New player needing tips on blasters archetypes plz

Hello,

I'm creating my first character and it's going to be a blaster because it seems like the type of characters I enjoy playing. Note I always build characters with pvp in mind.

In other games, I tend to look for powers doing not only raw damage but with other cool side effects, like snare, etc. Is is a valid thinking in CoH?

I'm just wondering because "ice" seemed to be nice in this regard, but another poster is complaining about his ice/ice blaster, so I'm not so sure anymore!

Any orientation on the main types of blasters (how they fare in pvp, what are their advantages, etc.) would be most welcome.

And, finally, should I have the same primary as the seondary or rather diversify? Any tips on that?

Thanks in advance,

nostra

The Ice primary is nice for the 'Snare' tactics you seem to like. As for a secondary, Ice of course goes nice with the Ice primary, but a popular one that's also good in PvP is the Energy secondary, due to its disorienting powers.

Thanks for the tips.

I've begun with an ice/energy blaster and, so far, it works really well even in PvE.

Thanks!
nostra

Glad to hear it's working out for you. Seeing as you've gone with Ice/En, here's a build Empath did a while back, that I've used as a template for mine, and works well.
LINK

For a different approach to the 'control' secondaries that some blaster powersets like Ice have, try a Fire/Fire blaster.

This very much an AoE (area of effect) based set but it's a real fun set to play - even at low levels.

I have a lev 16 Fire/Fire Blaster on Defiant right now and the amount of damage it can generate is outrageous.

By lev 16 I have Aim and Build Up and a 6 slotted Fireball and 5 slotted Fire Breath attacks. An even con mob is basically wiped out when you use a single attack chain of Aim, Build Up, Fire Breath and Fire Ball.

With Hasten 3 slotted with 3 recharges this chain is available quite often, even at my low level.

My only advice is.... give it a go. Take time to experiment. It's fun and you'll know reasonably quickly if Fire/Fire is the set for you.

Thanks very much.

I assume acc means accuracy, dmg is damage and rechg is recharge. But what is TH_Buf? And what is EndMod (reduction to endurance consumption?)

Most importantly, what are the numbers in brackets? (ex: Acc(1) Dmg(3) Dmg(7) Rechg(50) Rechg(50))

And also, has this template only superjump? I was thinking of taking flight, in order to stay out of reach of the enemies while blasting them... doesn't it work that way? why choose superjump instead?

thanks very much for the helpful insight,

nostra

TH_Buf means 'To Hit Buff'. It's a type of enhancement you can get in-game, in the same way there are Accuracy and Damage ones. It's similar to accuracy, but works differently.

The number brackets indicate at what level you should add the enhancements. For instance:

Acc(1) Dmg(3) Dmg(7) Rechg(50) Rechg(50))

Means an Accuracy enhancement should go in the first slot. At Level 3, you should put a new enhancement slot in the power, and fill it with a Damage enhancement, and so on and so forth.

In the early levels, up to about level 15, it'll be dificult to get *exactly* the enhancements wanted for the slots, so feel free to put something else in the slots until you get the right enhancement.

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I assume acc means accuracy, dmg is damage and rechg is recharge. But what is TH_Buf? And what is EndMod (reduction to endurance consumption?)

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Yes. TH_Buf = To Hit Buff (increases your chances of hitting). EndMod = Endurance modification which can mean greater endurance recovery or endurance drain (and is different from EndRdx which reduces the endurance cost of using a power).

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Most importantly, what are the numbers in brackets? (ex: Acc(1) Dmg(3) Dmg(7) Rechg(50) Rechg(50))

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The levels at which you add a slot/enhancement.

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And also, has this template only superjump? I was thinking of taking flight, in order to stay out of reach of the enemies while blasting them... doesn't it work that way? why choose superjump instead?

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Many blasters like the Leaping pool because it has Combat Jumping and leads to Acrobatics. Fly is OK too, but slower and less useful (in most cases) for PvP. When fighting, you would probably need to switch to Hover anyway (Fly uses a lot of endurance).

