Personally going Spiritual on my two Blasters with crashless nukes (Archery and Dual Pistols) so their nukes get back up faster (and Aim or Build Up). Works like a charm for my Archer so far.
Still getting my Energy/Energy to 50, but once I do, he's actually going to go Musculature. He's going to have more than enough recharge for his regular attacks (via his IOs), so I'm mostly wanting him to hit even harder. Picked up Assault to take the concept even further.
Guide: Tanking, Wall of Fire Style (Updated for I19!), and the Four Rules of Tanking
Story Arc: Belated Justice, #88003
Synopsis: Explore the fine line between justice and vengeance as you help a hero of Talos Island bring his friend's murderer to justice.
Grey Pilgrim: Fire/Fire Tanker (50), Victory
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This is my philosophy at the moment, my one 50 blaster is nrg/nrg, he generally has no end issues and has a good ST and AoE attack chain, and thats on generic IOs, things are only going to improve when I put sets in him. Extra recharge would only serve to bring up nova, BU, aim, and hasten faster, the attacks don't matter because I'm more restricted by activation times than by the powers not being up when I need them. I have no problems with accuracy, and even avoiding it while making a build I ended up with nearly 70% global accuracy and ~50% on average in each power, even with the -50% for fighting +4s that should be pretty much at the cap.|
Originally Posted by Grey Pilgrim
Personally going Spiritual on my two Blasters with crashless nukes (Archery and Dual Pistols) so their nukes get back up faster (and Aim or Build Up). Works like a charm for my Archer so far.
Still getting my Energy/Energy to 50, but once I do, he's actually going to go Musculature. He's going to have more than enough recharge for his regular attacks (via his IOs), so I'm mostly wanting him to hit even harder. Picked up Assault to take the concept even further. |
So that leaves me with the damage, an extra 11% base damage with an uncommon (even though I have no immob or def debuff to boost) which is as good as a few extra damage set bonuses in my build. It may not be a lot, but it's something extra which would be more than most of the others
my dual pistols/devices though may be going in another direction, he's 46 at the moment and I'm going to have to look carefuly at his final build to decide what to go for, and may well be decided by what the best secondary boost I can get from an uncommon is
Legion of Valor / Fallen legion
Victory
So far it looks like Cardiac and Musculature are the best options for my blasters.
The hard things I can do--- The impossible just take a little bit longer.
If numbers are so much more important than a teammate who is fun to play with, forget about the game altogether and go play with a calculator instead. -Claws and Effect-
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Hitting things should never be an issue for a blaster.
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Originally Posted by srmalloy
Then you can go with Nerve to deal with the issues around hitting +4 targets in the Apex and Tin Mage TFs.
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My main is a blaster. He is also my badger and my influ ****. So I am partial to the blaster.|
Originally Posted by Dispari
So I keep having this debate with people. Assuming you aren't taking the incarnate to fill in a hole in your build, what's better for a Blaster in your opinion: damage or recharge?
Recharge means your AoEs are up faster, and so are BU and Aim. But damage means you just plain do more damage. Which do you think would be better in the long run? No wrong answers. |
soin response to the op my answere is this.
my main is nrg/nrg/ff
It all depends on how much your gonna play it how you iod it how much influ you put into it.
My recharge on my main is perma hasten and my dmg is sick. cause of BU-AIM almost every mob i have one avail.
my acc is over 2.0 from bonuses and my end is sic since i have perf shifter, miracle, panacea, and numina built in.
But you may not so it all depends on what you want out of your blaster.
I am choosing to make every incarnate avail to my toon so depending on what i will face i have every option and i am sure that some options are not avail "YET".
However on my scrppers and tanks i may have taken one or two depending on how i play them.
So all i can say is that on my blaster im pimping it out even more than it is. Yet on others i could care less....
On some i wont even open the arc as i have about 32 50s now on mulitople servers. In fact the server i play more on i incarnated more. And the server i play less i incarntaed some.
This is one of those things that you will just have to decide foryourself but i do suggest that you do more than one cause some things are better than others depending on what you are facing.
so have fun with it and try to do it all. Unless you dont want to then dont.
p.s. i drank to much last night to for punctuation. figure it out. Pretned its in code.
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Even a blaster with sets that don't have aim/build up?
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Originally Posted by DreadShinobi
Hitting things should never be an issue for a blaster.
