I wouldn't worry too much about increasing both S/L and Ranged DEF; in a perfect world, yes, of course it's better to have lots of both. But in practice, it's just not feasible -- not without gutting your offensive bonuses anyway. I suppose it's possible to cap out S/L and Energy DEF if you build on Scorpion Shield, but again, don't think it's worth the effort.
Just from a quick glance over your build, it looks good. What follow are only a few observations/nitpicks:
- Ring of Fire is an outrageously good single-target DPS power, and you have it enhanced for Immobilize. I know Enfeebled Operation is helpful in adding S/L DEF bonuses (and a small recharge bonus too), but it's probably better to slot it in Web Envelope. Honestly, Ring of Fire is probably the main reason I'd want to take Fire Manipulation; it beats the pants off of Fire Blast (the Blaster version, anyway) and Flares in terms of damage-per-activation-time, and it comes with a useful secondary effect (especially useful against AVs, which are typically weak to immobilize).
- Fire Breath is your most damaging ranged AoE. If you're more interested in blapping, then that's fine. It's just a little unusual to see someone skip Breath in a Fire Blaster build. If you feel that Fire Breath is too narrow to use effectively, then that's understandable -- but I urge you to try slotting (preferably frankenslotting) some range enhancement into it. I have Fire Breath at about 60' on my Fire/Mental Blaster, and let me tell you it's a world of difference. At max range, my breath has a lot more coverage area than even Fire Ball.
And Breath does a lot (a lot) more damage than Mace Beam Volley.
- Related to the above, Flares is actually slightly better DPS than Fire Blast on a Blaster. Fire Blast got hit with a relatively large penalty to its activation time when Castle did his Blaster-attack standardization project. (Interestingly, the faster version remains, AFAIK, in other places like the Tanker Fire APP.) It's not like it makes a ton of difference either way, but you might want to pick one of the two and skip the other. With all of your recharge, and between Ring, Blaze, and Flares/Blast, you ought to have plenty of single-target ranged attacks.
(And that Devastation set in Flares isn't doing a whole heck of a lot for you. I mean, extra +damage is nice of course, but +3% in global damage isn't an end in itself, especially if you don't want the power it's slotted in to begin with.)
Blaze is such a massively high DPA attack that you tend to hurt your DPS if you don't use it at the earliest possible moment. At sufficiently high levels of recharge, Flares/Blast/Blaze can actually be lower DPS than Flares/Wait/Blaze. That's why Ring is so great against hard targets; it animates quickly enough that it's unlikely to interfere with Blaze, and it does the same high amount of damage that Blast does. (Though admittedly in a DoT, which can be annoying in normal PvE missions.)
That's all I can think of at the moment. I'm sure it's a fine build regardless.
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Originally Posted by Iggy_Kamakaze
Nice build
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Thanks for the reply. Would it be an improvement in overal dps then to maybe drop fire blast and pick back up breath? Also on frankenslotting it, would you just pull some dam/range IO's from things like Posi? With regards to blast's slotting I couldn't figure out anything else in there so I am def ok with dropping it. With regard to ring of fire, I could take the slots there and throw them in Web to keep up the s/l, I am just not sure where I would get the other slots from as I need to keep atleast 3 for health and stam etc if possible I would think. Any idea on the worthiness of the force feedback in beam volley?
Another question I have is regard to stealth and invis and the def there. I know it drops once you start attacking so this build I have both the powers turned off. I was wondering if I still retain any def by running stealth even after I start attacking? If so, that may free up a few slots to play around with in other powers. Right now I just have them as mules for LotG's. I found it is pretty easy to get Kin Combats right now just running through AE missions and reward rolls. I already have 7 recipes that arn't the proc that I am saving for this build.
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Yeah, I think you should drop either Flares or Blast and pick up Breath. I'm not sure why you'd need three slots in Health; three (or even four, if you want to include the Performance Shifter proc) in Stamina is good, though honestly I'm not sure you'll need even that much recovery depending on how often you plan to use Consume.|
Originally Posted by Squishor8
Thanks for the reply. Would it be an improvement in overal dps then to maybe drop fire blast and pick back up breath? Also on frankenslotting it, would you just pull some dam/range IO's from things like Posi? With regards to blast's slotting I couldn't figure out anything else in there so I am def ok with dropping it. With regard to ring of fire, I could take the slots there and throw them in Web to keep up the s/l, I am just not sure where I would get the other slots from as I need to keep atleast 3 for health and stam etc if possible I would think. Any idea on the worthiness of the force feedback in beam volley?
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Force Feedback is generally an excellent proc to have in AoE powers. My SS Tanker loves it in Footstomp; if I'm facing a decent amount of enemies, the proc will fire more often than not. I'm not sure Beam Volley is worth it at all in your build, though, honestly, certainly not for the sake of a +recharge proc in a build that already has a lot of global recharge. An extra AoE isn't a bad thing, of course, but if you have to choose between Breath and Volley, I think most people would choose Breath every time.
