MMORPG.com City of Heroes Correspondent Cecil Adkins writes this look at the Fire/FireBlaster character build in Paragon Studios' City of Heroes.

My first character in City of Heroes, way back in June 2004, was an Electrical Blast/Electricity Manipulation Blaster. I'm not sure why, other than I think I thought it might be fun to ZAP! the bad guys. His name was Merrlinn or something dumb like that, and he didn't last very long. He maybe got to level five before I deleted him.

Shortly thereafter, after trying out a Tanker and not liking it, I made another Blaster. This time I went Fire Blast/Fire Manipulation. At the time, everyone was making Devices Blasters because of a "decimal error" in the Smoke Grenade power that made its "To Hit" debuff much stronger than it should have been (basically villains that you attacked wouldn't be able to hit the broad side of a barn). But I didn't know that, because that was before my involvement in the game's community in general and the official message boards in particular.

Read Playing With the Fire / Fire Blaster

Nice work, Cecil. Good overview for someone unfamiliar with the game or with Blasters. I share your "overall concept" philosophy and have taken a similar approach to my thermal/thermal corruptor.

However, I do have one question.

8. Burn. A situational power that does moderate DOT damage and frees you from being immobilized.

What is a "situational power"?

One of my first characters was a fire/ice blaster, and I really enjoyed the fire primary.  You could lay down some serious AOE damage with it.  I died a lot though -- in big teams, it was obvious after one pull whether the tank had taunt or not.  Tauntless tanks had absolutely no hope of holding aggro unless I really held back.

After launch, almost everyone in the know was a /devices blaster, as you say, and I knew a lot of people who were upset when the bug to smoke grenade was fixed.  But keep in mind that the fire secondary had a bug that was unfixed for longer than smoke grenade -- one of its powers inadvertently had mez protection (Blazing Aura maybe?  I forget exactly).  The tanker version was supposed to, but the blaster version was not, and it took the devs something like a year to fix it.  I believe that was the only form of mez protection available to blasters, so fire was a great secondary for quite awhile, perhaps the second most popular after energy once smoke grenade was fixed.

Originally posted by themilton

Nice work, Cecil. Good overview for someone unfamiliar with the game or with Blasters. I share your "overall concept" philosophy and have taken a similar approach to my thermal/thermal corruptor.

However, I do have one question.

8. Burn. A situational power that does moderate DOT damage and frees you from being immobilized.

What is a "situational power"?

A situational power, is a power, not useable in every combat, but more for specific fights or bosses.
As it says in itself, a power used for certain situations :)

But I think that Cecil is right on most of what is said in this lookon, even though I do believe fire is the most damaging of all powersets, or atleast all I heard is that all pvp'ers should make a Fire/ice blaster, since it apparently is the best combination.. however, I don't pvp very much, so I wouldn't know

I played a fire ice tanker.  It was pretty boring after a while.   Fire Ice blaster would work pretty much the same way, I am thinking.  Ice patch the ground then aoe rain on the mobs as they slip and slide around unable to touch you.  Conversely, listening to my superhero league mates on vent when I pulled out the Fire Ice tank and started mowing down enemies in droves was pretty funny.  I am unsure if things still work the same as they did back then though.  Last time I checked, they had completely screwed regeners up, making them pretty much a dead build, changing toggles out for duration buffs.  I did not check the tanker but the suspicion was that the tanker toggles were set up the same way.  It made me sorta mad because my MA regener was really fun to play and was made totally unplayable.

Originally posted by Aramath

I played a fire ice tanker.  It was pretty boring after a while.   Fire Ice blaster would work pretty much the same way, I am thinking.  Ice patch the ground then aoe rain on the mobs as they slip and slide around unable to touch you.  Conversely, listening to my superhero league mates on vent when I pulled out the Fire Ice tank and started mowing down enemies in droves was pretty funny.  I am unsure if things still work the same as they did back then though.  Last time I checked, they had completely screwed regeners up, making them pretty much a dead build, changing toggles out for duration buffs.  I did not check the tanker but the suspicion was that the tanker toggles were set up the same way.  It made me sorta mad because my MA regener was really fun to play and was made totally unplayable.

No they didn't do that to tankers, only regen.

They DID

Half defenses across the board

Then half them again with ED

Then put in agro caps guving AOE powers a cap of 16 but Taunt a cap of...5?

