Another Look At Blasters
Let’s go over the weapons again, in the order in which you can access them. All weapons have a best use and play style, so you should match your weapon to your preferred playstyle. Or, especially when using a weapon for a challenge, adapt your playstyle to fit the weapon you are using.
First, you start off with the E-11 Blaster Rifle for the Imperials and the A-280C Blaster Rifle for the Rebels. These are actually fairly comparable weapons, which is good for balance, but they are not identical.
These fit into the typical assault rifle role — fast firing, accurate weapons, with a wide effective range but neither overly powerful up close or at a distance. Both offer exceptional accuracy at range, which is pretty important for starting weapons. They have very low shot spread, so your shots will tend to hit where you are aiming, and low recoil. Pretty much laser-beam accuracy weapons.
Both also offer good optics, especially good for first person view for shots at a distance. The A280C fires faster but does less damage than the E-11, leaving both with roughly doing the same amount of damage and taking a similar time to kill. At long range, the A-280C has a slight edge in both accuracy and in cooling, giving you a better chance to actual score kills at long distances. The E-11 has a high damage per shot, however, which can reward accurate shooting faster. Both benefit from headshots, but the E-11 will win a headshot duel up close.
You can unlock these weapons for the other faction at Rank 8, which is nice for flexibility, but not necessary unless you really love one of them and want it early on. Otherwise, you are better off unlocking an entirely new weapon. Still, there are only so many weapons to unlock at each rank, so you may as well take them eventually.
I’ll emphasize again that these weapons have a nice combination of range, good optics, and killing power, which makes them good for combat at all ranges. They remain viable throughout the game as a good choice when you aren’t going to stick at one range or combat role.
If you have the Deluxe version, you will also have the DL-44 Blaster Pistol, which otherwise requires rank 25 to unlock it. I’ll mention this again for Rank 25, but if you have it at the start, it gives you a good alternative for short range combat. It has a lower fire rate than the blaster rifles or the DH-17 pistol, but does much more damage, at least up to 20 meters, and thus is superior for close quarters fights. It suffers at longer ranges, and it is the least accurate blaster.
Rank 3 opens up two new weapons: The DH-17 Blaster Pistol and the DLT-19 Heavy Blaster.
The DH-17 is a short range weapon, but within its 25 meter best range, it is a bit faster to kill than the two starting Blaster Rifles (E-11 and A-280C). It quickly drops to being very ineffective at longer ranges, essentially worthless above about 30 meters. You’ll be hard pressed to get a single kill at 40 meters or more, even against a target which isn’t moving. Use this for fast close quarters combat, where it could kill in two headshots.
The DLT-19 Heavy Blaster is optimized for long range shooting, but is still decent up close, if not quite as lethal as the above weapons. It does less damage per shot up close than the Blaster Rifles, but fires much faster, giving it almost the same killing power. At long range, though, it comes into its own, because the damage does not drop off much at all at a distance. It lacks powerful optics to make long range aiming easy, but it is very precise and you can expect your shots to hit where you are aiming. It does have some random recoil, but it is nearly even, which means it is easy to keep the shots roughly on target in sustained fire.
The accuracy of a lot of the basic weapons in this game makes that line about Storm Trooper precision fire believable. If you have decent aim, it is pretty easy to hit your targets with all of these blasters.
Rank 5 brings the RT-97C Heavy Blaster. This is somewhat similar to the DLT-19 in its role, both in damage and fire rate, but it offers nice optics for easier long range accurate fire. It offers an interesting mix of advantages and disadvantages, compared to its counterpart. While it does slightly more damage up close, it kills no faster at a distance. Its shot spread (accuracy) is worse than the DLT-19, and its recoil is worse, albeit something you can manage with practice. If you are hip firing, you give up the advantage of the nice optic, and that is where the DLT-19 works very well.
Rank 8, as mentioned above, lets you unlock the basic Blaster Rifle from the other side. It also gives you the first (and so far only) Shock Blaster (shotgun), the CA-87. The CA-87 fires a rather massive blast which spreads in a cone, and very quickly drops in damage. You have a reasonable chance of a solid kill at up to 15 meters, and the spread will damage multiple enemies at a distance, and it is a pretty sure one shot kill for in your face shots. It overheats quickly, giving you only three shots before you have let it cool down. This makes it hard to use for sustained fire. The Focus Fire Star Card has an impressive effect on this weapon if you can aim well, as it apparently “chokes” the fire pattern, making an accurate hit at a distance able to do much more damage.
