I've found that a controller is a good counterpart for blasters. The exact powerset combo isn't that important.
The Controller will help moderate the speed of the fights which helps keep the rather fragile blaster from getting swarmed and dead. The Blaster side of the pair gives the added damage the Controller can always use.
You might find something that works better for you, but I've had pretty good luck with this.
Writer of In-Game fiction: Just Completed: My Summer Vacation. My older things are now being archived at Fanfiction.net http://www.fanfiction.net/~jwbullfrog until I come up with a better solution.
My first Blaster was NRG/Fire.
My first blaster to 50 was Fire/Elec (made 2 years after the nrg/fire).
My second blaster to 50 was Ice/Ice (made 1 year after the nrg/fire).
My third blaster to 50 was Fire/Energy. (Dunno when made)
My fourth blaster to 50 was either the energy/fire or a sonic/mental (made 3.5 years after the nrg/fire).
It took me FOUR YEARS to get that blaster to 50, draggin' her all the way, and the only reason I didn't delete her was the sentimental value. First duo with my wife.
I have all sorts of logical-seeming reasons why the two sets are not very strong and really don't go together, if you want to hear them.
tl/dr: Try and convince her to make some other blaster. Maybe fire/ice or fire/electric.
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
She likes NRG for the knock back. She's also thinking of going Sonic primary, she didn't say why. And I swear she randomly picks the secondary.
Why don't you think NRG/Fire is all that great? It will at least give me something to nudge her in a different direction with her Blaster.
Thanks!
Personally, I don't like the Fire secondary, it just doesn't play well to me, not sure why, so that's not much help.
My first Blaster (and the only character so far to level 50) is Energy/Electric. If she loves KB, the Electric secondary has KB in a couple of melee attacks to go with her blasts. I'm a big KB fan myself, 
If she likes Energy for the KB, then you playing a Controller might get a bit frustrating as she KBs stuff away from your controls. You may want to consider a Defender for its combo of buffs/debuffs and blasts, usually from range and usually not as big a deal if she KBs stuff. I would definitely recommend staying away from playing a Scrapper or Tanker unless you don't mind chasing your targets from time to time.
Altoholic - but a Blaster at Heart!
Originally Posted by SpyralPegacyon
"You gave us a world where we could fly. I can't thank you enough for that."
[ QUOTE ]
Why don't you think NRG/Fire is all that great? It will at least give me something to nudge her in a different direction with her Blaster.
Thanks!
[/ QUOTE ]
The energy primary mainly uses Knockback as a soft control and as damage mititgation. It provides a nice way for a ranged damage dealer to keep those mobs at bay.
The fire secondary in every power (except the single target immobilize that every blaster secondary has), require the blaster to be in or near melee range to make use of the power.
Combustion is a pbaoe.
Fire Sword is melee.
Fire Sword circle is a pbaoe.
Consume is a pbaoe.
Burn is a pbaoe drop that's more of a toy than anything.
Hot Feet is a pbaoe.
Blazing Aura is a high endurance melee range (7ft) pbaoe toggle.
It's really hard to find synergy in the sets when the primary is knocking the majority of the targets out of range of the secondary. Using FSC (which is a great power) on 1 mob is a huge waste of endurance and time (long animation) when there multiple mobs out of range that could be in range.
I can see building a controller that supports the blaster with aoe immobs and other powers that will help mitigate or control the splash of the knockbacks. I can also see it being a big frustrating cup of fail.
The fire secondary would be less difficult to use with the fire or ice primary.
The energy primary would be better supported with most other secondaries.
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson
[ QUOTE ]
My fiance is set on playing a Blaster, not sure which yet but right now she is NRG/Fire. What would be a good duo? I have experience from the last time around playing controllers and scrappers.
Thanks again!
[/ QUOTE ]
If she's playing a blaster and you want all around good support, while she gets the "glory" try a */kin controller or a */rad controller.
If you want to play up close and personal, try a spine/dark or dm/regen with either scrapper having some taunt.
Any tank would make a blasters life easier, as would any defender.
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson
I'd say, grab a tanker. Aggro is the blasters' only bane, and the moment you get your hands on Taunt, any threat to them will evaporate, and with a blaster's damage output, nothing should live long enough to threaten you either.
A lot of the things in the Blaster fire secondary also show up in a Tank's fire secondary. They are designed to get aggro, that is, they are designed to focus enemy fire on you at pointblank range.
They will also do damage, slowly, at pointblank range. They have very little mitigation (many other secondaries give you knockdown, stun, or sleep for free with their high-damage melee attacks)
When I'm blasting, I have a half-life of about five seconds at pointblank range.
The things I like in the set:
Build Up (common to nearly all secondaries)
Fire Sword (similar to most secondaries' singletarget melee attack)
Fire Sword Circle (VERY nice. Good AOE damage, to a lot of people at once. You don't see that in other secondaries.)
Consume (grabs a lot of endurance, does a little damage.)
The Energy primary has mediocre AOE, late in the set. Hitting the same guys with both AOE's can be done but it's a trick. That is, it requires a trick to do something that anyone else can do intuitively. Both AOE's, generally, won't kill what you are shooting at and the main rule of Blaster survivability is, "Kill what you're shooting at."
Oh, some other unsorted hatred:
Combustion takes three seconds to START doing damage, and seven more seconds to finish. One of you is going to be dead by then, most likely.
Some people swear by stacking up the final two plus Burn for "a lot" of AOE damage. I know I'm comparing primaries to secondaries here, but Fire Breath/Fire Ball will drop your minions in four seconds. Sitting around in melee (which does around 60% more damage on average than ranged) for a long time, with no defenses, barbecuing guys is NOT SAFE and NOT FAST.
Even Fire Sword Circle, though it's good damage, is kinda annoying to use. I end up with the hokey-pokey where I jump my squishy butt in [fire sword circle], I jump my squishy butt out [and hit the cone], etc.
For an actual duo, my recommendations are "anything but a Kinetic defender or a scrapper." Kinetic defenders are adding mostly offense and very little defense (compared to a factor of 3 to 10 more survivability with any other defender, "one heal and 25% off incoming damage" is very little) and Scrappers add damage- but not enough to keep them interested in the guy with the defenses, instead of you.
Anything else- even another blaster- will work more easily and better. (Two blasters... they're SHORT fights, and exciting, and you usually win.)
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
If she's set on Energy as the primary, I'd recommend either a controller or another blaster as a teammate, or maybe a defender.
The last ATs I'd want to play while teamed with an Energy blaster are a scrapper or tank. She will be forever knocking foes away from you.
(Sometimes, I wish there could be a Dev thumbs up button for quality posts, because you pretty much nailed it.) -- Ghost Falcon
So if she is set on NRG as primary what would be the "best" secondary for her?
How is sonic as a primary?
Thanks
Energy is fine as a primary lol.
I have an energy energy blaster that kicks azz in a duo. He duo's with a stormy controller.
I find nothing wrong with the combo in any way. Its kind of nice in the sense that the storm controller doesnt worry about my KB as an energy blaster and I just love the duo of a blaster controller.
It works well in most any form.
Energy/Fire might not be an ideal combo, but it certainly won't be unplayable. Almost all the blaster secondary powers are short/melee range powers, so not a lot of them are going to synergize well with a primary that knocks foes away from the blaster.
But so what? Let her blast the heck out of her foes and take a couple of secondary powers to deal with the ones who get through to her. If she doesn't have to take all the secondary powers she'll have more room in the build for pool powers.
(Sometimes, I wish there could be a Dev thumbs up button for quality posts, because you pretty much nailed it.) -- Ghost Falcon
NRG/NRG is likely the best pairing for NRG.
Lots of Smash.
NRG/Devices used to be good, and can be useful in a duo, but no Build Up can hurt it.
The flip side of her Blaster works well, Fire/NRG
Btw, playing a melee with an NRG blaster is no where near as bad as people make it out to be. You just avoid the big AoE meleers and focus on the Boss/Lts. that don't get knocked around by her. I'd still probably prefer a Controller.
Illusion/Storm would allow you to join in the knock about fun.
Anything/Kin would be useful.
[ QUOTE ]
So if she is set on NRG as primary what would be the "best" secondary for her?
How is sonic as a primary?
Thanks
[/ QUOTE ]
Well, I loved /Electric as a secondary for my Energy Blaster. /Energy is also pretty good synergy.
Sonic is a very decent primary, and I like it a bunch paired with /Energy. Some people find the sound of the blasts annoying, though.
Oh - to be more help to her, here's a draft guide beng written by Ipso_Facto posted over in the Blaster forum. it's a WIP, but it has some nice comparisons about all the Blaster primaries:
Ipso_Facto's Guide to Blaster Primaries (WIP)
Altoholic - but a Blaster at Heart!
Originally Posted by SpyralPegacyon
"You gave us a world where we could fly. I can't thank you enough for that."
[ QUOTE ]
Energy/Fire might not be an ideal combo, but it certainly won't be unplayable. Almost all the blaster secondary powers are short/melee range powers, so not a lot of them are going to synergize well with a primary that knocks foes away from the blaster.
But so what? Let her blast the heck out of her foes and take a couple of secondary powers to deal with the ones who get through to her. If she doesn't have to take all the secondary powers she'll have more room in the build for pool powers.
[/ QUOTE ]
The problem with /Fire isn't just that it's short/melee powers, it's that /Fire has so many PBAoE. Knockback truly hurts PBAoE.
You do make a good point where she could limit /Fire to Ring of Fire (no choice), Build Up and maybe Consume and still have room for 8 or 9 Primary powers plus 8 or 9 Pool powers.
Even Burn and Hot Feet would make sense for such a character, they'd just be used more as defensive powers - keep mobs with high damage melee attacks away from you - than offensive.
(Sometimes, I wish there could be a Dev thumbs up button for quality posts, because you pretty much nailed it.) -- Ghost Falcon
My fiance is set on playing a Blaster, not sure which yet but right now she is NRG/Fire. What would be a good duo? I have experience from the last time around playing controllers and scrappers.
Thanks again!