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Many blasters like the Leaping pool because it has Combat Jumping and leads to Acrobatics. Fly is OK too, but slower and less useful (in most cases) for PvP. When fighting, you would probably need to switch to Hover anyway (Fly uses a lot of endurance).

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/energy is the one blaster set where you can use Fly and fight, due to Conserve Power - 2 end redx in Flight and it's fine, especially now with the further reduced end cost.

Thanks for the answers, really helpful to be able to read this template properly. Now I have an idea on how to develop a proper blaster. Speaking of which, I see in the template that the first ice power you get at lvl 1 is 6-slotted... it probably means that the power remains useful troughout the entire game? (i.e. the damages raise with your level?)

Thanks for the tip on flight, as a first character, it seems like flight must just be "fun" so I'll try it if it's doable in pvp as well. If I got it right, there are respec anyway, no?

Thanks,

nostra

Yeah, respecs are available.

And yes, a powers damage scales with your level. Also at certain levels you get to slot different strengthed Enhancements to further your abilties.
Training enhancements (TO's) are available from level 1. They'll boost your abilities a little each.
DO's (dual origin) are available from 12 onwards, and are twice as effective as TO's.
Then at 22 you can slot SO's, which are double DO's effectiveness.
For eg. A damage SO will boost the damage of a power by 33%, whereas a DO would only boost it by about 16%.

Its not as complicated as I've seemingly made it, trust me

If you need anymore help, just gimme a shout on these boards or by sending a tell to

@Shnyet.
(type /t @Shnyet, words go here)

Oh and id suggest heading over to your Server boards and trying to hook yourself up with an SG (Supergroup-like a clan or guild) gettin a nice one from the word go can really help out.

Good luck!

Thanks for the kind assistance and warm welcome! Will do as suggested.

See ya!

nostra

Yeah, one of the great things about CoH is that your "basic" powers still scale with you up throughout the gane, so no powers really ever become redundant... Unlike other popular MMO's - where you need to repurchase/retrain/lose other powers so that you don't have such a gimped first power sort of thing.

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so no powers really ever become redundant

[/ QUOTE ]Flares

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Thanks for the tip on flight, as a first character, it seems like flight must just be "fun"

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One thing you owe to yourself is making at least one character that takes powers for their fun-factor and not for their efficiency.

But for some people efficiency is fun - it depends what you build for.

One thing I'd add to the other comments:

The build that was linked to is a high level build, and the enhancements used are put in with certain powers in mind, particularly stamina and conserve power which help a lot with endurance.

Prior to having at least stamina at level 20, you will probably need to slot endurance reducers in at least some of your attacks, or you will have serious problems with running out of endurance over the space of a fight.

On my lower level blasters on single target attacks I tend to slot two accuracy enhancements (as missing is a huge waste of endurance, obviously), then one endurance reducer, then start adding damage in. On AOEs I tend to slot one accuracy and one endurance reducer. I will also put at least a couple of recharges in aim and build up quite early on, as the damage boost from those is comparatively large at lower level when you don't have the best enhancements available. I find this makes my blasters a lot more fun and effective at low level.

Thanks for all the tips.

Efficiency is indeed a fun factor for me, especially since I will not be able to reroll numerous times. This is why I try to educate myself a bit before doing too many mistakes

On question on the build that was suggested. It brings in Ice Bolt very late (lvl 49) in its first version and not at all in the second version. Why is that? I would have assumed that an additional single target nuke would be worth taking. Or is it just unnecessary due to fast recharge time of other(s) single nuke(s)?

Following this build, I am currently (lvl 5) in a somehow weird situation where I have only one range strike (ice blast) and two melee strikes (power thrust/energy punch), so I usually blast from a distance and then run toe-to-toe to finish off my target (hopefully). Not such a biggie because I have a lot of life (as compared to "casters" in other games), but still it feels weird for a blaster to go melee.

Thanks,

nostra

The most powerful blaster attacks are melee, so get used to it. Personally, I would take ice bolt as well, but some want one power slot for something else, and at higher levels a build is viable without it.

