Is it Hot in here? - Peg's I9 Fire^3 Blaster Guide

Peg_on_Justice · 05-15-2007 09:49 AM

Is it Hot in Here? - Pegs guide to the Fire/Fire/Fire Blaster

Introduction:

The Fire/Fire/Fire blaster. Wow, has this archetype gone through changes. It has been popular, flavor of the month, despised, avoided and now with I8 and I9 it has come back into its own. Hellcatt is my triple Fire, and made level 50 in March of 2007. I created her back during I6, leveled her to 28 then forgot about her as I went off to play villains. Finally I came back and decided to get a hero to 50 so I could play around with Khelidans. So looking at my list of heroes, I could either keep working on Hellcatt, despite how much "fire/fire sucks", or start a new character.

In the end, I decided to stick with Hellcatt, but to invest some time in figuring out how to play her. Let me give credit to Snakebit. His guide is required reading for a Fire/Fire. The concept that he outlines really helped me to understand how to play this build. It forms the basis for the "blapping" set of tactics, and the core mechanisms he outlines are critical to success. The I8 increase to the damage of the /fire secondary is also a factor in the increased viability of this build. While I have deviated into something that is more versatile, his guide forms the core of the fire/fire philosophy.

What is a Triple Fire Blaster anyway?:

If you choose this route, understand what you are getting into. You deal damage. This is your primary and purposeful goal and you do very little else. You are optimized to deal high levels of damage in any and all situations, whether solo or on a team. You have no damage mitigation, other than inspirations. Your mitigation is to kill them before they kill you. There are even times that you are going to let them kill you, just so you can hit them again ... harder.

Get used to defeat and debt. You are going to get a lot of it. If this bothers you, then go make a stone tank. But if the thrill of dancing through 20 enemies, spinning like a marionette through the tankers and scrappers, watching hundreds of orange numbers rise up in the air over the heads of the enemies, pressing attack after attack is something that appeals to you, then you have found a home. If I could rename Hellcatt, I would find some variation on Firedancer, since that is the best description of how she plays. When it is all working, it is poetry to watch. When it fails, it fails spectacularly.

Why is this build different from Snakebit's?:

As I said, I admire Snakebit's guide, but I found it to be too one dimensional for me. Blapping is fun fun fun, but there are many situations that require finesse. I wanted a build that gives me the most tactical options for any situation that arises. So in the end, I chose a combination that can fill the following roles:

1) Hover blast - Hover just out of reach of the enemies while shooting bolts and AoEs down on them from above
2) Blapping - Dance through large groups dishing out damage to everything you get near
3) Stealth AOE attack - Place yourself precisely to damage and kill the maximum number of enemies from safety
4) Snipe - Distance single target attack to remove a specific enemy quickly
5) Nuke - Maximum damage single attack that will eliminate all minions and Lieutenants in a wide circle
6) Hold and Blast - Use a single target hold to lock down a single enemy while you use multiple attacks

So let's look at the build:

Here are the powers and level progression to use. For the most part, I followed this although some powers (like Blazing Aura and Hot feet) I recently respeced into. The progression is purposeful, with the intent of giving the ability to execute one of the above roles at specific levels. The idea is that you will be effective at all levels while you grow, and each new "tier" will give you access to a new tactical option.

01) --> Fire Blast
01) --> Ring of Fire
02) --> Fire Ball
04) --> Fire Sword
06) --> Hover
08) --> Fire Breath
10) --> Swift
12) --> Aim
14) --> Fly
16) --> Build Up
18) --> Health
20) --> Stamina
22) --> Hasten
24) --> Blaze
26) --> Blazing Bolt
28) --> Fire Sword Circle
30) --> Consume
32) --> Inferno
35) --> Blazing Aura
38) --> Hot Feet
41) --> Char
44) --> Fire Shield
47) --> Rise of the Phoenix
49) --> Recall Friend

It used to be that once you reached a level, then how you put the build together during a respec was irrelevant. However, with the structure of the I9 recipe and salvage drops, the attraction of doing taskforces has increased. When you play on a taskforce you will be automatically exemplared down to the top level of the TF. For example, doing Positron will make you level 15 for the duration of the TF. This means that how you build up over the levels, even during a respec, is very important. This build is designed to give you specific capabilities at levels 15, 20, 25, 28, 32, 38, 45 and 50. Each of these levels represents a tier at which you will have access to a set of capabilities that will allow you to excel. Later, when you look at the IO set choices, you will see that they also have been selected to allow you to be successful on TFs.

Tier 1 - AOEs, supported by Fly, Blast and Fire Sword

01) --> Fire Blast
01) --> Ring of Fire
02) --> Fire Ball
04) --> Fire Sword
06) --> Hover
08) --> Fire Breath
10) --> Swift
12) --> Aim
14) --> Fly

This tier is designed to let you do the Positron TF. You have stealth (from your Fly power, see the IO sets later), as well as 2 AOEs and 2 single target attacks. You also have Aim (with its Acc and Damage boost) and a single target immobilize. This set gives you a lot of damage potential early in the build, which will help you as you level and when you Ex down to do Positron. Note that there is one anomaly in that you take swift at 10. This is done to allow you to take Build Up at the first opportunity, while still getting Stamina at 20.

Tier 2 - Add in Stamina and Build Up

16) --> Build Up
18) --> Health
20) --> Stamina

The next tier gives you additional power in all of your attacks, plus reducing the endurance burden across the board. Doing the Synapse TF will be easier, especially since without Stamina the endurance issues are even more pronounced against Clockwork.

Tier 3 - Add Haste and Blaze

22) --> Hasten
24) --> Blaze

This tier gives you another important underlying power in Haste. One of the critical goals of this build is to reduce the recharge time on your powers. You don't just want them to be powerful, but you want them to be usable over and over in quick succession to allow you to keep dishing out the damage. Haste is your key for doing that, with its 60% increase if the recycle rate on your powers. Later, when all the IOs are in place, you will be getting over a 100% increase in recycle time. Blaze is also important. While it is a short range power, the I8 increase in its range puts it outside the perception range of your stealth. You now have the ability to snipe. Simply fly or run into range, hit Aim and Build up, then hit Blaze. If your target survives you can follow with an AOE or Fire Blast. Blaze also has a short recycle time. You will find you use it more than Fire Blast, since it is almost always up, you are almost always in range, and it does a lot more damage.

Tier 4 - Complete your Snipe and Blapping abilities

26) --> Blazing Bolt
28) --> Fire Sword Circle

With the addition of Bolt and FSC, you complete two of your tactical options. Combining Bolt and Blaze will take out almost all single targets. Either run or hover within range of your target. Hit Aim and Build Up then fire your Bolt. Any minion will be killed by the Bolt. If it is a Lieutenant, then you follow with Blaze to finish it off. You will usually have enough time left on the Aim and Build up to use one additional power, such as Fireball, before they expire. FSC completes the blapping option for you. Prior to this, Firebreath and Fireball were both good at meeting this tactical need. FSC makes it a devastating attack. Hit Aim and Build up, run into the crowd. Use FSC to attack everything around you and target the closest enemy while it is animating. Then shoot a Fireball, which will give a second attack to everything around you. Anything left alive can either be taken down with Blaze/Blast/Fire Sword, or you can back up and use Firebreath (this tends to group things conveniently for your cone). An alternative is to target something in the back, hit Firebreath, run up until you stop to attack, then continue into the pack to use FSC and Fireball.

Tier 5 - Nukes

30) --> Consume
32) --> Inferno

Ah Inferno. Your signature attack, the one that teams will change tactics just to let you use it more effectively. I've had tankers start running around trying to herd multiple groups into tight formations just by saying "Inferno's up". You hit everything in a wide ring with multiple fire attacks totaling about 800 damage. Anything still alive will be set on fire and will usually die a few seconds later. Using Aim and Build up, you will take out all of the minions and Lieutenants. The downside is that it will leave you without any endurance and unable to naturally recover any for a few seconds. This is where Consume comes into play (and is an example of why this primary and secondary work so well together). You use an endurance inspiration to get a little bit of endurance back, make sure you have 3 living enemies near you, then hit Consume. You will now have a full endurance bar and can use your blapping attacks.

