If you wanted to make a killing machine which blaster powersets would you pick?

I want a blaster that is a killing machine. Which powersets would you recommend for this?

Fire/Fire/Fire for me softcapped to S/L. Everything dies in my presence quickly and horribly. Two damage auras, tons of aoe and PBAOE, great single target. With a troller, you can burn away too or for avs. This is the ultimate damage machine, but also steals aggro from the best tanks,so you should play up some defense in addition to your recharge/damage bonuses, so it's gonna cost ya.

Archery/NRG or Fire/NRG or Fire/mental are all tied for my second choice.

It depends... do you want to be able to mow down large hordes solo or just apply a ton of damage on a team? If you are solo the main consideration isn't damage output, it's survivability... your DPS is zero while you suck floor and Rise of the Phoenix can only be up so often. For soloing I'd recommend a high recharge Archery/Energy or Archery/Mental Blaster; you can open up with Aim or Build Up + Rain of Arrows and wipe out the minions before they ever get to attack. A S/L softcapped Fire/Mental can also do a ton of AoE damage and get very nice regen from Drain Psyche, but you're going to be limited on what you can fight without seriously turning down the difficulty because non-S/L attacks (especially mezzes) are going to be killers in large numbers.

On teams, you hopefully won't have to worry about eating alpha strikes or getting massive aggro so it's all about damage. Nothing does massive damage like Fire, so a Fire/Fire Blaster (or a Fire/Mental if you want slightly less AoE but more mitigation) is a great choice. And as a bonus, Fire also does huge single target damage so you'll still be dishing out a ton of pain on AVs.

For sheer damage in both AOE and single target, there may be things that beat Fire/Elec but I don't care.

If you're a wimp and you want a vestige of survivability, Fire/Ice gives considerably more defensive tools at the loss of a fair bit of single target melee damage.

Fire/Fire/Fire... hands down. But, you'd be joining a large swath of fire/fire/fire blasters with a 7 year jump on you. You'd be like the little brother that never quite made daddy proud.

I'd say Ice/Energy, but I'd be lying. Just to prove a point.

My reason for Fire/Elec (fire/elec/elec, at high enough levels) over Fire/Fire (or fire/fire/*) is this:

The fight isn't over until the last person on one side drops. So what you need is both broad damage [to wipe out lots of minions] and deep damage [to drop lieutenants and bosses.

Fireball/Firebreath, with neither aim nor build up, is already enough to wipe out even-con minions in about four seconds. [You can add the cone from the Electric epic in the late game; however, it was often my experience that I spent a lot of time hitting "tab" trying to find a target for that third AOE.] You can kick that up to +1 or +2 with one or both of the damage boost powers. So Fire Blast has pretty much all the AOE you need. The Fire secondary has a lot of AOE but most of it is to start damaging, slower to finish damaging, and puts you in melee range with little mitigation.

The Elec secondary has a lot of fast, hard-hitting single-target damage. [So does Energy; my preference for Elec is mostly that the animations are prettier. ] So when you've wiped out the minions and you have some half-dead lieutenants and a fairly healthy boss or two, you need to drop those individuals before they drop you. You can run in and throw two roughly-Blaze-level attacks [Charged Brawl/Havoc Punch] and be running back out of melee range in about two and a half seconds. I don't remember the exact timing, but I think a Fire/Elec can drop a single +2 boss in something like twelve seconds, if they're not particularly resistant to those damage types.

Most of the folks here are saying Fire/Fire/Fire and build for S/L defense but I have to say that my Rad/Fire/Mace out does my Fire/Fire/Fire by a fair amount. I would recommend that instead.

For out and out damage I would have to say Fire/Fire as well.
But for if you sacrifice a little bit of that damage and go with /Ice instead you'll get a ton more mitigation! Late game nothing can touch you as you melt everything in sight!

Fire Blast is the best for straight up killing things. However, with my play style which is large teams only(with the occasional solo tips), I find Sonic Blast often has a slight edge due to the -res component. This is particularly the case in those pesky long AV battles.

/Mental is superior to /Fire IMO, because /Mental's AoE heavy hitters usually hit more enemies, and you get access to Drain Psyche. Keep in mind this is also dependent on play style.

For me, being a Blaster means being away from the mob I wanna kill. Go with Fire/Fire if you want. But if you wanna have fun AND kill large amounts quick, Arch/NRG hands down. With the Cardiac boost range incarnate and boost range in NRG, my snipe hits (with sweet dam) from almost a freaking football field away! It is too fun.

And remember, anybody who tells you one shotting an opponent is overrated, CAN'T one shot an opponent.

My Fire/Fire/Fire does absurd damage to everything ever always, but isn't nearly as bad-*** about it as my AR/Energy/Munitions.

Have not played fire but I recently completed the build on my newest toon, an Archery/Energy/Cold. Perma-haste and soft capped S/L. 65' Stealth w/Super Speed + Celerity Stealth (see cone length below.) Cold lets me soft-cap with minimal slots. I think he beats my Rad/MM/Cold.

Just 1 purple set, Ragnarok in Rain of Arrows, Fistful of Arrows has the Positron 5 slotted with the range booster and with a lvl 50 Range IO in the 6th slot so you get a 70.65' Cone (with Boost Range [also perma] and a 100' cone it is Huge - if centered it seems to match the area of RoA) then Explosive Arrow to finish.

At present with a Tier 3 - 45% Spiritual the build can start an Aim + Build Up + RoA-FF-EA chain every 26 sec (Aim and BU are the limiters RoA is up in 16 sec.) This 1291 points of damage/mob ALL arrives in about 3 seconds. If more than 1 target is left, well FF recharges in 2.4 and EA in 4.52 so you can follow up with 2 more AOE almost at once. In game I am finding I usually just have to put a Blazing Arrow or two into the Boss and move on.

I think the non-crashing nuke has to offset most of the problems with mob S/L damage resistance, and I am extremely happy with this guy.

Jak

If you're rich, Fire/Mental/*. Can't really beat having a semi-crashless Inferno up every other mob (or every mob...). (By semi-crashless, I mean, Drain Psyche can more than negate the -Recovery from Inferno.)

If you're *less* rich... Rad/Fire/Pyre. Seriously. Aim>Build Up>Atomic Blast>pop a blue>Consume on the NEXT mob, because more than likely, nothing will be left unless you were over the target cap. When Atomic Blast is down... Aim (or Build Up)>Irradiate>Fire Sword Circle>Burn>Neutron Bomb>(assuming anything is left at this point...)Combustion>Bonfire.

Or, just roll a Shield/Dark/Pyre Tank, invest 2B in IO's, and call it a day. >.>