A Farming Blaster: Is it possible?
Alright, here we go.
Can we make a blaster farmer? Not just one that farms a bit but keeps their day job, but a full-time farmer that give a brute a run for their money. I recently made a brute SS/FA/MU farmer, he is an absolute engine of destruction, but instead of satiating my appetite for destruction, it left me to a yearning to bring high-powered, modern farming to other ATs. So first lets look at what is probably the best/fastest farming method, a lot of well known and common sense stuff that is going to sound redundant here but I want to set the foundation: SS/FA/MU brute farming: FA gives a ton of fire resist for "free" and the brutes resistance cap is equal to tanks(90%), With an AE mission of all fire damage and a little fire def in sets, the brute is all but invulnerable, this allows the brute to build for all damage and recharge with their set and power choices. This is the current build I use for my brute: Code:
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A big deal: All of the brutes attacks have a taunt built into them, this prevents mobs from running away even while standing in burn or at extremely low health. For all of the brutes advantages, this may be one of the most significant. The only way I can see this being overcome is being mimicking brute taunt, and the only way I see to do that is: Provoke. There, I said it! I think there may be a reason to use provoke with a blaster and also that it could form the cornerstone of an efficient farming strategy. But, I am not sure if provoke exactly replications the affects of brute auto-taunt, can somebody confirm this? If so, I will proceed in much greater detail, but there is no point if provoke will not replace brute-voke. |
Oh there is "very efficient" blaster farmers out there already, but they are very efficient only compared to other blasters. Or if you have a truly amazing blaster farmer I would love to hear about it.
What I am talking about is a farming blaster efficient compared to a brute.
Now does anybody know if provoke would have the same mechanics as brute auto-taunt? Ie, will it stop mobs from running out of burn or while low in health?
I wouldn't bother with Provoke, its target cap is 5.
Some good Blaster builds would be Fire/Fire, Fire/MM and Rad/Fire. Arch/MM wouldn't be as good for ambush farming. Instead of fighting against fire enemies, you could find or create a farm where they deal S/L damage. Then you can softcap S/L defense.
[U][URL="http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=251594"][/URL][/U]
Farming is about getting a low cost build that can handle 8 man spawns solo, and be able to run the map as fast as possible to maximize profit versus time.
You can make a Arch/MM or DP/MM maybe even a Rifle/MM that can farm, but I just dont see how you can ever match the speed and efficency of a ss/fire brute.
Your build is a bit more expensive than I would expect, but lets use it as an example. You can with 65 fury and rage, do a footstomp that does ~310 damage, and burn that will finish up the rest of the mob. If you have bosses on they are down to almost 1/2 health and you drag them with you to the next mob where they will die from the footstop/burn combo. With 90% fire resists and healing flames you are never in any danager against demons.
My DP/MM toon that is more expensive than your brute for IOs, can do about the same amount of damage as your stop/burn combo but instead of it being done every 8 seconds I can only do it every 35 seconds and the animation time is longer. During the Hail of Bullets down time I have to use 1 AOE, and 2 cones to do 1/2 the amount of damage. So at 50+1 I can run 0x8 solo as long as bosses are off, AND the mobs do S/L, AND they dont mez, AND they dont debuff def. An Arc/MM will do a bit better because ROA is up every 20 seconds or less, but many of the other things have to be set (no defdebuff, S/L damage, no bosses).
It can be done on a blaster, but the build will always be expensive to get the large recharge and S/L def. And you probably have to have bosses off to prevent faceplants that could happen if their attacks hit you 2 times in a row. The room for error is much smaller than a ss/fire brute.
I dont farm anymore, but I used to farm with my warshade on the demon map. Not as fast as a brute but good enough. My 51 DP/MM just did the Umi arc and was fast and safe but only with bosses off, and at 5x, 8x would not have been a problem. I dont farm anymore because tips and A merits seem to be more simple, with less effort and just as good profit.