Tier 6 - Extra Blapping with a Slow

35) --> Blazing Aura
38) --> Hot Feet

Yes I know, everyone thinks these two powers suck. They are wrong. You want these because they improve the blapping, especially with large groups. So a couple numbers. At level 50 Hellcatt will do 11 and 14 points of damage to everything around her every 2 seconds. With Build up and Aim, this goes even higher. This damage adds up quickly.
The most effective way to use them is to turn them both on. Hit Aim and Build up, run into the mob and hit FSC. If anything is left alive (unlikely) a Fireball will finish the job. They also have the advantage of reducing the aggro that you get from hitting so many things at the same time. When the mobs try to close to melee range, Hot feet hits them with a fear and they try to run away. But they are slowed while doing it, giving you more time to attack them, and a few more ticks from these powers.

Tier 7 - Single target hold and finally some damage mitigation

41) --> Char
44) --> Fire Shield

You will love Char. Up until this point, there are some annoying enemies to deal with, like the Ritki Mentalists. These Lieutenants are always Mezzing you and making things generally difficult. With Char, you will fly in, put a hold on them, then either kill it at your leisure, or take care of the rest of the group using your other tactics. In a group, you will be able to hold some of the bosses when your hold stacks with others being used. Fire Shield gives you damage mitigation after 44 levels of grabbing all the aggro and trying to kill them before they kill you. But in all honesty, when you make it to level 44, your instincts will be so keen that you will often forget to turn it on. It is very helpful for some of the high damage bosses, like Fake Nemesis. With it on you will be able to trade attacks back and forth and win the battle.

Tier 8 - You get a Rez and a convenience

47) --> Rise of the Phoenix
49) --> Recall Friend

These last two powers are completely optional. Rise of the Phoenix is useful in that if you are out of endurance and getting pounded, you can choose to die and then use this power to attack everything with it. I find that I can usually finish the mob off after using ROP. Recall friend is a convenience to allow me to get people to the mission door faster. You can choose from among the skipped powers if you like, something like Rain of Fire or Combustion. Or you could choose a pool power like Superspeed.

Macros and Binds:

Before getting into the powers, lets look at a few macros and binds that make life easier.

F "powexec_name Sprint$$powexec_name Hover$$powexec_name Fly"
CTRL+F "powexec_name Fly$$powexec_name Hover$$powexec_name Sprint"

These two binds work to toggle your flight powers. Hitting the F key will turn off Sprint and put you in Fly. Continuing it hit F will toggle between Fly and Hover. Ctrl-F will drop you out of flight to the ground with Sprint active. Being able to get into flight quickly and toggle between fly and hover is important. With the I9 IOs, it is even more important. As you will see, you have an Accuracy boost tied to Hover and Stealth tied to Fly. Even if you are attacking from the ground, you will want to hit "F" twice and then "Ctrl-F" to make sure Freebird: Stealth and Kismet: Accuracy are active prior to attacking. Each of them last for 2 minutes after you shut off the slotted powers.

RBUTTON "+forward$$+mouse_look"
SHIFT+RBUTTON "+backward$$+mouse_look"
ALT+RBUTTON "-mouse_look"

This Bind is out of the Bind guide and I love it. Hold down the right mouse button and you run forward. Move your mouse while running and you turn. Hold down the shift key and you will run backwards. Hold down the alt key and right click on something to get the typical right click features (power info for example). I have literally quit other games because I don't have this feature, I like it that much.

Macro Auto "Powexec_auto Hasten"

Once you get Haste at 22 you will want it running as much as possible. With all the action it is easy to forget to turn it on when available. This macro will turn it on in Auto mode so it will automatically run when it is available. No more worrying, just turn it on and forget it.

Issue 9 and Enhancement Sets:

When you start to look through the build, you will notice several powers that are not slotted they way it was done previously. For example, 5 slots on Health? What's up with that? The reason is that this build is optimized to make maximum use of IO enhancement sets. These are slotable enhancements that give bonuses the more IOs from the set you use.

Note that IO levels work differently than Single Origin levels. A lower level IO will never expire, but it also doesnt give as big of a bonus. However, unlike SOs, when you exemplar down below the level of the IO, you lose the benefit of the IO, even if you can still use the power. For this reason, the selection of the IO levels for your powers is important. Some IOs that give unique bonuses, like Stealth, should be created at the lowest practical level and slotted into powers that can be used at lower levels. This insures that important capabilities are always available to you.

This build's primary focus is to increase recharge time. My contention is that the Triple Fire is most effective when dealing out damage, and the faster powers are available, the faster that can be done. You want as often as possible for every tactical option discussed above to be available to you. For example, if you just blapped, but one Lieutenant is still alive you want to be able to choose to stun it and take your time, or use Blast or Blaze. But if a Lieutenant and a boss are alive, you might want to be able to stun the Lieutenant and focus on the boss instead. The point is that with fast recharge time, all of these options are available. The secondary goal is to help with endurance recovery. Even with Stamina, you will use up endurance fast, especially with Blazing Aura and Hot Feet running. These sets will give you recovery bonuses that help tremendously.

Let's take a look at the significant bonuses that the sets will give, once fully slotted.

Properties Modifications
Health +9.77%
Endurance +4.50%
Recharge -42.50%
Acc (powers) +35.00%
Acc (ToHit) +6.00%
Regeneration +23.80%
Recovery +24.00%
Stealth

Take some time considering these. With Haste running, you get over 100% increase in recharge time, not including the bonuses to the powers that the sets give. You will get 24% bonus to recovery over what you get with Stamina, for a total of 3.31 endurance per second recovery (vs. the 2.67 with Stamina alone). All powers get a 35% accuracy bonus and you get a personal 6% tohit bonus, on top of the accuracy enhancements the sets give to the powers themselves. You get close to 10% more hit points and you get 5 more endurance points. Finally, you are regenerating health 24% faster on top of the bonus you are getting from the health power.

Enough talk! Show us the build!:

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Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
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Name: Hellcatt
Level: 50
Archetype: Blaster
Primary: Fire Blast
Secondary: Fire Manipulation
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Notes:
- The IO Sets identified include the level of the IO [xx] in addition to the level at which the slot is added (xx)
- Bonuses are calculated for all IOs active, as well as the bonus received if exemplared below the maximum IO level. Obviously, if exemplared below the minimum level of the set, there is no bonus received.
- Set effects are based on the number of different set IOs slotted. Full use of the set bonuses can't be realized until slots are available and set IOs are placed.

01) --> Fire Blast
* Decimation: [25]Accuracy/Damage (1)
* Decimation: [25]Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge (3)
* Decimation: [25]Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (36)
* Decimation: [40]Damage/Endurance (46)
* Decimation: [40]Damage/Recharge (48)

Standrd Bonuses: Dam 84.2%, Acc 52.0%, End 40.1%, Rcg 56.1%
Ex(40-) Bonuses: Dam 36.0%, Acc 52.0%, End 16.0%, Rcg 32.0%

(2) Reduces the duration of immobilize effects on you by 2.75%
(3) Increases maximum health by 1.13%
(4) Increases maximum Endurance by 2.25%
(5) Improves the Recharge Time of all of your powers by 6.25%

Notes: Fire Blast is the first attack you will take and you will use it your entire career. It is decently powerful and has your best range, equaling Fireball. Only Blazing Bolt has more range. Using Build up and Aim at level 50 it will hit for 130+ of damage, so it is quite useful. The Decimation package doesn't give important bonuses until you can get 3 of them slotted. You won't have the 3rd slot available until level 36, so filling in this set is optional until then. Using one Acc and filling the rest with Damage single origins or IOs prior to that point is recommended. Note that decimation is available if you Ex down to level 40, and most of the benefit other than damage if you Ex down to 25. The reason to allow limited damage at lower levels is that this power is mostly a finishing move against runners, you want it to hit, but you don't usually care for how much.

01) --> Ring of Fire
* Accuracy(1)

Notes: A single target immobilize that you have to take at level 1. Not powerful enough to justify adding slots to it (especially after I9) but useful throughout your career. I find I still use it at level 50 on things that would be troubling if they got into melee range, like Carnie Strongmen.

02) --> Fire Ball
* Positron's Blast: [20]Accuracy/Damage (2)
* Positron's Blast: [20]Damage/Endurance (3)
* Positron's Blast: [20]Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (5)
* Positron's Blast: [50]Damage/Range (37)
* Positron's Blast: [50]Damage/Recharge (40)

Standrd Bonuses: Dam 97.8%, Acc 28.8%, End 28.8%, Rcg 26.5%, Rng 26.5%
Ex(50-) Bonuses: Dam 44.8%, Acc 28.8%, End 28.8%

(2) Improves your Recovery by 2.5%
(3) Increases Fire and Cold resistance by 1.58%
(4) Improves the accuracy of all of your powers by 9%
(5) Improves the Recharge Time of all of your powers by 6.25%

Notes: The staple of your offense and a defining power for the set. It does good damage against a wide ring of enemies. Useful for range, hover blast and blapping. Positrons Blast is an excellent set for both of your AOE powers, giving excellent recovery, accuracy and recharge bonuses. Note that even using 3 level 20 IOs, you still get very close to the damage maximum, with nice bonuses in accuracy, endurance usage, range and recharge. You will take a hit to your damage bonuses when Exed, though.

