RaikenX

Here's an idea for ya, Nyx.

Lydia spent time as a warshade. During that time she (they) had the ability to absorb the energies of those around her, friend and foe alike (Mires, Eclipse, and even the inherent Dark Sustenance), and turn it against their foes. After the seperation, and unbeknowst to Lydia, she somehow managed to retain a small aspect of that ability and was steadily, and over the course of her new life, building up within her. Sort of like a "genetic memory" from Rift-Dancer. The only reason it never happened while they were fused was because the Warshade aspect of her was dominant and over-riding. However, without Rift-Dancers influence, when the process has reached it's peak, it manifested in the form of the capability of releasing fire blasts.

Bear in mind this is off top of my head...but with a little fine-tuning, this could be a workable solution to your concept dilemma.

I did quite a bit of solo work with a Stone/Willpower brute on the Responisiblity Arc. Rarely, if ever. got in over his head. Base difficulty, mind you.

WORMHOLE!

Seriously...this is really just a plain fun power to use...and one of the best "goofing-off" powers around. I find myself using it while i'm running from one door to the next and happen upon a pretty good sized group of baddies that won't smear me before i can kick it off. Pick center target..the toss mouse pointer in a random direction and POOF!

Lightning Rod is just pure sweetness. Fell it love with it the first time i kicked it off.

Propel also gets a mentioning from me just for pure random "did you just throw a FORKLIFT?" purposes.

Hail of Bullets. Say what you will about this power, but the Dance of Deathblossom is just...yee-freakin-HA to me. Brings a grin to my face everytime i see it.

Psychic Wail. Yeah...its got a crash...but there's just something about screaming, putting little pink-purple rings around stuff...and watching them keel over. hehehe

On a Shield Defense toon...all of the KM attacks are, indeed, one handed. Seen it first hand with my own SD/KM Tanker and a friends KM/SD scrapper.

i'm gonna chime into this with a repeat of my very first apex run...

2 tankers, 3 scrappers, one blaster (me with dp/elec), an emp/elec(?) defender, and ill/rad troller.

we completed the TF in 31 minutes, i died 3-4 times the entire tf (one before the BM fight cuz i did something dumb) and only once from the patches of dooooooom. All in all we might have had around a dozen deaths or so, i really didn't count.

As the primary (read: pretty much the only real ranged damage as the def was doing his best to keep us buffed and vertical) ranged damage dealer, i'd say that the melees, while not working at peak effeciancy were certainly contributing to the BM fight. I like to think of Gunslinger Raiken as a complete badass (yeah...i'm just a smidge delusional)...but he's not THAT good!

All in all I look at Apex, and in particular the BM fight, from a comic book perspective. There have been many a time in comics/manga, and other media based on said comics/manga where the characters have run into situations where not all of them really had the tools to beat the weekly badguy (as it were) while some others did. This often boiled down to a situation of "Alright, I'll do what I can to keep them busy while you do your thing." BM is a good example of that, and kind of refreshing to see, honestly.

I remember the "Why a blaster?" thread that was rampant for a little while. As I recall...the tone of it was along the lines of why would/should anyone play a blaster when it's normal survivability was substandard to some others with comparable damage...blah blah blah.

THIS is why you play a blaster! For ONCE...a scrapper/tank/brute can't just stand in front of something and laugh as it struggles impotently to reduce it's green bar to the depths of Black. They can't, without serious risk to life and digital limb, just simply brawl (no...not the actual brawl POWER) an enemy until it finally falls in defeat. For ONCE...something as FINALLY been introduced that takes them out of their element. Welcome to the wonderful world that we squishies THRIVE IN!

Now...do your job...keep that wench off of us, and let us handle the rest. Get in your shots when and where you can...but leave the heavy lifting to us for a change.



We got this.

I don't have a build on mids but, i do have an earth/earth dommy by the name of Rocky Martin. Currently he is still on pretty much nothing but SO's with maybe a smattering of generic IO's in his build. But...i do have a few comments.

My earthquake is slotted for recharge...3 i think. Though i've never thought about looking into what procs that sucker could take (mmmmm....NE damage on EQ.....<drool>). On a perma-hasted/dom build...you could probably get away with just the 1.

You asked in your first post if you should keep stone cages. My answer...YES! it's the perfect pairing with Stalagz for ghetto holdage. Especially if you buff it with Power Boost. My typical pattern is to alternate between PB'd stalagmites+cages and QS+EQ. 9 times outta 10 at least ONE of those combos is up every spawn.

