Dr. Opie's Energy/Energy Blaster Seminar

Greetings Heroes! Welcome to Dr. Opie’s Energy/Energy Blaster Design and Strategy Seminar.

I am Dr. Opie, an archmage of incalculable power [if you can't count to level 50] who has soloed the archfiend Inferno [and failed]. Why should you listen to me? Because you want to do the blaster thing right, with an eye to the details of energy/energy blasters, specifically. If you're already a blaster, and have your own strategies and tactics, none of what I say is intended to disparage your techniques, and your input is welcome. If you are a neophyte or journeyman blaster, this is only one of several resources available online for learning to be a blaster. Read them all and draw your own conclusions.

Your Power Sets:

Energy Blast - Your Energy Blast primary is of course the bread and butter of your set. You probably will not acquire all of these powers but you will end up with most of them by the end of your career. Every single blast in this set does energy and smashing damage in various ratios, and does knockback some percentage of the time, except Aim, which is a personal boost. Your asset here is strong single-target attacks that can be fired in rapid succession, keeping your enemy off of his feet.

Energy Manipulation - Your Energy Manipulation secondary is your true strength. The powers you select from this pool do far more to ensure your success than your primary choices. With the right choices, you can hit harder than any other hero without inspirations or buffs from teammates, you can do massive damage to any target that dares to get within close range of you, you can fire everything you have without pause and not run out of endurance, you can buff your defense and movement in unexpected ways, you can increase the range of your attacks, and you can mez (disorient) a boss with a single attack.


The Powers:

I am not going to give a rundown on every power in the set. Other instructors have handled that task quite nicely. The purpose of this class is to understand how the powers in the set can be used.

On the Energy Blast side of things, there really are no wrong choices to make. Every power fits into an overall attack strategy. On the Energy Manipulation side, your choices should be more carefully made, because you can't select them all and take a good selection of pool powers.

There are a few "must haves" of every energy/energy blaster build. <ul type="square"> [*]Take both Build Up and Aim. They stack. With the 500% cap returned to blasters in Issue 5, they stack well even with powers fully slotted for damage.[*]Take Conserve Power and fill it with recharge SOs. I did not do this for most of my career, and did OK. I switched over using a free respec at level 47, and increased my effectiveness to devastating levels. I only had to avoid using my high-endurance powers (the AoEs, mostly) for the brief period when Conserve Energy was down. The only thing keeping me from throwing firepower left and right was sound tactics (avoiding excess aggro). This was with Stamina, too, of course. The advantage of spending endurance only half as fast in a major battle cannot be underestimated. This makes every other power you have that much more effective, because you can use them all much more often.[*]Take Total Focus and level 38 and slot it completely. I suggest 1 ACC, 1 recharge, 4 DAM. This power will stop a Boss cold. With this, I hunted Paragon Protectors solo, and only bad luck got me faceplanted (miss ... miss ... miss ..., even after a full Aim+BuildUp).[/list]Aside from these four powers, everything else is gravy. Also notice, 3 of these four are in your secondary! This does not include Power Pool "must haves" such as Stamina.


Specific Power Choices:

::Early choices

Early in the game, you have a choice to go with any two of these three blasts: Power Bolt (your lightest blast power, has range and fires fast), Power Burst (like Bolt, but more damaging and slower), and Energy Torrent (an AoE cone). This choice will affect your entire early career. If you forgo the AoE cone attack, you'll have two reliable single-target powers that are always available and don't chew up your endurance too fast. You will have better control over your aggro in team situations, and the light-damage Power Thrust is a good pulling tactic. If you forgo Power Thrust, then you'll have two medium-damage attacks that fire slowly and use a good deal of endurance. However, this setup is more effective for soloing, because all foes in a group will be aggroed onto you anyway, and Energy Torrent has a very high knockback chance that, combined with Power Thrust (a 100% Knockback punch that you must take from your secondary), will keep enemies away from you, while dishing out a significant amount of damage. I do not recommend the third option, going without Power Burst, as it is your highest-damage long range attack aside from Sniper Blast, which has its own issues.

