invalid Blaster - different damage for different equipments

[DestrotankAI9 1,513]

On topic with @mjmj5558's suggestion - I have to say I agree with him that there is an issue with Blaster being so much more powerful against certain equipment than others, and he makes a good attempt to solve this issue. Due to the nature of Blaster drone, it is always going to be massively more powerful against anything melee-orientated, and substantially less powerful against range weapons. Unless Blaster's mechanics are changed from what they are now, that is always going to be the case - therefore this drone is difficult to balance. That is a different scenario than with drones such as Assault, Booster, Defender, Hyperion - which have much more consistent power against every turret/hull and situation, Blaster is weaker in some but strong - and perhaps too strong since it's recent buff - against others.

However, I do think that the developers are unlikely to implement such specific differences against different turrets/hulls and alterations as described in the suggestion - I think that would be seen as too complex and too different from other mechanics. However, the developers have shown that they are willing to do some turret-specific balancing, as you might remember in the experiment of December 2020 they gave melee turrets double health to all other turrets. Now I don't agree with that, but it sets a possible precedent for changes to Blaster.

Therefore, on the theme of mj's suggestion, I propose the following possible changes to balance Blaster:

-Blaster now deals 50(or 35)% less damage to players using a melee turret, or to Mammoth's during overdrive.

This would solve the main balance issue with Blaster - the fact it is disproportionately powerful against melee turrets and Mammoth, compared to all other turrets and hulls. Blaster would still be useful against equipment in these categories, as while it will deal less damage it is much more likely to actually deal damage against melee turret or Mammoth users, and it will still force them to take some countermeasures which players using other equipment will not have to take. While it may not result in a kill, Blaster will still be able to kill a melee turret user for instance along with other damage, and it will at the very least result in points for an assist.

If 50% if too much, then 35% - but I think there needs to be some reduction in damage to balance things out for all turrets and hulls. The alternative might be to increase the cooldown on Blaster once again, but this leaves the same problem that Blaster is much better against certain equipment than others. This solution allows it to keep its new 3 second cooldown, and to be more balanced against all players.

[wolverine848 13,097]

1 hour ago, DestrotankAI9 said:

I fully accept that Blaster is (on average) not as powerful as the current "top" drones i.e. Booster/Defender/Trickster and Crisis (although I could be wrong about that) - however especially since it's recent massive buff from 35 to 3 seconds cooldown, against certain equipment (namely for anyone using melee turrets, or using Mammoth) it is the worst drone to face, especially in certain circumstances.

Well, first of all - the Blaster user has to DIE - so that's a somewhat large impediment.  When it explodes there's a delay as it respawns IN ITS BASE.

ALL drones are the worst to face in specific circumstances.

Removing module protection and adding turret protection might help melee turrets, but that hurts every other player caught in the blast.  You are taking from Peter to pay Paul.

And why do people keep bringing up Mammoth users?  How are they suffering more vs Blaster than other hulls?  4000 health is > 3000 damage - no?

Makes no sense to base "protection" on what kind of turret the defender is using.  Only way that works is through magic - and to we certainly don't have a lot of that in the game.

Just equip the module that protects you against the player using the blaster drone and you will be fine.

 

[wolverine848 13,097]

On 6/26/2021 at 7:05 AM, mjmj5558 said:

- most meele turrets (fire, freeze, isida), mammoth OD: 100% protecrion, won't receive any damage from blaster - this is because currently, the will receive damage if the enemy blows up, even if the are at the max distance.

Wait wut?

This sounds like the above would be granted immunity to the Blaster Drone effects.

You can't give anyone immunity to a drones effects based on wat turret they have equipped.  That's crazy.

[DestrotankAI9 1,513]

25 minutes ago, wolverine848 said:

Well, first of all - the Blaster user has to DIE - so that's a somewhat large impediment.  When it explodes there's a delay as it respawns IN ITS BASE.

ALL drones are the worst to face in specific circumstances.

Removing module protection and adding turret protection might help melee turrets, but that hurts every other player caught in the blast.  You are taking from Peter to pay Paul.

And why do people keep bringing up Mammoth users?  How are they suffering more vs Blaster than other hulls?  4000 health is > 3000 damage - no?