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It can be done on a blaster, but the build will always be expensive to get the large recharge and S/L def. And you probably have to have bosses off to prevent faceplants that could happen if their attacks hit you 2 times in a row. The room for error is much smaller than a ss/fire brute. |
This, one of the reasons Brutes, and Scrappers are great farmers is they can deal with bosses at their own pace. There is no way a blaster can go spawn to spawn with bosses in tow.
Arge! I was expecting provoke to have a higher target cap, there doesn't seem to be a good source of information as to what the target cap for particular powers(Mids, I'm looking at you)..
However, I don't think 5 target cap is a nail in the coffin yet. It recharges in under 3 sec with even moderate recharge and casts fast enough to fix in gaps in a AE only attack chain and it lasts for 16 sec.
Stopping runaways is a big deal, beside death, runaways seem to be the biggest problem with farming with a non-tank/brute.
Also, I'm talking about a blaster farming an ambush style AE mission here, not roaming maps. Ambush mob density pushes them far past any other farming style.
The basic idea I have is to find a build that can survive in a ambush farm, probably smash/lethal, but I am looking at smash/energy as well. All my builds assume perma vengeance, so solo farming is out the scope for now.
With good inspiration macros and management, it would not be hard to keep up enough oranges and maybe a purp to cap resist and defense permanently, the use of vengeance allows a build to cap def without having to make nearly as many sacrifices as is normally required.
Ment is an obvious choice for a 2nd with 2 solid Ae's and the most awesome DP, but fire is just so enticing with 2 damage auras and 2 PBAEs. Both fire and ment do a good job helping to manage endurance and ment so far seems like the winner, although if a build could be made to survive without DP, fire's insane damage would take the edge.
As far as primary goes, both arch and DP are obvious candidates at first because of their crashless nukes but this is really only because the convention way for blasters to farm is to play larger non-ambush maps. Crashless nukes do great burst damage, but are less efficient at doing the most amount of damage over time. Now, they still absolutely destroy the super long recharge crash-nukes for damage over time, but they do not completely dominate the discussion, a look at the other powers in a set is warranted.
Fire: While its nuke is useless for ambush farming it still has fireball,fire breath and rain of fire, plus an inherent damage edge with the dots. Rain of fire could be extremely good, but only if provoke could be make to work through the 5 target cap.
Radiation: Has 1 excellent pbae, 1 targeted AE, and one cone, all with decent recharge and the - defenses added to the.
AR: Another set with a crashless nuke, although it is a bit maligned. However this set is something of a AE powerhouse.
Ignite looks to be a monster, although I'm assuming it also has a cap of 5 targets, be we also have flamethrower and buckshot. Buckshot's ability to accept a force feedback proc will make it a true winner.
All my builds would use mu for the AE root to assist in any anti-run capability I can master. Chraged armor is also very good, as def is easy to cap in a farm build using vengeance. but resistances are very hard to come by.
Anyways, feedback is appreciated, even if it is just a "it will never work!". I am still definitely at the drawing board stage here.
The build below will farm a S/L ambush map just fine. You don't have to worry about runners because of the AoE Immob in the PPP.
Depending on your particular playstyle you can substitute Burn for Combustion especially if you slot Cardiac.
