Estarriol_EU

What Carnifax said. Making the cones longer naturally makes them wider at the broad end. Thus, range enhancements are good bang-for-buck in cones, particularly broad ones (Flamethrower, Tenebrous Tentacles, etc)

All personal opinion, of course, but here's mine:-

Problem #1: No Caltrops. It's an amazing power and always the one from Devices that I miss most when playing my non-devices blasters. And Trip Mine is of maximum benefit when used with Caltrops.

Problem #2: Too much recharge. 3 recharges in most of your attacks + Hasten is overkill. Usually, that 3rd recharge could be much better spent - probably an endurance reduction (see Problem #3).

Problem #3: Yup, not enough endurance reduction. I note that you have lots of reductions in your toggles, which is great, but that won't stop you running out when spamming attacks at less than half their base recharge rate with no end reduction. I'd consider an endurance reduction in many of your attacks.

Problem #4: Not enough love for fire. Not enough enough slots on Flamethrower, which is one of the best blaster attacks full stop, let alone in the set. It may be DoT but it's big DoT, extremely accurate, a big cone which benefits well from Range enhancements, and fire damage which helps round out the overreliance on lethal damage that AR has. See Ignite below also. Being able to set people on fire is a core part of the AR set.

Problem #5: Ignores some other good powers in favour of less good ones. Ignite and Beanbag are very good - Ignite is huge single-target damage when used with Web Grenade, and it's fire damage again. Beanbag is a ranged stun - I notice you've given Cryo Freeze Ray much love later on, why not take a very similar power much earlier in your career? On the other hand, M30 grenade is the lowest-damage AoE in the set, and has a tendency to scatter enemies out of your nice cone pathways. You already have the superior Cloaking Device and Superspeed - why Stealth as well?

Problem #6: No accuracy in Trip Mine or Time Bomb - they don't benefit from your Targeting Drone so far as I'm aware.

Problem #7: Bad prioritisation in allocation of slots. Putting 3 slots immediately in powers that are either good with just one or two (Cloaking Device) or marginal anyway (Health), whilst neglecting 4th+ slots in bread & butter powers until the 40s is highly inefficient. I'd be slotting those attacks up earlier, and add on the luxury slots when you get to luxury slot levels (mid-30s or after at the very least).

I hope that helps.

Thanks for stepping up... I'll be there with John Wednesday, tank with Epic hold.

P.S. Apologies for the mixup on the Defiant Events MOTD. I can only put there what people tell me; in this case I got some bad information, or no update on a change. I logged on for the raid too and was disappointed to see it wasn't happening.

Ahh, Dogmeat, how many hours I wasted re-running encounters just to keep your miserable [censored] alive. If only I wasn't such a sentimental type.

What a wonderful, wonderful game. Happy days.

Since you're keen to have nearly every power on the Primary, I'll weight this towards keeping those. In order of preference:-

Primary

1. M30 Grenade (Scatter + only moderate damage)
2. Shotgun (Better than M30, but still relatively weak compared to Flamethrower and Full Auto)

Secondary

1. Time Bomb (most people don't seem to really work out how to use this/have patience for it - it's definitely situational and won't have a use on many teams)
2. Auto Turret (I have no personal experience, but most players seem to feel it's underpowered, especially now that it can't be teleported)
3. Smoke Grenade (unless you want to toe-bomb, Cloaking Device is better for the continuous personal protection)
4. Taser (better now it's 20' range and combos nicely with Beanbag, but if you really need to lose another Devices power, this would be my choice)

Of course, that's based on *my* playstyle. It won't necessarily fit yours. As always, forum advice is no replacement for personal experience.

It's never been a skipper, it does enormous pseudo-single-target damage at near-autohit accuracy with huge DPE for all secondaries except Energy. If you thought it was a skipper, the extra 20' range won't make a difference to you.

While we're here - Ignite fans please note that the extra 20' puts it's range much closer to that of the Immobilises, and additionally makes it easier to cast through walls (yes, it requires no LOS).

[ QUOTE ]
Ice tankers are fairly notorious for being able to hold aggro very solidly.
Something about very fast ticks on Chilling Embrace...

[/ QUOTE ]

That helps a little. The real factors however are that the CE ticks are autohit and have a large radius. They're also usually backed up with Icicles. Ice tanks are the dons of aggro-holding.

What MaX said regarding the myth of pulling aggro off a tank with damage. One of those popular myths things that, when cited, always displays a certain ignorance about the Tanker AT (right up there alongside Blaster secondary immobilises being useless, especially Web Grenade).

[ QUOTE ]

Anyway, advice on what powers to DROP now, please! THe message im getting is that everything is good, bar (possibly) time bomb.

What to drop?

[/ QUOTE ]

How many do you need to drop?

The two optimal secondaries IMO if you don't want to melee are Devices and Ice - Devices for Caltrops (you don't need more than this to avoid melee) and Ice for Shiver and Ice Patch. I find that Energy encourages melee, and has few tools to prevent it.

Slotting suggestions for most of the powers:-

Most Attacks

3 Dam, 1 Recharge, 1 Endurance - assuming you have a slotted Targeting Drone

Flamethrower:-
3 Dam, 1 Recharge, 2 Range - I'm letting one of my little secrets out here, the additional range on Flamethrower is insanelycrazygood. Doesn't need accuracies ever, it has a massive accuracy bonus, one of those attacks that still reliably hits even when your drone is off.

Full Auto:-
3 Dam, 2 Recharge, 1 End (I'm one of those people who slots almost everything with End reductions, and thus has no endurance issues ever). Huge accuracy bonus, use at long range for best effect.

Sniper Rifle:-
3 Dam, 2 Interrupt, 1 Range - The Interrupt reductions make it much easier to use in a firefight - you can run around once you've passed your interrupt threshold (which you will learn to recognise) and the shot will still go off.

Ignite
3 Dam - Very cheap on Endurance and very fast recharge already

Beanbag
Consider 1 Acc
Otherwise, 2 Recharge, 2 Stun for a great overall utility. For a 6th slot I'd probably put Range before anything else, it has a shorter range than most of your other attacks.

Web Grenade
Doesn't need much slotting - consider 1 Acc, 1 Recharge (useful against bosses), Range

Caltrops
2 Recharge, 2 Slow

Targeting Drone
2 End, 3 AccBuff

Cloaking Device
1-2 End

Trip Mine
2 Acc (you really want it to hit), 3 Dam, 1 Recharge

Time Bomb
1 Acc, 3 Damage, 2 Recharge

[ QUOTE ]
Just rolling a new alt, an AR/Dev blaster cos they look different style of play to other blasters.

[/ QUOTE ]

They are - they play like no other heroes.

[ QUOTE ]

Id welcome any tips on powers / slotting.


[/ QUOTE ]

Pretty much all the powers are good if you know how to use them - criticism of many powers comes from lack of understanding as to how to use them, or lack of the underlying numbers. Taser was a weaker one, but with some range now it's a good second stun to combo with the excellent Beanbag.

[ QUOTE ]

1. Time bomb looks really awful. Is it?


[/ QUOTE ]

No. The huge recharge is the biggest downer. It has a bigger radius and inflicts more damage than Trip Mine, and Trip Mines do plenty of damage. Either I have great timing or (as I suspect) the explosion of a Trip Mine sets of a Time Bomb. Either way, explosive munitions are wonderful.

[ QUOTE ]

2. Is the snipe really worth it with no build up / aim, and a fairly long range base attack (it does look cool, i know)


[/ QUOTE ]

It's situationally useful in the way all snipes are. The set only has 2 basic single-target attacks, so occasionally it's useful as a third. It's great for pulling into clusters of Trip Mines.

[ QUOTE ]

3. Ignite and caltrops? workable?


[/ QUOTE ]

No. Web Grenade (an *awesome* power) + Ignite is what you want. It's slow but huge single-target damage and massively endurance-efficient. Combos well with Beanbag to take out Lts, and is one of my main tactics against bosses.

