Mr_Grumpums

The first character I made in Issue 1 was a Dark/Dark Scrapper named Mormegil, a mutant who had learned to control his powers through arcane techniques. I ran through the whole game with him all the way through into Hammi's, despite everyone telling me how awful and weak he was.

And good lord was he weak!

I still remember killing an Eidolon, seeing that its rank was "Boss", and thinking that I'd destroyed a rare, dangerous enemy. >.>

Still, you all should see what that toon can do now. Softcapped, with huge damage numbers and near-perma Soul Drain, Mormegil never STOPS! Things have changed, and Mormegil moved to Virtue server, changing his name as he went, but he's still my first scrapper, and he's become one of the most versatile and powerful characters I've ever made.

Big change from "lol Dark/Dark".

A Claws/WP Brute can get to 20 in a few hours, if you find the right team. They are mighty, terrifying monsters.

A Friend of mine has a DP/Energy/Weapon Mastery Blaster. He enjoys it immensely, and I've seen him pull off some crazy stuff. Granted, his build has been purpled out to the max because this is his main character who he plays all the time, but it's still pretty impressive. He's got three "Nukes", he claims: LRM Rocket, Cryionic Judgement, and whatever the last power in DP is called (I've never played one up that high, so it hasn't stuck with me). With his permanently boosted range, he's able to shoot at a decent range as well as run into a mob and destroy things up close. He says that he doesn't use the Chemical Ammo often, but that he alternates between the other three options depending on what he wants (Incendiary is most common, but Regular and Ice Ammo have uses for a touch of crowd control when solo).

I've heard that the strongest DP secondary for blasters is Mental Manipulation, and I can see how having an in-your-face blapper with World of Confusion, Drain Psyche, and Psychic Shockwave would be quite nice.

Can't beat DM as a ST primary, in my opinion.

My DM/Nin is a beast. Slotting Caltrops with Procs and tossing them around while enemies are under the effect of Blinding Powder and Touch of Fear? You're pretty safe while you take out those bosses and Lt's. It also has two heals, and Immob in its strongest attack, and high DPS, enough that I solo'd an AV or two on mine. The only problem I had was whether to slot Touch of Fear for -ToHit debuff or Fear duration.

Radiation/Sonic is one of the most powerful defender combos in the game, hands down.

I'd suggest, if you don't want /Sonic, that you go for Dual Pistols. Swap Ammo does the most for defenders, and that will give you access to versatile methods of crowd control/debuff/damage that looks good together with Radiation.

Another strong combo would be Traps/Sonic or Traps/Pistols.

I know it's the flavor of the months, but SS/Fire is an incredibly "Go Go Go!" brute. With Burn, Foot Stomp, Knockout Blow, Blazing Aura, and other powers at your disposal, you can SMASH through anything just by popping a few Purple insps on occasion. It's also one of the better farming brutes, and people have been able to use it to solo the ITF and STF.

SS/Elec doesn't have Burn, but you get extra recharge and a sweet Tier 9, plus built-in Knockback protection that /Fire lacks. I've seen people slot it for endurance drain, as well, and used it to sap tougher enemies.

Claws/Willpower is another toon that will keep you wanting to move constantly. You get Spin, a major AoE damage power, at level 6! With that, a ranged attack built-in, all the endurance you could want, and solid protections, it's a really cool alternative to Super Strength.

Stone/Fire Brutes with the Earth APP. Lots of Stun, Burn, and ST Damage. Fury is easier to keep high than you would think due to Blazing Aura. You're a walking volcano.

Dark/Fire is going to be FotM soon, I bet, because people have realized that having double heals and double PBAoE Endurance Recovery powers along with Burn, Blazing Aura, and Fiery Embrace just might be nice. Note that you also will have Soul Drain and very nice ST damage. It's a good solo Brute, and if you slot it for defense and recharge then it becomes a monster, especially after getting an AoE from the Epic/Patron pools to add to the mayhem.

Maybe a KM/WP Brute? You'll have a good all-around Brute that way. I thought hard about rolling one.

Roll up a Widow. They can solo EBs/AVs, and they've got all kinds of neato powers. They might not be the best farmers, but they're very cool. I mean, come on! you can make it either a Toxic DoT Claws/SR Scrapper or a Psy/SR Blaster, basically.

My Fire/MM Blaster:

Alpha - I chose Spiritual to keep cycling through his blasts faster and add a bit to his Healing. It's done great things for his offense -and- survivability.

Judgement: Pyronic all the way! It looks so similar to fireball that I can picture the character himself throwing it by accident, looking at his hand, looking at the pile of crispy baddies, and then going cross-eyed. If I had to pick another, it would be either Cryonic or Void for their secondary effects.

Interface - I hard a very hard time picking between Reactive and Diamagnetic before finally picking Diamagnetic. Having fire and psychic damage means that most enemies already have comparatively weaker resistance to his powers, and being able to drop ToHit would be helpful for his defense. Eventually I plan on leveling up Reactive as well and alternating them as needed.

Destiny - I chose Barrier, and I'm very happy with my choice. He's able to survive very well when things get tough, fire off Drain Psyche in the middle of a dangerous crowd, and keep going strong. Great lifesaving power. If I had to choose another, it would probably be either Ageless or Rebirth.

