Aeoleon

maybe it has something to do with the stormtrooper dry-humping air next o a ford escort; just a hunch

Delicious and nutritious!

Ed's Army Base Overview
Entrance
Main TP Room
Hazard Zone TP Room
Raid TP Room
Med Bay
Power Room
Control Room
Workshop
Storage Room
Confrence Room
Rec Room

This wasn't a bad guide for the most part, and I agree with the usefulness ofq decent amount of choices, but it should have been prempted my a warning that it is written through the eyes of a tank. Its tough to rank the effectiveness of power pools with out considering its value to other AT's.

For example, I think that having mez and KB protection built into your toon is a blessing recieved by most well built tanks and scrappers, but that leaves blasters, controllers, and defenders out in the cold. I've gotten to the point that I would like to start taking travel pools other than leaping, but acrobatics is just too valuable to my favorite characters to even give it much thought.

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Regeneration Aura (Don't Bother) :
The numbers behind this just dont seem to add up to the effect it gives. When I first had this power, I was expecting a health version of Regeneration Aura, but it wasn't. In fact I could discern no actual benefit to the health of the team in a fight. Given that it has a dreadful recharge time, it would have to be slotted the same as Recovery Aura for it to be of any use, and that uses up 5 slots that are simply not justified by the alleged recovery rate it gives. I would suggest trying this for yourself on the test server, then sighing with relief that you didn't take it. Avoid!


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I said the exact same thing on a thread about the worst powers in the game and got blasted for it; pun not intended (for a change). I'm just happy to see that there's someone out there that agrees with me

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned since I'm a bit too lazy to go through this entire thread, but after you have hurdle+combat jump (on up through superjump) I've found it incredibly useful to throw the auto-jump bind on for pain free traveling. Try this bind, if you haven't run across it before:

/bind j ++up

Sam's Guide to the Ice/Elec Con-Blapper

Six months have passed since I hit 50 on my main and wrote my first guide (which is linked in my signature). I've since played a variety of ATs and power sets, only to find myself let down at on point or another. Some I've gotten as high as 44 while others were already doomed by the time I made it to The Lost on my opening sewers run. Eventually I became bored and set my account for deactivation, but on the final days of activity I came across this build. A month or so later I picked the game back up and I dedicated my in-game efforts to developing a strong play style only to find that I had come across a one man army.

What's a con-blapper?

To understand what a con-blapper is (also referred to as a blap-troller), you have to first understand two things: a) a blaster is, and b) what a blapper is. If you understand both concepts, please skip the rest of this paragraph. Blasters, defined by their ranged primary set, are essentially an offense driven creature. They do the highest amount of damage while recieving the smallest amount of protection. Once a player decides to play a blaster,they can either choose a melee set to add fire power, or Devices which sacrifices damage in order to fill in some of the holes that blasters lack in survivability. A blapper, there for, is a blaster who ignores Devices and not only chooses a melee set, but utilizes several attacks from that set as well. With out having access to any natural defenses until level 41 this is a very dangerous path to take, but the offensive output can be outrageous.

Now a con-blapper not only combines the use of blasting and melee attacks, but by adding holds and debuffs they gain the added element of control. If played intelligently a con-blapper will not only be able to solo any mission they come across on invincible settings, but they are also a great asset to any team they come in contact with.

Why Ice/Elec?

This is simple. For starters you get excellent single target ranged and melee attacks that will make you an asset on PvP, AV, and GM teams. You get 2 self boosts, with Aim and Build Up, that send your output through the roof. There is a quick, safe, and easy 4-power chain to help maximize your nuke. You also have access to 2 ranged holds, 1 melee hold, and 1 ranged immobilization; added to this your powers can (and will) have the added effects of Slow, Disorient, Stun Endurance Drain, Endurance Return, - Recharge Rate, and there's even a ToHit Debuff in there. On top of all of that, most of these effects stack with each other making you a nightmare in PvP!

Final Note Before I Get Started:

I didn't attach my skeleton build on this character because I build the way I build because of the way I play, not the way you play; and if you pay attention you should be able to come up with a rough idea of the way I like to do things anyway. This is not to say it will necessarily work for you, nor should you necessarily want it to. I like to write these guides because when I first decided that I wanted to be a solid CoH gamer I did a ton of research and read guide after guide to familiarize myself with what different builds are capable of. In turn, the toons I play the most are ones that I have found to be very worthy of playing, but seriously lacking info on. My only hope is that this will help shed some light on a build that I would venture to call fun.

Ice Blast

Ice Blast
type: Click, Ranged
Cost/Recharge: 8.53/8
Effects: -20% JumpHeight Enhancement to Target for 10 seconds, -20% Speed, -20% RechargeTime

Slotting Recommendations: A(ccuaracy): 1-2, D(amage): 3, RR(recharge rate): 0-1 ER(endurance reduction): 0-1, S(low): 0-2

This is the staple of your early blast attacks, and will continue to be a piece of the puzzle the whole way through the game. It's a very basic attack, but offers side-effects that are only the beginning of your opponents hangover.

Ice Bolt
Click, Ranged
5.2/4
-20% JumpHeight Enhancement to Target for 6 seconds, -20% Speed, -20% RechargeTime
A: 1-2, D: 0-3, S: 0-3, ER: 0-1

Ok, so I've never been big on taking the mini-blast power in any set, but there is just no way around taking one of the next two powers; neither of which are overwhelming. If you are a PvP oriented player my suggestion would to be to grab this one over the next and slot it for 2 acc and 2-3 slows. It doesn't really do much damage, so having a power that you are almost positive is gonna hit and slow a foe down can be a nifty tool for stalking your prey or making a quick get away; this also goes for anyone facing a +3 or a +4 boss. For everyone else, Ice Bolt is a quick shot to start stacking your secondary effects. It is on a quick recharge timer that isn't worth slotting for as soon as you work Hasten into your build (more on that later).