Yes 5

the blaster can agro 3 times the enemies that a tanker can taunt

Originally posted by nekollx

Originally posted by Aramath

I played a fire ice tanker.  It was pretty boring after a while.   Fire Ice blaster would work pretty much the same way, I am thinking.  Ice patch the ground then aoe rain on the mobs as they slip and slide around unable to touch you.  Conversely, listening to my superhero league mates on vent when I pulled out the Fire Ice tank and started mowing down enemies in droves was pretty funny.  I am unsure if things still work the same as they did back then though.  Last time I checked, they had completely screwed regeners up, making them pretty much a dead build, changing toggles out for duration buffs.  I did not check the tanker but the suspicion was that the tanker toggles were set up the same way.  It made me sorta mad because my MA regener was really fun to play and was made totally unplayable.

 

No they didn't do that to tankers, only regen.

They DID

Half defenses across the board

Then half them again with ED

Then put in agro caps guving AOE powers a cap of 16 but Taunt a cap of...5?

Yes 5

the blaster can agro 3 times the enemies that a tanker can taunt

Well, thank goodness Taunt is not the only agro management tool at the Tanker's disposal then.  :P

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But I think that Cecil is right on most of what is said in this lookon, even though I do believe fire is the most damaging of all powersets, or atleast all I heard is that all pvp'ers should make a Fire/ice blaster, since it apparently is the best combination..

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When I said Fire/Fire wasn't the most damaging, I meant just that. Other secondaries, when paired with the Fire primary, make for more damaging combos than Fire/Fire. Fire/Ice and Fire/Energy are two that I'm sure could outdamage Fire/Fire, although the Fire secondary has received some nice buffs since the beginning...

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But keep in mind that the fire secondary had a bug that was unfixed for longer than smoke grenade -- one of its powers inadvertently had mez protection (Blazing Aura maybe? I forget exactly). The tanker version was supposed to, but the blaster version was not, and it took the devs something like a year to fix it. I believe that was the only form of mez protection available to blasters, so fire was a great secondary for quite awhile, perhaps the second most popular after energy once smoke grenade was fixed.

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That's actually the first time I've ever heard this. Whatever power this was, I must never have taken it, since my Fire/Fire Blaster spent quite a bit of time back in the day sleeping, held, or stunned. :)

EDIT:  Thinking about the Tanker Fiery Aura set, though, the only three powers it shares with Fire Manipulation are Blazing Aura, Consume, and Burn.  Blazing Aura and Consume don't give any form of mez protection, even for Tankers, but Burn has its Immobilization resistance.  Now that I think about it, I think I remember some change to the Blaster version of Burn at some point, but can't quite remember what it was.  Perhaps it was giving Immobilization immunity instead of just freeing you after the fact?

Originally posted by ceciladkins

Originally posted by nekollx

Originally posted by Aramath

I played a fire ice tanker.  It was pretty boring after a while.   Fire Ice blaster would work pretty much the same way, I am thinking.  Ice patch the ground then aoe rain on the mobs as they slip and slide around unable to touch you.  Conversely, listening to my superhero league mates on vent when I pulled out the Fire Ice tank and started mowing down enemies in droves was pretty funny.  I am unsure if things still work the same as they did back then though.  Last time I checked, they had completely screwed regeners up, making them pretty much a dead build, changing toggles out for duration buffs.  I did not check the tanker but the suspicion was that the tanker toggles were set up the same way.  It made me sorta mad because my MA regener was really fun to play and was made totally unplayable.

 

No they didn't do that to tankers, only regen.

They DID

Half defenses across the board

Then half them again with ED

Then put in agro caps guving AOE powers a cap of 16 but Taunt a cap of...5?

Yes 5

the blaster can agro 3 times the enemies that a tanker can taunt

 

Well, thank goodness Taunt is not the only agro management tool at the Tanker's disposal then.  :P

punch voke and aura voke are the same though.

5 taunts

which strikes me as the most bass ackwards design desision ever.

A blaster can triple his agero with /1/ power but a taken has to work to regain/maintain control?

While Fire/Fire is interesting from a concept/theme point of view, I think it's a lower tier set in terms of fun.  Even you mentioned that you rarely use the fire secondary.  THere are much stronger sets, and much more interesting sets.

My favorite blaster of all time is a Fire/Nrg blaster, built off a thread called "Short Range Artillery"

Fire Breath is close range.  Blaze is short range.  Rain of Fire causes way too much scatter.  So really, your bread and butter as a fire blaster is fireball/fire breath.  To maximize it, you're in close.  If you're in close, you might as well either control them with /ice or abuse them with the brilliance that is /nrg.