Oh, and we only call the last powers of blast sets "nukes" (since they're...you know, big), the other stuff is just called blasts

Hi, welcome to the blaster boards etc. few pointers before I even read your thread

1. read the other threads already here
2. dont type "plz", people prefer "pls" if you have to abbreviate as there are actually esses (S) in it
3. not sure what the "blasters archetypes" part is about :s ??if you meant to have an apostrophe in "blasters" or not then there is still only one archetype called blaster, I think, though, that you were talkin about sets within the archetype, this may help you avoid confusion later on

Plight

Haha Bind, you're such a harsh mistress!
PlZ be nice, you're hardly one for commenting on the "clearness" of a post

Nostro, what my dear friend is trying to say in point 3, is that "Archetypes" are all the different Heroes, eg Tanker, Defender, Blaster. And we call the different powers they get "sets". So you've chosen the archetype Blaster, and the sets Ice/Energy.
Dont worry, took me an age to learn all the lingo.

And on with the reply to the thread.

As stated, acrobatics and combat jumping can totally alter your play in both PvE and PvP, note that in the time it takes you to get up from being knocked back a PvP blaster will kill you, so KB protection can be crucial . Acro also prevents one none-controller hold from holding you, more than one will stack through this and any mez that is not a hold will go through it too (sleeps and stuns etc), learning to keep acro up during fights in PvP is a skill in itsself.

Fly is great but often not enough without another travel power, personally I would recommend combat jump, super jump, acrobatics, air superiority (-fly) and hover. hover needs 3 slots of speed in it, but is affected by pwoer boost, it also offers minimal defence. Air Sup. is massively underrated, if you can -jump and -fly someone they will be pretty screwed, most people do not slot swift or hurdle and you can tell those that do when they are trying to move with debuffs on them .

Aid self is another awesome pwoer offering a good heal with 50% stun resist for about 25 seconds.

As for slotting, Listen to Wyx, a few accs at low level is pretty crucial, but for even level mobs you can scrape by with 1, the endred will be less needed at the 20 and 28 mark if you take stamina and conserve power (I would for PvP), be sure to have good AoE dmg for teaming and think about adding the self buffing heal type powers later on witha resepcification (available at 24, 24 and 44 through group trials and through a new issue (freespec) and a veteran reward at set months (vetspecs). A PvE build can be very gimped in PvP against certain ATs, although blasters (and some defenders) are prolly the easiest hero AT to take out without a PvP build as they can't take much damage, other ATs are a lot tougher due to shields or (de)buffs and a PvE build won't cut it (note, PvP blasters need a tohit or 2 in their self buffs).

Oh and (for cat A enhs, there are others but most are this way) TOs = 11%, DOs = 22% and SOs = 33%, this means you can get close to 37% from one SO, 3 SOs starts to give diminishing returns, so 3 SOs is only about 85% as effective as 3 x 1 SO. for whatever category the enhancement is in its always TO = 1xTO, DO = 2xTO and SO = 3xTO.

Plight

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Haha Bind, you're such a harsh mistress!
PlZ be nice, you're hardly one for commenting on the "clearness" of a post

Nostro, what my dear friend is trying to say in point 3, is that "Archetypes" are all the different Heroes, eg Tanker, Defender, Blaster. And we call the different powers they get "sets". So you've chosen the archetype Blaster, and the sets Ice/Energy.
Dont worry, took me an age to learn all the lingo.

[/ QUOTE ]And one day you will call me Plight like everyone else

That was my first reaction so posted. My clarity isn't in question, people either already don't like me, know that if they try and find the sense then it's worth reading and if they are new they will end up in one of the other categories, not too fussed really, but would I reply if I didn't have someththing worthwhile to say, or at least IMO.

Plight

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but would I reply if I didn't have someththing worthwhile to say

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Do you really want an answer

ps. Your name is BindW until you change your display handle

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but would I reply if I didn't have someththing worthwhile to say

[/ QUOTE ]
Do you really want an answer

ps. Your name is BindW until you change your display handle

[/ QUOTE ]It was all Bridger and my screen name isn't really what people call me

Plight

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my screen name isn't really what people call me


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Quiet Bind!
*bamf*

Shnyet AWAY!