::AoE attacks

It is a personal choice whether you want to take AoE attacks. There are two main ones in this set, aside from the Nova (nuke) power at level 32: Energy Torrent (cone) and Explosive Blast (ball, same range as Power Bolt/Burst). Energy is decidedly not an AoE-specialized set. It's AoE powers, however, are effective in their own ways. The first thing to realize is that an AoE from an Energy blaster is not supposed to eliminate large masses of weak enemies, the way more AoE-focused sets can. Rather, your energy blast AoE attacks are better thought of as "DeBuffs". Yes, debuffs. Their damage is significant only in that it is applied to several foes; the knockback is more significant. The knockback itself has been the subject of much disparagement, because it moves all the enemies out of range of further AoEs.

The trick with your AoEs is to remember that you want to use the knockbacks, rather than pretend that you have non-knockback AoEs. When the baddies are closing in, both AoEs will serve to push them away, and knock them down for enough time for you to get away or buff up with insps or whatever. Explosive Blast has an interesting side effect in that it ALL blasts away from you, not away from the center of the blast, so at close range, it appears to just be a "wider cone" than Energy Torrent. A major advantage of Explosive Blast is that if you get mobbed, you can just target one foe, and most all of them will be pushed away from you.

If you want to use AoEs for damage purposes, it is best to hover above a group (stealthed, or with some major range boosting for your cone attack) and use both AoEs down on the group. Knockback thus becomes knockdown. Fully slotted with BuildUp/Aim, this can eliminate a group of even-con minions. The knockback/down eliminates a good deal of the potential alpha back from your targets. Alternatively, a good wall or corner can keep them together. With good manueverability, you can zip around and line up your cone AoE, and knockback the bad guys to keep them together in a blob for other attacks.

Finally, an advantage of having the AoE attacks is that they can be cycle in for doing damage against a Boss or AV while staying at range.

If you don't want to use AoEs, you don't have to. It's optional, but adds some versatility.


::Sniper Blast

By level 8, the Energy/Energy blaster gets access to something unavailable to other blasters until much later, or even at all: Build Up + Sniper Blast. Other secondaries get Build Up at level 16 or not at all. We get it at level 4! Other primaries get Snipe at level 12 or later, or not at all. We get Snipe at level 8! That makes sniper attacks a particular strength that belongs to the Energy/Energy blaster, especially in the early game. With both of these powers, you can take down one minion in a single shot (color varies based on slotting and level, but you'll always be able to down an even-con minion if you hit, except for certain specialized minions with extra hit points or damage resistance). Reducing your enemy count by one even before the fight begins is a win/win situation. If you take Sniper Blast and Build Up, and slot appropriately, you will not regret the choice.

That said, sniping isn't for everyone. First of all, it's a slow-activating, interruptable power. In general, you can't use it in the heat of combat, and you could have taken some other attack instead and output damage in a continuous stream with other attacks. If you take Snipe, you will generally have an attack pattern of sniping, hoping it hits, and then following up and taking down the other enemies swiftly. Another disadvantage is that Snipe takes so long to go off that Build Up (and Aim) have mostly run out before you can do anything else. It's often more damaging (and more risky) to do your self-buffs and then get off 3 or 4 attacks with extra damage and accuracy than to just get Snipe and one other attack. The difference comes down to play style. If you think of yourself as a stealthy infiltrator that has a job to do, Snipe is for you. If you think of yourself as the “rawking” blaster who delivers damage in a continuous stream of showy and spectacular blasts, Sniper Blast probably isn't for you.

::Nova

Nova is the "nuke" power of the Energy Blast set. Frankly, I don't like it. Sorry, but I don't.

It has its place in the scheme of things. For a very brief moment, you devastate all of the foes nearby (up to 16, as of Issue 5), and then you have no endurance, and must use inspirations to do anything for about 10 seconds. Its recharge is very slow; 6 minutes without slotting or Hasten, and no faster than 98 seconds fully slotted for recharge (meaning no damage slotting).

In practice, this becomes a team power. In team missions, there are groups large enough to be worthy of the sacrifice this power entails, and backup protection from teammates to keep the aggro off of you for those that survive. Also, multiple Novas (or other blaster set equivalent) can quickly destroy a large group of orange/red enemies.

In solo play, it becomes mostly worthless and not very fun (for me). Yes, I can take on a large group of red-conning minions and live. In between, I must wait 3 to 6 minutes (depending on slotting, cuz it doesn't deserve all recharges). It isn't fun to wait that long, and I'd much rather have a strong, long distance, single-target attack that recharges fairly quickly, to accompany my Power Blast.