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Characters!:
Pinny - Scrapper
Shadewing - Defender
@Pinny
On my DP/NRG I went with the Musculature Radial Boost (Increases Damage and Defense Debuff effects by 33%). More damage is always good and I wanted to see if the defense debuff would be helpful. Unfortunately, I just read that unless you are using the lethal ammo that the defense debuff doesn't take affect.
I may have to re-think my use of the Musculature Radial Boost, since I generally use the fire ammo.
@ThrillKiller
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Sets that don't have aim/bu generaly compensate for that by somehow buffing acc or to-hit. Take devices' targeting drone for example.
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Originally Posted by Pinny
Even a blaster with sets that don't have aim/build up?
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MA Arcs: Yarmouth 1509 and 58812
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Meh, it's there for the times when you use standard ammo, at least, and you get a bigger damage boost. If it's a big worry for you, you can always go with the other Ultra Rare Musculature boost to increase your endurance recovery from Stamina (could either free a slot while doing that, or if you one or two slot like me, just get more endurance).
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Originally Posted by Simian_Stalker
On my DP/NRG I went with the Musculature Radial Boost (Increases Damage and Defense Debuff effects by 33%). More damage is always good and I wanted to see if the defense debuff would be helpful. Unfortunately, I just read that unless you are using the lethal ammo that the defense debuff doesn't take affect.
I may have to re-think my use of the Musculature Radial Boost, since I generally use the fire ammo. |
Guide: Tanking, Wall of Fire Style (Updated for I19!), and the Four Rules of Tanking
Story Arc: Belated Justice, #88003
Synopsis: Explore the fine line between justice and vengeance as you help a hero of Talos Island bring his friend's murderer to justice.
Grey Pilgrim: Fire/Fire Tanker (50), Victory
I actually went with Endurance on my Blaster (Fire/EM, full IO build).
I don't like the idea of intentionally leaving a hole in Damage, Recharge, or Accuracy in my build in case I decide to exemplar, so any bonus had to be tacked on to my well-rounded IO build. Therefore, I'd only really get use out of the Damage or Recharge boosts if and when I got them to Rare or Ultra Rare status and a significant chunk of the boosts weren't affected by ED.
Endurance isn't that great for me, either. I don't have endurance issues on this character. Range, however, is fantastic. With a little bit of range in my slotting on certain powers, Boost Range, and the End/Range Alpha Boost, my Fire Breath has become a death cone. It's trivial to hit the target cap with it. I can also throw Fireball from extremely far away. It's pretty neat.
Plus, I'd just respecced into Leadership for lack of other things in my Primary, Secondary, or Epic to take, and the End boost allowed me to compensate for having those extra toggles and then some. I simply don't run out of endurance in natural gameplay conditions... unless I use Inferno, that is.
The Ballad of Iron Percy
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Concur. I have Targeting Drone, 1.41x global Accuracy from sets, and at least 30% Accuracy enhancement in each power. That's way, way more than I honestly will ever need, but it might be fun if I ever have to fight someone with Elude. So Nerve isn't an option.|
Originally Posted by Oliin
Sets that don't have aim/bu generaly compensate for that by somehow buffing acc or to-hit. Take devices' targeting drone for example.
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I had originally planned my level 50 build to take advantage of Cardiac, but I tried Spiritual first instead, since I wasn't capped out on Recharge either. While I didn't have endurance problems before the Alpha slot, I was actually bottoming out after Spiritual because I was firing so bloody quickly. So I went back to Cardiac and things work correctly now.
I could probably rebuild for Endurance and use Spiritual, but I'm not sure how much of a difference it would make. Besides, Cardiac Core Boost gives Range +20%, which I don't care to slot for but is a welcome bonus.
De minimis non curat Lex Luthor.
Recharge!
My Fortunata went with Muscular at first and got to 2nd tier. The amount of damage increased is quite little because I am already using full Thunder Strike sets which push the damage so close to the cap already.
I respec my build and took Tough and many other toggles (9 in total including Darkest Night from patron), I just couldn't afford the endurance cost so I switched to Cardiac. Man, I am telling you, Cardiac is amazing!!! It reduces so much end in every power literally.
I think +recharge and -end are better off honestly because with a full set like Positron or Thunder Strike, your +recharge is not at 70% so the alpha bonus can push them closer to the cap. I think full positron set only gives 26% recharge?
You need a different build to get the best out of Muscular IMO. You can put damage procs and use Muscular to fill that +damage %.
