Need some tips on how to build defense blaster

I have a Rad/Fire that has a lot of PbAoE and would be best in melee but I have never built a lot of defense into a blaster but I know many have done so.

WHat are some of the tips, powers and IO sets that people are using to make it happen ??

Thanks in advance

Easiest thing to do is pop open Mids and check out the set bonuses that would fit into your build. Also you could take the Ice Ancillary to get that Def shield to help you out. Plus hurdle/combat jumping.... little more def and you can jump in and out of groups if you dont want to hang around after the AOE's go off.

Thanks but definitely not doing the Ice Armor thing. Its gotta fit within the theme for me to use it.

It'll be a lot more expensive to cap out your defenses, then.

You can start by working weave, combat jumping and maybe maneuvers into your build. Since you want to be in melee a lot, your best bet is to try and cap out s/l defense. That will cover you against most all melee attacks a decent amount of ranged. Just look for sets with s/l defense bonuses and try to work as many of them into the build as you can.

my only tip is DON'T BE AR/DEV.



=P

You'll need some melee and ice armor. Touch of Death...stuff like that.

I think a lot of what you're going for is going to depend on your playstyle. I play most of my Blasters at range and there are plenty of sets that offer bonuses to that such as 6-slotted Thunderstrike, Eradication or Mako's Bite for your melee attacks. On my ranged Blasters, I'm normally just above 30% ranged defence most of the time. It's not great, but it does help.

However, as you stated in your initial post, you're in and out of melee so you're better off going for Smash/Lethal defence. I'm afraid that the best option for that is Ice Armour but I can't stand the look of it so I've never used it. Probably your best return will be to get some Kinetic Combats in your melee attacks but on their own, they won't do a lot of good. Sticking Manoeuvres, the Steadfast +3% IO and Combat Jumping in the build will help a bit but I'd be surprised if you could get it higher than 20%.

Building high defence on an AT that doesn't normally have any is a tough job and you'll find your choices of powers limited. And even if you did get topside of 30%, you'll still be squishy as hell and have no Defence Debuff Resistance. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it's tricky. Good luck to you.

You could try for Smashing Lethal Defence, and boost it with the Kinetic Dampener temp power, which gives +16% S/L for 30 minutes per crafting, and doesn't break concept like Ice Armour does.

Here's the list of sets that will help you:

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Category...ashing_Defense

I see:

Kinetic Combat in Fire Sword - 3.75%
Enfeebled Operation in Ring of Fire - 4.06% all up.

Take Fighting for:
Kinetic Combat in Boxing (4 slot): 3.75%
SteadFast IO in Tough: +3% all over
Weave: 5.5%

Combat Jumping (1 slot def IO): 2%

Thats 22% vs S/L, +16 from the temp shield, giving you 38% all up. I've been doing something similar on my Arachnos Soldier, using the temp power to take alpha's and so on, and its workjed rather nicely, as long as you remember to turn it off.

Now, I haven't touched your PBAoE's:

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Category...g_PBAoE_Damage

They can take:
MultiStrike: cheap, and gives small Melee and AoE defence
Obliteration: very costly and gives +3.75% vs Melee
Eradication: medium costly. 4 of these give +end, +E/N def and +Health.
Scirrocco: Aoe and Psi defence.

I'd go Eradication. they're affordable and the E/N defence you build up will help fill a hole, and the extra End and health is nice. And frankenslot or use IOs to fill the gaps for the actual power stats, like end reduction.

If you pop 4 of these in Irradiate, Blazing Aura, Hot Feet, Combustion and FSC, thats 15.65% E/N defence.
Now get either 3(2.5%) or 6 (3.75%) Thunderstrikes in Neutrino Bolt, X Ray Eyes and Cosmic Burst and you have an extra 11.25% E/N for a grand total of 27% or so.
Oh, + the bonuses from Weave, Steadfast and Combat Jumping, more like 37.5%!!!

The Kinetic Dampener also gives you 30% Energy Resistance, which is nice.

So, that's my advice. I've probably asked you to six slot everything there. I'll let you figure out the details

Saying you want defense and not taking ice makes no sense.

If you don't want the armor messing up your costume, then you don't want defense. Sad but true.

[I hate the ice look too.]

There are those of us for whom theme is more important than optimizing characters. That doesn't mean that we aren't interested in improving performance, within our self-imposed theme rules.

I'll crank out a "What I would do if I were you" build. What epic powerset were you looking at?

I dont necessarily need an epic.. and I would like to thank everyone who has given me some advice..

Thank You very much..

Just played with Mids...you can reach Range cap [and I know OP doesn't want cap] cheaply with Thunderstrike, Mako, Trap of the Hunter, a mix of Cleaving Blow and Eradicaiton, Executioner's Contract, and/or Red Fortune and Reactive Armor.

There are tons of ways to do it. I don't know why I got hung up on S/L...it's just what we always seem to build to.