Rank 10 gives you the T-21 Heavy Blaster. It has no optics, which is a weakness for long range accuracy, which is a shame as it, like the other two heavy blasters, is very effective in terms of damage at long range. It has strong recoil and a bit less accuracy (shot spread) than the lighter blaster weapons, but does very high damage (like the DL-44) up close, and if you can score head shots, it can one shot kill at close range (10 meters), and its high damage makes it pretty decent over a wide range despite its lower rate of fire. The lack of optics means you can work the weapon using hip fire without much disadvantage.
Rank 14 gives you the SE-14C, a Blaster Pistol which fires five shot bursts. While its damage per shot is relatively low, its fire rate and burst fire means that you can score a kill in one burst up close. So if you can aim well, this can be most lethal in close combat. It does drop off at a distance, but could kill in two bursts, if you could hit your target. But as with the other pistols, it doesn’t do well for accuracy at range, so don’t expect to use it reliably to pick off targets at a distance. It also has very good cooling, which is good for sustained combat.
Rank 17 brings you the very nice EE-3 Blaster Rifle, which fires three shot bursts. Its damage per shot is relatively low, like the SE-14C. Its three shot burst will not kill without a headshot, but you can spit out two bursts fairly fast, and that will kill at close ranges. It delivers more damage than the other blaster rifles, but only in bursts, rather than continuous fire, so you can’t hold down the trigger and blast away to exploit this power. At a distance, however, its damage holds up better than the other blaster rifles, making it possible to take out enemies at longer ranges before they can kill you — if you are accurate. It does overheat fast, though, so it is harder to use in sustained combat, especially close range battles.
Rank 21 gets you the T-21B Targeting Rifle. This is a refined, modified version of the T-21. It does slightly less damage and loses its automatic fire – it is a single shot weapon. But it gains very nice optics, which makes it good for first person aimed long range shots. It can kill in two shots up close, but that isn’t its strength. You can take enemies out in three shots at any range, and have the ability to make very accurate shots at very long ranges. It has both low recoil and low shot spread, making it the most accurate weapon at long range. Its cooling isn’t as good as the T-21, and you will not be able to take out quite as many enemies at once, which is a disadvantage in close combat. Final point: this is a long range blaster, and you shouldn’t try to engage enemies at all up close if you can avoid it.
Rank 25, again, it the last rank which unlocks blasters. For those without the Deluxe/Ultimate package, you get the DL-44 Blaster Pistol. This weapon rocks for close range combat, allowing one headshot kills or two hit kills at up to 20 meters, which is pretty impressive. Its fire rate is a little lower than most other blasters, but the damage is high enough to still leave it one of the two most powerful close range weapons (along with the CA-87). Its cooling is good enough to let you get away with six kills at close range (more if you can score headshots) if you don’t miss, but the damage drop makes it much less effective at a distance. But not ineffective, as the damage is still fairly good, it is the accuracy and recoil which make long range shots harder.
All weapons can be affected by the use of the Charged Star Cards which alter weapon powers.
Cooling Cell lets you shoot for a few seconds without overheating, and this benefits most the weapons like the CA-87, EE-3, and DL-44 which overhead quickly. The T-21B can also benefit, if you have targets exposed and you can shoot accurately enough — you can usually pick off one or two targets before overheating anyway.
The Ion Shot is intended to let you take out vehicles and droids more easily, rather than enhance the weapon against other soldiers. All weapons can take advantage of this.
Focus Fire greatly improved accuracy (that is, reduces shot spread), and thus has the most benefit for blasters which are relatively inaccurate. The DL-44, SE-14C, and CA-87, and even possibly the DH-17, which are less effective at range due to inaccuracy, do well with this. The T-21, EE-3, and RT-97C also become much easier to use at range with this enhancement, as while they are not too bad on accuracy, they aren’t as good as the more precise weapons. And used with the already high accuracy weapons, it makes them truly laser-beam aiming accuracy devices, subject only to recoil.
Explosive Shot doesn’t alter accuracy, or fire rate, but it does increase the power of the shots. By adding some explosive damage to the shots, direct hits are more effective, and even misses will do good splash damage. All weapons can benefit from this, with higher damage weapons getting a greater advantage, but high fire rate and accuracy at a distance being even better for using this to deliver long range killing power. It is really hard to not use this one once you have it available, as long as you can afford the charges to use it.