Makes no sense to base "protection" on what kind of turret the defender is using.  Only way that works is through magic - and to we certainly don't have a lot of that in the game.

Just equip the module that protects you against the player using the blaster drone and you will be fine.

 

When you use most overdrives, you are going to get kills - yes the Blaster user has to die, but if you can get a kill or shut down the enemy player every time they use your their overdrive (as Blaster can against Mammoth) while YOU are free to use your overdrive each time to get kills, without getting killed in return - that leaves you will a strong advantage. Everyone is going to die, the advantage that Blaster gives you is that when you die, you also take them with you - which can result in an overall advantage. But it is a particularly large problem for Mammoth and melee turrets, as they find it much harder to avoid the damage caused by Blaster.

I don't know what you mean by taking from Peter to pay Paul, I am not proposing taking away module protection from Blaster, I am proposing additional protection on top of that for Mammoth and melee turret users - as they have to take damage from Blaster much more frequently than tankers using any other equipment, which leaves them at an unfair disadvantage.
 

25 minutes ago, wolverine848 said:

And why do people keep bringing up Mammoth users?  How are they suffering more vs Blaster than other hulls?  4000 health is > 3000 damage - no?

Makes no sense to base "protection" on what kind of turret the defender is using.  Only way that works is through magic - and to we certainly don't have a lot of that in the game.

Just equip the module that protects you against the player using the blaster drone and you will be fine.

 

When you use Mammoth overdrive, or have it ready, you will be targeted by the enemy team as they know you are now a threat. You will only take 1500 damage from Blaster if you have an fully maxed out module and maxed-out Boosted armor equipped (neither of which you may have), and even then on top of other damage, that 1500 damage will probably enough to stop you killing more than one player with your overdrive before you die - on top of other damage. To be efficient with Mammoth you usually need to be able to kill at least 2 players each time you use your overdrive, and survive - which is easily possible when not facing Blaster users. No other hull has such a problem when facing Blaster.

You can't have protection against Blaster users every time, and even if you do taking guaranteed damage every time you use your overdrive against them is a problem. It is not fair for it to be so disproportionately strong against one particular hull, and melee turrets - Blaster due to its mechanics is in quite a unique situation, and given its strength against certain equipment since the recent buff it needs to be given some specific balancing, to make it more even in strength against all equipment.

[Akame 4,599]

6 hours ago, DestrotankAI9 said:

Spoiler

 

I fully accept that Blaster is (on average) not as powerful as the current "top" drones i.e. Booster/Defender/Trickster and Crisis (although I could be wrong about that) - however especially since it's recent massive buff from 35 to 3 seconds cooldown, against certain equipment (namely for anyone using melee turrets, or using Mammoth) it is the worst drone to face, especially in certain circumstances.

Is something a problem if it is not the most powerful in general, but overpowered against certain equipment? I would say yes, absolutely. Blaster is a in a strange place and is always going to be difficult to balance, as with its current mechanics it is always going to be hugely more powerful against melee turrets, and the one super-melee-orientated overdrive - Mammoth - whereas it will never be as strong against ranged turrets who can take it out from a distance. It is also significantly affected by map size and how open maps are - much more powerful on smaller maps where players are forced to crowd together (offering less space to get away, and more chance for multi-kill or multiple assists on explosion).
 

First of all, you are assuming that I have a maxed out drone/maxed out modules against every turret - I certainly do not, and nor do most Legends. My Mammoth is 7-10, none of my drones are 20/20 and I have 7+1 Mk7 modules (7 turrets and a mine module) the highest of which is 43%, some of my modules are Mk4. With how much we are forced to spend on drones after the update, it will be a long time before I acquire full Mk7 modules as a non-buyer, let alone 50% modules. So I will be taking a lot more damage than you against a maxed out Blaster (now indeed, many of my opponents will also not have a maxed out drone) as well as not having as many hit points on my hull itself, but I will certainly not always be able to equip an Mk7 module against a Blaster user.

