As a quick additional comment - I would be interested in receiving suggestions on ideal choice for alpha slots on blasters as well. My initial first thought was just musculature, but I can see a benefit in spiritual as well. Never really have endurance problems, and targeting drone plus set bonuses should resolve most accuracy issues.
I don't know where your trying to go with this build. If your just working on a theme then it don't matter what you pick as long as it fits into your theme.
But here is the reality. Unless your soloing or part of a Role playing group that require some constraints, you can make anything fit into a super hero technology stand point. You picked invisibility then I see no reason why you can't get the costume part Piston boots and pick up super speed. Cloaking Device and super speed will offer you that stealth run ability. You can add in a stealth IO in case you forget to activate cloaking device. But your cloaking device does not work in conjunction with other powers.
Build wise you have nothing really going for you. Your using IOs but getting nothing out of them. If anything your getting recharge, for that you can make the build cheaper and gain the same benefits.
I would suggest looking over this thread which is about AR Device to get some ideas and look at some of the numbers.
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=187775
If that does not serve your purpose then I would look to find ways with generic IOs to obtain the recharge and damage your looking to obtain. You can just slot those procs by themselves and save yourself some money.
Perfect example your slotting Steadfast protection +3% defense but your defenses are in the teens. You have invisibility with Cloaking Device. Your a bit all over the place so it's hard to see were your going. Between costume parts and powers you can still fit into the tech theme your looking for and have some other benefits as well.
1. Why Soft Cap is Important : http://dechskaison.blogspot.com/2011...important.html
2. Limits: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Limits
3. Attack Mechanics: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Attack_Mechanics
4. Rule of Five: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Rule_o...e_Law_of_Fives
Thanks for the feedback! It's true that I was a little aimless in my goals for slotting. I appreciate the direction towards the other thread. Lots of good stuff in there.
I had definitely considered super speed in lieu of the stealth line, but to be honest I'm a bit at a loss for what to do with power choices. I suppose it might be worth taking some leadership or perhaps beanbag/taser. I'd also tossed around the idea of medicine pool, but that seemed like a poor choice for a blaster. I was thinking about grabbing powers simply because they had good, cheap sets to throw in them, but at least initially I just eeked out enough slots to hit what I wanted.
You also note the somewhat superfluous use of steadfast protection +3% defense with the only middle defenses. While this is generally true, I usually play on teams and rarely operate under only my own stats. It seemed the +damage and +recharge set bonuses might be more beneficial in general than pushing for a ranged defense soft cap that I really have to go out of my way to even get near. I was looking at swapping the enhancements in burst for thunderstrike, and I saw that I could use trap of the hunter in web grenade if I go in for 6 slots on it. I can plug in some eradication in both trip mine and time bomb. Then if I also switch up LotG for red fortune and spend 3 more slots, I'm up to about 27% ranged. Add in maneuvers and maybe I hit 30%. While this is decent, I don't know if it's really worth the trouble. I might be better off, as you noted, just skipping some of the set bonuses and throwing the appropriate IOs in powers to max out recharge that way.
It would be nice to see both end of the spectrum for the attacks. I really don't know how much I am giving up DPS wise for survivability. I would like to have someone numbers from some high end build related to full auto and some other AR attacks. So I can compare to actually say wow I am loosing a lot of DPS for Range Defense cap or I might only be loosing a few points. Either way I think it would help everyone out because it would help gauge how much of one you want to give up to benefit from the other.
I do know that even if you fire first on a group they still get a chance to hit you back, so you both can end up dead.
I'm not sharp on the numbers to do any napkin math on this though.
EDIT
Okay not being up to snuff on the numbers what I did was pretty much pull many of the builds I could find related to AR Device and I compared Full Autos damage and recharge. End result not counting any build up proc in targeting drone pretty much everyone had the same range of 107% damage bonus, some had a bit more some had a bit less, but on average that was the number. The key part was when we started comparing recharge time on Full Auto. Nutshell I am firing off Full Auto at about 20 seconds ( actual 19.5 ) others were firing it off at 15 seconds ( it was 15.9 actually but giving a benefit here ).
