Wiggz

Originally Posted by Brightwel

If you don't mind posting that alternative IO build then please do. Also, I notice that you didn't take Shockwave, what do you think of it? Only I've heard quite mixed thoughts about it, some say its useless while others say its brilliant dmg mitigation when used correctly, and can't really decide whether to go with it or not.

Originally Posted by Werner

I always think of burst damage as X time span, where X is a short time frame, such as the length of a single Build Up, or perhaps a handful of seconds.

And no, I don't think that means we're talking about DPS, even if it's time for an attack chain or even two. Compare Broad Sword and Dual Blades, for instance. Pulling numbers out of thin air because I've long since lost the actual comparison, but I compared a Broad Sword with about 170 DPS to a Dual Blades with about 230 DPS. The break even point was around 17 seconds. Any shorter than that, and Broad Sword won the damage race. The reason, of course, is the difference between Build Up and Blinding Feint. And to me, the difference between Build Up and Blinding Feint is burst damage.

You can talk maximum single hit damage, but I put that in its own category, with its own name. I also consider it a useless measurement in PvE, though perhaps more so in PvP. When we're talking burst, I'm thinking short time frame, five to ten seconds. When we say DPS, I think very long time frames. If you sit there and pound on something forever, what will your average damage per second be? Then to me, there's this vast gulf between burst and DPS where the advantages cross over from one to the other.

I also don't make any rules outside of time scale. I consider it a bit artificial to add something like "wouldn't include any give power used twice". I use Gambler's Cut after ever attack. Does that mean my burst damage is limited to Golden Dragonfly -> Gambler's Cut? That seems too short, even if it plays to my advantage against someone spamming five different attacks in a row, where the later attacks are lower damage. Or at least if it isn't too short, then the comparison should be on that particularly short time scale.

I'm not sure it's important to nail it down, though, as long as we all understand how damage changes over time, and how some primaries have very hard hitting single attacks, and some are good at front loading damage, while others ramp up slowly instead. And I think most people in the "what is burst damage" argument understands the underlying facts, turning it mostly into semantics.

All I'd suggest is that if somehow we ever come to a consensus, that if that consensus is that burst damage is a single attack, then we're desperately in need of another term for damage over a short time frame. Perhaps front-loaded damage or something. But I think it's easier and more clear to give a single attack the alternate name.

Originally Posted by Werner

It depends on what you mean by "most effective". It's probably the most recommended soloist on the Scrapper forum - it's easy to build, easy to play, easy to level, plus gives up nothing on top end power for that simplicity. But it's fairly middle of the road for damage output. The most effective soloer, at least in terms of speed of leveling, is probably combining a much more AoE-centric set with a damage boost and enough survivability to not waste a lot of time on the hospital. So Electric/Shield for instance, though there would be a lot of other examples.

Originally Posted by firespray

I'm wanting to create a new blaster who can easily solo his way through praetoria. I'm looking for suggestions on the easiest sets to do this with. I'm thinking some combination of ice and energy would probably be good, but I'm open to suggestions.

Originally Posted by Knight Jolt

Many people view Chilblain simply as an immobilizer. It's so much more useful than that. For taking out powerful single targets, from regular bosses to AVs, there's no better ingredient.

Find a sturdy target and spam Chilblain along with your blast powers. You should see its value there.

Originally Posted by Firewasp

First I wondered what a Blapper was. Go to Google and ask. Wiki pops up and says:

Definition

Blapper
Refers to an player character who is a Blaster archetype, but plays more like a Scrapper by using melee attacks from their secondary power set a lot more than their primary power set of ranged attacks.

Now as you know, your secondary is not nearly as powerful as your primary. You have little to no defense. So you are telling me that you would go through 50 levels playing a weak scrapper? I bet you get your debt badges rather early.

Is CoX that boring to make a weak AT? Don't get me wrong, I like to do challenging stuff too. That's why I moved from WoW to CoX for more of a challenge

Originally Posted by Auroxis

I can say with experience that Sonic/Mental/Elec is very conetastic. You can have a never ending cone chain of death, and if you're in need of PBAOE there's always Psychic Shockwave. Couple that with great team friendly stuff in Sonic's -res and you have an excellent blaster. I use mine to farm the Cimerora wall from time to time.

