srmalloy

My Fire/Rad's build is considerably more outré; she was the character I ran most of the old-style Hami raids on, so she's got a disproportionate number of HOs in her build. She originally had more (a pre-ED build), but I did a complete restructure of her powers that resulted in her selling about a dozen HOs from her old build. For example, she used to have Radiant Aura six-slotted with Golgi Exposure HOs.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Yadernii Ogon: Level 50 Mutation Controller
Primary Power Set: Fire Control
Secondary Power Set: Radiation Emission
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Fire Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Char -- HO:Endo(A), HO:Endo(3), EoCur-Acc/Rchg(7), G'Wdw-Acc/Rchg(17), G'Wdw-Dam%(45)
Level 1: Radiant Aura -- HO:Golgi(A), HO:Golgi(3), HO:Golgi(7), RechRdx-I(17), RechRdx-I(27)
Level 2: Fire Cages -- HO:Endo(A), HO:Endo(5), HO:Perox(9), Enf'dOp-Acc/EndRdx(19), TotHntr-Acc/EndRdx(27), TotHntr-Dam%(29)
Level 4: Accelerate Metabolism -- Efficacy-EndMod(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(5), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(13), RechRdx-I(45)
Level 6: Radiation Infection -- HO:Enzym(A), HO:Enzym(9), HO:Enzym(13), RechRdx-I(46)
Level 8: Hot Feet -- HO:Nucle(A), HO:Nucle(11), Dmg-I(11), EndRdx-I(19), EndRdx-I(34), EndRdx-I(46)
Level 10: Air Superiority -- Acc-I(A)
Level 12: Flashfire -- HO:Endo(A), Acc-I(15), Rope-EndRdx/Stun(15), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(33)
Level 14: Fly -- HO:Micro(A), HO:Micro(34), Winter-ResSlow(43)
Level 16: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 18: Health -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(46)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(21), EndMod-I(21)
Level 22: Enervating Field -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(23), EndRdx-I(23)
Level 24: Lingering Radiation -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(25), TmpRdns-Acc/Slow(25), P'ngTtl-Acc/Slow(29)
Level 26: Mutation -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 28: Cinders -- HO:Endo(A), HO:Endo(31), HO:Endo(31), EndRdx-I(31), RechRdx-I(37)
Level 30: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(40), RechRdx-I(43)
Level 32: Fire Imps -- HO:Nucle(A), HO:Nucle(33), HO:Nucle(33), EdctM'r-PetDef(34)
Level 35: Choking Cloud -- HO:Endo(A), HO:Endo(36), EoCur-EndRdx/Hold(36), EndRdx-I(36), EndRdx-I(37), EndRdx-I(37)
Level 38: EM Pulse -- HO:Endo(A), HO:Endo(39), HO:Endo(39), RechRdx-I(39), RechRdx-I(40), RechRdx-I(40)
Level 41: Fire Ball -- Acc-I(A), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg(42), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx(42), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg(42), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(43)
Level 44: Fire Shield -- Aegis-Psi/Status(A), S'fstPrt-ResKB(45)
Level 47: Consume -- P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(48), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(48), Efficacy-Acc/Rchg(48), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc(50)
Level 49: Smoke -- HO:Lyso(A), HO:Lyso(50), DampS-ToHitDeb(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Clrty-Stlth(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Containment
------------
[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]<ul type="square">[*]5% Defense[*]5% Enhancement(Immobilize)[*]22.9 HP (2.25%) HitPoints[*]Knockback (Mag -4)[*]Knockup (Mag -4)[*]MezResist(Sleep) 1.65%[*]1.5% (0.03 End/sec) Recovery[*]22% (0.93 HP/sec) Regeneration[*]20% ResEffect(FlySpeed)[*]20% ResEffect(RechargeTime)[*]20% ResEffect(RunSpeed)[*]1.88% Resistance(Energy)[*]3% Resistance(Psionic)[*]5% RunSpeed[*]1% XPDebtProtection[/list]------------
[u]Set Bonuses:[u]
[u]Ghost Widow's Embrace[u]
(Char)<ul type="square">[*] 5% RunSpeed[/list][u]Trap of the Hunter[u]
(Fire Cages)<ul type="square">[*] 5% Enhancement(Immobilize)[/list][u]Efficacy Adaptor[u]
(Accelerate Metabolism)<ul type="square">[*] 11.4 HP (1.13%) HitPoints[/list][u]Winter's Gift[u]
(Fly)<ul type="square">[*] 20% ResEffect(RunSpeed), 20% ResEffect(RechargeTime), 20% ResEffect(FlySpeed)[/list][u]Numina's Convalescence[u]
(Health)<ul type="square">[*] 12% (0.51 HP/sec) Regeneration[/list][u]Edict of the Master[u]
(Fire Imps)<ul type="square">[*] 5% Defense[/list][u]Detonation[u]
(Fire Ball)<ul type="square">[*] MezResist(Sleep) 1.65%[*] 1.88% Resistance(Energy)[*] 1% XPDebtProtection[/list][u]Aegis[u]
(Fire Shield)<ul type="square">[*] 3% Resistance(Psionic)[/list][u]Steadfast Protection[u]
(Fire Shield)<ul type="square">[*] Knockback Protection (Mag -4)[/list][u]Efficacy Adaptor[u]
(Consume)<ul type="square">[*] 11.4 HP (1.13%) HitPoints[*] 1.5% (0.03 End/sec) Recovery[*] 10% (0.42 HP/sec) Regeneration[/list]