So end result those firing off at 15 seconds or less were getting another Full Auto off for a increase of 350 damage. Out of the 6 other builds I seen only 1 player was at the 15 second mark, but had pretty much non existing defenses at all. So eating 3 or 4 luck inspirations would be required.
To me having the Range Cap and more survivability is worth the 350 DPS loss. As someone can eat lucks I can reds to increase my DPS, of course someone can jump in and say so can the other guy and they can eat both purples and reds to stay on top. The reality is how many of these things do we have and how lucky are you going to be to always have 3 you don't need to combine to make one you do need. Where someone is eating an inspiration for a necessity to stay alive, I am doing it for a performance increase. It's much better to have and not need then to need and not have.
1. Why Soft Cap is Important : http://dechskaison.blogspot.com/2011...important.html
2. Limits: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Limits
3. Attack Mechanics: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Attack_Mechanics
4. Rule of Five: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Rule_o...e_Law_of_Fives
Very interesting! Thanks for the research. You know, one of the things I really hadn't considered was the range cap. I have a tiny bit of range enhancements in FA, buckshot, and flamethrower, and I really like the increase. I should look more into a build that tries to further capitalize on this. I am sad that the range alpha slot bonuses are in cardiac. Sucks to bury both range and resist under end rdx. All the characters for whom I would want those two secondary bonuses have no use for end rdx. Though.. if I took leadership pool, I might need it!
Sometimes I wish we had some more variety in the types of enhancement bonuses provided by sets. When ED came out they preached all about how different types of enhancements were under-appreciated, but then all our sets basically offer the same general types of bonuses when used as a full set.
Quote:
Concealment offers nothing. At level 20 the first thing you should do, after 5 radios and a bank job, is run 6 days of tips and three morality missions to get yourself an Alignment Merit and buy a stealth IO (since you're Leaping, an Unbounded Leap: Stealth for Combat Jumping would probably be best). Or save up and use 240 Reward Merits to get it, of course. That will give you enough stealth to go in and safely set up a Time Bomb or Trip Mine under most circumstances (see the link to know what to avoid trying to bomb), though you'll mostly do that solo. Expensive, yes, but definitely worth it.|
Originally Posted by Duneytron2000
I had definitely considered super speed in lieu of the stealth line, but to be honest I'm a bit at a loss for what to do with power choices.
|
Quote:
| I suppose it might be worth taking some leadership or perhaps beanbag/taser. |
Quote:
| I'd also tossed around the idea of medicine pool, but that seemed like a poor choice for a blaster. |
Sorry, so late to the party.
I see you don't like Gun drone, thats fine. Thats your choice. But youre giving up huge defiance damage bonus by not summoning it.
Also, Ignite, because it is a pet summon, needs its own accuracy enhancement. I 6 slot that puppy and try to slot as much recharge dmage and accuracy as I can Frankenslot into it. It is, quite often, your best tool against Arch-Villains. And if you're going to be doing TF's now to get the Alpha slot goodies, you'll be beating on a lot of them.
Since you have smoke grenade, you need no further stealth to toe bomb, but Im sure you know this already. Dont let other people tell you to waste merits on Celerity +Stealth IOs. You don't need them. If one drops for you, then great. Slot it in sprint, after an end redux. Also, Celeritys on no longer really out of price range to just buy on the market and craft yourself.
-Largo
Founder of A.G.O.N.Y. Supergroup on Victory
Member of Thought Sanctum VG on Victory
Member of St0rm Batallion SG on Guardian
Smoke bomb's not reliable for toe-bombing, in my experience. It also doesn't help you when you jump over a small building on Peregrine and land in the middle of a pack of Malta you had no way of spotting... :P (since they'll already be aggro'd and thus Smoke Grenade won't let you keep them off your back)
Quote:
I don't see buying a Celerity +stealth IO as a waste. It is helpful based around what your looking to do. I will say it is less effective in super jump, it just not offer the same effect as it does in super speed. |
Originally Posted by Largo
Sorry, so late to the party.