Frost Breath
Click, Ranged, Cone AoE
15.18/16
-20% JumpHeight Enhancement to Target for 10 seconds, -20% Speed, -20% RechargeTime
A:1-2, D: 3, RR: 0-1, ER: 1, S: 0-1

This is the other half of the dubious duo. Frost Breath carries a hefty endurance cost, a long animation, and a fairly long recharge time for being a moderate damage attack, though it can hit several foes at once slowing them all down. If you plan on PvP, I would think that you would skip this attack all together. I'm not a huge fan of it, but I have found it useful in bringing down pesky Freak tanks that don' want to die. When every other attack in the arsenal seems to bring them right to the level where they should die, only to watch them quickly regenerate some HP, the second tick on this 2-tick attack usually puts them down for the count. Other than that....eh.

AIM
Click, Self, Buff
5.2/90
37.5% ToHit to Self for 10 seconds, 62.5% Damage Buff
RR:1-3, TH(tohit buff): 0-2

This is the first of the two natural self buffs that you will receive. Make sure that you take this for a damage modifier if nothing else. 62.5% is like adding 2 SOs to your attacks for 10 seconds, so use it wisely. For PvP use, or any use I suppose, adding 2 ToHit Buffs in here will ensure that you can hit just about anything that moves.

Freeze Ray
Click, Ranged, Hold
6.86/10
9.536 second Held (magnitude 3) to Target, 10000% Resistance(Knockback) to Target for 10 seconds
A: 1-2, H(old): 0-3

Sweet, you made it to your first hold. By the point you receive this power you should be on your way to con-blapper status. The hold here is strong enough to lock down minions and lieutenantts. To lock down a boss you either need to apply it twice, or match it another hold from either your arsenal or from a teammate. For PvE, I suggest learning how to quickly scroll through a mob and recognizing what target you should take out of the action before you engage. There is a tiny amount of damage dealt by this power, but it is so insignificant I can't see a way to justify wasting a single slot on it. Let's call a spade a spade, shall we?

Ice Storm
Click, Ranged, AoE
15.6/60
500% Avoid to Target for 0.75 seconds, -40% Speed to Target for 0.5 seconds over 72 tics, -10% RechargeTime to Target for 0.5 seconds
A: 1, D: 0-3, S:0-3 ER:0-1 RR: 0-1

This is more or less a smaller version of your nuke doing roughly 70% of the damage (according to hero builder) of Blizzard and leaving you with plenty of endurance. On the down side if taken at an early level, most tanks can't control the amount of aggro that you will be breaking. Skipping it until your mid to upper 20's is wise. Ice Storm carries with it the second strongest application of slow, so make sure to 6 slot this power accordingly. A quick pointer on using Ice Storm: if you use this as an alpha attack you just might find yourself pushin daisies if you don't get out of their line of sight. Duck a quick corner, wait 2-3 seconds for your teammates to pull their attention, then take out their remains. With all that debuffing, their second and third wave of attacks won't be coming for a while, so just don't let 7 or 8 first waves take you down.

Bitter Ice Blast
Click, Ranged
13/12
-7% ToHit to Target for 6 seconds, -20% SpeedJumping to Target for 12 seconds, -20% RechargeTime
A: 1-2, D: 3, THD(tohit defuff): 0-2: S: 0-2, RR: 0-1,ER: 0-1

This is the granddaddy of your single target attacks. While it isn't an insanely powerful blast, it certainly gets the job done. Give some serious consideration to adding a ToHit Debuff in this powers makeup, as it is 1 of only 2 chances to reduce your opponents accuracy.

Bitter Freeze Ray
Click, Ranged, Hold
15.18/20
9.536 second Held (magnitude 3), -20% Speed to Target for 18 seconds, -20% RechargeTime, 10000% Resistance(Knockback) to Target for 10 seconds
A: 1-2, D: 0/3, H: 0-3, S: 0-1, RR: 0-1, ER: 0-1

Here comes your second hold. It takes a little longer to recharge, and the animation is too long to use in a crowd once the party gets started. You will find very good, but not great damage to match the hold, so itis up to you how you want to slot this this. I personally slot it towards control and use it as an opening attack into bosses while quickly stacking Freeze Ray to lock them down. In the case of 2 leiuts I like to combine Bitter Freeze Ray with Freeze Ray to take them both out of play.

Blizzard
Click, Ranged, AoE
20.8/360
-1000% Recovery to Self for 20 seconds, -100% Endurance to Self, 500% Avoid to Target for 0.75 seconds, -50% Speed to Target for 5 seconds over 12 ticks, -30% RechargeTime, -60% FlySpeed, 0.1 Knockback to Target (8% chance), -20% ToHit
A: 1, D: 3, RR: 0-2, TDB: 0-2, S: 0-1

Welcome to your nuke, and...ummm...yeah, sorry bout that. Itis pretty underwhelming in my opinion (most things are after Nova), but fear not my friends, there's good news and better news here. The good news is that if you've gotten to this point you've undoubtable learned how to become the one man army I talked about earlier. Locking your opponents down and taking them out with the precision of a LASEK surgeon will be second nature to you, and you'll simply find this to a worry free alternative every odd group or so. The better news is that there is a "DUH!" combo worked into this move that greatly improves it effectiveness. Simply follow this chain: Aim + Build Up + Ice Storm + Blizzard to watch a group start to melt at your teammates feet. If you're all alone, take advantage of the fact that this is a ranged chain debuffing their speed by dropring it, then ditching them around the next corner. By the time you're ready to fight you'll find that the few survivors will be seriously gimped. Game on!

Electric Manipulation

Electric Fence
Click, Ranged, Immobilize
7.8/4
11.92 second Immobilize (magnitude 3), -3% Endurance to Target for 6.2 seconds, 10000% Resistance(Knockback) to Target for 15 seconds, -100% Recovery to Target for 2 seconds (20% chance).
A: 1-2, EM(endurance modification): 0-3, I(mmobilization Duration): 0-3

Here ya go folks, the one power you're stuck with. It might not seem like a lot at first, but it does help with an extra measure of soft control on yet another singled out foe. I like slotting this for an endurance drain, later on, as it can it most squeeze out your opposition's stamina with just a few quick applications. Having a quick recharge time, low endurance cost, and a quick animation time make this a winner in my book for something that I'm stuck with.

