Looking for slotting input, Fire/Fire

Ok, good a place as any to start is at the begining. I started playing CoH back in Apr of '05. I've played on and off again, for about 2.5 years since, getting to the 30 month vet badge. My main problem is, I've never had a chance to be in good SG's or a cance to meet and talk with oher blasters and so far, even still I have questions about my favorite character and power combo.

Currently, she's lvl 33, and I'm fire/fire. If you see Electra Sun on Virtue, that's me.

So here's he big question, with ED, and the way I have my cahracter build I'm getting tired of people telling me, "slot 2 acc, 2 dmg, 1 end reduction and 1 recharge reduc in EVERYTHING." Ok, WHY? Why is that the end all be all, works for everything, one size fits all way of doing it?

Don't just say, "Do it because I say it's good" prove to me.

I want to know if other blasters slot like I'm thinking we should, if you have a quick recharge power, why the heck put a recharge reduction in it? It's already fast....

If you have a high end cost power, why not slot 2-3 end reducers in it? +dmg/acc?

My point and question is this,

Why is it not a good idea to slot powers to work against weaknesses inherent in those powers? Why is there this cooker cutter, works for everyone way of slotting?

Well there's a popular mentality out there that you can never have enough recharge, but I've always been of the opposite mindset. I think as a Blaster, you can have too much recharge when your attack chain or the attacks you use often are recharging faster than you can use them, then you're usually fine and do not need anymore recharge on a power.

For instance, when you use fire breath, throw a fireball, jump in and do fire sword circle, and then by the time you run up to another group of mobs and fireball is already up again- there's no need to focus on recharge anymore at that point.

The problem is- for any useful attack chains to have any decent recharge to where you're not waiting around at a new group (or the same group) of mobs, you're going to need IO set bonuses these days, or usually at least a couple of recharge IO's as a Fire/Fire (and most of the other Blaster sets as well.)

For example: Take the Fire Breath and Fire Ball powers- both still have over an 8 second recharge if you're just throwing 2 regular recharge IO's in their slots. Thats not bad, but depending on what group of mobs you're fighting and their level, you might be stuck at one group of mobs wishing your Fireball was up 2-4 seconds faster, because another fireball would be useful if there are still 4-6 mobs still standing next to each other...so in that case, why not have the extra 2-4 seconds of recharge you can get from slotting IO set bonuses? You end up pumping out more AOE carnage at a faster rate, making your toon more efficient.

The next problem is that, if you are only using regular IO's, and you're slotting 2 recharges, 2 damage, 1 accuracy, and 1 end reduction IO, you're going to whiff on some attacks against higher mobs (sometimes at a noticeable rate), you will notice your attack chains are spending a lot of endurance, and you're going to be missing out on a ton of damage.

When you get slotted up with IO sets, you'll notice the killing rate difference, and just how much smoother and free flowing a Fire/Fire build is. Jump on Mid's Hero Planner and play with the different set bonuses, and use some builds posted on here as a starting point with how you want your Blaster slotted. You'll find something you like with time, eben if you don't have a ton of money to spend.

Hope that helps. : )

Thanks Psion, got MIDS and I've been playing with it. So far I'm lvl 38 now, and I', only slotting SO's at the moment, figured I don't need to worry about IO's till 50.