Archery/EM. EM because of boost range. Archery because it's better than AR due to RoA and aim.
However, I think a Seven of Nine type blaster would work best with Electric/Electric but that build works better as a blapper rather than as a ranged fighter IMO. Charged brawl, havoc punch and thunderstrike makes for an impressive melee oriented arsenal.
WARNING: This got really long.
I remember you. You're the guy who would rather delete than fix because you have some odd rules that you made up for yourself.
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[you] have a nasty habit of deleting characters if they dont meet [your] approval the first time through (even though there are respecs, I've had this very bad habit since I started playing any game. Perfection according to my own specifications or bust!).
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So suggestion #0 is "at least try your second build."
Suggestions for what you might be doing wrong, from most general to most specific:
1) Slotting. Before level 22, you have DO's and almost every "guide" gives you the at-50 slotting. We (the royal we) recommend slotting two Accuracy and two or three Damage in each attack. End Reduction and Damage, at these levels, give about the same effect on Damage per Endurance. And the Damage finishes fights earlier.
2) End usage - one common new-kid problem is leaving Sprint on in fights- or worse, Fly. Another is using AOE attacks on only one badguy because "nothing else is recharged."
3) I'm not a huge fan of "All ranged attack" builds because, well, there's a tremendous amount of damage in the melee attacks and I love my orange numbers. Another way of thinking of it is "Scrappers get damage + protection. Blasters get damage + damage. If you aren't using the secondary, you're not that much better on offense than a Scrapper, and you're going to be a LOT worse on defense." If you're determined to have your Range only, I can't tell you that you're wrong. I can only tell you that you're not going to do as much damage.
4) "Scrappers/teams mad at you". There are definitely right and wrong ways to use Knockback. The general rule I used on teams is, "If I knock it back, it's my problem." Single target (or using the cone from up close so I only hit one guy) works well. Nobody worth knowing complains about having one badguy knocked away and killed. There are clever ways to minimize knockback (hover and "Bouncing them off the ground" being one, knockback into walls or terrain being another) and there are clever ways to make knockback work for you- nudging people back into tar patches or damage auras. And some people blame their failures on your knockback- a variant on "Blame the healer" or "Blame the tank" or the other bad Pickup Group blame games. (Protip: If you find someone on a pickup group who DOESN'T suck, ask them if you can /friend them.)
5) "Dying all the time"-One common problem is setting your reputation to "invincible". This causes you to fight enemies that are about 2 levels higher, on average. If you're on a team and doing someone else's mission this may also cause much higher-level enemies than you can handle. At level 30, any random team of competent players should probably be able to handle +3's. At level 14? Not likely. And a lot of team leaders decide "Invincible or die trying" for the alleged greater XP.
Another common problem is opening the fight. As a Blaster, your job is to drop people. Not "drop them to 10% hit points". You should shoot them till they drop and do not get up again. Don't stress about the concussions and organ damage- the prison doctors are really good. They get a lot of practice. If you're soloing, the best way to do your job is to open up with your hardest hitters and keep using everything you have until you drop or they do. On a team, this is exactly the WRONG approach. You want to let other people, whose job is "Fight starter", start the fight. You then do YOUR job and end the fight. Baseball, I believe, separates pitchers into "openers" and "Closers" and you're definitely the latter. First guy to the fight gets the first round of return fire, and Tanks are built for that.
6) A minor point, because I've already gone on too long: Money. Go to Wentworth's, and look at the bulge in the roof. That's there because it's stuffed with invisible influence. You can help relieve the pressure. Buy a bunch of mid-to-high-level Snipe, Confuse, or Fear recipes for low prices (500 to 1000 each.) Sell them to a vendor for 100-per-level (3000 to 5000 each.) Do this once or twice every time you log in and you'll be comfortably well off and not too insanely annoyed at the busywork.
Don't worry that you're taking advantage of other players, or that people will swoop in and buy all your cheap recipes. I buy stuff for 2 million, craft it, and sell for 10 million and people are apparently perfectly happy to pay those prices. The market forum is full of guides, including "0 to a billion in 30 days" if you're determined to have wealth beyond reason. People throw inf around like it's imaginary currency.
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
Urgh. Giant wall of text and I still left stuff out.
Build Up. Aim. Get them as soon as possible. Reasoning available if requested.
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
Ah yes, I well remember when I first started playing and ran into much the same issues you're having now. Fulmens gave you some good pointers already about teaming and letting someone else open the fight. I had much the same problem with my first Blaster 4 years ago, I played him just the same in the teens and 20's as I did when he was level 5 and kept getting pounded into the ground in 3 seconds flat.
It took me nearly 3 years before I attempted another Blaster I'd hated the character so much... and you know what? I'd learned a lot in the meantime and I DIDN'T play like a solo level 5 blaster anymore. My first rule solo was don't attack anything I couldn't kill quickly and restrict the AOE to avoid over-aggro, and for sure on a team don't use an AOE before the tank/scrapper/controller has the mobs under control. Over-aggro will kill you faster than most anything else.