04) --> Fire Sword
* Crushing Impact: [30]Accuracy/Damage (4)
* Crushing Impact: [30]Damage/Endurance (5)
* Crushing Impact: [30]Damage/Recharge (36)
* Crushing Impact: [30]Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (46)
* Crushing Impact: [50]Damage/Endurance/Recharge (48)

Standrd Bonuses: Dam 104.0%, Acc 39.2%, End 43.0%, Rcg 56.6%
Ex(50-) Bonuses: Dam 82.8%, Acc 39.2%, End 21.8%, Rcg 39.2%

(2) Reduces the duration of immobilize effects on you by 2.2%
(3) Increases maximum health by 1.13%
(4) Improves the accuracy of all of your powers by 7%
(5) Improves the Recharge Time of all of your powers by 5%

Notes: A very good single target melee attack. It has about the same damage as Fire Blast and I find myself using them interchangeably while blapping. Crushing Impact is a monster set for increasing damage. The accuracy and recharge bonuses are critical, of course, but look at that damage bonus using 4 level 30 IOs. When Exed above 30 but below 50 you should use this power as your single target attack instead of Fire Blast. Keep Blast for runners and use this to attack at melee range.

06) --> Hover
* Kismet: [15]Accuracy (6) (+6% ToHit)
* Kismet: [15]Defense/Endurance (6)
* Kismet: [15]Defense/Recharge (7)
* Fly (11)
* Fly (11)

Standrd Bonuses: Def 14.4%, End 12%, Rcg 12%

(2) Improves your Recovery by 1.5%
(3) Reduces the duration of Confuse effects on you by 1.65%

Notes: In my first plan for this build I planned to use 5 Kismet IOs for the extra 5% recharge. However, I was convinced that fly enhancements are a better idea, so have instead limited it to the 3 listed. Use of level 15 versions give lower defense, but make sure that the bonuses (especially the Accuracy bonus) are available even on the Positron TF. This power gives some defense, enough to notice it, and with the fly enhancements movement is tolerable. You will need to toggle between Hover and Fly to keep the Accuracy bonus and Stealth active.

08) --> Fire Breath
* Positron's Blast: [20]Accuracy/Damage (8)
* Positron's Blast: [20]Damage/Endurance (9)
* Positron's Blast: [20]Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (9)
* Positron's Blast: [50]Damage/Range (40)
* Positron's Blast: [50]Damage/Recharge (40)

Standrd Bonuses: Dam 97.8%, Acc 28.8%, End 28.8%, Rcg 26.5%, Rng 26.5%
Ex(50-) Bonuses: Dam 44.8%, Acc 28.8%, End 28.8%

(2) Improves your Recovery by 2.5%
(3) Increases Fire and Cold resistance by 1.58%
(4) Improves the accuracy of all of your powers by 9%
(5) Improves the Recharge Time of all of your powers by 6.25%

Notes: Your second AoE which does excellent damage in three ticks within a decent size cone (width and depth). Range is decent as well, though less that Fireball. The notes of Positrons Blast apply here as well, though Firebreath probably benefits from the range increase more than Fireball. Note that the effects of the sets are cumulative. With both powers slotted, you get 18% accuracy bonus to all of your powers, not just these two.

10) --> Swift
* Fly(10)

Notes: You have to take this or hurdle to get to Stamina. Because Swift can be slotted with Fly as well as Run, I prefer Swift over Hurdle for the flight speed bonus. Note that in the first I9 update they removed the ability to use IO sets in either Swift of Hurdle.

12) --> Aim
* Recharge Reduction(12)
* Recharge Reduction(13)
* Recharge Reduction(13)

Notes: A must have power. You want to get this as soon as available. It gives a decent bonus to damage for a short period. It gives an outstanding bonus to accuracy for the same period. Using this power and Build up prior to starting an attack is standard operating procedure.

14) --> Fly
* Freebird: [15]Stealth (14)
* Freebird: [50]Fly (15)
* Freebird: [15]Endurance (15)

Standrd Bonuses: Fly 75.4% (includes Swift bonus), End 19.2%, Stealth
Ex(50-) Bonuses: Fly 33.0% (includes Swift bonus), End 19.2%, Stealth

(2) Improves your Regeneration by 1.8%
(3) Increases maximum health by 1.5%

Notes: This is probably the biggest disagreement I have with the Snakebit guide. He doesnt see the need for flight, preferring to use Superspeed, especially since you need to take Haste. I think that Flight is the best travel power for its versatility and its tactical use for Hover-blasting. With the addition of the Freebird: Stealth IO, you also get Stealth without needing to take it from the Concealment Pool. Granted you can get the same bonus in SS and it does have the value of making you even stealthier. However, my opinion is that City of Heroes is a 3 dimensionally oriented game, and I see no reason to limit yourself to only 2 of them. Note that during I7, the accuracy debuff was removed on this power when using an attack while flying. However, flight speed is briefly suppressed after an attack. It is completely possible to fly in at full speed toward a target, trigger an attack during flight, and drift past the target, but still execute the attack, even Fire Sword. You can also use attacks like Fire Sword Circle while flying low to the ground, without having to drop out of flight mode.

16) --> Build Up
* Recharge Reduction(16)
* Recharge Reduction(17)
* Recharge Reduction(17)

Notes: Like Aim, this power is one of your most important. I strongly advocate taking this as soon as it is available, even with the need to take Swift earlier in your build. Combined with Aim, the damage you will do is phenomenal. For a short period of time, all of your damage powers will increase dramatically. At level 50, a single snipe using Build up and Aim will do 400 damage. You will use this power in preparation for all of your attacks, whether a snipe, ranged AOE, blapping or a nuke.

18) --> Health
* Miracle: [20]Recovery (18) (+15% recovery)
* Miracle: [20]Healing/Endurance (19)
* Miracle: [20]Healing/Recharge (19)
* Miracle: [20]Healing/Endurance/Recharge (25)
* Miracle: [20]Healing (25)

Standrd Bonuses: Heal 70.4%

(2) Improves your Recovery by 2.5%
(3) Increases maximum health by 1.88%
(4) Improves all of your healing powers by 5%
(5) Increases area effect defense by 1.88%

Notes: This power will increase your rate of health recovery. I personally find it to be less useful that other do, because Im either at full health because everything died first, or Im struggling to survive because I messed up and everything is attacking me. The point is that regeneration is of limited use to a Fire/Fire Blaster. However, with the slotting of the Miracle IO set, this power becomes more interesting. The most important are the first 2 IOs. By getting the Miracle: Recovery IO, you will get a 15% bonus to your endurance recovery. The second IO gives a set bonus that pushes this to 17.5%. Arguably, you can stop at 2 IOs and use the slots elsewhere. However, the 5% health bonus at 4 IOs is also attractive since it improves the value of Health and also your health recovery from Rise of the Phoenix. I prefer the use of the lowest level IOs here (level 20) to make sure this set is available when doing the Synapse TF and above. One important note, at this time Miracle: Recovery is a very sought after recipe. It is trading for 20 million influence at Wentworths. You will need to be lucky or rich to get this IO, and it is conceivable that you will have all other powers slotted before you get your hands on it. However, supply and demand will eventually lower this price. You can only use it once per character and as more people get it, the demand will reduce.

20) --> Stamina
* Endurance Modification(20)
* Endurance Modification(21)
* Endurance Modification(21)

Notes: This has always been arguably the best power in the game. I have always advocated getting this as soon as possible. I have neglected to do so once, and regretted it. When slotted with 3 endurance modifications it will increase your endurance recovery by 1 endurance point per second. Given how endurance hungry this build is, this power is vital.

22) --> Hasten
* Recharge Reduction(22)
* Recharge Reduction(23)
* Recharge Reduction(23)

Notes: This power increases the recharge rate on all of your powers by 60%+ for 2 minutes. With 3 recharge reductions, the powers recharge drops to 225 seconds, which is further reduced by Haste itself to 187 seconds. With the additional recharge rate enhancements from the IO sets this drops to about 160 seconds, giving you 2 minutes with it active and 40 seconds without. For 75% of the time, you will be able to use your powers twice as often, as long as you have endurance.

