DestineeFable
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Posts
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Joined
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Power Boost will not increase the Mag of any effects.
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(To Fulmens - Yes, I spam Shiver all the time; plus I use Snowstorm both with -recharge procs and full slow enhancing, but those damn Illusionists tend to eat me alive especially when I get a double spawn.)
It's not just a defensive blaster that can lead the charge. I do it regularly on TFs with all my blasters when I'm in a hurry, and the tanker is slow. Generally, it doesn't cause me any extra problems although I'm usually patient enough to wait for the tank to grab aggro if we have one. -
I have a SG-mate who has an nrg/dev. He says that he likes it in general, but unless you're really careful, you will KB stuff out of the stationary tricks of /dev. But there is a lot of kaboom.
That means you'll have to worry about knocking stuff off your caltrops, away from your trip mines, etc. A good player can compensate for that with a little practice though, and learning to compensate to make the most of your own goodies will also help make you overall slightly more team-friendly because you'll have practice controlling your KB in general. -
Having both a sonic/ blaster and a /sonic defender at 50, I can say that telling someone to pick up sonic blast is not basically saying "go play a blaster."
For one thing the -res debuff is much better for defenders meaning you get more bang for your buck out of it. For another, you are playing the set in each case for a slightly different purpose. On my defender, I'm set up to stun the bejesus out of anything I nuke because the nuke won't kill outright, but it does do a massive debuff along with a hefty stun. The blaster often kills outright making any question of surviving the aftermath or helping the team with it theoretical. -
Well, you get two builds now, so you could always compare the two side by side.
I've tried making defense builds, but the thing that scares me away is that I often exemp to run TFs at all levels. A lot of times it seems you have to have a full set to get that defense bonus. When you get to looking at the individual powers themselves in terms of effectiveness, a full set often leaves you short somewhere. I started to discover that I wasn't getting as much accuracy or as much damage as I might like on a power out of the defense builds. Now, I realize that the bonuses will often cover that ... unless you exemp below the level of the IOs and the powers they enhance where you tend to lose those bonuses meaning I might be stuck running a Posi with a very low accuracy or damage on something.
When I build, I always look to enhancing the max out of the individual power so that it will stay effective at all levels of play before I start looking at the bonuses I can squeeze out of the sets. That means that most of my builds are heavy damage, accuracy, regen, and recharge style builds. Those are things that you can get out of only 2, 3, or 4 pieces of the set. -
If you want to solo, I'd suggest either /em or /dev. /dev might be the safer of the two for soloing if you can stand to take your time doing it, and fire/dev isn't a bad team performer either. /dev offers some very good powers in terms of mitigation. You can make yourself stealthy, you can use web grenade to immobilize, and you can use caltrops to slow and scatter. /dev also offers mines that take some time to set up, but with patience, a /dev blaster can lay a good-sized minefield to pull mobs onto. The mines also do good damage. They also recently changed the final power so that auto-turret now hovers along with you rather than being stationary making it a decent power to have.
/EM offers an array of hard-hitting melee powers that have a chance of also stunning the target. It also offers some very nice utility powers in the form of boost range, conserve power, and power boost; these can modify your powers to do more than they normally would or stretch you endurance so that you can fight for pro-longed periods in the case of power boost. A fire/em also has both BU and AIM with which to up the damage of their alpha strikes to help them melt most of the competition without fear of much reprisal (/dev sacrifices BU). The /em will require you to take a much more active role in your own defense though.
/fire offers little in the way of mitigation making it a poor choice for soloing. It's not impossible to solo with it; it's just more difficult without the usual secondary mitigation tools. /fire also has a number of arguably bad powers that you don't need. This can be good if you want to explore the power pools or bad if you want to rely equally on primary and secondary.