Also, when you're levelling, you can get fireball and build-up at level 6.  There is nothing so good at getting you in to your character as being able to drop a built-up fireball at level 6 and wipe a group of yellows.  Your teammates are just learning how to use their abilities, and you've hit your stride.  It's awesome.

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punch voke and aura voke are the same though.

 

5 taunts

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This is somewhat misleading. A single Taunt can only hit 5 targets at once, yes, but that's NOT the "aggro limit" for Tankers.  Multiple taunts, including smart application of Gauntlet and taunt auras, mean Tanks can indeed hold the aggro of more than 5 targets at once.

Originally posted by ceciladkins

 

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punch voke and aura voke are the same though.

 

5 taunts

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This is somewhat misleading. A single Taunt can only hit 5 targets at once, yes, but that's NOT the "aggro limit" for Tankers.  Multiple taunts, including smart application of Gauntlet and taunt auras, mean Tanks can indeed hold the aggro of more than 5 targets at once.

i've played tanks, while they can gain "agro" with other attacks the long durantion "taunt" only hits five targets. Making rather hard to keep agro lock in a team of blaster as they hare generating argo on 11 bodies you havent locked down.

Originally posted by nekollx

Originally posted by ceciladkins

 

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punch voke and aura voke are the same though.

 

5 taunts

---

 

This is somewhat misleading. A single Taunt can only hit 5 targets at once, yes, but that's NOT the "aggro limit" for Tankers.  Multiple taunts, including smart application of Gauntlet and taunt auras, mean Tanks can indeed hold the aggro of more than 5 targets at once.

i've played tanks, while they can gain "agro" with other attacks the long durantion "taunt" only hits five targets. Making rather hard to keep agro lock in a team of blaster as they hare generating argo on 11 bodies you havent locked down.

But it's perfectly possible for Tanks to get up to 16 or so targets "locked down" before the Blaster starts blasting.  They can rotate their Taunt target, rotate their "punch voke" target, move around in a large group with their taunt aura, etc.  They're not limited to only having 5 targets "taunted" to them at one time.  It's not like they lose the aggro of the first five mobs they Taunted when they use Taunt again on another batch.

Originally posted by ceciladkins

Originally posted by nekollx

Originally posted by ceciladkins

 

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punch voke and aura voke are the same though.

 

5 taunts

---

 

This is somewhat misleading. A single Taunt can only hit 5 targets at once, yes, but that's NOT the "aggro limit" for Tankers.  Multiple taunts, including smart application of Gauntlet and taunt auras, mean Tanks can indeed hold the aggro of more than 5 targets at once.

i've played tanks, while they can gain "agro" with other attacks the long durantion "taunt" only hits five targets. Making rather hard to keep agro lock in a team of blaster as they hare generating argo on 11 bodies you havent locked down.

 

But it's perfectly possible for Tanks to get up to 16 or so targets "locked down" before the Blaster starts blasting.  They can rotate their Taunt target, rotate their "punch voke" target, move around in a large group with their taunt aura, etc.  They're not limited to only having 5 targets "taunted" to them at one time.  It's not like they lose the aggro of the first five mobs they Taunted when they use Taunt again on another batch.

that's true but it's insanly easy for blasters and scrappers in the heat of combat to "gain agro" on mobs when the taunt runs out and hasent been refreshed. All i'm saying is. Withthe reduced defenses and required reliance on IOs/Defenders for a tank to survive forcing them to pay agro tag with a blaster who, automaticaly and without effort, grabs 3 times the agro of a tank is prety messed up.

Doesn't "tank-targeting" help with all that?

Originally posted by themilton

Doesn't "tank-targeting" help with all that?

you assit targeting through the tank? Not really since a blaster will, with pratically every shot, be generating agro on 2-3 times the taunted mobs forcing the tanker to work his ass off to keep up. Which is bass ackwards.

When you have to be concerned your buffs arent running our, clicking your heals, and preventinting your self frome dieing tho add "keep switcing targets so your not stantingtaunts on the same 5 guys" is pretty messed up.

It's the main reason most tanke now a days play more like scrappers and the "prefered" method is 2 tanks so their tants can work off each other. Tankers are now low dammange scrappers, true tanking was killed.