A powerleveler's guide to blasters (very long)
By
45th_Parallel,
Posted on: 2004-06-14 07:36 in Player Guides
Great guide. I have a fire/fire blaster, and I didn't take Circle Flame Sword (yet) nor did I take fire breath. I have 2 powers from my secondary -- the single-MOB hold and Build Up -- god, Fire secondary is USELESS! 
Stamina, all the way, can't live without it. Similarly Hasten. I'm up to level 26 just got the Snipe power and I'm rocking!
thanks for the info on defenses. My stupid blaster gets himself beat up -real- fast
Ex
[Archvillain Q on Justice]
--
Ex.
Part-Troll, who used to be Excession777, now playing pantomime with people's mindlets.
--
PixelShock,
You are right about something, that is, the OP dissuades readers from trying the Elec/* build. Reading your post, I found myself considering building yet another AT to play with (what is it now, 24+ and growing ? )
As far as pre-issue 3 street sweeping goes, I can vouch for the effectiveness of the Fire/Dev blaster. Here is the build;
Targeting Drone 4-slotted (1 end redux, 3 acc buff)
Cloaking Device 1-slotted (end redux)
Trip Mine 6-slotted (1-2 acc, 4-5 damage --> I find Lts and bosses "respond" much more favorably to 2 acc+4 damage, but minions require less "effort" with 1+5)
Smoke Grenade (1 acc debuff --> respec'd it out originally, and wish I hadn't)
Hasten(6)+SS
CJ+SJ+Acro
Hurdle+Swift+Stamina(6)
FireBlast (3 dmg)
Fireball (6 dmg)
Firebreath (6 dmg)
Blaze (3 dmg)
Inferno (3 dmg)
Traveling --> SS+Cloak+Acro+CJ/SJ, if I'm in a hot zone, I'll have Targeting Drone running too. With Stamina fully slotted, I gain End back with all these on pretty much constantly.
Combat --> Normally, in Brickstown/FF/Crey's Folly; its Trip Mine, step back, and choice of Fireball, Blaze or Firebreath (only one). Then, either walk away or finish off Boss. +1 Minions (Freaks, 5th Col, Riot Cops, Nemesis, etc.) are dead (or just a fraction of a sliver) with just the TM. With Fireball added, I insure that if there are 2/3 +1 Lts in the group, they are dead as well. Blaze if for the lone Lts/Boss as insurance. The TM will knockdown a lot Lts, giving me time to do more.
More normal attack plan is to approach large groups or blues-yellows/oranges with SS+Cloak+CJ+Acro+TD, before they start to spread out. The presence of a boss DOES worry me, but the biggest groups don't usually have one. I get in the Trip Mine, walk back and 9/10 times fire off the fireball, just to be sure. Most of the time (90%?), everything is dead or nearly so, and I can either mop up with Blaze+FireBlast or do a Firebreath+Blaze for the stubborn foes.
The whole process takes around 5 seconds, give or take.
In Brickstown, this means I can hunt as fast as I can go from group to group. Anything less than 3, I won't even bother with unless its two Orange Lts. Crey's Folly still can cause problems, mostly with the tougher Crey Tanks/Protectors. In those cases, the effort is usually not worth it, and if I can get away from the battle, I will.
When I've run around with my friends in my SG, they are usually quite surprised at the effectiveness of my AT. My Kat/SR scrapper friend take about a minute at a time to take out +2/+3 Lts, and 10+ sec to take out a +2/+3 minion. If there is a group of minions, it may take him 2 minutes to finish them all off. My Enrg/Enrg friend goes a little faster, because he has Nova and can do groups a little faster and then recover End with Inspirations and go on to the next group.
However, Fire/Dev and AR/Dev (more so, since they are great at both Single target and AoE) blasters will go through a +1/+2 group in a couple of seconds, literally. Basically, there are more minions than Lts/Bosses in the game, in number and experience wise (assuming that a minion x ~4 = boss) so an AoE blaster can gain experience much faster since they only need to spend a few seconds with each group and move on....
however, the HUGE downside is our weakness in the defenses area. If our AoEs don't finish off the group, we have the aggro of all the villians we attacked, plus any neighbors close enough to be alerted. This can be extremely dangerous, especially when solo'ing as there is no escaping either the huge "reply", or the status effect powers of anyone left standing. I especially recall facing a Ritiki boss in a group of Lts and minions that I had taken out, that put me to sleep for 138 pts of damage, which wasn't *that* painful, but the sleep would not wear off before he could fire it off again, meaning I just sat there for 3 minutes frantically clicking on a health inspire in hopes that he would miss a sleep and I could gain some HP back and get the heck out of dodge.....