Fire primary is one of the better primaries in terms of AoE damage. It hits hard and it's secondary effect is DoT, so it keeps burning. The biggest issue I see with fire is that it can have a steep learning curve for complete newbies who tend to throw AoEs first and kill later if at all. Fire always draws a lot of aggro because of the AoEs even when you have a good tanker holding aggro. If you're not prepared to be able to handle the aggro you draw, it can make fire a frustrating primary. However, fireball + firebreath will significantly damage most things once they're slotted up especially if you use AIM and BU to boost them. If you take /dev for your secondary, you could also make some use of Rain of Fire which is a postional rain power. It does good damage once it's slotted up, but since things will automatically try to run out of it, you seldom get the full money's worth out of it unless you have some means of keeping things inside it - caltrops would help you there. The basic blasts are single target and animate fairly quickly, and Blaze is a must because even though it's short range, it delivers heavy single target damage. Fireball + Firebreath + Blaze will usually finish off most bosses. The snipe power is another one like Rain of Fire - you can take it or not, but it won't break your build either way. -
Congrats and good luck. I hope all goes smoothly.
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Quote:For my part, after playing on Virtue for years, I find it odd that you can't get away from rp. I've never run into a team where they all rp'd unless we're talking casual comments made during the fight that may or may not be in-character.
Everybody likes to rp, I never knew it was the rp server, most of the groups I join, people personality are pretty, are, errr different.
Are you sure they were rp'ing? -
I have a dark/sonic and a storm/sonic. Both have their strengths. The Storm feels much more damaging, and I have more fun playing her, but the dark has enough control and debuff to inconvenience things long enough for me to destroy them.
I really don't think there is necessarily a bad pairing with /sonic for a defender because /sonic is good enough on its own, so I'd suggest that you pick whatever primary floats your boat. Or you can make a bunch of lowbies with different primaries and decide which one suits you. -
I don't know about archery, but I do know that duoing a blaster/controller combo was what hooked me into blasters. So if you think it's fun now, wait. It just keeps getting more fun.
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Actually, I can manage to solo that build somewhere in between the ability of my sonic/em who loves to solo and my fire/ice who is generally craptastic at it depending on the enemy (Carnies eat him alive; Rikti/Malta/Nemesis not so much).
I use Flash Freeze quite a bit, and it generally removes most of the minions from the fight. On my own, I can then handle the lts and bosses fairly easily.
I do rely more on my own active defense ability (ie tactics) than on anything in the build itself except for Flash Freeze to do it. Most of my blasters rely on my own ability to manage their defenses rather than build with the sonic/Em being the big exception. -
I'll say a few words for Virtue. Yes, the catgirls are a running joke and we are the unofficial RP server, but we're also the server that managed the 10 Minute Hami Raid and organized to drop 80 Rikti Dropships during the last Rikti invasion weekend.
We're a community on Virtue with a couple of larger groups that are very active and know how to organize server-wide events of all sorts from game play to purely social.
We hold Hamidon Raids twice weekly with Saturday's Raid often being popular enough for the server to run two of them. There are generally regular Mothership Raids once weekly. If you join one of the Global channels like VU2009, there are usually regular calls for TF teams forming and the like. -
Storm is harder to use effectively when you don't pair it with a controller primary. Think about all the storm defenders you've ever teamed with and consider that they were likely either really good or abysmally bad due to KB effects inherent in most of storm's best powers.
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Oh, yeah, the first guy absolutely needs to be ignored and reported. Anonymity makes people say silly things, but that doesn't excuse talking about child porn as something one is actively engaged in. The others on the team should have spoken up, but for all you know, some of them could have technically been children themselves; adults aren't the only folks who play this game. I was on a team once that started getting ribald when one of the team members spoke up and informed us that they'd appreciate it if we stopped because he/she was only thirteen. Needless to say, we stopped.
As far as the group discussing video game violence. I enjoy my own virtual violence as much as anyone although I can see where you're coming from. If you were still smarting from the first incident, it's possible that you were still overly sensitive where that subject was concerned especially as you admit to being a parent yourself. I think you probably should have left if they refused to change the subject when asked nicely instead of letting them continue rubbing your nerves raw; however, in this case, they weren't really doing anything wrong.
In all cases, the parties involved have every right to speak their mind; it's one of the best things about our society. However, freedom to speak doesn't always come without its own consequences; the line between knowing when you have the right to expect the speech in question to be stopped and when you should just swallow your offense and move on can be a thin one. -
Quote:I beg to differ. Though I seldom ever use it, Gale can still be used effectively all throughout a stormy's career. Most of the time, people don't even notice it when I use Gale, but then, Gale is like any other KB power - something that you have to practice with to learn it's parameters.