My AR/En/Mun Blaster has Cryo Freeze Ray four-slotted with two Essence of Curare (Acc/Hold and Acc/Hold/Rchg) and two Lockdown (Acc/Hold and Hold/Rchg). I'd have added more slots, but the need to six-slot LRM for maximum schrecklichkeit limited what I could do.

Having finally gotten it set up in Mid's, this is how my AR/En/Mun Blaster is built at the moment; she doesn't have any purples in the build yet, because I haven't gotten any in drops and don't have enough influence to buy them. She is by no means optimized, but I'm have a lot of fun with her. Being able to pop Range Boost and extend Full Auto out to snipe ranges gives me amazing coverage in width, and I regularly get "How did you hit that?" comments after unloaded a Range Boosted LRM at "See that dot?" range.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Pakfront: Level 50 Technology Blaster
Primary Power Set: Assault Rifle
Secondary Power Set: Energy Manipulation
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Concealment
Ancillary Pool: Munitions Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Burst -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(5), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(7), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(19), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37)
Level 1: Power Thrust -- Acc-I(A)
Level 2: Slug -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(5), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(7), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(19), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36)
Level 4: Build Up -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(9), RechRdx-I(9)
Level 6: Air Superiority -- Acc-I(A)
Level 8: Buckshot -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(11), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(11), Posi-Dmg/Rng(29), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(29), Acc-I(36)
Level 10: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 12: Sniper Rifle -- Mantic-Acc/Dmg(A), Mantic-Dmg/EndRdx(13), Mantic-Acc/ActRdx/Rng(13), Mantic-Dmg/ActRdx/Rchg(15), Mantic-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(15), ExtrmM-Acc/Dmg(34)
Level 14: Fly -- Flight-I(A), Frbd-Fly(43), Frbd-EndRdx(46)
Level 16: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(17), RechRdx-I(17)
Level 18: Health -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(43)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(21), EndMod-I(21)
Level 22: Flamethrower -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(23), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(23), Posi-Dmg/Rng(25), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(27), Acc-I(40)
Level 24: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(25), RechRdx-I(37)
Level 26: Bone Smasher -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(27), Dsrnt-I(37)
Level 28: Stealth -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(42)
Level 30: M30 Grenade -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(31), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(31), Posi-Dmg/Rng(31), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(34), Acc-I(43)
Level 32: Full Auto -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(33), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(33), Posi-Dmg/Rng(33), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(34), Acc-I(40)
Level 35: Boost Range -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(36)
Level 38: Total Focus -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(39), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(39), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(40)
Level 41: Body Armor -- ResDam-I(A), ResDam-I(42), ResDam-I(42), Aegis-Psi/Status(46), S'fstPrt-ResKB(46)
Level 44: Cryo Freeze Ray -- EoCur-Acc/Hold(A), EoCur-Acc/Hold/Rchg(45), Lock-Acc/Hold(45), Lock-Rchg/Hold(45)
Level 47: LRM Rocket -- HO:Centri(A), HO:Centri(48), HO:Centri(48), Acc-I(48), Acc-I(50), RechRdx-I(50)
Level 49: Surveillance -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Defiance
------------
[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]

