Blaster

Overview

The Blaster is an offensive juggernaut. Whether up close or afar, he can deal out tremendous amounts of damage. In comparison to the other archetypes, the Blaster is by far the most damaging to the enemy. But the Blaster is quite fragile; this archetype has relatively few hit points. Blaster heroes must be on their guard before getting into combat; while their immense power can overcome most foes, alone they are quite vulnerable. The Blaster can turn the tide of a conflict, but they need their friends to help them succeed.

The Blaster's powersets are:

Primary: Ranged
Secondary: Support
Inherent: Defiance

The Blaster has low hit points and high damage.

Powersets

Primary Powersets

A Blaster's primary powersets are designed specifically for ranged attacks. They are:

• Archery
• Assault Rifle
• Electrical Blast
• Energy Blast
• Fire Blast
• Ice Blast
• Sonic Attack

Secondary Powersets

A Blaster's secondary powersets are designed for support. They are:

• Devices
• Energy Manipulation
• Electricity Manipulation
• Fire Manipulation
• Ice Manipulation

Ancillary Power Pools

• Cold Mastery
• Electric Mastery
• Flame Mastery
• Force Mastery
• Munitions Mastery

Inherent Power

Defiance is a feature that was introduced upon the release of Issue 5 and is exclusively for blasters.

When a blaster’s health drops, he or she will begin to see an increase in his or her damage output. It is a small increase at first, but the lower the blaster's health gets, the bigger the damage increase will become. An icon for defiance will appear under the experience bar once a blaster enters a defiant stance.

The chart below demonstrates just how much of a bonus to base damage a player will see when his or her health is low:

Health Percentage Bonus to Base Damage
70% health +4% damage bonus
50% health +18% damage bonus
40% health +35% damage bonus
30% health +70% damage bonus
20% health +140% damage bonus
10% health +280% damage bonus
1% health +500% damage bonus (maximum allowed damage buff for blasters)

The lower a blaster's health gets, the more defiant he or she becomes. The defiance feature allows blasters some rather exciting strategy abilities. If you are teamed with a healer and would like to stay in defiance mode, group communication is key.

External Links

• Archetypes documentation on official City of Heroes site
• Official City of Heroes Manual as a zipped PDF file