Gale from storm should never ever be used past lvl 3.
I think it still basically boils down to the player, not the ability. Some people take the time to learn to use it well, and others won't and give the rest of us a bad name. -
My oldest blaster is nrg/nrg and I have a storm defender that I've been playing almost as long; if you know anything you know I pack KBx10 between those two. I've gotten a few friendly warnings with the energy blaster, but I've never been kicked for it. Generally, I stepped back and re-evaluated what I was doing when I received the complaint and tried to either tone it down by going single target or pay more attention to what I was doing.
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This is what I did with mine.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
DestineeFable: Level 50 Magic Blaster
Primary Power Set: Energy Blast
Secondary Power Set: Energy Manipulation
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Cold Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Power Blast- (A) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage
- (3) Devastation - Damage/Recharge
- (5) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (9) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (17) Entropic Chaos - Accuracy/Damage
- (34) Entropic Chaos - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (A) Explosive Strike - Damage/Knockback
- (3) Explosive Strike - Accuracy/Knockback
- (7) HamiO:Nucleolus Exposure
- (A) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (5) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (11) Devastation - Damage/Recharge
- (13) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage
- (23) Entropic Chaos - Accuracy/Damage
- (45) Entropic Chaos - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (A) Adjusted Targeting - Recharge
- (7) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Recharge
- (13) Recharge Reduction IO
- (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
- (9) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
- (A) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage
- (11) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (15) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (25) Devastation - Damage/Recharge
- (31) HamiO:Centriole Exposure
- (37) HamiO:Centriole Exposure
- (A) Jumping IO
- (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (15) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
- (27) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
- (33) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
- (36) Accuracy IO
- (37) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range
- (A) Jumping IO
- (A) Numina's Convalescence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
- (17) Miracle - +Recovery
- (19) Regenerative Tissue - +Regeneration
- (A) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (19) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (21) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (27) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage
- (37) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance
- (40) Touch of Death - Chance of Damage(Negative)
- (A) Performance Shifter - EndMod
- (21) Endurance Modification IO
- (23) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End
- (A) Adjusted Targeting - Recharge
- (25) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Recharge
- (29) Recharge Reduction IO
- (A) HamiO:Ribosome Exposure
- (29) HamiO:Ribosome Exposure
- (31) Endurance Reduction IO
- (A) Endurance Reduction IO
- (A) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Endurance/Recharge
- (31) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff
- (33) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Endurance
- (40) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up
- (A) Recharge Reduction IO
- (33) Recharge Reduction IO
- (36) Recharge Reduction IO
- (A) Obliteration - Damage
- (34) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (34) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge
- (39) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (42) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge
- (A) Sting of the Manticore - Accuracy/Damage
- (36) Sting of the Manticore - Accuracy/Interrupt/Range
- (39) Sting of the Manticore - Damage/Interrupt/Recharge
- (43) Sting of the Manticore - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (A) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage
- (39) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (40) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (42) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance
- (43) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (A) Call of the Sandman - Accuracy/Sleep/Recharge