As Fiero (sp?) said, no blaster is gimped, we're just played differently. Electric actually sounds inticing now, so thank you for that!
A friend of mine is a Fire/Dev blaster...and that is where he has the advantage over me (Fire/Fire) is that he can actually time his Time Bomb, Trip Mine, and Fireball (or Inferno) to go off in such rapid succession that the villains have NO chance to respond.
The only thing I have on him....is to more easily hit the damage cap with Aim+Buildup. Which has allowed me to slot Inferno with 3 dmg and 3 rechg and throw down Inferno alot more often.
I'm just really curious to see how a fully slotted Nova form Kheldian will perform in comparison.
I'm sure that will resurrect this thread and start the next great debate.
lol this is extremely old. I remember reading it shortly after coh came out
whoever bumped this gets my laughs
Heh heh no doubt...I had added it to favorites along time ago...and saw some activity on it.
I too bookmarked this thread ages ago and just saw the recent activity.
yet as old as this thread is, the info is still relevant. 
I am a Fire/dev blaster, currently 49, and I have decided to start this toon after reading this great post from Robinson.
Right away I decided that Bio-Flame would be my main (I had lots of alts).
I totally agree with Robinson, Fire/dev is the most powerful, and fastest AT around. I can't tell you how many times I've heard a "WoW" or "Niiiiice!"...
Still, I disagree with on thing with Robinson: defense slots.
He said not to bother sloting our defense, which I think is not the way to go.
Our "regular" attacks are basically a 6 sloted Fireball, Firebreath and Blaze.
TM and INferno are not "regular" attacks, in the sense that they are either not available for every fight or loose it's effectiveness after the fight starts.
TM comes later, but as soon as it's 6 sloted with damage, it is a God's Blessing if you know how to use it.
Sometimes, we'll use our Inferno (6 sloted damage,of course) which is also like "I am GOD" but is not always available.
So, we have FB, FBreaht, and Blaze as main attacks.
After that, all our slots should go for defense.
As Robinson said:
1 - Pick an attack power and six-slot it. If you won't/can't do it right away, then don't choose that power yet.
2- The difference between a good blaster and that Godly blaster that mows everything on his path are the defense powers.
Defense powers allow you to keep firing attack the baddies, since they will be missing more often thus you have more health thus you don't have to run away.
Then, I'd add a 3rd point. If you 6 slot your defense powers (or at least, those very end heavy ones, you can 5 def + 1 end redux) you effectively double your defense.
Having 20% def or having +40% as I do, plus a 6 sloted tough DOES make a LOT of diference.
Besides, why should we 6 slot our Flares or Freblast, or Time Bomb and such? We basically use Fireball, Firebreath and Blaze anyway....
PS - of course, I am talking about the early game. At your 40s, you have slots to do whatever you want (or almost). But during the 20s and 30s, it's essential to have the highest defense you can get.~
And a HAIL to Robinson, he's the man!
Great post. Any notions as to how Issue 3 will affect it's veracity?
Does anyone use Beanbag or Buckshot? I currently have buckshot but am thinkning of respec'ing to get beanbag, any info would be great, i have a lvl 25 Ar/Dev (fly as travel, though if i respec will get SS)
nice
but i have a question, how is a fire blaster a AEO blaster, i meen i have one, and he dose fine, BUT he only has 2 AE blasts untill he gets the last one, inferno or whatever.
Also, i just read this a few days ago, and i have a 19 assult rife blaster and a 9 fire blaster (both devices natraly). but he (my 19) has all the wrong stuff, like tp, nothing for stamina and so on.... so my question is this, should i just work on my other blaster or should i just play him to 24 then do the respec TF?
thx
Question,
(i have not read through this entire page, but i am reading as much as possible, so if this issue has already beed adressed please dont think of me as too much of an idiot heheh)
I have a lvl 24 Assault rifle blaster and im trying to respec him, and i am probly going to use this page as a referance. but what i dont understand is this, how can a blaster with 2 main cones (flame thrower, full auto) be considered a AOE blaster? so im not sure if there has been any changes to assault rifle sence the origonal post, are buckshot and grenade still worthless? And what about ignite?
any advice would be usefull.
