Miladys_Knight

A fly/hover build is better off going for capped ranged defense and some AoE defense. The reason being that you can completely remove the melee vector simply by hovering out of melee range.

To knock a flying foe down, /energy is not the ticket, but taking air superiority from the flight pool solves that problem. You don't even have to slot it for damage since all you'll really be using it for is to knock flyers out of the air so that you can safely use your ranged attacks on them.

I recommend S/L defense if you are mainly going to be blapping.

In either case I tend to avoid Power Burst. It has 2 distinct disadvantages for your given goals. For a hover build its short range means that you'll rarely use it. You'll be blasting along and get that annoying "boink" sound that means you are out of range. For a melee build it's range is no longer a factor but its animation time and chance of KB make Energy Punch + Bone Smasher a better option.

I have 3 different builds I use on mine. One is a purpled out recharge + KB focused build, a long ranged attack, ranged defense build, and a blapping build that's soft capped to S/L. I'd be happy to share which ever one is preferred.

Merits per minute formula

Adding in Chem Rounds for the Sonic/DP means a boost of 25% -damage for that combo. Adding in Shadow Fall (slotted 2 defense, 2 resistance, 2 end red) for the Dark/DP means that the team gains another 7.5% defense to all and 30% resistance to Energy, Negative, and Psi.

(My preferred slotting for Shadow Fall is is 2 HO Ribos, 2 HO Cytos, LotG +7.5, and Steadfast res/def which gives fractionally higher mitigation numbers but much better endurance management)

I'll leave the rest of the math to the reader but it seems to me that the clear winner in the mitigation department is still the Dark/DP especially since the full benefit applies to the Defender as well as the team meaning that the defender stays upright and helping the team a larger portion of the time.

Not every AT benefits equally from Sonic's buff's. The caster for instance is weaker than the team. That's not the case with DP/Dark. You get just as much benefit from it as the rest of the team.

On a high resistance team it's moot. (Think /fire brutes. The brute is all ready at the resistance cap for Fire, adding sonic shields does nothing for fire damage but having -damage stacked on top does.)

(Think of a 100 damage attack coming in. DP/Dark reduces that by 62% to 38 damage that hits the brute's fire resistance and does a whopping total of 3.8 damage. With out the DP/Dark's contribution it would have been 10 damage)

On low resistance teams -damage is a godsend since even squishy blasters get a resistance toggle (and lest we forget, blasters exist for the sole purpose of giving a defender something to do on a team.)

Let's take the example of a blaster that has Force Mastery and runs Tough. ED capped resistance slotting gives the blaster 50% resistance to S/L but nothing else. ED capped Sonic Shields give the blaster 54% resistance to all damage types except psi provided he stays tethered to the defender and never strays more than 25 feet away (and exits sonic dispersion). That gives the blaster 75% resistance to S/L (blaster resistance cap) 54% to every thing else and nothing against Psi.

With a 100 damage attack the blaster takes:

25 damage from S/L
46 damage from all other types but Psi
100 damage from Psi

With the same conditions the DP/Dark would have the blaster take:

19 damage from S/L (100*.38*.5)
38 damage from all other types

Having both available would be the best of both worlds:

9.5 damage from S/L (100*.38*.25)
17.48 damage from all other types but Psi (100*.38*.46)
38 damage from Psi

(Note: the above numbers do not take into account the defense or resistance provided by Shadow Fall, only the mitigation provided by the -damage components in Darkest Night and DP's AoE attacks using Chemical rounds)

The thing that makes Dark/DP a good combination is the stacking -damage from Dark/ with -damage from Chem rounds. This combination puts out some of the highest -damage in the game. -Damage is like having extra resistance but it combines with resistance and lets you exceed what would be "the resistance cap."

Now if I could only get Wild Western themed animations instead of Gunfu I'd be a happy camper.

I do indeed remember that. I was also specific in my original post about it being a room (which I define as at least 2 walls and a ceiling) and not an open map.

I can't remember ever being able to KB any of the Named AVs you just listed and once again smart play is the watch word. In an open area map an energy blaster need only hover over the spawn far enough out of mob melee range to maximize AoE using hover or a raptor pack. On indoor maps (with the afore mentioned ROOM) this is not usually an option and requires the melee toons to use smart play or suffer for their own ignorance.

DISCLAIMER - The term ignorant and ignoramus is being used as the dictionary definition specifically section 1a and section 2 and should not be construed as a slur on any specific person (or lizard).

1a : destitute of knowledge or education <an ignorant society>; also : lacking knowledge or comprehension of the thing specified <parents ignorant of modern mathematics>

b : resulting from or showing lack of knowledge or intelligence <ignorant errors>

2: unaware, uninformed

If you read it, the mobs were not in a nice clump. They were gathered in the center of the room and left there. It would have taken a similar amount of time to gather them near any object so you aren't depriving your team of the Blaster's AoE damage. I would call that team work. It should flow both ways. Smart should be expected from everyone on the team not just the KB user.

The most difficult toon to solo with (and even use on a team) for new players is a blaster. Blasters are also one of the most favored new player toons because many of the really cool comic book characters are blasters so lots of new folks start with them not realizing the learning curve that exists. Wonder why they aren't locked.

This. Blizzard crashes your endurance bar. A Catch a Breath is enough blue to use Power Sink or Hibernate both of which will replenish your endurance.

YW. It was the bane of my AR/NRG/Munitions.