- (42) Call of the Sandman - Accuracy/Recharge
- (43) Call of the Sandman - Accuracy/Endurance
- (45) Call of the Sandman - Sleep/Range
- (46) Call of the Sandman - Endurance/Sleep
- (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
- (45) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge
- (46) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
- (46) Aegis - Psionic/Status Resistance
- (48) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
- (50) Steadfast Protection - Knockback Protection
- (A) Recharge Reduction IO
- (48) Recharge Reduction IO
- (48) Recharge Reduction IO
- (A) Recharge Reduction IO
- (50) Recharge Reduction IO
- (50) Recharge Reduction IO
Level 1: Brawl- (A) Empty
- (A) Empty
- (A) Empty
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Set Bonus Totals:- 22.5% DamageBuff(Smashing)
- 22.5% DamageBuff(Lethal)
- 22.5% DamageBuff(Fire)
- 22.5% DamageBuff(Cold)
- 22.5% DamageBuff(Energy)
- 22.5% DamageBuff(Negative)
- 22.5% DamageBuff(Toxic)
- 22.5% DamageBuff(Psionic)
- 0.94% Defense(Energy)
- 0.94% Defense(Negative)
- 1.88% Defense(Ranged)
- 2.25% Max End
- 41% Enhancement(Accuracy)
- 5% Enhancement(Sleep)
- 42.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
- 5% FlySpeed
- 144.6 HP (12%) HitPoints
- 5% JumpHeight
- 5% JumpSpeed
- Knockback (Mag -4)
- Knockup (Mag -4)
- MezResist(Immobilize) 4.4%
- MezResist(Stun) 2.2%
- 2.5% (0.04 End/sec) Recovery
- 88% (4.43 HP/sec) Regeneration
- 1.58% Resistance(Fire)
- 1.58% Resistance(Cold)
- 1.26% Resistance(Energy)
- 1.26% Resistance(Negative)
- 2.1% Resistance(Psionic)
- 5% RunSpeed
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Set Bonuses:
Devastation
(Power Blast)- 12% (0.6 HP/sec) Regeneration
- 27.1 HP (2.25%) HitPoints
- 3% DamageBuff(All)
(Power Blast)- 10% (0.5 HP/sec) Regeneration
(Power Thrust)- 1.5% DamageBuff(All)
(Power Bolt)- 12% (0.6 HP/sec) Regeneration
- 27.1 HP (2.25%) HitPoints
- 3% DamageBuff(All)
(Power Bolt)- 10% (0.5 HP/sec) Regeneration
(Build Up)- 2% DamageBuff(All)
(Combat Jumping)- 10% (0.5 HP/sec) Regeneration
- 7.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
(Power Burst)- 12% (0.6 HP/sec) Regeneration
- 27.1 HP (2.25%) HitPoints
- 3% DamageBuff(All)
(Energy Torrent)- 2.5% (0.04 End/sec) Recovery
- 1.58% Resistance(Fire,Cold)
- 9% Enhancement(Accuracy)
- 6.25% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
(Bone Smasher)- MezResist(Immobilize) 2.2%
- 13.6 HP (1.12%) HitPoints
- 7% Enhancement(Accuracy)
- 5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
(Stamina)- 5% JumpSpeed, 5% JumpHeight, 5% FlySpeed, 5% RunSpeed
(Aim)- 2% DamageBuff(All)
(Tactics)- 2% DamageBuff(All)
- 1.26% Resistance(Energy,Negative)
(Nova)- MezResist(Stun) 2.2%
- 3% DamageBuff(All)
- 9% Enhancement(Accuracy)
- 5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
(Sniper Blast)- 12% (0.6 HP/sec) Regeneration
- 1.88% Defense(Ranged), 0.94% Defense(Energy), 0.94% Defense(Negative)
- 3% DamageBuff(All)
(Total Focus)- MezResist(Immobilize) 2.2%
- 13.6 HP (1.12%) HitPoints
- 7% Enhancement(Accuracy)
- 5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
(Flash Freeze)- 5% Enhancement(Sleep)
- 22.6 HP (1.87%) HitPoints
- 2.25% Max End
- 6.25% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
(Frozen Armor)- 10% (0.5 HP/sec) Regeneration
- 13.6 HP (1.12%) HitPoints
- 9% Enhancement(Accuracy)
- 7.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
(Frozen Armor)- 2.1% Resistance(Psionic)
(Frozen Armor)- Knockback Protection (Mag -4)
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I have mine on my storm/sonic, and I use it as a lead-in. I do it because I can generally approach a mob unseen, Dreadful Wail is nearly insta-fire, Dreadful Wail delivers a healthy stun to most everything in the mob along with a hefty and long -res debuff for the rest of the team to make use of. I can then pop a CaB and use the elec APP's recharge power on staggered mobs.
Between the stun and the start from invis, I can always retreat safely.
I think taking a nuke really depends on your playstyle. Most of the defender nukes have their bonuses, but whether or not they will benefit you enough to make them worthwhile, is often another question. -
Quote:Getting even more specific will be tough. I've been playing blasters for so long that it just sort of comes second nature to me.Originally Posted by GreenBone
Yeah, please don't take my message as an indication of laziness, or per my original post, not knowing tactics. I also don't want to just come across as whining. I wouldn't have so many blasters if I didn't love them. They are my second favorite AT (behind Dominators). So yeah, I'm a bit crazy.
