Personally, Psychic/Mental has been the only Blaster combination that I have been able to play beyond the mid-teens. My Blaster is currently mid-30's level wise so I can't comment on the last powers in the secondary from personal experience.
Given your description of your personal play preference, I'd say Psy/Mental would be a viable choice. "Blapper" would be the last word I would use to describe how the combination plays.
In the secondary, one melee attack (Mind Probe) is skippable and the other (Telekenetic Thrust) actually helps keep opponents at range. Subdual, an Immobilize, also helps keep opponents at range.
Psychic Scream is a cone attack with decent range and can be used while hovering over a spawn of opponents.
I personally found Drain Psyche to be skippable when soloing. It does have potential to offset the -recovery portion of the tier 9 primary attacks. (Dual Pistol tier-9 lacks the negative recovery). Slotted for endurance recovery, you need to hit eight or more opponents to offset the -recovery of a tier-9 attack. It can hit ten.
It also debuffs your opponent, which is nice in those EB/AV fights.
I haven't gotten to Psychic Shockwave, but it looks like fun especially if slotted for stun. With enough stun and recharge slotting, you could potentially keep all minions in a group stunned.
Looking at the powers in the other two primary sets mentioned, I'd say that Mental Manipulation would work just as well with any of the three mentioned. The main difference would be Dual Pistol's lack of a tier-9 with a negative recovery component. This would make Drain Psyche a little more skippable.
If Brevity is the Soul of Wit, Why are You Reading This?
Sonic will be the best bet for a blaster out of the 3 options you've given.
Look at the powers you get and when: A full ST attack chain by level 8 (Shriek, Scream, Shriek, Shout). and 2 good cones Howl, Psychic Scream) by level 10. You will be using primarily those powers for your entire career, and you get all 5 of them before you can even get DOs.
A little later on you get the best soloing tool available to ANY blaster in Siren's Song. Screech is very nice for handling a pesky mezzing LT.
If you go villainside with it and take Soul Mastery you will get 2 MORE cones to use, one of which is also an AoE immobilize to ensure that you keep them at range (at which point you can respec out of TK Thrust). You also get Dark Embrace, which is a decent resist shield, and Oppressive Gloom which you can stack with Screech to stun a boss that wanders into melee with you, or it can also keep minions from attacking in melee.
I would go Sonic/Mental/Soul on this one, for sure.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
Sonic/Mental/(Elec/Soul) is IMO one of the best blaster combos out there, especially for teaming, and I enjoy mine greatly.
The -res, endless cone chains(safer than blapping), -regen and swift nuke recovery potential(drain psyche) all make you an amazing damage multiplier+contributor on teams.
EDIT: I know you didn't ask for my build, but here it is anyway:
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Mains (Freedom) @Auroxis
Auroxis - Emp/Rad/Power Defender Pylon Video Soloing an AV
Pelvic Thunder - SS/Elec/Mu Brute
Sorajin - Elec/Nin Stalker
Neuropain - Sonic/Mental/Elec Blaster
Thanks for the replies! I now have a better idea of how /Mental plays (and am extremely glad to hear it doesn't overly suffer from staying out of melee range).
I have a concept Defender I want to try Psychic Blast on, so perhaps for this blaster I will go with Sonic/Mental.
I do have one big concern though: In anyone's opinion, how likely is it that we'll see a "Sonic/Sound Manipulation" set for blasters? I ask this only because I remember taking a Cold-themed controller (Ice/Storm) to the mid-20s, just before Cold Domination was proliferated to controllers in i16, and I just had to re-roll, because I'm picky like that 
.
Considering that at any one time I have three or so concept characters that I am interested in trying out, I have to believe in the philosophy of "if you cannot create exactly what you want, do not create it." While Mental Manipulation can be fudged as Sonics in terms of looks and sounds, I would kick myself if Sonic Manipulation came around at some point in the future. Personally, I think it is more likely that we could see a Rad. Manipulation, Dark Manipulation (should Dark powers ever be proliferated to blasters), or even a Manipulation set incorporating some kind of normal melee attacks, before a Sonic set would come into existence. All of the aforementioned sets could use a lot of existing powers, whereas the only other Sonic powers in the game are in Sonic Resonance, and few powers from that set fit the Blaster archetype. (Maybe some powers from the Gold Brickers? I cannot remember a lot of their animations at the moment though...) But nevertheless, anyone think Sonic Manipulation could come around in the not-too-distant future?
@Winter. Because I'm Winter. Period.
I am a blaster first, and an alt-oholic second.
I don't see a sonic manipulation blaster set coming any time soon, as it would likely involve creating a bunch of new powers, and it would be pretty hard to balance due to the -res. Besides, there are already Sonic/Sonic defenders and corrs, if people want to go pure sonic.
Mains (Freedom) @Auroxis
Auroxis - Emp/Rad/Power Defender Pylon Video Soloing an AV
Pelvic Thunder - SS/Elec/Mu Brute
Sorajin - Elec/Nin Stalker
Neuropain - Sonic/Mental/Elec Blaster
So far, I've managed to find 5 blasters that I love playing. Being that I prefer to maintain a theme, I've got a Natural Archery/Devices, a Science Ice/Ice, a Mutant Elec/Elec, a Tech Nrg/Nrg, and a Magic Fire/Fire.
I want to role a /Mental blaster, with a DP, Sonic, or Psychic primary. (I want to use a primary I haven't rolled before; I dislike AR and I have a Rad/Rad corruptor.) However, I'm unsure of which to pick, so I thought I'd lay out how I like to play, and see if anyone with experience can shed some light.
Those are just preferences, not unbreakable personal rules.
To give an idea of what I'm going for:
Psychic/Mental would be a Psychic character, plain and simple.
Sonic/Mental would be a Sonics character, bending the rules with /Mental. Many of the /Mental attacks can look sound-like if colored correctly.
DP/Mental would be a reformed Syndicate agent.
Any feedback/advice is appreciated at this point! I honestly cannot decide which will suit me best.
@Winter. Because I'm Winter. Period.
I am a blaster first, and an alt-oholic second.