Devastation vs Thunderstrike

I have been researching "ranged damage" sets for my level 39 Fire/Fire blaster. Almost every guide or build I come across has 1 or 2 of each of these sets included. I am currently pretty well frankenslotted to maximize my combat stats, but I'm entertaining the idea of going for some 5 or 6 enhancement set bonuses on the 4 "ranged damage" abilities (flares, fire blast, blaze, blazing bolt). I have enough recipes and most of the ingredients for two full sets of Devastation. I generally only group with this character and I almost never do blapping as I prefer to stay at range, even if it's short range. Thunderstrike's advantage is the 6th bonus which gives you the big ranged defense & energy/neg energy bonus. Devastation seems to be good for health, damage and a good psionic/holds defense bonus.

My pools are Fighting (for the defense) Fitness (obvious) Medicine (for the heals) and Concealment (for tactical positioning and "Oh ****" moments)

For I-19 I am going to replace the Fitness pool (inherent) with Leadership for the good grouping oriented bonuses.

For travel I use Ninja Run (but I love Super Jump!!!)

Please discuss the pros and cons of these two sets and give me your advice. I have played around with Mids but I'm looking for some quick, to the point advice really.

Thanks!

When I slot ranged attacks I never use devastation for set bonuses. That one is all about chance to hold.

There are two ways I slot things: #1 6-piece thunderstrike because it brings recovery, accuracy and ranged defense. #2 Entropic/Decimation for recharge plus the chance to hold.

If I could get the ranged defense and still have room for the chance to hold I would. If I could slot it in a melee attack I would.

I agree with Gavin, I have tried full sets of both Devastation and Thunderstrike and by far Thunderstrike offers more bang for the buck.

FWIW
My current favorite way to slot single target blasts is 5-slotted (4-piece) Thunderstrike and then one slot for the Devastation Hold proc. My defender has three attacks with this set-up and the Proc is quite frequent due to his ability to spam attacks.

-Bio-

It depends on your build goals. If you want more HPs and regen with some some added control, you slot Devastation (the +damage is a nice plus). For Defense, you slot Thunderstrike (the Acc and Recovery bonuses are nice little adds though).

My Pistols/Fire blaster is a defense build and uses the following slotting for the first tier attack.
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Pistols -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(7), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(9), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(46), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46)

My main Fire/Fire is a regen build and uses the following slotting (before I got the purples I used 2 Thunderstrikes).
Level 1: Flares -- Dev'n-Acc/Dmg(A), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), Dev'n-Hold%(7), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(15), Apoc-Dmg(17), Apoc-Dam%(33)

If you plan on staying at range Thunderstrike is teh better set for your purposes.

The 6 slot bonus is 2.5% ranged defense. But....the 3 slot bonus is 2.5% E/N defense. They add together to give you 3.75% of ranged and E/N because each bonus also grants you half of it for the other.

Also gives you 2% recovery, 7% accuracy, and a movement speed bonus (which is awesome if you're a hoverblaster and use hover to get around in combat)

It just gives you more bonuses that are useful to a range-oriented blaster.

The only time I've used Devastation was on my FF Defender where I used two sets to cap my Psi Defence. I take it that you wont be doing that on your Blaster.

Its one of the very few occasions when I haven't use Thunderstrike for blast sets on any character. Thunderstrike is just that good.

What are you building for ? I can't imagine a /fire trying to stay at range because 7/9 of the powers are melee or pbaoe. If you are going close in melee or smashing lethal is going to give you more effective defense than range.

Anyway the gem of devastation is the chance to hold, if you are taking an epic hold and you slot these in your attack chain you have a nearly even chance of having the boss held after hold,attack 1, attack 2, attack 2

THUNDER!

THUNDER!

THUNDER!

THUNDERSTRIKE HO!!!!



Devastation is only a set I slot on Melee toons for regen and damage bonues.

Every TS recipe is Pool A and cheap to craft, Devastation has some recipes in Pool C and recipes that require rare salvage.

I generally use 4 Thunderstrike and 2 devastation with one being the chance for hold

I spent all weekend outfitting my Ice/Electric Blaster for Set IOs.

I'd love to show you the 150+ million (still missing some Numinas, the LotG increased recharge and a couple of resistance IOs for the shields) and counting build I went with, but unfortunately I'm at work and left my thumb drive at home.

Ultimately, I think the biggest factor is that Thunderstrike gives you a bigger recharge enhancement opportunity. The heavy hitters of the sets always get Thunderstrike for me. Plus, if you're not rolling in the dough, Thunderstrikes are fairly cheap and generally don't require as much costly salvage.

I don't think I did a full set of Devastation this time around. I like the chance for Hold, but I believe it doesn't work on bosses? That's the only time it would be useful at all for me. I already have two holds (Freeze Ray and Shocking Grasp), so it's less of an issue for me. I know I did a three-slot Devastation and three-slot Thunderstrike in Ice Blast though.

Plus, I five-slotted Decimation in Ice Bolt (the quickest recharging attack), so I had a Chance for Build Up firing off about every 12 times I used it. That doesn't give much of a recharge bonus though (just like Devastation), so I personally recommend you put the Procs in powers that already recharge quickly, that you wouldn't be ebhancing that much no matter how much +recharge you threw into them.

Thunderstrike happens to be my favorite set of all time. Just having it in your build makes food taste better.

However, if you're looking to get a little more Blappy, Devastation might be the way to go. The extra regeneration will boost your survivability, and it won't hurt to have those Chances to Hold to save you when the going gets rough.

Also, you can slot:
Fire Sword Circle and Burn with Obliteration (6)
Build Up with Gaussian's Fire-Control (6)
Fire Sword with Kinetic Melee (4) or Touch of Death (6)
Ring of Fire with Enfeebled Operation (6)
Hot Feet with Impeeded Swiftness (6)

Any of these slotting options will give you a bit of a boost to Melee Defense, and ALL of them will really give you some cushion. I find, with a Blaster, you're often killing things fast enough, that a little Defense can go a long way.

Thunderstrike, thunderstrike, thunderstrike.

Unless, of course, you want to try thunderstrike.

If you want a "chance to hold" remember your next power pick you can get a real hold, not just the crummy chance of one!

Nobody does 5 Decimations (5% rech) and one Devastation Hold Proc? That's my typical slotting - I usually stay Glass Cannon or 'depend upon the kindness of strangers' who Ice Shield me.
(Archery blaster)

Devastation if you 5 socket, Thunderstrike if you 6 socket.

Eh, between set bonuses, assault, and vigilance, my FF defender's gonna have something like +65-70% damage post-i19. Each individual 3% isn't much, but they do add up. I certainly wouldn't sacrifice defense set bonuses for them, but they're a nice secondary bonus to go for.