24) --> Blaze
* Decimation: [25]Chance for Buildup (24)
* Decimation: [25]Accuracy/Damage (27)
* Decimation: [25]Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge (31)
* Decimation: [25]Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (37)
* Decimation: [40]Damage/Endurance (42)
* Decimation: [40]Damage/Recharge (43)

Standrd Bonuses: Dam 84.2%, Acc 52.0%, End 40.1%, Rcg 56.1%
Ex(40-) Bonuses: Dam 36.0%, Acc 52.0%, End 16.0%, Rcg 32.0%

(2) Reduces the duration of immobilize effects on you by 2.75%
(3) Increases maximum health by 1.13%
(4) Increases maximum Endurance by 2.25%
(5) Improves the Recharge Time of all of your powers by 6.25%
(6) Increases Toxic and Psionic resistance by 1.58%

Notes: This is a high damage, short range single target attack. It does less damage than Blazing Bolt, but more than your other ranged attacks. It recharges quickly and will become a staple for your single target attacks. Anything left alive after your AoEs you will attack with Blaze first, and will reuse it as soon as it is available again. As mentioned, with the I8 increase to the range, it is now possible to use this attack while hidden by Stealth. The IO selection is the same for this power as for Fire Blast. The additional IO though is the Chance for Build up unique, which will occasionally execute a Build up on your attacks, in addition to the one you have available to you. Since you use Blaze earlier in the attack chain, it is better to put that IO in Blaze rather than Fire Blast, to allow the benefit to transfer to your other powers.

26) --> Blazing Bolt
* Sting of the Manticore: [35]Accuracy/Damage (26)
* Sting of the Manticore: [35]Damage/Endurance (27)
* Sting of the Manticore: [35]Accuracy/Interrupt/Range (34)
* Sting of the Manticore: [50]Damage/Interrupt/Recharge (37)
* Sting of the Manticore: [50]Damage/Endurance/Recharge (43)

Standrd Bonuses: Dam 88.2%, Acc 41.3%, End 44.1%, Rcg 42.4%, Rng 11.0%, Int 47.6%
Ex(50-) Bonuses: Dam 45.8%, Acc 41.3%, End 22.9%, Rcg 00.0%, Rng 11.0%, Int 22.1%

(2) Improves your Regeneration by 12%
(3) Increases Energy and Negative Energy defense by 0.95%
(4) Increases damage by 3%
(5) Improves the Recharge Time of all of your powers by 7.5%

Notes: This is your single target snipe. It does a lot of damage, but takes time to execute and will be interrupted if you take damage. As a result it is often used as an opening attack, and then ignored for the rest of the fight. There will be times, such as attacking an Arch Villain in a group where you can use it over and over. If you are in a position, such as hover blasting, where you are not going to take damage but need to output maximum damage, then you will use Blazing Bolt as often as it is available. Usually this means alternating between Firebreath, Blazing Bolt and Blaze, with Aim and Build up used as often as they are available.

28) --> Fire Sword Circle
* Scirocco's Dervish: [20]Accuracy/Recharge (28)
* Scirocco's Dervish: [20]Damage/Endurance (29)
* Scirocco's Dervish: [20]Damage/Recharge (29)
* Scirocco's Dervish: [50]Accuracy/Damage (43)
* Scirocco's Dervish: [50]Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (48)

Standrd Bonuses: Dam 79.7%, Acc 58.4%, End 37.2%, Rcg 32.0%
Ex(50-) Bonuses: Dam 32.0%, Acc 16.0%, End 16.0%, Rcg 32.0%

(2) Improves your Regeneration by 10%
(3) Increases Negative Energy resistance by 3.13%
(4) Improves the accuracy of all of your powers by 9%
(5) Increases area effect defense by 3.13%

Notes: This power is a player based area of effect (PBAoE) power. You do significant damage to all enemies within 10 feet of you, including a chance to set them on fire for time based damage. Using Aim and Build this power makes for an effective opening attack, followed by Fireball to finish. Later on, using Blazing Aura and Hot Feet, FSC alone will usually kill all the minions. The Sciroccos Dervish set gives a large bonus to regeneration along with another accuracy bonus that stacks with Positrons Blast. My recommended power level selection focuses on accuracy over damage, since this is a power you dont want to see miss. It is also viable to replace the level 20 Damage/Recharge with a single origin damage enhancement, since the critical accuracy set bonus is available with 4 IOs, thereby increasing damage when Exed.

30) --> Consume
* Recharge Reduction(30)
* Endurance Modification(31)
* Endurance Modification(31)

Notes: This power will slightly damage all enemies within 20 feet you, transferring endurance to you. With the slotting specified, you can fully recover all endurance hitting just 3 enemies. This power is most useful after using Inferno, if things are still alive. Using an endurance recovery inspiration gives you enough endurance to activate this power, giving you a full bar and the ability to continue the fight. With the recharge reduction enhancement, and the enhancements in Inferno, these two powers recharge at the same rate allowing you to always use it after using Inferno.

32) --> Inferno
* Recharge Reduction(32)
* Recharge Reduction(33)
* Recharge Reduction(33)
* Damage(33)
* Damage(34)
* Damage(34)

Notes: This is your nuke. It is the best nuke in the game since it does the highest damage and it does not do knockback. This tends to make the tankers like you a little better, since anything you dont kill will still be within their agro range. It can miss, so there will be times that you are standing there without any endurance, all of your toggles dropped, with a couple really angry enemies coming for you. This is especially true with bosses, since Inferno is rarely able to take them out (unlike Lieutenants and minions). With the recharge, Haste and the recharge rate bonuses, this power can be available every 90 seconds. It is not uncommon to be able to use Inferno on every other mob during team missions.

35) --> Blazing Aura
* End Reduction(35)
* End Reduction(36)

Notes: The much maligned Blazing Aura. Despite its reputation, it is a decent power. When you combine it with Hot Feet, you will do an unenhanced 25 points of damage every 2 seconds in a 10 foot radius. Note that this is the same radius as Fire Sword Circle, creating a nice synergy. Turning on Aura and Hot Feet, hitting Aim and Build up, then running into a crowd of minions to use FSC will generally result in everything being killed. Anything still hanging onto life will expire on the next tick. The biggest drawback to this power is the endurance usage. If you take any slots from other powers, I recommend adding a 3rd slot to this power with an Endurance reduction SO.

38) --> Hot Feet
* End Reduction(38)
* End Reduction(39)
* End Reduction(39)
* Slow(39)

Notes: Hot Feet is another maligned power that is better than its reputation. As mentioned with Blazing Aura, Hot Feet works well in conjunction with that power. Hot Feet adds three additional components. First it has a larger radius at 20 feet. Second, it slows everything in the radius. Finally, it has a fear component that makes everything try to run out of the radius. The benefits of these two powers together should be obvious. You are a blaster standing in the middle of a large group and you have just hit the entire group at the same time. You now have all the aggro on you, unless a tank can quickly pull it back. If you are also running Hot Feet and BA though, those very annoyed enemies are going to start running to get away from you, instead of trying to kill you. And they will be slowed while doing it, giving you ample opportunity to use Blaze or Fireball on them. Like Blazing Aura, this power is endurance hungry. Without the endurance enhancements, BA and Hot Feet together will consume half of your endurance recovery.

41) --> Char
* Neuronic Shutdown: [30]Endurance/Hold (41)
* Neuronic Shutdown: [30]Accuracy/Endurance (42)
* Neuronic Shutdown: [30]Hold/Range (42)
* Neuronic Shutdown: [30]Accuracy/Hold/Recharge (50)
* Neuronic Shutdown: [30]Chance for Psionic DoT (50)

Standrd Bonuses: Hold 54.1%, Acc 39.2%, End 43.6%, Rcg 17.4%, Rng 13.1%

(2) Reduces the duration of immobilize effects on you by 2.2%
(3) Increases maximum health by 1.5%
(4) Improves the accuracy of all of your powers by 5%
(5) Improves the duration of your Hold effects by 2%

Notes: Char is a single target hold with a nice duration. Finally, a power that lets you lock things down, instead of making you kill them faster than they can kill you. It is amazing the number of tactical situations that this power makes easier for you. You can lock down a Lieutenant, before dealing with the minions. Another tactic, if you have a group with a minion and a Lieutenant, is to snipe the minion for a single shot kill, then hit the Lieutenant with the hold to allow you to take it out in safety. Flying in fast and hitting with a hold is another useful tactic. Anytime you have a group that has one particularly troublesome member, Char is the easy answer. Note that the hold is not sufficient magnitude to hold a boss, however, with all of your recharge augmentations, it will come back up before the first Char has worn off. Using it a second time will often hold a boss, and you can keep him held if you keep reapplying it. The IO set recommended, Neuronic Shutdown is a hold set that gives an accuracy and hold bonus when fully slotted. Note that there is no need to worry about using lower level IOs in this set, since if you Ex below level 41, you loose access to the power anyway.