If you have 3 players of 6 in a game using Blaster drone, what exactly are you supposed to do with Mammoth - avoid making kills with your Mammoth overdrive on 3 of 6 players in the enemy team? Yes, that is going to go well indeed... In that situation, you might as well not be using Mammoth, which brings us back to the point that Blaster is simply overpowered against and a direct counter to Mammoth overdrive in its current state. After the update it is ALWAYS ready, with a 3 second cooldown, ready to do maximum damage to any Mammoth which touches it with their overdrive at close range. Using Mammoth's overdrive for the heal functionality only is not efficient - you must make kills in order to have a chance of matching other hull users in score. If you take even 1.5k damage, along with other damage, you are not going to be killing more than one player on each overdrive - but you can't have a module against every turret, or indeed you may not always have double armor active - in which case you will be taking more damage than that.

As for those other examples you state, in most cases they are far from as hard a counter as Blaster drone is to Mammoth overdrive. I won't give an explanation for all as that would be too wordy, but for a few:
-Lifeguard drone can easily be activated by many other sources of damage, and it is also has a much longer cooldown than Blaster so it won't always be available - unlike Blaster. Lifeguard also doesn't deal damage, so it won't result in the Wasp user being killed when using their overdrive, while the bomb may kill other players.
- Mines from miner/saboteur can easily be avoided if you have good awareness.
- Dictator overdrive still gets supercharge/full heal even against EMP, while you get points from allies, and against EMP your supplies come back after a short time anyway. In fact, as you can use the overdrive after you get EMP-ed to return supplies it is often a soft counter - I know it isn't that much of a problem as Dictator is my favourite hull. Or, you can use EMP Immunity.

Now, certainly there are some augments that do counter overdrives to a certain extent, but often there are immunities against them available - there is none for Mammoth against Blaster, other than an Mk8 module, but even then taking 1500 damage plus other damage will be enough to shut you down from killing more than one player.

 

OK, I may have overstated Blaster's power in special DM modes - if there is a problem with it, it is probably confined to problems melee turret/Mammoth users have against it. With that said, I have seen many Blaster players doing well in special DMs in weeks where small maps were played, but I agree that Booster, and possibly Defender, are probably the kings of DM mode currently.

With that said, the most recent maps for special DM - Yorkshire, Solikamsk and Kungur- are large maps and generally quite open (the least open, and therefore most Blaster-friendly map being Yorkshire) so it would be no surprise if Blaster didn't do that well on it. In previous events we have had maps like Polygon, which are much less open and were players are much more crowded together. Blaster is going to do a lot better there, where it is harder to get away from and has a better chance for possibly multi-kills. However, I agree Booster is generally stronger - so the problems are mainly confined to its power against specific turrets and one hull.

 

It is a safe assumption to say that I don't have extensive experience using Blaster, and therefore haven't used it against the other top drones on various maps and modes, as I am a non-buyer - and to buy and upgrade Blaster would take a huge amount of extra crystals which I don't have and time, or I would have to level an alternate account to the right rank and then start upgrading it, which I have no interest in doing as Blaster's mechanics do not particularly interest me. As it happens, I do have Blaster on a alt account as it was once given out as a reward from special missions, but as it is a low rank account it probably isn't fair to judge its balance based on that account, as it is much stronger in low ranks and not typically available until Marshal.

You on the other hand, as a self-admitted large buyer, do have access to all equipment, and you can easily use Blaster, or any drone, any time that you want. For non-buyers, we can only use a handful of drones at most unless we play for a long time to save up.

However, I do not need to have extensive experience using Blaster to identify if there is a balance problem with it - all I need to have is experience against it. Using ranged turrets against Blaster, or non-Mammoth hulls, it seems often a good drone - but not overpowered, and on some large maps such as Highways it can be pretty useless against ranged turrets. But when playing with Mammoth, or melee turrets, since the recent buff Blaster is hugely problematic to face and clearly overpowered in some circumstances. Something must be done to balance Blaster against melee turrets and Mammoth - if Blaster was more common, this equipment would quickly become underpowered, as you can see if you try to use them in games with many Blaster users as I described.

 

 

1. Many items have counters on Tonk, Mammoth od has it's own niche, but it does not have its own damage reduction that it used to have, it has status immunity instead.

2. I may have all the items, but my basis is non biased, like I said, i have full experience. What I also made a point of is that it's cooldown time may be increased, but giving SPECIFIC items 'immunity' is a ridiculous feat. If half of your enemies are blasters, you simply attack the other half no and steer cautiously within weak damage region??

3. From the many blasters I have faced, they felt weak to me, even when i was point blank to them.

4. My experience is fully endgame, I face maxed players also in the endgame, I would rather face blasters than the ridiculously overpowered defender/boosters etc. In fact, Blaster would just make me treat the player as a melee player aside from the turret which may be ranged. It's normal to be aware of players, or maybe that's just up to a players ability to understand. 

5. I haven't assumed that you are maxed, but clearly you have seen what maxed players will use, you telling me that people want to use Blaster to win when they have Booster etc in the cataloge? I fear you clearly don't know that Blaster is in the lower portion of the category of usage from players. As far as 'maxing' goes, I know many players who are f2p that have in general high upgrades.

6. A blasters performance depends on the map, player and the enemies, plenty of unknowns, but if such measurable counters were created, any brain would simply switch to a counter-able item, and voila, no need to worry about damage any more, that is even more worse than players understanding that they need a module to reduce damage. You said yourself it's costly to upgrade drones, so if we nullify the drones performance, you're making most normal players drones ineffective and the crystals spent on it void, not as f2p friendly as f2p players would like. At the end of the day, it's always the f2p's who want the other f2p's to suffer more. Moreso than the 'large buyers' because you wouldn't catch even 1% of them even using blaster.

7. Blaster drone activates on death, blaster may kill a flag holder in their base, but if you're dead, you're just as on a stalemate like the enemy is, but the enemy is more likely to have players that can spot and claim back the flag back. Note; this whole topic sprouted from the 'ctf oh no i died to a boom'. Dead tanks as no use in games where you need to be alive to make returns and caps etc.

8. I have asked many players I know, from non buyers, to large buyers, and most of them do not care about blaster because it is clearly not on their radar for things that annoys them, and yes most of them have used also a variety of combos. That to me says a large amount.

[EmeraldCat 562]

On 6/26/2021 at 4:05 AM, mjmj5558 said:

You have the enemy flag at your base, an one of your teammate will soon return our flag - what bad could happen? Oh no, an enemy is coming - no problem, you are a hornet fire, activate your OD - yes, he's luckily low, you can finish him. Boom (you blow up)- what was that?

That thing is called blaster, and it became really irritaring in the last few weeks. So my idea is: blaster should have different damage for enemies that have different type of equipment: an automatic damage reduction/increase depending on your turret or augment. However, with this, protection modules can no longer reduce the damage of blaster - but every other damage reduction can. 

Ok, so let's see the values!

- most meele turrets (fire, freeze, isida), mammoth OD: 100% protecrion, won't receive any damage from blaster - this is because currently, the will receive damage if the enemy blows up, even if the are at the max distance.

-hammer, tesla, twins HP augment, rico PT: 50% blaster protection, will receive 1500 damage from it.

-rico, twins, hammer slugger and blunderbuss, shaft with LC, magnum with "harpoon", striker with uranium (tell me if i missed any augments that make a turret effective in closer range): 30% protection.

-thunder, smoky, striker, vulcan: won't have protection nor damage increase

-shaft, magnum, railgun, gauss: 15% (or 20) damage increase from blaster

Currently, balster is almost as good as an overdrive. It definitely needs a nerf, and i think this is the right way: turret that nees to go closer to deal damage will receive less damage from it.

I've got a WAY better idea for Blaster and I think you're going to love it...

Delete all the drones. :)

[wolverine848 13,097]

17 hours ago, DestrotankAI9 said:

When you use most overdrives, you are going to get kills - yes the Blaster user has to die, but if you can get a kill or shut down the enemy player every time they use your their overdrive (as Blaster can against Mammoth) while YOU are free to use your overdrive each time to get kills, without getting killed in return - that leaves you will a strong advantage. Everyone is going to die, the advantage that Blaster gives you is that when you die, you also take them with you - which can result in an overall advantage. But it is a particularly large problem for Mammoth and melee turrets, as they find it much harder to avoid the damage caused by Blaster.

