Request for comments: /devices

I'm thinking to try to write a /dev guide. I love the power set. I have nrg/dev and dp/dev blasters, both of whom are fun for me. I'm not quite to 38 yet, but dp/dev just made 31, so I'm getting somewhere.

So, I seek comments to help fill in the gaps in my knowledge. What's awesome (or horrible) about /dev that really sticks out for you? What cool tips have you got? What synergies are there with various blast sets?

-Sonic/Devices is the only combo that really gets any mileage out of Time Bomb without dipping into APPs. AoE Sleep +Time Bomb usually results in a spawn that just disappears.

-Cloaking Device and a Stealth IO will stack to create full invisibility without having to take Super Speed as your travel power.

-Caltrops will accept damage procs from Targeted Aoe and Slow sets to become a sort of damaging power.

-You can short slot accuracy in your attacks and make up for it with Targeting Drone.

-Taser will stack with the stuns found in most blast sets to stun bosses.

I'm sure there are more, but that's what I have for now.

Here's my quick opinion on each power:

Web Grenade: A change on the normal Blaster secondary T1 it trades damage for a hefty recharge debuff. IMHO this is annoying in the early game where the extra damage would be nice but useful in the late game where the damage from the T1 immobilize is meh and an extra debuff is handy.

Caltrops: An excellent area denial power and a cornerstone of the set. Can be used as a damage power (by slotting it with lots of procs) but personally I prefer to slot it for slow and save some slots. It doesn't need a huge amount of slotting but it's worth putting a single slow enhancement in it to increase the effectiveness against +1s (add more if you like fighting higher cons).

Taser: The utility of this depends a lot on your primary and play style. It's pretty much identical to the single target stun in several sets, just with a shorter range. It's most useful if you have a stun in your primary and want to easily stack it on bosses or mez two LTs at once. Primaries with a Hold instead (Ice, Electric and sort Dual Pistols) just get the ability to mez two LTs instead which is handy but not as useful (Ice Manip is probably more useful for them since it has a Hold).

Targeting Drone: What used to be the main reason to take the set, this power has fallen on hard times. It's well worth taking but a poor trade off for Build Up when you consider that a Blaster with a different secondary could take Tactics to get ~50% To Hit bonus as providing a To Hit buff for the team (especially annoying since I19 makes taking leadership a lot more appealing for a Blaster anyway). The fact that high end IO builds tend to have a lot of global accuracy and a Kismet To Hit IO anyway further decreases the value of what should be the set's defining power.

Smoke Grenade: A moderate to hit debuff (not great, but not bad for a Blaster) and a underrated perception debuff (awesome for grabbing guarded glowies). One thing to remember when slotting is that the perception debuff is auto-hit but the to hit debuff is not.

Cloaking Device: A glorified pool power, worth taking if you've got the space but only marginally better than Stealth.

Trip Mine: A decent damage power for the patient (especially if you've got a primary on the low end of the AoE damage scale). While it is possible to run into a pack and place a mine effectively acting as a Blapper it's not really playing to the strength of the rest of the set (although I know some people like doing it). Personally my preferred use is to drop one at my feet before engaging. This serves two purposes, first it provides a 26.4% defiance damage bonus and secondly the mine serves as a deterrent to melee oriented enemies. Interesting factoid, Trip Mine, Time Bomb and Gun Drone have a longer effective Defiance duration than they should. Defiance bonus is supposed to be 7.5s + Cast Time for regular powers and 7.5s + Cast Time - Interrupt Time for interruptable powers the intent being that the buff persists for 7.5s after you finish casting the power. However the interruptable Devices powers have defiance durations equal to 7.5s + Interrupt Time which means they last for 7.5s + 2 * Interrupt Time - Casting Time after you finish casting the power.

Time Bomb: Theoretically a good power, it deals almost as much damage as the crashing nukes (except for Inferno). The problem (in my opinion) is that it is horribly boring to use. It takes 9 seconds to setup and then another 15 seconds before it goes off. I'm just not that interested in it to wait that long.

Gun Drone: A reasonably decent pet and a nice distraction, can be out permanently with little effort. The only real downside is that you have to re-summon it every 90seconds and it has that awful 7second interruptable casting time. Still the defiance boost is nice.

