!!!!!!

[Remaugen]

Blasphemy !!!!!!!!

My Signature Villain, Dr Remaugen, was a Dominator, Mind/Psionic. He only made it to the low 30s and even that took a lot of team help. He was almost my most hopeless toon, behind my Peace Bringer of course.

[Rejolt]

You are much better off as an Elec/Nrg/Elec or Elec/Elec/Elec Dominator.. I played an Elec/Kin Corruptor and the Dominator was a much better sapper..

BTW there is no Elec Mastery Pool for Dominators.. Its the Mu Mastery which is still electrical attacks..

Power boost makes drains easier and the attacks are flashier in nrg (I don't care how weak whirling was seen to be as the animation was fantastic) than elec but oy... Knockback. I had an elec/elec/elec dom that was great fun. May toss a coin on it. I could always roll it as a StJ/elec brute.

Arcana, I tried et on a grav/nrg dom and couldn't believe how strong it was. Power boost + aid self makes up for the -hp.

Trying to remember all the elec toons I had now...

[ivanhedgehog]

Power boost makes drains easier and the attacks are flashier in nrg (I don't care how weak whirling was seen to be as the animation was fantastic) than elec but oy... Knockback. I had an elec/elec/elec dom that was great fun. May toss a coin on it. I could always roll it as a StJ/elec brute.

Arcana, I tried et on a grav/nrg dom and couldn't believe how strong it was. Power boost + aid self makes up for the -hp.

Trying to remember all the elec toons I had now...

I miss my fire/fire tank...spine/regen scrapper.. ill/emp troller

one did an all ILL ITF..it was a blast..

[HEATSTROKE]

Power boost makes drains easier and the attacks are flashier in nrg (I don't care how weak whirling was seen to be as the animation was fantastic) than elec but oy... Knockback. I had an elec/elec/elec dom that was great fun. May toss a coin on it. I could always roll it as a StJ/elec brute.

Arcana, I tried et on a grav/nrg dom and couldn't believe how strong it was. Power boost + aid self makes up for the -hp.

Trying to remember all the elec toons I had now...

Knockback was one power.. ThunderStrike.. which I didnt take.. and even if you did you could put the -KB IO in it and now its Knockdown.. even better..

Flashiness is very subjective..

And yes Power Boost did help with the end drain.. but a Elec Dom will drained end pretty darn fast as it is.. and with Mu you take Powersink.. and voila.. they lose end.. you gain end.. win win..

Both would work well.. both would be better than a Corruptor..

Now to complete sidetrack.. I wish I had the time to build my Mind/Elec/Mu Dom... that would have been awesome..

[Zombie Hustler]

Any team could do an STF or an LGTF or a 5th Column TF, as long as they worked together.  You could have no defender whatsoever, or have four defenders and no blaster.  If you were short on tankers the controller could take over to keep Recluse busy, etc.  The key was in teaming well, not in having some specific role. But even with this freedom, you could STILL fail if your team didn't work together. 

This is a good point, and certainly true in my experience. Even if you've all faceplanted several times, you could still manage to pull things together.

I remember doing I think it was a Sara Moore TF (the only Shard TF I ever ran), and we got to the final boss, must have TPKd 5 or 6 times, and then finally someone was able to step in with a good plan, get everyone coordinated on the same page, and we managed to beat him. It was neck and neck, but we did it, all because we were able to finally get the team coordination we needed to put us over that edge.

Turned out to be a really satisfying badge for the effort (and those Shard TFs, well... I'm sure I don't need to tell any of you how long those were.)

[downix]

My Signature Villain, Dr Remaugen, was a Dominator, Mind/Psionic. He only made it to the low 30s and even that took a lot of team help. He was almost my most hopeless toon, behind my Peace Bringer of course.

My 3rd 50 was a Mind/Psi Dom, almost entirely solo'd. He was a painbringer and crowd destroyer.

TP into the middle of the crowd, drain psyche, unleash hell. I made regen scrappers look bad after that.

[MM3squints]

In my experience Mu was almost always better. Easier to slot effectively and good damage.

Not to mention a pocket healer pet

[MM3squints]

Your idea for an elec/NRG/elec dom is not a bad one. The two pets from the elec control side are pretty helpgul and there is also an aura in that powerset that drains baddies END so fast. Plus Nrg secondary does really nice single target damage. I think you will like it. But make sure Mu Mastery is not better than elec Mastery for your ancillary powers. Never know till you check (in Mids for now).

Probably the fastest sapper (and possible the best) was a elec/psi dom. Run in Drain Psyche, have your aura going, spam jolting chain target has no end. Build was so effective I could drain AVs on iTrails. Too bad they cheat because even with 0 end showing they still can spam attacks xD

[pinballdave]

Defenders, Controllers and Dominators and needed a lot of help. They absolutely sucked solo.

....

 Just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in.

SOME defenders absolutely sucked solo.

Empathy was fairly steady solo since they could heal themselves, but their best buffs were ally buffs.
Forcefield defenders could scrape along to solo. Dispersion bubble was a moderate defense with pretty good status protection. They had one of the best golden parachutes in the game (Personal forcefield), but no multiplier for themselves.
Sonic defenders were much the same as Forcefields, except they did have a decent single target resistance debuff

then we get to some builds that could solo fairly well:

Dark Miasma
Kinetics
Storm summoning
Radiation
Nature's Affinity
Time Manipulation, being a later powerset design, most of the multipliers were cast on the defender itself.

But why fight it? Why say you have to solo to be a successful powerset? In Fall of 2004, the time was ripe. After a brief stint in a Guardian supergroup "buff me, BUFF ME", ArticQuark and Kleine Teufel formed the supergroup on Triumph that was an all defender supergroup. We would team with anyone, but we made a home where defenders, cast off from scrapper/tank-centric teams that didn't need defenders, would combine on multiple defender teams. And VOILA, team multiplier turned neutrino bolt and psychic blast into boss killers.

By the way the best blasters knew to wait until they heard the BZZzzzxortccccccchhhhhhh and the monitor flashed before hitting the nuke.

[/psylenzdefenderrant]

[MM3squints]

Dominators and needed a lot of help. They absolutely sucked solo

Lies xD. I should know, All of my toons except 5 were all dom/troller 30+ Only combination that would absolutely suck to solo is a full support illi/ troller. With containment passive, soloing was not a problem for trollers and doms having decent dmg it wasn't that bad

[Arcana]

Blasphemy !!!!!!!!

For any archetype position, you can always find at least one person that earnestly believed it.  I knew someone that believed his Invuln tanker was more squishy than his Invuln scrapper, even though that was literally mathematically impossible.  He was one of those players that believed the numbers did not necessarily represent actual game play.  There's exactly zero chance that was due to anything other than an extremely weird perception, but nothing I said ever dislodged him from it.