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| Another question I have is regard to stealth and invis and the def there. I know it drops once you start attacking so this build I have both the powers turned off. I was wondering if I still retain any def by running stealth even after I start attacking? If so, that may free up a few slots to play around with in other powers. Right now I just have them as mules for LotG's. I found it is pretty easy to get Kin Combats right now just running through AE missions and reward rolls. I already have 7 recipes that arn't the proc that I am saving for this build. |
The movement penalty bugs me too much to commit to using Stealth full-time. And the end cost is only a little lower than Maneuvers'. If I want is a way to sneak past enemies, I'll use Superspeed (because hey, I'm taking Hasten anyway) and/or a +stealth IO in one of the Sprint powers.
YMMV.
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Originally Posted by Iggy_Kamakaze
Nice build
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The slots I have total of 3 free for health and stamina combined. I was mainly thinking of throwing in the +end and +recovery uniques in there since I already have a few from some lucky rolls. I don't have the updated Mids yet so my build just has them in Rest right now. I would love to put the Force feedback proc anywhere else if I could but the only aoe pwr, or pwr for that matter that I see which could use it is in Beam Volley. I will try and rework the build a little after work and post an updated copy. Any idea where I can get an update for Mids?
I'm nowhere near as knowledgeable as the experts that we (thankfully) have on these boards, but I do want to mention that Flares AND Fire Blast, as well as Ring of Fire, can save your bacon now that Defiance allows us to use all three of those powers even when held or slept. My Firex3 build is based on ranged defense, I've scraped it up to 42.76% now. I ran an office mission where I carelessly turned a corner and hovered straight into a pair of Malta. I was held by that nasty, really long hold that one of the operatives has, but I managed to hit both a sapper and the operative with Ring of Fire. The sapper missed me three times in a row thanks to my ranged DEF, and using Ring, Flares and Fire Blast I defeated them both, while held the entire time. In the old days that would have been an immediate hospital trip.
You may not have room for all three powers if you are going for a blapper build, but they really are very good now in conjunction with the revamped Defiance.
re: ff proc. mace has redraw, and unless you already have it out for the immob, this will likely lengthen your attack chain time. i'd swap it for fire breath. it may come down to playstyle: how often do you use the mace? i took the immob but not the aoe on my blaster, i rarely use it unless solo.
I am looking for suggestions on ways to improve. Right now I def want to keep softcapped s/l. I would like to get a bit higher ranegd def if possible but I want all the recharge I can get also. Here is the current build. I have 3 slots in rest for health/stamina slots with numina's perf shifter and such also to help with the recovery etc. I am def willing to go villan side for mace and I think that is the project for this weekend to start hehe. Also is throwing a force feedback chance for reacharge a decent idea in mace beam volley? like I have here?
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.81
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Level 50 Magic Blaster
Primary Power Set: Fire Blast
Secondary Power Set: Fire Manipulation
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Concealment
Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Fire Blast -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(3), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(5), Thundr-Acc/Dmg(5), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11)
Level 1: Ring of Fire -- Enf'dOp-Acc/Rchg(A), Enf'dOp-EndRdx/Immob(7), Enf'dOp-Acc/EndRdx(7), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob/Rchg(9), Enf'dOp-Immob/Rng(9), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob(11)
Level 2: Fire Ball -- Ragnrk-Dmg(A), Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg(13), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg(17), Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx(17)
Level 4: Fire Sword -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(37), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(37), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37)
Level 6: Rain of Fire -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(33), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(33), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(33), Posi-Dam%(34)
Level 8: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(34), RechRdx-I(34)
Level 10: Fire Sword Circle -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(19), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(19), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(21), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21), Oblit-%Dam(23)
Level 12: Aim -- Rec'dRet-ToHit/Rchg(A), Rec'dRet-ToHit(13), RechRdx-I(43)
Level 14: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(15)
Level 16: Super Jump -- Zephyr-ResKB(A)
Level 18: Blaze -- Decim-Acc/Dmg(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(23), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(25), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(25), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(27)
Level 20: Build Up -- Rec'dRet-ToHit(A), Rec'dRet-ToHit/Rchg(27), RechRdx-I(43)
Level 22: Blazing Aura -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(29), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(29), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(31), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31), Oblit-%Dam(31)
Level 24: Boxing -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(36), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(36), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36)
Level 26: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(39), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(39), RctvArm-ResDam(46), RctvArm-EndRdx(46)
Level 28: Consume -- Efficacy-EndMod(A)
Level 30: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(39)
Level 32: Inferno -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(40), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(42), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46)
Level 35: Stealth -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 38: Flares -- Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Dev'n-Dmg/EndRdx(45), Dev'n-Dmg/Rchg(45), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg(45)
Level 41: Scorpion Shield -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(42), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(42)
Level 44: Web Envelope -- Enf'dOp-Acc/Rchg(A)
Level 47: Mace Beam Volley -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(48), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(48), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(48), Posi-Dam%(50), FrcFbk-Rechg%(50)
Level 49: Grant Invisibility -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A), Empty(40), Empty(40), Empty(50)
Level 1: Defiance
Level 4: Ninja Run
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Set Bonus Totals: