One thing that I failed to do the first time I made a blaster was to get Aim and Build Up as soon as possible. These are IMO the most important things to do with a blaster. They make so much difference, especially at the lower levels ( pre SO ).
Sonic and Ice are both good sets. Sonic has a very good secondary effect, -res, which is good with a damaging secondary, as well as being reasonably damaging in it's own right. Ice is the best single target for speed and raw damage, it also has 2 holds which is great for solo.
Energy is a very average blast set, it's single target attacks are fairly slow and at least one of its AoEs are annoying to teams. It's main advantage is the power ordering.
Elec is possibly the second best ( after Fire ) for useful team AoE, having 2 solid AoE powers, but it's secondary effect is fairly ineffective and unlike Fire it's single target powers are poor.
Archery is reasonably okay, better than average because of the nuke and Blazing Arrow. It has the advantages of low end cost, high accuracy and most attacks being available early. It does have redraw though and mostly does lethal damage.
Assault rifle is great for AoE, but mainly does lethal damage and does not have Aim.
For secondaries
/Elec is meant to be good for blapping too, better or as good as /Energy. It depends which of the other powers you want, the self buffs of energy or the more controlly elec.
/Energy has build up early, it is mainly melee and self buffs. For raw damage, it is probably better at low levels that /Elec, worse at mid levels and the same at high.
/Fire is the AoE damage king. With 4 PbAoEs, 2 of them being toggles, it is great for close up spawn damage. However it provides no control, so you need tankers/controllers to be at full effectiveness.
/Devices is buffs and control at low-mid level, fiddly AoE damage at high, it has no Build Up, which is pretty bad. Targetting Drone is an okay replacement, but no good for burst damage. I wouldn't go there, but I already have one.
/Ice is control and debuffery. Personally I wouldn't go there, I expect it may be reasonably good solo though as it give you some protection.
For a real team damage build, but could be hard to play , go Elec/Fire, a get in close and melt them build. Solo it would be tough though.
For a blappy build go Ice or Sonic for a primary and Energy or Elec for a secondary.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
elec/nrg after powerboost is master of drains. PB->discharge->TB and iirc even bosses (if survive) wont have any end left. Suits even nicer with ele epic (EMP) making a pretty massive insane end draining nuke.
The biggest boom nuke is nrg, sound, white bright light and (sometimes annoying) massive knockback. After that fire and elec(ranged aoe), followed by sonic (not much graphics but stats are awsome) and finaly ice and AR (massive snowstorm and just a full auto)
If you stick ranged, nrg with boostrange/powerboost is nice, but also /dev (targetdrone/calltrops/turret) and /ice (icepatch if they get close, CE is nice, but thats about it). /fire and /elec are mainly melee focused, although the /elec powersink is great for getting a fresh bar of end and getting a 2nd hold.
Elec primairy is actualy nice dmging and has a hold power, great for solo. As all powers are equaly ranged, it plays bitty easier unlike fire wich blaze has shorter range then the others, goes same for ice with bitter ice blast.
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Gonna sticky this one in my favourites. Most of the info isn't news to me, but it's so clear and well presented this thread is gonna be great for refering new players to. Nice one you two 
If you are going to use this as reference, I'll include my opinion of Fire Blast. The OP didn't want it.
Fire Blast is IMO the best AoE primary. The combination of Fire Breath and Fireball is awesome, both are above average damage and can cover a very large area. This is backed up by the situational Rain of Fire, a good scatter power when used solo and good when combined with a controller's AoE holds/immobs or something similar that will keep them in the area. From a single target point of view it is not great, Flares is a bit of a waste of space as it has a long animation and low damage, Fire Blast is fairly good and Blaze is very good, but with just the 2 of them you aren't really chaining attacks.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
Ice patch with 5 mobs going buildup and spam (yes thats 3 sec recharge) ignite. The power of AR/ice 
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hehe thanks for the comments so far...
Primary Wise
Fire - well I have a fire/kin/fire controller like I said I wouldnt mind going something else; i already have a char with fireblast and fireball now it would be nice to try soemthing else out.
