Master Blaster

[Trample]

Who do you think is the best blaster right now? Is it still Sonnia in this edition? I think it probably is, but there are a few other good ones. I was looking at some of the blasters and trying to see what they could accomplish using their own AP (not that you would do it that way most of the time) in a situation where you could perfectly hit one additional model per blast. Most of them have 3 AP and, being as efficient as possible are concentrating, taking a focused attack, then taking a regular attack. Assuming they all hit twice, Sonnia does do the most damage (baring triggers and assuming you’re cheating severe for the focused attack and stuck with minimum on the second.

Sonnia has the 14” range going for her. She does 7 to the primary, 4 to a secondary, and 3 to a tertiary with each receiving burning (4/4/2). Assuming they don’t remove the burning, that’s 9/6/4! Before the burning she’s dishing out 14 total damage at a pretty good range.

Basse is surprisingly good as a blaster. He doesn’t really have the range, but he sure can dish out the damage, primarily due to the 4 moderate damage. He’ll do 8 to the primary and 5 to the secondary in this scenario (for 13 total) but he doesn’t have much else to go with it. The injury trigger is nice.  He also has gunfighter, so Basse can blast in melee.

Rasputina obviously has the longest reach. She doesn’t have quite as much damage output, with 6/3/3 to the primary/secondary/tertiary targets. The 1” push built in can be pretty fantastic in certain situations. She also has really good triggers, although they’re harder to use when she’s targeting through an ice pillar.

Mad Dog does the same damage as Basse, assuming he’s fast from a scheme marker. He too only has an 8” range. He does have a trigger to get an additional blast, which would spike his output a bit.

Zipp only has an 8” range, but he is so damn fast and has such a good defensive trigger that it doesn’t hurt him much. Zipp can do 7 to the primary and 4 to the secondary and, like Rasputina, can push them 1”. He has an extra blast trigger and the convulsion trigger, both of which are really good.  

Som’er, unlike the blasters above, only has a 5 stat. He also doesn’t do much damage (6/3/3 in our scenario) but he does have some awesome triggers. He has a 12” range, so he isn’t quite up there with Sonnia or Rasputina, but better than the other 3 I’ve mentioned. Really though, he isn’t going to be using 3 AP to do this.

The Samurai is surprisingly good. With his bonus action concentrate he effectively has the same capabilities as the others on the list. He is the only one with a 6 severe and one of the few with a moderate of 4. His blast isn’t built in though, so he’ll have to cheat to get it. If he did on the first shot he would do 8/4 at 12”. His stat is 5 as well, but with a plus flip.

Finally, Von Schtook. Only 10” and only 2/3/4 with a blast on each, but he does have Injury +1 built in (and injured is strong). He’s the lowest on the damage with 6/4 in this scenario and injured +2 on both.

I probably missed someone who can be an effective blaster (not shockwaver) but I think Sonnia is still the best on this list, although I probably like Zipp and Mad Dog together the most.

Crew aside, who is the best blaster?

[Jesy Blue]

What about Drachen Trooper?

10" range, 2/3/4, resisted by Mv, and all models damaged get Burning +2.

Trigger to create a Pyre Marker & a trigger to move each model damaged 3" in any direction.

[Mycellanious]

Sparks is the best Blaster 😉

[Maniacal_cackle]

The various projectile vomit models, particular Rogue Necromancy, are pretty sweet. Damage, poison, and distract (and a slow on the main target).

My favourite blasts do control conditions.

[Maniacal_cackle]

Also, how do you do the forum code for blasts?

[Jesy Blue]

2 minutes ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Also, how do you do the forum code for blasts?

It's an emoji.... Go to the smiley face in the task bar, there's a very long drop down.  3rd section from the bottom if I recall is the malifaux symbol emojis.

[Adran]

I think you are putting a lot of weight on the 2nd on Sonnia to give her a better damage output than Cornelius. Burning is good, but it's delayed damage which may allow extra actions before it kills. 

Mad dog gets to do his blast at the end of a charge which does help quite a lot. 

Overall you're probably right that sonnia is the best blaster, but once you start adding counterplay or aims other than maximum overall damage, she might drop a little. ( gunfighter on Basse makes it header to stop him, and he has better single target damage if he doesn't focus). 

Hannah can also be an outside shout, with the right support. It's melee only, but with Arik it's not only high damage, but can move models about to help concentrate them for more damage.

[Trample]

5 hours ago, Adran said:

I think you are putting a lot of weight on the 2nd on Sonnia to give her a better damage output than Cornelius. Burning is good, but it's delayed damage which may allow extra actions before it kills. 

Mad dog gets to do his blast at the end of a charge which does help quite a lot. 

Overall you're probably right that sonnia is the best blaster, but once you start adding counterplay or aims other than maximum overall damage, she might drop a little. ( gunfighter on Basse makes it header to stop him, and he has better single target damage if he doesn't focus). 

You're right, that 2nd is weighted pretty high. I do think it's that good not normally because it hits an additional model but because it sometimes lets you hit the model you really want to hit with the attack. So I do think it's pretty nice. I agree with your other points on Mad Dog and Basse. Once you get them into a crew and a game everything changes!

I played against Basse once in beta, but haven't seen him since. as a standalone model he looks pretty good.