44) --> Fire Shield
* Impervious Skin: [30]Resistance/Endurance (44)
* Impervious Skin: [30]Resistance/Recharge (45)
* Impervious Skin: [30]Endurance/Recharge (45)
* Impervious Skin: [30]Resistance/Endurance/Recharge (45)
* Impervious Skin: [30]Status Resistance (46) (30% reduction to status effects)

Standrd Bonuses: Res 36.7%, End 61.0%, Rcg 61.0%

(2) Reduces the duration of Sleep effects on you by 2.2%
(3) Increases maximum health by 1.5%
(4) Grants 2% debt protection.
(5) Improves the Recharge Time of all of your powers by 5%

Notes: Finally, after 44 levels you get some damage mitigation. This is a good one, too. Fire Shield is the same power that Fire Tankers get at a low level, and it gives nice protection against lethal/smash, good against fire and ok against cold. Note that this is resistance, not defense. You will still get hit, but for less damage. Given that you are trying to out damage the enemies, this can be a life saver. The biggest problem you will have with it is forgetting to turn in on after using Inferno. The Impervious Skin IO set gives a decent boost to the resistances along with an important reduction in endurance usage. The big bonus from this set is the Status Resistance unique that reduces all status effects (Hold, Immobilize, Fear, etc) by 30%. Given that you really dont have any status protection, this is a great bonus. The use of 5 IOs in the set also gives a 5% bonus on recharge time, the primary goal of the build. Like char, there is no need for lower level IOs, since you lose this power when Exed below level 44.

47) --> Rise of the Phoenix
* Recharge Reduction(47)
* Healing(50)

Notes: A personal resurrection power that heals you, damages all enemies around you and leaves them disoriented. If you wait for Inferno to recharge, you will have plenty of time to rez, then hit the mob with it. There are times that I will allow myself to be killed, just so I get a second shot at the mob that killed me. This is another power that could use more slots in it, if you pull them from elsewhere. Note also that as a healing power, you can put something like Numina: Convalescence into it for a combination of regeneration and recovery. At this time, I am unsure if you can use the Numina and Miracle IOs at the same time.

49) --> Recall Friend
* Recharge Reduction(49)

Notes: Recalls a teammate to your location. I have taken it as a convenience, and there are other choices that may work for you. Note that by taking it at 49, Im not giving myself access to it on most of the Task Forces. There are times, especially on Positron, where it would come in handy.

Set Bonus Totals:

When you add up all the bonuses you get from these sets, the totals are impressive. Below is the complete bonus you will get from the sets once the build is complete. These do not take into account bonuses from the IO directly to the power, or other powers that provide additional enhancements (like Haste and Health).

Properties Modifications
Health +9.77%
Endurance +4.50%
Debt -2.00%
Recharge -42.50%
Hold Duration +2.00%
Acc (powers) +35.00%
Acc (ToHit) +6.00%
Damage +3.00%
Regeneration +23.80%
Recovery +24.00%

Status Durations (self)
Sleep -32.20%
Immobilize -39.90%
Confuse -31.65%
Hold -30.00%
Disorient -30.00%
Fear -30.00%

Resistances
Fire +3.16%
Cold +3.16%
Neg +4.08%
Energy +0.95%
Toxic +1.58%
Psionic +1.58%
Area effect +5.01%

What about the other powers?:

So some notes regarding the powers I didnt take. I have actually had all of these powers in my build at one point or another. But after having played with many different configurations on Test, Ive chosen to drop these 4.

Flares: Ive used this on a Hover-blaster build, and the range is decent. But the damage isnt enough to warrant taking it, especially since Blaze and Fire Blast have fast recharge times. One of those single target attacks will always be available.

Rain of Fire: I like the synergy of this power with Blazing Aura and Hot Feet. However, I found that the mechanism for using it, selecting a ground target, was too cumbersome and disrupted the flow of the fight. Once you are engaged, you are going to be pressing keys continuously. Stopping in the middle to switch to the mouse to target a spot is too intrusive. If this worked the way Burn does, then I might reconsider.

Combustion: I stopped using this power because I found it to be unnecessary. It is a second PBAoE, but the damage comes over time, rather than all at once. I was finding the battles were over before I got to this point in my attack chain. It does about the same damage as Fireball and half the damage of FSC. However, you can use Fireball 2 or 3 times in the time it takes Combustion to do its work. If you do take it, I recommend using it as an opening attack, followed by FSC and the rest of your attack chain.

Burn: This is a power that has a lot of potential, but doesnt quite work right. First of all, the burn patch is a pet so doesnt get any damage benefits from Aim and Build up. Second it is short duration. If it lasted a little longer I would consider it, but the 8 second duration doesnt make it worthwhile, in my opinion. If they switched the activation mechanisms between Rain of Fire and Burn I might reconsider them both.

Bonfire: A targeted AoE that does knockback for everything within a 10 foot circle. This is the one exception, in that Ive never used this power. I tend to avoid things that do knockback, since I know they annoy Tanks. If I get another respec I might try it out to see how it does.

Conclusion:

This is version 1.0 of this guide, so I dont expect that people will agree with all of my points. I know my opinions on Hover/Fly/Superspeed are generally not the sense of the community. However, I have played this build for a long time, and I can attest that it work, it works well, and you will enjoy playing it.

As of the writing, I have slotted 25 of the 57 IOs that I specify above. So Im only seeing about half of the potential of the IO build. But even halfway there I am seeing a noticeable increase in my effectiveness. If you like to do damage, you will love this build.

HotButteredSoul · 05-15-2007 10:16 AM

Peg...

Ive seen your picture...
Your name in lights above it....

Er... ahem.. excuse me.

I have the pleasure of being the first to say: GREAT guide. One reason I love it: it embraces the idea of the AoE blapper. A character that requires guts, moxie, brazenness, and a fearless demeanor.

Some thoughts:
1) how much damage does blazing aura end up doing for you? Have you run hero stats on a few missions and checked the ratio on what powers do what % of your damage?

2) There is a great synergy between Ring of Fire and Burn. I bet Hot Feet + Burn is rather cool too... but I have yet to try that. Same goes for Char + Burn.

3) Combustion is a great choice for /Fire Manipulation blasters who don't go with the Fire/ primary and want more AoE non-cone based attacks. For instance, I have a 35 Sonic/Fire and I use Combustion on every mob. Obviously not a factor for the F³. But people who are interested in non-Fire/Fire builds will still check out this guide (if they're smart!! )

4) AoE blappers are fantastic on teams. Tanks, controllers, and defenders can make you a Goddess or God.

5) I have nothing against hover. I love it. However, due to my commitment to nimble dancing I went with hurdle/Combat Jumping/Acrobatics and have been incredibly satisfied.

Congrats on a wonderful guide.

Peg_on_Justice · 05-15-2007 10:40 AM

Thank you I appreciate the comments (and the Steely Dan reference )

I couple thoughts on your thoughts...

1) I don't use herostats so can't really answer this question, except subjectively. Before I started using BA and HF, I would buff up, run in, use FSC, then use Fireball, then sometimes have to finish with Firebreath. Now that I use the two toggles, most things die after the FSC. So they add up to about the power of Fireball executed during the same time FSC is executing (and faster is always better for this build!)

2) My problem is Burn is that it is short and it doesn't move. If I had a choice between the two, I would probably take Ring of Fire because it lasts so long. Maybe I could come to love it if I could target the location, but I've never felt comfortable with it. Believe me, I have tried, oh how I have tried.

3) I don't want to indicate that I think combustion is bad. I know lots of people use it and love it. If you are looking at the fire secondary, then you should consider it. It just never worked for me, given the fire primary. I realized one day that I had gone a week without hitting the "3" key to use it and decided it needed to get out of my build.

4) Yes. Getting from 46 to 50, I was playing on 8 person teams and leveling in a number of hours. The XP production from your ability to wipe out large spawns quickly is amazing.

5) I know the Hover/Fly is something most people disagree with. I'm trying to acknowledge that I don't have all the answers. But it fits my personal style much better. I also find that Hover-blast is a very useful tactic, that I use all the time. Against Fake Nemesis, it is my prefered choice. Often I will blab the entire mob, then fly up to take out the Nem from above.

