Blaster Training

[Barbara Fillmore]

Welcometo the Blaster Training page. To become a certified blaster at a coal mine a person must be trained, gain experience and pass an examination. Here you will find information on the technical and regulatory issues that a blaster must know to have a reasonable expectation of passing the examination. The requirements can be found at 30 CFR 850.13 Certification and Training of Blasters - Training. For coal mines, these requirements are the same for each state although individual states may have more requirements than specified here.

Blaster applicants are required to prove they completed 16 hours of approved blaster training when submitting their certificate applications. This applies to both new and renewal applications. Companies, organizations, and associations must submit the curricula of their training courses to the NYS Department of Labor, License & Certification Unit, Room 161A, Building 12, State Office Campus, Albany, NY 12226, for review and approval. The Department of Labor will notify submitters that the course is approved or not approved. Approved courses will be posted on this page.

Training should cover the specific hazards and control measures for the type of blasting. Refresher training should address what is new in the industry, such as products, procedures, and regulations. It should not be a repeat of the previous training. Note that the MSHA 8-hour refresher training is not acceptable in lieu of blaster training.

Now, I love blasters. I don't WANT to, but truly there are not many AT's and combos that can keep up. Yeah, yeah... survivability. Good blasters survive... most of the time. ? ("Most of the time, blasters have a 50/50 chance of survival!" - you can quote me on that!)

So I am checking out various Secondaries to play with the best PVE Primary (duh, Fire, fast/high damage=win). I actually main a Fire/Dev (my favorite secondary), a Fire/Atomic, a Fire/TacArrow (second favorite), and a Fire/Time. Think I have all the good ones down. So I am digging around in those "other" secondaries...

Fire/Fire was decent damage, but brought no bag of tricks and is very difficult to softcap defenses w/o gimping the damage... it's good at ST/AoE, that's for sure, but I like having "tricks" - it's my play style.

Fire/Plant. I have a Water/Plant blaster (theme) and it's an interesting set. Plant really makes me feel dominator like, the buildup that adds a lump of toxic to each attack is interesting. It is fun.

Again, I did NOT take any of the sword attacks, I'm sure they're wonderful. What I like to look for in the secondary sets is flow and usefulness. This is probably why I love Devices the most, it has everything in two toggles, and smoke grenade is gravy and taser is so good instead of some silly punch-attack (or sword). it's like a quicker, better-ranged Bone Smasher (though not quite as hard-hitting). Anyway, Ninja Training has nothing remotely cool like that.

Lethal-based, melee-ranged, -Def attacks are NOT really blaster material. Blasters should always have high acc/to-hit, be at range as often as possible to help with survival, and should try to avoid one of the most resisted damage types in the game. I guess one could say the same for Martial training with all the kicks (smashing/melee) though it can also be argued that KD is better than -Def (esp 7%), as it helps with survivability.

I wanted to like you, Ninja Training, but I just can't. I don't know WHAT IS UP WITH NINJA TRAINING! Paired with some under-performing primary for theme/RP reasons, I'm sure it's great. For efficiency in the Blaster AT, it's very skippable.

Since you didn't take the sword powers you missed IMHO, the dumbest thing of all.. the cool down on the whirling sword attack is WAY too long! Why would anyone ever take this power? If it had a "normal" cool down, it'd fill in that gap in the AoE attack chain of Dual Pistols or Electric, etc. But as it is, it's just a waste of a power choice.

I tried really hard to make /ninja my secondary for my DP blaster but devices ended up being the better option in all the ways that mattered. Even though I've now played a DP toon to vet 100 and semi-retired him, I still go back to looking at DP/ninja on occasion trying to find a synergy to exploit. But still haven't found it.

If it's any consolation the sword attacks aren't wonderful. As you say, Choking Powder's not bad, though very short ranged. And as you say, Shinobi's value compared to targeting drone... Hell even with stealth if we compare Shinobi + Kujin'Toh to TD and Field Operative, Ninja's losing out big time. Unless I guess you're dealing with a psychic damaging fear spell, maybe.

Immobilizing Dart: Truly an insult; not only does it have less than half the damage of its contemporaries, it also has a longer cast time! The mild -recharge/spd doesn't make up for this any more than a stronger such effect did on the old Web Grenade.