I see you don't like Gun drone, thats fine. Thats your choice. But youre giving up huge defiance damage bonus by not summoning it. Also, Ignite, because it is a pet summon, needs its own accuracy enhancement. I 6 slot that puppy and try to slot as much recharge dmage and accuracy as I can Frankenslot into it. It is, quite often, your best tool against Arch-Villains. And if you're going to be doing TF's now to get the Alpha slot goodies, you'll be beating on a lot of them. Since you have smoke grenade, you need no further stealth to toe bomb, but Im sure you know this already. Dont let other people tell you to waste merits on Celerity +Stealth IOs. You don't need them. If one drops for you, then great. Slot it in sprint, after an end redux. Also, Celeritys on no longer really out of price range to just buy on the market and craft yourself. |
As was already mentioned some mobs have a high perception and do notice you when you have no proc and trying to get in to use smoke grenade. Rikti Drones are a perfect example of that among other mob types.
Further I think we can debate the thought of waste to many other powers in this set or even the AT itself. Like they say one mans garbage is another mans fortune.
1. Why Soft Cap is Important : http://dechskaison.blogspot.com/2011...important.html
2. Limits: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Limits
3. Attack Mechanics: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Attack_Mechanics
4. Rule of Five: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Rule_o...e_Law_of_Fives
I can tell you this. Use my build just to review the endurance use to recovery ratio and try to stay away from that. Mine is bad straight and simple. Once I finished that build the first thing I did was run to do Incarnate and picked up Cardiac to Tier 2. That completely changed things around. I am at Tier 3 atm.
What I am considering to do is the following.
1. Try to keep my Range Defense high enough that one Purple inspiration will more then cap me, I am considering when I get debuffed here.
2. Improve my Endurance ratio.
3. See if it is possible to pick up Aid Self.
4. keep my Full Auto recharge number at where it is or a bit better. As I mentioned in a previous thread you have to be doing 15 seconds on your recharge with Full Auto to out dps my build persay sans Incarnate. Again its a simple mans rule of thumb. I have looked at about 12 or 13 other builds posted up and only 1 was at the 15 second mark ( 15.9 ) and one other was 16 ( 16.7 ). But every other build was above that and even higher then my 20 second recharge. So it comes to say if your FA is higher then mine then so is the rest of your recharge for all your powers. To me having a recharge on Full Auto at 25 seconds and then having a damage increase from IOs in the set which bring you to 101% compared to my 99%. I am more then happy to take my 2% decrease and be able to fire my FA more then you and have my range soft cap to boot.
5. Pick up the damage incarnate instead.
If I could accomplish the above I think it would be a very, very good AR Device build. I have Aid Self on my Archery EM which is also ranged cap and it really, really helps out when a few mobs come into melee range and tag me with a few hits. I can jump back a few feet and fire off Aid Self at a safer defense position ( ranged ) and feel comfortable I am going to get a heal off. Thus less green popping. So if I can use the same technique for my AR Device it just adds another tool in my tool belt.
1. Why Soft Cap is Important : http://dechskaison.blogspot.com/2011...important.html
2. Limits: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Limits
3. Attack Mechanics: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Attack_Mechanics
4. Rule of Five: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Rule_o...e_Law_of_Fives
Hi everyone. I'm trying to refine my AR / dev build a bit, now that I've been 50 for awhile and have a bit more influence to toss around. This character is built as a all-natural-powers concept, so I've intentionally avoided powers that do not seem to make sense from a technology standpoint. Other than that, I've tried to optimize for solid set bonuses across the board and all the heavy-hitting area effect powers I can get my hands on. For set bonuses, I've mostly focused on accuracy and recharge, though if prevailing blaster wisdom suggests something else, please tip me off!