I'd make sure that you avoid mezzers in your ambush map as Hot Feet is a power you want to stay toggled on. Defense and resistance debuffers aren't as big a problem as you will kill so fast that you can just continually munch insps and have as many as 10-20 active insps at any one time.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.92
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Level 50 Magic Blaster
Primary Power Set: Radiation Blast
Secondary Power Set: Fire Manipulation
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Medicine
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Neutrino Bolt -- Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(42), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg(43), Dev'n-Dmg/EndRdx(46)
Level 1: Ring of Fire -- HO:Endo(A)
Level 2: X-Ray Beam -- Dev'n-Acc/Dmg(A), Dev'n-Dmg/EndRdx(25), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(27), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(50)
Level 4: Irradiate -- Sciroc-Acc/Dmg(A), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx(5), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(7), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg(7), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(9), Achilles-ResDeb%(9)
Level 6: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 8: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A)
Level 10: Fire Sword Circle -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(11), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg(11), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx(42), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(43), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43)
Level 12: Fire Sword -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(13), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(13), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(15), HO:Nucle(15)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Zephyr-ResKB(A)
Level 16: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(17), RechRdx-I(17)
Level 18: Cosmic Burst -- RzDz-Acc/Rchg(A), RzDz-EndRdx/Stun(19), RzDz-Acc/EndRdx(19), RzDz-Stun/Rng(21), RzDz-Acc/Stun/Rchg(21)
Level 20: Stimulant -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 22: Aid Self -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(A), Dct'dW-Rchg(23), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(23), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(40), Dct'dW-Heal(40)
Level 24: Build Up -- Rec'dRet-ToHit/Rchg(A), Rec'dRet-ToHit(25), RechRdx-I(37)
Level 26: Aim -- Rec'dRet-ToHit/Rchg(A), Rec'dRet-Pcptn(27), RechRdx-I(34)
Level 28: Consume -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(29), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(29), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(31), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31), Oblit-%Dam(31)
Level 30: Boxing -- HO:Nucle(A)
Level 32: Atomic Blast -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(33), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(33), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Oblit-%Dam(34)
Level 35: Burn -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(36), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(36), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37), Oblit-%Dam(37)
Level 38: Hot Feet -- HO:Nucle(A), HO:Nucle(39), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39), HO:Micro(39), HO:Micro(40)
Level 41: Scorpion Shield -- HO:Cyto(A), HO:Cyto(42)
Level 44: Web Envelope -- Enf'dOp-Acc/Rchg(A), Enf'dOp-EndRdx/Immob(45), Enf'dOp-Acc/EndRdx(45), Enf'dOp-Immob/Rng(45), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob/Rchg(46), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob(46)
Level 47: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(48), RctvArm-ResDam(48), RctvArm-EndRdx(48), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(50)
Level 49: Weave -- HO:Cyto(A), HO:Cyto(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Clrty-Stlth(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Defiance
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Mrcl-Rcvry+(3)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), P'Shift-EndMod(3), P'Shift-End%(5)
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-Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein.
-I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo Galilei
-When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. - Thomas Jefferson
Miladys, what Alpha would you recommend to go with that build?
"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
It's pretty end intensive especially if you use Combustion instead of Burn. Cardiac is my choice.
-Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein.
-I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo Galilei
-When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. - Thomas Jefferson
Problem with anything that doesnt have a mass immob with a wide radius or a taunt aura is scatter. Well if you can constrain space thats great but you would still end up with more runners.
Problem with anything that doesnt have a mass immob with a wide radius or a taunt aura is scatter. Well if you can constrain space thats great but you would still end up with more runners.
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This post confuses me, there have been numerous and specific posts in this thread that directly deals with this problem with blaster farming. First blasters get an AE immobilize with redside PPPs, secondly they can pick provoke, which, while far from optimum, can be made to do work.
Moving on, I don't like the Rad/Fire build. It has no self heal, does not have significant defenses and will just die in an ambush farm without some serious purp/orange/green inspiration usage. It would probably be a good build for a more general purpose blaster than can do non-ambush style AE farms, but it will never hold a candle brute farming, which is my aspiration here.
But lets be serious here, if blaster is going to be a truly phenomenal farmer, we have to tip the scales in it's favor by putting into place some very specific conditions that will allow a potential blaster farmer to excel.
First it has to be able to do ambush farms, they are by far the most efficient type.
Secondly, the most reasonable method of gaining enough defense to survive in a ambush farm is by using vengeance, this means I am not only narrowing the scope of this build to farming only, but specifically the type of farming that you have lower level(and dead) characters constantly in tow. This really is the best chance of success.
For instance, take a look at the following build.
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It has amazing defenses:
45 S/L, without popping a single purple, it also has 40+ to all positional.
45.5 Smash resist, 43 lethal resist. Within a few oranges of softcap. My farming brute has absolutely no problem keeping 4 purps up an entire farm run, keeping 3 oranges should not at all be a problem here. DP is going to take care of any endurance and patch healing problems we might have as well.
