BlackSly

I can believe that if there is a coding problem, then we live with this awkward and half-[censored] solution because of the coding problem.

I'm a programmer. I can believe the complexities. But if it's due to a coding problem, then please just say so.

Don't give me that crap about "Blasters aren't meant to melee therefore this is a good solution". That's just crap. Explain why a Blaster's Bonesmasher cannot reach through the Hurricane, but a Tanker's Bonesmasher can. Because the Blaster has OTHER options? Ridiculous answer. OTHER OPTIONS are, you know? OTHER OPTIONS! They're not what I'm using now. Why are two ATs using the same power, where the Blaster is actually using it BETTER (more damage)... and the Blaster's Bonesmasher is vulnerable to range debuffing while the Tanker's isn't?

"Other options" is a bad answer. They shouldn't affect THIS power. A melee attack is a melee attack, period. The source doesn't matter.

And what of Peacebringers? Do we count them as melee since their main attacks are melee and they have damage shield? Or do we count them as ranged since they have ranged attacks? What if they're in Tank form? What if they're in Nova form?

All sorts of questions that are caused by the silly solution of having range debuffs be AT-specific. If it's that much easier to code it that way, fine, admit it and we'll live with a less than right solution, but don't tell us "this IS the right solution".

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Bug. We neglected to give Stalkers and Brutes the immunity to the Range Debuff that Scrappers and Tankers get. I fixed it internally yesterday...it'll hopefully make it to you folks "Soon(tm)"

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Why is this the conceptual solution? Wouldn't it make more sense to make MELEE attacks, regardless of source, immune from range debuffing?

There is no reason why Scrapper ranged attacks are immune to range debuffing

There is no reason why Blaster melee attacks are vulnerable to range debuffing.

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At higher levels Brutes get the power to summon Synapse and throw him at enemies as a range attack.

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No one gives us electric blasters a fair shake. Come on guys!

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If you want, we can shake Synapse like a ragdoll before we throw him.

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If, instead of shaking, you take a wool cloth and rub his head before tossing, you get a Short Circuit effect where he hits.

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oh, he only SAID it would happen.

I'll believe it when I see it. And then when it hasn't been changed back in the 12 months following it. And then I'll start to not believe it again, just in preparedness.

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Every time Statesman has said a change will happen, it's happened or he's explained why it couldn't (like that "rage" ability for tankers).

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Not PvP that PvP he PvP can PvP honestly or PvP clearly PvP state PvP the PvP true PvP reasons PvP for PvP the PvP "changes" PvP were PvP made.

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Have a closed mind often? Or just when posting?

Geko, I have a problem with the overall numbers of the attacks.

Even discounting the long attack times, here is what I see from, say, Snap Shot:

+16% base accuracy -> does 16% more damage than comparable attacks
2.23 BI vs 2.78 BI for standard "weak" blast -> does 20% less damage per hit

So, it will hit 16% more, for 20% less damage. In other words, it does less damage per shot than other first blasts. Since it also takes much longer to activate, it does far less damage per animation second than other blasts.

Theoretically, this is balanced with a shorter recharge. So, individually, Snap Shot matches up to other "weak" blasts since it fires faster.

However, this does not matter as much, for the following reasons:

1) Full attack chains. Especially with such fast recharge times, the quick recharges are "wasted". We're stuck with powers that are fully recharged, but can't fire because of the long animation times, yet our damage is lowered because of that uselessly-low animation time.
2) Endurance. Lower average damage per shot, but same Endurance cost = lower DPE.
3) No secondary effect. As the numbers above show, we do less damage per activation time even after the accuracy bonus, yet in return for the accuracy bonus, we lose any other secondary effect.

Thank you for the nice Accuracy bonus. But look again at the DPS numbers of Archery, NOT of each single attack, but rather as a whole. Once you have a full attack cycle from it, you lose a large part of its "speed advantage" due to fast recharge, and are heavily impacted by its "speed disadvantage" that comes from slow animations. Especially once you add in perma-Hasten, which benefits other sets like Ice tremendously... and Archery almost not at all, against single targets.

The problem is the same with Aimed Shot, but worse off in Endurance.

Other attacks seem more okay, but for a Blaster set to have its first two attacks be the reason why it's weak, is very bad: Blasters can't really afford not to have usable early attacks, it's their bread and butter and they really depend on them. Scrappers get top-end attacks so that they can later respec out of crappy early attacks, but Blasters get AoEs at the end, and thus use their early blasts from levels 1 to 50.

Those early two blasts for Archery are the worst in the AT, with the possible exception of Flares. And consider how many guides suggest to skip Flares.

States:

1: thank you for coming up with a quick fix to the problem.

