SnipeFu's Definitive Guide to Energy Blasters V3.0
By
Airhammer,
Posted on: 2004-11-09 13:44 in Player Guides
SnipeFu,
Congratulations! Just saw that you took home the Most Helpful award! Well deserved! 
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SnipeFu,
Congratulations! Just saw that you took home the Most Helpful award! Well deserved!
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Thank you 
The Legion of Freedom
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SnipeFu,
Congratulations! Just saw that you took home the Most Helpful award! Well deserved!
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Thank you
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Gratz SnipeFu
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Support Blasters Yoda Does. A perimiter around the survivors the devs must make.
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Jedi are really more katana/SR scrappers. And much like on the test server now, most of their defense comes from parry. Also, they look really cool, but put them in an arena, and a bunch of blasters will kill them pretty quick.
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I just wanted to post something I found out with Energy Torrent and Explosive Blast...
I slotted Energy Torrent with two recharges, so with that and Hasten, I can fit two ET's into one BU+Aim cycle. With this and EB, I can "alpha" up to oranges, if I knock them back into walls. They don't really get any return fire since they're all on the ground.
Sooo this was just a really cool find for me. Now I can actually blow groups up =P
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I just wanted to post something I found out with Energy Torrent and Explosive Blast...
I slotted Energy Torrent with two recharges, so with that and Hasten, I can fit two ET's into one BU+Aim cycle. With this and EB, I can "alpha" up to oranges, if I knock them back into walls. They don't really get any return fire since they're all on the ground.
Sooo this was just a really cool find for me. Now I can actually blow groups up =P
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I've been playing around with recharge myself recently - I've got a test build with one recharge slotted into everything. Its a little weird - I'm so used to just firing off attacks as they recharge, and with energy, usually exactly one attack is recharged at any one time once you unload the alpha strike. I think you can do this trick with only one recharge, and I don't think you need to stack BU on top of Aim either - I think T+EB+T will take out +2 minions without stacking Aim on top. It wont take out LTs, although thats no problem, because you have a pause between EB and the next T, so you can squeeze another shot in there and take out an LT within the combo.
I've been saying all along that you can easily drop EB right on top of torrent without torrent's scatter being a real problem, but can you actually stack T+EB+T consistently on a single pile? The big problem I'm having right now is getting into the optimum position to pull this off, which is real up close and personal for the initial torrent.
On test, where I'm testing this, that's not as easy anymore with the SS debuff. Maybe you will need to stack Aim on top to make this work - but I hate to give up BU/Aim alternation.
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Well, I'm a Blapper, so I'm up close anyway. It often does miss one or two, but it works better if you have a wall to group them up with.
It's obviously not as good as something like Firebreath and Fireball, but at least it's something =/
I am pissed about the SS change.. It sucks and to me it affects blasters the most. I am beginning to think in all honesty they dont like blasters. No defense, no resistance, low hit points, the second most damage, and now u cant even use SS to get yourself in a good attack position.
Oh but you have distance ( and the enemies often outdistance you too )
This is starting to suck.. Just when I get my character to a playstyle that works for me.. they alter the freakin game. I am tired of this crap.
The hard things I can do--- The impossible just take a little bit longer.
If numbers are so much more important than a teammate who is fun to play with, forget about the game altogether and go play with a calculator instead. -Claws and Effect-
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I just wanted to post something I found out with Energy Torrent and Explosive Blast...
I slotted Energy Torrent with two recharges, so with that and Hasten, I can fit two ET's into one BU+Aim cycle. With this and EB, I can "alpha" up to oranges, if I knock them back into walls. They don't really get any return fire since they're all on the ground.
Sooo this was just a really cool find for me. Now I can actually blow groups up =P
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Dude, that is brilliant. I absolutely love this idea and have to test it out. If an energy blaster can have decent AoE like this it would make things SO much easier.
The Legion of Freedom
I think I'll try that as well... If I can have something besides my 6-damage slotted Nova to do to large groups, it might save my bacon in the Shadow Shard
Two ET's>then ET=ExB
I've always done this.
Never considered fitting it out with two Recharges though...
Maybe...Then again I prefer running 20 secs of aim/bu by alternating. But hey, whatever works for you man.
Hey Snipe, where the Forces Mastery section.
I realize it isn't part of the NRG primary, but I know that as an NRG blaster looking to your guide for help, I fully expected it to be in their.
I figured 3.0 would have it. *Shrug.
I know you "like" fire mastery do to the utility and awesome that is Char, but really man, NRG and Force Mastery go together in concept so well...
IDK, it isn't a big deal, I was just expecting it to be in the latest and greatest version of your awesome guide.
Check ya lata.
