well, this isn't really a "guide", just my current build with comments. it's been working very well for me in pvp so far.
I'd like to thank snipefu for sharing his anti-melee tactics. first time i fought him with my spine/invul, he totally caught me off guard, and restored my hope in blasters pvping.
most of my powers are fully slotted with HOs, however, i'll list slotting for both SOs and HOs.
FIRE SECONDARY:
flare and fire breath are the two powers to skipped in fire primary. flare has long activation time and low dmg. breath does good dmg, but activation time is way too long. it's a must have power good for pve, but not for pvp.
fire blast: 1acc, 5dmg (2dmg/acc, 4 dmg/range)
fast attack, decent dmg.
fire ball: 1acc, 5dmg (2dmg/acc, 4 dmg/range)
fast attack, decent dmg.
blaze: 1acc, 5dmg (2dmg/acc, 4 dmg/range)
your bread 'n butter move. combined firesword you can 2shot kill a squishy(if they don't have any +hp accolade or resist)
blazing bolt: 4dmg, 2 range (2dmg/acc, 4 dmg/range)
the snipe is very good for team fights when you hover in the air. should be used with bu+aim
inferno: 4dmg, 2 recharge (3dmg/acc, 3 recharge)
inferno is a situational power in pvp. when you fight 1on1, when other person's health down to red or yellow(depends on AT), inferno can quickly finish him/her off quickly, without giving them much chance to pop greens. on a team fight, it's good to take out multiple squishies with 1 shot.
aim: 3 recharge, 2 tohitbuffs
since a lot of ATs have high defense(FFer, mog/sr/unstoppable scrappers etc), you need to slot aim up with tohitbuffs.
FIRE SECONDARY:
this is no news. fire secondary is sub par to other blasters'. however, the lack of good powers allow you to heavily slot other important pool powers.
ring of fire: 1acc
you're stuck with this one. it's a good move to use once you char someone. because it cost them another break free to get out of it. but most of the time, you're better off just kill with firesword+blaze instead.
firesword: 1acc, 5dmg (6 dmg/acc)
i never took this power in my pve build of 50 levels. now i can't live without firesword in the arena. hitting at the dmg cap, firesword does heavy dmg. takes about 45% hp off a squishy AT with dot. also the animation is super fast. this is your best toggle dropping power.
fireswordcircle: 1acc, 2dmg (3dmg/acc)
although firesword circle does more dmg, and have a chance of dropping 2 toggles, i didn't heavily slot it. i rarely use fsc unless i'm fighting a melee AT. fsc has a bit long activation and small radius.
buildup: 3 recharge, 2 tohitbuffs (3 recharge, 2 membranes)
since a lot of ATs have high defense, you need to slot aim up with tohitbuffs. when used with aim, you can hit a HOed out mog or SR scrapper no problem.
POOLS:
[SPEED]
hasten: 6 rchg a must have.
superspeed: 1 spd
whirlwind: 1end redux
now let's talk about whirlwind. it's not a hot power in pve, because once you hit a mob of enemies, you're out of end. however, in pvp, you most likely will only hit 1 person with it, so the end drain isn't too bad. i wouldn't advise to leave it on all the time though, unless Max Recovery is turned out. whirlwind allows you to be mobile while blasting. this is a huge plus for blasters. you're not rooted even when turn on other powers that have long activation time: fireshield, phase shift. etc
[FITNESS]
swift: 1 spd
health: 1 heal
stamina: 6 end recovery
[FLIGHT]
air superority: 1acc (1dmg/acc)
AS is a neat power to ground flying ATs. while used on the gruond, it does a knockup. this buys you couple seconds of blasting. very good for against another blaster.
hover: 1endredux, 5 spd
6 slotted hover is my choice of travel. it's about the same speed as unslotted fly, perhaps a bit slower. but it's fast enough for pvp. it has no accuracy penality, and no slow take off.
