Blaster needs "fighting" pool?

Is there much use in taking Tough and Weave for a Blaster? If I skip them then I can take Hasten and maybe two other powers (any suggestions?)

I just wonder if I am better off assuming that I will get hurt when I am hit or take three (four with the ice ancillary defensive power) powers for what might be only a slight improvement.

ty!

edti: another reason I am unsure is the killer end drain of running toggles on a Blaster.

My pesonal take on this:

-- Tough stacks really nicely with any resist based epic shield.
-- Weave stacks really nicely with any defence based epic shield. When going for Weave, Tough is very nice layered mitigation to have, but only if you can afford the slots to slot it properly.


My Elec^3 blaster has Tough to stack with his Charged Armor, but no Weave since his current build isn't for defence.
My Fire/Fire/Mace blaster has Weave to stack with his Scorpion Shield. But while he does have Tough, I mostly keep it de-toggled because the only thing I have in it right now is a Steadfast unique.

Even if you're not setting your blaster out with set IOs, franken slotting (Or even just SOs/Generic IOs) your shields and Tough/Weave still goes a good way in increasing your survivability.

Tough isn't very useful to a Blaster. You get one of the lowest resist strengths out of it of any AT (around 16% slotted) and it only covers S/L damage. Weave is also weak on Blasters but if you are going for softcapped defense it can help, and Tough can hold a Steadfast 3% defense IO (I'd suggest slotting only that and not actually turning Tough on unless you have excess endurance). Slotted Weave plus a 3% def IO in Tough gives you around 8% defense to all, or 11% if you can afford the PvP 3% defense IO... that can make a big difference if softcapping but isn't going to do much for you by itself.

If you are going with a defense based APP/Patron shield (Ice or Mace) then Weave might well be worth it since it makes it a lot easier to softcap S/L defense. But if you aren't going to be adding S/L defense from IOs you may want to go with something that boosts your offense instead, since dead enemies don't do much damage.

As for endurance, it depends on your slotting and power sets. If you use set IOs and have pretty good end reduction in most powers then Weave won't be a problem unless you have a high recharge AoE build (though if you can afford lots of recharge you probably have a Miracle and Numina's unique in Health to help out). In general I find Blasters very light on endurance due to running few toggles, but if you are tossing fireballs and fire breaths every few seconds that's a different story.

Tough and Weave from the Fighting pool are a good part of the strategy to soft cap. I wouldn't necessarily take them on all builds, but to a soft-cap a Blaster they can be worth about 14% Ranged Defense on their own, if you follow the slotting strategy below. This strategy does use the outrageously expensive PVP IO, which you can drop and still get 11% Ranged Defense with just 5 spent slots (and the 2 free ones).


Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.90
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Level 48 Magic Blaster
Primary Power Set: Archery
Secondary Power Set: Electricity Manipulation
Power Pool: Fighting

Hero Profile:
Level 14: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), GA-3defTpProc(15)
Level 20: Weave -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(21), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(21), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(23), RedFtn-Def(23), RedFtn-EndRdx(25)

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The Blaster I am toying with is about lvl 25 Ice/Ice. Lots of fun. So, the set means that I don't have many big AoEs to throw around but I suspect the helds I am stacking might get expensive end-wise. I hate running out of blue.

Even if I don't take tough and weave I would like the defense power from the Ice ancillary set just because it would look cool.

I think this is the first time I've heard someone saying that the Frozen Armor looks cool >.>

But yeah, if you're still leveling up they're not really that effective to have on a blaster.

The fighting pool is much better for Blappers than it is for the ranged blaster.

Generally, the only time I take th efighting pool is when I'm taking an epic that has a defense-based shield (like Cold) that Weave can compliment. Even then, I only take Tough to one-slot it with the +3% Steadfast Protection IO. All told that will give you a nice 25% S/L defense and about 9% defense against everything else, not counting potential IO sets or other powers like Hover or Combat Jumping.

I took it on my AR/Dev's I19 respec in place of Fitness but I was deliberately building up ranged defense to supplement it.