Buckshot is a power of contention. Some claim it's not that good - some claim it's pretty good. I like it, but may respec it out anyway.
M30 grenade - hmmm. Damage is a bit low, but a decent AoE.
Some peeps don't like the knockback of buckshot and m30. They think knockback has poor synergy with caltrops and other AR/Dev powers. I don't find it to be much of a problem, and AoE knockback also greatly reduces the enemies alpha-strike. My suggestion is to try out both these powers on the test server when you get your respec before doing your respec on your live server.
Ignite is better than it used to be when the guide was made. Most that have it swear by it.
Flamethrower and Full-Auto are the heavy hitters and are primarily the two powers that make and AR blaster a good AoE blaster. An AR blaster does not HAVE to be an AoE blaster - a formidable single target blaster can also be built with the AR set. However, both Full Auto and Flamethrower, fully-slotted, are the quintessential AoE AR blaster attacks. They do MUCH better damage than either Buckshot or M30 grenade. Ignite does good damage also, but it's radius is small and it is best used in chokepoints.
That's just my take - hope it helps.
I haven't read ALL the posts, but I did read the original and some of the reply's regarding electricity blasters.
My first character was an elec \ elec. I started having major getting my but handed to me over and over problems around level 12 and stopped playing him for a long time as he had hit the debt cap and it didnt look like I'd ever level him up.
When I stopped playing him, I started an energy \ energy blaster (My current primary).
During this time, I started seriously looking at slotting options for powers. Then Winter Lord happened, and I used it to get my Elec \ Elec out of debt (In Perez Park and Atlas Park, spending a lot of time exemplared to lower level characters and fighting in HUGE groups).
I respeced and reslotted my end drain heavy powers for end drain. I am still not a "power leveler". But I can solo reliably so far (lvl 16), and can be an asset as a team member. I can prevent Enemies with ranged attacks / status attacks from bringing their worst powers into playm at least at my current lev el. We'll see how it goes from here.
Hello all! I just wanted to take a second to thank RSRobinson... I have tried many other AT's, and this guide is bar-none THE best... This AOE/Defensive build is the strongest character I have ever made, and the xp is flying right off the damn screen... Also, I really appreciate the fact that there isn't an actual 'build listing' showing all of your powers and how you slotted them, it leaves a little for me to figure out, and is very educational... So in short, THANK YOU! Great build and great explanations... If you are looking for the superpowered superleveler, look no further than this!!!!
[ QUOTE ]
nice
but i have a question, how is a fire blaster a AEO blaster, i meen i have one, and he dose fine, BUT he only has 2 AE blasts untill he gets the last one, inferno or whatever.
Also, i just read this a few days ago, and i have a 19 assult rife blaster and a 9 fire blaster (both devices natraly). but he (my 19) has all the wrong stuff, like tp, nothing for stamina and so on.... so my question is this, should i just work on my other blaster or should i just play him to 24 then do the respec TF?
thx
[/ QUOTE ]
I have a fire blaster built primarily off this guide and just respeced her. She is a good build now but i deviated in a few points. I went the Phase shift route even though i have cloak in my secondary. Why? It makes for a good OS power when my first two attacks dont clear the boss and lt's. I can fire off my aoe's and then fall back into phase shift as they come at me. should one of them get to close i took taser just in case. as far as how can I be an AOE blaster with 2 cones. I do just fine. Remember you also have the devices secondary so you have the mini nova that you can stealth and drop to open the fight. that (when correctly slotted) can clear out all your minions up to +2-3 and leave you just worrying about groups of bosses. I tend to use tanker strategy and Phase shift if my trip mine knocks them too far out of a good grouping. Works well for me anyway.
I was under the impression that scrappers deal the most damage, even though the guidebook says otherwise.
My apologies ahead of time if this has been addressed already... I read all the way through to page 8 or so, but that was as far as I could make it. (Good info, just lots of it!)
I am brand new to CoH and was wondering what the general opinion of the "solo" Blasters out there was. From what I have researched, it seems that Ice/Nrg or Nrg/Ice are the best options. RP-wise, I really like Nrg/Nrg, but from what I can tell, if I want to solo (which I will mostly do) I need an Ice spec in there to keep bad guys at bay.
So, with that in mind: Do you think Ice is better as a secondary or primary? Either way I'd like to couple it with Nrg because I just adore knocking baddies backward half a block or so. > )
Thanks, guys!
[ QUOTE ]
I was under the impression that scrappers deal the most damage, even though the guidebook says otherwise.
[/ QUOTE ] they do. it is a known fact. scraps = 1'st in dmg. PB's = second in dmg. then blasters and then tanks then defenders then controllers.
Well....that is sort of a slice of the picture and not the complete picture. Scrappers have a higher damage cap than blasters. So potentially they can do more damage. But it is my understanding that its not nearly as easy for Scrappers to reach their damage cap as it is for blasters and I thikn the AOE for blasters is more pronounced.
--Buddro--
Great guide.. I myself put alot of stock in my character concept, so I'm not really a powergamer with this toon although I normally am in other MMORPG, etc.
Endurance drain isn't 'useless'. If you 6-slot it with endurance drain SO's you are reducing even-level minions to zero endurance with one short circuit, lieutenants to more than half with one short circuit, and most bosses to zero after two short circuits. With hasten on this happens fairly efficiently and there is no way anyone can convince me that minions, LT and bosses having no endurance and not being able to regenerate endurance due to more short circuit/ball lightning/other elec AOE zeroing it out every time is not extremely useful. They need endurance to do most of their abilities just like us.
Again, great guide. Put quite a few things in perspective for me but I wonder with stealth being nerfed how will AOE blasters fare..
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I was under the impression that scrappers deal the most damage, even though the guidebook says otherwise.
[/ QUOTE ] they do. it is a known fact. scraps = 1'st in dmg. PB's = second in dmg. then blasters and then tanks then defenders then controllers.
[/ QUOTE ]
Not completely accurate:
As of I4 (Live) today:
Blasters and Scrappers have equivalent BASE damage
Kheldians, while in Nova form, have higher BASE damage than that of a blaster.
Blasters have a +300% damage cap, Kheldians +350% and scrappers +400%. Of those three, only a blaster and a Kheldian can really hope to get their damage to cap without outside assistance.
Kheldians, while in HUMAN form, are equivalent to Defender base damage.
Defenders and Controllers are about on-par for damage.
Tankers are about 80% of scrapper damage, or slightly higher than defs/controllers.
Scrappers have a "Critical Strike" ability to do double TOTAL damage to a target....ranges from a 5-15% chance per strike, depending on target.
As of the proposed I5 changes:
Blaster and Scrapper damage caps are now equal at +400% to base.
Scrappers had their base damage upped slightly across the board, about 12% or so is what's being reported. This puts them as the highest base damage of all the AT's.
All other AT damage remained the same.
HOWEVER, and this is a biggie:
Scrapper damage is overwhelmingly Lethal based and Lethal damage is likely THE most resisted damage type in the whole game by the villians. So it's a pretty good bet that blasters, with a wider array of other damage types (except Assault Rifle and Archery, both lethal-based), still reign as the highest damage dealers in the game.
I have a 35 lvl Ar/Gadget guy,and he uses beanbag ALL the time,particularly when soloing.I slotted it for 4 disorient 'hances and use it on anyone I want to slow down(for ignite and flamethrower),or is particularly annoying, or threats who gets too close.
As for Shotgun...it was usefull during my lower levels,but at 24 I repec'd out of it,found myself using it less and less(though I admit it was only 4 slotted for damage).
I am still debating Grenade Launcher,got it 5 slotted for damage and its still..."not all that";will probly respec out of it as well,when I get Hasten and fully slotted.
"308" lvl 35 Tech/Ar/Gadget Virtue
Masterminds annoy everybody, sooner or later. Heck, Masterminds annoy themselves.
-ShadowsBetween
Fly is more usefull than anything else,imho,;if you like to explore,need to find a specific region quickly and/or if u solo blast(6 slotted snipe and autofire+fly=joy:ie: it's more versatile.
But,as usual,EVERYTHING is relative and it depends on pref's/play style,*shrugs*.
Masterminds annoy everybody, sooner or later. Heck, Masterminds annoy themselves.
-ShadowsBetween
How is I5 going to change this guide? (besides adding new powers of course)
Nice outline for an electricity blaster, however, they are the weakest type. Fire is far superior for AoE and Ice far superior for single target blasting. Just my opinion.