[CONCEALMENT]
stealth: 1 endredux
invisibility: 2 recharges
phase shfit: 1 endredux, 2recharges
concealment is a *Must Have*. a blaster without concealment is a dead blaster. on a team fight, the other team will milk you for kill counts if you don't have it. i put 2 recharges on phase shift and invisibility. they both have a quite long recharge base, espcially phase shift. the common tactics used for concealment powers are: start the fight with ps+stealth. when you're about to engage, turn off ps, attack with stealth on. when thing gets ugly, or your opponent dies and about to respawn, hit invisibility. wait for a ps to recharge, click on ps. then switch to stealth. rinse 'n repeat. phase shift + stealth = invisbility. i like to have phase shift on while i'm "scouting." beacuse invisibility alone dosen't protect you against people who have enhanced perception powers.
[FLAME MASTRY]
char: 1acc, 5range (1acc/mez, 5 dmg/range)
as you know, us fire/fire blasters don't have a hold. no, ring of fire isn't a hold. we're subpar compared to ice, elec holds, or /eng stun attacks. char is our salvation. my char slotted with HOs, has longer range than the base blazing bolt. i recommend slotting char with ranges. because more 'n more ATs will reply more heavily on holds you need gaining the upper hand by out ranging their holds. char with long range is especially good against controllers.
fireshield: 1endredux, 5 dmgresist (2 cytos, 4 dmgresist)
fireshield 6 slotted with dmg resist SOs will put you around 48%-50% resist against s/l and fire/ice. always leave this toggle on.
rise of pheonix: 1recharge (1dmg/mez)
rotp is not as good as before when they added the "spawn protection timer." however, it's still a decent power to use. against those who don't have mez protection, rotp will cost them another breakfree or two.
that's my build. now on to pvp tactics
[GENERAL PVP TACTICS 1ON1]
* always try to identify who you're fighting, view their builds, and buy insps accordingly. if you're about to fight a controller, or any ATs with holds, load up on more BFs. in a longer battle, BFs actually matter more than health insps.
* always, always, stay invisible, or psed while not engaged in fighting.
* ignore people who whine about you using concealment. people whine, it's life.
* vs. squishies: rely on char+firesword+blaze+fireblast combo. this will kill a squishy.
* vs. squishies: with mez protection: use snipe, ranged attacks. keep hovering around.
* vs. squishies with conealment: a lot of controllers like to cast out pets, then go invisible. illu/storm controllers are infamous for this. however, most trollers use self buff powers while invisibile, e.g recovery aura, tactics.. etc. you still can locate where they are, even though you can't lock on to them. here's where inferno shines. walk up next to the invisied troller, pop a breakfree, hit buildup + aim, then turn off phase shift, inferno. this will 1 shot kill a troller, even he doesn't have any dmg resist powers. even if he does, you still can pop a blue, then do fireswordcircle to finish him off. most of the time, trollers get caught off guard by this move, they'd un-invisi, and try to attack you. also, it's good to bring some acc insps, so you can see where they are.
* vs. blasters with concealment: this can be a tough fight. beacuse it can turn into a PS fest between two equally abled blasters. one trick you can do is, turn off stealth, just leave ps on. and hit buildup or aim, this sometimes leads to the other blaster thinking you're unpsed and are about to attack. they tend to drop ps first, and try to hold/attack you. you then unps, and use char+blaze+blast+firesword. of course good blasters won't fall for this.. here's where i say you two should just quit 1on1, and team up and kick some tankers [censored]!
* vs. blasters in general: in a long fight, normally it's down to whoever runs out of greens and bfs first loses. there are tactics you can use to deplete their insps faster. e.g. when you take the other blaster down to red, instead of killing him, run off and invisible. also, do more applcations of char whenever it's rdy.
* vs. squishies with high defense: drk/rad/FFer/storm/blasters with pff have high defense, either by def+ or acc- powers. you need to use aim and buildup. with the slotting i provided, you can always hit them regardless.
* vs. rads: good rads always put lingering radiation on you first. now, you need to make sure you can kill the rad off with one chain of attacks. if you can't acheive this, you're screwed for a few mins, may as well just go phaseshift and wait till LR wears off. use char on rads. (rad trollers can get IW, so you can't always rely on char). then blaze+fireblast+inferno. yes i said inferno. even if it drains all your end, it's a guaranteed win. rads can heal themselves back really fast, especially if they have golgis.
* vs. controllers: assuming they're not invisible, your range attacks are your best choices. just use snipe, fire blast, fire ball.