[ QUOTE ]

do you need caltrops (a power i dont generally like) for ignite to be valid (im looking at those AVs)


[/ QUOTE ]

What do you not like about Caltrops? AR/Dev is an extremely tactical set - if you're using it well you'll find yourself setting traps for your enemies. Caltrops is a key part of this - use it to slow enemies so that they set off mines, use it as a safe place to stand where you won't be melee'd and use it as an area-denial tactic. It's one of the core powers of the set.

You really need Caltrops to use Trip Mines to their best effect. Learn to love it, there's a lot to love.

[ QUOTE ]

4. What travel power? Choice between Jump, Fly, and Teleport. Any Ideas?


[/ QUOTE ]

I like Fly for this set.

[ QUOTE ]
Mainly team focussed but solo-able.

[/ QUOTE ]

Fortunately, AR/Dev is excellent in both scenarios, but is particularly potent in a team. The sets massively reward tactical, intelligent play, which I like very much.

Notably wonderful powers:-

Beanbag (makes soloing so much safer)
Flamethrower (insanely good AoE)
Ignite (massive single-target damage, extremely accurate, combos beautifully with web grenade)
Full Auto (possibly my favourite blaster power other than Trip Mine, I'd much rather have this than a nuke)

I suppose this means that the best AR powers come late.

Web Grenade (a huge set of debuffs, underrated by almost everyone, makes Ignite an execution tool)
Caltrops (superb area-denial)
Targeting Drone (with the inherent +acc of AR, plus the massive acc bonuses of some of the attacks, you can go accuracy enhancement-free for your entire career, unless you are obsessive about *always* hitting or regularly fight +3s or greater. +Perception is useful even in PvE now)
Cloaking Device (no-penalty stealth is always welcome in a set; with Trip Mine this becomes almost a necessity)
Trip Mine (hugely powerful if used well)

Controllers I have:-

Level 38 Grav/FF
Level 31 Ill/Kin
Level 25 Mind/Rad
Level 12 Earth/Storm

Based on that experience (and lots of play of other secondaries from my defenders, and trying both Ice and Fire controllers to about level 10 before deleting), I'd say that the best mass controlling (and thus team support) controllers are definitely Mind and Earth, and as for secondaries, they are all good at team support (it's the purpose of the set, after all) - some do this through more control options (Storm, Rad, TA) and some via buffs (Empathy, FF).

As for Illusion, it's not a bad set, but I don't think it's nearly as good for large team support as some of the others.

Oh, I see. Yes, Ice does have a chain gap at range if not slotted and if you don't use all your tools as most don't.

I slot my attacks with recharges, and include Chilblain in my attack chain. Crazy? Not at all - it has the same DPA (Damage Per Activation), DPS (Damage Per Second) and DPAS (Damage Per Activation Second) as Ice Bolt, and of course slows and immobilises nicely. Bitter Freeze Ray has a very low (by blaster standards) DPAS, DPS and DPE, and is vastly inferior to Chilblain for the purposes of delivering damage in almost any situation, although it's a better fight-opener due to the hold and relatively lower significance of activation metrics in a fight-opening ranged attack.

Frost Breath is excellent, btw - on a look at the underlying numbers it seems I wildly underestimated it at first. It does damage between Ice Bolt and Ice Blast (more than Bitter Freeze Ray against a single target and of course faster to cast and recharges faster), and numbers-wise is more favourable overall than Ice Bolt if it hits just 2 targets, and very favourable if it hits 3 (a common circumstance even if soloing). It also has a high base accuracy and sets up Ice Storm nicely. There's a lot to like about Frost Breath - it's not a second-string power in any way.

Basically, the way many of the sets are designed makes their strengths not entirely obvious, but if you look at the underlying numbers (e.g. from NoFuture.org.uk) and the long-term statistical performance (e.g. using HeroStats), the true utility of powers becomes clear, and there are real surprises. I'm currently performing a cross-set analysis of all damaging attacks, and it's interesting to say the least.

According to NoFuture, it has 1.2 ToHit - the same as the average snipe. You'll have to determine based on your own play style what that means as regards slotting.

I'm not quite sure where the orignal poster's gap comes from. I'm not much of an Ice Patch user (I find Shiver + FR to be enough control), but were I to close to melee I'd be bouncing into the fight throwing bolts on each hop.