I don't know what you mean by taking from Peter to pay Paul, I am not proposing taking away module protection from Blaster, I am proposing additional protection on top of that for Mammoth and melee turret users - as they have to take damage from Blaster much more frequently than tankers using any other equipment, which leaves them at an unfair disadvantage.
 

When you use Mammoth overdrive, or have it ready, you will be targeted by the enemy team as they know you are now a threat. You will only take 1500 damage from Blaster if you have an fully maxed out module and maxed-out Boosted armor equipped (neither of which you may have), and even then on top of other damage, that 1500 damage will probably enough to stop you killing more than one player with your overdrive before you die - on top of other damage. To be efficient with Mammoth you usually need to be able to kill at least 2 players each time you use your overdrive, and survive - which is easily possible when not facing Blaster users. No other hull has such a problem when facing Blaster.

You can't have protection against Blaster users every time, and even if you do taking guaranteed damage every time you use your overdrive against them is a problem. It is not fair for it to be so disproportionately strong against one particular hull, and melee turrets - Blaster due to its mechanics is in quite a unique situation, and given its strength against certain equipment since the recent buff it needs to be given some specific balancing, to make it more even in strength against all equipment.

The Mammoth can kill the Blaster-user before it gets in range.  Most Mammoth users are NOT equipping melee turrets.  And even then, as admitted, it will survive.  In addition to the free repair kit from OD the mammoth can use it's own RK as well.

You know what can do even more damage to a mammoth and not be in range of it's OD and does not need to die?  Booster.

Or how about a Mammoth with Defender equipped?  Barely gets a scratch.

It's in your head.  You keep considering Blaster as a direct counter to Mammoth - and it is not.

 

Like I said - every drone can be OP in specific situations.  If you think players will stop using Crisis or Defender or Booster or Trickster because cooldown of Blaster changed you are nuts.  Dying and respawning in base makes a lot of that cooldown buff moot.

[1-4-ALL 56]

19 hours ago, DestrotankAI9 said:

and most other Legends who don't have such a strong garage as you will.

 

One little point.

The XP/CRY is why there are so many weak legends, they rank far to quickly. (unfortunately you seem to be one of them by your comments) Now in order to fix this problem, the devs have to change it so that cry earned is way more than XP gained, but of course they will not.

Your inability to deal with blaster while using mammoth is down to your garage and how YOU actually play in battle.

Blaster is not a big deal and easily taken care of with a smart playing style.

If blaster was the MAIN issue in TO, then the game would be no problem and teams would be fairly even, but it's not and blaster is way down in the pecking order of what is OP and what is not.

The flying hack still reigns as the OP king in most battles, which is why I leave most battles asap, because I'm not dumb enough to stay and watch those legal cheats end battles in half the time.

Stop using mammoth until it's maxed, your choice.

[Crossbone 516]

Only real problem with blaster I can find is you can equip boosted damage with AP effect on a strong or Maxed out blaster drone.

I would say to take out the boosted damages effect on the drone.

 

Other than that I would say its fine as is.

[wolverine848 13,097]

7 hours ago, Crossbone said:

Only real problem with blaster I can find is you can equip boosted damage with AP effect on a strong or Maxed out blaster drone.

I would say to take out the boosted damages effect on the drone.

 

Other than that I would say its fine as is.

The drone won't apply the AP status though.

Must be done through hornet OD or by a combat hit with AP turret augment equipped.

[DarkPredator 212]

5 hours ago, wolverine848 said:

The drone won't apply the AP status though.

Must be done through hornet OD or by a combat hit with AP turret augment equipped.

 

13 hours ago, Crossbone said:

Only real problem with blaster I can find is you can equip boosted damage with AP effect on a strong or Maxed out blaster drone.

I would say to take out the boosted damages effect on the drone.

 

Other than that I would say its fine as is.

 

14 hours ago, 1-4-ALL said:

One little point.

The XP/CRY is why there are so many weak legends, they rank far to quickly. (unfortunately you seem to be one of them by your comments) Now in order to fix this problem, the devs have to change it so that cry earned is way more than XP gained, but of course they will not.

Your inability to deal with blaster while using mammoth is down to your garage and how YOU actually play in battle.

Blaster is not a big deal and easily taken care of with a smart playing style.

