Rolling My Second Ever Blaster - So What Type To Roll?
By
DarkInvado,
Posted on: 2010-05-23 17:35 in Blasters
Having played a few blasters to various levels, my next project (for GR) was gonna be a rad/ice blaster. Other than meshing those sets which I have not extensively played was the only goal there. From my experience with a sonic/cold corr, I love sonic. Problem is I would pair it with /elec for the extra damage in the melee's.
My first Blaster was Nrg/Devices. I lost interest in him quickly and deleted him at 22. My next Blaster was Nrg/Nrg and i've had fun with her, she is 46 and I would like to get her 50 soon. I've played nrg/nrg more as a Blapper but I still have the full complement of Ranged attacks.
On the suggestion of someone on the boards I tried out Fire/Elec and got that toon up to 25 in no time, I've been distracted from leveling the nrg/nrg to 50 because of this toon, it has been great fun to play that combo so far and it gets better so I've heard.
I've also been playing a Defender a bit lately. He has Sonic secondary and I would really like to try out a Sonic Blaster to see what it is like, it looks like it has potential but I certainly don't see many of them around.
I vote for you giving a look at Fire/Elec or Sonic/? I'm not even sure what to pair with Sonic?
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Depends on what you want to do. Mitigation is what you need while soloing. For primary sets that means Sonic or Ice is best. For secondaries, Ice or Devices. Another potential primary choice would be energy and slotting FOR KB. This isn't every one's cup of tea though.|
Originally Posted by DarkInvado
My first toon ever was a Fire/Energy Blaster. Needless to say he wasn't my first ever to 50. After about a dozen 50s I am looking to roll a new blaster. I tend to either solo or run TFs and I will look to IO Set him out starting early. I would love to be able to solo AVs and perhaps GMs with her but its not a total req since I realize blasters are not so durable...
What would you roll and why? Since she is a blaster I am looking for DPS and sets that have good synergy. I don't tend to run into melee range and play blapper with my current blaster but perhaps there is a better way? Pros, cons? I am thinking perhaps a combination of any of the following could be interesting? Sonic Rad Mental Fire Cold Thoughts? |
Good choices for solo is Ice/Ice, Sonic/Ice, Fire/Ice, Ice/Fire, Sonic/Energy, Ice/Dev, Arch/Dev, and Ar/Dev.
For teaming raw damage output is always nice, Fire/Energy, Fire/Fire, Rad/Fire, Fire/Mental are all excellent choices.
-Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein.
-I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo Galilei
-When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. - Thomas Jefferson
I'm tempted to say; Elec/Shield/Fire Scrapper. More AoE damage than any Blaster coupled with infinitely better survivability. Best "Blaster" EVER and hooray for balance!
Other than that; anything goes with /Mental. 
Hmmm some good stuff to think about so far. I just realized that my little list of powers above might have eliminated some good choices so don't feel constrained by my list.
The suggestion of the scrapper is an interesting one. I do have a fire/shield scrapper and an elec/shield brute so while the suggestion is pretty much right on I am looking for the "pure" blaster.
It occurs to me that I could try playing a few different combinations to level 15-20 but what are the chances that a set would play well to that level and then be quite sub-par when fully IO Set'ed out at level 50?
Anyone have experience with a rad/sonic or sonic/rad?
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If you are talking blaster those two don't combo. Both are Primary power sets only.|
Originally Posted by DarkInvado
Anyone have experience with a rad/sonic or sonic/rad?
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I have a Rad/Energy blaster that is lvl 48, I love Radiation; Neutron Bolt and X-Ray Beam are great, quick attacks, Cosmic Burst is devastating with high damage and stun. Irradiate, Electron Haze, and Neutron Bomb are great AOE though they are slow casts. Energy is great for some Melee attacks and the for the Boost Range power (makes those 40 range attacks actually ranged rather than semi-melee attacks. Power Trust is great for solo to knockback melee attackers and is usable while Held/sleep/stun. I slotted it purely for knockback rather than damage and just use it sparingly in groups.
My second character ever, and my first blaster was an Ice/Ice. I took him on an ITF yesterday. Ice/Ice is basically a Blaster/Controller, kind of like a Blue-Side Dominator. Great character for solo play, since you can hold foes and then beat them down in safety. With two ranged holds (Bitter Freeze Ray and Freeze Ray) you can quickly hold bosses (BFR takes a while to animate, so that one goes first.) Ice Patch gives you a nice little defensive power, and Shiver is simply awesome for its massive slow and -Recharge.
