Nuke My Survey!

While playing on a team this week one blaster was failing fast and a nuke-like power went off and he died. I asked if that was his nuke and he said it was the Self Destruction power from The Cyborg pack and "I never take nukes".

I haven't taken any nukes on my blasters or corruptors (I don't count Rain Of Arrows/etc). I have a nuke on my PB and after it has helped at times. Sometimes it's a death sentence.

So, I am undecided about nukes.

Mini Survey:

Do you nuke?

When do you nuke? (around EBs, near death, etc)

Best and worst Nukes?

What other powers complement the nuke?

Anything else you'ld like to add?

Assuming we are ignoring RoA/FA/HoB, no, I don't take them, or plan to take them. To me, the crash really isn't worth it in most cases. I would imagine that a Aim + BU + Inferno would be a thing of beauty, though.

In my opinion nukes that cause endurance crash are simply outdated, much in the same way our snipes are. They don't mesh well with the fast paced game play of today. The AT balance has been thrown out the window, several combinations of other ATs contribute with as much or more AoE as Blasters while being infinitely more survivable. Why waste 25-30 secs of DPS recovering from the crash when the Shield/SS Tanker or Elec/Shield Scrapper nuke every spawn instantly? Without crash? Without danger? Normal AoEs generally wipe everything but bosses in seconds anyway. I remember being trolled out of this forum while raising the issue a while back, with such sentiments prevalent no wonder it's gotten worse rather than better over time.

Another issue is constantly having to retoggle. Combat Jumping, Acrobat, Epic Shield, Lightning Field. Even with endurance tools, a significant amount of time is used while the rest of your team continues arresting.

The only time I pick the old school nukes is when it's combined with Electric or Fire Manipulation, both of which provides endurance recovering tools that make a single small blue sufficient to keep going. Drain Psyche from MM could potentially even negate the need of any blue, but the radius is too small to reliably hit the required number of targets.

Good points.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seraphael Another issue is constantly having to retoggle. Combat Jumping, Acrobat, Epic Shield, Lightning Field. Even with endurance tools, a significant amount of time is used while the rest of your team continues arresting

This is another reason I tend to avoid them. I hate even to turn off sprint in combat unless I am really hurting for end. My psi/mm has to keep re-toggling WOC due to mez. I remember when all toggles used to drop when mezzed. (Shudder).

Always take it. Always love it.

Blues fall from the sky anyway. By the time you nuke, pop a blue or 3 to get back to full, and get to the next spawn, you'll be start recovering end after an attack or 2 anyway.

Use it every chance I get. BU + Aim + Nova + Blue + Power Sink = 0 down time

I rarely take nukes until into the late 40's.

The few non-end drainers are useful Sonic, Rain of Arrows and such. As a blaster being in melee range, out of end and having all the aggro.......is bad.

I always take nukes, and use them frequently. Are they the most optimal choice? Probably not, although I think their drawbacks are frequently overstated. I don't really care about that, though. I just think that blowing a spawn to kingdom come with a single ludicrous boom is great fun. I still giggle every time I PBU+aim+nova on my defender and send dead bodies raining down across the city. So, I guess:

Do you nuke? Yes. Very yes.

When? As often as possible, when I see an appropriate target spawn.

Best nukes? Anything that makes a really satisfying boom. Nova and the kheld nukes get extra points since they send the bodies flying.

What powers complement nukes? Aim/BU/PBU/anything that makes a bigger boom, hasten to get it up more often, and anything that makes it easier to get into the middle of the spawn safely (PFF is really good at that). I don't worry about end recovery tools as much, since my insp tray usually seems to magically fill itself up when I nuke.

Yes.

When they're up along w/BU+Aim and I have a grouping of at least 8 mobs.

Personal fav is Nova, because it just looks cool. Most effective is either Inferno (highest PBAoE dam), Blizzard (highest dam period) or RoA (no crash), depending on how you use them. Worst: I guess Thunderstrike for being low(er) damage, even though it's ranged, but still drains your end unlike RoA. Still good though.

BU+Aim. Blue pills. Combine your insps for blues. Something like Conserve Energy or Drain Psyche ahead of time is nice. Kin, Emp or Cold teammates can mean no or little crash, btw. Edit to add: it's often useful to lead w/a heavy attack or an extra AoE before a nuke if your nuke can't clear out all the lts and bosses (usually bosses will remain anyway). Before your Aim+BU runs out, lead w/Blaze on a boss, throw down Rain of Fire & Fireball, then Inferno. Usually, this is overkill though.

The end crash & retoggling is greatly exaggerated. You're a blaster, it's not like you need to retoggle as many, and as critical powers as a scrapper or tanker (or even most controllers/defenders). Swallow a pill, toggle on travel, shield, maybe an aura, done. Especially if you don't have all that great AoE powers in your primary to begin with. I can see ppl opting to skip Inferno (though I still use it), but no way on say Psychic or Dreadful Wail.

Nukes for me have a low priority. I take them if I can find the room in my build and generally only use them when things get hectic. Double spawns or ambushes may occasionally call for a nuke.

On blasters I always take the nuke, on defenders I have never taken the nuke with the single exception of my Kin/Ice.

Something no one has yet mentioned is defiance. It's easy to defiance buff your nuke.

Find a nuke worthy spawn, target the boss, pop 2-3 purple insps, hit Aim + BU, spend the next 6 seconds throwing out single target attacks on the boss while their alpha bounces off your purples and they surround you and your defiance builds up, and then pop your nuke.