Charged Brawl
Click, Melee
10.19/10
11.92 second Sleep (magnitude 3) to Target (after 0.25 second delay) (20% chance), -7% Endurance, -100% Recovery to Target for 2 seconds (20% chance), Toggle Drop (5% chance), 5.1 Endurance to Self (30% chance)
A: 1-2, D: 3, RR: 0-1, ER: 0-1, EM: 0-2

This is the start of your blapper attacks. You get a decent recharged time, and a fair quick animation for this solid damage attack. Get in, pop this off, then get out. Once you aquire Havoc Punch, you've got a great 1-2 combo before you have to back out of melee range.

Lightning Field
Toggle, PBAoE
1.56/10
-2% Endurance to Target

"Yes! I want a 20ft low damage aggro-field surrounding me at all times! Please tell me how!" NO! I honestly cannot express in words how absolutely brain-dead you would have to be to think this power is a good idea. The best way to blap is not to let any foes know that you're about to kill them; this, however, grabs the attention of everything in sight. Remember that you are a squishy and leave the aggro for the tanks. The lone exception to this rule would for a strictly PvP toon, where as you will have the ability to drain any melee ranged foe's stamina at a rate just slightly quicker than the cost of using it (if slotted and timed perfectly). This, in my book, is still not worth it though slightly less insane.

Havoc Punch
Click, Melee
13.52/14
17.88 second Sleep (magnitude 3) to Target (after 0.25 second delay) (50% chance), 1.558 Knockback to Target (30% chance), -10% Endurance to Target, -100% Recovery to Target for 4 seconds (30% chance), Toggle Drop (22% chance), 6.76 Endurance to Self (30% chance)
A: 2, D: 3, EM: 0-1, RR: 0-1, ER: 0-1

Blapper attack #2. Havoc Punch comes with a longer animation and recharge time than Charged Brawl but it also comes with a bigger pop. Trust me on slotting it up twice for accuracy no matter if you plan on PvP or PvE. I learned that from running HeroStats, over the course of time this was the least accurate attack in the build (second being Bitter Freeze Ray). If you've decided to work the endurance drain angle with your other secondary attacks, dont stop here as you're sure to get a great return on your investment.

Build Up
Click, Self, Buff
5.2/90
15% ToHit to Self for 10 seconds, 100% Damage Buff
RR: 1-3

Now's your chance to bring the pain. Stack it on top of Aim to get 162.5% damage increase on your next several attack, or by itself for 100% boost. Use it smart, but use it often.

Lightning Clap
Click, Melee, PBAoE
13/30
9.536 second Stun (magnitude 2) to Target (50% chance), 2.077 Knockback
A: 1-2, SD(stun duration):0-3

I'm not in support of this power since it delivers no damage and only has a chance at stunning. The only time I ever had it in my build, I dropped it almost as quickly as I picked it up so I'll be brief here. If you take it you should slot it, but I find that one of the best parts of /Elec is that you don't need to take all of the powers for it to be effective.

Thunder Strike
Click, Melee
18.51/20
5.96 second Stun (magnitude 3) to Target (50% chance), 6.231 Knockback, -100% Recovery to Target for 4 seconds (40% chance), 4.154 Knockback to Target (80% chance)
A: 1-2, D: 3, SD: 0-1

This is a great example of a power that works better in some builds than in others. When I had Thunder Strike on my Nrg/Elec blaster I found that the animation was so long that I would wind up collecting debt before I finished this big attack. Well between the holds and the speed debuffs you get through out this build, Thunder Strike can become a VERY valuable attack to help bring down the nastiest of the nastiest. If you can find room for it, shift your build's strength in it's direction; between your holds, Bitter Ice Blast, and Thunder Strike you'll be a force to be reckoned with.

Power Sink
Click, PBAoE
13/60
-35% Endurance to Target, -100% Recovery to Target for 4 seconds (30% chance), 25 Endurance to Self (after 0.25 second delay)
RR: 2-3, EM: 2-3

When you activate this power, you drain all nearby foes of endurance, and transfer it back to yourself. This lets you pop a blue after you drop you nuke, get near the crowd, and fire this off in order to get you up and running again; just make sure that someone else has got their attention first. Even on non-nuking occasions its an incredible way to keep yourself from running out of gas. Power Sink even takes a huge chunk out of your opened endurance, which can make this a strong offensive debuff as well.

Shocking Grasp
Click, Melee, Hold
18.2/15
9.536 second Held (magnitude 3), -7% Endurance to Target for 8.1 seconds, -100% Recovery to Target for 4 seconds (50% chance), 9.1 Endurance to Self (30% chance)
A: 1-2, D: 3 EM: 0-2, H: 0-2, RR: 0-1, ER: 0-1

To me, this is a power begging for available HO's before you take it. None of the 3 ways you can take this power are monumental in its own right, but with just a couple of HO's you can build in all 3 directions making this power a personal favorite. Sadly it also makes it skippable until respecing very late in the game.

Epic Powers

You should choose your epics according to where you want to see your toon go from here as several interesting choices present themselves. Early on each set will give you access to your first real armor. Force Mastery is for those who are interested in as much defense as possible. Munitions Mastery will also enable you with a 3rd ranged hold, an AoE sleep, and another strong ranged attack. Elecrical Mastery provides a 3rd ranged hold, a decent attack and a PBAoE endurance drain. Cold Mastery gives you an AoE sleep, an AoE speed debuff, and the best "Oh Crap!" button on the market; while Flame Mastery is equipped with an AoE KB, a 3rd ranged hold, and a self-res. This is the fun part of making your toon your own. If you made it this far, you deserve it

Travel Powers

I'll make this simple and tell you exactly how I view these choices. I want Hasten from the speed pool asap. The leaping pool is the best route for a blapper because it not only provides a great vertical travel power, but it also comes with Defense, Resist Immobilization, and Resist KB/Holds. I don't waste too many slots on Combat Jumping since neither the defense nor the endurance cost is much to think twice about. I put 2-3 ER in Acrobatics wich is the heftier of the two toggles. When I was looking to PvP, I grabbed Super Speed to keep enemies in range.