[*]6% DamageBuff(Smashing)[*]6% DamageBuff(Lethal)[*]6% DamageBuff(Fire)[*]6% DamageBuff(Cold)[*]6% DamageBuff(Energy)[*]6% DamageBuff(Negative)[*]6% DamageBuff(Toxic)[*]6% DamageBuff(Psionic)[*]8.44% Defense(Energy)[*]8.44% Defense(Negative)[*]9.38% Defense(Ranged)[*]45% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*]57% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*]8% FlySpeed[*]13.6 HP (1.12%) HitPoints[*]8% JumpHeight[*]8% JumpSpeed[*]Knockback (Mag -4)[*]Knockup (Mag -4)[*]MezResist(Immobilize) 2.2%[*]MezResist(Terrorized) 1.65%[*]14% (0.23 End/sec) Recovery[*]42% (2.11 HP/sec) Regeneration[*]6.3% Resistance(Fire)[*]6.3% Resistance(Cold)[*]2.1% Resistance(Psionic)[*]8% RunSpeed[/list]------------
[u]Set Bonuses:[u]
[u]Thunderstrike[u]
(Burst)
[*] 2% (0.03 End/sec) Recovery[*] 2.5% Defense(Energy,Negative), 1.25% Defense(Ranged)[*] 7% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*] 4% RunSpeed, 4% FlySpeed, 4% JumpSpeed, 4% JumpHeight[*] 2.5% Defense(Ranged), 1.25% Defense(Energy), 1.25% Defense(Negative)[/list][u]Thunderstrike[u]
(Slug)
[*] 2% (0.03 End/sec) Recovery[*] 2.5% Defense(Energy,Negative), 1.25% Defense(Ranged)[*] 7% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*] 4% RunSpeed, 4% FlySpeed, 4% JumpSpeed, 4% JumpHeight[*] 2.5% Defense(Ranged), 1.25% Defense(Energy), 1.25% Defense(Negative)[/list][u]Positron's Blast[u]
(Buckshot)
[*] 2.5% (0.04 End/sec) Recovery[*] 1.58% Resistance(Fire,Cold)[*] 9% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*] 6.25% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[/list][u]Sting of the Manticore[u]
(Sniper Rifle)
[*] 12% (0.6 HP/sec) Regeneration[*] 1.88% Defense(Ranged), 0.94% Defense(Energy), 0.94% Defense(Negative)[*] 3% DamageBuff(All)[*] 7.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[/list][u]Freebird[u]
(Fly)
[*] 8% (0.4 HP/sec) Regeneration[/list][u]Numina's Convalescence[u]
(Health)
[*] 12% (0.6 HP/sec) Regeneration[/list][u]Positron's Blast[u]
(Flamethrower)
[*] 2.5% (0.04 End/sec) Recovery[*] 1.58% Resistance(Fire,Cold)[*] 9% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*] 6.25% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[/list][u]Luck of the Gambler[u]
(Stealth)
[*] 10% (0.5 HP/sec) Regeneration[*] 7.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[/list][u]Positron's Blast[u]
(M30 Grenade)
[*] 2.5% (0.04 End/sec) Recovery[*] 1.58% Resistance(Fire,Cold)[*] 9% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*] 6.25% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[/list][u]Positron's Blast[u]
(Full Auto)
[*] 2.5% (0.04 End/sec) Recovery[*] 1.58% Resistance(Fire,Cold)[*] 9% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*] 6.25% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[/list][u]Crushing Impact[u]
(Total Focus)
[*] MezResist(Immobilize) 2.2%[*] 13.6 HP (1.12%) HitPoints[*] 7% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*] 5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[/list][u]Aegis[u]
(Body Armor)
[*] 2.1% Resistance(Psionic)[/list][u]Steadfast Protection[u]
(Body Armor)
[*] Knockback Protection (Mag -4)[/list][u]Essence of Curare[u]
(Cryo Freeze Ray)
[*] MezResist(Terrorized) 1.65%[/list][u]Lockdown[u]
(Cryo Freeze Ray)
[*] 3% DamageBuff(All)[/list]

[ QUOTE ]
Oh on on the Idiot Moment topic: my idiot moment was spillling Diet Coke on my keyboard... but it didn't die immediately...my text started coming out like "t4ar3get t3he Sha4ma4ns fi1rs6t pl2s" and got progressively worse until the keyboard quit altogether. Unfortunately at that point we were just finishing the mish, and as Leader, the team was looking to me to get the next one rolling.

(deleted)

Epilogue: I switched to a game that didn't really require keyboard input, mostly mouse-work, but didn't unplug the keyboard. So my PSU melted in a shower of sparks.

[/ QUOTE ]
This is why I always invest in a keyboard skin; it makes spills worse on my desk, because it prevents the keyboard from catching any, but it prevents liquid from getting into the keyboard.

