EnergyStar_MsK

Well since I post a bit on my observations and occasional opinon I thought I'd put my post where my money is and post my build. Actually the build I'm posting is what I'll be going with when Issue 3 comes out, but I made notes about what I'm changing and the reasons why. Ironically the best thing about the new Force of Nature power is that it made it easy for me to decide to go in this direction (I tried other EPPs, but Force Mastery was the most in-line with my character concept and animations). In my build I strove to make best use of my slots with how I generally use my powers while having the broadest selection of targettable groupings to have fun and keep my play varied. I sincerely hope that this will not be the cause of cookie-cutter builds toward and away from my build, as it's my opinion that the best aspect of SnipeFu's and Pulsewave's guides are that they aren't templates but give players enough information to create the hero they will have the best time playing! Good luck Heroes!

Brawl/Acc
Rest/Recharge
Sprint/Run
Power Bolt/Acc/5 Dam
Power Thrust/Acc
Power Blast/Acc/5 Dam
Build Up/4 recharge (30 sec recycle time)
Swift/Run
Sniper Blast/Acc/5 Dam*
Power Burst/Acc/5 Dam
Hasten/6 recharge
Super Speed/Run**
Hover/6 Fly Speed
Hurdle/Jump***
Stamina/6 End
Aim/4 recharge (30 sec recycle time)****
Power Push/Acc
Stealth/Def
Conserve Power/6 recharge*****
Power Boost/Recharge
Nova/3 recharge/3 Dam
Bone Smasher/Acc/4 Dam******
Total Focus/Acc/4 Dam******
Personal FF/2 Defense Buffs*******
Temp Invulnerability/2 Dam Resistance*******
Energy Torrent/4 Dam********
Explosive Blast/4Dam********

*If it were not for needing 6 slots for range for the Hammi raid, I would save a slot or two here. Note: if you had a power to spare but needed slots and you have energy manipulation as a secondary, you could use Boost Range instead of 2 slots.

**I will be dropping my 2nd run speed enhancement for this build

***Dropped Health for Hurdle. Health regenerates at a speed that decreases time between battles, but not at a rate helpful in-battle. Hurdle will help overcoming objects while running in super speed.

****Upped this from 3 recharges so as to sync with Build up and Power Boost. PB, with one recharge SO has a 30 second recharge. Since PB has a duration 5 sec longer than BU or Aim I activate it first, then BU then Aim.

*****No changes here, but it’s close in recharge to my slotted Nova, which was very helpful when I used it in leveling.

******Previously I only had damage here as I used them as an alpha-strike combo on a boss right after buffing with BU + Aim (and later adding PB). I noticed however that after this combo I would still need to cycles through my usual attacks (Bolt, Blast, Burst) and still they’d be standing. W/o PB they’d usually recover from disorient by now (problematic as I’d be using Power Push on the other boss in the typically Peregrine Island 2-boss groupings). Adding PB as a buff helped by doubling the base stuns (TF and Bone) but I found I frequently missed w/ my 2nd round of TF-Bone. I was/am very tempted to further slot PFF and TI instead of the 5th slots here, but I use this combo often and it is always necessary when facing this grouping, and the consequences of missing both (or even one) are considerable, so I added the 5th slot for accuracy.

*******This is where I’d like to add more enh slots into. I gave up Grant Invisibility and Phase Shift for these powers. TI is better personally than GI, but in teaming GI is a great help. The weight of this concern will depend on your playstyle. For me, several of my SGmates have GI so my usual teams are not too badly affected (heh we’ll see if everyone respecs it out!). PFF is a far cry from Phase, but others can buff me through it and it does have an activation time one second faster…and it has a nice look to it! Since it’s an “Oh-crud/runaway” power I’d be most comfortable with it fully slotted, but alas that cannot be.

********These are only slotted with 4 Dam as 99% of the time I use as an alpha combo with Aim & BU, so accuracy is high and damage is capped.

The current testing version of Force of Nature, without it’s mezz resistance made this a fairly easy build to decide upon, so ironically that’s the best thing about it (FoN). Even the previous blaster EPP version of US was marginal enough for me to have serious reservations about taking it.