The input I'm really seeking, I guess, is (a) am I just imagining things, or do they get significantly harder in the late game to play while every other AT is getting easier, and (b) what tips do you have for late game play with blasters to make them more survivable?
Great discussion so far, and lots of tactics I know about. It's not my preferred method of play, as mentioned, but I really am trying to figure out how to make them work.
I really think that the difference between playing a blaster well and playing one not so well is in your understanding of the game's timing. So much of being able to make it work and work well depends on knowing how to find and exploit those little holes between one round of mob fire and the next. By the time I'm in my 20s and 30s and finally 40s, I just find the game to be getting easier overall, but again, I've been playing it since about a month after launch. There isn't much about mob timing I don't know on an instinctive level. -
Sounds like a lot of fun. All defender STFs are easy mode. Too bad I'm on Virtue.
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Quote:Originally Posted by GreenBone
Yeah, there are several posts mentioning the use of Inspirations, but to me (and only IMHO), any AT that requires the use of Inspirations, well.... nuff said. Too bad, really, as blasting is just so darn fun to have to be constantly peaking around corners, retreating, converting inspirations and using self rezzes. As said, too, at high levels the damage isn't so hot either - so I feel more like a wimpy wow character who can only take on one boar it's own level.
Inspirations are not something you have to have to solo well with a blaster. I can handle all three of my level 50s solo without inspirations in most ordinary situations barring unforeseen circumstances, but there are times when mobs are placed poorly or you get caught in a bad situation. At those times, knowing what inspirations to drop and when can make a big difference.
As far as your quote above, well let me just say that nothing you do will likely make you able to just stand and shoot with impunity. They call blasters glass cannons for a reason. In this game, great damage comes with great big glass jaw. Your best bet is to learn how to play actively and keep moving while shooting. If you find it wimpy to break LoS or dodge around, then you may not be suited to blasting. -
Blasters peak early when it comes to damage. You're hitting the wall when the mobs catch up with their ability to resist or do nasty things to you. At the same, most of the other ATs are also starting to peak. It only seems like you're getting weaker; basically, things are balancing out.
The trick is to start learning a new set of tactics to help you compensate. Knowing which mobs are the most dangerous to you and taking them out first will help you survive, for example. Sometimes, it's not the boss killing you so much as the mezzing lieut. Learning how to break LoS, learning how to use inspys to best effect, and improving your situational awareness are all things that will help you last longer.
Tactical thinking really becomes your best friend when you hit your late 30s. -
My 50s:
Destinee Fable - nrg/nrg/cold, the first blaster that made me a convert
Tempered Flare - fire/ice/cold, my main TF and team blaster, about 60% IO'd out at the moment, but I'm still working on him piece by piece.
Sound Beating - son/nrg/force, my solo machine
FirePsyde - fire/mm/elec, an AoE beast and lots of fun (not quite 50 yet, but might as well be)
I've had a ton of others over the years that have been deleted. -
Oh, now Posi isn't all that bad. Basically, you need to run it with a smaller group - 3 or 4 being best, and they have to be people dedicated to getting through it.
Doc Q now ... the very best time I've ever been able to manage on that one is just over 5 hours. -
Fire/ice is excellent for PvE play. I have one at level 50 and he's one of my two most-used 50s.
However, I don't think that the ice secondary is all that good for PvP. A lot of the powers are slow animating which leaves you open to attack. Ice Patch, one of the best powers, is one that you place in one spot and it has a very small AoE. It's easily avoided in PvP.
I think the two best secondaries for blasters in PvP are energy manipulation and devices (although you have to really know what you're doing to build a /dev for PvP).
There are two Raids in this game - The Hamidon Raid and the Rikti Mothership Raid. Hamis are generally conducted differently depending on what server you're on. I play on Virtue which tends to have at least two public Hami nights - Wednesdays and Saturdays. On Saturdays, they've been running two Raids ever since the merit rewards increased. Really, for either Raid, any build will do. It's far more important that you know how to read and follow directions than what specific build you have.