Hmm.
Well energy has boost range which increases the size of your cone attacks, you've got powerful melee attacks for anyone that gets up close and the stuns can be stacked with bean bag.
Ice can slow the enemy down with shiver so that they stay at range for longer and ice patch means that if they do get close to you then they just fall over. You can also set up ice patch as a way to keep enemies trapped in your ignite.
Mental Manipulation gives you another cone attack to go with buckshot, flamethrower and full auto as well as the standard useful abilities, although you'd need to go in close if you wanted to use drain psyche or psychic shockwave.
Due to the point-blank aoes Fire doesn't mesh as easily with assault rifle as some of the other secondaries might. There is one thing that you can do with fire manipulation that everything else can't and that is to trap an enemy in both your burn and your ignite patches and watch them crackle.
Electricity doesn't have anything that really goes well with assault rifle. It's got nice attacks, build-up and all that but there's nothing that actually makes a person think "Wow. That would work so well with assault rifle.
Hope this helps.
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Mental or Energy are probably the best combinations with AR depending on how much mitigation you want versus extra damage.
Yeh, devices is what most go to but not my favorite either.
Mental Manipulation is good if you're thinking long term/post IO build. You can build it pretty similiar too the hordes of Archery/Mental blasters out there with high recharge.
I've had luck with Energy like was mentioned above because of the various boosts and the high dmg melee attacks.
Electric is a little simliar that way too with a few extra goods in place of the boosts.
Fire is also a good go to both in regards to end-game IO slotting and for some AoEs combined with some odds-and-ends powers like Consume.
Ice I feel "Meh" about myself but has some nice slow effects to it.
A lot of it depends on your play style and ability/willingness to bend if the secondary calls for it. The most popular ones though do tend to be Mental Manipulation and Energy and probably the way to go if you're not familiar with the other blaster secondaries.
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/Mental. Give yourself yet another cone for that attack chain among other things... you have to be able to deal with the redraw thing, though.
/Ice has the best damage mitigation in any blaster secondary in the fewest powers in my experience (lvl 50 AR/Ice, Arch/Ice, and 48 Fire/Ice) AND has Build-up, which makes your AR AoEs really melt the baddies. Shiver is downright broken-good (base recharge of 12s vs 30s on the troller version) and is both solo-asset and under-recognized but greatly effective debuffer in teams. Also Chilblain is arguably the best overall offense/defense tier one out (and usable while mezzed with defiance). Ice Patch is either a life saver or a non-factor and is great in raids with Ignite. As for the range appeal of /Energy (with boost range), I find that at least in the late game the dam/range HOs are really quite reasonable and get my AR ranges quite nicely boosted (good Dam/range IOs too.) I took the Munitions pool for theme and for Body Armor (which hold the Steadfast protection uniques and Aegis unique, and LRM, which is a brutal combo with BU and Full Auto followup, pretty much takes out a whole ITF crystal spawn all on it's own (I suggest no acc in LRM as it will always be used with Buildup, and slots can go into straight dam/rech to max each in 4 slots). Use it!
A strength of /ice is that you can really make do quite nicely with only 4 of the powers (BU, Ice Patch, Chilblain and SHIVER). The hold is nice of course and the sleep is a good cheap purple set mule (and situational oh crap button). This frees you up to invest in the med pool (recommended)
Quote:
If you want mitigation for your AR/ blaster then Ice is the way to go. It's also nice to have an immobilize as it lets you leverage ignite.|
Originally Posted by firespray
I'm wanting to do an Assault Rifle blaster and I'm wondering what's mechanically a good secondary to go with it. I can't stand devices, so please don't suggest it.
|
On the other hand if you want to really leverage AR's strength's then /energy is the way to go. You won't be able to leverage ignite solo but boost range with all those cones is really really nice. Beanbag + Stun (not so much Total Focus post nerf but it can still be made to work) is a nice tool against bosses especially when combined with Power Boost.
The things I probably wouldn't pair it with would be /Mental or /Fire most of the utility powers in /mental are melee or close range and with Buckshot, M30 Grenade, Flame Thrower, and Full Auto the last thing you'll need is another cone attack that will just sit in your tray unused. /Fire has the same problems in that most of the attacks from the secondary are slow animating PBAoEs or are endurance hungry (or both).
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AR/Energy is the way to go, for sure. AR/Mental might work as well but having to run in to leverage Drain Psyche and PSW work against the strengths of AR, which is chock full of cones. That's why Energy pairs so well with it - Boost Range effectively widens your cones, not to mention provides some hard-hitting melee attacks. If you're not careful, though, you'll sometimes find yourself accidentally firing Full Auto into the next mob. 
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Quote:
Devices works okay with it, though you won't have Build-up to throw in there with it. The little damage boosts some powers got in Devices only work with AR, too, so that's nice as well.|
Originally Posted by firespray
I'm wanting to do an Assault Rifle blaster and I'm wondering what's mechanically a good secondary to go with it. I can't stand devices, so please don't suggest it.
|
I must say I do love my AR/EM Blaster. Lots of AOE damage at range, and good ST damage up close (and you can get Burst and Slug to recharge fast enough to have a semi-decent attack chain while mezzed). The set has a lot of mitigation from KB and Disorient as well: I can knock a boss on his backside, then disorient him while he's down. Works great for soloing (and on teams when a boss gets a little close). And man, is it fun. A real visceral, hard-hitting set.
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I've been pretty surprised with AR/Mental. I have an AR/Dev at 50 and have leveled (though she's been deleted since) an AR/Energy.
I actually think the key powers for mental manipulation are psychic scream (another high damage cone), drain psyche, psychic shockwave and world of confusion.
I think of the powers I listed I think I'll get the most scoffs at world of confusion. It's terrible when you first get it, and honestly, I thought I made a horrible mistake when I picked it up. However, once you have a well slotted drain psyche, psy shockwave and a decent amount of global recharge, world of confusion works out pretty well. It provides just enough mitigation to safely charge that group, get in psy shockwave and then use drain psyche.
After you're charged up with drain psyche, you're pretty much unstoppable for the duration and can unleash cone after cone of damage without worrying about endurance or face planting.
As for redraw, yeah, it has it. But so does archery or combining AR with any other secondary. You just get used to it.
AR/Mental requires quite a bit of investment in IOs to get it going on all cylinders, but once built, it's a very nice late game build.
I'm wanting to do an Assault Rifle blaster and I'm wondering what's mechanically a good secondary to go with it. I can't stand devices, so please don't suggest it.