StrykerX

Either will reduce the average damage they take by about the same amount. 20% resist is more reliable, but against powerful attacks (ones that overkill the imp by at least 25%) it won't matter. 10% defense will at least give a shot at surviving attacks that would kill through the resists, but if the enemy hits it will take less damage to kill. Really it comes down to whether you expect lots of attacks that can one-shot an imp (or lots of mezzing attacks you hope to avoid)... if so, go with defense. If not, the resist is probably better since it will consistently allow a bit longer to get a heal off or mez the enemies.

Dual Pistols and Kinetic Melee are both really flashy but numerically sub-par sets. They both have long animations and relatively low DPA, not horribly so but enough to put them near the bottom in sustained damage. Electric Control is a better performer (as long as you aren't soloing) and is still fairly distinct, but fair warning... the sound effects can get old fast.

Still, I have to agree that Dual Blades is still the most distinctive power set, with Dual Pistols as number two purely in terms of being unique. Kheldians also get an honorable mention, though since both Khelds share similar features it's a bit less unique than DB or DP.

Slotting Combat Jumping for Jump is pretty much a waste... just the default slot in Hurdle is plenty for good combat speed. The defense is pretty insignificant too, but defense sets have some very noticeable bonuses. I usually stick a 6% to-hit IO and a -KB IO in it and call it a day but things like Red Fortune or Luck of the Gambler are great if you can spare the slots. Since Combat Jumping adds almost no jump speed, just height, I've never seen a point to slotting for jump.

The best are probably /Mental and /Energy. You can lead off with /Mental's AoEs and then switch to DP attacks for the rest of the fight and only have one redraw, or you can go with a perma-Boost Range build and ignore melee except for emergencies while shooting stuff from longer range.

You could also go with a DP/Electric Blapper... smash things with melee attacks and only pull out the guns for runners or to use Hail of Bullets.

The devs doubled the speed bonus for Sprint in I18. Swift + Sprint (single Runspeed SO / IO in each) + Ninja Run is faster than Fly, as is Hurdle + Ninja Run if you jump instead of running. For a Blaster I'd go the Hurdle route and take Combat Jumping, because that gives you excellent unsuppressed speed and maneuverability in combat and protects from immobilizes. Great for jumping in to hit a PSW or Drain Psyche and then getting clear quickly.

Yes, KO Blow should use Blaster damage mods, so it will indeed hit like a freight train... should do exactly the same damage as Total Focus but with double the recharge. APP / Patron powers don't get customization though so it'll be limited to the original animation.

Bots/Traps is pretty much the ultimate Mastermind combo for soloing really tough things without an expensive build. It really shines against EBs (or even full AVs) because you can park your bots on a Triage Beacon and immobilize the AV, then keep it taunted and rely on Budyguard and high personal defense to protect you while the beacon keeps the Bodyguard damage healed. The big selling points are:

- Acid Mortar (significant -resist debuff that makes hard targets easier to kill)

- Poison Trap (massive -regen which is great on AVs, can also hold normal mobs)

- Force Field Generator (defense for you, defense for the bots, hold and stun protection, not suppressed when mezzed... this power is insanely good)

- Bots are tough and the Protector Bots can heal the others and bubble them and you.

With a good Bots/Traps build you'll be sitting at around 40% defense and all but the Protectors will be softcapped (you can softcap yourself if you want to spend a bit more, but it's not really needed). You can take Provoke and tank, or just let the bots do it (it's better to tank yourself against things with heavy AoE and keep the bots out of splash range), and I highly recommend Aid Other + Aid Self to keep the bots and you topped off. Triage Beacon is great against tough targets that will take a while to fight but not for normal mobs. You can even skip the Fitness pool since Traps don't take a lot of endurance.