Ice - Ice is Nice I mean I have heard lots out ice and its great single target dmge + hold ability. The nuke is ranged which is nice, but im not sure on Blizzard. I think Blizzard wud be nice on a corr with scourge but I dunno how nice of a nuke it is vs other blaser nukes such as nova, TB etc which offer complete burst nuke dmge
Sonic - This doesnt seem to bad, not sure how good the cone power is, and the -res component wud be nice. Seems to have some nice utility in its aoe sleep as well I guess not sure how good dreadful wail is, i honestly dont see many sonic blasters around so I dunno how good they are (or if they are more of a blapper set)
Elec - Now I do like the look of elec, seems to have a hold and nice single target dmge like Ice, but has the added bonus of the snipe and the aoe ball lightning. I am not sure how important Volcanic Sent is I think I have seen ppl skip that as its not entirely essential. I like the look of TB and ball lightning isnt so bad an aoe i dont think.
Archery - nice but i know its lethal dmge so i won't really feel any of the renowned high burst dmge that I associate with going blaster inherant acc a bonus i guess but i dunno..
Assault Rifle - this is an ok set i guess i know ppl who are AR blasters and are fine. I dunno i dont really think I would like the full auto much, plus I really cant stand the look of the gun lol :P
Energy Blast - I think it wouldn't be too bad, but I dont want to alienate ppl with all my knockback lol :P Tho the nova looks impressive I just dont think its what I wat, and i dont like energy torrent that much either lol :P
Secondary wise taking into account what you have said..
Device - I really want build up cus i want some high dmge output, I think tho there aint anything wrong with devices it might be too fiddly. Plus, i know a lot of ppl dont wait around for mines to be planetd etc so i might as well go something else :P
Ice - Sin you mention ice patch which would be nice but, imho, Ice patch would be the only ice power I would like in that set so it seems silly for me to choose that secondary purely for one power ^^
Energy - this is a possibility, like you say It would be viable for me as a ranged blaster plus i could take 1 or 2 powerful melee attacks for when worse comes to worse..
Fire - I could see myself going /fire purely to pick up build up, combustion, and fire swordcircle. I guess the question is , is combustion and fire sword circle good enough aoe's to justify using that secondary lol. If I went elec primary then i could have ball light, combust and fsc as my aoe powers i guess.. Bonus is you have consume for endurance regen.You just dont see many /fire around and i am wondering why..
Elect secondary = seems fine as well.. could take havoc punch and thunderstrike for the melee... and you have the bonus of powersink which would be good as well I guess.. and lightning clap for some "offensive defence"
I dunno if i had to lean towards something id say
Primary wise - Elect or Ice
Secondary - nrg , elect or fire
i just need to find the right combo i guess hehe
[ QUOTE ]
Elec - Now I do like the look of elec, seems to have a hold and nice single target dmge like Ice
[/ QUOTE ]It isn't. It lacks a "big hitter" ST attack, which makes it quite possibly the worst primary for ST damage.
[ QUOTE ]
Archery - nice but i know its lethal dmge so i won't really feel any of the renowned high burst dmge that I associate with going blaster inherant acc a bonus i guess but i dunno..
[/ QUOTE ]No matter how lethal resitant they are, rain of arrows is still awesome burst damage. It's up every 60 secs like full auto, but you don't need to stand in one place for ages to wait for DoT ticks. Plus you can use it even without line of sight to the enemies.
[ QUOTE ]
Fire - I could see myself going /fire purely to pick up build up, combustion, and fire swordcircle. I guess the question is , is combustion and fire sword circle good enough aoe's to justify using that secondary lol.
[/ QUOTE ]Yes, they are.
Do mind that archery has the annoying redraw animation, what made me kinda fed up with my 41 AR/ice blaster.
As of Ice vs Elec, elec has Zapp as compensation. It does bitty more damage then BiB, same recharge but only its a long animation and interupt (but that case Nrg loose bigtime). Both get holds, the Nuke of Elec beats Ice any time. (Blizzard just isnt what it should be). The sentinal is actualy funny to have, does okish damage and just looks funny.
I think final choice comes down what you like. Elec is nasty due it always 'connects' with the mob, even if it misses. Sound is ok, TB is just plain awsome. Fire has no mezz power, can be annoying and i just dont like that nonstop fire blazing sound (also the snipe). TA/AR come down to redraw, weapon choice and 'heroism'. Sonic at first is a very very annoying sound but you get kinda used to it. Finaly NRG, wich is nice, looks nice but is somehow pretty gimped due knockback, overal not that uber dmg and stupid long animations. Nova makes up alot for it though.