None of this should be taken as criticism. There are many viable ways to approach this build. This is just the one that has worked the best for me (after 6 respecs lol).

HotButteredSoul · 05-15-2007 10:48 AM

Well I'm going to go and try a respec build with Blazing Aura, then. I had originally planned to take it at 26, but went with my single target disorient instead (again.. being Sonic/). Maybe I'll take it instead of Burn

I'd be interested in some numbers. Maybe later I'll post some here.

And no worries Peg. Discussions of alternatives would never be taken as criticism. Alternatives make life fun and interesting.

Speaking of which: Unicycle Peon (Lewis) mentioned he'd like to see guides incorporate SO slotting for those of us who don't embrace IOs. Would be useful to some if you're up for it.

Peg_on_Justice · 05-15-2007 11:00 AM

Yeah, I thought about giving a non IO version of this. But I was ready with the IO version and people have been clamoring to understand how IOs affect their builds.

I'll probably try to come up with an additional Build section that looks at SO slotting only, since I made it to Level 50 using SOs, I *should* be competent to answer that question . Will be a couple days though.

HotButteredSoul · 05-15-2007 10:49 PM

Hi Peg!

I hope you don't mind if I add some information from some tests I ran on test tonight (I9) with a level 50 Fire/Fire blaster. I tried all of the attacks out to see what damage they'd do. Some interesting results are below. None of the attacks were slotted for damage. Enjoy:

Brawl = 20.14 Smashing Damage = 0.36 DS

Fire Blast:
1) Flares - 39.96 Fire Damage + 16.77 Fire Damage = 56.73 = 1.02 DS

2) Fire Blast - 55.91 Fire Damage + 8.38 Fire Damage (1-4 times) = 1.0 DS + up to around another 0.5 DS

3) Fire Ball - 11.17 Smash + 39.13 Fire + 8.38 Fire (up to 3 times) = 0.9 DS + up to almost another 0.5 DS

4) Rain of Fire - Based on the number of hitpoints an enemy had left after the rain, 113.97 total fire damage = 2.0 DS

5) Fire Breath - 32.71 * 3 Fire Damage = 98.13 = 1.76 DS

6) Blaze - 118.69 Fire Damage + 12.59 * some Fire = 2.13 DS + up to around 1.0 DS

7) Blazing Bolt - 154.32 Fire + 12.57 * some Fire = 2.775 DS + up to around 1.0 DS

8) Inferno - 42.49 Smashing Damage + 102.88 Fire Damage + 77.16 Fire Damage + 15.42 * 9 Fire Damage when I tried it... results may very. = 6.5 DS

Fire Manipulation
1) Ring of Fire - 12.29 * 7 Fire = 86.03 = 1.55 DS

2) Fire Sword - 55.91 Lethal + 53.67 Fire = 109.58 = 2.0 DS

3) Combustion - 27.95 Fire + 5.58 * 10 Fire = 83.75 = 1.5 DS

4) Fire Sword Circle - 43.33 Lethal + 43.33 Fire + up to 3 * 5.58 Fire = 1.56 DS + up to 0.3 DS

5) Blazing Aura - 11.17 fire per tick = 0.2 DS per tick

6) Consume - 22.36 Fire = 0.4 DS

7) Burn - Based on the number of hitpoints an enemy had left after the burn - 168.97 Fire Damage = 3.0 DS

8) Hot Feet - 14.04 fire per tick = 0.25 DS per tick

Interesting stuff.

* Combustion does almost the same damage as Fire Sword Circle. It's a longer cast time and much of it's damage is DoT. However, Combustion is all fire damage, whereas FSC is lethal + fire, making it not only more resisted, but lethal defense will defend against FSC and not Combustion.

* If you're working with someone who can immobilize mobs, Burn + Rain of Fire will do excellent damage!

* Also, buffs do help Burn and Rain of Fire. I tried Aim + Build Up and my Burn did much more damage. From the 6/6/06 patch notes: [ QUOTE ]
Many Location based powers (Such as Rain of Fire and Blizzard) can now be affected by the casters Buffs (for example, using Build Up will now increase the damage of Blizzard).

[/ QUOTE ]

Hope this extra info helps!

Peg_on_Justice · 05-16-2007 07:35 AM

Hmm, good info!

Nothing that really changes my mind, other than Consume and FSC is a harder choice (but I never thought Consume was a BAD choice).

Given how I think, I would keep my choices from a tactical perspective, rather than a damage one. But like I said earlier, I highly encourage people to find combinations that work for them. I based a lot of my thinking on Snakebit's guide, but I deviated considerably for my own purposes.

So thoughts on these damage numbers:

FSC vs Combustion - The all fire aspect does work both ways, there are some (less) enemies that are harder to take down with fire, so the lethal damage can be a plus in some situations. My big problem with combustion is still the time it takes. 10 ticks is a long time to a triple fire. I find that if the mob isn't dead by the time I'm launching my third attack, then I am in trouble. But this is an issue for the F^3, not the fire secondary. Lots of damage, drawing lots of aggro, that needs to finish the fight fast.

Rain of Fire - Totally agree, if you have a controller with you to immobilze, ROF will do very nice damage. I still don't like the activation mechanism, since it disrupts the flow of the fight.

Burn - Good additional info! If I can get another respec (probably I10 lol) I'll try it out on Test, dropping recall friend. It might make for a good finishing move after FSC and Fireball, or even an opening. That would eliminate the 8 second problem, since I'd only be using it like FSC.

HotButteredSoul · 05-16-2007 07:44 AM

Definitely things to consider. I wholehearted agree with you, however: style is the main decision maker as far as power choices are concerned. I think your reasoning is great and would never ask you to change your style.

For readers of your guide, they might like to try some different things. Though fire's focus is damage, it does afford some flexibility as to how you do that damage.

Thanks again for the guide, Peg! You're awesome.

NetMinder · 05-16-2007 12:42 PM

Nice guide, shame I disagree with alot of it. And yes, i have a fire/fire/fire L50.

IOs: Yeah nice bonus, if you can pony up to 100M to buy all of them. Good ideal scenario, but perhaps some of the lesser IO sets should be included as well as basic IO slotting.

Blapping: Why? Fire/* is the ranged AoE king. Blazing Aura is just a heavy end suck and Hot Feet tends to cause fleeing which places them out of FSC range. Fire Sword and Air Sup are far more effective weapons. Most blappers work because they have good status effects, /Fire/ does not have that. Hot Feet, Blazing Aura, Fire Shield.... there goes your end. Stamina and IOs only go so far.

FireBreath and the Centrole..... buttah!
Centroles are the much maligned HO for Dam/Range. Cones get very very nasty as you extend thier range. The 40ft 30deg cone goes from 923sqft of coverage to 2291sqft of pain when extended to 63 ft (3 HO/SO even range boost of 56.5%) almost 250% the coverage. Thats area effect. Dump the IOs and buy centroles on the cheap. Kinda makes FireBalls 706sqft of damage look really bad... and FSCs 314sqft really bad. (Firebreath is only 90% the damage of FSC but 8x the coverage)

Health: Wasted slots. The last 2 set bonuses are not very useful. Dont waste slots just to get set powers you dont need.

There's more but I digress. Your guide is quite complete but IMHO doesnt focus enough on what fire/fire/fire is all about: ranged damage.

Tanker Tuesday #72 Oct 5 @Champion

"I am not sure if my portrayal of being insane is accurate, but damn its fun all the same."

Peg_on_Justice · 05-16-2007 12:51 PM

[ QUOTE ]
There's more but I digress. Your guide is quite complete but IMHO doesnt focus enough on what fire/fire/fire is all about: ranged damage.

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess we will have to agree to disagree then. I'm sure they would be happy to have an IO version of a ranged guide, though.

As for 100M in influence? Not even close, I have half of these sets complete right now, including both Positron for around 10M influence. Please don't try to scare people off from planning to use sets. It is really not that hard to get what you want, and I've only been working on it for a week now.

PS - You must have missed the part where I recommend being a ranged AoE blaster for 28 levels

Peg_on_Justice · 05-16-2007 12:58 PM

Since it was mentioned, here is a quick build that uses only SOs and pretends that all of the IO silliness was just a bad dream. I have not put anywhere near the thought into it that I have the IO version, so your mileage may vary.

