Blaster slotting in general

What is the consensus for slotting a level 50 blaster with IO sets? Do most go for defense or recharge or damage or something else?

I think most slot for defense (either S/L or ranged) and recharge. Slotting for damage is a waste. It would be like peeing into the ocean to increase its water level, considering how much a blaster can already boost his damage.

What are the best IO sets for a blaster? I slotted my nuke & such with standard multi-strike and like air-burst and detonation, like full sets. and for my dmg resist powers I just slotted standard Training Invention resist damage.

Depends on what bonuses you're looking for. Generally, lower level IO sets don't need as many slots and don't give great set bonuses, so you should generally frankenslot your powers. When you hit higher levels, single-target sets like Decimation and Thunderstrike and Devastation and Apocalypse are preferred. Entropic Chaos deserves special mention 'cause it gives a recharge bonus and has a fun lil' proc with the chance for self heal but you can get it starting at level 20.

I just want to clarify that we're talking about shooting for bonuses. We'll all max our acc/damage/rech of each attack as best we can.

When I was a poor droog, I did the entropics. They're cheap and they give you that 6.25% global rech. Decimation is much better. As for the heal proc in Entropic, it's pathetic. Search the forum, there's some stats on it. Plus, that limits your good enhancements to four.

For AoE, Positron. Period. Gets you what you need and more 6.25%.

A hold is worth taking if it's a loose build to get the 7.5% rech off a Basilisk. In fact, if the hold power is lame and you're just taking it for the bonus, you can fill that with basilisks in the teens and you've still got your 7.5%.

For snipe, Manticore has a 7.5% global rech also.

Defense sets, you might go out of your way, if you're spending some serious cash, into getting five powers that take them so you can put LotG +7.5 in them. CJ, Hover, Maneuvers, Weave...or, to cheese out badly, the first three powers in Concealment.

(I'm about to do a second build on a blaster of mine where she does that for the LorG 7.5% globals, and then takes FF as her epic. I can run SS, Stealth, and PFF and be invisible and untouchable.)

Something like a 3% damage bonus is good and all, if it's along your way to something better, but if you want some extra damage after you've hit the limit with your enhancements. Ah..I can't remember the name...Tactics? From Leadership, gives you and your team around you a +10% on damage.

For me, blaster bonuses should be recharge [edit: and accuracy, as some powers can't be slotted for it.] My main blaster has Hasten down for only six seconds, and with the recovery uniques in health and the Performance Shifter proc in Stamina, she gets by.

Her main form of mitigation is being on teams and knowing when not to throw out an AoE that would aggro the world onto her.

I suggest playing with Mids for a long time. Make five or so versions of your toon, get and save builds people have posted here, hybridize where it makes sense. Then, my most significant step, realize you can't afford half of what you want.

My personal slotting:

Single target blasts: 6 Thunderstrike. Regardless of what you are building for, accuracy and Ranged defense is always good and Thunderstrike gives lots of it, plus lots of Energy defense for those using Scorpion Shield. It also has excellent enhancement values. Since there's no option to get S/L defense in single target blasts the only other option I'd consider would be Decimation, but only on a build that needs extreme recharge like a perma-Drain Psyche build. Normally you can get plenty of recharge elsewhere and the ranged defense is just too handy.

Targeted AoEs: 5 Positron's Blast and maybe a recharge IO. It's the only good non-purple set really, and in fact upgrading to Ragnarok gives essentially the same bonuses, just marginally stronger. The only reason I'd consider purpling a targeted AoE is for the much higher enhancement values (including recharge, which Positron's lacks) and ability to exemp without losing bonuses... the actual set bonuses aren't enough better than Positron's to spend the inf.

PBAoEs: Obliteration for S/L defense or recharge builds, Eradication for ranged defense builds.

In general I find defense of some sort to be the best option. You really don't need a ton of recharge as a Blaster... 50-60% or so lets you use a good attack chain and the marginal benefit from more recharge isn't worth the loss of defense on most builds. There are exceptions though... it can be worth going for max recharge on team builds to get as much AoE as possible or on builds with crashless nukes or Drain Psyche to use them as much as possible. If you're going that route slotting is pretty easy: as many purple sets as you can afford, then go for recharge everywhere you can.

It depends on the Blaster, I guess.

My Blaster is Fire/EM, and I built her under the assumption that I didn't want to spend too much, and that I would team with her as much as possible.

When I was designing her IO build, I focused on getting the powers I wanted and giving them decent enhancement values before worrying about bonuses. I built for moderate defense and recharge values, too, but I made up my mind not to make any sacrifices on the base values just to squeeze in more recharge or ranged defense. The amount of recharge I gave her is enough to be significant - around 60% or so. She's also got over 20% defense to Ranged, which isn't a lot to write home about by itself, but it becomes incredibly useful on teams, where there are likely to be ally defense buffs or friends to take the aggro.