Other Pools

Fitness is a must. I take Hurdle to work with my travel power, health, then the almighty stamina at 20. On a side note, I've noticed quite a few people skipping Health and doubling up on Swift and Hurdle. While Health isn't a huge boost, there have been enough times where I've found myself under 20 HP to deem it important to me; yet after crunching a few numbers (which I can only hope are based on 100% accurate data) its worth 2 slotting, but not 3. Stamina is a 3 slotter, don't think twice about it.

Fighting is a pool that I would try and work in the build if you take an Epic route other than Force, but the endurance cost of running both Tough and Weave may be too much for an active blaster to bare. Leadership is also an endurance heavy set that gives low returns to blasters, so beware. Provoke isn't such a bright idea for a squishy, but stealth isnt bad at all if sneaking around is your sort of thing. Medicine is a common pool for PvPers out there, and matching it with Force you can Aid Self inside of your Personal Forcefield just incase you need a mini-time out, however I have never endorsed the set because of its interruptible nature.

Conclusion

Well if you made it this far I want to thank you for adding this guide to your knowledge database. My hard numbers come from City of Data (UK) and I hope that they are not only accurate through I-7, but remain so. This is a very strong build, but it requires a skilled player to pull it off. If you are new to the CoH community, you might want to get your feet wet by trying the Energy or Fire primaries before giving this a try.

I'd have to say that I have a good bit in common with the original poster as I think that its a GREAT post that should be read by every single person that likes to run teams. I've said before that I generally recruit for 90% of the teams I'm on. For staters sending tells is basic ediquitte. You will offend no one by letting them know the level of the team and/or mission that you are inviting them into along with what you are fighting.

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Gotta disagree on /tells. I'm a team leader, not a salesman. If you join me, great. If not, forget you.

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How hard and time consuming is this:
/t (name) "33-34 Freakshow mish?"

Seems pretty simple to me. You will find much more qaulity players whose builds you can depend on this way, as those are the people who are more generally put off by blinds. I have a friend who built an Invuln/ tanker that has been unreal from 24 up; he can pull 4-5 mobs at a time and hold everybit of the aggro. I've seen him accept blind invites and then go hang out in the base for an hour or so just for schlitz and giggles; yet he honors most every request with in reason.

Another part of this that Matsuya touched on was that if someone doesn't join the team for what ever reason, but is courteous enough to respond to you, don't be rude and ignore them. It doesn't happen much, but from time to time someone who responds "Sry just joined another team", a fact you already realized if you send an invite along with your /t, a simple return of "k, gl!" will leave yourself with enough of a favorable impression that you just might get something like this shortly afterwards: "Hey, this team sux. Still got room?". Someone telling you that they're helping out a friend could possibly return 2 recruits that already know how to work with each other.

A couple of quick suggestions here:

Clear Mind comes at a fairly low endurance cost, so you may want to save those slots for other powers

Fort has roughly the twice the endurance cost as CM, but can be used less often. Peronally I go 2-2-2 on recharge/def/tohit, but I can't say thats the best way to do it either.

You may want to enter Absorb Pain in there somewhere. Its a dangerous power to use, but its effects can save a team from a certain wipe.

Teleport as a travel power is popular with Emps, but I still think you can't go wrong w/ the mez/kb/immob protection that the Leaping pool offers. I think the CoT is reason enough to go this route.

I'll keep quiet about Regen Aura since I got blasted the last time I said it wasn't all that great of a power.

Be careful with Thunder Strike. I've only had this on a blaster before, but the long animation caused a lot of debt for me. Take a second look at Elec Fence. A single target immob might not be the "epic" power that you're looking for, but slotting it with 3/ end mods makes for a great and fun way to suck the life out of a foe from a distance.

You look to have a good build here, and my comments are more of a representation of play style rather than right and wrong.

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Here's quite a few pics for the Skull Corp base on Justice.

http://www.nwlink.com/~scourney/Coh/SkullCorpCoh.htm

Been working on it for months, but finally got enough of the details finished to want to post. Believe me, it has a lot of details and ambiance for such a really small base.


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Actually, for such a small group, you really have a great looking base. Excellent job!

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F.ex, my bases have zero decorative rooms; none. Another guy wants a big meeting hall with a huge conference table, though ... just to have it. Never mind it consumes footprint, serves no functional purpose, and we'd never meet in it. We have different priorities.

Good in theory, not so much in reality.



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I'm actually a bit shocked reading this on the same thread that complains about which dev cares what the people want and which dev doesn't. Being the leader of a SG/VG you should consider yourself a mini-dev. In our guild we ask people to play in SG mode "when ever fiesable". This basically means that if you aren't trying to buy enhancements, some new gear, or bank rolling a new toon or 2, we want to see you helping the cause. In exchange for this, I have never made a base that's an 18 million prestige homage to myself. If a rec room gives your group some positive morale and something that they can feel happy for contributing to, then by all means, spend some prestige on them! Why do you think the government spends tax dollars on parks? Personally, when I took over my group (a position I have since relinquished) I wanted to build a tech fortress in an attempt to massacre the few groups on our server that continuously grinded my nerves; but I knew that if I did this, I would lose the support of the men and women good enough to wear our tag above their noggin. If you work hard to create an atmosphere in which people feel that they are all working together they will find it hard not to want to contribute in what ever way possible to repay that debt. (Economics: the study of how motivation affects the choices people make when faced with limited resources)

Now floating around on this thread I've seen the idea of Global spots on the SG roster discussed. I love this idea, but I see the same potential problems that most others do. For starters, we're a large group, so I usually don't have a problem finding someone with invite permission online at most times that I play; but for smaller groups, this would be a great way to get in from the moment you reroll. Now in the past we've had to create as many as 5 groups to hold all of our alts. Freeing up these slots would cut down on a lot of paperwork and confussion. We already have a problem trying to figure out who's alt is who's, and this would surely clear it up. Tieing into that, prestige has a lot, but not everything, to do with promotions in our group (like it does with so many others), and has always been a point of bragging rights. Having a prestige total next to a Universal name would go a long way in understanding not only who is who, but who's contributing what. That being said, my concerns on this topic are two-fold.

