Good solo blaster
Primaries
Ice and Sonic primaries are both great for soloing, adding significant control to damage. Energy is also very good, depending on your adeptness with utilizing knockback. Electric's control blossoms late, is AoE oriented (so, not super impressive to a soloer), and requires choosing either /Energy or /Electric as your secondary (Electric does get a single target hold early, which really is enough control anyway, IMO).
Secondaries
Ice adds more control, but lacks a End management power. Energy adds more control and damage and two interesting utility powers, and provides an end management tool, but is all single target. Electric's control comes late, but it adds great damage, and a fabulous end management tool (but that comes late as well). Devices adds tons of utility, control, and even damage, but it takes a considerable time to set that up (but that often works fine for a soloer), while it has no end management tool, if you spend the time using the secondary, you recover a plenty of endurance. Mental has options for just about everything, and its best powers come early.
Why Blasters? Empathy Sucks.
So, you want to be Mental?
What the hell? Let's buff defenders.
Tactics are for those who do not have a big enough hammer. Wisdom is knowing how big your hammer is.
Ice/Mental or Ice/Ice
Ice/Mental is looking very good to me right now the synergy between frostbreath and psychic scream is incredible.
Thanks both of you. I think I'm going to go with Energy/Devices.
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Thanks both of you. I think I'm going to go with Energy/Devices.
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Nrg/Dev is a very fun build and I have been quite satisfied with mine. Battlefield control is excellent. I get a thrill out of killing baddie A while watching baddie B slowly run across my caltrops trying to get to me, and just before he reaches me, sending him flying back to the other side of them.
I recommend taking Hasten early in order to help your primary attacks recharge faster.
Why Blasters? Empathy Sucks.
So, you want to be Mental?
What the hell? Let's buff defenders.
Tactics are for those who do not have a big enough hammer. Wisdom is knowing how big your hammer is.
yes i found as a secondary ice(ice patch corners and pull) or\
dev(caltrops and mines) is great for solo
I have an ICE/NRG blaster that I have taken to level 40 pretty much Solo [90-95%]..
I also have an ICE/ICE blaster that I play that has been leveled completely solo so far and is a lot of fun. Yes I have died a few times but if you don't die a few times then your not a balster.
I can't post builds from here becuase i don't have them, they are at home.
I like fire/ice myself, he is doing very well solo so far.
A day without sunshine is like...you know...night time.
yes any secondary that gives you some type of slow or slip and slide or any effect besides stright dmg makes a good solo blaster.
about 1/2 my 50's eng/ice were solo id ice a corner and when they got there energy torret they go flying as they keep comming i keep tossing back.
so sacriffice some dmg not really i have all his primary dmg powers and lots of pools and holds and i never run out of atks to cycle thru. just take wha poweres work for you and what style ur using. his style is keep them on thier butts and out of mellee
Massive amounts of damage makes for a good solo secondary too, depending on your style.
i used /ice to help solo early on but i like the munitions APP better because of the ranged sleep grenade instead of the PBAoE Frozen Aura in /ice
the only control power in /ice i found useful for soloing was freez touch and ice patch. which i use a lot.
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Thanks both of you. I think I'm going to go with Energy/Devices.
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Er, if you really want to. I wouldn't recommend it for your first Blaster, though.
The main problem is that your only mezz is Taser, which is pretty weak. And there isn't a single-target disorient in the epic power pools to stack with it. I find that it helps a lot when soloing a Blaster to have two mezzes of the same type so you can stack them on a Boss and take them out of the fight.
So, if you must have Energy for you primary, I'd recommend /Ice or /Electric as a secondary since they both have holds in them that you can stack with the hold from an epic power pool.
If you must have /Devices as a secondary, then I'd suggest combining it with Ice (which has two holds) or Sonic (which has a disorient you can stack with Taser). Psy might be an option, too, since it also has a disorient, but I really wouldn't recommend Psy for your first Blaster--you have to be rather careful when deciding which enemy groups to fight, since certain ones have massive amounts of Psy resistance.