It's not hard to get an extra 40% damage out of your nuke that way since Aim and BU will not have worn off while you are doing your ST attacks. The damage from the nuke + the single target attacks on the boss will wipe out the entire spawn with the exception of the 5% of stuff you always miss. You'll still have 30 seconds of insp duration left after the crash passes off. You can simply stand there and wait to start recovering again, pop a blue and smack the remainders, or waltz over to the next spawn with the little bit left over from the spawn you nuked tagging along for your next round of AoEs.

I've only got one Blaster, (Fire/MM) but on my Corrs I nuke all the time as long as I've got some way to quickly recover endurance like Heat Loss/Transference/Power Sink/whatever.

Retoggling isn't a bad tradeoff for instantly wiping a spawn.

Do you nuke?
Yes, I take great pride in making whole spawns disappear at will.

When do you nuke?
With most of my experience of nuking being with Nova, I nuke when things get out of hand or when a team's doing so well that it's just something funny to do. When playing as a Blaster that can nuke, I look out for spawns that are too close to one-another, groups of mostly Minions where the fight will be easy but long winded (especially if there're runners), or when I am/the team is being swamped and we need some breathing room.

Best and worst Nukes?
The best nukes to me are ones that offer additional advantages on top of the great damage. I'd rank it Ice, Dark, Energy, (Archery), Son, Fire, (Assault Rifle), Elec, Psi, Rad, (Dual Pistols) in that order of best-worst. I threw in the quick nukes because despite their differences, are still pretty awesome.. Except for HoB.

What other powers complement the nuke?
Anything which can offer a distraction are great, be it from yourself (Gun Drone), or someone else (A Scrapper).

Anything which will add to the damage, such as summon DoT attacks, -resistance/-defense, Aim/Buildup/PBU, a quick AoE attack for beforehand ect.

Powers which can help you get into a group without being squished is always a plus. I used to do Aim, Teleport, Nova on Beet (Energy/Devices), which then switched into using PFF, and is now just Cloak + SS into the middle of the group. Anything which can give you an advantage to get into position to blow them up, really.

Anything else you'd like to add?

A pet project of mine is blowing up people who say nukes are useless

Do you nuke?

Yes.

When do you nuke? (around EBs, near death, etc)

Whenever I feel like it. Not "every time it's up," but not infrequently. Depends on the nuke and the mob type, as well.

Best and worst Nukes?

I like Electric for being ranged as well as for the "group twitch of death." High in entertainment value. (Plus, I'll admit bias here - Elec/Elec blaster was my first 50, and I surprised my share of tanks who were apparently used to "Blaster must run into the middle of the spawn to nuke" when everything fell down around them.)

Blizzard is nice, though not as visually interesting.

And (while not a Blaster,) nuking with a Warshade, which lets you pop a blue and refill, Quasar anything left and create pets - well, that's just fun. Lots of bodies around to fuel up from.

The worst nuke is the nuke not used. Seriously. Nuke something.

See my Guides and Tutorials

Back before ED, and I was levelin' up my first namesake blaster, I used to get tells from people, "Hey Cobalt, we need the Nova!" Within that teamin' circle o' people, they knew that it would put down mobs... except for that one bad guy that always remained standin', but that became a runnin' joke after a while.

To this day, I still take nukes.

I take them unless they are the player based kind that zapps all your end. I used to love running into mobs and taking out 99% of them with my fire blaster, but I died a lot. I ended up respecing out of Inferno. I still use the PBAoE with Dual Pistols, but at least I can dive back out of the mob and keep fighting. With Electric Blast, I use the nuke, but that's because I can do it from a safe distance, and then hit powersince, since I went elec/elec to recover all the end.

Mini Survey:

Do you nuke? Yes

When do you nuke? On teams, when it's up. Tank/Scrapper/Anointed Fodder takes alpha, then Click, Click, Boom!

Best and worst Nukes? Nova is the only one I've used much, most of my blasters are AR or DP. I like KB, so watching bodies fly all over the map is great fun.

What other powers complement the nuke? Build Up+Aim

Anything else you'ld like to add? BOOM!

Nuke? Yes. Never solo, unless I find myself overwhelmed (very rare) and need that one last chance to bolt for the door to recover.

Groupwise its trickier. The more blasters on the team, the more I'm likely to use it. The trick is, on a team like that, we're mowing them down so fast its almost a waste to use it. If I'm the lone major DPS, not so much, and generally only if I see several mobs low on health, so never as a starting strike. Otherwise, I would slow the team down.

What's really great is finding a PUG with 1 or 2 other blasters with nukes, who understand the idea of teamwork. Then you take turns nuking and letting the other two pour on the DPS to mop up the remnants.

I use my nuke spareingly. I tend to take my blasters solo. However there can be times to use them. I play my blasters like I'm trying to outsmart everything. If I have a few blues and are feeling a bit bored. I run into a room with a mob and set off my Thunderous Blast, pop a blue, and ninja run to the door where I planted trip mines. My only one I have up high enough is an electric/devices. I haven't died but once out of the maybe seven times I've done this.

Atomic Blast that bad?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Murdok Your mom's real name is Castle.

I like nova. It looks cool in red

I've only got one character with access to a nuke high enough level to actually use it... and it's AR.

That one character has convinced me that Full Auto is the best power in the game.