First of all, as much as I would love to see players get tied down to my group alone, I can't say thats exactly fair. If a player has 3 main toons in 3 seperate SGs, how would it be decided what SG what toon plays in? Would they simply be able to change in and out of SG's on every toon as easily as they change costumes? And if so, does this not violate the integrity of base storage?

My second concern would be the use of global handles. Quite frankly, at no point in time would I want everybody that joins the SG to get my global id, and I think many others would like to see that privacy ensured as well. If this is done, I hope that the option of creating a SG ONLY chat handle will be included.

There's a few things I would like to add to this.

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Shocking Grasp

Single target
EC: 18.2 R: 15
6 ticks of 0.8333
slotting: (4-6) Acc-1 Dam-1 Hold Duration-0-1 RR-0-1 EM- 0-1

This is kind of a cool little power. Having a hold/heavy DoT attack is pretty neat, and great for taking out red and purple bosses/leiuts. It's animation is somewhat short, but it does feel like a long time between uses. Still I like having this one in my back pocket.


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I wrote this guide shortly after hitting 50, and having never been on a Hammi Raid; this has now become one of my favorite attacks. Drop a few HO's in there and you can suddenly slot for accuracy, damage, hold duration, and endurance drain/transfer.

[ QUOTE ]
Medicine

"Hmmm. Well it would be nice to be able to heal yourself." Forget about it. The heal times are interruptible, so they are useless in battle; and I'm sorry, but are you just too lazy to hit rest between mobs if you really have to heal yourself that bad? How about finding a teammate w/. a heal, or simply popping a few greens. Sorry, this ones a no go.


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An arguement on this one between me and a friend well out lived the day I wrote this, although my opinion has not changed. I eventually burned a freespec to check it out as I started participating in PvP and Hammi Raids much more often; two areas of the game that my conventional wisdom had not yet adjusted to. This pool does came in handy at the raids, and I'm sure that I will miss it to a small extent when its gone. However, for PvP I found that there's alot of DoT out there, and my oppertunities were limited to use it.

On my friends side, they were eventually able to point out to me that it can be used in conjunction with Personal Forcefield, something I no longer had at the time.

[ QUOTE ]
EPIC POWER POOLS

This is going to be brief because I can only speak intelligently about one of these: Force Mastery. From about 32+ I had planned on taking Cold for Hibernation and Snow Storm (along w/ the obvious armor), but was talked out of it by a good friend, and instead went w/ Force Mastery. TY Nuck. Personal Force Field can be used as a good emergency button to save you during an ambush, and can also be useful in walking through a wall of KB attacks to get yourself in position to Nova. Repulsion Field is a fancy way of saying Lightning field, so ignore it entirely. Temp Invuln is a nice defensive shield giving you a 20% slottable resistance to Lethal and Smashing Damage, and Force of Nature makes you tough as nails for 2 minutes (although it drops 100% of your endurance once it wears off, though there is no -recovery like nova carries.


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In the same Freespec I just mentioned, I switched over to the Elec Mastery epic pool. I knew I-8 was just around the corner, and the build I wanted to give a try to only had room for 2 epic powers, with Force Mastry being something I wanted 3 for.
EM is ok, even though I plan on switching back as soon as I get my next freespec. The single target hold does a little damage and more endurandce drain, plus it adds a ranged hold to your ranged immob and melee hold. It wound up being my second power suped-up w/ HO's. The armor is ok, but definently not comparable to Force.

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Kin/ or /Kin

Gotta love these guys if you can only get a buff out of them. Speed Boost will instantly solve any stamina problems you might be having, while making your attack rate fly through the roof, Increase Density will keep you from being held/immob/sleep/or stunned, but the mother of there powers is Fulcrum Shift. If you are on a team that has FS, simply stand by the closest mob thats being attacked, and wait for it. Can you say Damage Cap?


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Increased Density has noting to do w/ sleep resistance, sorry about that

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Fighting

This pool wasn't designed for blappers, per say. Boxing and Kick are very mediocre attacks (registering 2.1111 and 2.3333 on the brawl scale), and the defence/resistance bonuses given through tough and weave are severely scaled down from that of a tank or a scrapper. Still, it kind makes sense....


[/ QUOTE ] .

Gave this one a shot on that freespec too. I like Tough over Weave besause I'm a fan of being eased into defiance over my health bar jumping around. One problem though, having this on with FoN puts you over the cap by a good bit when both are slotted up. It takes wo powers to get this slight defence and it comes at a hefty end cost. I'll let you make the call on this one.

SAM'S GUIDE TO THE NRG/ELEC BLAPPER

So you woke up this morning and decided that you like dancing on the fine line of having an entire team hate you and being their uber-hero? Well you stumbled onto the right guide. Play it poorly and listen to tanks/scrappers whine about your KB. Play it well and hear things like "Did you sell your soul to buy enhancements?"

WHY WRITE HIS GUIDE?

I took this build to 31, switched servers, then played it again to 50. I've also taken an emp and a troller past 30, and plenty more toons to 15-20. In all that time playing I have noticed that a good blapper is harder to find than ta/a. There's even a famous 50 on Freedom, who will remain nameless to protect the innocents, that's holding a blapper build so poorly put together I honestly searched for a "random" button on my last respec (aka: reason #127 to raid the Unders).

WHY ENERGY (NRG)?

One word: Nova. The knock back (KB) associated w/ almost every power of this set is also great for damage mitigation.

WHY ELECRICITY (Elec)?

This mele set offers an endurance drain and recovery aspect that allows for great synergy between the two.

WHAT DOES THIS BUILD SPECIALIZE IN?

I would imagine that any blapper in this game is gonna need a little support around them to maximize their time (and really, what's fun is taking out a whole group of +2's in one shot if your friends aren't there to oogle over it) so this is definently a build to play in teams. I've soloed w/ it decently, but its much slower and just isn't as much fun. When matched w/ some good aggro control and a few buffs, you should find yourself on the fast track to 50 (if you can avoid the debt).

BASIC STRATAGY: BEFORE 32

Jump in, kill as much as you can before yo get noticed, jump out. Being a blapper does not change the fact that you will almost always be a squishy. Sit back, let your tanks and/or controllers, get the mobs under control, then pick'em of like field mice in Jed's backyard. Pound on the front of the mob w/ your AoE's, then charge into battle. You'll want to look for foes around the edges of herded mobs for your single target attacks, and once you take a few hits, jump outta there and move on to your next unsuspecting target.

BASIC STRATAGY: AFTER 32

Nova

POWER SET GUIDE 1: ENERGRY PRIMARY


Power Bolt

Single Target
Endurance Cost (EC): 5.2 Recharge (R): 4
(energy damage/smashing damage on brawl index)2.2222/0.5556

Most guides on energy blasters will tend to list this as one of your "bread and butter" attacks. Skip it. This is a high damage output build and this power simply doesn't make the grade. It moves fast, but does little damage

Power Blast

Single Target
EC: 8.528 R: 8
2.7778/1.7778
KB 30%
slotting: (5-6) Accuracy (Acc)- 1 Damage (Dam)- 3 Recharge Reduction (RR): 0-2 Endurance Reduction ER: 0-1

Now this is a bit more like it. Given that you have to start w/ one of these 2 powers, this is much more suitable for this concept than Power Bolt. Its damage can put a sizable dent in any minion/lieutenant and the added KB feature starts a long chain of keeping their bad guys on their butts. Hint: Badguys on their butts can't attack

Energy Torrent

Cone AoE
EC: 11.86 R: 12
1.8333/0.8333
KB 30%
Slotting: (6) Acc-1 Dam-3 RR-1 ER-1

OK, back to making fun of blaster guides. I've read more than one that leave this as an optional power; the reasons being the AoE KB and fact that "there are better AoE's out there". Both are true, to an extent. Nova is, in fact, a much better AoE than Energy Torrent, but then again, it IS your nuke. Still, I was curious of the wisdom brought forth in these guides, so I decided to load Hero Stats on my 50 and run a team for a few hours. I found that not only is this power worth keeping, but its the 2nd highest damage output over any decent length of time (2nd only to Nova). Simply wait a moment or two in battle for the aggro to get controlled, and launch one of these into a mob to start almost any fight to give your team an instant leg up. Also handy if you or a teammate suddenly finds themselves w/ a few too many baddies surrounding them, or clearing an even squishier teammate from the one or two minions preventing them from doing their job.

Power Burst

Single target
EC: 10.4 R: 10
3.1111/2.1111
KB 60%
slotting: (6) Acc-1 Dam-3-4 ER-0-1 RR-1

Time to bring the pain. This is a great attack for finishing off a badguy, or letting a new foe know he's in for somethin ugly. once you get a feel for what your attacks can do, the slower animation time on this attack (which is easily forgotten once the damage kicks in) allows you to switch views in battle to pick out your next prey and have an attack already loaded. Also the added KB on this power will put down more leiuts and bosses than your other main attacks

Sniper Blast

Single target
EC: 14.352 R: 12
5.5556/2.1111
KB 60%
slotting: (4) Acc-1 Dam-3

Eh..... I'm just not a huge fan of this attack, although I did work it into my build last respec. I don't like it because its slow and interruptible. The damage is great, and I'm positive that this can be useful in solo, but I mainly use it to take out a specific NPC in a mob (malta sappers, sky raider engineers, crystals, Q's, Voids...you know, all the things that make this game so enjoyable).It's worth having for that, but don't be an idiot and pull it out mid-battle. The 90% tohit rate against even level foes (opposed to the 75% standard rate) is also a nice added bonus

Aim

Self
EC: 5.2 R: 90
slotting: (3) RR-3

The first of your two self boosts. This one comes w/ a 100% Acc boost and a 62.5% damage increase. You can slot it w/ tohit buffs, but w/ 100% already in, plus the accuracy enhancements in your attacks, there is little reason to even attempt that. The problem is that its only a 10 second buff, so once you click it you should have enough time to get 2 attacks off. Make'm count.

Power Push

Single target
EC:8.528 R: 8
0.556/0.556
KB 100%

Wahoo! Finally something we don't need. The KB is great and the 97.5% tohit rate is incredible, but why are you taking powers that do only 12% more damage than brawl? Even 6 slotted w/ damage this attack amounts to little more than a situational waste of time.

Explosive Blast

AoE (15 ft)
EC: 15.184 R: 16
1.1111/1.13889
KB 50%
slotting: (6) Acc-1 Dam-3 RR-1 ER-1

Ok, once you get this slotted, you've got a new start to any fight: Energy Torrent into Explosive Blast. With 4x the range of torrent, it can follow the mob you just threw back with a second, deadly attack. Between the two, any mob you face will already have one foot in the grave, as long as you we smart enough to keep the aggro from both shots off yourself.

Nova

PBAoE (25 ft)
EC: 20.8 R: 360
5.5556/2.7778/4.1667
KB 80%
slotting: (6) Acc-1 Dam-3 RR-2

NOVA (/e beats chest like a mad man)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is why you showed up folks. Nova's the power that makes scrappers cry, and everyone else celebrate. Be prepared for lots of ohhs and ahhs. This power is the mother of damage and should be used every single chance you get; hence the 2 RR. 6 slot it asap and enjoy. It kills almost everything around you in a single shot, yet leaves you completely drained of endurance, and unable to recover any for a short time. However, there are several tricks to getting around this that I'll mention later.