Please note that this is my endgame build for L50. In leveling up I had phase earlier (mid 30s I think) to avoid debt and ET and Expl Blast right after Total Focus as it enabled me to hunt larger mobs of blue or white, thereby increasing my target selections and increasing my rate of XP. Also, my selections through L20 (stamina) was primarily concerned (after my basic attacks) with travel powers and end in the anticipation of exemplaring to do the Cavern of Transcendance and the Faultline Trials (although I'm not holding my breath as to when the Faultline one will be available). The Hollows and Faultline both have topography which make hover useful as a suppliment to SS, and at least the strat guide has it that the Faultline trial might be a long battle, so end was a concern, hence stamina.)

I highly recommend taking PB around the same time as TF (and Bone) as it’ll double your base stun time. Very helpful in taking on boss groupings in the upper levels (as they pair up). If 2 bosses have Lts or minions around I stealth, SS, buff up, TF+BS one boss, go nova, take care of the remnants. Usually I’m left with just the two bosses, one near defeat. Plus PB increases your defenses, so is an easy way of helping you earlier in game rather than slotting stealth or hover for a measly 20% increase on their low defense bases.

Lastly, what the build does most importantly is allow me to have fun playing the game, most notably by having four primary ways of initially attacking (typically used in conjunction with Stealth and SS or Hover)

1. Snipe (for long-range, good for the two War Hulk boss duos in the 40+ game)
2. Nova
3. Total Focus/Bone Smasher melee combo (good for Fake Nem/War Hulk boss duos)
4. Energy Torrent/Explosive Blast (for larger groups of minions at range)

Great guide! Bookmarking it!

Thanks. I'm thinking of getting boost range in lieu of using mya last 2 enhancement slots for snipe shot (in anticipation for a Hammi Raid).

I've been planning my next respec to sync the recharges on my buffs, so I created a template in Excel. Thought I'd share the results in case anyone else was wondering. 1st column is the # of SO enhancements, and all other numbers in seconds.

# SO US CP Nova BU PB/BR
0 780 600 360 90 60
1 585 450 270 68 45
2 468 360 216 54 36
3 390 300 180 45 30
4 334 257 154 39 26
5 293 225 135 34 23
6 260 200 120 30 20

With 6-slotted Hasten
0 780 600 360 90 60
1 384 295 177 44 30
2 330 254 152 38 25
3 289 222 133 33 22
4 257 198 119 30 20
5 232 178 107 27 18
6 211 162 97 24 16

Notes:
1st row across is base recharge (no SO enhancements)
US = Blaster EPP version of Unstoppable
CP = Conserver Power
Aim and Build Up have the same recharge and duration
PB = Power Boost
BR = Boost Range

The formatting got hosed when I pasted into here, this is the best I could to in the time frame I have.

Give a person a chance to play the game!

It's a good guide. Energy as a secondary can be looked at as independantly as energy as a primary. Both guides offer numbers as well as observations (and user feedback) allowing one to make up their own mind as opposed to churning out carbon copy characters. You'll be able to make a character/build that you'll enjoy playing, and that's as good a guide as I can think of.

Here's something to consider (I use this in my own build). If you use Aim + Build-up before you attack (initially), you'll reach the damage cap w/ only damage SO enhancements and will have rather high accuracy. For attacks you normally only attack with initially (including "alpha" strikes) you won't need necessarily 6-slot these.

Example: As energy is primarily a single-target damage dealer, our AoEs are not powerful enough to quickly defeat villians (excluding Nova). To mix things up I attack even-con-ish large groups (of minions). I begin w/ a 1-2 combination of energy torrent and explosive blast (after aim + build up), as neither of these are singularly powerful enough to suggest taking on such a group. After this 1-2 combo, the regular attacks (energy bolt, blast and burst) are enough to take care of the remaining health on the mobs.