It is not a "bad" power, per se. I just don't find it fun. However, if you do like causing massive amounts of damage all at once, and don't mind waiting for it, and you don't mind looking severely constipated right before doing your damage, Nova will serve you well. Remember, I said that no wrong choices to make for your primary set, and that includes this power.

FYI, as of this writing, I do have Nova in my build, and it has 4 slots. I emote a sneeze as it goes off.

::Power Push

I am not that familiar with Power Push, though I have tested it fairly thoroughly. Its main advantage is (in my opinion) for those who didn't take energy as a secondary. It targets a single target, at range, and knocks them away from you, limited only by the target's knockback resistance. It differs from Power Thrust mostly in terms of range. Power Thrust does more damage, costs less endurance, and recharges faster. Power Push has a 70 range (more than your cone, less than your mainline attacks), and a good deal of built-in accuracy (+40% according to Joe Chott's CoH Planner v1.5B). Since as Energy/Energy blasters, we are forced to get Power Thrust, having a second knockback attack is entirely optional. I would suggest that it is at its most effective when teaming with higher-levels (even if SK'ing), where its built-in accuracy comes into play, and keeping a boss on his back is often more useful than doing real damage, when on a team.

::Energy Punch

Energy Punch does more damage than any blasts you get before the Sniper Blast, and it recharges faster and activates faster and uses only as much endurance as your puny Power Bolt blast … all for the price of being in melee as a blaster. This is doable, and “blappers” can be quite viable. That said, this is the weakest of the attacks in Energy Manipulation that you are not forced to take, and even blappers regularly skip it, because its chance of stunning is so low.

::Bone Smasher

This is the power I gave up for Conserve Energy. I wanted to give up Nova, but I was teaming a lot at the time, and getting the blasters to coordinate their nukes was part of teaming. I like Bone Smasher, and I’ve included it ever since my earliest builds. The damage is amazing from low levels until high levels. It does nearly as much damage as the Sniper Blast, and fires and recharges faster, and uses much less endurance. Its role in my tactics was usually as a second attack to remove a second minion. Snipe one minion (it goes down), then run up as fast as possible and use Bone Smasher on the next minion (it goes down), leaving only one minion or LT to deal with in a solo mission. The chance for stunning is fairly high, but it isn’t something to rely on, as with Power Push or Total Focus.

::Stun

Of all powers in the Energy/Energy sets, this is the one with which I am least familiar. Its damage is low, and its stunning doesn’t last long, so it requires slotting, and can become extremely effective with Power Boost (doubles stun duration). It is a mez power, which means it shouldn’t be ignored in the scheme of things. The only reason I didn’t take it is that by the time I had acquired all of the power pool powers I wanted, I was of a level to get Total Focus, which is remarkably more effective.

::Power Boost

This isn’t a “must have” power, but it is much, much, much, much, much more effective than it appears at first glance. To start, it buffs your movement speed for any movement powers aside from walking (and teleporting). It also doubles your DEF bonuses, your mez durations, your knockback distances, and so on. I slotted this with four recharges, which when combined with Hasten gave me 15 seconds on and 5 seconds off with this power. It’s possible to make it perma, but the cycle is 15 seconds, and is rather annoying. I would usually pull it up before doing a stun attack, or when under heavy fire, or when I needed to move very fast (it makes hover go as fast as fly, without having to 6-slot hover with fly SOs).

::Boost Range

This power does exactly what it says, and I have no beef with it, except that by the time you get it, just about everything in the game outranges all of your powers, even with this on. I see some advantage for teleporters, which for a brief while would teleport much farther (hence faster), too, but that isn’t significant enough to strengthen this power beyond the “very optional” category.

::Total Focus

While this is a slow-activating power, and your target and its friends will likely get an alpha on you if you don’t quickly charge in and launch it, it can stun bosses and one-shot LTs. The stunning of bosses is the main utility, though, and turns you into a “boss-killer” on a par with any scrapper. Combined with Power Boost, the stun lasts for 20 seconds. Combined with Build Up and Aim, you can deal with a boss-less trio with three one-shots: Total Focus on the most powerful, then Bone Smasher on the next most, and then Power Burst (a short range heavy blast I hadn’t mentioned until now) on the last. In a trio with a boss, you stun the boss with a Power Boosted Total Focus, then immediately switch to his companions with Power Burst and Bone Smasher, leaving only the mezzed (for 20 seconds) boss. Total Focus will recharge before then, and you can re-mez him.


- Power Pools
Most power pool advice is ably covered by other instructors, and I’ve no wish to re-hash their wisdom here, so I’ll summarize some essential points.