Elec/elec is known as awsome power with same has ice a double hold (3 with epic) and has lotsa tricks, combined AoE and ST. Ice/nrg is close to master of ST damage, massive -recharge/-slow and can archive a high mag hold ability. Fire... just dont like the set so never got beyond 26 to judge its 'fun factor', wich was at them time no where near my ice/nrg, nrg/ice, AR/ice or elec/dev.
/fire is fun if u team alot with a agro-magnet tanker, solo i never liked it a single bit, specialy if u see the ST damage elec and nrg can ditch out. As said, ice is the 'looser' in the set making quite some powers pretty useless. Dev is nice and often synergise with primairies that have stun (sonic and AR).
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Rough order of primaries in terms of what they are good at IMO.
Single targetness
Ice
Sonic,Archery,
Fire,Energy,AR
Elec
AoEness
Fire,
AR,
Elec,
Sonic,Ice,Archery
Energy
Control
Ice,Sonic,
Energy,Elec
Archery,AR,
Fire
Final Powers
AR, Archery,
Fire, Elec, Energy, Sonic,
Ice.
For secondaries
Single Targetness
Elec,Energy,
Ice,
Fire
Devices
AoEness
Fire,
Devices,
Elec, Ice, Energy
Control, debuff
Ice,
Devices,Elec,
Energy,
Fire.
Utility ( self buffs ).
Energy,
Devices,
Elec,
Fire,
Ice
I'm sure most people will disagree with something...
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
[ QUOTE ]
I'm sure most people will disagree with something...
[/ QUOTE ]
Actualy with quite alot
But that is way too depending on playstyle and preferences.
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[ QUOTE ]
I'm sure most people will disagree with something...
[/ QUOTE ]
Why do people hate Blizzard so much? 
CoX 50s: <ill/rad> <ice/ice> <fire/kin> <grav/sonic> <ice/storm> <earth/kin> <kin/elec> <cold/psy> <thugs/dark> <fire/dark> <dark/elec> <night widow> <EM/ninj> <mind/icy>
Why?
1. its a DoT
2. its a DoT
3. its a DoT
need to say more? 
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[ QUOTE ]
its a DoT
[/ QUOTE ]So is full auto 
But, but... with Blizzard it's like Christmas every day!
CoX 50s: <ill/rad> <ice/ice> <fire/kin> <grav/sonic> <ice/storm> <earth/kin> <kin/elec> <cold/psy> <thugs/dark> <fire/dark> <dark/elec> <night widow> <EM/ninj> <mind/icy>
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
its a DoT
[/ QUOTE ]So is full auto
[/ QUOTE ]
Full Auto beats Blizzard because:
1. no end crash
2. even mobs run away, they still being hit (initial tohit = full dmg)
3. ever seen a 3ft tall girl with huge boobs holding such insane big supersoaker emptying all her clips?
Hm.. i reconsider it because it do looks like Xmas snow.
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[ QUOTE ]
But, but... with Blizzard it's like Christmas every day!
[/ QUOTE ]
No. It rarely snows on Christmas here. If it made me feel ill from overeating it would make me feel like Christmas...
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
[ QUOTE ]
As of Ice vs Elec, elec has Zapp as compensation. It does bitty more damage then BiB, same recharge but only its a long animation and interupt (but that case Nrg loose bigtime). Both get holds, the Nuke of Elec beats Ice any time. (Blizzard just isnt what it should be). The sentinal is actualy funny to have, does okish damage and just looks funny.
[/ QUOTE ]
Personally, I think that the Sentinel tends to balance out both the AoE and ST weaknesses of Elec/ a bit. If you're fighting a lot of enemies it will tend to spread its attacks around, making it effectively a weak (but very cheap) AoE. If you're fighting one tough enemy, it will receive all of the Sentinel's attacks, boosting your ST damage by quite a bit.
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Tundra, DVM, The Late, Neutrino Ghost, Sir Clanksalot, End Of Days, Prof. Migraine
Howler Monkey
[ QUOTE ]
Control
Ice,Sonic,
Energy,Elec
Archery,AR,
Fire
[/ QUOTE ]
This I do not get. Elec Blast has insane control, especially when paired with /nrg or /elec as well as elec mastery for its end drain.
I can take as much time as I like on my Ele/Ele killing mobs because all they can do when they have no end (which is only two power uses away at any time) is follow you around, which I think is far greater control that ice's two holds (elec has a hold anyway), even when couple with ice's slows because they can still use all their powers when slowed, just not as much, and sonic's stun is ok, but as I said elec has a hold, and the cone sleep has poor recharge as well as the fact that you have to leave them completely alone if you want them mezzed, while you can do what you want to endless enemies.
[/rant]
Elec Blast for the win (in terms of control)
@Rooks
"You should come inside the box... Then you'll know what I mean."
[ QUOTE ]
Sonic - This doesnt seem to bad, not sure how good the cone power is, and the -res component wud be nice. Seems to have some nice utility in its aoe sleep as well I guess not sure how good dreadful wail is, i honestly dont see many sonic blasters around so I dunno how good they are (or if they are more of a blapper set)
[/ QUOTE ]
I guess this is my cue to rant about how much I like the Sonic/Energy combination?
To be honest, Sonic is a very safe set for Blasters. It has three soft control powers which mesh very nicely with the secondary. Mine is level 35 and so far doesn't have a debt badge (although I'm sure the debt fairies will target me now I've said it...) mainly due to the fact that I can sleep, stun or knockback my foes. The -res is very nice in providing a little extra boost to damage.
The damage is also both Smashing and Energy and IIRC, not many foes resist both at the same time so the damage output is very nice. Opinion on the cone power is mixed. Its damage output is very average but it can -res a whole spawn which is very nice as a team can take advantage of that. But on the whole, Sonic is a very single target oriented set.
Dreadful wail is a great nuke. It's fast and stuns pretty much anything that survives meaning that you can actually get out of there alive. Blapping is eminently possible. Not my cup of tea myself but you won't be gimped in melee. The stuns in the Energy secondary stack with the stun in the primary so it can be quite effective.
Hope that helps some.
@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk
Ice/ice is great solo...the nuke isn't terribly impressive looking...and it can be tricky to get the best from it solo...it's perfect with a troller holding a group of bad guys though.
Eng/eng is great....the KB isn't THAT big a problem in a group...you just need to manage it well...indoors it's easy...just make sure you are orientated so the blast knocks the enemy into a wall...and keep them pinned there. Outdoors, hover directly above the enemies so KB will just slam them into the ground.
KB isn't hard to manage...and is great fun.
The only slight drawback for /eng is the lack of an immobilise power.....but if you never play blasters you won't miss it
Eng/eng is a great fun setup...and to me that's the main reason to play any char....it's got to be fun.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Sonic - This doesnt seem to bad, not sure how good the cone power is, and the -res component wud be nice. Seems to have some nice utility in its aoe sleep as well I guess not sure how good dreadful wail is, i honestly dont see many sonic blasters around so I dunno how good they are (or if they are more of a blapper set)
[/ QUOTE ]
I guess this is my cue to rant about how much I like the Sonic/Energy combination?
To be honest, Sonic is a very safe set for Blasters. It has three soft control powers which mesh very nicely with the secondary. Mine is level 35 and so far doesn't have a debt badge (although I'm sure the debt fairies will target me now I've said it...) mainly due to the fact that I can sleep, stun or knockback my foes. The -res is very nice in providing a little extra boost to damage.
The damage is also both Smashing and Energy and IIRC, not many foes resist both at the same time so the damage output is very nice. Opinion on the cone power is mixed. Its damage output is very average but it can -res a whole spawn which is very nice as a team can take advantage of that. But on the whole, Sonic is a very single target oriented set.
Dreadful wail is a great nuke. It's fast and stuns pretty much anything that survives meaning that you can actually get out of there alive. Blapping is eminently possible. Not my cup of tea myself but you won't be gimped in melee. The stuns in the Energy secondary stack with the stun in the primary so it can be quite effective.
Hope that helps some.
[/ QUOTE ]
I teamed up with a high level (nearly 36 or 38) sonic blaster. Looks really great. But i don't know if its nuke is what you are looking for. In the heat of the battle i only noticed Sonic nuke because of the players bind. But effect is nice.
I have one blaster at lvl 5 which is Ice/Ice and i am pretty sure if i evet get into Blasters my next one will be a Sonic/*. Sonic has a big turn off for some; sound FX. I still don't like the sound of Shout. But luckily Scream has a lovely voice.