The Traits for the most part affect other elements of game play other than the power of your blasters, but the Scout at level 3 is an exception. By keeping you off the minimap when you move or shoot, it makes it easier to flank enemies and get in shots first. But at level 3, it also resets your weapon heat when you make a kill. That makes the highly lethal but high heat weapons much more effective. It does take a good kill streak to hit this, but once you do, you can keep on killing easily.
The Bounty Hunter and Sharpshooter offer benefits for your Star Cards when you get kills, not your primary blaster weapon, but they can make it easier to use those supporting tools to make up for the shortcomings of your blaster. The Pulse Cannon or Cycler Rifle give you a long range option to support short range weapons, and explosives can help anyone in close combat.
So, which weapon should you use? It is easier to first group the weapons into categories based on their role, as that is essential for deciding how you are going to fight in the game, and thus which weapon type is the best fit.
Flexibility means Blaster Rifles. All three of them are good at any range, with good optics for precision first person long range shots, and enough firepower and accuracy to be lethal at close ranges. The E-11 and A-280C are your starting weapons, and I would consider them the baseline, standard, normal blaster for this game. The E-11 is a little better in close combat, the A-280C a little better at a distance, where a higher fire rate and accuracy mean a better chance to score hits, even though both weapons do roughly the same damage per second. The EE-3 trades some close range power and overheating for long range advantages with burst fire (which rewards accurate aim), so is a better pick if you are going to do more shooting at long range, especially aimed shooting.
Close Range is dominated by all the Blaster Pistols, plus the CA-87 Shock Blaster. In terms of effective range, and the potential to use them at a distance, the order is DL-44, SE-14C, DH-17, CA-87. But the CA-87 can become powerful at range if you use Focus Fire. The DH-17 and CA-87 may as we not be fire at ranged much over 30 meters, as they perform very poorly at a distance. Up close, the order for quickest killing power is CA-87, DL-44, SE-14C, DH-17. But in accuracy, the DH-17 and SE-14C are quite good, while the CA-87 in effect doesn’t need accurate aim as such because it fires a cone of lethal energy, making it the most reliable one shot kill weapon at point blank range. The DL-44 is good if your aim is decent, but even with careful aim you may miss shots at moderate ranges. Fortunately, its damage per shot is high enough to make up for that, most of the time.
Long Range is dominated by the Heavy Blasters, plus the T-21B Targeting Rifle. All are decent at short ranges, but not quite as effective as the other weapons. They make up for it by delivering the most damage at the longest ranges. The DLT-19 and RT-97C are solid fast firing weapons which can send enough damage to an area to make it difficult for enemies to move without taking some hits, but if aimed well can kill at a distance. The T-21 and T-21B offer more precise, aimed long range lethality, but still do decent damage up close, albeit with a slower fire rate. The T-21B gains a better optic and more accuracy over the T-21, but loses some close range damage and cooling. The DLT-19 has an edge in hip fire, especially in third person view, as it has low recoil and shot spread and thus can kill well at a distance if your aim is true. The RT-97C, on the other hand, comes with a better optic and despite losing some accuracy, is easier to aim at distant targets, which can make more controlled aimed fire with it more effective.
Now, how about the weapons wielded by the Heroes and Villains in the game? These might look like the standard blasters everyone can get, but they are much better. Han Solo’s custom DL-44 is a good 50% more powerful than the standard model. Leia’s weapon is a beefed up — roughly 50% again — E-11. And Boba Fett uses a special EE-3 which does 50% more damage at close ranges, but actually scores about double damage at long ranges, making it extremely effective as a sort of sniper weapon. They have special abilities, too, which work well to enhance their weapons even above this degree of advantage. The Jedi and Sith don’t bother with blasters, but a light saber is an instant kill against any normal soldier.
One question for many players is which blaster is actually the best. By design, they should be balanced, each filling a role which makes it best in some area, worse in others. But the DL-44 is possibly overpowered. But maybe not. While it does good damage, it is not an automatic — you must press fire for each shot. So despite having a high fire rate, it can be hard to actually achieve it in practice. It is also the least accurate blaster, and its good damage drops off quickly with range. Still, enjoy it while you can. If DICE evaluates it as being a little too good, expect it to be reduced in power to keep the game fair and balanced.
That’s all, folks. The 11 kinds of blasters in the game fill out the niches of combat, so just pick the one which fits how you plan to play.