The fitness pool is a must, even if you take Conserve Power, because running out of endurance is as bad as being mezzed or slowed. With both Stamina and Conserve Power, only firing Nova or using lots of AoEs when during the CP downtime will dry up your endurance. At all other times, you can use everything you’ve got.

Aside from Fitness, I recommend the Speed pool, because even though it now lacks a+DEF bonus, perma-Hasten is valuable for cycling through your powers quickly. Just as Stamina is worth a couple of endurance cost SOs in every power, Hasten gives you effectively two recharge SOs in every power. Your job is to throw out damage as fast as possible against the tactically/strategically most effective target, and even if you have enough powers that there’s always one ready to go, your more effective powers will be ready to go sooner.

All other pool choices are a matter of personal play style and choices. I took Stealth (to combine with Super Speed) and the Flying pool (for Hover and Fly). This let me get into whatever tactical position I needed to in order to be the most effective. Hover keeps most opponents at bay, and is pretty darn fast with 3 fly slots and Power Boost.


-Ancillary Power Pools

Any choice is good. Cold Mastery combines well with Power Burst, because Frozen Armor gives +DEF to smash and lethal (thus you double your bonus from Frozen Armor for 15 seconds at a time!). I preferred Fire Mastery because Char was a more effective hold for me. The mass sleep in Cold Mastery would stop all the LTs and minions … after letting them notice me and alpha-strike me. Char I could use as an alpha, and was especially useful against Sappers. Rise of the Phoenix appears to suck except for two things: after level 50, there is no such thing as debt, and for a few seconds after you rise, you are totally immune to everything and can act with impunity.

Still, it’s all a matter of personal choice at these levels. Nothing is uber ... and if it is, it’ll be nerfed, eventually. Speaking of which:

- Issue 5 changes to blasters

Issue 5 has made several changes which affect blasters.

:efense changes

+DEF power pool powers are no longer as effective as they used to be, especially stealth and Hasten. While this doesn’t make that much of a difference to blasters given that the bonuses were small to begin with, it does affect one of the better aspects of Power Boost. While fully self-buffed, I had 17.5% +DEF before Issue 5, and Power Boost make that into a +35% boost, which is fairly significant indeed (though definitely not uber). With Issue 5, I think it’s just 6% and 12%, respectively. As a blaster, you’re gonna take more hits.

::Hit Point changes

Blasters got a boost in hit points with Issue 5. It seems a poor trade, trading your defense for extra hit points, but in play, it appears to be enough. I don’t recall the exact amount of the HP boost, but consider this: even a 10% boost of hit points is logically equivalent to a +10% Damage Resistance against every single attack in the game, including psionics, and it stacks with every other Damage Resistance boost in the game, beyond any “caps”. I’m sure that blasters would have a more emotional appreciation if they’d been granted a click or toggle power that gave them +10% DR to smash/lethal that they could slot up, but this change is much, much, much better. I found myself to be much more resilient in Issue 5 because of this.

::We got the 500% damage cap back!

Along with the hit point changes, this is far more significant than it appears at first glance. What it really does is increase the color of the minion that one can single-shot with Sniper Blast (Orange minions, instead of just White), or that can be taken down with your two fully-buffed AoE attacks (White minions, instead of Blue). The class of what can be taken down right away changes gameplay significantly. You will be very happy with the effectiveness of your attacks, especially since you get Build Up and Aim fairly early in the scheme of things when compared with other blasters.

:efiance

*Dr. Opie chuckles.*

*Dr. Opie grins goofily and starts singing GIR’s “doom song”*

“Doomy doom doom doom doom doom DOOM doomy doom doom …”

*ahem*

Er, um … please excuse me. At times, I am awed by the brilliant design and balance of the powers in this game. Then they come up with things like “suppression” and “defiance.” These, too, awe me, though not in a positive way.

Sorry.

Defiance is effective at low levels, when you don’t have Build Up and Aim and blasts fully slotted with SOs. In such a situation, even a blaster isn’t in danger of death at even 10% of their full hit points, and the minor bonuses from defiance at this point (yes, minor … the bonuses are remarkably small until you get to about 1-2% of your hit points) play a valid strategic role.