One thing that's very handy to know for a /Traps MM: Bodyguard mode does not require the pets to be in Follow mode. As long as they are Defensive and set to Follow, Stay, or Goto and they are within Supremacy range (60 feet or less from you and in line of sight) they are Bodyguarding you. A good way to deal with AoE-happy bosses is to park the pets on one side of a Triage Beacon using Defensive Goto, then stand on the far edge of the Beacon and spam Web Grenade and Challenge or Provoke. You'll keep the boss (or AV) stuck at range shooting at you, while the pets soak up most of the damage using Bodyguard and the Beacon heals everyone. With high enough personal defense the Beacon will probably be enough, and even with lower defense you can use Aid Self to keep topped off.

Bots/Storm is also nice. You don't have much healing but when everything is debuffed into oblivion by Freezing Rain + Hurricane and stuck in a corner being melted by massed AoEs you really don't need it. Bots/Traps is a lot better at AV hunting though due to having good -regen.

Not to mention the fun of Web Envelope + Blizzard... It also makes Rain of Fire a bit more useful.

- "realistic" options for Dual Pistols

- flaming / energized kicks for Fire Melee and Energy Melee

- "sword" / bare-hand options for elemental melee sets

For instance, I'd love to see each Fire Melee attack have three options: a flaming punch, a flaming kick, and a fire sword attack. Same with Ice Melee, and at least the kick option for Energy Melee.

And my biggest request:

- Actual claw animations for Claws. As in, fingertip claws instead of wrist mounted claws. All the catgirl / werewolf / lizard person / anything else that's not a Wolverine clone claw users will thank you.

Short answer: it's the Dual Pistols of Brutes. It's pretty, flashy, and under-performing. The long animation times make it a pain to build Fury and the fact that it relies on a Siphon Power style damage buff power to make up for mediocre DPS really hurts on a Brute since they get less out of damage buffs than other ATs due to low base damage. But it is really cool looking...

I'd recommend a Scrapper or Tank instead... Scrappers can make much better use of the damage buff and Tanks don't care as much about how hard they hit.

Pistol attacks can proc regardless of ammo type. Back in beta I tried a Force Feedback Chance for Recharge proc in Empty Clips and it went off even when using ammo that had no KB chance. I'd suggest the cheapest Slow, KB, or Damage procs you can find unless you are making a high end build, in which case purples are the way to go.

The biggest problem with S/L defense on squishies is that the one type of attack they most need to defend against is the type least likely to have a S/L component... namely mezzing attacks. Melee stuns usually are at least partly Smashing, but ranged stuns are sometimes Energy and ranged holds are almost always Psi or one of the exotic damage types. Since holds and stuns are the single greatest threat to most squishies that makes Ranged defense more important than it otherwise would be. Not to say S/L defense is bad, but it's not going to keep a Chief Mentalist or Master Illusionist from ruining your day.

On characters with mez protection, S/L defense is probably the most useful single type since it covers over half of ranged and melee attacks. Of course the biggest factor is what sort of defense you can get... if you already have positional defense you're better off adding more than adding typed, while if you already have typed defense you gain little from adding positional. If you have no defense outside of pools and set bonuses, you aren't going to softcap anyway (at least not without crippling your damage) so go with whatever you can fit in your build best and carry purples. That's why S/L defense is popular with Blasters... you can softcap it by taking Weave and the Ice epic but you can't softcap Ranged without totally gimping yourself... on the other hand, 30% Ranged can be safer than 45% S/L if there are lots of mezzers around.

Ice Blast has good single target damage and very good control (for a Blaster), so it is safe but somewhat slow. Ice/Ice is probably the safest Blaster you can make since Ice Manipulation adds even more control and damage mitigation powers... everything that isn't held or falling down will be greatly slowed and therefore attack a lot less often. The main drawback is that Ice/Ice is one of the lowest damage Blasters, especially against larger spawns (like those you get while teaming). It does have some AoE capability, but it's slow since you are relying on Ice Patch and Shiver to keep things in an Ice Storm for several seconds instead of just blowing them up with a Fire Breath + Fireball combination.

Ice/Mental is still pretty safe and /Mental gives you additional area effect damage, which Ice lacks. It will be a better choice for teaming and is still one of the safest solo options, just not quite as safe as Ice/Ice. Both solo very well provided you aren't fighting large groups (once you get good enough to fight tougher enemies, go after small groups of higher level foes instead of larger groups your level).

