/Mental is an excellent choice. Drain Psyche and Psy Shockwave work well with HoB and Bullet Rain. I'd avoid one or both cones, if you want to play mostly in melee.
/Fire is an excellent choice. The PBAoEs are a perfect match. Hot Feet is remarkable. Fire Sword Circle is a fabulous early AoE powerhouse and is complimented nicely by Bullet Rain. I'd definitely avoid the cone for this one.
/Elec is a good choice. The melee attacks are potent and Thunderstrike is a decent PBAoE. Lightning Field is OK for some extra damage (but skippable if you do not prefer it). Power Sink is fabulous and Shocking Grasp does good damage and it can help stack holds on a boss (with Suppressive Fire). This would also be the most similar to /Energy.
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.
you might have fun with devices if you're doing a theme build. It's not amazing but i find caltrops and cloaking device really round out all the massive AOE nicely.
If you like fighting at range then /Mental can be handy for the additional cone (and a nice PBAoE to combine with Hail of Bullets). /Ice might also be interesting if you want a more defensive build... DP has little mitigation unless you use standard ammo so the slows and KD could help. And if you want to get up close and personal /Electric has some very good melee damage... you could open fire with your Pistols AoEs then close in and start punching. /Energy can do the same with the added bonus that you can make it the dimmest color you can find and almost have an actual guns/martial arts gun-fu character.
I'd avoid /Fire, simply because /Mental has AoEs too and requires spending less time in melee range. I'd also avoid /Devices simply because it has no Build Up... you already lose Aim so even though Pistols/Devices is thematic it's also one of the lowest damage Blasters you can build. If you're going the "natural" route a Pistols/Traps Corruptor or Traps/Pistols Defender is probably a better option unless you're really patient and just like blowing things up with mines.
Cascade, level 50 Blaster (NRG/NRG since before it was cool)
Mechmeister, level 50 Bots / Traps MM
FAR too many non-50 alts to name
[u]Arcs[u]
The Scavenger Hunt: 187076
The Instant Lair Delivery Service: 206636
So I tried out a DP/Fire Blaster and It's great! Do you guys have any tips on what powers to skip, and maybe what powers would have the most benefit if six slotted??
So my first CoH character was a energy/energy blaster that i fell in love with. I've been wanting to try out dual pistols but i want to try out a different secondary power.
What other power sets would be good for a pistol blaster that gives a fairly decent amount of close range power balanced with long range that would function like an /energy build.
I've recently discovered that HoB is also a crash-less nuke, so what close range power sets would you guys recommend to compliment this? I love being at close range with a blaster, it provides the challenge that I'm looking for...