Lotus Drops: Very basic, lethal and -def. This is marginally more damaging than Martial's Dragon's Tail (Burst of Speed's an incredible alternative though), but slightly slower to cast and doesn't have knockdown. End of Time hits harder still though casts a little slower (with additional conditional damage and types atop it), and does -regen. Faster recharge and a tiny bit bigger radius as well IIRC. Atom Smasher's a lot slower to come out but it does hit harder, recharges faster, stuns, and still does more -def than Lotus does.

Smoke Flash: would be alright were it not such a short duration, and if not for the complete lack of set compatibility or -hit component. It's not even that great as a placate since it's not like you can crit

Golden Dragonfly: A tiny cone that sometimes maybe will let you get two in a line if they're basically-stacked, for the kind of damage and secondary effects you'd expect from something secondaries offer at level 2-10 at the latest. At this point you should probably just grab Cross Punch along with Tough and Weave; it won't hit quite as hard even with both boxing and kick, but a far more debilitating and a wider cone at least.

Lotus Drops is a surprisingly good power if you slot it with damage procs. Due to the long Recharge, you have higher than normal chance to activate the procs, and you end up with surprisingly high PBAoE damage from a non-nuke (about 350 for my build). The two Powder Powers are just great.

But that's about all, and not only do they lack other GOOD powers... several of them just seem unusually weak for what they are supposed to do. A Build-Up replacement that functions like a high-recharge Build-Up, but for only one attack? Ugh. A weak Tier 1. Smoke Flash had potential, but it's left too weak. The two single-target sword attacks are likewise too weak to make them worth the risk of entering melee.

Immobilizing Dart: Could use a damage buff and maybe a better visual on when targets are immobilized. I feel like it should do a spot of lethal up front and then apply its Toxic DoT, kind of like the Sleep Dart origin power.

Sting of the Wasp: I don't mind this power, but it's noticably weaker than other set melee options of this caliber. I also want a traditional weapon draw animation since the no-redraw looks dumb when you're just standing there and suddenly your foe takes a phantom cut from nowhere.

Choking Powder: I almost feel like this power is too strong for being a T3 power. If Immobilizing Dart gets a damage buff, maybe this should get a damage reduction or moved to a later power slot. Otherwise, it's a good power.

Shinobi: a built-in Stealth is pretty nice, but as a Build Up replacement this power is garbage. 30 seconds out of combat is far too long for the damage buff to kick in, especially when Targeting Drone only needs 8.

Smoke Flash: every time I tried to use it the Placate effect was bugged. It would be handy as a get-out-of-danger button but it doesn't even apply the Placate. The -res doesn't seem too useful either. If you ask me, it should reset the damage bonus on Shinobi after using it (and hitting).

The problem that lies with this set is mainly that is tries to force you into being a Stalker and into Melee when you're a Blaster. Look, all Blaster secondaries in this state of the game are playable and overall there is consistency between them that they'll always give you a decent source of endurance and health regeneration, therefore no secondary is inherently "useless" and is always going to have a meaningful contribution to your battles.

1. The most resisted damage type is Toxic followed by Lethal, it is painful late game to deal with and in a lot of early game as well. This fact alone makes it hard to compete with other secondaries but let's keep going.

4. Honestly I've already said it but it really deserves repeating again, being forced as a Blaster into Blapping or sets that would've otherwise been totally ranged is terrible. Primaries like Archery and Water should never be paired with Ninja because they can stay totally at range, if you wanted a primary that will allow you to stay at range and be even rewarded for being at range, TA and Energy are the ways to go. Conversely, secondaries like Fire Manipulation make fighting in melee "worth it" because of how uniquely damaging it is and how great the AoEs + auras are.

6. The set is very ST focused and the set is also lethal which means it has a unique problem in which for it to "shine" you're going to have to use its specialties on very hard targets that will already resist you in a lot of cases.

7. Honestly, Drain Psyche in Mental Manipulation and the better AoE as well as more unique damage type makes it really hard to justify taking Ninja Training over it due to the fact both will try to force you into melee, one however will make fighting harder targets much easier because of its exotic damage type, -regen and will survive better and have less end issues due to DP.

I took it for thematic reasons and although it seems to be utter crap, I do enjoy sneaking around with my blaster. I can't help but think that I would have been better off with another secondary and stealth pool powers instead, however.

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