POWER SET GUIDE 2: ELECTRICITY SECONDARY

Electric Fence

Single target
EC:7.8 R:4
5 ticks at 0.5556
slotting: (1-4) Acc-0-1 Endurance Modification (EM)-1-3

Ok, you gotta take this one, so have so fun w/ it. Electric Fence is s single foe immobilization hold with an endurance draining aspect to it. Its a great way to snag a quick minion in order to move o to something else, and spamming it on bosses can prove quite effective too.

Charged Brawl

Single target
EC: 10.192 R: 10
2.6667/2.7778
slotting: (6) Acc-1 Dam-3 RR-1 ER-0-1 EM-0-1

Welcome to blapper status. This quick attack does solid damage and leaves you in great position to KB the foe you just hit w/ one of your primary attacks. Make sure that you have "target closest enemy" binded to your keyboard, and use this on anything that comes near you. There is also a 10% disorient status to this attack, but not worth slotting in my opinion

Lightning Field

PBAoE (20 ft)/toggle
EC: 2.86572 R: 10
o.4722

"Yes! I want a 20ft low damage aggro-field surrounding me at all times! Please tell me how!" NO! I honestly cannot express in words how absolutely braindead you would have to be to think this power is a good idea. The best way to blap is not to let any foes know you're about to kill them. This grabs the attention of everything in sight. Remember, you are a squishy, leave the aggro for the tanks.

Havoc Punch

Single target
EC: 13.52 r: 14
1.6667/5.5556
slotting: (6) Acc-1-2 Dam-3 RR-0-1 ER-0-1 EM-0-1

Blapper attack #2. A total love/hate power here. It carries huge damage w/ a slower animation time than Charged Braw. It's not one use use a whole ton, but you will use it enough to call yourself a blapper. There is one thing I find odd about this power though, and its what causes me to hate it. While its listed as having the same 75% tohit rate as any normal power would, I discovered through running hero stats that even when slotted w/ 1 Acc, it was still hitting in the high 70% (77-78 to be exact). Throwing a second Acc in there clears up that problem, but does leave you short on slots. A KB status is also added to this attack.

Build Up

Self
EC: 5.2 R: 90
slotting: (3) RR-3

This is your second self buff, It carries 100% Dam boost and a 62.5% boost to Acc; both of which can be stacked w/ Aim to give yourself 10 seconds of 162.5/162.5. Slotting both powers w/ 3 RR should have it up almost every mob.

Lightning Clap

PBAoE (15 ft)
EC: 13 R: 30

This goes along the lines of Power Push: there is no room in this build for powers that deal no damage. Yes KB is nice. Yes disorient is great. No, I don't care.

Thunder Strike

AoE (10ft)
EC:18.512 R: 20
7.2226/1.9219

This is a very slow attack in which you launch yourself in the air and comedown , double-fisted, upon your opponent. It can KB and disorient for foe, and all the surrounding foes, while dealing additional damage to them as well. Sounds great, right? Guess what I respeced out of. the problem w/ this attack is that it takes so long to complete. Compared to the damage it produces its not so bad, except for the numerous deaths you will face before you ever get a chance to land it. I dropped this power out of necessity not desire, but its just not worth the debt.

Power Sink

PBAoE (10ft)
EC: 13 R: 60
slotting: (1-4) RR-0-2 EM-0-3

When you activate this power, you drain all nearby foes of endurance, and transfer it back to yourself. Thank Puddy for this one. Drop a Nova, pop a blue, find a group, Power Sink. There you go, yer back in the game kid!

Shocking Grasp

Single target
EC: 18.2 R: 15
6 ticks of 0.8333
slotting: (4-6) Acc-1 Dam-1 Hold Duration-0-1 RR-0-1 EM- 0-1

This is kind of a cool little power. Having a hold/heavy DoT attack is pretty neat, and great for taking out red and purple bosses/leiuts. It's animation is somewhat short, but it does feel like a long time between uses. Still I like having this one in my back pocket.


ADDITIONAL POWER POOLS

Concealment

Although I couldn't find room in this build to include the Concealment set, I can see the numerous advantages. Along w/ the obvious advantages that come with not being seen, stealth comes w/ a 2.5% defence boost, and invisibility has 3.5%. Any defence available for a blaster is a good defence, but watch out for adding more toggles to an already endurance heavy toon.

Fighting

This pool wasn't designed for blappers, per say. Boxing and Kick are very mediocre attacks (registering 2.1111 and 2.3333 on the brawl scale), and the defence/resistance bonuses given through tough and weave are severely scaled down from that of a tank or a scrapper. Still, it kind makes sense....

Fitness

Duh! This ones a must have. I took hurdle to add to my leaping pool, but feel free to take swift instead (but not both). Take Health at 16 (right after your travel power) and have it triple slotted by 17. Take Stamina at 20, have it triple slotted by 21. There is no way to stress the importance of doing both of these as so; you will be miserable if you don't.

Flight

This is a very slow traveling power which completely contradicts this build. Skip it. However, Group Fly will make you alot of friends at the Hemmi Raids.

Leadership

Yet another great set, that just isn't meant for blasters. Here's a quick example: Assault adds a boost to the damage output of anyone in range. The boost for Defenders is 18.75%, Controllers/WS/PB 15%, Blasters 10.5%. It becomes just another toggle at that point sucking away your precious endurance.

Leaping

Ok, this is the travel Power for you. The travel speed here is very good, and the bonuses that come in the set are essential. Jump Kick is a horrible attack, so skip it and take Combat Jumping (CJ). CJ has a resistance to immobilization, a 2.5% defence boost, and an 8% jump increase. Add one or two ER and/or defence buffs in there, or possibly a Jump enhancement if you took swift over hurdle. Super Jump comes at 14 and you're gonna want to grab it asap. Welcome to fast and easy vertical traveling. Adding a Jump enhancement in here is nice, but I wouldn't dedicate anymore slots to it. The final prize of the set, Acrobatics, is possibly one of the most over looked powers in the game. The resistance o KB and hold effects will come in use through out the game. As a blapper it is essential that you stay on your feet; this is how you're gonna do it.