---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder - (http://sherksilver.coldfront.net/index.php)
---------------------------------------------
Name: Hellcatt non-IO
Level: 50
Archetype: Blaster
Primary: Fire Blast
Secondary: Fire Manipulation
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Fire Blast==> Acc(1) Dmg(3) Dmg(11) Dmg(40) Rechg(46)
01) --> Ring of Fire==> Acc(1)
02) --> Fire Ball==> Acc(2) Dmg(3) Dmg(5) Dmg(31) Rechg(43)
04) --> Fire Sword==> Acc(4) Dmg(5) Dmg(11) Dmg(40) Rechg(46)
06) --> Hover==> Fly(6) DefBuf(7) DefBuf(7)
08) --> Fire Breath==> Acc(8) Dmg(9) Dmg(9) Dmg(34) Rechg(46)
10) --> Swift==> Run(10)
12) --> Aim==> Rechg(12) Rechg(13) Rechg(13)
14) --> Fly==> Fly(14) Fly(15) Fly(15)
16) --> Build Up==> Rechg(16) Rechg(17) Rechg(17)
18) --> Health==> Heal(18) Heal(19) Heal(19)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20) EndMod(21) EndMod(21)
22) --> Hasten==> Rechg(22) Rechg(23) Rechg(23)
24) --> Blaze==> Acc(24) Dmg(25) Dmg(25) Dmg(37) Rechg(43)
26) --> Blazing Bolt==> Acc(26) Dmg(27) Dmg(27) Dmg(36) Rechg(43)
28) --> Fire Sword Circle==> Acc(28) Dmg(29) Dmg(29) Dmg(37) Rechg(40)
30) --> Consume==> Rechg(30) EndMod(31) EndMod(31) EndMod(37)
32) --> Inferno==> Rechg(32) Rechg(33) Rechg(33) Dmg(33) Dmg(34) Dmg(34)
35) --> Blazing Aura==> EndRdx(35) EndRdx(36) EndRdx(36)
38) --> Hot Feet==> EndRdx(38) EndRdx(39) EndRdx(39) Slow(39)
41) --> Char==> Acc(41) Hold(42) Hold(42) Hold(42) Rechg(48)
44) --> Fire Shield==> DmgRes(44) DmgRes(45) DmgRes(45) EndRdx(45)
47) --> Rise of the Phoenix==> Rechg(47) Heal(48) EndMod(48) Rechg(50) Heal(50) EndMod(50)
49) --> Recall Friend==> Rechg(49)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Run(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Defiance==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Rechg(2)
---------------------------------------------

StratoNexus · 05-16-2007 03:20 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Rain of Fire - Totally agree, if you have a controller with you to immobilze, ROF will do very nice damage. I still don't like the activation mechanism, since it disrupts the flow of the fight.

[/ QUOTE ]
Try this bind for Rain of Fire, I use one like it for Rain of Arrows and Freezing Rain on other toons I have.

/bind lshift+click "powexec_name Rain of Fire"

This allows you to just hold down the left shift button and click, and the power activates.

Why Blasters? Empathy Sucks.
So, you want to be Mental?
What the hell? Let's buff defenders.
Tactics are for those who do not have a big enough hammer. Wisdom is knowing how big your hammer is.

HotButteredSoul · 05-16-2007 03:40 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Blapping: Why? Fire/* is the ranged AoE king.

[snip]

Your guide is quite complete but IMHO doesnt focus enough on what fire/fire/fire is all about: ranged damage.

[/ QUOTE ]

With all due respect, I think that view is somewhat myopic. While it is true that Fire/ is the ranged AoE king, it is also true that /Fire is the melee AoE king. Put them together and... well, you have a united pair of countries.

Fire/Fire blasters don't have to be played at range. That's entirely subjective. Many Triple-F's choose to specialize at range, others at melee, and others do both depending on what the situation calls for.

While I respect and support your decision to play at range, it is not for everyone.

Enjoy!

El__D · 05-16-2007 04:30 PM

I've read your guide, and I plan to use it on my main when he reaches level fifty, which will hopfuly be early this summer.

But I have one question....

In the powers you didnt slot IO's for, wouldnt HO's be best to use if you had them?

Just wondering if the build would be even better with those slotted.

But still...

Fricking Awsome guide!!!!

-El D

Global - @El D

Servers - Protector

LeoninProtector · 05-17-2007 01:45 AM

Excellent guide Peg. Very informative and makes me consider racking up on those IOs now I have a Extreme Measures slotted into Blazing Bolt for the Regen and Recovery bonuses but that's it ATM.

I do have to say that Net's view on Firebreath makes me reconsider 6-slotting it. It seems to be a viable technique when up against +4s and higher (I tend to be a tad leary of taking them on in melee). I think I'm going to respec Firequeen (level 37 fire/fire) to be a range/melee combo. She is currently a melee blapper that uses Fireball+Firebreath as an opener.

Anyway,

Excellent job putting this all together.

@CrimsonOriole

The_Laughing_Man · 05-17-2007 02:19 AM

Nice guide.

I have a 45 Fire/Fire blaster at the moment, and have teamed with an Archery/Fire blaster as she got to 50. She used most of the /Fire set and has provided a lot of good feedback - including reversing my hatred of Combustion. I stand corrected Antanya

Since Sera has been around since day 1 and has still not hit 50, I have used up issue freespecs since I5, all the three erned respecs and 2 of my vet freespecs. I thought she would be the easiest to build, but she's not. Don't be deceived, this is no simple AT to build - having advance thoughts about your playstyle will help immensely (ranged, melee, whatever).

However one thing that was pointed out to me is that Fireball, Combustion and Fire Sword Circle all have the same AoE shape (plus Inferno later). Currently, I'm running with these three and enjoing the damage immensly. If only they'd shave a hair or two off combustions activation time I'd be well happy. By level 10 you'll be loving this toon. Embrace your debt and you'll be fine. Not to mention that as a salvage hunter, you can street sweep greens solo for very good profit.

Lastly, I have a lot of alts and Sera is not one I'd consider for IO's. My Peacebringer, Warshade, Emp/Psi main, TA/A Defender, Ice Tanker and a couple of others are all candidates higher on the list. Quite simply, there's nothing broken in this AT (as far as I'm concerned) so I don't need to spend the inf "doing her up". 10 million is not much influence if you have a couple of 50's, but when you're trying to outfit more than one character, then the cash gets spread thin. Nice work though illustrating what can be done with IO's.

-H

Peg_on_Justice · 05-17-2007 07:32 AM

[ QUOTE ]

In the powers you didnt slot IO's for, wouldnt HO's be best to use if you had them?

[/ QUOTE ]

Absolutely! I happen to not have any HOs on any character, so I have a hard time making recommendations, but one of the glarring weaknesses of this guide right now is the lack of attention to the powers not slotted with sets. I was thinking about this last night that Inferno probably should be slotted with level 30 IOs, but I haven't worked out the math yet.

I'm also thinking hard about adding Karma: Knockback Protection into Hover to assist with the ruin mages on Positron. So I think there is a lot of opportunity to tweak and improve this guide. I hope to do so as we go along and get more familiar with IOs and the the sets. After all, I9 has been live for what, 2 weeks now?

Peg_on_Justice · 05-17-2007 07:39 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Lastly, I have a lot of alts and Sera is not one I'd consider for IO's. My Peacebringer, Warshade, Emp/Psi main, TA/A Defender, Ice Tanker and a couple of others are all candidates higher on the list. Quite simply, there's nothing broken in this AT (as far as I'm concerned) so I don't need to spend the inf "doing her up". 10 million is not much influence if you have a couple of 50's, but when you're trying to outfit more than one character, then the cash gets spread thin. Nice work though illustrating what can be done with IO's.

[/ QUOTE ]

That is really the point. I obviously think that Fire/Fire was a very effective and playable build before the advent of IOs. What I really wanted to do we to illustrate what could be done with IOs if fully embraced. Now I do admit that I've "got the bug" now and am obsessively working on completing this build, and ignoring all of my other Alts in the process (other than getting knockback protection for my WS and PB). But I think that is beauty of I9. It is giving me a reason to play my favorite character again. She was sitting on the shelf before, because she had made 50. There was no point to playing her.

Peg_on_Justice · 05-17-2007 07:52 AM

[ QUOTE ]
This allows you to just hold down the left shift button and click, and the power activates.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I use something similar to this for all my teleporting characters. If this works for folks, then by all means go for it

Let me explain what my problem is. When I'm in a fight, my left hand is up at the top of the keyboard, ready to hit the 1-0 keys, where I keep all my attacks. All of my toggles, including build up and aim are bound to keys (y and u in the case of these 2). My right hand is on the mouse being used for movement (running or flying and turning).