2: However, I believe that the solution needs to be examined a bit. I cannot see the reasoning in giving Steamy Mist, which has Resistance to Fire and no Resistance to S/L, a specific typed defense... to S/L. And not to Fire or Cold.

Please consider adding in typed defense vs all types, except perhaps Psy and maybe Toxic. I cannot see a game specific reason to allow someone to gain defense vs a thrown Ice Blast (cold/lethal), but not vs a very similar thrown Fire Blast (fire).

Another good tactic is to use range.

His kill-nuke is PBAoE. So you can do the following:

1: make sure your debuffer is protected against mezzing, as his ranged shots will mez

2: debuff from maximum range, probably starting with a -Slow debuff. That would be LR or Tar Pit.

3: put down the damage debuff (DN or EF). With that debuff up, a Dull Pain tanker should be able to handle the nuke. After the nuke, the King doesn't do that much damage. Send in the tanker and have him Taunt and charge before the King can kill the debuffer at range.

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I like them as pets, they just need to be smart enough to actually attack a target on their own.

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Even better, how about if they DON'T attack until we attack, then attack our target?

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Then they'd be a pre-fired, high damage, ranged AE attack in human form.

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And if the bug were removed now so that they attack dependably, what else are they now?

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I like them as pets, they just need to be smart enough to actually attack a target on their own.

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Even better, how about if they DON'T attack until we attack, then attack our target?

Some additions:

Disruption Arrow is a very large AoE debuff. While Acid Arrow also debuffs -Def, Disruption Arrow will get the entire spawn, easily, while AA only gets a few. I wouldn't skip it in most cases.

Ice Arrow is not very impressive as a single-target Hold. The long activation 3-4 seconds) then results in a relatively short hold effect. I think I'l respec out of it for Stunning Arrow.. that may have a longer recharge, but it'll also have a longer duration, which means I get more effect out of the animation time.

Aimed Shot is a very endurance-inefficient attack, much worse than Snap Shot or Blazing Arrow. I'd skip it unless you really need the extra single-target attack and don't much care about Endurance usage.

EMP Arrow's "special vs robots" should be like EMP from Rad, which does Moderate damage to robots. Theoretically the base damage isn't bad, but since it'll be unslotted, it doesn't amount to much.

I will take the Leadership Pool... with the base accuracy bonus of most Archery attacks, and Tactics, I will be able to skip slotting for Accuracy on the attacks. I'll replace the Stealth by using Flash Arrow, which with an Acc and Tactics should hit dependably enough.

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Sorry, it's a guide - I'm going to nitpick: Dark PIT, Tar PATCH.

/pet peeve.

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Hehe, whoops. Didn't catch that.

Overview
There are many types of defenders, and there is also the debate between pure Defenders and Offenders. For these two reasons, the "how to" guide is, of necessity, broad and usually not very specific. In addition, we need to define what the guide is for: This is not a guide about how to play. You play for fun, that should be your overriding concern. And since each person determines how they find it most fun to play, writing a guide for that would be pointless.

No, this is simply a guide regarding how to be most effective for a team in battles. Effective is not always most fun. Effective is not always most appreciated (players notice heals more than the damage you may do, so they'll appreciate ineffective healing over effective blasting). But it's there, and you should at least consider it so that you know exactly why you're not doing it, before dismissing it. I feel everyone is free to play in whatever style they want, however inefficient it is, but I prefer that they do it knowingly rather that out of ignorance of what may be efficient.


The Balance
The eternal Defender's dilemma: how much to blast, and how much to defend? You have a problem with trying to do both:

1) You only have so much Endurance to spare.
2) You can only activate one power at a time. You may have 2 blasts and 2 heals ready, but with a mob in your face and two teammates in the red, you cannot fire a heal in each direction and the two blasts in front of you. Activation time is a major issue, in many ways more than Endurance.

I have a very simple view on this issue, though of course specific circumstances may occasionally change your power choice:

Blasters unique AT function is to AoE blast.
Controllers is to AoE control.
Tankers is to grab aggro.
Defenders is to buff and to AoE debuff.

Given a choice between fulfilling your AT-specific primary function and a direct damage attack that is near the lower end of the damage scales compared to Blaster, Scrapper, Kheldian, and even Tanker AoEs, it's more effective for the team for you to buff (heal) and debuff.

Am I saying "never blast"? Heck, no. What I AM saying is that your main function is to lay down debuffs, to make sure that everyone is buffed, and to fire heals when people are damaged and the heals are ready. You should most certainly blast, but not blast when instead you have an AoE debuff ready to activate. Or a heal ready to use on an injured teammate.

Generally, buffs aren't a problem. You should put them up before battle, and thus not have to worry about them once the battle is started.

Debuffs, however, are generally AoE. It is more valuable for the team for you to lay down an AoE debuff than an AoE attack, and certainly more effective to lay it down than a single-target attack. Debuffing 8 mobs is better than shooting one.

Also, ironically, if you concentrate on debuffs and heals, it takes less of your time. This seems counterintuitive, but bear with me:

-if you concentrate on blasts, quite often, it's possible to fill up your activation times with no breaks, just with attacks. In a large team fight where AoEs are a good option, and adding in single-target attacks when the AoEs aren't recharged, you can blast to the point where you're constantly blasting. Thus, leaving no room for the buffs/debuffs/heals.

-if, on the other hand, your first priority is to buff/debuff/heal, you know what? You do not have a full activation chain of those, except perhaps if you're Kinetics. So you can drop all of your debuffs, or fire a heal in one direction and an AoE heal in another, and be left with time on your hands while waiting for your primary powers to reactivate. In the case of Rad, as an example, after you fire EF, RI, and LR, you won't put them up again until several seconds after your anchors are killed. You may fire a heal, but even doing that still gives you several seconds of standing around.

Thus, I see that a defender who primarily buffs/debuffs/heals will still have time to blast without interrupting their primary activity, whereas one who primarily blasts will have to interrupt their primary activity in order to blast/debuff/heal.

So IMO, the proper "balance" to achieve is to use AoE buffs/debuffs and heals first, then AoE blast, then single-target debuff and single-target attack.


The Opening
Many defender powers are used at the beginning of combat, and not used again. And at the beginning of combat, you have all of your powers recharged (generally), and full Endurance (generally), thus the limitation on what you do is activation time. And, in addition, the first few seconds of a combat are extremely important.

So, what do you do in order to be most helpful early on? Well, that largely depends upon your set. This is a place where generic instructions may not be that helpful.

Overall, you want to first activate powers that defend. First make sure you're defended from return fire, then put down powers that help you hit harder. RI is more important than EF or LR, for example. Darkest Night before Tar Pit.

However, if you're on a team where you're not worrying much about defense, then you might skip the defensive power.

Also, you want to prioritize fast powers over slow ones so that you get more debuffs out sooner. So by that measure, EF should be dropped before RI since it activates much faster. But RI should be dropped first because it's a better defensive power.

One way to get around the timing issue for ONE power (such as RI) is to get used to the team timing. When the tank is rushing in, if you see that he grabs aggro within the first couple of seconds, then you can safely start RI as he's rushing in. By the time RI is up, the tank has the aggro, and you got effective use out of those two seconds while the tank rushed in. If you had used EF during the same time, it would have activated first, and drawn aggro (and a salvo) at you. So it's possible to use a slow-activating power as the opener if you time it right.

Another way is if you're really doing the actual opener (I define the "opener" as the power that draws the return alpha strike from everyone that survives and isn't controlled). Then it doesn't matter how long the first power takes to activate, since combat won't start until it's aggroed the mobs. In this case, certainly, RI > EF.

A side note is that in an AoE heavy team, or when teaming with powers that cause scatter (Burn and all rains), an AoE -Slow power may be very effective if put down before the AoE scatter power is used. Mobs slowly trying to run out of rains are usually little danger for a while.

Empaths and openings: An Empath has no real opening power in their primary. In general, someone else on the team should be initiating battle. However, taking the alpha strike is often very dangerous, and an Empath (or a Stormie) should have whoever is opening pre-targetted so that they can heal him immediately as he's taking the alpha strike.


Endurance, Blasting, and your blue bar
Your most efficient use of Endurance is to use your Defender primary, rather than blasting. In a tough fight, especially pre-Stamina, when the team is in trouble, and you end up with no Endurance, it's better if you spent all of it that you could with your primary rather than your secondary.

However. Efficient use of Endurance is NOT always the most efficient. How is that? Well, an endurance-inefficent blast that takes down an enemy Ancestor Spirit before he can drop your Blaster's health by 50%, is actually more efficient for the party than having you heal the Blaster, and then the Blaster take down the Spirit. Blasting is not Endurance-efficient, but shortening the battle IS. This is why I strongly advocate that you remain active in a battle, especially early on, rather than hanging around waiting for your heals and debuffs to recharge.

You should start conserving Endurance when you're below 50%. At this point, if the battle is still going heavy, it's a good likelyhood that it will go past the point where you're bottomed out, if you keep blasting. However, until you reach 50%, as long as you're not holding up your buffs/debuffs/heals by entering an attack animation, it's often more helpful to blast in order to get mobs down sooner, than to save Endurance for a later heal.

There will be many teams that just roll through a mission. If you see that you're not doing much defending, then prioritize your blasts a little higher... perhaps even forego some of the defensive layers. One of the main strengths of a Defender is the ability to switch tactics within a fight, a mission, or a team, while other ATs would have to reslot if they wanted to go for more offense at the expense of some defense. Don't overlook this strength... if you see that the team has too much defense, then it's time to start using blasts. This is the main reason I always suggest that every Defender takes and slots 2-3 single-target attacks, and 1-2 AoE attacks... because there are times when your defense is just not needed, and it's a shame to sit around not contributing.

In the end
In the end, Defenders are the one AT which has the most fluid role. Blasters always blast, Tankers tank, Controllers control first, etc... Defenders can go from 100% offense to 100% defense, or in between... and with balanced slotting, the same character can do both jobs in the same mission. This is why they have the most difficulty in finding the right balance. I advocate a mostly balanced approach, leaning primarily towards the Defending powerset rather than the blasting, but that's not always the most effective for that particular team, fight, etc.

So take this guide with a grain of salt. It's a guide only, and it's a guide to balancing the most fluid AT. If you attempt to live strictly by a guide to being efficient, you will ironically end up as less efficient in the end. Take this as a guide, but model your approach to each mission based on what the team's needs are between offense and defense.

One more tactic:

The Big Boom

Sometimes you're in a team where the tank can take the aggro, but can't hold it. So you want to blow mobs up so hard that there's nothing left to shoot back. Trip Mine is perfect for this task.

Step 1: find a place that the tank will pull the mobs to
Step 2: mine the area, put down 5-8 mines. In I5, due to the AoE limits, you'll have to use more mines, and also spread them out a bit so that all mobs get the pleasure of being bombed.
Step 3: back out of range so that your mines won't explode.
Step 4: wait for tank to pull the mobs to the killing field.
Step 5: run in when called, so that your presence activates the mines with the mobs right on top of them. The explosion is something you have to see at least once in your /Devices career.

Very good guide. Good descriptions for the powers, and in general pretty accurate.

My additions:

1: Psychic Scream would be a must-have if you weren't an Empath. It is a great AoE power, with enough cone range that you can fire it off from pretty far away. Probably the best single AoE power available to Defenders. Of course, the last thing that a healer wants to do is to draw lots of aggro, so while it's a no-brainer for non-Empaths, an Empath could reasonably skip it. Personally, I took it and I'm very happy I did... there are times when a team is just rolling, and then the only things to do are to keep up buffs and blast... and AoE blasts are always the best way to roll through missions.

2: Scramble Thoughts is a great power if you plan to solo. More control is always great, and especially so for a Defender like an Empath who doesn't really have any serious self-defense ability from his primary. A Rad or a Dark Defender could get away with using their primary for defense... an Empath can't. You have to defend by mezzing, and Scramble Thoughts is your best tool for that. Best of all, it's versatile: If you really want to use it all the time, it can use many slots and be a great power. If you don't, you can still 1-slot it with Accuracy, and use it as a "oops, aggroed too many" to get a dangerous Lt out of the way for a bit while you work on the rest. 1 or 6 slotted, it's a worthwhile power.

3: Andrenaline Boost. Just wanted to add: it's my Fire Tanker's favorite boost. Makes me close to invincible, while also increasing my attack speed and recovery rate. It's not as worthwhile on defense-based characters or squishies since they may drop too fast for the regen to help them, but on a resist-based character, it's just amazing.

4: Even slotted for soloing, you won't be one of the top soloers out there. Having many friends and always teaming will help in advancement. To that end, take and keep Recall Friend. Whether you want to use Teleport for travel is your choice, but nothing makes any character as desirable in a team as knowing that he's fast to a mission, and ready to provide taxi service for anyone. Helps with people SK'd up, helps with people going afk to get a drink, helps when summoning corpses out of the battle area so they can be safely rezzed mid-battle, etc. Take it.

Remind players that there is a HELP button (F8, as I recall). That works a lot quicker and easier than "Heal plz".

Be proactive. If the Controller is running forward to open up the battle with an AoE Hold, have him targetted already. He'll probably be taking some damage.

Find your problem children in each team early, and remind them that your heals are limited by range and LOS. Speak with the tank about how solid he is on you backing away to heal the Blasters... can he hold the mobs during that time, or will you get him killed (and thus probably the entire party).

Check team powers to see who has Phase Shift or similar powers, and who has Absorb Pain or MoG. That way you don't waste time trying to heal the same person twice when they're Phase Shifted.

You both have the same very good point.

Yes, this guide is written to discuss how the primary and the secondary powerset that YOU have, best work together.

Soon as you are in a team, the synergy changes completely. For example, I consider Electric/ as easily the best match for /Fire, because Electric provides the AoE control effect that Fire needs. But soon as you're in a team where a specialist can better apply that AoE control, you have no use for that synergy, and instead, would prefer the synergy of having more AoE damage to add onto your current AoE damage.

The reason I did not go into the team synergies is that there are so many different teams possible, that it's rather difficult to offer suggestions regarding all of the powers. Just as an example, the Ice primary, if you duo with a Controller, gets great effect out of a well-slotted Ice Storm and Blizzard, slotted for damage instead of Slow. But if you duo with a Scrapper, who can't aggro-control or status control, what you want is to focus on the single-target blasts and pick targets off the Scrapper one by one. So the same set will have different strengths depending on your team. It becomes difficult to mention all of them, but thinking about it, I think I see the makings of another guide ... one that describes how each powerset works in a team, depending on whether you're soloing, duoing, large-teaming, and on what is available in the team.

Good answers. The guide as it is, to keep space limited, is written in the assumption that you either solo or that you wish to make sure your powers work together regardless of what you have on the team. Certainly synergies will change depending on team and enemies (back to the Elec/Fire example, against Rikti, it might be totally gimped, due to being unable to close in and open with Short Circuit).

I'm going to begin a series discussing the synergies between primaries and secondaries within each AT. This is not about thematic synergy (AR/Dev), nor is it about pairing each primary with the best secondary. It's about which sets has more of its abilities become especially useful when paired with another particular set.

First in line: Blasters.


Assault Rifle :
Strengths: multiple AoEs overall, multiple cone AoEs, nuke can be used within attack chain.

Weaknesses: reduced damage due to being Lethal, high-damage AoEs have long activation times, only 2 single-target attacks plus a snipe.

Secondary Synergies: When used as an AoE set, striking down entire groups with multiple AoEs, AR can benefit a lot more from Build-Up than by the non-front-loaded damage bonus from Targetting Drone. In addition, it has enough AoE strike capability that it doesn't need Trip Mine. So Devices, although usually taken thematically, doesn't match too well. We want something that has Build-Up, and preferably that provides damage mitigation while the DoT ticks of Flamethrower and FA arrest the mobs. Energy is a good matchup because Boost Range now gives insane range to FA's cone, and makes Flamethrower and Buckshot have really impressive cone ranges. However, I don't see enough damage mitigation in Energy to help me stand in front of multiple mobs as they're being cut down by FA.

I see Ice as being the best secondary for AR. Ice Patch is a great AoE damage mitigation power, as is Shiver. Combine the two, and you get a group that is slowed and falling down, so that as you DoT them over the next ten seconds, they easily lose half the shots that they would have taken on you. That's the best AoE damage mitigation that I see in the secondaries, it has Build-Up, which becomes available just before Flamethrower. Shiver is a cone, matching well with AR.


Fire Blast :
Strengths: extra DoT damage on all attacks, good early AoE attacks, high BI on most attacks.

Weaknesses: first attack power weakens single-target chain, no mezzing/knockdown ability that mitigates damage

Secondary Synergies: Fire can do good single-target damage, but specializes in AoE alpha strikes. For this reason we discard Devices (need Build-Up). We're looking at damage mitigation from the secondary, as well as additional single-target offense so that we don't have to rely on Flares. Fire secondary is right out, we don't want two sets that combine for 0 mezzing/knockdown attacks. That leaves Electric, Ice, and Energy. Ice isn't bad for the same reason it matches with AR, but one major advantage of Fire/ is that it gets its AoEs very early. For that reason, we would like a secondary that gets Build-Up very early.

So we're leaning towards Energy. Is Electric significantly better? Well, it does have Power Sink to help mitigate damage, and Energy's great Power Boost isn't as hot when Fire/ gets no benefit out of it. Stun and Total Focus are great single-target mitigating attacks for Energy, while Electric works well against multiple targets with Power Sink and Lightning Clap, plus possibly the AoE hit from Thunderstrike. Both get great single-target melee attacks early on. All in all, both work well. Energy has a great benefit of getting Build-Up so that you can combo BU + Fire Breath + Fireball at level 8. On the other hand, Electrical gets the advantage of having AoE mitigation powers rather than just single-target.

I would put Electrical as the best, given Fire's focus upon AoEs. Energy is a great set all around, and that may be why it's a close choice, but overall I don't see why Fire/ would be better for /Energy than any other primary. So I will leave Energy aside, waiting for a better set that matches it, and put Electric with Fire, since it fits my definition of synergy: it works better with Fire than with other sets.


Energy Blast :
Strengths: constant knockdown ability.

Weaknesses: AoEs scatter mobs. Knockdown is intermittent. Relatively slow attack animations.

Energy Blast is a strange primary. It can use BU for an alpha strike, but isn't a major alpha strike set. Due to slower animations, and a single-target orientation, its fights last longer... thus Build-Up isn't as useful as Targetting Drone. What makes it strange is its damage mitigation. While other sets rely on a particular power or two to mitigate damage, and then on the other powers for offense, Energy Blast has damage mitigation in every power, and thus defends itself best by constantly blasting a single target. Thus, the secondary for Energy seems least useful in damage mitigation.

It does not need single-target attacks from the secondary, and since it focuses on knocking enemies back constantly, it has little use for a melee-strong secondary. The best damage mitigation is a "use and forget" power like Ice Patch or Cloaking Device, rather than active mezzing powers like Freezing Touch. Lastly, since it's a bit lacking in AoEs, it seems as if it has use for Trip Mine.

So, I'm putting Devices again as the most synergistic secondary. /Energy just doesn't get enough out of Power Boost, though Boost Range is nice with Energy/, and we're wasting all of its melee attacks. Ice's Ice Patch is completely against the knockback from Energy/. Basically, Energy/ works so poorly with melee powers that we're left looking only at support powers. Devices, with the ability of Caltrops to aid in keeping enemies away, with Targetting Drone helping the longer fights, Smoke Grenade with long-term pre-alpha defense, etc, just gives the best all-around support for a long-fight, single-target set like Energy/. And that's without Trip Mine.


Electrical Blast :
Strengths: AoE damage mitigation through End Drain. Ranged nuke.

Weaknesses: No third attack for attack chain. Relatively slow animations.

This is, well, the shortest and easiest analysis yet. The defining feature of Electric Blast is opening up with Short Circuit to neuter enemies at PBAoE range. There are two sets that work best with this: /Energy's Power Boost aids with the drain, while /Fire's follow-up PBAoEs take down the nearby foes relatively quickly.

I like Power Boost, but I see Fire as just completely designed to follow up Short Circuit. SC, Ball Lightning, then Combust and Fire Sword Circle is 4 consecutive PBAoE attacks that all fit within a Build-Up/Aim cycle. That is just too juicy to pass up. In a strange role reversal, Electric primary provides the damage mitigation that allows Fire secondary to focus on the only thing it does especially well, which is AoE pure damage. Minions die from this alpha too fast to do much, and bosses are the most vulnerable to Electric's endurance drain powers. All in all, both sets cover each other too well to pass.


Ice Blast :
Strengths: 3 fast strong single-target chainable attacks, 2 ranged holds.

Weaknesses: Nuke requires support powers, no snipe.

Ice is the best single-target primary, and probably the worst AoE. Its damage mitigation is excellent, with two Holds available, plus a decent stacking -Recharge on all attacks. Since it's single-target, combats run a bit longer, making Targetting Drone a better match than Build-Up. Additionally, Ice Storm and Blizzard do not benefit from BU, so that's even less useful. Lastly, with 3 chainable single-target attacks, Ice doesn't need a secondary with melee attacks.

I hate to list Devices twice, but for pretty much the same reasons as for Energy/, it matches best with Ice. Trip Mine helps with Ice's AoE weakness. Targetting Drone works better than Build-Up with Ice. Caltrops stacks with Ice Storm and Blizzard for AoE DoT and Slow, so that you can afford to slot up Ice Storm for damage rather than for Slow. Auto Turret works better for single-target sets, as the Blaster defeats one target while the others shoot at the AT. All in all, Devices is tailor-made to support single-target primaries like Energy and Ice. Energy Manipulation gets a mention as another synergistic secondary. I don't like how it doesn't help with Ice's weakness (AoE), but it does make Ice into an amazing single-target killer, as well as helping with Ice's major Endurance problem via Conserve Energy, and with Ice's lack of a snipe via Boost Range. You can't go wrong with Energy as a secondary for Ice, but Devices seems tailor-made to fill particular holes: the Ice Storm/Blizzard need to slow the mobs in the AoE, the lack of alpha strike AoE, and the longer fights that don't benefit from Build-Up as much.


I will add Archery and Sonic Blast later, after they are finalized and I have some real experience with them.


Discussion is welcome. My main blaster is AR/Dev, so as you can see, I'm not going with "what I play is the best", so I would appreciate it if discussion were objective and looked at all sets and matchups fairly rather than saying "I do well with this combination, so it must synergize well". I consider Fire/Fire as completely lacking any synergy, yet a lot of people do well with it just because a good player can do well with any set combination. This isn't a discussion about what sets are good... that would consider each set separately. Nor about what sets are better... then I'd be looking at primary vs primary. No, this is only about "every secondary and primary has some defining powers and attributes... what combinations of primary and secondary best improve the strengths of each set, while best covering up the weakness of each set". Lastly, I look at the strengths and weakness with a very general viewpoint, including soloing and teaming, single-target and multi-target, fighting mobs that fight back as well as target-shooting when a Controller or Tanker prevents return fire. Certainly some combos may be amazing in some situations (Fire/Energy alpha striking in hazard zones and running away from the surviving bosses, anyone?), and if you would be willing to play only that way, the combination plays differently than someone who soloes and teams, street sweeps and runs missions and TFs.