If you try such a thing after 20th level or so, you will die. Quickly. If you keep on trying it, you will be in perma-debt. A blaster at 50% hit points is in grave danger of being killed in by two more hits, or a single hit from a powerful boss. Against the kinds of dangerous foes against which one would imagine defiance would be useful (because, after all, they just hit you really really hard), Defiance is useless (because, after all, the next hit is going to be just as hard, and take you down to zero.) So the math is: 100% -&gt; hit -&gt; 50% (no defiance bonus yet) -&gt; 0% (um, do I get infinite defiance if I’m at 0 HP?).

My advice to you neophyte blasters is: use defiance on purpose until level 10, at which point debt kicks in. Then never use it again on purpose. If you get hit to within a hit point of death, and then get a blast off, well, gee, that was lucky for you. Maybe you kill the boss that almost killed you. Then a minion trips, falls on his laser rifle, which accidentally goes of and hits you for 3 points of damage. Luck goes both ways, and with Defiance, luck will be -against- you, not -with- you.

I would like to see defiance based on the damage rate, not damage amount. That way, if you are getting hit a lot, but using heals judiciously, defiance builds up because of all the hits, but doesn’t go away just because a heal took you back to full. But you are still obviously in severe danger, because if the damage rate is very high, then lacking heals for 10-20 seconds is enough to kill you. I’d call that real risk, and I’d judge that Defiance should be giving at least a moderate bonus at that point.

- Conclusions

An energy/energy blaster has a great set of powers, some of which are diamonds in the rough, and others of which are real gems. Your secondary powers deserve special scrutiny: don’t ignore them just because you don’t want to be in melee range. Your AoE’s strength -is- their massive knockback, not their damage. And Conserve Power + Stamina will keep you blasting for a long time to come.

This concludes my seminar. Questions and comments are welcome.

[ QUOTE ]
My advice to you neophyte blasters is: use defiance on purpose until level 10, at which point debt kicks in. Then never use it again on purpose. If you get hit to within a hit point of death, and then get a blast off, well, gee, that was lucky for you. Maybe you kill the boss that almost killed you. Then a minion trips, falls on his laser rifle, which accidentally goes of and hits you for 3 points of damage. Luck goes both ways, and with Defiance, luck will be -against- you, not -with- you.

[/ QUOTE ]

Couldn't agree with you more. Nice concept, poor execution.

Have you considered the Energy Mastery Ancilliary? PFF, Temp Invul &amp; FoN have come in QUITE handy, especially during those times when it goes to heck in a handbasket and you're suddenly in a tight spot. Properly timed FoN can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory - just be ready to book as FoN wears off if you're not in the clear yet.

I have a lvl 38 energy/energy blaster at the moment and thought I'd comment on a couple things.

First, Nova, in MY opinion, is fantastic. I have 6 slotted hasten and 6 slotted stamina. I pop Nova, kill almost everything, pop one blue pill, and that's enough to last me until Nova's effects wear off. At which point Stamina kicks back in and I'm right as rain again.

Second, Power Push is a God send. Fighting Freakshow Tanks, tough bosses, etc... it keeps them down. Doing the lvl 34 respec I could solo a tank while the team took down the rest of the mob. Yea, Power Thrust is great, but only when Power Push fails. I say this because Power Thrust is melee... tanks hit with melee... so by the time you got it off so did they and you're hurting. With Power Push you can knock them down from long range, throw a power or two, and then do it again. Also, if you have hover or are on a high place they can't get to it'll keep them knocked down and unable to do anything.

Right now I've got all my primary powers and only 3 secondaries (Power Thrust, Build Up, Conserve Energy) and am loving it. I have a great cycle of Power Bolt, Power Burst, Power Bolt, Power Blast. I can keep that up with no end drain and no down time between powers. I highly suggest it if you can get close enough for Power Blast.

So basically over the course of 38 lvls I've realized that yea, Energy is horrible for multi-target damage, but we are above and beyond the best single target damage dealers. AVs tremble at the sight of us.

And finally... I too do an AH-CHOO! emote when I activate Nova.

I would also add my vote for Force Mastery. I find turning on Repulsion Field then charging with a Total Focus is a great boss killer move. Also saves your tanker from the dreaded Malta Sappers. Just be sure to either slot RF for End Reduction or have Conserve Power running when you charge!!

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
My advice to you neophyte blasters is: use defiance on purpose until level 10, at which point debt kicks in. Then never use it again on purpose. If you get hit to within a hit point of death, and then get a blast off, well, gee, that was lucky for you. Maybe you kill the boss that almost killed you. Then a minion trips, falls on his laser rifle, which accidentally goes of and hits you for 3 points of damage. Luck goes both ways, and with Defiance, luck will be -against- you, not -with- you.