If blaster was the MAIN issue in TO, then the game would be no problem and teams would be fairly even, but it's not and blaster is way down in the pecking order of what is OP and what is not.

The flying hack still reigns as the OP king in most battles, which is why I leave most battles asap, because I'm not dumb enough to stay and watch those legal cheats end battles in half the time.

Stop using mammoth until it's maxed, your choice.

 

18 hours ago, Emeraldcat345 said:

I've got a WAY better idea for Blaster and I think you're going to love it...

Delete all the drones. :)

 

On 7/1/2021 at 5:32 AM, Akame said:

1. Many items have counters on Tonk, Mammoth od has it's own niche, but it does not have its own damage reduction that it used to have, it has status immunity instead.

2. I may have all the items, but my basis is non biased, like I said, i have full experience. What I also made a point of is that it's cooldown time may be increased, but giving SPECIFIC items 'immunity' is a ridiculous feat. If half of your enemies are blasters, you simply attack the other half no and steer cautiously within weak damage region??

3. From the many blasters I have faced, they felt weak to me, even when i was point blank to them.

4. My experience is fully endgame, I face maxed players also in the endgame, I would rather face blasters than the ridiculously overpowered defender/boosters etc. In fact, Blaster would just make me treat the player as a melee player aside from the turret which may be ranged. It's normal to be aware of players, or maybe that's just up to a players ability to understand. 

5. I haven't assumed that you are maxed, but clearly you have seen what maxed players will use, you telling me that people want to use Blaster to win when they have Booster etc in the cataloge? I fear you clearly don't know that Blaster is in the lower portion of the category of usage from players. As far as 'maxing' goes, I know many players who are f2p that have in general high upgrades.

6. A blasters performance depends on the map, player and the enemies, plenty of unknowns, but if such measurable counters were created, any brain would simply switch to a counter-able item, and voila, no need to worry about damage any more, that is even more worse than players understanding that they need a module to reduce damage. You said yourself it's costly to upgrade drones, so if we nullify the drones performance, you're making most normal players drones ineffective and the crystals spent on it void, not as f2p friendly as f2p players would like. At the end of the day, it's always the f2p's who want the other f2p's to suffer more. Moreso than the 'large buyers' because you wouldn't catch even 1% of them even using blaster.

7. Blaster drone activates on death, blaster may kill a flag holder in their base, but if you're dead, you're just as on a stalemate like the enemy is, but the enemy is more likely to have players that can spot and claim back the flag back. Note; this whole topic sprouted from the 'ctf oh no i died to a boom'. Dead tanks as no use in games where you need to be alive to make returns and caps etc.

8. I have asked many players I know, from non buyers, to large buyers, and most of them do not care about blaster because it is clearly not on their radar for things that annoys them, and yes most of them have used also a variety of combos. That to me says a large amount.

 

On 7/1/2021 at 1:20 AM, DestrotankAI9 said:

When you use most overdrives, you are going to get kills - yes the Blaster user has to die, but if you can get a kill or shut down the enemy player every time they use your their overdrive (as Blaster can against Mammoth) while YOU are free to use your overdrive each time to get kills, without getting killed in return - that leaves you will a strong advantage. Everyone is going to die, the advantage that Blaster gives you is that when you die, you also take them with you - which can result in an overall advantage. But it is a particularly large problem for Mammoth and melee turrets, as they find it much harder to avoid the damage caused by Blaster.

I don't know what you mean by taking from Peter to pay Paul, I am not proposing taking away module protection from Blaster, I am proposing additional protection on top of that for Mammoth and melee turret users - as they have to take damage from Blaster much more frequently than tankers using any other equipment, which leaves them at an unfair disadvantage.
 

When you use Mammoth overdrive, or have it ready, you will be targeted by the enemy team as they know you are now a threat. You will only take 1500 damage from Blaster if you have an fully maxed out module and maxed-out Boosted armor equipped (neither of which you may have), and even then on top of other damage, that 1500 damage will probably enough to stop you killing more than one player with your overdrive before you die - on top of other damage. To be efficient with Mammoth you usually need to be able to kill at least 2 players each time you use your overdrive, and survive - which is easily possible when not facing Blaster users. No other hull has such a problem when facing Blaster.

