First character, guidance requested

Hi,

I'm creating my first character and thinking to make a blaster.

Has this archetype the potential to fare well in pvp?

If so, any guidance would be most welcome. What are the archetypes that do well and what are those to avoid?

Should I have the same primary as the secondary?

Any other tip would be most appreciated.

Thanks,

nostra

All ATs have pros and cons in PvP there isn't one uber AT for PvP.

For a PvP blaster your looking for something with a high single target damage output, rather than a AoE based blaster.

Most sets are good for a PvP blaster but i'd recomend a, Energy/Energy, or a Archery/Energy or a Ice/Elec. They are 3 realy good PvP blasters in my opinion.

Ice/Devices is probably the best PvP blaster to get easy kills in a PvP zone. Just build yourself as a stalker hunter, since they rarely expect to be spotted. With Targetting Drone and Tactics you'll be able to see them no problem.

In teams, Ice/Elec, Ice/Energy and Elec/Energy are the way to go.

Thanks for the tips.

I've tried Ice/Energy a little and it works well in PvE, it feels rather safe with those nice Energy powers to send the enemies flying when they enter melee. How would Ice/Elec compare to that? (still in a PvP perspective, although now i only have the possibility to test PvE obvisouly).

In anycase, I understand from the your message, Xanthus, that I should try Ice/Devices if I want to solo PvP. That's fun as well, so I'll try it too.

Thanks for the tips!
nostra

Actually I think devices is good only for easy kills in sirens lvl range. I dont think its all that awesome higher up and its quite bad in arena. If you want a more all-around pvp character go with /energy or /elec.

Hi Hammerfall,

I've read a nice guide on blasters since I created my first character.

After reading this, I feel I went the right way doing ice/energy (elec seems to be more endurance drain oriented while energy is nice to send enemies flying when trying to engage melee... as for devices, I haven't tested it, it might be nice but I can imagine that it works better in 1v1 pvp when you can set your devices and camp while a group pvp would tend to more move and leave your nice devices behind...).

I'll keep going ice/ene for a while and see how I fare.

thanks all,

nostra

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Actually I think devices is good only for easy kills in sirens lvl range.

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As long as you've got Targetting Drone and Tactics, it's good for all PvP zones. Stalkers really don't ever expect to be spotted, so dropping down and killing one in three hits is pretty easy.

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I dont think its all that awesome higher up and its quite bad in arena.

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Ice/dev is awesome for setting up kills in the arena since webnade is -jump. Once you've done that, you can help with ranged spiking with the rest of the team. Melee damage is nearly redundant in higher-end arena matches, since everyone is moving around so fast.

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Melee damage is nearly redundant in higher-end arena matches, since everyone is moving around so fast.

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That's a thing I wanted to ask: as a nuker, why should I want superspeed, when I could take flight and nuke safely from a distance? Is it possible to just move around flying when someone tries to melee you (can they do this while flying?) or will they just /follow you?

Sorry for the noobs question, just trying to sort out the basics. Thanks for your help!

nostra

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Melee damage is nearly redundant in higher-end arena matches, since everyone is moving around so fast.

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Urgh I'm not sure I like the sound of this..

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That's a thing I wanted to ask: as a nuker, why should I want superspeed, when I could take flight and nuke safely from a distance? Is it possible to just move around flying when someone tries to melee you (can they do this while flying?) or will they just /follow you?

Sorry for the noobs question, just trying to sort out the basics. Thanks for your help!

nostra

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Practise has shown that theres a whole lotta things to cause -fly and completely negate fly. Therefore you should at least have one other travel power as a backup.

Secondly, whenever you attack, a travelpower (superjump, superspeed or fly) will become suppressed for about 2 seconds. During this time you move very slowly (superjump doesnt work at all). In practise it is imo very difficult to 'move about' with fly and keep attacking the enemy with ranged attacks. Fly is ok, but it does have weak points. Not to mention it will always be the slowest of travelpowers.

Things to take into consideration: snow storm causes -fly and -speed which will negate fly and superspeed but not jump (snow storm is also autohit targeted toggle and main reason I respecced fly away from my PvP blaster). Web grenade causes -fly and -jump but not -speed so you can still superspeed away freely.

To utilize so-called unsuppressed movement, jumping about with combat jumping and well-slotted hurdle has proven to be best. Neither of these suffers from the travel power suppression that the 'normal' travel powers got. I heartily recommend getting hurdle (prerequisite to stamina anyway) and 3-slotting it no matter what travel power you decide on.