This means it would be very easy to spend the entire farm at softcap def and max resist with perma DP granting enormous regen/recovery. These are the requirements to survive a ambush farm and this build accomplishes that.
The build also has quite good recharge:
106% before hasten. Enough that hasten only needs one slot to be perma. Even though it looks like it has 3 seconds downtime, the force feedback proc will easy bring it to perma. This is also assuming you at least have the first tier spiritual incarnate slot.
Lastly, this build is an AE powerhouse.
Psychic Shockwave, Hail of Bullets, Bullet Rain, Empty clips, Psychic scream and piercing shot. This build should put out far more damage than the average ss/fa/mu brute.
My real question is which primary will put at the most AE damage over time. It is probably DP, but it might be AR or Fire and at this point I'm doubting rad can keep up. AR looks particularly interesting with full auto, flame thrower, buckshot(it's knockback is actually quite nice because a lvl 54 mob drops the KB value right into a knockdown, and it is a perfect home for a force feedback proc which all my builds have been getting some rather amazing results from lately) and ignite, I just have no actually experience with AR in general.
OK, I am a crappy farmer, so I do not know how much help I can be. I have for sure run missions on big maps with the intent to kill everything and do so quickly, but I have not practiced much at it (I have done it a lot over the years, but never with enough frequency to get patterns down as well as a good farmer).
So I took my Fire/Fire/Flame blaster into an AE mission where I made a bunch of pansy enemies with small models (small models makes sense for farming I think, since you can pack more in tight around you, yes?), but they all still gave 97% xp or higher. I do not know how to make an ambush farm, so I can't say how well I might do in that situation. I was solo and set it to +2/x8 (which means they were +1 and +2 because I have the level shift thingy). I then chewed four purples and started going to town. I basically just kept slamming the F1 through F5 keys in between attacks and moving form spawn to spawn, keeping my inspire tray near empty and my inspires active pretty ridiculous.
I can't see any reason why you should have trouble on a blaster with perm-vengeance, but I also doubt it would be better than a good brute. As good? Likely. Time zoning and chatting is likely to have more affect on your reward gain.
I love Hot Feet and Rain of Fire for mass spawn melting goodness. Combine with a good AoE immob and you should be able to do really well. DP/Mental is very good, but Fire/Fire or Fire/Men would likely be a smidgen better.
Why Blasters? Empathy Sucks.
So, you want to be Mental?
What the hell? Let's buff defenders.
Tactics are for those who do not have a big enough hammer. Wisdom is knowing how big your hammer is.
In ambush farming, the mobs come to you, you are at aggro cap the entire time completely surrounded by mobs, with mobs waiting in line. These are general very small maps with destructible objects that, when broke, trigger an ambush of somewhere around 20-30 mobs, ambush mobs come on the map aggro'ed on you so there is no time wasted moving from group to group.
One reason brute's excel at this type of farming is because they can both survive such conditions while dishing out good damage. As good as brutes damage is, however, it does not eclipse blaster AE damage. The other reason is that they have taunt built into all of their attacks so they never have to deal with running mobs, this is the problem I am trying to address with provoke and AE root.
If the two main challenges for a blaster can be dealt with: Runaways and Survival, then there is no reason they shouldn't be able to give brutes a run for their money, which is what I'm attempting.
In ambush farming, the mobs come to you, you are at aggro cap the entire time completely surrounded by mobs, with mobs waiting in line. These are general very small maps with destructible objects that, when broke, trigger an ambush of somewhere around 20-30 mobs, ambush mobs come on the map aggro'ed on you so there is no time wasted moving from group to group.