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
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Musculature seems more for non-Blasters, really. Being able to put in procs is nice, sure, but I imagine it's more for the buffers/debuffers who want to use non-damage IO sets, like if a Cold/Ice Defender would rather focus on using Slow IO sets for their Ice Blast powers rather than Ranged Damage IO sets. They'll get the full effect of Musculature then.
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Originally Posted by Jibikao
You need a different build to get the best out of Muscular IMO. You can put damage procs and use Muscular to fill that +damage %.
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De minimis non curat Lex Luthor.
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Or... you want to dial your build to 11 and do even more damage. Even if you are at the cap for damage in your powers, each level of Musculature is going to let you do even more damage beyond that, and as mentioned by Obitus earlier, that's even better for a Blaster because of their high damage mod.|
Originally Posted by Bosstone
Musculature seems more for non-Blasters, really. Being able to put in procs is nice, sure, but I imagine it's more for the buffers/debuffers who want to use non-damage IO sets, like if a Cold/Ice Defender would rather focus on using Slow IO sets for their Ice Blast powers rather than Ranged Damage IO sets. They'll get the full effect of Musculature then.
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The Alpha slot can be used for a couple things: to fill holes in your build, or to push it even further than it can go now (or both). It's not really an either-or thing, it's whatever you want to make your build do. More Recharge is going to help some of my Blasters, so they're getting Spiritual. For my Energy/Energy, he doesn't need more recharge or better endurance use: more damage is going to help a lot more.
Guide: Tanking, Wall of Fire Style (Updated for I19!), and the Four Rules of Tanking
Story Arc: Belated Justice, #88003
Synopsis: Explore the fine line between justice and vengeance as you help a hero of Talos Island bring his friend's murderer to justice.
Grey Pilgrim: Fire/Fire Tanker (50), Victory
Quote:
Slow set can definitely get more benefit from Musculature but if you want more damage potential, you can combine several damage procs + Musculature. It doesn't have to be damage procs. You can put chance to hold or chance to heal self without losing much +damage %. |
Originally Posted by Bosstone
Musculature seems more for non-Blasters, really. Being able to put in procs is nice, sure, but I imagine it's more for the buffers/debuffers who want to use non-damage IO sets, like if a Cold/Ice Defender would rather focus on using Slow IO sets for their Ice Blast powers rather than Ranged Damage IO sets. They'll get the full effect of Musculature then.
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The thing with damage proc is that some enemies you need to use 4 powers to finish off but when the damage proc happens, you may only need to use 3 powers. For example, my Earth Assault Dominator needs to use two attacks to finish off a +1 minion (like CoT Mage). But when Mako proc happens in Seismic Smash, I can one-shot the minion.
But like I said, to get the most out of Musculature, you need a much different build because most people don't fully slot Slow set in Ice Blast. Now with Musculature, you can make up the loss of +damage from alpha while enhancing the slow effect in each ice blasts. The reason is that a full range set like Thunder Strike already pushes damage % so high already. You don't get that much +damage from alpha unless with high level tier.
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
Each one will help but it's a case of do you want the main boost badly enough or the sub boosts like Range, End Mod, Resistance, ect...
In this case it's a question of more damage per shot vs. more shots total. I think I'll end up going for Spiritual and recharge myself in the end.
On another note I think Musculature would work great for controllers and dominators you use hold and immobilize sets in their primary and don't slot for damage.
I am reaching a point with my Dual Pistols blaster where Alpha slotting is on my mind.
I have no endurance problems, and recharge I anticipate will be fine between LoTGs and Hasten, etc.
But going super toggle heavy, and taking cardiac is tempting, or even upping the recharge on everything to put my DPS through the roof would be nice...... Buuuut at the end of the day I'm still leaning damage.
I think the damage Alpha is best suited for those who never slot for it. I have a controller that would love it.
I still think that as someone said, going to level 11 with damage is a good angle. I don't agree with using it on something like a tank.... because really, you have to remember the ED limitations. Until rare's a very small percentage works around that. Is it worth it?
If you have 'Jab' slotted to 97% damage, that Muscular Alpha is not going to make you Statesman..... But blasters already have that high damage nuke waiting to go.... why not make it 'uber'?
The question for me really becomes: Do I want that nuke to be level 11? Or do I want it to stay a 10, but use it twice?
Just a thought.