Aha, I see. So my scenario of flying around, nuking from the air, and flying away if targeted won't work because when nuking, flight is disabled for 2 sec (I assume I will just freefall?).

Speaking of backup, I was thinking flight and teleport. But maybe this would use too much endurance?

And last question, how many movement power can you reasonably take? (there are in the same power pool as invisibility? and other useful stuff to take, I guess?).

Thanks,
nostra

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Aha, I see. So my scenario of flying around, nuking from the air, and flying away if targeted won't work because when nuking, flight is disabled for 2 sec (I assume I will just freefall?).

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Nope, but when suppressed fly works just as slow as hover. So you will still remain airborne but any 'evasive maneuvers' are the tough part.

(Unless someone hits you with a -fly power in which case you will drop like a rock)

Thanks for the clarification.

How would that sound to you: flight to play the flying bomber and TP to get the hell out of there if needed?

nostra

Its is a perfectly valid strategy. TP is the best power to escape and the only travel power than can never be suppressed.

Great, I'll try that then. Is there anything I should know in order to "prepare" my flight power for ASAP? Like prerequisites, etc?

Also, if I respec... do I loose all the added slots I put on a power (I guess not, that would make respec useless)?

Thanks,

nostra

Devices doesn't have build up, just wanted to point that out before you decide

Psydock, thanks for pointing that out.

But... what's a build up (sorry, my game was installed in French before I realized I'll join an English speaking server, I'll reinstall it in English, but in the meantime, I'm screwed with translations). Is it the improvements you get after a victory (like damage boost, precision boost, etc.)?

nostra

You can find a good power guide here (although not 100% accurate): http://nofuture.org.uk/coh/powers/

Or a Hero Builder here: http://sherksilver.coldfront.net/

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How would that sound to you: flight to play the flying bomber and TP to get the hell out of there if needed?

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Don't do this. If you want to play a flying blaster, go with superspeed instead.

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Melee damage is nearly redundant in higher-end arena matches, since everyone is moving around so fast.

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Urgh I'm not sure I like the sound of this..

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This does not apply to EU PVP though. Xanthus is talking about the 8 v 8 or 16 v 16 matches they have in the US. Melee is still very valid here.

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Melee damage is nearly redundant in higher-end arena matches, since everyone is moving around so fast.

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Urgh I'm not sure I like the sound of this..

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This does not apply to EU PVP though. Xanthus is talking about the 8 v 8 or 16 v 16 matches they have in the US. Melee is still very valid here.

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Well, something like Paragon Defenders vs Retribution I wouldn't bother with Melee.

build up is a 10 second buff that will make you do 100% more damage and gives you 66% more accuracy

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Don't do this. If you want to play a flying blaster, go with superspeed instead.

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You mean fly + superspeed? If so, can you please explain why?

Generally speaking, I'm concerned with lag. I fear that the lag I suffer from, from time to time, will make it difficult to move around at high speed. Is it an issue? Would it be better with TP?

Thanks,

nostra

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Would it be better with TP?


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Nope. Lag will cause you 'rubberband' regardless what travelpower you use. Only solution to that would be a better connection or pc if its graphical lag.. Problem with teleport is, it is extremely diffcult to chase someone with it. And because I view blasters as aggressive damagedealers, you would be doing that a lot. Teleport on a stalker maybe, but fly+tp might be too difficult to navigate with a blaster.

Well it's all your decision. At this point I'd say the only important thing is the powersets you choose because they cannot be changed afterwards. You can complete respec trials and receive at least 3 respecs(not counting possible free respecs awarded in the future) with which to change powers and slottings afterwards within those powersets if you are unsatisfied.
You have chosen ice/energy which is collectively perceived one of the strongest powerset combos for a pvp blaster. Thats fine for now, now get lvling

I guess it's the graphical card cause I'm playing on a lap-top where I fear the components are hard/impossible to upgrade. But it seemed playable so far, I'll see how it evolves.

I'll take your word on what's most useful to a blaster and try superspeed (maybe in combo with flight to have a vertical component if needed). If I understood right, this can be respecced anyway so no biggie.

I made my character yesterday night and we did the first few missions with a friend who created a scrapper (DM/regen) and so far it's been very easy for us. And a lot of fun as well, we'll keep duoting for a while.

Anyway, thanks for the very helpful suggestions all along this thread, very much appreciated!

nostra