BTW, if you disassemble your keyboard and rinse it out carefully, the last time with distilled water, and allow it to dry for several days, you can usually save it after a spilled drink. In some cases, it's even possible to run your keyboard through the dishwasher (light duty cycle, no soap, just the hot water). Performing a final rinse-through with 100% Isopropyl alcohol will clean out any remaining residue once the soft drink or coffee has been extracted.

[ QUOTE ]
Range Boost + BU + FT + FA= win

[/ QUOTE ]
Fixed that for you.

Because nothing says 'devastation' like a crashless nuke with a snipe-ranged cone AoE.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Conserve Power will be useful, even after Stamina, unless you slot your attacks for Endurance Reduction or get IO sets slotted (which, if you're 4- or 5-slotting a set, you should have), and it's still situationally useful after that. Remember that AR is one of the two Blaster nukes that don't have a crash associated with them, so if you position yourself to make best use of your attacks you can have an almost continuous cycle of AoE attacks, using Slug or Burst to fill in the chain.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think conserve power is very skippable. With typical IO slotting, you'll have much more than the 33% end reduction than your standard SO slotting. Even if you just go with straight SOs, it's more than manageable. Plus there are blue inspirations for long battles, which hopefully, as a blaster are few. I think the argument for CP was stronger back in the days before IOs. Nowadays, you can get the Miracle proc or even just slot up your powers with lots of tiny recovery bonuses, which of course, add up when there are multiple of them.

[/ QUOTE ]
My AR/En/Mun will run out of End with Hasten up -- ca. +137% recharge bonus from Hasten and set bonuses -- when operating in full-bore maximum-damage attackspam. It does require that the mobs' aggro be fairly securely held, but it chews up a pile of Minotaurs and Cyclopes nicely; she'll spam attacks until she's down to about 25% End, hit Conserve Power, and be back up to full End by the time it runs out. The same situation applies on a Rikti Mothership raid; being able to stand in the middle of the bowl and hit the rim of the bowl with half your attacks is a lot of fun, and once we're down in the bowl, she's firing almost continually until the shields come back up.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Power Boost is, in my opinion, nowhere near as useful for an AR Blaster; it will boost the stun of Total Focus, Beanbag, Bone Smasher, and Stun -- four attacks, three of which are melee. I would recommend against it unless you plan on going the route of the blapper. The Defense reduction that is in most of the AR attacks is pretty minimal; I've never seen any real difference in my accuracy from it; I had it and respecced out of it.

[/ QUOTE ]

As Dragonkat said above, power boost increases the duration of your stuns, boosts the heal in aid self if you take it, boosts the strength of defensive epic shields and if you go munitions, boosts the length of the sleep power and cryo freeze ray. It also boosts the tohit of build up, allowing you to say hit Captain Mako in the Statesman TF or a Vengeance powered Nemesis minion. IMO, that's way more valuable than something like conserve power, which can be bypassed by smart slotting and/or blue chicklets.

[/ QUOTE ]
For the times I want the boost, I have the Vanguard Medallion accolade power; it's got a much longer recharge, but with most of your stunning attacks melee, a 'kill them way over there' build won't have a lot of use for it.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Beanbag is useful at the lower levels, but if you're focusing on exploiting your AoE attacks -- buckshot, M30, Full Auto, Flamethrower, and LRM from Munitions Mastery -- then you may want to respec it out in favor of Cryo Freeze Ray, which is a Hold, letting you tie someone down in an Ignite patch.

[/ QUOTE ]

Beanbag > cryo freeze ray for the simple fact that the magnitude stacks with your other stun powers to enable you to stun bosses.

[/ QUOTE ]
Look at the first word in the description of "your other stun powers" -- 'Melee'. Let a mob get into melee range, and their attack on you will go off even if your melee attack stuns them. This is a suboptimal solution, particularly if you're building for engagement at range; it would be different if you were building a blapper around AR/En.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Sniper Rifle is still quite useful on teams, although not as much as it would be without Range Boost. With the two together, though, it makes for a wonderfully long-range pull attack, and with Build Up you can generally one-shot a white minion (and some yellow minions, as well).


[/ QUOTE ]

People still sniper pull? Now there's a myth that needs to die. Pull with a low damaging attack. High damaging attacks bring buddies. And from a damage per activation standpoint, sniper attacks are one of the most inefficient things that a blaster can use. Snipes are cool but they are very skippable and are awful on teams.