• I found Targeting Drone to be overkill with Archery's inherent extra accuracy. Though Claws makes a good point. Particularly with frankenslotting/common IO/SOs, you could skimp accuracy if you took T.Drone even with Archery.
• With the Tech origin, you get the Taser Dart (I think is the name) temp power that shares animations with Taser and also has a stun effect. Combining them is quick and can stun bosses for a few seconds, while you wait for another round of Taser or go into your primary's stun, which likely has a much longer animation time.
• Smoke Grenade's -perception is enough to faux stealth even that which ignores Stealth. I believe you just need to stay 10' from Advanced Drones, for example. I'd have to check on the exact number if you want to include that in a guide.
• With that in mind, Cloaking Device + Smoke Grenade will let you toe bomb almost anything with Trip Mine or Time Bomb.
• Trip Mine's damage is only 14% less than Rain of Arrows. The radius is much smaller and it takes more finesse, but I find that's a good gauge of damage to show just how awesome it is.
• Time Bomb takes 9 seconds to place and 15 seconds to explode. All the attacks that do more than that drop your endurance and kill your recovery for 20 seconds. If you've ever used a crashing nuke on a herded group or as an opening attack, you can understand why Time Bomb isn't as bad as most people make it out to be. If you do go for full invisibility, you can toe bomb extremely tough targets with it. Awesome opener.
• While Devices lacks Build Up, it has really good Defiance numbers in Trip Mine, Time Bomb, and Gun Drone. Yes, they take significantly longer to cast than BU, but use them before the alpha strike or while someone is herding.
• Perhaps more than anything else, readers should be advised not to base their impression of Trip Mine or Time Bomb off of the Traps sets. The damage numbers are much lower in those sets.
• A common complaint about Devices is some of its effects can be replicated in power pools and IOs. For the most part, that's a silly complaint. Stealth and +ToHit are all that can be replicated that way. Cloaking Device takes less endurance than Stealth, no -speed, and doesn't require you give up a pool pick. Tactics vs Targeting Drone is a lot more of a toss up. The team buffs on Tactics make it (probably) better on many teaming situations. Solo, TD is much better.

You know, I hadn't thought about time bomb toe-bombing until just now, but obviously, since I've gone for full invis, I can do that. Which would make it an actually pretty good power. So you've already changed my mind on something. I'll have to get it and see how I like it.

But I could quite like a stack of trip mines, then toe-bombing, then having 15 seconds to get back in place, lob a smoke grenade, and try to time my opener to align with the bomb.

My impression of trip mine is that with a couple of slots, a stack of five or so will kill a lot of fairly tough stuff, and that 4-slotted with obliteration bits, it's doing quite nicely indeed. (Aiming for 5-slot obliteration and an eradication quad.)

I loooove trip mine. It is a genuine competitor with caltrops for my affections, that is how awesome it is.

Ahh, I see. Yeah, it would make sense to improve cloaking device in some way. Better defense, or a lower end cost (since, after all, it's just a device you're using), or something.

Same for TD; it would be nice if it were a bit better than it is.

Still, it's a fun set, and if you want to do a natural blaster (archery, AR, or DP probably), it's about the only secondary that makes any sense at all.

My main character is an energy/devices blaster at 44 and I'm a big fan of the set. For me, the hallmark of Devices is its versatility. It doesn't excel at any one thing in particular but it does provide you with a lot of options. For this reason, I consider it an excellent choice for solo blasters who have only themselves to rely on.

I agree with those who say it requires a patient, calculating playstyle, so it's not for everybody.

As others have stated, combining a stealth IO with Cloaking Device can be very effective. My character does this and things get interesting when fighting the Knives of Artemis. It feels like submarine warfare to me with stealthy adversaries hunting each other to see who can take out the other first.

Finally, placing Gaussian's Chance for Build Up IO in Targeting Drone can partially compensate for the lack of an actual Build Up power. Not as good as the real thing, but nice when it fires off.

To some extent, it's true that the powers can be replicated -- but in some cases, at the cost of, say, an IO slot you could use elsewhere, or whatever.

I think TD loses a lot from the mix of ED and IO sets -- it's no longer hard to get all the +dmg you want without losing needed +accuracy.