So, please, I welcome discussion and suggestions. But I think that it would be most appropriate to keep it objective and general.

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I was playing around with some of these power, and I noticed (using herobuilder) that you could use boxing twice in the same amount of time you could use levitate once (and for the same end cost). Two hits from boxing is more damage than one levitate - other than range, is there a reason not to go this way?

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Remember that Levitate is a 100% knockup, in other words it will take the enemy out of action for about 3-5 seconds, without having to build up Magnitude on a boss. Boxing, on the other hand, has a tiny chance to Stun a minion. Boxing is basically a pure damage melee attack, while Levitate is a damage/control ranged attack. If all you care about is damage, then Boxing is better, but overall, Levitate is a better power.

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1: Personally, when weighing the decision of whether to get rid of earth thorn caster's ability to use quicksand and the small benefit controllers might get by the earth thorn casters having it, I'll nerf the thorn casters.

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Like I said, we're moving towards every single mob being a reskinned skull. Whee! Ive got a better idea. Next, lets dispense with the middle man of a tank herding, and just have them all spawned stacked inside a dumpster. Fish in a Barrel online will be the greatest MMOG ever!

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2. Controllers, if seeing any benefit at all from thorn casters, would only see a very small increase in demand because of them. It's not like everyone in the 35-40 range constantly does CoT missions.

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Actually, Id move to make every faction like this. With mobs that debuff and buff each other. Limit the total % that can be debuffed/stacked, and make them toggles (so a brawl, or any status effect will shut them off). You create a purpose for holds. Right now, a tank provides near 100% protection with taunt that never misses and is largely unkillable. Thats a boring, predictable environment. The game needs more challenge, Id prefer it coming from enemies who arent such pathetic losers they have something to do other than throw a blast. The Tsoo sorcerer is a great example of how to design a mob. It adds difficulty without one shotting. It can be taunted, but you really wish he would just sit still and die. A tanker AND a controller can both contribute on a team. Why do these guys die out only to be replaced by more basic chumps?

If they change anything, they should upgrade the thorn casters to lts, and the behemoths get dropped to minion status.

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I am in 100% agreement. More buffs and debuffs, at least until they're ridiculously stacked like Quicksand seems to be now, will be good for the game compared to more damage and more mezzing.

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Just a quick note since this is a hot topic. Regarding the issue of Earth Thorn Casters stacking multiple Quicksands (and such).
Without getting into details, ALL CoT Thorn Casters have been reworked. The amount of control powers these minions have will be severely reduced or outright removed. Expect other related changes with all Thorn Casters.

This change will come in Expansion 5.

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Whoo. I think it would be cool if you mixed it up, so you dont get just big groups of Earth thorns, or big group of Fire, or big groups of Air . Having a few of each kind would be far more interesting than getting smoked by stacking powers from one type of mob.

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That's a pretty good idea. I don't think it's a good idea to remove debuffing from what mobs can do, but it seems to be implemented in a "either no debuffs, or they debuff you to the minimum movement" fashion.

Mix them up, have more debuffs but more types so they stack less.

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What we know?

Stateman is a jerk.


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/speechless

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The post seems to have disappeared... who's the imbecilidjiot, if you please, so I know who will be first ever on my ignore list?

Very, very good guide. This and Hedon's guide to using TK will set up a newbie MC to play (not quite almost) like a master.

Some additions:
Levitate does the most damage, but Mesmerize is comparable: it does 3/4 damage for 3/4 Endurance and has a better secondary effect in most situations. It is feasable to slot up both for damage for a decent 1-2 punch for a Controller so that you can solo early. In the 20s the damage seems to have less effect on mob's health bars, but OTOH you can spam the attacks more with Stamina slotted. If you slot both up for Damage, you can solo as a MC more quickly than you would have imagined. Soloing safely, of course, has always been known.

Mass Hypnosis, TK, and Terrify are all "perma" controls. That is, you can use any of them, with a bit of slotting and perma-Hasten, to keep a mob spawn without bosses under control indefinitely. Mass Confusion and Total Domination are not perma controls.