Now for powersets... my only 50 blaster is Archery/Energy and it's been a monster from around level 10; at 50 it's perfectly capable of dropping an entire 8 man spawn in 5 seconds at 90' range. The single target damage is really good and quick recharging... it's end friendly as well; even at 50 I've never needed Stamina. I've really enjoyed the combination but from what you're saying I'm not sure it really fits what you want.
You say you want to stay ranged... in that case /energy is the set to take for Boost Range, we just need to figure out a primary for you. Fire offers massive damage and very good AOE potential... not quite up with Archery's AOE but very respectable. Soloing you'll probably mostly depend on the single target attacks, you'll have some tasty AOE for teams as well. This is my second favorite primary after Archery... I've been working on a Fire/Energy lately and just got to 28. If your concept can take shooting fire and throwing fireballs then this may be the one for you.
You're pretty well ruling out Energy/* due to the knockback and that's probably a wise choice at this point in your experience... later on after you learn how to use KB effectively it can be very useful. Unfortunately KB can very easily be used IN-effectively, particularly by an inexperienced player.
Ice is a fantastic single target damage set with limited AOE. My only experience with it is from a mid-20's level Defender but it was quite effective against one hard target. Large groups however it struggled with due to the lack of AOE. You get a pair of Holds with the set however, so you'll be almost a "controller lite".
Sonic, at least the Defender version (I have a mid-30's Rad/Sonic Defender), is great damage; and subsequent attacks do even more damage due to the -res debuff in the set. The graphics and SFX leave a bit to be desired though; you'll be yelling at the enemies instead of blasting them which may not fit what you're looking for.
Electric wouldn't be one of my top pics, the damage is lacking and the end drain secondary effect is basically worthless... unless you can drain a mob dry and keep him there he'll still attack you. Again, my experience with the set is as a Defender, this time a Kinetic/Electric. I built him as a "sapper" to drain mobs of end... unfortunately the concept didn't pan out like I'd hoped. The attacks do look and sound very cool... I just wish the damage was better. It gives you a hold though, so that's a point in it's favor. If I wanted a hold though I'd go with Ice; it does more damage and gives you TWO holds.
Well, I'm out of Blaster primaries that I've any personal experience with, either as a Blaster or as a Defender secondary. Hopefully others can give you thoughts on the rest of the primaries... in the meantime I hope I've given you some food for thought.
COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
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At first Energy/Energy would suit her, but considering the lack of damage output, slow attack animations (lots of scrappers) coupled with the already mouth-foaming hate I was recieving from groups because of my knockback (lots of scrappers), I decided I'd try something else
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I've been a proponent of Energy/Energy ever since I rolled my first toon- and still my favourite- an Energy/Energy blaster.
Point one: Melee are going to [censored] about your knockback no matter what. I've been [censored] out about my KB... on a team with two stormies -_-
Ignore them, you'll be happier, especially if you've already gotten used to using your KB as mitigation.
As to damage- Energy damage is almost precisely middle-of-the-road for primaries, and better than most for secondaries- Energy Punch and Bone Smasher both animate blisteringly fast and do ridiculous damage- don't be afraid to jump in, smash some hapless minion's face in, and jump out again. Even Power Thrust can do respectable damage if you slot it correctly (something that took me years to figure out >.O), and is very useful for getting things that are in your face out of your face.
As to animation speeds- I think you'll find that's more timing than anything else; I've run Archery, Energy, and Electric (as a Defender secondary) up to fifty, and at least experimented with Sonic, AR, and Fire- while some animations are a bit faster than others, corpse-blasting can be a problem no matter what set you're on.
Hmm... looking at the animation times, I'm not sure where you're coming from; Tier one and twos are standardized (all exactly the same), and Power Burst is one second slower than its equivalent in Fire, 0.17 seconds slower than its counterpart in Archery, and 0.33 seconds faster than its counterpart in Sonic.
Energy Torrent is faster than any cone except for Buckshot (1.07 vs. 0.9 seconds), and it's a bit stronger than Buckshot.
Explosive Blast is pretty much middle-of-the-road- there are two faster AoEs, one equal, and one slower.
So... yeah. Take that as you will.
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
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Archery/EM. EM because of boost range. Archery because it's better than AR due to RoA and aim.
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Ah the old Archery versus AR debate. I have a AR at 50, and my archery is just 45. Im finding that the two are very close in fun factor, and the main difference between the two is team strategy.
If you team isn't on the same page as you, RoA is a pain. Maybe the tank pulls stuff to A, then after you trigger it moves to B and the mobs follow. Full Auto is better in that case line up the cone to a small degree, then fire.
Archery is great solo or a small team, but RoA is just so slow from start to damage occuring on a steam-rollering team that you have to basically be operating ahead of the team to use it effectively.
Love em both, though.