[/ QUOTE ]
It varies; I still laugh when I remember the team I was on when we had a Vahzilok mission in an office building. It was an eight-man team in the low teens (the Abominations were all white to me), and the spawn sizes were big enough that it wasn't uncommon for two spawns to wind up with members close enough to cross-aggro. We had already had some near-complete team wipes, then we found a long corridor with a group of Abominations at the other end. The one character with Stealth had run up to check, and had verified that there was a second spawn just around the corner that would aggro if we ran in. So I volunteered to pull the group with my Snipe, which would string them out coming after me. I set up, fire... my target goes down. The remaining Abominations, devoid of any Mortificators or Reapers, just stood there. "Do that again," someone said. Picked one, shot... Abomination goes down. Still no reaction. Third snipe, same thing. One of the Tankers on the team announces "This is boring!" and runs into the spawn, followed by the rest of the melee characters. This, of course, aggros the next spawn over, and all the melee characters wipe; my Blaster dumps ranged fire into the melee until the falling melee characters no longer maintain aggro, then all of us squishies ran for the elevator.

Leaving aside the situations where you want to pull the whole spawn simply because you need it to be farther away from a nearby spawn before you start fighting, since I got Range Boost, I've found that when shooting at a group from a truly extreme range draws less collateral aggro; in the same way that the piddly Perception radius of the Vahz zombies kept them from noticing me sniping out their group ("Say, wasn't Fred standing just a moment ago?" "I wasn't watching." "Okay."), shooting from extreme range has a similar effect. In an ITF, my AR/En/Mun Blaster has about a 75% success rate at pulling just Requiem or Romulus, and rarely gets more than four to six other mobs in the pull. It varies with the villain group; mobs with +Perception make trying to pull an exercise in futility.

However -- and it's antithetical to the way people build their characters -- the best attack to use to pull with isn't your highest-damage attack, or your weakest attack, or your longest-range attack, but your most inaccurate single-target attack. When you do damage to your target, other mobs have a chance to notice the effect of the attack and aggro on the attacker, but if you miss your target, you will almost invariably aggro only your target.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Ummm... You are aware that Beanbag is a Disorient, while Cryo Freeze Ray is a Hold, aren't you? Expecting them to stack is like a Controller expecting their Immobilizes to stack with their Holds. Different kind of mez entirely.

[/ QUOTE ]

Different but basically interchangeable except for the stacking.

[/ QUOTE ]
Not when you can hit an Outcast with Beanbag on the street northeast of the PPD station on the east side of Steel Canyon and watch him, in the "I'm dazed" stagger animation, cross the street at a speed in excess of my character's run speed with Sprint up, leap to the top of the building on the north side of the street, and completely disappear from view by the time I toggled on Fly and flew up to try to follow him. Oh, but this is an unavoidable consequence of the game mechanics, according to the devs; a mob that has a movement action queued will complete that action even if they're stunned. Funny how getting defeated or held aborts any movement on their part just fine, but disorients are incapable of doing this.

[ QUOTE ]
Since this is the set that's supposed to complement Assault Rifle (since it, like, uses the assault rifle for its attacks, and is the only one that doesn't cause redraw as a result), why did they give it an inconsistent and therefore non-stacking mez type? Cryo Freeze Ray should have been a disorient to stack with beanbag.

At the very least, there should be *some* app that gives a disorient to stack with beanbag (and the archery and sonic stuns too).

[/ QUOTE ]
Complement, not augment. Disorients don't lock the mob down; holds and immobilizes do. Neither of them stack with disorients.

[ QUOTE ]
Stacking bt firing it off twice is *okay* if you can really do that (with an app hold? WOW -- none of the villain app holds even come close to that), but it's nowhere near as good as having two holds you can fire off one right after another.

[/ QUOTE ]
Admittedly, I've got enough Thunderstrike and Positron's Blast sets slotted so that, with Hasten up, the character has an (IIRC) +137% recharge bonus, but the recharge on Cryo Freeze Ray is only 16 seconds; it's easy enough to bump its recharge and hold duration to let you stack it. Note that the recharge on Beanbag is 20 seconds.

[ QUOTE ]
Especially when you're trying to stop a PP from godmoding while the rest of the team blithely beats it down to the sliver of health which triggers 2 minutes of boredom.

[/ QUOTE ]
That's a tactics issue; hit it with the hold as soon as its aggro is picked up by someone else. Switch back to damage. Then drop CFR on it again as soon as it recharges.

[ QUOTE ]
Candle Jack for those who don't kno

[/ QUOTE ]
Better to read the entry at tvtropes.org; it explains the meme better.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Moar Blue freekin' Steel plz.



or Red Steel maybe...

[/ QUOTE ]

Wouldn't that be Red Iron or something of the sort?