Lore - I went with the Seers for Perma-Fortitude. I'm only on Tier 2 for these pets right now, but they're quite nice. Later, I plan on getting a pet for Offense and Alpha-taking purposes, but that will be later.

For my baby Archery/Energy long-range Blaster when he grows up:

Alpha - Either Musculature, Spiritual, or Cardiac depending on how he performs in later levels.

Judgment - Cryonic, Ionic, or Pyronic for him. The important thing is for the enemies who get that close to either be killed or unable to land a hit. Cryonic can hold enemies, Ionic saps (and maybe holds? I'll have to look that up again), and Pyronic can Stun. I'm going for the non-DoT secondary effect types of Judgment for this Blaster because his damage will be quite nice, and he might need the extra control.

Interface - Reactive. He'll spend most of his time outside of enemy range, so no need to pile on -ToHit.

Destiny - Like I said, I plan on keeping him far away from baddies. I'll get Ageless so that he can cycle through his attacks faster and has extra endurance to use them.

Lore - I'm undecided. If there is a guide on how Lore Pets stack up against each other, I'd love to see it.


Long story short, I use Incarnate powers to either fill in gaps or make characters better at what they already do. It depends on the powersets and how I play the character.

It's a great combo, and highly customizable. This was my first Blaster 50, and it has a huge bag of tricks. I grabbed the Elec APP for Static Discharge and slotted for recharge and damage, giving him a triple cone attack chain that worked very well on teams. The Elec APP also has EMPulse, which stacks stun quite nicely with Psychic Shockwave. When all else failed, I could also use Siren's Song and kill one enemy at a time with ST attacks.

I like bringing this Blaster on AV killing runs because of the -Res and -Recharge in its attacks. The contribution might be small, especially when compared to the insane debuffing power that Sonic Blast gets for Defenders, but it makes a difference.

I guess I'd call it a mid-range Blaster-Of-All-Trades. To use everything, you'll have to pop into melee from time to time. You have access to Mezzes that make soloing a breeze, Strong ST damage, Solid cone AoE damage, and some PBAoE/Melee damage just to top things off. It can always make a good contribution to a team, and it can solo very well.

I've seen a few Gravity/Force Field controllers who have been pretty fun to watch. Some of them just solo with Singularity and Personal Force Field, and others do awesome knockback moves for chaos control.

Seeing their chaos control tricks actually motivated me to make use of my Fire/Mental Blaster's third build on the BAF, making use of Repulsion Field to knock back escaping prisoners while utilizing Personal Force Field and Aid Self as a faux-Hibernate. It's given my blaster, a "mage" type, a very cool new way of playing and looks neat, to boot. Well, aside from Unstoppable.

Grabbing the Disrupters from Mace Mastery seems like a good way to go as a Gravity controller. It will give more killing power to work with Singularity and let you run like a mastermind with nice control powers.

I think it's a better set for Controllers than Dominators. It's a control set with increased damage, and Doms have an entire secondary dedicated to damage.

Make a Grav/FF or a Grav/Storm, though. You might like it.

Currently shooting for the Permadom over the defense cap. I'm 47 merits from adding in the second LotG: Recharge, and I have another character who is 97 away. The build is working VERY well. I dropped out Tactics to get Fly, however.

The Tier1 Musculature Alpha is finished, and it's upped my damage considerably.

My SS/Fire brute was essentially a punching bag for the AVs on the trials today, especially because I was running every single one with the bare minimum number of people. For once I really felt the lack of resistance in the character, and this is coming from a guy who will solo all four Riders in the Lady Grey Task Force with a few purples. It was BRUTAL.

We'll see how I do once I get off the iPad and and back to the game, though.

Speaking from my own perspective ahead of any other factors, I would pick Cardiac, followed by Spiritual in second place. I hate having to stop and wait for my blue bar to fill up again while the team keeps moving.

I'd go with:
-The character who is the most fun in teams.
-The character on the server you have the most friends on.
-The Fortunata, because it will probably have the easiest time on the trials.

DESPAIR! I only managed to get my Dom to lv 41 and the servers are already down for the addition of Issue 20! I swear, teaming was as dry as a bone on Virtue server. I only managed three TFs since I dedicated myself to grinding him to 50. >_<

Since I'm still leveling, I went ahead and grabbed Sleet first at level 41. It made for a mean addition to his existing powers, and keeps enemies bouncing around while Synaptic Overload is recharging, allowing me more precious time to stay safe while in melee range and attack/sap them while they're helpless.

I have a love/hate relationship with knock back in this game, but never more than when playing my Elec/Ice dom. It would be more accurate to say that I have a love/hate relationship with OTHER PEOPLE'S KNOCK BACK. Mine works just fine, but theirs messes up my careful plans. :P

For future reference to others who consider this build, the biggest drawback it has is the high endurance cost of Ice's ranged attacks. I highly recommend slotting them early for endurance. They fire off far faster than even the melee attacks in the set, and certainly quicker than most other ranged blasts, but their endurance cost really eats through the blue bar. I'm hoping that going for Permadom status will help ease my problems there.