You can't have protection against Blaster users every time, and even if you do taking guaranteed damage every time you use your overdrive against them is a problem. It is not fair for it to be so disproportionately strong against one particular hull, and melee turrets - Blaster due to its mechanics is in quite a unique situation, and given its strength against certain equipment since the recent buff it needs to be given some specific balancing, to make it more even in strength against all equipment.

check it out

[DarkPredator 212]

[kydapoot 570]

I really don't think blaster is that much of a problem balance-wise; even when I use a melee-range turret, it doesn't get me that often. Also, Blaster has a distinctive look that makes it easy to avoid if you're attentive.

The drone being the way it is encourages a bit of skill and tact when dealing with enemies up close - something that I think is good in a realm where brute force is often used as the only strategy. And, if a particular blaster user is annoying you, you can always equip protection from their turret.

[DestrotankAI9 1,513]

I'm quite surprised to see so few players in this topic thinking that there is any kind of an issue with Blaster since its huge 3 second cooldown buff. Mjmj5558 obviously thinks so, and Spy clearly at least somewhat agrees otherwise he wouldn't have marked this suggestion as valid.

I do note that all the players saying there is no issue with it happen to have a better set of modules than myself, and I am also guessing more MUs on their drones - so perhaps once you reach full mk7 modules, or at least have many Mk7 and Mk6 for the rest, plus a close-to-max drone, Blaster becomes less of an issue.

However another part of it could be that I've been using an unusual combo a lot - Mammoth/Trickster. I know At_Shin uses this too, but this is how it goes with Mammoth/Trickster:

With Mammoth and Trickster, you have a very powerful overdrive that can get a lot of kills each time - however you don't have the enhanced armor of Defender or the extra damage from Booster, or extra mines etc, so you are quite reliant on getting a good number of kills each time you use your overdrive, if you want to get in the top-3 on your team each time. You won't have Boosted Armor up all the time like Defender, but even then since you are so fast during your overdrive, you can still easily catch people out and get a kill or two before dying - even with no double armor.

Defender users are not a problem - they die just as fast to Mammoth overdrive as anyone else. Booster users are not as much of a problem, I can often easily speed round a corner and take them out before they are able to get many or any shots off. Mines can be a problem, but can be avoided most of the time. The one drone that does ruin your day - is Blaster. With mk4 modules that I have against many turrets, I can't guard myself against taking heavy hits from Blaster users if I attempt to kill them with my overdrive, even if Boosted armor is up - and enough damage will be dealt that I'll probably die before I can kill another player. If I don't have Boosted armor up, I may die from Blaster alone. Against any other drone - 2 kills or more each time you use your overdrive, no problem. With better modules this would help - but I think things would remain similar, Blaster is a drone you don't want to see on many of the enemy team with this combo, and yes I'd rather see Booster and Defender users all day. Sure, you can try to use Mammoth's overdrive just for the heal - but that is nowhere near as efficient. If the Blaster user is guarding a point or the flag, they can't simply be ignored - I have to deal with all tanks in the battle. So I maintain, Blaster is much more powerful against Mammoth overdrive than against any other hull's overdrive and the game - and that to me is something that should be looked at.

As for melee turrets, yes there are ways to play around Blaster (unless you are using Broadband Isida, which I use a lot - which only has a 14 yard range). But, there are circumstances where the enemy has speed boost and you do not, or where they are using a faster hull etc. - that you can't avoid the damage. And it is ready every single time since the buff, now that the drone has a mere 3 second cooldown.

With the mechanics of Blaster, it can't be denied that it will always be stronger against Melee turrets (and against the one super-close melee orientated overdrive in the game) than against anything else. But, of course Blaster is not particularly strong in many situations - and sometimes useless against ranged turrets, and less useful on large maps. So perhaps my suggestion which was an overall nerf to Blaster, was unfair - given that I do admit it is not among the very strongest drones. I don't think it would do any harm to nerf Blaster against melee turrets and Mammoth overdrive, but give it a buff against everything else (if that is possible) to make things more even. I have a suggestion in mind that might achieve that - I may make a topic, and feel free to comment on that if you wish.