You're OK so far, no bad choices. Don't slot Power Thrust very much--if any.
Burst, Slug, Buckshot, Flamethrower, Full Auto, Build Up, and Boost Range are must-haves. Take those and slot the attacks well and the buffs with plenty of recharge.
Everything else is flavor, I like Bone Smasher for early leveling, and Beanbag for help soloing. Ignite is hard to use with /Energy, but anything in AR is beyond the above can be helpful.
Don't respec at level 7. At that point, it's just probably easier to reroll.
Since you're new, it's better to just play the game and discover what powers you like versus us telling you what to get.
With that in mind, here's some advice.
AR can be spec'ed a few different ways, for teams or for mostly solo play. The first two blasts, slug and burst, you want to take for either build. If you're playing for teams, then having buckshot and flame thrower is very handy. They're both cone AoE attacks and you can fire them one after another delivering good damage in roughly the same area. Energy manipulation complements this as you *should* take boost range, which increases the size of the cone and allowing you to cover more targets.
If you're mostly soloing then, I'd consider taking beanbag fairly early. It's a handy single target mez and is also complemented by power boost, another power you *should* take from energy manipulation.
These are my biased choices:
AR - soloist - take slug, burst, beanbag, sniper rifle, full auto
AR - team - take slug, burst, buckshot, flame thrower, full auto, ignite, beanbag
Energy manipulation - take build up *at level 4, as soon as you can grab it*, power boost, boost range, total focus (the stun stacks with the stun from beanbag, allowing you to take out bosses with ease). Nice to haves: bone smasher
Stuff I routinely skip:
AR- M30, ignite, sniper rifle (I recommend them above, they just aren't my taste)
Energy manipulation - energy punch, conserve power, stun
Dont slot power thrust too much....early on.
Its a great path to KB mitigation with 4 slots if you cant get one of the other -KB IOs.
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."
Hehe well first off welcome to CoX for starters, and enjoy the ride. That and don't worry too much about being that mythical best, take what you want, try things out, find your own style, most importantly have fun. That's what games are for after all. 
On topic though what FF said is a good way of looking at it. My only real difference of opinion comes from being a more in your face type. So I love the damage build up does with bone smasher and energy punch in early levels. Pop a red and a purple insp with it and it's "what boss?" That and I'd say no matter the build, beanbag is just too good to pass up, the synergy between it and power boost alone. makes it a great way to keep annoying mobs out of a fight from beginning to 50. Always mezz them before they mezz you. Total focus on top of it for boss stunning is just pure gold.
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Don't respec at level 7. At that point, it's just probably easier to reroll.
Since you're new, it's better to just play the game and discover what powers you like versus us telling you what to get.
With that in mind, here's some advice.
AR can be spec'ed a few different ways, for teams or for mostly solo play. The first two blasts, slug and burst, you want to take for either build. If you're playing for teams, then having buckshot and flame thrower is very handy. They're both cone AoE attacks and you can fire them one after another delivering good damage in roughly the same area. Energy manipulation complements this as you *should* take boost range, which increases the size of the cone and allowing you to cover more targets.
If you're mostly soloing then, I'd consider taking beanbag fairly early. It's a handy single target mez and is also complemented by power boost, another power you *should* take from energy manipulation.
These are my biased choices:
AR - soloist - take slug, burst, beanbag, sniper rifle, full auto
AR - team - take slug, burst, buckshot, flame thrower, full auto, ignite, beanbag
Energy manipulation - take build up *at level 4, as soon as you can grab it*, power boost, boost range, total focus (the stun stacks with the stun from beanbag, allowing you to take out bosses with ease). Nice to haves: bone smasher
Stuff I routinely skip:
AR- M30, ignite, sniper rifle (I recommend them above, they just aren't my taste)
Energy manipulation - energy punch, conserve power, stun
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Conserve Power will be useful, even after Stamina, unless you slot your attacks for Endurance Reduction or get IO sets slotted (which, if you're 4- or 5-slotting a set, you should have), and it's still situationally useful after that. Remember that AR is one of the two Blaster nukes that don't have a crash associated with them, so if you position yourself to make best use of your attacks you can have an almost continuous cycle of AoE attacks, using Slug or Burst to fill in the chain.
Power Boost is, in my opinion, nowhere near as useful for an AR Blaster; it will boost the stun of Total Focus, Beanbag, Bone Smasher, and Stun -- four attacks, three of which are melee. I would recommend against it unless you plan on going the route of the blapper. The Defense reduction that is in most of the AR attacks is pretty minimal; I've never seen any real difference in my accuracy from it; I had it and respecced out of it.
Beanbag is useful at the lower levels, but if you're focusing on exploiting your AoE attacks -- buckshot, M30, Full Auto, Flamethrower, and LRM from Munitions Mastery -- then you may want to respec it out in favor of Cryo Freeze Ray, which is a Hold, letting you tie someone down in an Ignite patch.
Range Boost is your friend. With it, all of your AoE cones expand to the point where you can hit the AoE target limit, and stand well back from your target. While some mobs will try to return fire when hit with a Build Up/ Flamethrower/ Full Auto/ [M30 or Buckshot or both] chain, others will try to rush you to engage in hand-to-hand combat. With Range Boost, you can stand back far enough that +1 minions will fall down as they run toward you, instead of reaching you and forcing you to fall back on Power Thrust (or, for my character, Air Superiority to knock them on their [censored], Total Focus to disorient and pound them, Stun if that doesn't work, then Power Thrust to send them off into the distance again).
Ignite is very situational; solo, it's only good for controlling mob movement (such as blocking a doorway with an Ignite patch), or for dropping where the mobs aren't going to run away (i.e., around the Tanker). I wound up respeccing out of it, working more toward the 'Master of Cones' build in this guide; it's from I6, but the basic principles are still valid.
Sniper Rifle is still quite useful on teams, although not as much as it would be without Range Boost. With the two together, though, it makes for a wonderfully long-range pull attack, and with Build Up you can generall one-shot a white minion (and some yellow minions, as well).
"But in our enthusiasm, we could not resist a radical overhaul of the system, in which all of its major weaknesses have been exposed, analyzed, and replaced with new weaknesses."
-- Bruce Leverett, Register Allocation in Optimizing Compilers
I have an AR/EM in the mid 40s and it is really fun to play.
Notes:
- You are perfectly fine on your power choices so far. No need to change. As a matter of fact, they mimic my power choices exactly.
- As someone else mentioned, Boost Range is your best friend. Lining up with Full Auto from way back and having the cone hit the entire mob is just too much fun. Add in Flame Thrower and Buckshot to taste.
- You will primarily be fighting at range. For that reason I did everything I could to get my ranged defense up there. I did it with 6-slotting my two ST attacks with Thunderstrikes, taking BOTH Hover and Combat Jumping and slotting them with Blessing of the Zephyr and taking both Flight and Super Jump and doing the same. This makes a BIG difference in survivability.
- I am not a fan of M30. It spreads the mobs out too much. Though if you are far enough back then it doesn't matter with cones. Still, I skip it. The knockback is too much of a pain. At least with Buckshot, you have control because it is directional rather than radial.
Current:
Fridgerato - Traps/Ice (Frdm)
Gadgetron - Grav/TA (Lbrty)
Ice/Kin Guide
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- I am not a fan of M30. It spreads the mobs out too much. Though if you are far enough back then it doesn't matter with cones. Still, I skip it. The knockback is too much of a pain. At least with Buckshot, you have control because it is directional rather than radial.
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You need to pick your targets more carefully, then. Drop M30 on the closest mob in a group, and they all fly away from you if they get knocked back. It is more flexible that way, in that you can control which direction knockback happens by your choice of target in a spawn. I'd like it better if it were a Location AoE, so I could drop the grenade near targets, or use it for 'probing fire' by dropping one just past a corner; having it be a Location AoE would fit better with the way grenade launchers are actually used. Generally, when I'm facing mobs that I have to be concerned about where they get knocked back, I use M30 as a 'clean-up' attack to take care of whatever's left standing after Flamethrower and Full Auto carve up the spawn; any surviving mobs on their backs give me time to get off a Snipe before they get up, and then Flamethrower is likely up again.
"But in our enthusiasm, we could not resist a radical overhaul of the system, in which all of its major weaknesses have been exposed, analyzed, and replaced with new weaknesses."
-- Bruce Leverett, Register Allocation in Optimizing Compilers
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- I am not a fan of M30. It spreads the mobs out too much. Though if you are far enough back then it doesn't matter with cones. Still, I skip it. The knockback is too much of a pain. At least with Buckshot, you have control because it is directional rather than radial.
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You need to pick your targets more carefully, then. Drop M30 on the closest mob in a group, and they all fly away from you if they get knocked back. It is more flexible that way, in that you can control which direction knockback happens by your choice of target in a spawn.
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This is one of those myths that refuses to die, isn't it? M30 Grenade's knockback is, for all intents and purposes, IDENTICAL to Buckshot. It doesn't have some voodoo extra coding that makes it abnormal from any of the other targeted AoE powers with knockback. Every bit of it is perception due to said knockback not being guaranteed.
On top of that, you know what you're likely doing with M30 Grenade combined with a set full of cones? You're moving around. And knockback has an amusing situation where it doesn't apply an effect based on where you were but where you are, meaning that yes, you can click M30 Grenade and jump into the middle of the mob before the KB applies and it will, yes, toss them away from you. I've got a short video prepared if people really want to keep denying this. I can't upload it now/next day but if it comes down to it, it'll be put up. Heck, if the short one isn't good enough, I'll just throw the full 10 minutes up to show it doesn't have the magic KB.
Try it with Nova, starting IN a spawn then jousting away--the knockback will be based on your location when the KB actually applies! Try it with M30! Make sure to try it standing still, too!
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I'd like it better if it were a Location AoE, so I could drop the grenade near targets, or use it for 'probing fire' by dropping one just past a corner; having it be a Location AoE would fit better with the way grenade launchers are actually used.
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Now, if this were how the power functioned, it COULD actually do what the myth portrays.
Blue: ~Knockback Squad on Guardian~
Red: ~Undoing of Virtue on [3 guesses]~
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This is one of those myths that refuses to die, isn't it? M30 Grenade's knockback is, for all intents and purposes, IDENTICAL to Buckshot. It doesn't have some voodoo extra coding that makes it abnormal from any of the other targeted AoE powers with knockback. Every bit of it is perception due to said knockback not being guaranteed.
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But that perception is correct when it comes to spreading out mobs. If you have half a spawn where they were initially and the other half 15 feet back you have spread out spawn.
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But that perception is correct when it comes to spreading out mobs. If you have half a spawn where they were initially and the other half 15 feet back you have spread out spawn.
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That's not the misconception. The misconception is that the knockback is sourced from the grenade's target.
Blue: ~Knockback Squad on Guardian~
Red: ~Undoing of Virtue on [3 guesses]~
About skipping power boost. Don't. It's not just AR's piddily -def it boosts, but also many other powers, such as any heal you take, any def boosts you get from epic armor later on, the stun durations in beanbag and the EM attacks, and probably a few others i'm missing.
To steal a favorite trick from my guide power boost paired with aid self (if you have the room) Is a great way to fill in one status defense hole. What most people miss is the fact that aid self heals and gives a stun resist for a short time. Which Combat jump (immobs) and acrobatics (holds + knockback) don't cover.
Seen my Ar/eng with that up take a malta stun grenade (high level mob in the 40+ range for our newer OP) To the face and keep on fighting. As opposed to the usual walking in a daze for way too long. Put that with the fact power boost also makes Aid self's heal recover over half the HP bar in one shot, and it's even better.
It's a can't miss power in /EM if you ask me.
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Conserve Power will be useful, even after Stamina, unless you slot your attacks for Endurance Reduction or get IO sets slotted (which, if you're 4- or 5-slotting a set, you should have), and it's still situationally useful after that. Remember that AR is one of the two Blaster nukes that don't have a crash associated with them, so if you position yourself to make best use of your attacks you can have an almost continuous cycle of AoE attacks, using Slug or Burst to fill in the chain.
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I think conserve power is very skippable. With typical IO slotting, you'll have much more than the 33% end reduction than your standard SO slotting. Even if you just go with straight SOs, it's more than manageable. Plus there are blue inspirations for long battles, which hopefully, as a blaster are few. I think the argument for CP was stronger back in the days before IOs. Nowadays, you can get the Miracle proc or even just slot up your powers with lots of tiny recovery bonuses, which of course, add up when there are multiple of them.
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Power Boost is, in my opinion, nowhere near as useful for an AR Blaster; it will boost the stun of Total Focus, Beanbag, Bone Smasher, and Stun -- four attacks, three of which are melee. I would recommend against it unless you plan on going the route of the blapper. The Defense reduction that is in most of the AR attacks is pretty minimal; I've never seen any real difference in my accuracy from it; I had it and respecced out of it.
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As Dragonkat said above, power boost increases the duration of your stuns, boosts the heal in aid self if you take it, boosts the strength of defensive epic shields and if you go munitions, boosts the length of the sleep power and cryo freeze ray. It also boosts the tohit of build up, allowing you to say hit Captain Mako in the Statesman TF or a Vengeance powered Nemesis minion. IMO, that's way more valuable than something like conserve power, which can be bypassed by smart slotting and/or blue chicklets.
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Beanbag is useful at the lower levels, but if you're focusing on exploiting your AoE attacks -- buckshot, M30, Full Auto, Flamethrower, and LRM from Munitions Mastery -- then you may want to respec it out in favor of Cryo Freeze Ray, which is a Hold, letting you tie someone down in an Ignite patch.
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Beanbag > cryo freeze ray for the simple fact that the magnitude stacks with your other stun powers to enable you to stun bosses.
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Range Boost is your friend. With it, all of your AoE cones expand to the point where you can hit the AoE target limit, and stand well back from your target. While some mobs will try to return fire when hit with a Build Up/ Flamethrower/ Full Auto/ [M30 or Buckshot or both] chain, others will try to rush you to engage in hand-to-hand combat. With Range Boost, you can stand back far enough that +1 minions will fall down as they run toward you, instead of reaching you and forcing you to fall back on Power Thrust (or, for my character, Air Superiority to knock them on their [censored], Total Focus to disorient and pound them, Stun if that doesn't work, then Power Thrust to send them off into the distance again).
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Generally agree. I'd still recommend against M30 only because how much endurance that thing cost for generally mediocre damage. If I'm spending that much endurance, I'd want to do flame thrower level damage. It does has it's positives (it hits 16 targets for example), but I think the disadvantages outweighs the positives.
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Ignite is very situational; solo, it's only good for controlling mob movement (such as blocking a doorway with an Ignite patch), or for dropping where the mobs aren't going to run away (i.e., around the Tanker). I wound up respeccing out of it, working more toward the 'Master of Cones' build in this guide; it's from I6, but the basic principles are still valid.
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Heh. I contributed to that Master of Cones guide back in the day. I'm even listed in the credits.
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Sniper Rifle is still quite useful on teams, although not as much as it would be without Range Boost. With the two together, though, it makes for a wonderfully long-range pull attack, and with Build Up you can generall one-shot a white minion (and some yellow minions, as well).
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People still sniper pull? Now there's a myth that needs to die. Pull with a low damaging attack. High damaging attacks bring buddies. And from a damage per activation standpoint, sniper attacks are one of the most inefficient things that a blaster can use. Snipes are cool but they are very skippable and are awful on teams.
AR is a set with a fair bit of variety, but I think the main feature is that it encourages you to stay at range. This can sometimes conflict with the secondary, especially melee-heavy sets. Generally I use AR attacks to soften up foes, and Fire melee to deliver the finishing blows.
Don't be afraid to experiment. Respecs come easier the longer you play the game, and you have Dual Builds too. Use whatever seems useful.
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Conserve Power will be useful, even after Stamina, unless you slot your attacks for Endurance Reduction or get IO sets slotted (which, if you're 4- or 5-slotting a set, you should have), and it's still situationally useful after that. Remember that AR is one of the two Blaster nukes that don't have a crash associated with them, so if you position yourself to make best use of your attacks you can have an almost continuous cycle of AoE attacks, using Slug or Burst to fill in the chain.
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I think conserve power is very skippable. With typical IO slotting, you'll have much more than the 33% end reduction than your standard SO slotting. Even if you just go with straight SOs, it's more than manageable. Plus there are blue inspirations for long battles, which hopefully, as a blaster are few. I think the argument for CP was stronger back in the days before IOs. Nowadays, you can get the Miracle proc or even just slot up your powers with lots of tiny recovery bonuses, which of course, add up when there are multiple of them.
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My AR/En/Mun will run out of End with Hasten up -- ca. +137% recharge bonus from Hasten and set bonuses -- when operating in full-bore maximum-damage attackspam. It does require that the mobs' aggro be fairly securely held, but it chews up a pile of Minotaurs and Cyclopes nicely; she'll spam attacks until she's down to about 25% End, hit Conserve Power, and be back up to full End by the time it runs out. The same situation applies on a Rikti Mothership raid; being able to stand in the middle of the bowl and hit the rim of the bowl with half your attacks is a lot of fun, and once we're down in the bowl, she's firing almost continually until the shields come back up.
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Power Boost is, in my opinion, nowhere near as useful for an AR Blaster; it will boost the stun of Total Focus, Beanbag, Bone Smasher, and Stun -- four attacks, three of which are melee. I would recommend against it unless you plan on going the route of the blapper. The Defense reduction that is in most of the AR attacks is pretty minimal; I've never seen any real difference in my accuracy from it; I had it and respecced out of it.
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As Dragonkat said above, power boost increases the duration of your stuns, boosts the heal in aid self if you take it, boosts the strength of defensive epic shields and if you go munitions, boosts the length of the sleep power and cryo freeze ray. It also boosts the tohit of build up, allowing you to say hit Captain Mako in the Statesman TF or a Vengeance powered Nemesis minion. IMO, that's way more valuable than something like conserve power, which can be bypassed by smart slotting and/or blue chicklets.
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For the times I want the boost, I have the Vanguard Medallion accolade power; it's got a much longer recharge, but with most of your stunning attacks melee, a 'kill them way over there' build won't have a lot of use for it.
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Beanbag is useful at the lower levels, but if you're focusing on exploiting your AoE attacks -- buckshot, M30, Full Auto, Flamethrower, and LRM from Munitions Mastery -- then you may want to respec it out in favor of Cryo Freeze Ray, which is a Hold, letting you tie someone down in an Ignite patch.
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Beanbag > cryo freeze ray for the simple fact that the magnitude stacks with your other stun powers to enable you to stun bosses.
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Look at the first word in the description of "your other stun powers" -- 'Melee'. Let a mob get into melee range, and their attack on you will go off even if your melee attack stuns them. This is a suboptimal solution, particularly if you're building for engagement at range; it would be different if you were building a blapper around AR/En.
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Sniper Rifle is still quite useful on teams, although not as much as it would be without Range Boost. With the two together, though, it makes for a wonderfully long-range pull attack, and with Build Up you can generally one-shot a white minion (and some yellow minions, as well).
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People still sniper pull? Now there's a myth that needs to die. Pull with a low damaging attack. High damaging attacks bring buddies. And from a damage per activation standpoint, sniper attacks are one of the most inefficient things that a blaster can use. Snipes are cool but they are very skippable and are awful on teams.
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It varies; I still laugh when I remember the team I was on when we had a Vahzilok mission in an office building. It was an eight-man team in the low teens (the Abominations were all white to me), and the spawn sizes were big enough that it wasn't uncommon for two spawns to wind up with members close enough to cross-aggro. We had already had some near-complete team wipes, then we found a long corridor with a group of Abominations at the other end. The one character with Stealth had run up to check, and had verified that there was a second spawn just around the corner that would aggro if we ran in. So I volunteered to pull the group with my Snipe, which would string them out coming after me. I set up, fire... my target goes down. The remaining Abominations, devoid of any Mortificators or Reapers, just stood there. "Do that again," someone said. Picked one, shot... Abomination goes down. Still no reaction. Third snipe, same thing. One of the Tankers on the team announces "This is boring!" and runs into the spawn, followed by the rest of the melee characters. This, of course, aggros the next spawn over, and all the melee characters wipe; my Blaster dumps ranged fire into the melee until the falling melee characters no longer maintain aggro, then all of us squishies ran for the elevator.
Leaving aside the situations where you want to pull the whole spawn simply because you need it to be farther away from a nearby spawn before you start fighting, since I got Range Boost, I've found that when shooting at a group from a truly extreme range draws less collateral aggro; in the same way that the piddly Perception radius of the Vahz zombies kept them from noticing me sniping out their group ("Say, wasn't Fred standing just a moment ago?" "I wasn't watching." "Okay."), shooting from extreme range has a similar effect. In an ITF, my AR/En/Mun Blaster has about a 75% success rate at pulling just Requiem or Romulus, and rarely gets more than four to six other mobs in the pull. It varies with the villain group; mobs with +Perception make trying to pull an exercise in futility.
However -- and it's antithetical to the way people build their characters -- the best attack to use to pull with isn't your highest-damage attack, or your weakest attack, or your longest-range attack, but your most inaccurate single-target attack. When you do damage to your target, other mobs have a chance to notice the effect of the attack and aggro on the attacker, but if you miss your target, you will almost invariably aggro only your target.
"But in our enthusiasm, we could not resist a radical overhaul of the system, in which all of its major weaknesses have been exposed, analyzed, and replaced with new weaknesses."
-- Bruce Leverett, Register Allocation in Optimizing Compilers
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Conserve Power will be useful, even after Stamina, unless you slot your attacks for Endurance Reduction or get IO sets slotted (which, if you're 4- or 5-slotting a set, you should have), and it's still situationally useful after that. Remember that AR is one of the two Blaster nukes that don't have a crash associated with them, so if you position yourself to make best use of your attacks you can have an almost continuous cycle of AoE attacks, using Slug or Burst to fill in the chain.
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I think conserve power is very skippable. With typical IO slotting, you'll have much more than the 33% end reduction than your standard SO slotting. Even if you just go with straight SOs, it's more than manageable. Plus there are blue inspirations for long battles, which hopefully, as a blaster are few. I think the argument for CP was stronger back in the days before IOs. Nowadays, you can get the Miracle proc or even just slot up your powers with lots of tiny recovery bonuses, which of course, add up when there are multiple of them.
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My AR/En/Mun will run out of End with Hasten up -- ca. +137% recharge bonus from Hasten and set bonuses -- when operating in full-bore maximum-damage attackspam. It does require that the mobs' aggro be fairly securely held, but it chews up a pile of Minotaurs and Cyclopes nicely; she'll spam attacks until she's down to about 25% End, hit Conserve Power, and be back up to full End by the time it runs out. The same situation applies on a Rikti Mothership raid; being able to stand in the middle of the bowl and hit the rim of the bowl with half your attacks is a lot of fun, and once we're down in the bowl, she's firing almost continually until the shields come back up.
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You're talking about an extreme situation where you have a build with +137% recharge. And even then, you still have blues, team buffs, Geas of the Kind Ones (since you're pulling out Accolade examples below), etc. And you're also using an extreme case where you have a large number of targets with many hitpoints. In typical encounters, the mobs would be dead by your third AoE, if not second.
Obviously, it works for your build; however, for the vast majority of blasters that don't have +137% recharge, CP isn't needed.
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Power Boost is, in my opinion, nowhere near as useful for an AR Blaster; it will boost the stun of Total Focus, Beanbag, Bone Smasher, and Stun -- four attacks, three of which are melee. I would recommend against it unless you plan on going the route of the blapper. The Defense reduction that is in most of the AR attacks is pretty minimal; I've never seen any real difference in my accuracy from it; I had it and respecced out of it.
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As Dragonkat said above, power boost increases the duration of your stuns, boosts the heal in aid self if you take it, boosts the strength of defensive epic shields and if you go munitions, boosts the length of the sleep power and cryo freeze ray. It also boosts the tohit of build up, allowing you to say hit Captain Mako in the Statesman TF or a Vengeance powered Nemesis minion. IMO, that's way more valuable than something like conserve power, which can be bypassed by smart slotting and/or blue chicklets.
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For the times I want the boost, I have the Vanguard Medallion accolade power; it's got a much longer recharge, but with most of your stunning attacks melee, a 'kill them way over there' build won't have a lot of use for it.
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Beanbag is useful at the lower levels, but if you're focusing on exploiting your AoE attacks -- buckshot, M30, Full Auto, Flamethrower, and LRM from Munitions Mastery -- then you may want to respec it out in favor of Cryo Freeze Ray, which is a Hold, letting you tie someone down in an Ignite patch.
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Beanbag > cryo freeze ray for the simple fact that the magnitude stacks with your other stun powers to enable you to stun bosses.
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Look at the first word in the description of "your other stun powers" -- 'Melee'. Let a mob get into melee range, and their attack on you will go off even if your melee attack stuns them. This is a suboptimal solution, particularly if you're building for engagement at range; it would be different if you were building a blapper around AR/En.
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It is laughably easy to beanbag a boss, run to it and then activate total focus or bonesmasher and land far enough away from it to avoid melee. You don't have to have a blapper build to keep and use the useful utility attacks in EM.
Blasters don't have to stay ranged and the melee attacks, as you should know, does a considerable amount of damage.
Vanguard while it enhances your mez duration doesn't enhance tohit buffs, heals, defense. It's not the same.
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Sniper Rifle is still quite useful on teams, although not as much as it would be without Range Boost. With the two together, though, it makes for a wonderfully long-range pull attack, and with Build Up you can generally one-shot a white minion (and some yellow minions, as well).
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People still sniper pull? Now there's a myth that needs to die. Pull with a low damaging attack. High damaging attacks bring buddies. And from a damage per activation standpoint, sniper attacks are one of the most inefficient things that a blaster can use. Snipes are cool but they are very skippable and are awful on teams.
[/ QUOTE ]
It varies; I still laugh when I remember the team I was on when we had a Vahzilok mission in an office building. It was an eight-man team in the low teens (the Abominations were all white to me), and the spawn sizes were big enough that it wasn't uncommon for two spawns to wind up with members close enough to cross-aggro. We had already had some near-complete team wipes, then we found a long corridor with a group of Abominations at the other end. The one character with Stealth had run up to check, and had verified that there was a second spawn just around the corner that would aggro if we ran in. So I volunteered to pull the group with my Snipe, which would string them out coming after me. I set up, fire... my target goes down. The remaining Abominations, devoid of any Mortificators or Reapers, just stood there. "Do that again," someone said. Picked one, shot... Abomination goes down. Still no reaction. Third snipe, same thing. One of the Tankers on the team announces "This is boring!" and runs into the spawn, followed by the rest of the melee characters. This, of course, aggros the next spawn over, and all the melee characters wipe; my Blaster dumps ranged fire into the melee until the falling melee characters no longer maintain aggro, then all of us squishies ran for the elevator.
Leaving aside the situations where you want to pull the whole spawn simply because you need it to be farther away from a nearby spawn before you start fighting, since I got Range Boost, I've found that when shooting at a group from a truly extreme range draws less collateral aggro; in the same way that the piddly Perception radius of the Vahz zombies kept them from noticing me sniping out their group ("Say, wasn't Fred standing just a moment ago?" "I wasn't watching." "Okay."), shooting from extreme range has a similar effect. In an ITF, my AR/En/Mun Blaster has about a 75% success rate at pulling just Requiem or Romulus, and rarely gets more than four to six other mobs in the pull. It varies with the villain group; mobs with +Perception make trying to pull an exercise in futility.
However -- and it's antithetical to the way people build their characters -- the best attack to use to pull with isn't your highest-damage attack, or your weakest attack, or your longest-range attack, but your most inaccurate single-target attack. When you do damage to your target, other mobs have a chance to notice the effect of the attack and aggro on the attacker, but if you miss your target, you will almost invariably aggro only your target.
[/ QUOTE ]
[/ QUOTE ]
Bad example. Vahzilok can be sniped pretty easily and their AI is dumb. Without Morts or Reapers, often times you can kill one and his friends right next to him will never attack.
And yes, I do agree that pulling is best done with attacks that do little or no damage. One old school strategy is to pull with temp powers, since they are only modified by tohits and global accuracy bonuses. However, I don't agree that pulling with a snipe is ever a good idea. Using boost range on something like burst extends the range over 100'...that's more than enough.
Wow, thanks for the AR info, it's very insightful.
So here's an update.
I am at level 27, and about to do the first respec mish. I am going to get all AR powers except for Ignite, yell at me if that's not a good idea. For travel I am going the Jumping route, to pick up Acrobatics, again...good or bad idea?
Right now, I think I am going to focus on what /EM powers to snag.
So, before the respec, I have Power Thrust, Build Up and Bone Smasher.
I'm still not sure of what to skip or take in the end, I know to get Build Up and Power Boost, but what about Boost Range? In the planner I have everything except Conserve Power and Boost Range. Then to for the second pool, I am looking at Medicine, should I get Aid Other or Stimulant? (to pick up Aid Self)
I'm not sure what APP to take, they all look like they have their good and bad powers. (plus I have 13 levels to go for those). When it comes to slotting, I would assume it is a good idea to put 6 slots on your major attacks, but it's all so confusing to me(being pretty new to the game mechanics). Also, I was introduced to Accolade Powers, are those good to go after?
I'd take a look through the thread on /EM, opinions vary a bit, but I believe every response here has touched on how essential Boost Range is for AR/EM.
Accolade powers are very useful, not as critical for a blaster as for some builds but ALWAYS a good thing.
Having finally gotten it set up in Mid's, this is how my AR/En/Mun Blaster is built at the moment; she doesn't have any purples in the build yet, because I haven't gotten any in drops and don't have enough influence to buy them. She is by no means optimized, but I'm have a lot of fun with her. Being able to pop Range Boost and extend Full Auto out to snipe ranges gives me amazing coverage in width, and I regularly get "How did you hit that?" comments after unloaded a Range Boosted LRM at "See that dot?" range.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/
[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]
Pakfront: Level 50 Technology Blaster
Primary Power Set: Assault Rifle
Secondary Power Set: Energy Manipulation
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Concealment
Ancillary Pool: Munitions Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Burst -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(5), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(7), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(19), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37)
Level 1: Power Thrust -- Acc-I(A)
Level 2: Slug -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(5), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(7), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(19), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36)
Level 4: Build Up -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(9), RechRdx-I(9)
Level 6: Air Superiority -- Acc-I(A)
Level 8: Buckshot -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(11), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(11), Posi-Dmg/Rng(29), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(29), Acc-I(36)
Level 10: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 12: Sniper Rifle -- Mantic-Acc/Dmg(A), Mantic-Dmg/EndRdx(13), Mantic-Acc/ActRdx/Rng(13), Mantic-Dmg/ActRdx/Rchg(15), Mantic-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(15), ExtrmM-Acc/Dmg(34)
Level 14: Fly -- Flight-I(A), Frbd-Fly(43), Frbd-EndRdx(46)
Level 16: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(17), RechRdx-I(17)
Level 18: Health -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(43)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(21), EndMod-I(21)
Level 22: Flamethrower -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(23), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(23), Posi-Dmg/Rng(25), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(27), Acc-I(40)
Level 24: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(25), RechRdx-I(37)
Level 26: Bone Smasher -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(27), Dsrnt-I(37)
Level 28: Stealth -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(42)
Level 30: M30 Grenade -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(31), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(31), Posi-Dmg/Rng(31), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(34), Acc-I(43)
Level 32: Full Auto -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(33), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(33), Posi-Dmg/Rng(33), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(34), Acc-I(40)
Level 35: Boost Range -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(36)
Level 38: Total Focus -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(39), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(39), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(40)
Level 41: Body Armor -- ResDam-I(A), ResDam-I(42), ResDam-I(42), Aegis-Psi/Status(46), S'fstPrt-ResKB(46)
Level 44: Cryo Freeze Ray -- EoCur-Acc/Hold(A), EoCur-Acc/Hold/Rchg(45), Lock-Acc/Hold(45), Lock-Rchg/Hold(45)
Level 47: LRM Rocket -- HO:Centri(A), HO:Centri(48), HO:Centri(48), Acc-I(48), Acc-I(50), RechRdx-I(50)
Level 49: Surveillance -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Defiance
------------
[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]