*vs. storms: if you're ever pinned to a corner by hurricane, just bu+aim+inferno. dead stormie. if inferno is not rdy, then just turn on phaseshift. you can just walk out of it. or, type "/stuck"
* vs. melees: most melees rely heavily on toggles. e.g. invul/regen/fire/etc/etc.. when the battle starts, go pre-emptive strike them. turn on whirlwind first, and superspeed charge towards their spawn point, and turn on fireshield( you won't be rooted while activating fireshield thanks to WW). it normally takes a melee about at least 10 secs to turn all the toggles on. by the time you reach to the tanker/scrapper, chances are he's still turning toggles on. as soon as you get in melee range, turn off superspeed, proceed with firesword, fsc. when their "mez protection toggle" is dropped, then proceed with char, air superiority, and the rest of your attack chains. the mez protection toggle for regen is Integration, for invul, it's unyielding stance. learn how these toggle effects look like helps a lot. integration has a green yellowish glow, and unyielding stance has a circle aura around scrappers' lower body. katana tends to have more criticals, due to fast attacks. make sure your fire shield is on, use EoM if you have it. watch your health carefully. once their toggles are dropped, you can easily 4 shot kill a regen.
* vs. SR scrapper: SR is probably the easiset scrapper to beat, if you slotted our aim and buildup for to hit buffs. i normally don't use bu and aim both for a SR scrapper. aim alone does fine, unless the SR is HOed out, then i use buildup.
* vs. invul/em Tanker: it's not the tankers' primary that scares me, it's their secondary. energy melee and superstrengh are the worst. they do heavy dmg, and can stun/mez you. i've beaten a few invul/em tankers 1on1, however, i don't think they were the best players. as a fire/fire blaster, our chance of beating a good invule/em tanker is rather slim. i think ice/eng blasters with force pool can do better. sorry i know this doesn't sound too encouraging
* vs. fire tankers: do the same thing as you do with scrappers. drop toggles by using firesword, fsc, and brawl. then char..
* vs. ice tankers: ice has high defense, but not very high against fire. this makes sense. chaim aim and buildup, you should hit them easily. ice tankers don't have any resist. so they should go down fast. make sure you hover in the air. no need to drop their toggles. in fact, do not get in their melee range, energy obsorbsion is their melee ranged targetted defbuff power.
* stone tankers: granite armour has crazy resist. you'd be wasting your end by trying to dent them. instead, just superspeed away, let them chase you. granite armour slow them down. if they want to catch you, they'd have to turn it off. as soon as the armour goes off, use char, then proceed with the rest of your fire loving.
* invul tankers: if the secondary isn't ss or em, you have a good chance. use the same strategy as for invul scrappers. if the invul tanker goes unstoppable, make sure you look at the timer. unstoppable lasts 3mins. at the end of 3mins, his hp/end drops to 10%. leaving him totally vulernable. so make this a habbit: tanker uses unstoppable, you look at the timer. while in unstoppable mode, the tanker can't be held, and has high resist. just toy with him, do blast 'n hover 'n run. don't get close. 3min is up before you know it.
[GENERAL PVP TACTICS TEAM]
* avoid rated fights while on a pick up team
* remember those good players you teamed, and team with them again. in time, you'll develop a great team chemistry and tactics.
* always tell the tanker/scrapper to taunt. they say they would, but sometimes they forget.. always remind them.
* be sneaky. hover in the air while your melee friend aggros on the gruond. char/snipe/blst/ball gruonded squishies.
* if you're teamed with a troller/def, make sure you're buffed first, before going in phaseshift.
* always stay close as a team. have 1 person lead.(preferrably a melee person).
* if your melee teamate is fighting another melee person, lend him a hand if there are no immediate threats around. you can detoggle better than he can.
* blasterxN = uber. have you ever seen how fast 2 blasters can drop an invul tanker?
* be a good sport. win or lose, you're in it for the fun. sometimes losing to a good team is still fun. although wining the fight is more fun..
that's all. if you have any questions about fighting a particular AT as a fire/fire blaster. please let me know. also, i'd love to hear other fire/fire blasters share their builds, and arena tips. thank you.