@Catwhoorg "Rule of Three - Finale" Arc# 1984
@Mr Falkland Islands"A Nation Goes Rogue" Arc# 2369 "Toasters and Pop Tarts" Arc#116617
<QR>
One issue that you pointed out and wasn't addressed is mob resist/defense.
As sad as I am ot say this...if you're looking for a damage type that isn't resisted by any enemy in the game...you're pretty much going to find yourself boned. It just ain't gonna happen. Every damage type in the game is resisted by SOMEBODY. Smashing/Lethal is typically the most resisted, IME.
Some sets don't suffer QUITE as much as others, in this regard. AR and Archery have multiple damage types in their arsenal. A bit of smashing, lethal, and fire as i recall. Ice is a mix of lethal and ice. Energy (and i think sonic?) is a mix of smashing/energy. So in these cases...if the mobs are resistant to one type...they're usually not to the other. That helps some.
Psy is not as resisted in lower levels as some are...but the things that are resistant to it are usually REAL resistant. Robots, zombies, and the like. And late game this gets pretty bad with malta bots, carnies, and others.
So...really...you're just gonna have to grit your teeth from time to time, depending on what you're fighting on any given mission. Resisted damage types are unavoidable, i'm sorry to say. Even Fire and Ice are resisted by some mobs (hellions, behemoths, hellfrosts). Sorry...there's no way around this little snag.
RaikenX is currently seeking new quotes to add to his signature.
Someone say something funny.
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Originally Posted by Smiling_Joe
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Something funny. |
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3) I'm not a huge fan of "All ranged attack" builds because, well, there's a tremendous amount of damage in the melee attacks and I love my orange numbers. Another way of thinking of it is "Scrappers get damage + protection. Blasters get damage + damage. If you aren't using the secondary, you're not that much better on offense than a Scrapper, and you're going to be a LOT worse on defense." If you're determined to have your Range only, I can't tell you that you're wrong. I can only tell you that you're not going to do as much damage.
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Fulmens pretty much nails it, but I had just one quibble. Blasters aren't just damage + damage, they're AoE damage + Big ST damage to scrappers' damage + protection. Spines aside (and even they can't really compete w/a top-end AoE blaster), blasters can mow down large numbers faster than scrappers. Of course, you can excel past scrappers w/single mobs using your secondaries as well, but I don't think it's all *that* bad to be playing 100% from range (esp if you plan on having high ranged defense).
Also, Fulmens' 2nd post is equally spot on. If you ignore BU & Aim, there's really little point in being a blaster (no, I haven't run w/an AR/Dev since i0 
).
An Offensive Guide to Ice Melee
Tangential, not-especially helpful response follows.
I avoid this problem by simply never having a character concept before I create a character. I start with what I want to play, then create a concept that fits it. I get the idea that I end up with a far higher percentage of characters I am satisfied with as a result.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
Im gonna use the C word. Corrupter
If you are having that tough a time surviving, you may want to try a Corrupter with /Rad or /Dark for a first time character if you dont mind being villain.
If you liked Energy, go with that. Screw melee'ers that complain about it. Get yourself into an SG or on a regular team.
RaikenX said
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...if you're looking for a damage type that isn't resisted by any enemy in the game...you're pretty much going to find yourself boned.
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There's startlingly little Fire Resistance in the game. Behemoths are, like, 20% resistant. Apparently I do at least 20% overkill all the time, because I barely notice that. And some Arachnos guys are presumably resistant, but they resist EVERYTHING.
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
I'd think that just about any powerset combo could be made to work with Tech origin. You just have a device that lets you shoot fireballs, or amplify your voice, or whatever.
If you like the Energy/Energy, why not keep playing that? Its animation times are really pretty consistent with other sets--the first two are standardized, Torrent is fast for a cone, Power Burst is a little slow but not that bad. The only thing is that, if you do play it, you should take a little time to figure out the little tricks that make KB tolerable to teams. I'm sure you can get pointers on that if you ask.
If you really want all-ranged, then some primaries are better than others. Energy wouldn't be the best, but not the worst either--sort of middle of the road. Fire, AR, and Archery are probably better. Electric is probably worst.
I'm not going to lecture you about using the melee attacks. That's a playstyle choice. I have a couple of all-ranged blasters, and I enjoy them.
If that's your choice, then for secondary I'd choose either /Energy--for the self-buffs including boost range; /Ice--for the ranged cone slow and Ice Patch, which can be used as a barrier to melee attackers; /Mental, with its ranged cone attack, which would give you more ranged damage; or possibly /Devices--I don't have a lot of experience with it, though, so I'm not sure.
And last but not least: Listen to Fulmens about being the fight ender, not the fight starter. That's probably the number one mistake that blasters make that leads to their deaths. If you go with Energy, it's arguably even more important--Energy Torrent is a terrible fight starter, what with the mass KB, but it's a great closer. Wait until they're whittled down, then let it loose.