And maybe i am wrong but i think Sonic is more good than Ice in the terms of endurance usage.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Control
Ice,Sonic,
Energy,Elec
Archery,AR,
Fire
[/ QUOTE ]
This I do not get. Elec Blast has insane control, especially when paired with /nrg or /elec as well as elec mastery for its end drain.
I can take as much time as I like on my Ele/Ele killing mobs because all they can do when they have no end (which is only two power uses away at any time) is follow you around, which I think is far greater control that ice's two holds (elec has a hold anyway), even when couple with ice's slows because they can still use all their powers when slowed, just not as much, and sonic's stun is ok, but as I said elec has a hold, and the cone sleep has poor recharge as well as the fact that you have to leave them completely alone if you want them mezzed, while you can do what you want to endless enemies.
[/rant]
Elec Blast for the win (in terms of control)
[/ QUOTE ]
From my experience Elec/'s end drain control is fairly soft. I have a Kin/elec defender who is pretty much set up for end drain. Short Circuit is not enough by itself to provide protection last time I used it ( slotted for 3 end mods on a defender set ). I've found it needs to be double stacked, before it helps, that means 10 seconds. You are talking about Elec/Elec which has another end drain PbAoE to stack with it. I was talking about the primary alone. I rated /Elec's control fairly high.
Sonic has a cone Knockback, a cone sleep and a stun. The recharge of Siren's Song is the same as Short Circuit according to City of Data. For a single target blaster, soloing, it means you can take out everything but bosses in one shot, until you are ready to deal with them.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
I wouldnt call the Sonic knockback a good control power. First its quite long animation, second it has a rooting animation (its basicly gale). Energy torrent beats that power by far, only range is little less.
But rating primairy on their control, cannot be done without checking secondairy. As a AR/ice has far more control then a sonic/fire for example. But yet AR is rated lower as control then sonic. The strength of a primairy is related to secondairy and visa versa.
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Sign the petition, dont let CoH go down! SIGN!
[ QUOTE ]
I wouldnt call the Sonic knockback a good control power. First its quite long animation, second it has a rooting animation (its basicly gale). Energy torrent beats that power by far, only range is little less.
[/ QUOTE ]
I never said it was good, I said it was a control power. Siren's Song is the best control power in the set, which for a certain playstyle is very good.
[ QUOTE ]
But rating primairy on their control, cannot be done without checking secondairy. As a AR/ice has far more control then a sonic/fire for example. But yet AR is rated lower as control then sonic. The strength of a primairy is related to secondairy and visa versa.
[/ QUOTE ]
You are talking about the strength of a build, not the strength of a primary or the strength of a secondary.
I roughly ordered the primaries and secondaries for the blaster to show their strengths and weaknesses. You seem to be ignoring my rating of the secondaries on purpose.
AR/Ice is a strong secondary control, with a weak primary control.
Sonic/Fire is a strong primary control with a weak secondary control.
There is less difference in the primaries that the secondaries in all categories. So a strong secondary makes more difference. Also Sonic and Fire does seem like a bad combo if you want control, mainly because of the types of control it provides.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
Hey All
. I dont really wanna go fire either cus ive just lvlled up a fire/kin/fire so i have had my share of fire blasting/fireballing ^^
those plus TB and ball lightning wud give me lotsa aoe)
Ok i am not really a fan of blasters but I really do not have a blaster at all that is higher than like lvl 4 so I should really commit and make my next alt a blaster
Problem is I dont really know any good combos so I am wondering if I can get some opinions from the forum peeps
Ok... I dont really wanna be a blapper, when i think of blasters i think ranged, but i wudnt mind going /nrg and getting like TF and bonesmasher and use them sparingly when a mob gets too close etc..
I want a nuke, must... have a big BOOOOOOOM i see so many ppl doing it and it looks like so much fun
The ideas I have come up with are:-
Elec/Nrg (i would mostly be ranged but wud obv take the blapper powers for emergencies when I am in close quarters)
Elec/Fire (I could have single target eleccy attacks + the bonus of combustion and fire sword circle for aoeing when a tank herds
Energy / xx (ranged energy blaster, i know all the whine about knockback etc but I would soon shut up a team with how professional my energy blastering (a word?) is :P)
Archery (i know rain of arrows isnt really a nuke as such but if its high dmge surely it wud be ok)
Any ideas would beappreciated i like getting all thoughts on blaster combos