[/ QUOTE ]
Gold is for the mistress -- silver for the maid --
Copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade.
"Good!" said the Baron, sitting in his hall,
"But Iron -- Cold Iron -- is master of them all."

[ QUOTE ]
People wouldn't need to harp and ask for SB if kins did their job. It's not hard to watch the buff icons and see when SB needs to be reapplied. It takes seconds to buff 7 team members every 2 mins. Give me a break if that is too much for a kin to do. I manage to do it on my kin with no problems. I am tired of kins broadcasting and advertising that they are a kin for a team MA mish knowing that the are gonna get picked quick to join the team only to have them not SB the team (the very reason they were picked to begin with).

[/ QUOTE ]
If kins did their job... which is apparently a mobile delivery system for SB and nothing else.

Watching the buff icons... and picking your SB icon out of the row of 15-20 buff icons stretched out next to each player's name, all the while trying to contribute more to the team than just spamming SB.

It takes seconds to buff 7 team members every two minutes... assuming that all seven team members are in range and haven't dashed off after another mob. Then you get to listen to them whine about your letting SB drop on them when they do come back. I've been on ITFs where I've only had two team members within range of SB at any given time in the last two missions, but I'm still expected to run around to keep SB on them all.

Surveillance is, from the description, beneficial either solo or on a team, because it debuffs your target for everyone on your team, not just you, for the twenty seconds. With all the AoE attacks I have with my Ar/En/Mun Blaster, debuffing a target is better than just keeping them from attacking until my next AoE hits.

[ QUOTE ]
- I am not a fan of M30. It spreads the mobs out too much. Though if you are far enough back then it doesn't matter with cones. Still, I skip it. The knockback is too much of a pain. At least with Buckshot, you have control because it is directional rather than radial.

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You need to pick your targets more carefully, then. Drop M30 on the closest mob in a group, and they all fly away from you if they get knocked back. It is more flexible that way, in that you can control which direction knockback happens by your choice of target in a spawn. I'd like it better if it were a Location AoE, so I could drop the grenade near targets, or use it for 'probing fire' by dropping one just past a corner; having it be a Location AoE would fit better with the way grenade launchers are actually used. Generally, when I'm facing mobs that I have to be concerned about where they get knocked back, I use M30 as a 'clean-up' attack to take care of whatever's left standing after Flamethrower and Full Auto carve up the spawn; any surviving mobs on their backs give me time to get off a Snipe before they get up, and then Flamethrower is likely up again.

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dont make IO's. they cost MORE than an SO (30k to buy the recipe, then 30k to make it PLUS the cost of salvage if yo udont have any. that's level TWENTY io's fyi). and io's dont start to give the same benefit of a same level DO until 17, and a same level SO until 27

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Pardon? Where are you getting your data? Go to the ParagonWiki page on enhancements and look at the table of relative enhancement values. A level-15 common IO gives a better bonus than a +3 DO, and it never decreases. Slot level-15 common IOs at 12, and each one will be a +3 DO until you replace it. If you slot level 15 DOs at 12, their bonus trickles away as you level until you have to replace them all by the time you reach 19. Level 20 common IOs are better than -3 SOs, and level-25 common IOs are only 1% worse than even-level SOs.

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Don't respec at level 7. At that point, it's just probably easier to reroll.

Since you're new, it's better to just play the game and discover what powers you like versus us telling you what to get.

With that in mind, here's some advice.

AR can be spec'ed a few different ways, for teams or for mostly solo play. The first two blasts, slug and burst, you want to take for either build. If you're playing for teams, then having buckshot and flame thrower is very handy. They're both cone AoE attacks and you can fire them one after another delivering good damage in roughly the same area. Energy manipulation complements this as you *should* take boost range, which increases the size of the cone and allowing you to cover more targets.

If you're mostly soloing then, I'd consider taking beanbag fairly early. It's a handy single target mez and is also complemented by power boost, another power you *should* take from energy manipulation.

These are my biased choices:
AR - soloist - take slug, burst, beanbag, sniper rifle, full auto
AR - team - take slug, burst, buckshot, flame thrower, full auto, ignite, beanbag

Energy manipulation - take build up *at level 4, as soon as you can grab it*, power boost, boost range, total focus (the stun stacks with the stun from beanbag, allowing you to take out bosses with ease). Nice to haves: bone smasher

Stuff I routinely skip:

AR- M30, ignite, sniper rifle (I recommend them above, they just aren't my taste)
Energy manipulation - energy punch, conserve power, stun

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Conserve Power will be useful, even after Stamina, unless you slot your attacks for Endurance Reduction or get IO sets slotted (which, if you're 4- or 5-slotting a set, you should have), and it's still situationally useful after that. Remember that AR is one of the two Blaster nukes that don't have a crash associated with them, so if you position yourself to make best use of your attacks you can have an almost continuous cycle of AoE attacks, using Slug or Burst to fill in the chain.