One doesn't need ET or Expl Blast again (and if Aim & bu aren't recharged, they aren't worth it imo). So what does this mean? If one only uses these in conjunction w/ aim & bu, then 4 slotted these two powers with damage is good enough...leaving you with 4 enhancement slots you can use elsewhere. Total Focus and Bone Smasher can be slotted similarly, however I've found that I use TF and BS twice in a fight w/ an even-con boss, so i like to have a 5th slot for accuracy, but it still allows 1 enh slot free for TF and BS in lieu of 6-slotting!.

These freed up slots (6 in my usage) allow me to fully slot conserve power, hover, hasten & stamina in addition to the usual slotting for the main attacks (snipe, nova, energy blast/bolt, etc) while giving me some extra slots to up the defense in stealth, which I usually have on during combat anyway.

Pulsewave's Energy Manipulation Guide

Here ya go!

TY!

Snipe! Wherever did you get that insightful information on Nova? Whoever found that should get some gold stars!

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Well it was a personal playstyle decision for me mostly. I suck at binds and moacros, I can't even get my battle call to get out =S

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MsKnight looks around...sheepishly presses the F10 key...grins then runs away...

So THAT'S why I haven't seen you say "HULK UP!" since the Bastion TF!

Runs away again...

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That's wounderful infomation but why you noticed the difference in speed for Hover from lvl 47 to 20 is because you don't have SOs in hover anymore when you EX down you may not even of had Hover fully sloted by the time you got to lvl 20.

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Good, but slotting stays the same when you exemplar down. Statesman posted to this b/c the programming involved to alter the enhancements down would've been rather involved (and they seem to have better uses for their time! ). So all things being equal, a character (fully slotted) exemplared down will be more effective than a regularly leveled character. Also it's been noted that base Fly speed increases with level, so I was pointing out that base hover speed increases as well.

Also, I believe Snipe mentioned the difficulty in using sniper shot during a battle due to the (long) interruption time, so his point I think was that it was more useful, as you said, during a fight!

Good feedback!

Hover 6 slotted (speed does increase w/ level, as I found when I exemplared this weekend from 47 to 20 for the Positron TF) gives you a vertical movement power to suppliment SS, and is helpful in the 40+ Shard zone.

SJ gives you the horizontal and vertical movement powers, and is incredibly fun, but using the SS+Hover combo prob. sacrifices defense for making you invisible when adding stealth. I'd say it's a playstyle apples v. oranges difference. Both offer benefits! If you're curious wait until you get another respec then before you choose your power copy yourself onto the test server.

By the way, we invite anyone in game to play with us and/or chat. Snipe's a bit busier than I (lil' baby snipe-ettes). Even those of you on different servers, if you create an alt on Virtue or move a character when server moves come available. Doc Vortex just joined our SG (Legion of Freedom, we're a bunch of LoF'ers) after playing several alts on a different server and is having a great time!

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One of the best Energy blasters I know ( MsKnight, w00t!!1!)

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Awww Thanks Snipey!

/e blushes

Snipe touched upon how to use different powersets/pools together, ex. Build up from most secondaries, Hover and the Concealment pools, but how about some other opinions on synergy? Like someone who took the jumping pool and uses SJ & hover to attack and combat jumping for defense? Or the altruistic blaster w/ group fly who can keep his non-melee teammates out of melee range while attacking? Lets hear some ideas!

FYI if you want to take part in a Hamidon raid around L50 you'll need to have snipe 6 slotted. For the raid it'll need to have range enhancements on it, otherwise you'll be defeated
after every shot.

Oh and BTW, here's my additional take on Nova (since Devs are looking at AoEs)...not EB or ET b/c frankly they aren't nearly powerful enough to be an issue. Nova is great. It is great fun. But it's probably on a par w/ thunderous blast and inferno in damage albet higher on the "HaHa that was cool!" scale. It balances with a long recharge time, openness for attack while activating (w/out stealth +SS), the endurance drain, and the variable damage ((States posted how this works) to mobs in a group), there is a balance that should not require a nerf.

For fun tho, use it on a group a top a roof in Bricks w/ you teammates standing at ground level looking up. We may not get preciitation in Paragon City, but we can make it rain!

This is great thanks!

Great, thanks!