Also, having CJ toggled on in the midst of battle will enable you to bounce in and out of certain "hot spots" to allow you to keep moving and keep killing. If you can't kill something in a couple of quick attacks, get out of there, and jump over to your next prey.

Medicine

"Hmmm. Well it would be nice to be able to heal yourself." Forget about it. The heal times are interruptible, so they are useless in battle; and I'm sorry, but are you just too lazy to hit rest between mobs if you really have to heal yourself that bad? How about finding a teammate w/. a heal, or simply popping a few greens. Sorry, this ones a no go.

Presence

Ok, back to the land of make believe. Seriously, if you put provoke on a blaster you need to have your head examined.

Speed

Ok, as soon as you find a small hole in your build (after level 6), grab hasten, triple slot it, and put it on auto. This is a must. I also took Super Speed from this set at 49 for PvP use, but you can feel free to drop that and possibly snipe or shocking grasp to add the concealment pool.

Teleportation

This set can be either the fastest way to travel, or the most annoying power you'll ever take. I highly recommend that tanks take this one, but not blasters (though tp friend has its advantage of carrying around low level friends and/or people w/ SS).


EPIC POWER POOLS

This is going to be brief because I can only speak intelligently about one of these: Force Mastery. From about 32+ I had planned on taking Cold for Hibernation and Snow Storm (along w/ the obvious armor), but was talked out of it by a good friend, and instead went w/ Force Mastery. TY Nuck. Personal Force Field can be used as a good emergency button to save you during an ambush, and can also be useful in walking through a wall of KB attacks to get yourself in position to Nova. Repulsion Field is a fancy way of saying Lightning field, so ignore it entirely. Temp Invuln is a nice defensive shield giving you a 20% slottable resistance to Lethal and Smashing Damage, and Force of Nature makes you tough as nails for 2 minutes (although it drops 100% of your endurance once it wears off, though there is no -recovery like nova carries.

POWER CHAINS

1) Aim + Build Up + Nova
2) Energy Torrent + Charged Brawl
3) Charged Brawl + Power Burst
4) Havoc Punch + Charged Brawl + Power Blast
5) Energy Torrent + Explosive Blast + target closest enemy+ Electric Fence + target next enemy + Power Burst + Power Blast: especially if group if herded to a corner


SUPPORTING STAFF

No man is an island, and especially not a blapper. so here's a few pointers on who to look for and why:

Tanks
These guys are invaluable to you. Look for tanks that have good aggro control in the form of taunt, provoke, mudpots (or any similar aoe power), or someone who simply slots their attacks w/ taunt instead of Dam. There is nothing better than picking off guys too busy trying to climb over 7 of his compadres to notice you killing him. Trust me, a good tank gets a kick out of this too. Puddy Bless the Meatbags!

Dark/ Defenders

Wait for them to drop a tar patch, then drop the big boom. Nova and Tar Patch are like beans and cornbread: "They go hand in hand" The ToHit debuffs are pretty nice too!

Kin/ or /Kin

Gotta love these guys if you can only get a buff out of them. Speed Boost will instantly solve any stamina problems you might be having, while making your attack rate fly through the roof, Increase Density will keep you from being held/immob/sleep/or stunned, but the mother of there powers is Fulcrum Shift. If you are on a team that has FS, simply stand by the closest mob thats being attacked, and wait for it. Can you say Damage Cap?

Emp/ or /Emp

Ahh, the pure healers of this game. Its an often thankless job, but you'll learn to love your Emps soon enough. Aside from constantly bailing you out of trouble as you learn to blap, Adrenalin Boost, is all but a cure from the endurance effects of Nova. Regeneration Aura and Recovery Aura (especially the latter) are 22 more great boosts from this set that will keep you in the fight much longer than with out.

Forcefield/ or /Forcefield

Ahh, the mighty Bubbler. So often overlooked, these guys can be a lifesaver. Any defence is a good defence.

Ill/

The great thing about Illusion controllers is that they get indestructible pets at 18. Although they do go away in time, the Phantom Army can make for great tanks.

Fire/

Keep in mind that Fire Cages, a fire controller's AoE immobilization attack, comes w/ a KB resistance. This can be good or bad, depending on how you play

Ice/

Here is the one player that can have a legitimate reason to hate you. Ice Slick is a great AoE power that keeps the batiks bouncing up and down on a block of ice. However, if they get knocked back off of the effected area, the hold is broken. Be mindful of this as you play.

CONCLUSION

So thats about it folks. I had a ton of fun playing this build, and I'd be afraid to see how many hours I have logged between the two toons that carry it, but this has been a fairly rough rundown of what it takes to be an Nrg/Elec Blapper. I didn't include an exact build or exact slotting specifications, because if you want to play one of my toons, you're just gonna have to buy it on ebay when I quit. There are plenty of great guides out there, so keep on reading. This one's just mine.

**************WELCOME TO THE ARMY!****************

* Supergroup Name: Ed's Army

* Website: Ed's Army Guild Portal

* Leaders: Tactical Ed, Medical Oficer Puddy, Lady Shya, Red Rey, Spawn of Aeoleon

* Preferred Method of contact: via the website

* Guild Description: Originally comprised of a small group of in-game and real life friends (less than 3 months before this posting), our ranks quickly increased into one of the largest, and certainly most active, SG's in Paragon today. We average close to 40 characters logged in daily, constantly hold a maxed out 2-3 week roster, and boast a base that includes: teleporters, work tables, an empowerment station, storage racks (for inspirations, enhancements, and salvage), med ring (gives you the option of weither to revive in the base or at the hospital), inspiration dispenser, raid teleporter, and a mission computer. We ask that all member are mature, have a good sense of humor, and are willing to aid and/or assist other players. Instead of being an old shool sg who whines all day about "how great this game used to be", we tend to be more interested in helping new and dedicated players better understand Paragon City and all it has to offer in order to build a better game in the future. For more information on us and how to join, please check out the website linked above. Have fun and keep on rock'n!