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i used /ice to help solo early on but i like the munitions APP better because of the ranged sleep grenade instead of the PBAoE Frozen Aura in /ice
the only control power in /ice i found useful for soloing was freez touch and ice patch. which i use a lot.
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You seriously don't use Chillblain, the best Immobilize in Blasterdom?
Whoa whoa whoa, dont go dissin on taser. Taser was just full of win on my fire/dev blaster.
That said, I wouldn't go nrg/dev
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The main problem is that your only mezz is Taser, which is pretty weak. And there isn't a single-target disorient in the epic power pools to stack with it. I find that it helps a lot when soloing a Blaster to have two mezzes of the same type so you can stack them on a Boss and take them out of the fight.
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IME, with Caltrops and the KB from Energy, holds are not vital. I did take Taser in my late 20s, and use it occasionally, but I have always been fond of soft controls like Caltrops, Hot Feet, and KB.
Why Blasters? Empathy Sucks.
So, you want to be Mental?
What the hell? Let's buff defenders.
Tactics are for those who do not have a big enough hammer. Wisdom is knowing how big your hammer is.
For me, the most fun about soloing is figuring out how to best play my character when I'm an army of one. Eight years of soloing MMO's has taught me that nearly anything can be run solo. Some are just a bit better than others.
Right now I'm in the process of soloin'g my fire/fire. Run up to Fire Breath range ... Aim/Build Up, Fire Breath, Fire Ball, one shot the left over Lts. and move on to the next group. You don't need controls if they die before they can shoot you.
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i used /ice to help solo early on but i like the munitions APP better because of the ranged sleep grenade instead of the PBAoE Frozen Aura in /ice
the only control power in /ice i found useful for soloing was freez touch and ice patch. which i use a lot.
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You seriously don't use Chillblain, the best Immobilize in Blasterdom?
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haha yea i used to use it when thats all i had. back then i learned that i am not a huge fan of immob as a mitigation tactic. it has helped before but it always left me wishing i had more
now my soloing is bolstered by three holds and a AoE sleep grenade. with that many holds there is always one available so there is no need for a "stop and shoot me from over there" power
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i used /ice to help solo early on but i like the munitions APP better because of the ranged sleep grenade instead of the PBAoE Frozen Aura in /ice
the only control power in /ice i found useful for soloing was freez touch and ice patch. which i use a lot.
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You seriously don't use Chillblain, the best Immobilize in Blasterdom?
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haha yea i used to use it when thats all i had. back then i learned that i am not a huge fan of immob as a mitigation tactic. it has helped before but it always left me wishing i had more
now my soloing is bolstered by three holds and a AoE sleep grenade. with that many holds there is always one available so there is no need for a "stop and shoot me from over there" power
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Well, it's the stackable -Recharge and -Speed that makes Chillblain so good, rather than the Immobilize itself.
Still, if you have that many holds I can see why you wouldn't use it much...
Of course, it depends how you use and slot it, but Chilblain's best attributes are its spamability and damage. It can be a stellar part of your ST attack chain.
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If you must have /Devices as a secondary, then I'd suggest combining it with Ice (which has two holds) or Sonic (which has a disorient you can stack with Taser). Psy might be an option, too, since it also has a disorient, but I really wouldn't recommend Psy for your first Blaster--you have to be rather careful when deciding which enemy groups to fight, since certain ones have massive amounts of Psy resistance.
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Don't forget Archery, it has a disorient as well.
Cascade, level 50 Blaster (NRG/NRG since before it was cool)
Mechmeister, level 50 Bots / Traps MM
FAR too many non-50 alts to name
[u]Arcs[u]
The Scavenger Hunt: 187076
The Instant Lair Delivery Service: 206636
I am trying to make a hero side char for when I want to solo, on villain side that's my ma/regen stalker so I want to go a non-melée route on hero side and love the idea of a blaster but I'm not familiar enough with them to know how to make a good solo blaster. Is such a
thing possible? I don't mind hard or doing some
more research if someone has any suggestions.