One reason brute's excel at this type of farming is because they can both survive such conditions while dishing out good damage. As good as brutes damage is, however, it does not eclipse blaster AE damage. The other reason is that they have taunt built into all of their attacks so they never have to deal with running mobs, this is the problem I am trying to address with provoke and AE root. If the two main challenges for a blaster can be dealt with: Runaways and Survival, then there is no reason they shouldn't be able to give brutes a run for their money, which is what I'm attempting. |
So a Blaster can (by leaning heavily on Inspirations) pretty easily handle non-boss ambush farms. Boss-spawning farms are a little dicier, both because bosses resist immobilize and because they do so much more damage than lieutenants. Your margin for error is non-existent when compared with a Brute's. Miss an Inspiration cycle or a Drain Psyche refresh by even a couple of seconds and you can eat floor.
Dual Pistols might have a little easier time than Fire because DP has a crashless PBAoE nuke up every 30 seconds or so, which is a better damage dealing tool in a farming environment than Rain of Fire. An SS/FA Brute ought to still win handily, though, given that he can better afford to pop reds.
Farming a Blaster sure is more interesting than farming a Brute, though.
Having played around extensively on a Fire/Mental Blaster (even retooling an alternate build specifically for AE ambush farms to PL friends), it ain't gonna work as well as your Brute. Even ignoring scatter, the Brute's higher RES cap is important; with both at the soft-cap for DEF and at their respect AT RES caps, the Blaster still takes 2.5 times as much damage.
Farming a Blaster sure is more interesting than farming a Brute, though. |
This is kind of the biggest fear I have with this build. I guess I'm going to have to get my brute close to 75% fire resist and see how bad it is. But I'm hoping perma DP can offset the difference.
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Doesn't always kill me, but it can get interesting. It's definitely easier to do with teammates + Vengeance, though; lowers your reliance on Inspirations.
Oh, and don't forget World of Confusion. With a Coercive Persuasion proc slotted, it becomes a very nice PBAoE damage mitigation power (provided you don't get stunned, but you should be running non-mez maps anyway). Without the proc, it's kinda crappy. The proc is actually better than the power by a not-insignificant margin. (The proc effect is itself a small AoE, so if you're surrounded by several mobs there's a good chance that it will trigger on more than one of them, which means that each mob around you will be hit with multiple confuses. Yes, it can confuse bosses if you're surrounded by enough stuff.)
I wouldn't recommend you not try the Blaster; at the worst you end up with a fun character for a change of pace (either for farming purposes or elsewhere). I just don't think it's ever going to compete with a Brute in terms of sheer turn-your-brain-off ease of use.
Wouldn't blazing aura work for your taunt if you went /fire?
Why Blasters? Empathy Sucks.
So, you want to be Mental?
What the hell? Let's buff defenders.
Tactics are for those who do not have a big enough hammer. Wisdom is knowing how big your hammer is.
Not only is it possible, but it's quite possibly faster and better than any other farmer I've used or come across. Everything dies before they even know you are there.
My level shifted, Spiritual-slotted, purled Arch/MM destroys 8 man level 53 spawns in basically one shot (minus bosses which take a few more hits). I have Aim, BU and RoA up for every spawn (about 20 seconds or so for all to recharge). The key to survivability? Kill everything before they even know you're there. I run in stealthed, hit aim, bu and roa...cue up psw...roa and psw hit at virtually the same time, anything left standing gets explosive arrow and single target attacks until dead. It's pretty ridiculous.
When I do get hit, i hit my Aid Self (up every 5s or so) and fill up 500+ points of HP.
I usually run a Dreck/Boomtown map full of Battle Maiden Warriors and clean it up quite quickly in AE, and do the BM map for drops. I never slow down, never die and rack up the rewards. I can do S/L ambush maps as well running Tough, Temporary Inv. and Force of Nature (plus a handful of lucks) I can keep churning out the kills and not worry about safety.
The other great part is this 'farm toon' is also great for TFs and other game activities.
Not only is it possible, but it's quite possibly faster and better than any other farmer I've used or come across. Everything dies before they even know you are there.