What I will generally be doing is buff up, turn on BA and HF, run into the middle of a group right behind the tanker, hit 3 for FSC, 2 for FB the spin around to see what is left. If there is a group, I backup to put them all inside the cone and hit 1 for FB. If there are only bosses, or they are scattered, then I start hitting 8, 9 and 0 for Blaze, Blast and FS. When the AoEs are ready again I will use them also if needed.

The point is that my fingers aren't quite trained (or long enough) to drop down down the the Ctrl key to drop ROF on the group int he middle of this action. This is absolutely a personal issue and should not be used by anyone as a reason to not take ROF!

Scrapulous · 05-17-2007 01:01 PM

Very nice!

I like how you kept an eye on exemplaring issues and demonstrate that you can achieve very good enhancement levels with lower level sets. It's also considerably cheaper to assemble sets by buying up the lower level versions.

I do have a couple of comments:

Hasten gives a 70% recharge buff, not 60%.

Burn does actually benefit from Aim and Build Up. This was changed recently (perhaps 4-6 months ago). I'm very aware of the change because my fire/fire tanker uses Burn offensively all the time.

Health: I'm curious about your slotting choices here. I have a few concerns.

First, the set bonus for having 4 Miracles slotted (5% +Heal) almost certainly doesn't apply to Health itself. Health provides a Regen effect, not a Heal effect. They're discrete effects, and though I haven't seen any evidence of conclusive testing, I'd be very surprised if +Heal affects regeneration. This is confused a bit by the fact that Heal enhancements boost both heal and regeneration effects when slotted into powers, but don't mention regeneration at all.

Second, if you're going to slot to increase the regeneration benefits, you get much more effectiveness per slot out of slotting the Numina's Convalescence global IO and the Regenerative Tissue global IO.

Your slotting gives +68.16% Regeneration and +17.5% Recovery from Health alone, which is not bad. Consider alternate slotting:

18) --> Health
* Miracle: [20]Recovery (18) (+15% recovery)
* Numina's Convalescence: [30]Regen/Recovery (19) (+20% regen, +10% recovery)
* Regenerative Tissue: [10]Regeneration (19) (+25% regeneration)
* Miracle: [20]Healing (25)
* Miracle: [20]HEaling/Endurance (25)

Standard Bonuses: Heal 41.6%

(2) +2.5% recovery
(3) +1.88% max health

Total regeneration: +101.64%
Total recovery: +27.5%

With the same investment in slots, you have increased your Regen benefit from this power by 49% and the Recovery benefit by 57%. You've lost a 5% Heal that almost certainly only helps Rise of the Phoenix, and you've lost a smidge of AoE defense - but this isn't a defensive build in the first place.

Notice also that you can exemp all the way down to the level you got Health (16) and you're still getting the benefit of the Regenerative Tissue global.

Scrapulous · 05-17-2007 01:21 PM

[ QUOTE ]

IOs: Yeah nice bonus, if you can pony up to 100M to buy all of them. Good ideal scenario, but perhaps some of the lesser IO sets should be included as well as basic IO slotting.

[/ QUOTE ]

Did you look at the levels on the enhancements? Most of them are considerably lower than 50. I know (because I frequently buy lower-than-50 enhancements just to complete sets while I wait for affordable level 50 versions to appear) that lower level enhancements are considerably cheaper to buy and make than level 50s are. I don't think 100 million inf is required to complete this, and Peg's experience supports it.

[ QUOTE ]

Blapping: Why?

[/ QUOTE ]

It's a playstyle difference. My fire/eng blaster specializes in ranged AoE, but has extremely effective melee attacks to deal with bosses and outlying mobs. My fire/fire blaster likes having the opportunity to drop AoE after AoE in rapid, deadly succession when on a team with a good tank. Combustion, FSC, Fireball and Rain of Fire while Blazing Aura and Hot Feet are running is a punishing combination. If necessary she can back up and drop a Fire Breath or just Inferno if the situation is desperate.

[ QUOTE ]

Fire/* is the ranged AoE king. Blazing Aura is just a heavy end suck and Hot Feet tends to cause fleeing which places them out of FSC range.

[/ QUOTE ]

If fire/* is the ranged AoE king, why is it a problem if mobs run out of FSC range?

[ QUOTE ]

Fire Sword and Air Sup are far more effective weapons.

[/ QUOTE ]

She has Fire Sword and it would be a trivial modification to this build to swap Air Superiority in place of Hover.

[ QUOTE ]

Hot Feet, Blazing Aura, Fire Shield.... there goes your end.

[/ QUOTE ]

That hasn't been my experience.

[ QUOTE ]

FireBreath and the Centrole..... buttah!
Centroles are the much maligned HO for Dam/Range. Cones get very very nasty as you extend thier range.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, cones benefit far more than any other power from range extension. That said, the max number of targets that can be affected (10) doesn't increase, so increasing the area affected is principally a way of allowing you to ensure that spawns that are spread out can all be hit with the same application of Fire Breath. It's definitely nice, and it certainly makes Centrioles a very tempting choice. If you find that you can hit 10 targets or more reliably without range extensions (or with the range extension from Posi's Blast), then IOs are an obvious win. If you find that the Centrioles make you consistently better able to position your cone, then HOs or a blended HO + IO approach may be the better bet.

[ QUOTE ]

Your guide is quite complete but IMHO doesnt focus enough on what fire/fire/fire is all about: ranged damage.

[/ QUOTE ]

So fire/fire/fire is all about the fire primary? Because there are no ranged damage attacks in the fire secondary, and Flame Mastery's only ranged damage attack is Char, which is of questionable benefit in a dps evaluation.

I acknowledge that fire/fire/fire is all about ranged damage for you, and I bet it's extremely effective that way, but surely you can see that not everybody plays it that way. Some folks choose not to ignore their secondary just because they have a powerful primary. There are more than enough slots in a build to make a very potent ranged blaster who can also deliver some impressive melee damage.

Incidentally, if you prefer not to engage in melee, I think you'd really enjoy a fire/energy build. Check it out - the energy secondary allows you to ignore the attacks but still enhance your primary's functionality in ways that the fire secondary just doesn't. Where fire offers only Build Up (at 16) and Consume, energy gives Build Up (at 4), Boost Range, Conserve Power, Power Boost, and some good controls to discourage mobs from entering melee.

Peg_on_Justice · 05-17-2007 01:27 PM

Well a couple comments to comments

1) There is disagreement over the recharge buff Hasten gives. I have found 60% and 70% referenced. I chose to err on the side of caution and cite 60%.

2) The burn point was made a few posts up. You should take a look at the discussion of Burn, because it is useful.

3) I've said a couple times now, I am not happy with the slotting suggestion in health. At the time, I didn't know that the Numina and Miracle uniques could both be used. I thought they might be mutually exclusive (I think I even mentioned that). Given that mistaken assumption, Miracle was more important, since recovery is more important to a F^3 than regeneration. But, if you can get all the uniques from all three sets (at about 40M per recipe last I looked ), then slotting them into Health is the way to go.

Eventually, I will update this guide and will use input like yours to provide better slotting guidance.

Wichita · 05-17-2007 09:58 PM

Thanks, Peg_On_Justice. That's a great, and monumental, guide. Pumpkinhead, my own Fire/Fire (and on Justice), will be studying this.

sevrum · 05-17-2007 10:32 PM

question about fire as a secondary. i have made an electric/fire blaster (havent played him in over a month) but had an idea but am not sure if it will work. i was wondering if you cast the sentinal then toggle pff epic while already having blazing aura/hot feet on if you would deal all the dmg having pff on or if u can even hav blazing/hot feet toggled while pff is on. blaster freak transformed into a tank/kin troller talkin. was jus an idea outta curiosity since u can nearly herd then nuke with pff

Peg_on_Justice · 05-18-2007 10:41 AM

[ QUOTE ]
question about fire as a secondary. i have made an electric/fire blaster (havent played him in over a month) but had an idea but am not sure if it will work. i was wondering if you cast the sentinal then toggle pff epic while already having blazing aura/hot feet on if you would deal all the dmg having pff on or if u can even hav blazing/hot feet toggled while pff is on. blaster freak transformed into a tank/kin troller talkin. was jus an idea outta curiosity since u can nearly herd then nuke with pff

[/ QUOTE ]

Interesting question, that I don't know the answer to. If I was the designer, I would force toggles like BA and HF to turn off when activating the personal force field. But that doesn't mean it actually works that way, something that would need to be tried on Test. But I am certain that Rain of Fire and Burn would both still work when you turn on PFF since those are click powers, not toggles.

There are a lot of powers that detoggle things when you activate them, like when a Peacebringer goes into Nova form. I suspect PFF would work the same way.