_________________
Raedien
Level 40
NRG/NRG
Stealth/Stamina/TP/Hasten
"You know nothing of power..."
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Hey Snipe, where the Forces Mastery section.
I realize it isn't part of the NRG primary, but I know that as an NRG blaster looking to your guide for help, I fully expected it to be in their.
I figured 3.0 would have it. *Shrug.
I know you "like" fire mastery do to the utility and awesome that is Char, but really man, NRG and Force Mastery go together in concept so well...
IDK, it isn't a big deal, I was just expecting it to be in the latest and greatest version of your awesome guide.
Check ya lata.
_________________
Raedien
Level 40
NRG/NRG
Stealth/Stamina/TP/Hasten
"You know nothing of power..."
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Version 3.0 came out right before the epic mastery pools came out. The newer version which I have no idea when I will get around to will have a detailed explaenation of the epic pools.
The Legion of Freedom
Ok, unless I completely suck at CoH math (which is possible, the last time I tried doing math I managed to get 80% defense using Power Boost >_>
, then these are the numbers for Energy Torrent with recharges (assuming ET is slotted with 1 Acc, 2 Recharge, and 3 Damage):
(1.8333 + .8333) * (1 + (1 + .65 + .33 * 3)) * 2 = 19.412848
That's in one BU+Aim cycle... Fire Breath is
(1.6250 * 3) * (1 + (1 + .65 + .33 * 5)) = 20.9625
Holy crap that's close o.O
I'm still not sure if you can do it with only one recharge, but if you could... (1 Acc, 1 Recharge, 4 Damage)
(1.8333 + .8333) * (1 + (1 + .65 + .33 * 4)) * 2 = 21.172804
O_O
Wow...
Lemme see if that works...
EDIT: Does my math suck? Please don't tell me it sucks >_>
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Ok, unless I completely suck at CoH math (which is possible, the last time I tried doing math I managed to get 80% defense using Power Boost >_>, then these are the numbers for Energy Torrent with recharges (assuming ET is slotted with 1 Acc, 2 Recharge, and 3 Damage):
(1.8333 + .8333) * (1 + (1 + .65 + .33 * 3)) * 2 = 19.412848
That's in one BU+Aim cycle... Fire Breath is
(1.6250 * 3) * (1 + (1 + .65 + .33 * 5)) = 20.9625
Holy crap that's close o.O
I'm still not sure if you can do it with only one recharge, but if you could... (1 Acc, 1 Recharge, 4 Damage)
(1.8333 + .8333) * (1 + (1 + .65 + .33 * 4)) * 2 = 21.172804
O_O
Wow...
Lemme see if that works...
EDIT: Does my math suck? Please don't tell me it sucks >_>
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Yup, you got it.
Torrent is 1.8333 + 0.8333 = 2.6666 like you said.
BU+Aim+3dmg = 1+0.6+1 (My figure for Aim is 0.6, not 0.65, but its not all that important - I'll check it tonight to be sure).
Net damage is 2.6666 * (1 + 2.6) = 9.60. Two firings is 19.2
One mistake: Fire breath cannot go as high as you calculate:
(1.625 * 3 ticks) * (1 + 1 + 0.6 + 1.66) = 1.625 * 3 * (4.26)
4.26 is above the 400% blaster damage cap. Capped, fire breath is:
1.625 * 3 * 4 = 19.5
Its practically a wash, although we have to fire twice to get there.
If we can do it with 1 recharge like I think we can (I'm definitely double checking tonight) then:
2.6666 * (1 + 1 + 0.6 + 1.33) * 2 firings = 2.6666 * (3.93) *2 = 20.96
Higher than fire breath, but again, this sequence (BU+Aim+T+T) takes about 12 seconds. You will want to shove EB in there - even if the thing is unslotted for damage - just to keep knocking them around during the 7 seconds you are waiting around for T to recharge.
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a) One recharge is definitely enough to get two torrents under one build up window. When I took out the 50++ recharge and put in a straight 50, the second torrent was getting in on the last second of BU, about what the calculations say should happen.
b) Although I thought I was good at hitting a group with T+EB, T+EB+T makes me look like a rank amateur. If I get half of them with the second T, I'm surprised.
c) Only one recharge leaves a large gap between T+EB and the last T, and they tend to shoot back. In fact, its a good idea to wait to the count of two to fire off the EB, to pace the knockback. A second recharge cuts the wait time by about a second, which might be meaningful.
d) I forgot to test Aim carefully, its definitely 60% plus or minus 5%, which haha doesn't answer the question. Oh well, next time.
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Well, can you fit two ET's into one BU AND Aim cycle?
Since BU takes a moment to activate and Aim takes a moment to activate...
I just got done trying it, and it rocks! I have my ET slotted 1 Acc, 1 RecRed, and 4 Dam (Used to be a ConRng instead of a RedRed). With Hasten up, I am able to fire like this: BU, Aim, ET, EB, ET. After that, all I have to do is cycle through and take out the Lieutenants and Bosses! If I have an Empath's Fortitude (or other damage enhancing power), I only need to take out the bosses! With a Kinetics boost (Fulcrum Shift I think) I was able to take down a group of 3 Fake Nemesis, 2 of which had their group shields up!
Thank you for this wonderful new AoE Weapon of Mass Destruction!
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Well, can you fit two ET's into one BU AND Aim cycle?
Since BU takes a moment to activate and Aim takes a moment to activate...
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Nope, since Aim takes 2 seconds to activate, if I tried to stack BU and Aim, the second torrent just missed. I forgot to test two recharges with BU+Aim. I think two will fit, but I honestly forgot to test, I was too busy trying to see if I could actually hit a group with all three, and to see what happens when I use this tactic on possessed LTs.
For the munitions people, an interesting chain is BU+torrent+sleep grenade+wait+torrent.
Darn, well, back to test again 
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Apparently, if you just keep on going, when you get to 4 50++ recharges in torrent, you can get a T+EB+T sequence to fire in about 6 seconds total, and it takes out minions. 6 seconds is fast enough that things are not really shooting back at all anymore.
I don't know if anyone is crazy enough to 4-slot torrent with recharge, but it does seem to work for the alpha strike alone. And if you stack BU and Aim, the combined accuracy completely overcomes the -50% on superspeed, so you can do this combo while fully protected by stealth+SS.
You're going to have energy blasters going nuts trying different combinations of this, DustKing. 
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... And if you stack BU and Aim, the combined accuracy completely overcomes the -50% on superspeed, so you can do this combo while fully protected by stealth+SS.
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And here I was just about to ask... "Say SnipeFu, how do you think the ToHit debuff on Super Speed and Super Leap will affect Energy blasters? Have you tried macros or binds to turn them off when attacking? Because that 50% is nasty unless you have HOs."
Well, OK, I'll ask it anyway. Any comments?
Goodbye and thanks for all the fish.
I've moved on to Diablo 3, TopDoc-1304
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... And if you stack BU and Aim, the combined accuracy completely overcomes the -50% on superspeed, so you can do this combo while fully protected by stealth+SS.
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And here I was just about to ask... "Say SnipeFu, how do you think the ToHit debuff on Super Speed and Super Leap will affect Energy blasters? Have you tried macros or binds to turn them off when attacking? Because that 50% is nasty unless you have HOs."
Well, OK, I'll ask it anyway. Any comments?
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Even with 6 HOs you will still miss a lot. I have a feeling the acc debuff is applied to final accuracy taking it down no matter how much acc is slotted in the attack. HOWEVER, buildup or aim will each negate the debuff very well.
The Legion of Freedom
Yeah but thats only for a few seconds what do I do the rest of the time ??? This SS debuff sucks..
The hard things I can do--- The impossible just take a little bit longer.
If numbers are so much more important than a teammate who is fun to play with, forget about the game altogether and go play with a calculator instead. -Claws and Effect-
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Yeah but thats only for a few seconds what do I do the rest of the time ??? This SS debuff sucks..
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Run around a lot. SS is still plenty fast. During the 13 seconds of downtime when BU and Aim are recharging, you have 4 seconds to run to a contact, 2 seconds to buy two acc insps, 4 seconds to return, and 2 seconds to pop them both, and then 1 second to get a shot off, and then BU and Aim will be recharged again. Simple.
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The one thing I noticed that I didn't see on here: Even if you do successfully pull only one bad guy, if the rest are on alert and you hop in their line if sight after wacking the one you pulled, they'll see you even with invis. Just thought I'd point that out.
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I thought I mentioned that in #1 in my post above, but I should have been more clear. I also hinted at it in the next post:
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Similarly, if you actually break line of sight while firing at a target and you actually kill the target for whatever reason, the fact that you broke line of sight means the others can't rush you. The main problem with LOS-breaking is that the *only* reason they aren't all trying to kill you is because they can't see you; the moment you round the corner again they are all going to charge you.
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You do have to be careful about that. So even if you pull only one, there is a difference between a "good" pull and a "great" one, and its one of the advantages of hitting from behind (and not killing anyone). I believe it takes about a minute or two for the "alert" to wear off, btw.
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Last night I only had time for one mission (thank God my grad school classes are finished until September now), so I undertook a Freakshow warehouse mish solo in order to practice on pulling. Wow, that line of sight thing really does make things a heck of a lot easier, doesn't it? I only aggro'd a second Freak once or twice, and I never got myself in a situation that needed for me to SS away.
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