- [*]6% DamageBuff(Smashing)[*]6% DamageBuff(Lethal)[*]6% DamageBuff(Fire)[*]6% DamageBuff(Cold)[*]6% DamageBuff(Energy)[*]6% DamageBuff(Negative)[*]6% DamageBuff(Toxic)[*]6% DamageBuff(Psionic)[*]8.44% Defense(Energy)[*]8.44% Defense(Negative)[*]9.38% Defense(Ranged)[*]45% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*]57% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*]8% FlySpeed[*]13.6 HP (1.12%) HitPoints[*]8% JumpHeight[*]8% JumpSpeed[*]Knockback (Mag -4)[*]Knockup (Mag -4)[*]MezResist(Immobilize) 2.2%[*]MezResist(Terrorized) 1.65%[*]14% (0.23 End/sec) Recovery[*]42% (2.11 HP/sec) Regeneration[*]6.3% Resistance(Fire)[*]6.3% Resistance(Cold)[*]2.1% Resistance(Psionic)[*]8% RunSpeed[/list]------------
[u]Set Bonuses:[u]
[u]Thunderstrike[u]
(Burst)
- [*] 2% (0.03 End/sec) Recovery[*] 2.5% Defense(Energy,Negative), 1.25% Defense(Ranged)[*] 7% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*] 4% RunSpeed, 4% FlySpeed, 4% JumpSpeed, 4% JumpHeight[*] 2.5% Defense(Ranged), 1.25% Defense(Energy), 1.25% Defense(Negative)[/list][u]Thunderstrike[u]
(Slug)
- [*] 2% (0.03 End/sec) Recovery[*] 2.5% Defense(Energy,Negative), 1.25% Defense(Ranged)[*] 7% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*] 4% RunSpeed, 4% FlySpeed, 4% JumpSpeed, 4% JumpHeight[*] 2.5% Defense(Ranged), 1.25% Defense(Energy), 1.25% Defense(Negative)[/list][u]Positron's Blast[u]
(Buckshot)
- [*] 2.5% (0.04 End/sec) Recovery[*] 1.58% Resistance(Fire,Cold)[*] 9% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*] 6.25% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[/list][u]Sting of the Manticore[u]
(Sniper Rifle)
- [*] 12% (0.6 HP/sec) Regeneration[*] 1.88% Defense(Ranged), 0.94% Defense(Energy), 0.94% Defense(Negative)[*] 3% DamageBuff(All)[*] 7.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[/list][u]Freebird[u]
(Fly)
- [*] 8% (0.4 HP/sec) Regeneration[/list][u]Numina's Convalescence[u]
(Health)
- [*] 12% (0.6 HP/sec) Regeneration[/list][u]Positron's Blast[u]
(Flamethrower)
- [*] 2.5% (0.04 End/sec) Recovery[*] 1.58% Resistance(Fire,Cold)[*] 9% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*] 6.25% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[/list][u]Luck of the Gambler[u]
(Stealth)
- [*] 10% (0.5 HP/sec) Regeneration[*] 7.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[/list][u]Positron's Blast[u]
(M30 Grenade)
- [*] 2.5% (0.04 End/sec) Recovery[*] 1.58% Resistance(Fire,Cold)[*] 9% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*] 6.25% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[/list][u]Positron's Blast[u]
(Full Auto)
- [*] 2.5% (0.04 End/sec) Recovery[*] 1.58% Resistance(Fire,Cold)[*] 9% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*] 6.25% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[/list][u]Crushing Impact[u]
(Total Focus)
- [*] MezResist(Immobilize) 2.2%[*] 13.6 HP (1.12%) HitPoints[*] 7% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*] 5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[/list][u]Aegis[u]
(Body Armor)
- [*] 2.1% Resistance(Psionic)[/list][u]Steadfast Protection[u]
(Body Armor)
- [*] Knockback Protection (Mag -4)[/list][u]Essence of Curare[u]
(Cryo Freeze Ray)
- [*] MezResist(Terrorized) 1.65%[/list][u]Lockdown[u]
(Cryo Freeze Ray)
- [*] 3% DamageBuff(All)[/list]
"But in our enthusiasm, we could not resist a radical overhaul of the system, in which all of its major weaknesses have been exposed, analyzed, and replaced with new weaknesses."
-- Bruce Leverett, Register Allocation in Optimizing Compilers
I'm of the school of thought that every blaster should have acrobatics, period. Not for the hold resist mind you (though that's handy) But virtually every single high level group, notably Rikti, malta, and nemesis, has a means to knock you on your butt way too much. Out of all my blasters i've been killed more trying to recover from knockbacks and knockdowns then I ever have holds, that's what break frees are for.
Ignite...meh unlike what my badly needing to be updated guide says, it's totally skipable now if they did put it on a 20 sec recharge.
Boost Range = must have, makes your cones go from lethal to godly with what they can hit, specially full auto.
Med pool: Either, aid self is the real jewel, whatever you pick ahead is merely filler.
Epic pool: If you want to go heavy melee with /EM then pick up the force pool. Force of nature makes you a killing machine with the energy attacks, and gives you the resists to stand toe to toe with bosses and most AV's. If you prefer ranged combat look into cold. Power boost ups the defense on frozen armor further, snow storm is great damage mitigation, hoarfrost is an instant 30% hp boost, and hibernate is hands down a great way to recharge in a pinch. Don't bother with munitions, you don't need LRM for more damage, and cryo freeze doesn't have anything to stack with. Given the amount of attacks you will have odds are everything will be dead before you could hold them anyway.
Accolades: with the exception of geas of the kind one, most are toys or trinkets (crey cryo gun comes to mind) Though go for any that offer end or hp boosts, every bit helps.
[ QUOTE ]
Accolades: with the exception of geas of the kind one, most are toys or trinkets (crey cryo gun comes to mind) Though go for any that offer end or hp boosts, every bit helps.
[/ QUOTE ]
It may be an anomaly -- I'll have to test it again tonight to be certain -- but the sequence of popping Vanguard Medal, Eye of the Magus, and Geas of the Kind Ones let me drop into the middle of the bowl on the Rikti mothership last night and stand there dealing out a hail of gunfire until well after U'kon G'rai had gone down and the immediate center of the bowl had been cleared without any visible drop of my HP bar. It's a particularly situational use, but as a sixty-second god mode, it put me in mind of the last part of the "Meet the Heavy" video from Team Fortress 2, where the heavy is standing there in the open with Sascha at full honk spraying lead all over the map and blowing opponents away left and right.
"But in our enthusiasm, we could not resist a radical overhaul of the system, in which all of its major weaknesses have been exposed, analyzed, and replaced with new weaknesses."
-- Bruce Leverett, Register Allocation in Optimizing Compilers
Ok, after finally getting my respec TF finished (after hitting 30), I think I know how my powers will be taken. I am not 100% on how I am going to slot them yet, time will tell. What do you think about my choices?
