Blaster Epics

I need some advice on blaster Epics. Any advice i would like to be PvP minded. My blaster is a LvL 47 ICE/DEV and i currently have ICE epic (snow storm / ice armour / Hibernate) Main reason i took these was for the slow effects and i dont have P.shift) I havnt tried the other epic sets yet and was wondering what other peeps thinks would be best. I would like more toggle dropping powers/ i dont have a snipe which would be nice/ i have loads of toggles running so the armour which isnt a toggle is tempting and the bubble power in this pool sounds good as well. I have all the holds i need so not worried about em. So many to chose from

From my experince of the blaster epics none of the attacks in them drop toggles.

Fire has a nice hold in char,bonfire which is knock bck, a decent shield and a self rez which IMO is the best lookin power in the game

Electric has a nice cone drainin attack, the best shield in the epics with ene protection, a nice hold and emp pulse which isnt as useful as i thougt it wud b.

Forces has PFF which is a nice oh [censored] button,also with the decrease in end 4 repulsion field it might b much more useful now, the shield that has the best protection 4 s/l dmg and FoN which is gr8 4 those tough situations that makes u able 2 survive

Munitions has a auto armour that offers the weakest protection but is always on, a sleep power, a hold and a snipe in LRM missile.

I think that best way 2 find out which suits u best is tryin them out on test and fittin the powers in your attack chain.

got a feeling there is an epic discussion a few pages down, personally i recommend elec for the hold (equiv to char but with added drain) and shields.

to detoggle simply pick your 1st 2 melee attacks from your secondary.

Plight

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to detoggle simply pick your 1st 2 melee attacks from your secondary.

Plight

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ha! Plight, you shudv done ur homework, check his build dude, Devices for the non-toggle droppin win!

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ha! Plight, you shudv done ur homework, check his build dude, Devices for the non-toggle droppin win!

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Not strictly true, seeing as Trip Mine and Time Bomb both drop toggles - just that you're hard-pushed to use them in standard combat.

Also, somewhat unfairly, neither of the two-listed attacks can be used in the early PvP zones, being selectable only at level 28 and 35 respectively - all the other Blaster secondaries have their toggle-droppers available much earlier, and can be used in Bloody Bay and Siren's Call... but that's another matter entirely.

Before I6 I had munitions epic, liked the look of the lrm and the body armor. Well in my experience of it, the body armor was about as effective as wearing tissue paper and this was before I6 with 6 slots. LRM again before I6 6 slotted for damage, I dont think it was worth it. Very long recharge, not enough damage for my liking. It left stuff alive and aggroed. I stick to sniper rifle now.

So after I6 I respecced and took fire. The hold is good, rise of the phoenix is always useful for me due to my incredible faceplant attack. Im not too sure about the effectiveness of fire shield tho.

Fire shield is "alright". 19% base resistance to smashing and lethal, 14% to fire, can’t remember the number to cold off the top of my head.

Electricity shield is probably better. 19% base resistance to smashing and lethal, 14% to energy. Energy is a much more common damage type at high level. It also has a quicker activation. A slight downside is the sparkling on this is fairly subtle, so you sometimes don't notice if you haven't turned it on

Temp invul is also ~ 20% smashing and lethal if I remember correctly (been a couple of months since I had that on anything off the test server) but then you do get FoN available in the same pool. Temp invul again is a quick animation.

Frozen armour is questionably about as much use as a chocolate fireguard, I’m not even convinced it’s that good. I don't have the exact number on defence on that unfortunately, but I've not found it even slightly effective for a while.

Body Armour I believe is ~ 10% to smashing/lethal. Not fantasic but it’s always on – including when held – which has something going for it.