Nekron: Beam Rifle / Poison Corruptor and Slayer of Evil!! (Exalted)
Intergalaktic: Fire / Time Corruptor (Exalted)
I put damage on my blaster, because I figure in the higher tears, damage will be even more...and I don't really have a problem with recharge at all :3
Magisterum- 50+3 Fortunata--Virtue
Lukerion- 33 Emp/Rad Defender--Virtue
Noah Heartily- 34 SS/SD brute- Virtue
Mika Heartily- 50+1 Fire/MM blaster-Virtue
Recharge.
I have (almost) five pruple sets which give rechage, five of the 6.2% recharge sets, and five of the 5% recharge sets. Now, an Alpha for recharge. With Hasten up almost permanently, nukes, self rez, aim etc are always back up after a fight.
Downtime = less damage.
Waiting for self rez = less damage.
No Build up or Aim = much less damage.
Plus, with Ice/Energy, I can have conserve power up most of the time. I can spam frost breath and ice storm. My three holds are always up. And mt ST damage goes through the roof.
Damage? Even my tier 1 does more damage than 50% damage bonus on my tier 3. More attacks offer superior damage.
I agree. I don't have any purples in my blaster but even I can see the simple idea of having a Nuke up more often, is better than having it up less.... but hitting for 30% more damage (for example).
I am going that route as well with my blaster. I thought about it and the idea of saving endurance is even more appealing that the damage aspect, because most of our powers aren't even close to the ED on endurance.
Think about that. Not only would you have very little endurance sucking issues, this would also allow you to run far more toggles.... toggles that allow damage, defense, and resistance. I think that's pretty powerful in itself.
The recharge means most to me. Faster build up, faster heal (aid self), faster Nuke, faster St attacks.... it's all cumulative. I can only imagine what it would be like with purple sets. 
Nekron: Beam Rifle / Poison Corruptor and Slayer of Evil!! (Exalted)
Intergalaktic: Fire / Time Corruptor (Exalted)
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It's a beast. A squishy beast because it's entirely built on recharge, quick kills and self rez being up 90% of the time. Once in a while, the rez is down and I get ZERO recharge bonus until I'm back up. But I carry the poor man's Insperation Rez Column just in case (wakie, brains, brawn, power and sometimes a little defense)|
Originally Posted by _Elektro_
I agree. I don't have any purples in my blaster but even I can see the simple idea of having a Nuke up more often, is better than having it up less.... but hitting for 30% more damage (for example).
I am going that route as well with my blaster. I thought about it and the idea of saving endurance is even more appealing that the damage aspect, because most of our powers aren't even close to the ED on endurance. Think about that. Not only would you have very little endurance sucking issues, this would also allow you to run far more toggles.... toggles that allow damage, defense, and resistance. I think that's pretty powerful in itself. The recharge means most to me. Faster build up, faster heal (aid self), faster Nuke, faster St attacks.... it's all cumulative. I can only imagine what it would be like with purple sets. |
I can't solo an AV, but give me a tank and it's down instantly.
Also, remember that the Alpha slot bonus IS subject to SOME ED. So that 30% is much less than that.
Mine's got the End/Range right now, and I'm gonna be picking up the Acc/Hold next. Of course, My end goal is one of all 4.
Deamus the Fallen - 50 DM/EA Brute - Lib
Dragos Bahtiam - 50 Fire/Ice Blaster - Lib
/facepalm - Apply Directly to the Forehead!
Formally Dragos_Bahtiam - Abbreviate to DSL - Warning, may contain sarcasm
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Originally Posted by Shubbie
Im very good at taking a problem and making it worse.
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Well I'm getting closer to slotting my Alpha and now I'm shifting to Musculature!
Why? I'm not sure. I have a great damage bonus with my blaster already, including Assault, and set bonuses so I know ED will punish a lot of the damage. But I just did a respec and my recharge is about 145%.
My nuke is up almost... almost every mob. I still am short a set of panacea so there's that. And I'm wondering what it would be like to do more damage.
I'm looking further down the road where the Rare, and Rarer Musculature give a higher bonus around the ED cap. That's where I think Musculature could shine for Blasters.
I don't know for sure, but I know I should make my mind up soon as I'm approaching the components I need to start building a common Alpha. 
Nekron: Beam Rifle / Poison Corruptor and Slayer of Evil!! (Exalted)
Intergalaktic: Fire / Time Corruptor (Exalted)
If you never have an issue with hitting the enemies, there's nothing you want to recharge faster and you never have any problems with endurance, then you might as well go musculature.
Or just hold onto your shards and see what else comes along with Incarnates.
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