Yeah, I think that was kind of rambling. Oh well. Good luck, anyway.
Ever hear of teaming with a tanker? Im serious.
Find a friend, re--roll, make a leveling pact. You bring the damage, he brings the safety. No obstacle cannot be overcome. No foe is too great. When you get good at blasting, then make friends with any other toon, but as a start, befriend a tank.
My Ice/Ice blaster is in a leveling pact with an Elec/Elec blaster. We succeed because we use good tactics. Like never stand on the same side of a boss that can cone mez you. Until you know how the AI works, a tank will help you. Like a big ole meatbag buffer zone.
-Largo
Founder of A.G.O.N.Y. Supergroup on Victory
Member of Thought Sanctum VG on Victory
Member of St0rm Batallion SG on Guardian
Energy/Devices. Hear me out.
Energy primary seems to fit your concept best. If you are worried about knockback, you can (A) Hover over the battle and convert your knockback to knockdown, or (B) say "screw the Scrappers" and blast away. If you pick your targets carefully and don't open with an AoE knockback you will be OK.
Devices, even though it doesn't have Build Up, can really help if you are frustrated with dying. Caltrops will keep almost every enemy away from you-- its the key to the set. Use it every battle. Targeting Drone relieves the frustration of missing higher enemies. Cloaking Device reduces your aggro radius when unsuppressed and makes setting up your attacks easy solo. Trip mines are very effective, although they take a while to set up and are not all that team friendly. Also Devices fits your Tech background.
I hate to see anyone lose a good concept. It's what will carry you to 50. Give Eng/Dev a try and see how you like it.
Ideally, the tank will die precisely as everyone else starts fighting, allowing aggro to be spread evenly among the blaster. -seebs, "How to Suck at CoH/CoV" Guide
when starting out, I'd recommend teaming a Blaster with "Anything but..." You can team a Blaster with anything, if you're both good. On the other hand, people who are good can play Scrappers on invincible without using any powers from their secondary, so "if you're good" is kind of a cop-out.
I'd avoid a duo of Blaster + Kinetic, because Kin provides far more offense than defense and as a Blaster, you kinda could use the defense.
I'd avoid a duo of Blaster + Scrapper, because the Scrapper doesn't do much of anything but damage, and Blasters do enough damage that the aggro will pretty much go to you, unless you throttle your damage down. In which case why play a blaster?
Anything else pretty much works. Blaster +Tank? Great. Blaster + Defender? Great. Blaster + Controller? Great. Blaster + Other Blaster? Good, but a little nerve-wracking.
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
Thanks for all the info, and even the rather hot comments some people posted. I know I may be the wrong kind of player or playing this game the wrong way, but when a character concept comes your way and sticks in your head, and a game can give that character life, wouldnt you try and give it the strongest go you can?
I have, and I've hit walls higher than I could scale. But at least I learned quite a bit:
I've realized why Energy has shorter-ranged attacks. If paired with Energy secondary, it makes for a thematic and synergistic blapperish attack style (provided you have the mobility to do so). This of course goes against my idea of the blaster being a ranged character.
...then again, maybe the concept of the blaster isnt just range, of which I need to learn still.
I am open, however, to just pushing the concept off the cliff myself and just play the game as its supposed to be played. I guess in my old gamer times, old habits die very hard and old standards that I play by are archaic and broken by today.
Anyway, couple of questions:
1. I've noticed some blapper videos have people short-jumping into and out of melee range to do melee attacks sprinkled with some ranged. How do they manage this?
2. I've noticed that AR/Devices is both thematic and work well together. Noticed Ignite working well with Caltrops. Is this a good prim/sec to work with as a ranged character who can solo?
3. If anything else, I'd like some more suggestions on a prim/sec for an all-ranged (or at least, non-melee) blaster.
Energy blasters rock that was my first fifty and he had ice manip as secondary. Icepatch with chilling embrace and chilblain can save ur butt. I can see a cyborg android having energy ice. ice could be its internal coolant and energy could be its primary attacks 
and knockback is very nice with energy blasters with chiblain to freeze um in place.
AR/dev is a relatively common pairing, mostly due to the thematic match. It is, depending on who you ask, either one of the strongest or weakest solo blasters. Assault rifle lacks aim and a 3rd single target attack, and devices lacks build up and any single-target damage, so the straight up 'solo' damage is lacking. On the other hand, webnade, caltrops, and ignite *do* go together well, and devices has a variety of tricks for *easier*, albiet not faster, soloing. Basically, /devices makes for slow but safe soloing. Honestly, I wouldn't pair AR with devices, though. Aside from the ignite synergy, in my opinion arch/dev is a better combo and also goes well, conceptually.