Either one is a good choice... I'd go with Ice/Mental if you plan to mostly team and Ice/Ice if you plan to solo a lot.

The big benefit of frankenslotting is that it's extremely cheap. In fact, if you do it in the late 20s or early 30s it's often cheaper than buying SOs at 35-50. I normally frankenslot all my characters in that level range and then switch to a "real" set build if I like the character enough to take it to 50 (and more importantly, if I think I'll ever play it again after 50 ). Add in a few cheap set bonuses and you can be very effective while leveling up without needing to play the market or import funds from an alt.

I certainly wouldn't use a frankenslotted build for poat-50 play though. Blasters desperately need defense if they plan to solo late game and need recharge whether they solo or not, so at the least I slot midrange sets like Thunderstrike, usually looking for decent ranged defense and enough global recharge for a good attack chain. But frankenslotting is great until you start looking for that endgame build (though recharge and defense are important if you want to solo well in the 40s).

I'd consider Psi, Electric and Dual Pistols the weakest primaries (DP is a flashy, gimmicky, slightly weaker version of Energy Blast). /Devices is my least favorite secondary but it's actually very strong if you are patient, it just doesn't work well on teams since no one wants to wait on mines. If you really want hard mode, go Psi/Mental and fight lots of Council and Malta... robots will take all day to kill.

Or just up the difficulty... no Blaster is going to handle +4/x8 solo without an insanely high end build, and if you have such a build you can hardly complain about things being too easy.

(I personally consider Electric/Devices to be the single worst Blaster build, closely followed by Psi / Devices. But I don't really like /Devices so...)

I was afraid that was still the case. My standard (pre-50) slotting for pets with non-damaging control powers is one generic Accuracy IO of the highest level I can slot, then Pet Damage IOs and generic Slow / Hold / Fear / whatever for the rest. If I ever get a MM with such a pet to 50 I'd probably swap to a mix of IOs and Hami-Os since HOs / SHOs apply to all pet powers.

In the Demon Prince's case, every power except Frozen Aura has a Slow component, so a mix of Slow and Pet Damage sets could work. I'd suggest two Acc/Dam, two Dam/End (from the same sets), and two Acc/Slow IOs. That gives ED capped accuracy for all but Frozen Aura, pretty good accuracy for Frozen Aura, ED capped damage for all attacks, and plenty of end reduction. Plus you get two minor set bonuses (I'd go with Blood Mandate and Brilliant Leadership since they offer regen and recovery as the two-piece bonus).

Enchant Demon is definitely a display bug. Slotting a MM upgrade power never affects the pet, it only affects the upgrade power itself. The upgrade will cost less endurance to cast but the powers granted by it are only affected by the enhancements in the pet power itself.

The easy way to test whether Pet Damage sets affect Shiver is to slot Summon Demon Prince with only Pet Damage set IOs, including some accuracy, and then monitor the Demon Prince's combat statistics when fighting +0 mobs. If the Last Hit Chance reading is unchanged after he uses Shiver then the pet damage IOs are applying to non-damaging powers (and everyone slotting a Lich can rejoice ) but if it shows a lower to-hit chance than the damaging attacks you'll know the IOs are not applying.

I always either frankenslot MM pets or just 6-slot them with Blood Mandate (great set bonuses and ED capped accuracy and damage plus end reduction). The only thing you have to keep in mind is that pet powers only benefit from enhancements that apply to that power. For instance, a Slow set Acc/Slow IO would not provide any +accuracy enhancement to powers with no Slow component, and Pet Damage IOs do not affect non-damaging powers. That means that unless things have changed adding a Pet Damage set EndRed IO (like the Blood Mandate Acc/Damage/End) will not reduce the endurance costs of the Ember Demon's heals or shield powers since those deal no damage. It will affect the attacks though, and those are usually the highest end drain.

Once you hit level 50 you may want to slot a couple of Heal/End Hami-Os. HOs apply to all powers a pet has, so they would give you a nice heal boost while completely eliminating any endurance woes.