I don’t think you can judge the effectiveness of the epic pools based soley on the armours though. I’ve used all of them at some point and all have pros and cons for different build types. When picking an epic pool I look for the one that complements my characters the best, I’m currently running fire/fire/flame, elec/elec/elec and ice/ice/cold (I didn’t take the armour though, with the level of control she has I don’t need it), that’s not concept choice though, it’s based on what I think fits best with the 3 characters out of what’s available. None of the armours make you that tough in my opinion, certainly not tough enough to radically alter playstyle. Personally I tend to just put them on, keep them on, and occasionally I’ll sit back and go “phew, if I hadn’t have had fire shield on there, I’d have been a gonner”.

My next blaster will probably take force at least for a while, I'd like to have a good play about with FoN, I've only used it very briefly on my elec blaster.

Yeah I agree. I realised that any armor for blasters is not going to make much difference due to us being inherent squishies anyway. I was really hoping that LRM was going to be an effective weapon, but with the long recharge and aggro probs I was having I gave up on it. Post ED would obviously be worse...

I get on with Fire Epic ok, I use phoenix often

I respecced RoTP in on my fire blaster after I hit level 50 when the concealment pool was made considerably less useful and I got rid of a couple of powers from it, honestly I wouldn't take it if there was anything else in my secondary that I thought could be of use to me but there just isn't. Next time we get a free respec I think I'll get rid of it and take Air Superiority instead - I could do with something like that now that Char will only perma-hold even level bosses, after 12 minutes chasing a +2 Tac Ops Teleporting Git Boss around a malta mission last week I'm thinking the knockdown could come in handy

Can't argue that RoTP looks good though. It really is pretty.

My Fire/Energy blaster currently has the Force pool. Temp invuln did have the highest resist to S/L, whether it has now I don't know. The only other shield worth taking would be elec. Mainly cause it has good S/L resist plus energy resist, which I would say is more common than fire or cold.
PFF is indeed a good panic button, stops many attacks and lasts longer than 30 seconds!
Repulsion bubble used to drain my end far too quick to be useful so I dropped it, may be better now tho as said above. Force of Nature is a great power, much like MoG but with an end crash when it drops, very useful for AV fights, hit conserve (if you have it) just before it drops and you're golden.

So... To sum up, I would go Force or Elec. Best to try them all on test tho, thats what I did.

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to detoggle simply pick your 1st 2 melee attacks from your secondary.

Plight

[/ QUOTE ]

ha! Plight, you shudv done ur homework, check his build dude, Devices for the non-toggle droppin win!

[/ QUOTE ]what syn said

all blasters can drop toggles, and considering i onyl ever half pay attention (cos i read so slow if i paid full attention it would take all day) it was nt bad.

not sure about the 19% S/L on charged armour, when i test it i got 15% but not sure, ive always quoted it at 45% 6 slotted even SOs in i5.

as for these armours making little difference i disagree strongly, for me its the difference between waltzing through the larger spawns in PI and not, when a warhulk hits you for half your health, and enough is resisted that you know he can do it twice more and you wont be dead, id call that significant, anyways, ive tried some things without and with, and with and slotted is definately better. but as also said, the control helps a lot, especially with ED and non 1 shot drains or 300% base resists, if you cant control you will die more against higher levels imxp.

Plight

Thx for the info guys. Im starting to fall in love with the Hibernate power in the ice pool. I mainly use it for getting my end/health back and its saved my [censored] a few times Im yet to do the 2nd and 3rd respec so im gonna have to try things out on the test server once i get my respec. More time spent not lvling Funny how with controllers / scrappers etc epics most go with the same pool, Its good to have a good selection with a blaster

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Its good to have a good selection with a blaster

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I have to agree with that. No one set stands out to me as way better than the others, it's just a case of picking the one that best compensates for the weaknesses of the set/build you've already got. Even though I probably only take 2 or 3 powers from the epic pool on each blaster at any one time, if I pick the right ones the difference in play speed and survivability is massive.

I also use hibernate as an endurance regeneration power, very handy on my end hog of a ice/ice build. Probably not what it was designed for, but hey, it works

yeah, but you would recommend Elec wouldn't you, any excuse to abuse fire in any form