Power Boost is, in my opinion, nowhere near as useful for an AR Blaster; it will boost the stun of Total Focus, Beanbag, Bone Smasher, and Stun -- four attacks, three of which are melee. I would recommend against it unless you plan on going the route of the blapper. The Defense reduction that is in most of the AR attacks is pretty minimal; I've never seen any real difference in my accuracy from it; I had it and respecced out of it.

Beanbag is useful at the lower levels, but if you're focusing on exploiting your AoE attacks -- buckshot, M30, Full Auto, Flamethrower, and LRM from Munitions Mastery -- then you may want to respec it out in favor of Cryo Freeze Ray, which is a Hold, letting you tie someone down in an Ignite patch.

Range Boost is your friend. With it, all of your AoE cones expand to the point where you can hit the AoE target limit, and stand well back from your target. While some mobs will try to return fire when hit with a Build Up/ Flamethrower/ Full Auto/ [M30 or Buckshot or both] chain, others will try to rush you to engage in hand-to-hand combat. With Range Boost, you can stand back far enough that +1 minions will fall down as they run toward you, instead of reaching you and forcing you to fall back on Power Thrust (or, for my character, Air Superiority to knock them on their [censored], Total Focus to disorient and pound them, Stun if that doesn't work, then Power Thrust to send them off into the distance again).

Ignite is very situational; solo, it's only good for controlling mob movement (such as blocking a doorway with an Ignite patch), or for dropping where the mobs aren't going to run away (i.e., around the Tanker). I wound up respeccing out of it, working more toward the 'Master of Cones' build in this guide; it's from I6, but the basic principles are still valid.

Sniper Rifle is still quite useful on teams, although not as much as it would be without Range Boost. With the two together, though, it makes for a wonderfully long-range pull attack, and with Build Up you can generall one-shot a white minion (and some yellow minions, as well).

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Having lots of holds on a blaster is nice when you're up against groups with problem lieutenants (controllers tend to focus on AoE control on teams, I've noticed), but usually two is plenty (because it lets you hold PPs to keep them from godmoding).

Anyway, my assault rifle/fire blaster thinks:
Sleep Grenade: Ugh, this sucks.
Cryo Freeze: Whhhhhy doesn't this stack with beanbag? Isn't this supposed to be the set to complement AR?
Body Armor: Did I forget to turn on my toggle? Oh wait.
LRM: Heehee, this is a lot of fun, especially with full auto. Looong recharge though.
Surveillance: Not especially noticeable, but peeking at stuff is nice.

I skipped Cryo Freeze Ray because of the not-stacking issue, but I think I'm going to swap out the sleep grenade instead because it's really useless. Or maybe body armor, since it's really pretty lame.

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Ummm... You are aware that Beanbag is a Disorient, while Cryo Freeze Ray is a Hold, aren't you? Expecting them to stack is like a Controller expecting their Immobilizes to stack with their Holds. Different kind of mez entirely.

Surveillance makes a noticeable difference in how hard attacks hit; -14% to Resistance and Defense is nothing to sneeze at.

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Wow thanks all for the advice, they all seem like great powers. Hold is great for taking someone out of the fight, AoE sleep great opener, Body Armor some passive resistance, survallence (I have on my Bane I already know), and the AoE Rocket.

Which one would be the least useful since I can only choose 4.

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My AR/En/Mun Blaster has Body Armor, Freeze Ray, LRM Rocket, and Surveillance. Sleep Grenade underperforms for an ancillary power, but they all synergize fantastically with Range Boost from Energy Manipulation. LRM I have slotted with three Dmg/Rng HOs, two Acc IOs, and a Rech IO; unfortunately, since the only set with a Dmg/Rch IO in it is Ragnarok, I can't improve the power's performance without sacking the range, and I like having one attack for which the laughable claim that "Range is a Blaster's defense" is mostly true when range-boosted -- the base range as slotted is 234 feet, 373 feet with Range Boost, but there are some mobs that can still hit me at that range limit.

With LRM slotted the way I have it, I can stand next to Imperious in Cimerora, hit Boost Range, Build Up, LRM Rocket, and hit the cluster of Cimeroran Traitors that spawn occasionally between the cliff wall and the insula to the west of the staircase that leads down from where Imperious stands; if that doesn't wax them outright, I hit the first one coming up the stairs with Snipe, the second with Slug, and the third with Burst.