If you really want an all-ranged blaster (you are correct in your realization that the blaster, in general, is not an all-ranged fighter), the best choices for secondaries in my opinion are devices and ice, with some consideration given to /mental and /energy. Devices has caltrops, webnade, and stealth to facilitate ranged fighting, and ice has shiver and ice patch. Of the two, my preference is /ice, mostly because it has build up. Ice patch serves the same melee denial purpose as caltrops, and shiver is just godly. Mental doesn't have as many tools to *enable* ranged fighting, it just has a ranged cone and single target knockback. Energy has boost range and a ST knockback. I don't think either is as good for a pure ranged fighter as /ice is, though.
For primaries, you probably want something along the lines of fire or archery, or perhaps psi, ice or energy. If you're staying at range, your primary has to carry the entire load of doing damage. Thus, you want a primary that is up to the task. Fire is the stereotypical 'all damage, all the time' primary, and thus would be a good choice. Archery has good, long ranged single target attacks, and a spectacular pseudo-nuke. Psi, ice, and energy have useful effects for a ranged fighter - psi with long range and knocks in tornado and tk blast, ice with movement slows and holds, and energy with knocks in every power.
As far as specific combos go, the ones that jump out at me immediately are fire/ice, ice/mental, and arch/dev. Fire/ice has the best ranged damage primary, and pairs it with a very good ranged support secondary. Use shiver and ice patch to stop enemies from closing to melee and slow their attacks, and wipe them out with fire's high damage ranged attacks. Ice/mental has slightly less ranged damage, but two ranged holds for great solo mitigation. Psi scream adds to ice's otherwise weaker AoE (and combos well with frost breath for massive slowing), and TK thrust is great for getting problem foes out of your face. Probably a safer soloer than fire/ice, but not as strong against crowds. Arch/dev is probably the safest soloer of the bunch, with dev's tricks combined with arch's long-range death, but will be slower than either of the other two, and not as useful on teams. Another possibility could be ice/energy - boost range lets you hold and blast stuff from the next county over, and power boost will make the holds last much longer, and ice's movement slows much stronger. Power thrust to knock away anything that gets too close, and it could work.
Whatever you choose, probably the best way to make sure you get a functional character is to download mid's planner, and post a proposed build on the forums for critique. We can give you advice on which powers to take/skip, and how to slot them.
@MuonNeutrino
Student, Gamer, Altaholic, and future Astronomer.
This is what it means to be a tank!
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...then again, maybe the concept of the blaster isnt just range, of which I need to learn still.
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This, I'm afraid, is true. The blaster, in general, isn't meant to be an all-ranged archetype. How do I know this? Well, I think it follows from the way the powersets are made. If blasters were meant to be all-ranged, they're poorly designed for it. The concept of the blaster is really high damage and low defense, at whatever range.
BUT ... If your concept of the blaster you want to play is all-ranged, that's certainly doable, and it's not like there's something wrong with it. So don't be apologetic. Actually, there have been changes over the years that make an all-ranged blaster a lot more viable than it was at one time, and it's a choice that a lot of players make. So go for it.
But since it's not the original AT concept, it does mean that not every set combination is going to lend itself well to that, and you'll have to be a bit choosy about what powers you take.
So. You talk about Energy being short-ranged. You'd have loved it back when Power Bolt was only 20 feet, I guess. Anyway, I guess I'll have to assume that the range you want is greater than the 40 feet PB and Energy Torrent give you. That's pretty par for the course for blaster primaries, though. Most of them do include things that are that range.
Archery is a really good choice for a ranger. All the attacks except two are at least 80-foot range, and those two are at 50 and 60.
Psychic Blast's attacks are all at least 80 feet, so that's another one--it has a bad rap around here, but I think that's exaggerated. As long as you don't try to fight too many robots, and are happy with single-target damage as opposed to AoE (which is fine for soloing), it's fine.
Ice Blast has a little better range than Energy Blast. Its third single-target blast has 50 foot range, as opposed to Energy's 40 feet.
You asked about Assault Rifle. It's a nice set. But if you thought Energy was too short-ranged, you'll likely think the same about AR. Several of the powers are at 40 feet.
If you can live with a 40 foot range, are okay with slotting for range, and/or take the Energy Secondary and use Boost Range (unfortunately not until level 35, though), any of the primaries should work for a ranger. The only one I'd be leery about is Electric, because it's lower damage than the others. If paired with its corresponding secondary, the endurance drain can make up for that by giving it greater survivability, but not at range.
Anyway, now secondaries. They tend to be more melee and less ranged, but several of them have some useful ranged powers and/or good self-buffs.
/Devices is said to be pretty good for this playstyle, but I haven't played it very far myself. My Archery/Devices is meant to be an all-ranged character. Working well so far, but I haven't taken very many of the powers yet.
/Energy has Build Up very early, which is nice, the aforementioned Boost Range, Conserve Power and Power Boost, all self-buffs that can be used at any range. So that's a good option.
/Ice doesn't have a lot of ranged stuff, but Shiver is one of the great unsung powers in the game--a massive cone which does movement and recharge slow. Just that one power is probably enough to keep most things out of melee with you. So I like /Ice for ranged characters. And Ice Patch can be a good barrier as well, like /Devices' Caltrops.
/Mental has a couple of ranged powers. A ranged cone damage attack, the only one in any secondary, can add to your ranged AoE damage. It also has a ranged Fear power.
All the secondaries except Energy have a ranged ST immobilize as well, and some of them also do decent damage. All except /Devices has Build Up, which you should take if possible.
So ... I don't know how much help that really was, but I hope it was a little. Good luck.
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Thanks for all the info, and even the rather hot comments some people posted. I know I may be the wrong kind of player or playing this game the wrong way, but when a character concept comes your way and sticks in your head, and a game can give that character life, wouldnt you try and give it the strongest go you can?
I have, and I've hit walls higher than I could scale. But at least I learned quite a bit:
I've realized why Energy has shorter-ranged attacks. If paired with Energy secondary, it makes for a thematic and synergistic blapperish attack style (provided you have the mobility to do so). This of course goes against my idea of the blaster being a ranged character.
...then again, maybe the concept of the blaster isnt just range, of which I need to learn still.
I am open, however, to just pushing the concept off the cliff myself and just play the game as its supposed to be played. I guess in my old gamer times, old habits die very hard and old standards that I play by are archaic and broken by today.
Anyway, couple of questions:
1. I've noticed some blapper videos have people short-jumping into and out of melee range to do melee attacks sprinkled with some ranged. How do they manage this?
2. I've noticed that AR/Devices is both thematic and work well together. Noticed Ignite working well with Caltrops. Is this a good prim/sec to work with as a ranged character who can solo?
3. If anything else, I'd like some more suggestions on a prim/sec for an all-ranged (or at least, non-melee) blaster.
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There are two separate "Sticking points", I think, as far as your playstyle. They are different things.
First is "concept over optimization." If you really, really want to play a guy who looks armored, flies and hoves, and blasts people with big white beams that do knockback. that's what you want to do. Playing ,I dunno, a fire/electric melee type is NOT WHAT YOU WANT.
I will help try to make your concept work as well as it can.
The second point is your (possibly abandoned) tendency to delete imperfections. I couldn't tell if your "old habits" and "old standards" referred to that or not. To give an unrelated example, there are people who play some games "if you lose a fight, you're dead forever"- even if the game does not have that rule, they play by it. They've tightened the rules for what they can and cannot do beyond what the game system gives them. I've done that- Master of Magic where you're not allowed to "try a fight" and redo from saved games if you teamwipe, to give an example from the early 90's. Generally if I'm going to tighten the rules, it's after I try the game once or twice under "Standard" rules.
So I've got limited sympathy for things like "delete on first failure" and other rules.
Here is my advice on how to build and play your ranged, hovering, Iron Chica.
ONE: Money. Tony Stark has money. Genius inventors are often genius businessmen. Making money at Wents is totally in character, in my head. And it's so easy. So easy.
We will assume that we can garner any inf we need.
So, your Energy Blast and Energy Support powers, and pool powers, to get you to level 22. The game does have an "awkward teen" aspect to it- until you have Stamina you're getting more and more powers, which use more and more endurance, and you don't have ways to increase your endurance usage.
Looking through the grab-bag:
ENERGY BLAST- Power Blast and Power Bolt are your bread and butter. Those are core attacks and you need both of them. Power Burst is also very good, although as has been mentioned it has a 40' range instead of 80'. These three singletarget attacks, which you get early, are a good trio to have and use.
Energy Torrent is a very good power IF USED RIGHT. When people are complaining about your knockback, this is probably what they mean. It does good damage in a hurry, "BUT". BUT it knocks everyone away from you. BUT it uses a lot of endurance (you have to hit three people to break even, knocking most of them back and causing fussing and whining.)
Aim is not to be overlooked. I will have a whole section on Aim and Build Up soon.
I'm not a Power Push fan personally- if I throw three normal attacks ONE of them will knock the guy back anyway- so we can put that in the "probably not needed" category.
Sniper Burst is a judgement call. I like it for the huge range, but not for the huge, interruptible startup time. (If you move, you're cancelling the power and wasting the endurance.) I'd say "pick it up if you have room and time."
Energy Manipulation: Power Thrust is mandatory. Even if you never plan to be within fifteen feet of an enemy, you literally are required to take this power.
I would recommend either Energy Punch or Bone Smasher, normally, because if someone DOES get in reach they need to be taken down in a hurry. Bone Smasher will do that. It's considerably more damage in considerably less time than Power Burst. If you don't want it don't take it.
Build Up. Build up build up build up. Take it use it love it. Aim is +65% damage, Build Up is +100% damage. That means that you can nearly double your damage output with either one of these for ten seconds at a time. "ten seconds" works out to "about three guys." If you have some need to do crazy damage immediately, and in the later game you WILL have this need, you can use them both together.
