Build help for first Blaster

Hi all!

I've been playing a little with an Archery/FM Blaster in the past. After not having played with the character for some time, I came back to her today and learnt that she was actually awesome! She is recently at lvl 37, so I thought about making a build for her. Now, I've put together a build for this character, but I wouldn't mind some constructive critique about it. I would for example be very pleased if I could get some alternatives for some of the sets I have chosen. Furthermore I'd be pleased to get some advice other than that.


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Ok, I can see some have shown interest in the matter. Please, don't just enter the thread and look at the build; please, comment it. Say that you think it looks interesting, good, fantastic, bad, terrible, undoable, whatever; just say something about it. I would be very surprised if those of you, who have already looked, don't have anything to say about it, so please, comment it!

I have a Arch/FM at 40 I didnt pick up burn or blazing aura I picked consume since you dont always have a blue pill for end and hot feet since it has over twice the radius of BA plus it slows them down.

Hello Janus

I made a vow not to reply to forum posts or start another thread until I was recovered from Christmas enough to post my fire/Fire scrapper build on the scrapper forums...those nice people gave me build advice but I was wayyyyy to tired to respond with gusto....however I saw your build, and you did want feedback....and I am awake....

First of all I am not a Blaster person. I am a scrapper person who has two Blasters in the high 20s. A Fire/Ice and an Archery/Mental. I got them both to this level solo.

I may be very wrong about this, but if I were to have a Blaster with the fire secondary at your level I would drop Blazing Aura. Already I am seeing the extreme wisdom of standing back from a distance. At a distance, Blazing Aura just makes you look cool...but you do have Fire Sword Circle which means being in Melee distance and Blazing Aura will chip away at the bad guys. You have to decide whether it chips away fast enough, and if you are going to be in Melee distance long enough, to devote a whole power pick for it. My Scrapper kills so fast, and I solo her, so I do not have number of mobs I would see in a team, so she does not have it.

Another thing, that Numina Regen you have in Health works better if your Health power is slotted to the max.

Hmmm..Burn. Does it scatter the Mobs as it does in Scrappers?

I would drop it and put Combat Jumping in its place. Combat Jumping is immob protection and is a great place to put your Winter's Gift Slow, and a Kismet accuracy if you can get your hands on one....hmmmm....now that I ponder a bit, it comes to me that being a Blaster you may indeed want the mobs to run away from you.

And where is Consume?????

Consume refills your endurance bar, and I am positive you know the value of endurance

Well, I have to run. Take care, and have fun with your Blaster.

Lisa.

You seem to have heavily slotted for +Regen. I've experimented with high levels of regen on another blaster (Fire/Fire) and got lackluster results; in my experience recharge (to kill things faster) and defense (to prevent getting hit) are much superior build goals on a Blaster. Archery Blasters thrive on recharge. You have the best AoE attack of any Blaster primary, Rain of Arrows, and you want to abuse it as often as possible. I strongly recommend getting a decent amount of global recharge within the constraints of your budget.

For your single-target attacks some good slotting choices are: 6 Thunderstrikes (accuracy, recovery and ranged defense), 4 Devastations/2 Thunderstrikes (HP, regen and recovery bonus), and 5 Decimations (HP and recharge bonus). You also want to make sure you are at, or close to, the ED cap on damage (+95% damage) for all your attacks; personally I would try not to go below +90%. Fewer well slotted attacks beats more badly slotted attacks.

Fistful of Arrows and Explosive Arrow are overslotted for damage. You can slot level 35 Positron's Blasts instead which will put you exactly at the ED cap for damage and offer some exemplar capability; alternately you can drop either the Dam/End or Acc/Dam and replace it for the proc, which will add more damage on average. For Fistful of Arrows, in the 6th slot I would add a Range IO which extends the length of the cone so you can hit more baddies with it.

I wouldn't bother spending an extra 2 slots on Hover just to get a measly 1.5% HP bonus. You can put just a Karma -KB in the default slot, adding a Fly common IO if you actively use it in combat. If you can afford it I recommend putting a Luck of the Gambler +7.5% recharge speed in here as well.

You don't need the AoE defense from Scirocco's Dervish in Fire Sword Circle. I would 6-slot it with 5 Obliterations (all but the proc) and 1 Endurance reduction common IO for the 5% recharge bonus.

Blazing Aura has a very tiny radius (8ft) and it's quite hard to catch enemies in it. Unless you're taking it just for looks, I'd drop it for Hot Feet which has a much bigger radius (20ft) and also slows enemies. Note that you cannot activate Hot Feet in the air, however you can activate it on the ground, then fly and it will work as normal. I'd slot it Multistrike Dam/End, Multistrike Acc/Dam/End, Scirocco's Dervish Acc/Dam, Scirocco's Dervish Acc/Dam/End to get more damage enhancement in it.

I'd add a 5th slot of Stupefy to stunning arrow for the 6.25% recharge bonus.

Rain of Arrows is your best attack and you should try to get high recharge enhancement in it. I would slot it 5 Positron's Blast (all but the proc) and 1 level 50 Recharge common IO, or 5 Ragnaroks (all but the proc). You can expect to pay about 200m per enhancement for the Ragnaroks; they should not be lightly used for frankenslotting.

Burn is terribly underslotted for an attack and it's not that great of an attack in the first place. It causes scatter, has a tiny radius and is a PBAoE so you have to get right up to enemies to use it. You also can't use it while flying. I'd drop it for Consume or, if you want immobilization protection, Combat Jumping (which is another great place to stick a Luck of the Gambler +7.5% recharge).

Assault is overslotted for endurance reduction. I personally wouldn't bother taking Assault on a Blaster since the bonus isn't very significant.

Bonfire needs no slotting; 1 recharge will do.

Reactive Armor in Fire Shield is useless since you do not have other significant sources of defense to stack with it. I'd go with Steadfast protection for the HP bonus, or Impervium Armor for the recovery bonus.

Rise of the Phoenix needs no slotting. The damage looks impressive on paper, however it is dealt in 3 waves, and each wave causes knockback; therefore you'll have a hard time getting the maximum damage out of it. I would slot it just 1 Recharge.

Thanks for the replies guys time for reaction!

First of all I'd like to thank you Laevateinn for all your feedback, it has helped me re-consider. And second of all, I'd like to explain one of my picks, namely Consume.

I have played with the character for some time (surprise! She's lvl 40 now :P), and through that whole time, I have got two reasons for why I have decided not to include Consume.
Many of you are saying that Burn is a useless power, as it needs close contact with the enemy; well, so does Consume technically. Truly, consume has a wider range than Burn, but it still can cause trouble, because you'll have to get into the heated spot that PBAoE certainly can be decribed as. You would likely respond with something like:" It's true that you must get into PBAoE range, but you will be willing to do so in order to get endurance"; well, I have experienced that I rarely ever have endurance difficulties! I have always been surprised by it, but I have never come into situations where I actually need to use Consume, which has made it seem unneeded.

And about the BA/HF thingy, it might have been mostly for looks, but actually it could possibly be for filling as well, as I NEVER get into melee range when in teams.