What is the safest secondary?

I cannot get a Blaster into high levels and enjoy constant faceplanting against tough enemies. I give up and start playing my Scrappers again to give me the illusion I can still play the game halfway well.

But I want to try again with an Archery Blaster. However, I want to be able to survive higher levels and am therefore looking for the "safest" secondary to pair with it. My choices so far are these in this order:

1) Mental
2) Ice
3) Devices (have an AR/Dev already)

Thoughts?

Thank you!

I think in order of safety:

Devices
Ice
Mental

Devices - taser (stun), caltrops, web grenade, smoke grenade, cloaking device, even gun drone can all provide mitigation. However, it's the slowest leveler, and it's no more safer on teams than the other secondaries.

Ice - shiver, ice patch and freezing touch (hold). Shiver is fantastic but requires good slotting to take advantage of it, and ice patch is very good. Deploy it around a corner, shoot mobs and then watch them slip over it. Ice is also wonderful on teams.

Mental - very late blooming set IMO. No more safer than other secondaries until you have drain psyche well slotted, good global recharge and psychic shockwave. Scare and World of Confusion on paper provides mitigation, but in practice they aren't that great. World of Confusion *is* good once you get a little bit of defense and slot the purple proc, but before then it's pretty bad. Scare is just bad.

I'd recommend ice for safety when you need it most from the late 20s to 50. Mental is very safe in the end game. Devices is safe from the get go, but a slow leveler. They all have pluses and minuses.

Thank you. So from 40 on, would you say Mental beats Ice against tough guys? Or the other way around?

/ice is a very solid secondary. Primaries that are also relatively strong for survival are Sonic/ and Ice/ .

Also, and I don't know if this will help, I have a Blaster mini-guide in my sig.

I agree completely with the above posters on this issue.

This link isn't regarding your primary or secondary selection but may give you some general blaster tips. I'd especially reccomend the section dealing with temp powers and accolades as well as reccomend Force Mastery as an Epic Power set.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...01#post2472001

Thanks all for the input. I've played ice/, /ice and /cold on MANY of my characters, and don't dig the setup time and "planted" elements of /devices (though my AR/Dev is a solid soloer), so prior to hearing some of this latest feedback, already selected an Arch/MM build and so far am really enjoying it. The Telekinetic Thrust is a lifesaver so far, and I have experienced tough fights in the higher levels with Werewolves, who do seem affected by Fears, so expect Scare will come in handy in those situations.

I know it may sound silly, but I'm choosing to build this Blaster for survivability and less of an AOE focus until later levels when she has some mitigation to survive the aggro of multiple enemies. So for now, am foregoing Fistful of Arrows and Psychic Scream. If they had secondary effects that would help mitigate return fire, I might take them earlier.

I'm at 10 now, so any recommendations for how to build the most survivable build would be good. I'll be getting Aid Self in the build, but probably foregoing Hover and Combat Jump because of their very small DEF bonuses. Though taking Hover just for those times where I need to stay above the battlefield or can't get elevation with Ninja Run alone may be a good choice.

I'll be looking for Regen accolades and IO sets along the way, but I guess my outstanding question is regarding whether or not there are ways to build DEF and/or RES that will make a difference in survivability in later levels.

I appreciate the input.

Thanks for the response. I haven't tried only one trip mine, but have never been that impressed by its damage output "at high levels," which is where I'm looking for survivability. Just my experience. I have a level 40 AR/Dev who I dearly love. Just looking for something different that plays faster and safer, and so far, this Arch/MM has been a joy.

I screwed up and enhanced the wrong power last night when I was rushing to stay with the team, so had to respec anyway. I dropped in Psychic Scream in place of Snap Shot, and though I miss the additional minion finisher, I'm enjoying the big damage numbers PS gets. It's great to have two entirely different types of damage to choose from depending on the inherent resistances of the villain type. But now with a big cone, I am attracting that aggro I was trying to avoid at lower levels.

Ah well. Why make the game too easy for myself?

By the way, I didn't mean to insinuate I was looking for S/L defense since I will remain a ranged/hover blaster. So I will be looking through threads for the best ranged defense advice I can find, though I haven't seen one for Arch/MM yet. If you know of one, let me know? Thanks!

So using Mids I was able to get up to 35.2% Ranged DEF, and played around with safety buttons like the Invisibility pool (Phase Shift) in case I'm stuck in melee and can't get out. I sacrificed the Medicine pool for that, but a friend of mine says "when you have the choice, never take powers you can duplicate with Inspirations."

I'm guessing 35.2% is as good as I'll need to push it, and can pop a Purple if I need more. I suppose I've sacrificed the "enhancing for Recharge" route (only picked up 12.5% in the sets), but at high levels, find I have plenty to fire off and on high recharge builds still run low on endurance. I couldn't work in Hasten either, so it is what it is, I suppose.

Has anyone done better with an Archery/MM getting ranged AOE this high and higher Recharge? I'm all ears.

Thanks!

devices has build up...

its called time bomb =)

if the enemy gets to you in time for the boom, thats just a plus.

IOs! Build for Defense!

Start at lvl 30 with lvl 33 IOs.

That will help your survival

I've got a fire/ice setted out for recharge at 27. She can handle her own, but the OP's odd suggestion is right, staying away from AoE will keep the aggro off you.

I am an aggro pig. I pull crap off the tank constantly with Fire ball, fire breath, and rain of fire. I don't have ice patch, and am waiting for Shiver which happens at 28.

My damage mitigation is their death. And it works pretty well.

If not, jump over the tank.

Edited to add: Yeah, Fury, I've setted out a 35 AR and this as a 25. I used my 50 as a "personal shopper" to do it. She set up all the biids, some which took over a week to fill, crafted them, and sent them through the base's enh box.

I realize I'm a little late to the game, but I'm surprised to see discussion of /Ice and no props for Frozen Aura? It's not particularly useful on a team, but if you're playing solo, can be a huge help. It'll keep minions permanently asleep right out of the box, leaving you considerable breathing room to pick enemies off in a single target build.

I know the original question asked for secondaries, but you've already gotten some great advice on those and have started your archery/mm -- a fine choice.

But I wanted to give a shout out to sonic as a safe primary. It's great solo! You siren's song a group to sleep, shriek one awake but into a stun, then shout him to death . . . repeat.