So the build looks something like this, so far:
L1 Power Bolt and Power Thrust
L2 Power Blast
L3 (slots into both your blasts)
L4 Build Up
L5 (more slots into both your blasts)
L6 Power Burst
L7 (slots into Power Burst)
L8 Energy Torrent or Sniper Blast
L9 (slots into the L8 power)
NOTE: At this point we've 3-slotted four attacks. You might want to put 4 slots into each of your basic attacks and go short on Energy Torrent. That's a personal choice. Enhancements should be "two accuracy, one or more damage". Anyway, you're going to slot your attacks for quite a while on the odd levels. .
L10 first pool power! Hover. Keep their greasy peasant hands off your shiny metal.
L12 Aim. Also, go buy a full set of double-origin enhancements. Enjoy not missing, enjoy doing more damage.
L14 Flight. NOTE: flight eats your endurance a lot more than Hover does.
L16: Do not succumb to the temptation of "Conserve Power"- it won't be up very often and it delays Stamina. Which you really, really want. Take Swift from the Fitness pool.
L17: Extra slot (recharge) in Aim and Build Up. You should have 4-5 slots in each attack power by now. Your 5th slot could be "End reduction."
L18: Health from the Fitness pool.
L19: Extra slots in Aim and BU.
L20: STAMINA. This is kinda game changing.
L21: Two more slots in stamina.
L22: Full set of SO's. Also kinda game changing. Whichever one of Sniper Blast or Energy Torrent you didn't take? Take now.
That's a good place to end the build advice.
Play advice: Carry inspirations. Use Rest when appropriate. Don't start shooting someone you can't finish. Have fun.
Is this more like what you wanted when you started the thread?
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
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...
First off, character concept:
Definately a blaster, definately all range, and technology. Think sexy cybergirl meets Seven of Nine meets Data meets Iron Man.
After reading up and asking around, I settled on a prim/sec powerset. In hindsight, maybe I should have tried them for myself but instead, I burned myself out on the following:
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If one of the set comboes fits the concept use that. Fulmens advice just above this post for Energy/Energy is sound I would start their. Aim, Buildup, Stamina, Travel Power, Attacks is the the best early template for blasters all around.
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At first Energy/Energy would suit her, but considering the lack of damage output, slow attack animations (lots of scrappers) coupled with the already mouth-foaming hate I was recieving from groups because of my knockback (lots of scrappers), I decided I'd try something else
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I find energy's damage output just fine(I have a very high level one myself). The real key is to get SO's or level 25+ IO's in your key attacks. Also get Aim and Buildup ASAP and 3 slot them with recharge. Get either speed or flight as your first travel power, i reccomend eventualy getting both.
For the knockback, get hover and flight, if you hover above your target(s) you knockdown instread of back as they are knocked back into the floor.
That asside Ice/Energy would be a good alternate as that would give mitigation VIA slows and holds as well as Power Thrust from your secondary. Ice can be frozen Moistier from the Air around her propelled at an enemy.
I personally think Ice/ and Energy/ are the best for you since you like and mesh well with using damage mitigation for your defence. And Ice can provide some without the knockback if ya dont wanna play with figuing out how to make knockback work for your team to lesses any frustration for them.
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I then went electric/Energy. I ended up dying a ton more because I've gotten used to using Energy's knockback mechanics to buy myself time and keep them at range. The endurance drain was nice, but not enough for my rather hefty endurance consumption.
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Electric / is not a good choice for a new blaster. It lacks that 3rd single target attack. But instead gets Tesla Cage.
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Electric / is not a good choice for a new blaster. It lacks that 3rd single target attack. But instead gets Tesla Cage.
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Heh, my first character ever was actually an electric/electric blaster, but yeah due to not having a third blast you pretty much have to play as a blapper to compete IMO.
I recently made an energy/energy blaster and I'm having..well a blast with him. So far I'm finding the key to playing one well is to be proactive with your knockbacks and know exactly where it's going to place the enemy. If you show your team you're not just some buffoon who stands in one spot mindlessly spamming blasts everywhere not caring where the mobs go then they usually don't get angry. I was on a team last night with at least 4 scrappers and never once got complaints.
Plus, of all the blaster sets I've played or tried out I gotta say energy's animations are the most satisfying for me
First off, did you have free slots?
If so, why are you deleting?
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First off, character concept:
Definately a blaster, definately all range, and technology. Think sexy cybergirl meets Seven of Nine meets Data meets Iron Man.
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Is her hair green, purple, or blue?
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At first Energy/Energy would suit her, but considering the lack of damage output, slow attack animations (lots of scrappers) coupled with the already mouth-foaming hate I was recieving from groups because of my knockback (lots of scrappers), I decided I'd try something else
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(I kind of find this knockback comment funny after I was on a team with a shield tanker that was practically foaming-at-the-mouth from self induced rotfl from using shield rush to knock groups all over the place - off platforms in all different directions, etc. After the second time I bolted down the area with Carrion Crawlers before he could bust a mob all over the place, he quit the team.)