My level shifted, Spiritual-slotted, purled Arch/MM destroys 8 man level 53 spawns in basically one shot (minus bosses which take a few more hits). I have Aim, BU and RoA up for every spawn (about 20 seconds or so for all to recharge). The key to survivability? Kill everything before they even know you're there. I run in stealthed, hit aim, bu and roa...cue up psw...roa and psw hit at virtually the same time, anything left standing gets explosive arrow and single target attacks until dead. It's pretty ridiculous. When I do get hit, i hit my Aid Self (up every 5s or so) and fill up 500+ points of HP. I usually run a Dreck/Boomtown map full of Battle Maiden Warriors and clean it up quite quickly in AE, and do the BM map for drops. I never slow down, never die and rack up the rewards. I can do S/L ambush maps as well running Tough, Temporary Inv. and Force of Nature (plus a handful of lucks) I can keep churning out the kills and not worry about safety. The other great part is this 'farm toon' is also great for TFs and other game activities. |
Here are some results with my brute:
A ambush firefarm, started recording when I opened the first door, stopping when I hit glowie, you time frame doesn't have the been the same, just make sure it's long enough to average out spikes, a good 5 minutes or so.
54/8 With Bosses:
Tickets:
1500 total
163.46 per minute
9807.71 per hour
Inf:
12,693,288 Total
1,383,246.03/min
82,994,761.59/hour
54/8 Without bosses
Tickets:
1500 total
270.6/min
16,235.96/hour
Inf:
8,086,514.00 total
1,459,803.77/min
87,528,226.22/hour
it is quite possible, on freedom there is a dual pistols blaster thaT farms a +4/x8 S&L farm and puts some farmers to shame with it,how he did it,i have no idea
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Regards, Four-Cee-Three
With liberal usage or purple/orange inspirations (read: I was eating them faster than a kid in a candy store), my Rad/Fire Blaster (built for recovery/recharge) was solo farming a +0/x8 Fire farm with no Incarnate slotted. And I was doing it quite well, thankyouverymuch.
Well this whole question was too general. Ambush and Reg farms? Bosses no Bosses. Blaster will never beat out a Scrapper/brute/tank. I cant really say never but most people cannot build a OP blaster. Also AE??? Well your either going for Influence or Tickets. Ambush farming like the old http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAFI9f3kFEQ farm that was epic with my Soft capped Fire/Kin/Stone controller.
If it is Reg farming like BM map which you are not but for those who came here for suggestion on reg drop farms then i would suggest a DP/Fire or Archery/MM
DP/Fire is Fire Sword Circle -> Burn -> Hail of Bullets
Archery is Rain of Arrows -> Fistful of Arrows -> Psychic Scream or Explosive Arrow
DP/Fire could be epic ambush farm if u build up to Cap S/L
Thorns - Spines/Willpower Scrapper (1366 Badges)
Alright, here we go.
Can we make a blaster farmer? Not just one that farms a bit but keeps their day job, but a full-time farmer that give a brute a run for their money.
I recently made a brute SS/FA/MU farmer, he is an absolute engine of destruction, but instead of satiating my appetite for destruction, it left me to a yearning to bring high-powered, modern farming to other ATs.
So first lets look at what is probably the best/fastest farming method, a lot of well known and common sense stuff that is going to sound redundant here but I want to set the foundation:
SS/FA/MU brute farming:
FA gives a ton of fire resist for "free" and the brutes resistance cap is equal to tanks(90%), With an AE mission of all fire damage and a little fire def in sets, the brute is all but invulnerable, this allows the brute to build for all damage and recharge with their set and power choices.
This is the current build I use for my brute:
You can see it has:
A big deal: All of the brutes attacks have a taunt built into them, this prevents mobs from running away even while standing in burn or at extremely low health. For all of the brutes advantages, this may be one of the most significant. The only way I can see this being overcome is being mimicking brute taunt, and the only way I see to do that is: Provoke.
There, I said it! I think there may be a reason to use provoke with a blaster and also that it could form the cornerstone of an efficient farming strategy.
But, I am not sure if provoke exactly replications the affects of brute auto-taunt, can somebody confirm this?
If so, I will proceed in much greater detail, but there is no point if provoke will not replace brute-voke.