Confusion has a very long casting time and not a very long recharge time. Having it up often will eat into your power-use cycle tremendously. I suggest not slotting it up for recharge. Also, its duration is great, about double the duration of Dominate. It is a very good power even when lightly slotted, which helps with all the other stuff you wish to slot.

I'm surprised to see /Storm as the least popular secondary for MC. I took Storm for a simple design reason: MC has the least damage power in its primary, and Storm is the only secondary that directly provides bonus damage. So Storm seems to most directly plug up MC's biggest gap: soloing damage. But beware endurance problems... MC isn't cheap, and Storm is just an endurance sucking 12-cylinder gas guzzler.

Cycling Conserve Power and Recovery Aura is a high-level option that will greatly simplify all Endurance problems.

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Pro-I4 can a D3 supstitute for a illusion/rad?

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You have two problems as a D3:

1: The best DPE (damage/endurance) powers are pet powers, since they're undirected damage, damage spread out over minutes, etc. So due to those weaknesses, the total damage done is tremendous for the Endurance spent. And the weaknesses aren't a problem when you're down to a single AV to fight. So, to match up to that, a D3 has to do far more damage with direct blasts, which are far less endurance efficient. They can probably manage the DPS part of doing damage, due to the new -Regen on Twilight Grasp, and to the -Res from Tar Patch. But you will have to spam TG, Tar Patch when it's up, and Dark Blast, and Gloom. While keeping up Darkest Night and maintaining Endurance for the pets and for the Hasten drop. It seems as if it's close to doable, but not necessarily doable.

2: You will have to avoid AVs with status effects. An Ill/Rad has multiple defensive layers... defense, possibly status protection (depending on EPP), aggro control from PA, and aggro pull from the pets. A D3 has only defense, and a very slight aggro pull from the little damage that the pets do. The fight will be long enough that the AV WILL get some hits in, and if they cause status, you will be mezzed, Darkest Night will drop, and the AV will finish you. The pets will probably not pull aggro strongly enough to save you, and depending on their heals is problematic. Besides, even if they do pull aggro, without your DN, the AV will probably take them down immediately.

Alternately, you might fight an AV that does only Holds, and depend on Acrobatics.

In the end, they definitely have potential. And I have heard of Dark/Electric doing it, so it may be possible for Dark/Dark (though Voltaic Sentinel is a very high DPE power). But unlike Ill/Rad, who can conceivable take on almost any AV, D3s will have to skip certain AVs due to their status protection or unusually high regen.

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From personal experience Fire/Rad controllers aren't that good at soloing archvillains. They don't have any way to manage aggro like Ill/Rad can with Phantom Army and pretty much every archvillain worth a dime can take out a swam of Fire Imps with one AoE.

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Illusion/Rad is a set where, for some strange reason, all the powers work together against an AV. It's not uber in normal missions, it's not uber in a team, though it's undeniably a good set. But against AVs, it's like the "set designed to fight AVs".

Now, Fire/Rad, doesn't come close to the same single-target synergy. It's still doable, I think, but you lose a lot of power combinations.

Some ideas, though:
Rad can depend on defense by stacking a RI slotted for defense with the -Acc from Spectral Terror. A -80% to hit for an AV won't stop it from hitting you, but a -110% will. You don't have that extra 30% to add in.

Fire should be great at AV killing, with KINETICS as a secondary. Since unlike Ill/Rad they can't stack defenses to floor an AV's to-hit, what they could do is to stack -Dam debuffs so that imps can survive an AoE attack. Then their ranged heal can keep the imps healed. But you have to give up on the idea of avoiding damage to the pets, and instead say "Go ahead and hurt them, but it won't kill them and I'll heal them". Unfortunately, however, Rad can't do that. It has a weaker heal, and its -Dam power can't be stacked.

In short: Fire/Rad is a strong set, but to be an AV-killer, it helps to not only have strong sets, but to have sets that synergize against a single target. Ill/Rad has that. Fire/Kin (or Earth/Kin, or Ice/Kin) has that. Fire/Rad is a great set for most missions, but its powers are not as well matched against an AV.

I wonder if a Grav/Storm can do it, using Tornado and Lightning Storm to add to the damage of the Sings, and using the Sings to "tank" the AVs with their tremendous resists. I don't know if it's strong enough as a set, but there is another set that has synergy between its two parts, against an AV.

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Judging from the CoV video recently it can be determined that Blasters do get to do decent range damage in the near future. Unfortunately you have to die first so you can be used as a projectile weapon by your enemy but at least we?ll get to do decent range damage at the upper lvl.

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Oh, man, now I want a new power in my secondary: "Hurl Self". Medium range, extreme damage, causes knockdown (self and enemy), causes moderate damage to self. 5%damage bonus if you have a helmet, and another 5% if either your head or the helmet has horns.