LOCAL MAN! The most famous hero of all. There are more newspaper stories about me than anyone else. "Local Man wins Medal of Honor." "Local Man opens Animal Shelter." "Local Man Charged with..." (Um, forget about that one.)
Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control
I agree with this my ice/ice is level 33 and a joy to play solo or in a team even just with SOs.
I've played several Blasters and some of my favorites are:
Archery / Energy - build for pure ranged attacking. With perma-Boost Range, Hover, and good Ranged defense you can be very survivable and Rain of Arrows is fantastic AoE damage. It's a very fun build, though you don't have quite the damage output of some other Blasters.
Fire / Mental - AoE monster with massive single target damage too, especially with high recharge. You'll faceplant a lot unless you get a bunch of defense, but not as often as a Fire/Fire and you'll have almost as much damage.
Ice / Electric - Single target Blapper. Two holds, a damage aura, and massively powerful melee attacks let you lock down a boss or a couple of lieutenants and pummel them into the ground.
Sonic / Electric or Sonic / Energy - Put a whole spawn to sleep, then melee them down one at a time. Sonic is nice on teams too because of the -resist.
Energy / Energy - Not the best damage, but knocking things all over the place is a lot of fun solo. Not the most team friendly build though unless you are good at controlling KB.
Ice / Ice - Massive mitigation and control plus decent single target damage. Probably the most survivable Blaster around, though you'll have almost no AoE damage.
Fire / Electric - The ultimate DPS machine. Nothing else blueside has as much single target damage, but expect to die a lot unless you spring for a very expensive S/L softcapped build. (Then you only die a little more than average since you'll be pulling aggro from everything in sight. 
) Fire / Energy is almost as good for hard target killing though and you have one of those so I'd just use your second build on that character for a max-recharge S/L softcapped build if you want to have a fast AV killer.
Cascade, level 50 Blaster (NRG/NRG since before it was cool)
Mechmeister, level 50 Bots / Traps MM
FAR too many non-50 alts to name
[u]Arcs[u]
The Scavenger Hunt: 187076
The Instant Lair Delivery Service: 206636
I just rolled two Blasters which I am having a lot of fun with.
Sonic/Ice and Psi/Mental.
Too early for me to tell how they will do later game, but so far I am happy with them.
I do have two Blasters which are almost 30, got there solo, and they are doing great.
Fire/Ice and Archery/Mental
I am a scrapper person who is still learning the Tao of the blaster...so if I am having fun with them, I am sure you will too.
Lisa-who just realized that I used the same secondaries for my new Blasters, as I did with my seasoned Blasters...hmmm
So don't wait for heroes, do it yourself
You've got the power
winners are losers
who got up and gave it just one more try
***Dennis DeYoung
Quote:
That won't be like that for long, shield charge's day of nerfing is coming soon.
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Originally Posted by Seraphael
I'm tempted to say; Elec/Shield/Fire Scrapper. More AoE damage than any Blaster coupled with infinitely better survivability. Best "Blaster" EVER and hooray for balance!
Other than that; anything goes with /Mental. |
Virtue: @Santorican
Dark/Shield Build Thread
Blasters tend to be my favorite to play.
Currently I have an Electric/Devices, DP/Fire and an Archery/MM.
I just started the Archery/MM, but the other two are my favorite of all my various characters and I have alot.
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I can't agree with this. Ice Storm, Frost Breath and Blizzard provide AoE damage. Granted, not as much as Fire, but adequate. And with Shiver providing a huge amount of AoE Slow and -Recharge, foes can't run out of the area of Ice Storm or Blizzard very quickly. And your Nuke is ranged and does a huge amount of damage.|
Originally Posted by StrykerX
Ice / Ice - Massive mitigation and control plus decent single target damage. Probably the most survivable Blaster around, though you'll have almost no AoE damage.
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When on a large team, I find that I contribute a lot of AoE by leading off with Shiver, Ice Storm and then Frost Breath. Granted, a lot of the AoE damage is Damage over Time, but it is still effective.
LOCAL MAN! The most famous hero of all. There are more newspaper stories about me than anyone else. "Local Man wins Medal of Honor." "Local Man opens Animal Shelter." "Local Man Charged with..." (Um, forget about that one.)
Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control
It may seem really wonky, but I've been thinking about Energy/Ice/Force.
I honestly have no idea how the set would work, but I like both halves of it. With the kb and the slow, I think it might even be a bad bad joke.
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On the other side of the coin is my Ice/Fire. I have the AoEs franken slotted so that I could add to the slow component with out giving up damage. It doesn't provide as much mitigation as Fire/Ice but it does massive AoE DoT damage with Ice Storm, Frost Breath, Hot Feet, Combustion, and Fire Sword Circle. It also has 2 ranged holds so that I can eliminate a boss or 2 lieutenants from the mix.