The single target damage of /earth is just plain ridiculous. Seismic Smash for me can damn near one-shot white and yellow minions (again...i don't have set bonuses working for me...if i did have global damage...i'm sure i could). I often compare him to my Stone/Willpower brute. When my brute gets rolling and fury built...he hurts. But up front, start of the fight...its Rocky, hands down, who hits like a 5-ton truck.

You will laugh at bosses (save MAYBE for master ill's and fortunatas) as you SMASH them into their helpless, holdy doooooommmmmm after smacking them with fossilize+seismic smash (though in your case with the lockdown proc, maybe just SS).

For my APP, i went with /Fire for extra AoE Damage. I'm only @ 46 right now and have fireball, which is nice, but i imagine the combo of QS+EQ+Rain of Fire will just be sick. Slowdown+Knockdown+Meltdown. Even better when he gets to melt armor (at least i think that was in there) for debuffing goodness.

Believe it or not...i'm actually debating on whether or not i'm gonna pick up ET. I know the damage on that sucker is bordering on ludicrous and all but...i'm kinda building on more of a ranged dommy with grav/energy, so i'm leaning more towards energy torrent and explosive blast. If i did pick it up...it'd be late in build.

Honestly...when I was on an Apex team last week on my DP/Elec blaster...i really didn't use my secondary much either. That may perhaps be do to the fact that /electric is rather melee range heavy. 3 melee attacks, pbaoe's in lightning field, thunder clap, and power sink (and technically thunderstrike), and a melee ranged hold.

Unless you're a softcapped blaster (or not...dunno honestly...cuz i'm not) or just plain crazy (guess i really hadn't hit that point yet)...you're really not gonna wanna risk getting into melee range of BM. Most of the pbaoe's you have are either A: totally worthless vs. BM, and/or B: better used on incoming mobs during the fight.

I bounced and bang-banged the entire fight and suffered puddle death one time cuz i wasn't paying attention and walked into it (DUH!)

Really...it boils down to the right tools for the right job. As a general contractor, I have a truck toolboxes and a tool trailer full of tools. I don't use every tool every time for every job. i won't use a hammer to try and put in a screw...i get a screwdriver or a drill. Have nail...THEN grab a hammer.

Sorry it sucks for you, Dragonkat...but hey...such is the way of things sometimes. Personally...i liked the TF and would run it again. With my blaster...that pretty much ignored his secondary the entire time...and had a blast (no pun intended) the entire fight.

leapfrogging expends too much energy. I have to run...maybe hop a little if someone is in my way...blah blah blah.

WORMHOLE! I bring the fight to ME! It's even better if i can jam the suckers into a corner i'm standing in with Singy right next to me. Behold the bouncing baddies!

Aaand nope...nowhere near softcappage. Decent amount of +rech, though i'm still trying to work out how to get my grav/energy (and someday/primal forces) dommy perma-dommed and perma-hastened...i'm not very good with IO's

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around "blasters are support class". Uuummm...huh? Support classes are typically those that buff/heal (notice i put heal second) teammates, debuff mobs, or some combination thereof. Blasters...BLAST! We are the walking, talking, gum-chewing, name-taking (when we bother) NUCLEAR HOWITZERS! We DESTROY! We ANNIHILATE! We DECIMATE, OBLITERATE, and give'em HELL before we go! Defenders are there to keep us verticle. Corruptors and controllers are there to keep up verticle. They support US!

Ok...now that i've gotten my rant out of the way (actually...i got more...but i cut it short there), as to the topic at hand...

I really have no idea...i'll defer to others on this one as I really don't have a toon that could really handle +1x8. If i invested more into the IO system like alot of folkz...i probably could make toons like that...but i've honestly dabbled little with the system. Even after being on this game for almost 7 years...and having a steady account running since the introduction to IO's...yeah...i'm still a total noob in that department. Something i'm attempting to remedy now.

Took part in the Apex TF last night for the FIRST TIME EVER, and had a complete blast! We had a few deaths, but over all things went rather smoothly. I faceplanted because of the blue field of doom, and that was because i accidentally walked into it, like a *******. Although...the emp defender on our team came over to rez me...and ended up doing the same exactly thing...walked into it...rezzed me...then died. Was kinda funny actually.

Had a few "crud crud CRUD CRUD MOVE!" moments when i saw blue stuff and i was in the middle of animation...but never once got caught by'em. I did fall a few times during the BM fight...but that was usually cuz a boss came over and wacked me.

Lemme restate a few things here. First time for TF...stayed out of blue stuff fairly easily, even when i saw it during power animation/rooting. Hmm...did i mention i was a DP/Elec blaster? So uh...yeah...some hellish anims to get stuck in, but zero problems avoiding stuff.

As an aside...we completed the TF in 31 minutes with a team comp of 2 scrappers, 3 tankers, a controller, a defender, and me as a blaster.