I was actually kind of running out of powers to take, so I opted for the stealth pool in order to enable me to sneak through missions and recall people on speed TF runs. I use hurdle/CJ as my "travel power", though now that I have ninja run, that's not strictly necessary, but I like it as an unsuppressable travel power inside mission maps that works very well for positioning my cones.
Build as follows:
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.92
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Hank Smith: Level 50 Technology Blaster
Primary Power Set: Assault Rifle
Secondary Power Set: Devices
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Concealment
Power Pool: Teleportation
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Munitions Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Burst
- (A) Decimation - Chance of Build Up
- (3) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (3) Decimation - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
- (9) Decimation - Damage/Recharge
- (25) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage
- (37) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage
Level 1: Web Grenade- (A) Accuracy IO
Level 2: Slug- (A) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage
- (5) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance
- (5) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge
- (9) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (27) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (37) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
Level 4: Buckshot- (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
- (7) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range
- (7) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
- (17) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (27) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy)
- (39) Detonation - Damage/Endurance/Range
Level 6: Caltrops- (A) Slow IO
Level 8: Hasten- (A) Recharge Reduction IO
- (11) Recharge Reduction IO
- (39) Recharge Reduction IO
Level 10: Targeting Drone- (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up
- (11) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance
- (13) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Recharge/Endurance
- (39) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance
- (40) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge
- (40) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff
Level 12: Sniper Rifle- (A) Extreme Measures - Accuracy/Damage
- (13) Extreme Measures - Damage/Endurance
- (15) Extreme Measures - Accuracy/Interrupt/Range
- (25) Extreme Measures - Damage/Interrupt/Recharge
- (29) Extreme Measures - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (40) Extreme Measures - Accuracy/Range/Recharge
Level 14: M30 Grenade- (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
- (15) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
- (17) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
- (21) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range
- (29) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (42) Detonation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
Level 16: Smoke Grenade- (A) Dampened Spirits - To Hit Debuff
- (50) Dampened Spirits - To Hit Debuff/Recharge
- (50) Dampened Spirits - Recharge
Level 18: Flamethrower- (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
- (19) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
- (19) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
- (23) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range
- (23) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (42) Detonation - Damage/Endurance/Range
Level 20: Cloaking Device- (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
- (21) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
- (46) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
Level 22: Grant Invisibility- (A) Endurance Reduction IO
Level 24: Recall Friend- (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points)
Level 26: Ignite- (A) Damage Increase IO
- (31) Damage Increase IO
- (31) Damage Increase IO
Level 28: Trip Mine- (A) Obliteration - Damage
- (31) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge
- (34) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge
- (34) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (36) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (43) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage
Level 30: Combat Jumping- (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points)
Level 32: Full Auto- (A) Ragnarok - Damage
- (33) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Recharge
- (33) Ragnarok - Chance for Knockdown
- (33) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (34) Ragnarok - Damage/Recharge
- (42) Ragnarok - Damage/Endurance
Level 35: Time Bomb- (A) Obliteration - Damage
- (43) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge
- (43) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge
- (45) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (45) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (45) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage
Level 38: Invisibility- (A) Defense Buff IO
Level 41: Body Armor- (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%
- (46) Resist Damage IO
- (46) Resist Damage IO
Level 44: Surveillance- (A) Accuracy IO
Level 47: LRM Rocket- (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
- (48) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
- (48) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
- (48) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range
- (50) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
Level 49: Phase Shift- (A) Recharge Reduction IO
------------Level 1: Brawl
- (A) Empty
Level 1: DefianceLevel 1: Sprint
- (A) Empty
Level 2: Rest- (A) Empty
Level 4: Ninja RunLevel 2: Swift
- (A) Empty
Level 2: Health- (A) Healing IO
Level 2: Hurdle- (A) Jumping IO
- (36) Jumping IO
Level 2: Stamina