[/ QUOTE ]

Couldn't agree with you more. Nice concept, poor execution.

Have you considered the Energy Mastery Ancilliary? PFF, Temp Invul &amp; FoN have come in QUITE handy, especially during those times when it goes to heck in a handbasket and you're suddenly in a tight spot. Properly timed FoN can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory - just be ready to book as FoN wears off if you're not in the clear yet.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I considered it. I like having a HOLD attack more. Why? Sappers and mezzing LTs. If I can hold the sapper, I have a chance. I can't one-shot him. And the hold is always available, and is -very- nicely buffed to a long duration via Power Boost. I six-slot it. With respect to Fire Shield, I find that after smash/lethal, fire is the most common damage type. It's possible to have missions in which all the damage is fire. The Demons in the Infernal AV mission don't bother me at all (just Infernal, whom I did finally solo in Elite Boss form).

Also, I've 3 alts that have the forcefield set and two invuln tanks, so the Energy Mastery set felt like more of the same. I'm very sure that FoN rocks, and I said there weren't any bad choices.

W/r to your comments about Nova and Power Push:

My last free respec (to comply with ED) added Power Push and didn't remove Nova, and freed-up slots helped Nova recharge faster. I'm still of mixed opinion about Power Push, but that's partly because Knockback is very nerfed at the moment, but I -do- see its potential without the nerf. Nova, recharging prompty, and in a team, seems to be available for most groups of enemies: this is partly because most teams tend to dawdle after finishing a group.

Another nice note w/r to the sneezing emote for Nova: I hit "AH..." three times before the final "CHOO..." which gives kinetics defenders time to activate fulcrum shift.

I'm thinking my main bias against Nova is that it's most effective in team situations, and it sits unused while I solo. For one thing, the downtime is much more annoying in solo play, cuz there's no one to chat with and no fight to watch finish while I recover, and I'm ready for the next batch of enemies long before Nova is recharged.

I find Nova very useful in soloing, but you have to pick your mobs wisely.

My preference is a large pack of Nemesis found throughout Peregrine Island. Minions come in packs of as many as 10, prehaps 12, but I don't recall if I've counted any minion mobs that high. I look for mobs of even con to a max of +4.

I'm in constant stealth as I approach the mob. Before I charge in, I prep with hasten and conserve power first. Then, as I am rushing in, I am using buildup AND aim, both of which are activated by the time I reach near the center of the mob.

I activate Nova and maybe - MAYBE - I've missed one or two. I pop a blue and with conserve power I take out the lucky Nem or two who didn't get hit with Nova. If they get hit with Nova they die every time.

That can result in as much as 8K - 13K experience (approximated) with one attack. At worst, the survivors get off an attack and I may take some annoyance damage, but it's a low-risk tactic with a high reward IF you time it right, which is very easy to do.

While Nova is recharging, I still have CP and hasten activated, so I reactivate stealth (which is recharged at the exact same time the Nova endurance penalty expires, so I'm in good end shape at this point) and kill some smaller mobs with lieutentants just to keep the XP rolling in until the death machine is ready to rock once more. With three damage enhancements, buildup and aim, it does more damage than I need. With the three increase attack rate enhancements and hasten, it's recharged in no time at all.

I've been doing this since level 32 with large mobs of minions and I have never hit the pavement in the 10 levels since. Just stay away from mobs with bosses or multiple lieuts. That's trouble, especially if you miss the boss who will proceed to pound you before you can pop a blue in an attempt to use a power to get away.


With regard to the usefulness of Power Push, I find it's greatest use is to allow me to use snipe in the middle of battle without fear of interrupt. In a solo situation, it only works if you are one -on-one because the other foes will interrupt the snipe. So, after I've offed the minions, the remaining lieut or boss gets a face full of Power Push and stands up to a snipe blast in the forehead. With Haste, I can repeat this process a few times in the fight. Also, if Snipe knocked them back, I can charge in while they are down and Power Burst them and retreat to a distance and start over. Also peppering him with power bolt/blast. This also gives me time to activate build up/aim without being hit. Many fights end up with me doing all the attacking while my foe is spending all his time getting knocked down and getting back up.