Frost Breath is good though, although it's not worth it against just 1 or 2 targets. The whole set, situationally, is excellent. I think BFR is probably the weakest power of the set - and it's not that bad.

I think fluffymormegil said it all very well.

I think the game was changed for the better when AoE holds were weakened and we got Containment in exchange. AoE holds were far too much of an "I win" button, and Controller damage pre-containment was a bit of a joke. Now we have respectable damage and AoE holds are more of a tactical/situational power rather than the soft controls that have become the every-fight power. Much better balance.

I like Trip Mine but appreciate the comments about its real usefulness. I get some mileage out of it, but mostly when soloing (it's great for ambushing bad guys on corners). It's a lovely concept but not often that useful, and oddly all it would need to fix it is more reliable detection of when it should be triggered.

BFR I'm about to respec out, I think it's of marginal benefit to most general purpose builds.

Ice Storm is a widely underrated power IMO, and does useful damage and a nice slow/panic effect. Frost Breath/Ice Storm/Blizzard is a nice combo, since you can't get Shiver or Snow Storm. I'd take it, and possibly toss a couple of slows in it.

[ QUOTE ]
You don't need taunt at L10, you can keep aggro with CE easily at that range.


[/ QUOTE ]

CE doesn't seem to be taunting as reliably as it used to (against even-level enemies). Has anyone else noticed this or have an explanation?

[ QUOTE ]
Having been told how ultimate Mind used to be

[/ QUOTE ]

Did they just nerf Mind or something? It's an incredible set, pet or no pet.

Honestly, I really think the only combo that really matches your prerequisites is Ice/Energy. Ice as a secondary is much more PvE oriented IMO; it isn't good for blapping and has the sort of soft controls that are great in PvE but much more situational in PvP.

My personal bad...

...you take Quantum Flight and then hit the debt cap anyway due to forgetting that you have it (partly due to not playing any one character very often, and partly due to having a ton of shapechanging tactics in your head).

Nice avatar, Maelwys, I haven't played Golden Axe in ages.

Sonics have no accuracy penalty. I've never heard this story of them having one before, but it sounds like an old wives tale. My /Son defender hits just fine.

Sonic is a superb single-target set - the stacking -Res and mostly fast animations make it dish out damage fast - just as well as Ice, subjectively. I also love the ripple attack of the second single-target attack, I'm a sucker for "lots of numbers" powers.

I respecced out of Shockwave because I didn't really need it, but now I'm thinking of respeccing out of Howl and getting Shockwave instead because it's underwhelming on the damage side, and I prefer to not have to worry too much about mass aggro. Single target for the win, and a ghetto control power (Shockwave) over mediocre AoE. I think the main justification for Howl post-teens is the AoE -Res to help the team out, but I think that's marginal really.

Sirens' Song is great. The sleep on it has proper controller-type duration and seems to last forever if they're left undisturbed. Makes soloing cake and significantly adds to the safety of teams. It's so good that I'm tempted to roll a Son/En right now just for the "Sleeping Blapper" playstyle.

Ice/Energy or Ice/Elec would be the closest to what you want. The /Ice secondary is downright poor for blapping (I think of it as a blaptroller secondary).

Sonic is good as a primary too, if you want single target. I see no particular problems with sonic in PvP, my Kin/Son defender does well in PvP so far.

Beanbag.

No difference between Beanbag and Stun as far as I can tell except the range and casting time. Magnitude and duration seem the same, and beanbag is ranged and faster to fire.

Grav/FF is a powerful and very fun teaming build. I do solo with my level 38 and she can take out hazard zone spawns solo, but it's very slow and would frustrate anyone expecting to XP quickly. If it weren't for the combo of PFF and Aid Self, it would be very tricky, too.

A much better soloing build would be Grav/Rad. More damage, great debuffs and a nice endurance boost.

I think you need a very aggressive/damaging pet to be soloable at a reasonable rate once you hit the 30s. Only Illusion or Fire fill that for me. Controllers are primarily about teams otherwise.