Originally Posted by MaestroMavius

Fire/Ice is still to this day the fastest Blaster I've reached 50 on. Mostly solo to boot.

The damage is amazing. Great AOE from the start. Good ST chain as well.

The real beauty comes from /Ice though, making this one of the more durable builds I've played. Shiver and Ice Patch are the two mainstays.

However...

I would advise not taking Chilling Embrace as you won't be in melee much with this combo. Also I'd avoid the Tier9 in /Ice as your AOE's will make the sleep pointless.

Originally Posted by Michael1_NA

Thanks Wiggz, you just saved me a lot of time. I was going to ask about what sets give you def, and you answered it for me. never done a build that was built for def, heck I have however done one for recharge on my Perma/Perma Hasten Mind/Energy Dom. I hope this blaster gives me as much joy as my Dom.

Originally Posted by Circuit_Boy

If the whole spawn's asleep, why even bother with +Defense at all?

Amplify at 49? And only two slotted?

And Build-Up only one-and-a-half slotted for Recharge, the other part doing ToHit Buff (when most people are well over the ToHit Cap anyway)? Seriously?

Does anyone look at City of Data anymore, or do you just let Mids do all the deciding for you?

(shakes his head and walks out of the thread, muttering "...this explains the PUGs I've been on lately...")

Originally Posted by Gilia

Woah woah woah, what? You know Boost Range does the same thing for AR's 3 cones, and allows you to RoA from such a distance that there's no alpha strike retaliation?

/Energy probably does the least for Fire/ of the sets mentioned, but I really like /Energy with AR, Archery, and Energy/. As long as there's cones involved, Boost Range is just amazing. BR+Blaze/Fire Breath would probably be good for one with a ranged defense cap though.

Though that is a good point about Power Boost. There's not a lot of Blaster AoE mezzes, so it's a good match up when possible.

I agree that Fire/Ice is a ton of fun. Ice Patch + RoA are an awesome way to increase a small team's survivability if there's no controller/dominator around doing the same sort of thing.

Originally Posted by Gilia

I can understand missing the sound. I usually have music playing over the game and I pause it to hear glowies.

I agree it's underpowered, but solo style I think the only slow down is the lack of Build Up. Cloaking Device/Smoke Grenade are awesome for ninjaing missions, and toe bomb and Taser are both fight winners with small mobs. Remember too that the Time Bomb placement time is about the same as the -recovery on a crashing nuke. Granted you can't just guzzle blues to get past it, but that's not *always* going to be available anyway.

On large teams though the slow down is more apparent.

/Energy is still probably my favorite. It's the only Blaster secondary I've played to 50 more than once.

There's still no denying how safe /Ice is though.

Originally Posted by Gilia

That was actually covered before the /Devices discussion started :-P. OP doesn't like the sound. It was like the first two responses.

On the /Devices (/Trip Mine) discussion, I really like it for soloing because I like baked in stealth powers when soloing, and you can just use Trip Mine to toe bomb. It makes for an awesome opener on any small mob.

Also, on the rare occasion that some boss does (or will) give you a lot of trouble, you can cake the floor with trip mines and make it a non-issue.

I'm kind of on a baking thing right now.

Originally Posted by Verren

Hiya folks,

I'm looking to make a blaster just to solo to the top, I want something with nice dps and some survivability. I was thinking of Energy/Energy to keep the mobs away, what do you all think?

Originally Posted by Michael1_NA

I recently decided to roll a Sonic Blast/Energy Assault Blaster. The idea came to me that each Sonic paired with Energy will make a great combo due to -res coupled with the punch that energy melee brings will be wicked. This on top of the Power Boost and the sonic cone sleep will make it even more sweeter.

I wanted to know how does this work out end game. Does this combo solo well against say +1 or +2/3 man sized mob? Is it even possibel to get near the def softcap on this toon without giving up too much? And is there any tips on what powers are skipable?