I used many uncommon sets to accomplish this goal - 6 Thunderstrikes in my three ST blasts, 5 Crushing Impacts in my melee attacks for the recharge, accuracy, and HP. I used five slots of Positron's Blast (all but the proc) in my targeted AoEs for the recharge and accuracy, and I used the sixth slot to round out the enhancement values because that set has terrible recharge values. I used 3-4 Eradications in my PBAoEs - two sets, because I slotted Rise of the Phoenix like an attack. I used the Steadfast unique in my resistance shield.

I used the Cardiac alpha boost, because it gives me essentially limitless endurance (even after I specced into Leadership) and also a nice boost to the range of all my powers. The fact that I'm Energy Manipulation means that I can stack Boost Range with this for absurd reach on my attacks, and this is especially orgasmic with Fire Breath.

Results were quite excellent. The character is dangerous and pretty survivable for a Blaster, and the build didn't break the bank. If I need to build a Blaster again in the future, I'd definitely stick to the same principles - go for broad, moderate bonuses to recharge, ranged defense, and HP, don't sacrifice too much for any one aspect of the build and don't bother with procs.

If I were building a solo-focused build, I might have done things a little differently, though.

I have an energy/energy blaster that i've been toying around with in Mid's. I went with the idea of "Frankenslotting" it with multiple I.O. sets and focused on Dmg, End and accuracy. I didn't play much with recharge (excluding my nuke.) Here's the build:

I didn't really focus on IO bonuses like recharge, and such. I just focused on my regen and dmg resist.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.92
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Speedy Wu: Level 50 Mutation Blaster
Primary Power Set: Energy Blast
Secondary Power Set: Energy Manipulation
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Munitions Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Power Blast -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(7), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(7), Ruin-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(9), Ruin-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(9), KinCrsh-Rechg/EndRdx(23)
Level 1: Power Thrust -- KBDist-I(A)
Level 2: Power Bolt -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(36), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(37), Ruin-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(40), Ruin-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(46), KinCrsh-Rechg/EndRdx(46)
Level 4: Energy Punch -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(43), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(43), Rope-Acc/EndRdx(45), Rope-Acc/Rchg(46), Rope-EndRdx/Stun(48)
Level 6: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 8: Power Burst -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(25), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(25), Ruin-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(31), Ruin-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(31), KinCrsh-Rechg/EndRdx(34)
Level 10: Bone Smasher -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(11), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(11), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13), F'dSmite-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(13), Rope-Acc/Rchg(23)
Level 12: Energy Torrent -- Det'tn-Acc/Dmg(A), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx(42), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(42), KinCrsh-Acc/Dmg/KB(43), KinCrsh-Acc/KB(45)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Winter-RunSpd/Jump/Fly/Rng(A), Winter-RunSpd/Jump/Fly/Rng/EndRdx(15), Winter-ResSlow(15)
Level 16: Sniper Blast -- ExtrmM-Acc/Dmg(A), ExtrmM-Acc/Rng/Rchg(17), ExtrmM-Acc/ActRdx/Rng(17), ExpltW-Acc/Dmg(19), ExpltW-Dmg/Rng(21), IntRdx-I(21)
Level 18: Build Up -- AdjTgt-ToHit(A), AdjTgt-ToHit/Rchg(19)
Level 20: Aim -- ToHit-I(A)
Level 22: Air Superiority -- Acc-I(A)
Level 24: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(37)
Level 26: Explosive Blast -- Det'tn-Acc/Dmg(A), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx(27), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(27), KinCrsh-Rechg/EndRdx(29), KinCrsh-Acc/KB(29), KinCrsh-Acc/Dmg/KB(31)
Level 28: Power Push -- FrcFbk-Dmg/KB(A), FrcFbk-Acc/KB(37)
Level 30: Kick -- KBDist-I(A)
Level 32: Nova -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg(A), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg(33), C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg(33), C'ngBlow-Acc/Rchg(33), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(34), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(34)
Level 35: Tough -- Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(A), Aegis-ResDam(36), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(36)
Level 38: Total Focus -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(39), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39), Rope-Acc/Rchg(39), Rope-EndRdx/Stun(40), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(40)
Level 41: Body Armor -- ResDam-I(A), ResDam-I(42)
Level 44: Surveillance -- AnWeak-DefDeb(A), AnWeak-Acc/DefDeb(45)
Level 47: LRM Rocket -- Det'tn-Acc/Dmg(A), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx(48), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(48), KinCrsh-Dmg/EndRdx/KB(50), KinCrsh-Acc/KB(50), KinCrsh-Rechg/EndRdx(50)
Level 49: Fly -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 0: The Atlas Medallion
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Dmg-I(A)
Level 1: Defiance
Level 1: Sprint -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 2: Rest -- IntRdx-I(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(3), Heal-I(5)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(3), EndMod-I(5)

Any advice on where I should go?