Splattercat

Amazingly enough, on my Rad/Elec Defender, I got this brilliant idea to drop a damage proc into my Choking Cloud since I had it overloaded with Hold IOs...I found a relatively cheap (15 million) Unbreakable Constraint: Chance for Smashing damage and dropped it in. It does almost as much damage as my Defender's Lightning Bolt....

That's my recommendation; Unbreakable Constraint: Chance for Smashing Damage. Free moderate damage...

The OP seemed disillusioned with his Energy/Energy and I thought I'd offer my experience with a non-standard (standard being Blaster=range) build that I enjoy...Not ripping down the range game or saying Energy/Energy MUST be melee only, merely explaining how and why my melee build does work, and how he takes advantage of "the best defense is a good offense"...

Regarding Energy Bolt and Energy Punch: For both our purposes they are nigh-mutually exclusive with regards to having enough attacks and not being as strong as we need...However, as I mentioned, my build is pre-Defiance 2.0 so when I redesign I will be making every effort to include it...

Blasters are ranged attackers by default, and natural AoE killers.../Energy can make single target or even melee blasters not only possible, but extremely effective...My build describes this, and it's not even as good as it could be...

Also a player of Energy/Energy blaster as a first character...I'll just give how my build works rather than offer advice because mine may be slightly unorthodox (No AoEs)

Also, I lack time to write it out in "build format" so bare with...

Primaries: First off, guilty, I didn't take Power Bolt...My build is pre-Defiance '08 so I was only taking the essentials for range

Power Blast
Power Burst (high damage knockback)
Sniper Blast (Extreme damage, awesome synergy with Power Thrust)
Aim (of course)
Nova (yeah, I know they hate it, but I love it... :P)

That's it for Primary, the reasons for not taking the others:
Power Bolt - too weak for my tastes, however, when the time is right I will respec into it
Energy Torrent - annoying knockback
Power Push - I have Power Thrust, and although Power Push is superior, I don't feel the need for both since I dropped other more important powers
Explosive Blast - I really dislike this power...there is very little Explosive about it.


Secondary:
I took everything but Boost range....Here's why:

Power Thrust - Well, had to, but it's a very nice utility when you're soloing mobs (re: switching targets)
Build Up - of course

Energy Punch
Bone Smasher
Power Boost
Stun
Total Focus

These all add up to death for any enemy...With Power Boost, you will mez the crap out of anything and nothing short of an Elite Boss will recover...if you're fighting three or 4, Power Boost+Stun one, Total Focus another, Energy Punch/Bone Smasher (very quick combo) a third, and power thrust the fourth...Finish off the third and fourth, because the first and second aren't going anywhere...

Conserve power = infinte endurance...For a short time of course, but trust me, you'll get the most out of it...

Boost range - My blaster has no use for this because he fights at close range...

Pools:
Fitness
Swift, Health, Stamina
I opt Swift over hurdle because like the OP, I prefer flight...Slot flight IOs and it will greatly boost your hover speed

Flight
Hover, Flight
I actually had slots available to three slot both as well as Swift...However, someone else will have to tell you if Flight is capped before that because I get mixed impressions fromt he game regarding flight speed...At the very least, with hover and Swift 3 slotted you can get up to sprint speed with Hover...Power Boost also speeds these up...

Speed
Hasten, Super Speed
Reason I take Super Speed and Flight is because hover is nice in combat, and Flight is great for vertical motion (more precise than teleport, more freedom than Super Jump)...Hasten and Superspeed are probably the best travel powers in the game...

Medicine
Heal Other
Heal Self
Once again, Power Boost is huge with Heal Self...

Force Mastery
Personal Force Field (wherein you can safely Power Boost+Heal Self, or even setup Aim/Build Up/Power Boost without interruption)
Temporary Invulnerability

And unfortunately, my Blapper build does not have room for the most obvious reason to take Force Mastery: Force of Nature...This is a personal failing on my part and is solely due to my love for Nova...To me Nova is a concept thing, like many others and Flight...Eventually I will find a way to include both, but I would recommend Force of Nature over Nova...

So, as I explained throughout, your attacks against a boss go:

Target the enemy far away and Power Boost to set up. Click Stun and run past with Superspeed, you will hit it and be out of melee range when it lands. He will likely be stunned, so return with Aim+Build Up+Total Focus+Bone Smasher+Energy Punch...If he's still alive, continue with Power Burst, Power Thrust, Sniper Blast until he's dead...If he's still alive, he's still very stunned, hit him with another Stun+Total Focus etc until he's dead...

Against multiples, do the same, but target a different enemy with each attack (Bone Smasher+Energy Punch should stun or even kill with Defiance against a Minion or Lt.)...


This is how my Blaster runs, and believe me, he's very fun even on teams...It's standard for a blaster to sit back and use cones and AoEs to wipe out all the minions and Lts., but it's awesome to charge in and wipe out the Boss while the rest of the group mops up the rest...Furthermore he is amazingly helpful against AVs (I can't solo them mind you, but I can solo most EBs with little difficulty)...

I know the build isn't optimal and has a couple inefficient choices (Flight over SJ, Nova), but those are personal preference...You can easily get around those...

Hope my input helps some...

Agreed, Explosive Blast is worthless in my opinion...I have an Energy/Energy Bosskiller who is my most effective character against single enemies...Saying Blasters are only good with AoEs is pretty much false since there are a lot of reasons to go focus on single target attacks when taking /Energy...Power Blast/Burst (i.e. controlled knockback that won't have the team screaming at you) for Energy, Cosmic Burst in addition to /Energy's stun heavy set is a given, the first three powers in Psi, and finally, Ice and Sonic are natural single target choices...In addition, Power Thrust+any Snipe is effective against almost anything...

As to the Neutron Bomb question, I'm playing a Rad/Fire Blaster right now and I haven't taken it yet, although admittedly I have far more AoE options...I would recommend Irradiate though...The -def going into a melee chain is pretty much going to guarantee 95% to hit especially with Power Boost...

For your purposes, if you feel the animation time on Neutron Bomb is slowing you down, you could probably do without...Once again however, I find Irradiate to be a nice opener...

But don't let anyone tell you "Take AoEs or you're playing the game wrong"...It's not like you're making a Petless Mastermind...Blasters are High damage, so as long as you're doing tons of damage you're doing your part...