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Originally Posted by Local_Man
I can't agree with this. Ice Storm, Frost Breath and Blizzard provide AoE damage. Granted, not as much as Fire, but adequate. And with Shiver providing a huge amount of AoE Slow and -Recharge, foes can't run out of the area of Ice Storm or Blizzard very quickly. And your Nuke is ranged and does a huge amount of damage.
When on a large team, I find that I contribute a lot of AoE by leading off with Shiver, Ice Storm and then Frost Breath. Granted, a lot of the AoE damage is Damage over Time, but it is still effective. |
-Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein.
-I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo Galilei
-When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. - Thomas Jefferson
Quote:
I had a buddy who had one, and he hated it. He always felt like he was doing everything badly, and that the sets coupled together were almost counterintuitive to play.|
Originally Posted by Postagulous
It may seem really wonky, but I've been thinking about Energy/Ice/Force.
I honestly have no idea how the set would work, but I like both halves of it. With the kb and the slow, I think it might even be a bad bad joke. |
To the OP
I would recommend an Ice/MM or Psi/Ice.
Psi/ Lacks AoE but seems like it would compliment /ice's control as when things are being controlled they're are more susceptible to ST attacks. I think this may work well for a nice Solo oriented ST specialist, go Cold mastery and Cap S/L defense. Rad/Ice may also be nice, although the early PBAOE may lead an unexperienced blaster to very early deaths.
I loved my Ice/MM the "lack" of AoE in Ice is made up for nicely with /MM, the only reason why he stalled at 35 was that Dual Pistols was released and I was able finally to roll a concept that I'd been dying for since I first started playing CoH. And since it was a DP/MM I didn't want to play another 15 strait lvls of /MM after playing 85 lvls (135 total).
Active 50s:
Zero Defex: DP/MM//Mace Blaster
Mutant X-7: Fire/MM//Mace Blaster
Running my Kin/EA gloriously
Come on I21!!!
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Sure, the devs are supposed to listen to their customers, mister business 101 out there. And if I decide to start suggesting that the devs change the game from being about superheroes and supervillains to being about clowns that is my right as well, and technically Paragon Studios is supposed to pay attention to me. But I hope strongly that they assume a meth-head somehow managed to hack into my forum account and make paper airplanes out of my posts, because I hope they recognize stupid when they see it. I assume they will recognize futile just as accurately.
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Having a few blasters of my own, I can say a little.
My main and namesake is an energy/energy/force, and he shot to 50; wheither it was teams, solo, or TFs, he leveled like crazy because he was that fun to play.
My second blaster came in the form of a semi blapper, but mostly blaster, Ice/Fire - which is another kind of jewel to play and I've been getting back to him after he has taken a back seat due to other toons.
My third, who I haven't played in awhile (& is only 22), is rad/energy which just sounds awesome due to BR, PB, and all the blappy goodness.
I have had other blasters, I had a lvl 35 Archery/Elec - the secondary really burned me out for some reason.. Archery is meant more for range rather to be in melee shooting. Another was a 40/39 AR/Dev, fun but then DP came along.. So it's a rad/dp now, which is another archtype and story ^_^
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Really? On teams I tend to notice my AoE DoT targets usually evaporate in about 1.2 seconds from fireballs and shield charges. |
Originally Posted by Local_Man
When on a large team, I find that I contribute a lot of AoE by leading off with Shiver, Ice Storm and then Frost Breath. Granted, a lot of the AoE damage is Damage over Time, but it is still effective.
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Guess it depends on who you are teamed with.
Cascade, level 50 Blaster (NRG/NRG since before it was cool)
Mechmeister, level 50 Bots / Traps MM
FAR too many non-50 alts to name
[u]Arcs[u]
The Scavenger Hunt: 187076
The Instant Lair Delivery Service: 206636
My first toon ever was a Fire/Energy Blaster. Needless to say he wasn't my first ever to 50. After about a dozen 50s I am looking to roll a new blaster. I tend to either solo or run TFs and I will look to IO Set him out starting early. I would love to be able to solo AVs and perhaps GMs with her but its not a total req since I realize blasters are not so durable...
What would you roll and why? Since she is a blaster I am looking for DPS and sets that have good synergy. I don't tend to run into melee range and play blapper with my current blaster but perhaps there is a better way? Pros, cons?
I am thinking perhaps a combination of any of the following could be interesting?
Sonic
Rad
Mental
Fire
Cold
Thoughts?