My level 50 blaster is energy/energy. I very rarely had anyone give me a hard time about the knockback - however, that blaster's concept is mostly single target. The character has the the cone knockback for self-defense; if they get that close to me, then the scrappers aren't doing their job. The only other AoE the character has is Nova, and, from my viewpoint, anyone that complains about knockback from a nuke that generates that much damage doesn't have their priorities strait.
One of the keys with knockback is trying to force an enemy into a corner and keep them there. So if you do use AoE's with knockback place them a little off center of the enemies so that the opposing side is a corner or a wall. This will limit their dispersion by the knockback.
I'm a little at a loss as to why you think the damage is low.
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Help?
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Don't panic.
Don't "reroll"/delete unless you are out of slots.
Not everyone will agree with me, but this is my stance of blasters. I have 17 of them.
You can switch back and forth. You don't have to play just one!
Different kinds of blasters are more efficient working in different ways. You have to play with them to figure out what works best and when - for you.
In general, blasters need to know when to run. Having a corner nearby is great. That corner has 100% def and 100% resistance. Use it.
At the very least, falling back can string out a mob. Stringing out a mob can go a long way.
If you are a blaster and get down below 1/4 health, I strongly suggest you run and hide until you have lost agro - unless of course, you have already run before that point.
Agro management - As far as I'm concerned, all tanks should have taunt and should be actively using it. If they are, it can protect a blaster from pretty much all agro. Unfortunately, this is not the case in normal play.
The one target that you know for sure the tank, scrapper, etc. has agroed is the one that they are attacking. If you do more damage than a scrapper than you can steal the agro from them. If at all possible target "through" a tank - even if they don't taunt, there is a highly likelihood that they will keep the agro. It will also mean that both of you are attacking the same target so that target will go down faster.
As you are trying to get someone else to cover your agro, if you are on a team that can't hold the agro, don't use AoE's!
Always carry a full column of break-frees and at least one full column of respites (I suggest at least 2 columns of respites! I usually go for 3!).
If you get mezed, the break-frees can save you. If you get mezed, it is 90% likely that you should withdraw to a distance where, at least, any cone-mez's can't reach you.
The last respite in your tray is to keep you alive when you are running away.
The mission door/elevators are your friends. Don't have any problem with fleeing downstairs or out of a mission if doing so will keep you on your feet.
I highly suggest that you don't try to blapper it. Your close-range attacks are for when an enemy gets in your face and they are almost out of hp's.
Remember that blasters are ranged attackers, use range to to your advantage. Fall back as the enemy approaches you. Run when you need to. Target through someone else in order for them to keep the agro - preferably a tank that isn't switching targets alot (and wait for them to attack first). Be prepared, always stock break-frees and respites.
I've just deleted my 30th-something character trying to roll a blaster concept that I have in my head, nailed solid. I just cant seem to pull it off because I either screw it up pre-lvl10 with bad powerset choices or pre-20 when I run into enemies too resistant to my damage output due to how contacts lead to other contacts without proper info on what the next contacts will lead you to in terms of enemies (and by extension, their resists).
No amount of aggro management, picking off, maneuvering, or even running away can help if the enemies resist/avoid most of your damage, hit harder at ranged than you can, and can run faster than you.
This dead-ending has to stop. I've already wasted a week and a half and I've not even gotten above lvl 20. Just to show how bad it is: my highest attempt was lvl 17, and she was so poor from buying inspirations she didnt even have money for lv12 DO's!
Granted, I've been treating my idea like a bull and havent considered other power sets because they are too anti-thematic to the central idea I have. I intend to create a character that will RP, and so it has to mesh well. Problem is, I cant even get high enough to see if powerset ideas that do work will work well...
So, bottomline is, I'm asking, nay, begging for help now.
First off, character concept:
Definately a blaster, definately all range, and technology. Think sexy cybergirl meets Seven of Nine meets Data meets Iron Man.
After reading up and asking around, I settled on a prim/sec powerset. In hindsight, maybe I should have tried them for myself but instead, I burned myself out on the following:
At first Energy/Energy would suit her, but considering the lack of damage output, slow attack animations (lots of scrappers) coupled with the already mouth-foaming hate I was recieving from groups because of my knockback (lots of scrappers), I decided I'd try something else
I then went electric/Energy. I ended up dying a ton more because I've gotten used to using Energy's knockback mechanics to buy myself time and keep them at range. The endurance drain was nice, but not enough for my rather hefty endurance consumption.
Then I tried Psy/MM on a whim, thinking I could change the concept in my head. Instead, I fought Clockwork, and we all know how that'll turn out.
Now I'm so burned out on rerolling that my idea is about to step off a sheer cliff to die. I dont want it to do that. I got into this game for the simple reason I could give the idea form and let it grow. At this point, it'll die without a chance of living.
Help?