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/
[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]
Level 48 Mutation Blaster
Primary Power Set: Assault Rifle
Secondary Power Set: Energy Manipulation
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Munitions Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Slug -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Power Thrust -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Buckshot -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Build Up -- Empty(A)
Level 6: Combat Jumping -- Empty(A)
Level 8: M30 Grenade -- Empty(A)
Level 10: Bone Smasher -- Empty(A)
Level 12: Sniper Rifle -- Empty(A)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Empty(A)
Level 16: Conserve Power -- Empty(A)
Level 18: Flamethrower -- Empty(A)
Level 20: Acrobatics -- Empty(A)
Level 22: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 24: Health -- Empty(A)
Level 26: Stamina -- Empty(A)
Level 28: Power Boost -- Empty(A)
Level 30: Beanbag -- Empty(A)
Level 32: Full Auto -- Empty(A)
Level 35: Boost Range -- Empty(A)
Level 38: Total Focus -- Empty(A)
Level 41: Body Armor -- Empty(A)
Level 44: Surveillance -- Empty(A)
Level 47: LRM Rocket -- Empty(A)
Level 49: Assault -- Empty(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Defiance
I wouldn't skip Burst these days. The AR guides often knock it, but as noted in the posts above, especially mine and Fury's, Burst is a key power now. It's your best ranged DpS. Sniper Rifle and M30 each have points, but neither are better than Burst. Skip one of those two, I'd skip M30 unless you're pretty good at use of knockback as mitigation.
If you respec down, take Stamina before Acrobatics.
You should be able to get Slug, Burst, and Flamethrower 6-slotted by the time you pick up Full Auto.
Taking the build with power slotted out. Not that I'd do it this way by level, I just went down the list making sure every power had the slots it needed.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/
[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]
Level 50 Magic Blaster
Primary Power Set: Assault Rifle
Secondary Power Set: Energy Manipulation
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Ancillary Pool: Munitions Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Slug -- Empty(A), Empty(3), Empty(3), Empty(5), Empty(5), Empty(7)
Level 1: Power Thrust -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Buckshot -- Empty(A), Empty(7), Empty(9), Empty(9), Empty(11), Empty(11)
Level 4: Build Up -- Empty(A), Empty(13), Empty(13)
Level 6: Combat Jumping -- Empty(A)
Level 8: M30 Grenade -- Empty(A), Empty(15), Empty(15), Empty(17), Empty(17), Empty(19)
Level 10: Bone Smasher -- Empty(A), Empty(19), Empty(21), Empty(21), Empty(23), Empty(23)
Level 12: Sniper Rifle -- Empty(A), Empty(25), Empty(25), Empty(27), Empty(27), Empty(29)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Empty(A)
Level 16: Conserve Power -- Empty(A), Empty(29), Empty(31)
Level 18: Flamethrower -- Empty(A), Empty(31), Empty(31), Empty(33), Empty(33), Empty(33)
Level 20: Acrobatics -- Empty(A)
Level 22: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 24: Health -- Empty(A), Empty(34), Empty(34)
Level 26: Stamina -- Empty(A), Empty(34), Empty(36)
Level 28: Power Boost -- Empty(A), Empty(36), Empty(36)
Level 30: Beanbag -- Empty(A), Empty(37), Empty(37), Empty(37), Empty(39)
Level 32: Full Auto -- Empty(A), Empty(39), Empty(39), Empty(40), Empty(40), Empty(40)
Level 35: Boost Range -- Empty(A), Empty(42), Empty(42)
Level 38: Total Focus -- Empty(A), Empty(42), Empty(43), Empty(43), Empty(43), Empty(45)
Level 41: Body Armor -- Empty(A), Empty(45), Empty(45)
Level 44: Surveillance -- Empty(A), Empty(46), Empty(46), Empty(46)
Level 47: LRM Rocket -- Empty(A), Empty(48), Empty(48), Empty(48), Empty(50), Empty(50)
Level 49: Ignite -- Empty(A), Empty(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Defiance
Works out well, you have the space for all your attacks getting 6 slots, (minus power thrust) all your buffs having enough slots for three recharges, you can three slot health and stamina for the max bonuses with SO's or generic IO's, and there's three slots or more for body armor. Depending on if you want resists, or you can pluck a few slots from surveillance for a full set bonus.
That aside some alternate thoughts to consider.
#1 Hurdle over swift, you are taking the leaping pool.
#2 Switch out m30 for beanbag, you'll want it and need it a lot eariler then 30, any damage mitigation blasters can get is happy mitigation. Specially when you start running into the mezzing mobs like tsoo ink men and council vamps, nail them before they nail you. Where beanbag would be at level 30, add in hasten. With both stamina and conserve power in the build endurance shouldn't be an issue, and it gets conserve up that much faster.
#3 Do consider burst being added, bumping the 1-10 picks down a notch, and dropping sniper rifle to do so.
#4 If you want the med pool, replace out sniper rifle and conserve power. Cause a power boosted aid self really is a downtime saver, and conserve power really isn't as good as it used to be.
#5 I still say force or cold is the better epic pick, but if you are dead set on munitions, then consider picking up cryo freeze over surveillance, then ignite at level 49. Freeze em, then BBQ them. Also see above opinion on how held/stunned mobs are also mobs not hitting back.
Brand new to the game (love it so far and I've just finished creating a few characters :P )
I have started an AR / EM blaster(duh) and I'm just looking for advice on what powers to get in the first 20 ish levels. I'm level 7 so far and I Have slug, burst, buckshot from AR and Power thrust from EM and then I have hover for the travel power pool. I spread the slots around my AR powers.
Did I do it right so far? No? Can i fix it? Do I need to respec?
I've looked for other help but it looks like stuff is out-dated. Thanks for any advice.