Assualt Rifle questions

I'm pretty sure it doesn't last the life of the pet for either Gun Drone or Trip Mine (that would be a pretty major bug) although I confess I have never actually checked it in the combat attributes window.

According to the ingame power info (on an AR/Ice blaster atm, but shouldn't be different to a /Dev blaster) Trip Mine gives a bonus for 11.5 seconds while the Gun Drone bonus lasts for 13.5 seconds

As for AR powers in general, I really like the Build Up+Flamethrower+Full Auto combo. Leaves most things dead and just a few stragglers for the scrappers to clean up So seriously consider getting a secondary with Build Up

Also, Snipe is a wonderful power mid-combat as well as an opener. Slot it with some interrupt reduction, know when to use it and you'll find that it's rarely interrupted. (BTW, I found out yesterday that Snipe with 28% interrupt reduction fits nicely in between two heals from the healing Nictus in ITF. Yes, I know I shouldn't be in range of the heal more than necessary but we had time to experiment a little)

Personally im levelling a level 44 AR/NRG at the moment with the idea of having as much ranged def as possible [since i want to be purely ranged attacks only].

Currently sitting at 29% ranged def and i know i can get it higher with my current build, but even if i didnt i know thats more than enough for pve. Having the safety of hardly getting hit with the AoE goodness of AR is just awesome.

Boost range + full auto + grenade = everything will be dead before they even get to you/hit you.

Sometimes you just have to love the combo of boost range + full auto . . . . it truely is a combo meant for eachother.

What I like about AR/Dev is that you put down Trip Mine, Caltrops, and Ignite before every fight. Throw SG first.

This nets you about 34% Defiance for every fight, plus 5% or so Defense, plus a "get away from us" area for all the squishies. Targetting Drone takes care of accuracy. 34% isn't as good as BU, of course, but the safety is nice and being able to do it every spawn is nice also.

This may get tough in a really fast moving team, but in most cases I'm content to wait 2-3 seconds to allow people to put down controls and debuffs, so at least Trip Mine at my feet is a good option, combining some safety increase with a damage bonus.

I'm not sure if you really gain anything by putting down Ignite before starting your AoE attacks. Ignite takes 4 seconds to cast, which eats up much of the 11.5 seconds of Defiance you get from Trip Mine. Add another 1.33 seconds for casting Caltrops and you don't even have time to cast Full Auto+Flamethrower while still having Trip Mine Defiance.

Personally, I'd just put down a mine and then start blasting, let the other skills be used when needed during the fight and bring the defiance as an extra bonus.

Well, you only have to start an attack within the Defiance bonus to get the damage buff, and Full Auto would be the last one I use since it eats up so much time. I'd start with Buckshot to mitigate some incoming damage and because it's fast, then Flamethrower, then either Full Auto or Buckshot again plus Full Auto, depending on your Recharge. That way you get all your cones out during the buffed period.

If you are going to shoot Full Auto as an opener instead, I agree that you should only use Trip Mines as a buff since Ignite will eat up too much buff time. I still like Caltrops as it's a major defensive power, but if the team is solid enough defensively, that can also be skipped.

I HAVE A FEW AR CORRUPTORS I LIKE./kin is fun, but a constant scramble of movement, targeting aoes and redraw./rad is effective but no hard hold for ignite.traps is awesome once you get forcefield, and aid self.and hover, and stealth.
the power i find myself skipping more and more is the snipe.its great for pulling. if u want the whole mob.
knockback on a snipe is actually pretty stupid.great for the lone runner when everyone else is dead or held.
now i do my first couple mob pulls w/ burst. it has enough range to use w/o alerting the group, unless they have a ranged attack that can reach u.it also debuffs their defense.
i try to target the closest guy in the mob, run behind some cover and squueze one off before i break line of sight.
those are my thoughts.bear in mind that these are not blasters but i think the advice on snipe still applies.
Disclaimer:none of my 50's are assult rifle.

What I like about Snipe is that it quickly takes one mob out of the fight, unless you play way above your level. Very handy to pick off Immunes Surgeons on ITF for example. On teams I hardly ever lead with Snipe, other players will usually have mobs busy so I can go directly for AoEs and then pick a target to Snipe (which is by then nicely buffed by Defiance). I generally don't mind the knockback, it adds a little mitigation and if a mob should be knocked out of a debuff zone it's probably not a problem to have it killed before it can cause much mayhem, seeing as how I just hit it for a boatload of damage.