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Also, dont know if anyone has seen Ben 10 but maybe some kind of crystalized-style powers like that green diamond/crystal hero from season one that can either shoot the shards from his hands, or cause the green crystal rock to come up outta the ground and encase the badguys like ice freezes people. And the best part is he doesnt have to be touching the ground to do either one of these.

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Take the existing animation for the 'Fortune' power from the Magic booster, and change the power visuals so that, instead of a whirling shroud of cards, you have either a whirling shroud of stones (dealing Smashing damage) or crystal shards (dealing a mix of Smashing and Lethal damage).

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From the obvious Council base in the RWZ - which goes on to quite a depth actually, to the Crey caged 'zoo' in Nerva, there is a lot to explore.

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Then there's the little area in the Longbow base in Nerva, where they have DE in cages...I found that one completely by accident while on a "defeat x" mission.

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And the similar area on the east side of Nerva -- the sheds between the Crey building where the Science and Tech quartermasters are and the contact for the first redside respec, where Crey is keeping their own zoo...

I had to fall back to playing my level-50 AR/En Blaster that evening; the Kronos Titans and the other GMs weren't a problem, but the dozens of level 50-52 Malta and Hercules and Zeus Titans were deadly to lower-level characters. The evening gave me a new appreciation for the power of tricked-out AR cone attacks, though; with Boost Range and Positron's Blast sets in all her AoEs except LRM (where the three Dmg/Rng HOs give a truly amazing range), she was able to stand off and spray Full Auto into a brawl and light up two Lattices, three Winter Lords, the Kraken, two Kronos Titans, Jurassik, and Ghost Widow at once -- a situation that, had it not been for the melee characters keeping their aggro, would have meant an instant faceplant from the return fire (which happened enough anyway -- Ghost Widow and Scirocco do not appreciate getting Sniped and then lit up with Full Auto; I pulled aggro away from the Tankers and Scrappers several times doing that).

I wound up getting Monkeywrencher, Mistress of Olympus (which was odd; I thought I'd gotten that one back around Issue 3), Keeper of Secrets, Unleasher, The Solution, the full set of RV's PVP archvillain badges, and Justiciar out of all the chaos during the evening.

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To everybody who wasn't able to get into Atlas Park 1 with the Devs for the 5th Anniversary photo, I present to you the Unofficial Atlas Park 2 Team Photo!

5th Anniversary Photo For Atlas Park 2 Attendees

Here you go! Thanks to everybody and their patience, while getting everybody lined up for the shot!

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This is the shot I got; it may be a little sharper. But Viviene's will be better still.

Arc Name: ...To End All Wars
Arc ID: 65963
Faction: Neutral
Creator Global/Forum Name: srmalloy
Difficulty Level: Medium, level 5 and up.
Synopsis: Mender Tesseract has requested your assistance in resolving a temporal anomaly that has appeared in the middle of World War I.
Story Type: Historical
Mission Count: Four
Estimated Time to Play: 1.5 hours

An entire custom villain group where every mob -- minions, lieutenants, bosses, EBs, and AVs -- is an XXX/Ninjutsu Stalker set to 'Extreme' on both primary and secondary. After all, nothing expands a full team's enjoyment of a mission more than getting hit with multiple Assassin Strikes. Over and over and over again.

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Also..last I checked, if you have a team, and you set the AE mission as the current mission, the red waypoint does not appear on the nav map, in the nav bar, or in the live world.

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Nor does, as I noticed, the mission text appear under the compass in the navigation window. I suspect that these are bugs, however.

One thing we can't do because it appears to be hard-coded into the map is environment -- being able to specify that a map is always night, or has Dark Astoria-like fogging, or the like -- things that help create the atmosphere of the mission. Although they would have to have game effects, too, otherwise I can see ugliness like a map with DA-style fog loaded with Nemesis Tirailleurs sniping you from four times the range you can see them, so you have no idea where you're taking fire from.

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Good criticism is hard to give. Maybe this is a case of it?

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And the space limitation for the comments don't allow you to give more than an abbreviated précis of your full critique of the arc; particularly with five-mission arcs, the space isn't big enough to more than gloss over highlights, much less attempt to give detailed constructive criticism.

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Personally, I think making the Fighting pool and certain temp powers available would be a good idea...not as a third available set, but as a replacement for a custom critter's primary or secondary power sets.

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And the Stealth pool to be able to give custom mobs an alternative to giving them Hide, which is overpowered for most purposes.