In team situations, it doesn't work as cleanly, but many times my aggro is limited to a small portion of the foes and I can sometimes use the same tactic of Power Push/Snipe in the middle of battles after aggro is drawn. I do suffer a higher instance of interrupt (actually any instance is higher because when I solo there is no one to interrupt me), but it works enough for me to continue to use it. If I do suffer an interrupt, I just use another attack OR I will target the nearest enemy (most likely the culprit of the interrupt) and Power Burst his butt which usually gets him away from me, as well.

I can't imagine playing without Power Push. Without it, Snipe would be limited to an initial attack only. With it, I have a big-hitter at my disposal at any point in a battle.

I slot Power Push with 2 ACC because everything is predicated on it hitting it's opponent.

Lots of good stuff here, both in the OP and the replies. My Nrg/Nrg blaster is now lvl 42. I can solo or team with great success (except for Rikti who like to Perma-hold me).

I love Nova but tend to only use it on teams. Repulsion Field from my Epic is something I'm still playing with but is coming in very very handy for taking on bosses.

Aim+Buildup+Explosive Blast (3 ACC, 3 DAM) followed by Energy Torrent (2 ACC, 3 DAM, 1 Range) makes for a great opening attack on mobs.

Aim+Buildup+Total Focus (3 ACC, 1 DAM - will put more later) followed by Power Burst is great for Lts and Bosses.

If you can get three teammates for Fortitude, its even more fun. Had a four man team the other night and I was running with triple Fort the whole time. I was tank, scrapper, blaster all rolled up in one and was a blast.

I've been rolling a nrg/nrg since my day one.
I've tried the AoE's and have sinced repected out of them.
(nova included- though im debating its come back)
The ranged KB attack never tried, though other posters seem to have good arguments for its use.
I can say the engery shield epic power rocks. I've had munitions at one point but though with the stronger DEF from my toggle, then the passive, and a "god" type DEF in FoN would role with it (never looked back on this one, i loved it.
for my set ive taken 3 powers. The PFF (sloted 3 def buff, 1 rech, 1 red end) (inform of 2 HO's and one SO), Temp Inv (sloted 3 def, 2 red end) again (2 HO's one SO) and FoN (stoted3 def, 3 rech, and 1 red end) this time one HO and 5 SO's

For secondarys Flight (personal love), FITNESS (a must for almost everyone), Healing (for badge before i knew about gladitoral healing, and it can help), and leadership (loving the +per and extra hit and damg numbers. course such a full load of secondarys means theres lots of stuff other took that I didn't but thats the deversity of this game.

I enjoyed the article, I think it will certainly help me plan the end-build or a respect trial but I have one comment on the Sniper Blast &amp; playstyle remarks...

"The difference comes down to play style. If you think of yourself as a stealthy infiltrator that has a job to do, Snipe is for you. If you think of yourself as the “rawking” blaster who delivers damage in a continuous stream of showy and spectacular blasts, Sniper Blast probably isn't for you."

I disagree in the 'style' aspect of this. I love getting in tight and dealing massive blast damage while swinging away with energy melee and short AOE attacks for massive damage in the baddies faces... BUT I get the baddies attention by Sniping the boss with buildup and aim, then finishing him off as the whole group runs up to engage me from the aggro. It's serious fun to take down the leader and then wade into the minions with energy blasts hurling foes accross the landscape!

I literally buildup, aim, snipe, cue my next ranged blast and swoop in to finish the boss. All the minions are by this point running around trying to find a way to get to me (hovering high above). I'll slide down to within AoE range and scatter and knockback/down whomever I can, THEN I just let lose with all my ranged shots until they start to pile on me (if any are left or can get to me before being picked off). When the leftover minions start to engage me in melee I use the Energy Melee set powers and AoE attacks to send them back out... If any of the minions are trying to pop me from range, I hit them with a knockback causing blast and get back to the melee targets. I call it 'Yo-Yo Time' as I knockback and blast, knockback and blast. It doesn't usually last very long but it is pretty spectacular to watch. It isn't uncommon for passing heroes to cut their movement power, stop and just watch the fun! Maybe they think I'll need help at first but usually send a 'kudos' tell or emote a cheer when I'm done!

Sure I have to rest/heal and fly up out of danger for a bit after the carnage... but when the step by step, methodical, precision kill routine gets dull... this brightens my day everytime!

That's power baby! That's why I love Energy/Energy!!!

Should have read this before posting earlier.


Thank you Sir.


QM