New Main (New Archetype)

I have been in the cities 4 years now. My mains have been exclusively Brutes, and now my main is a Tank. He will be for the next 4-6 months as well. I am planning on a blaster being my main next. Huge change in playstyle I know. I want the challenge though. I figured i could start him now, start working on Day job badges at least lol.

My question is what Primary/Secondary would be best for me. I have always enjoyed Energy/Energy, but hate Knockback about half the time (except when i love it). Have tried Ice/Ice and AR/Traps to 40. Not in love with Ice, and AR was weird but okay, just really didnt feel superpowered. A gun, ya know?

Was thinking mebbe Rad/Nrg, since it is similar to Nrg/Nrg with Debuff as a side instead of KB. Basically I want to just be "The Glass Cannon" For me, this character is gonna be all about the huge damage, building every alpha/incarnate ability to add to that. So i want to start with a foundation from which that can build effectively. Any suggestions are very much appreciated.

For primaries I'd do fire or archery, as those have the most AoE damage combined with great ST damage.

For secondary, you could really do anything, as long as it's not devices. The best are probably fire, EM, or elec.

My fire/EM blaster was my main for many years, until recently when my fire/SS tank took that spot.

I like /ice as a secondary since Shiver rocks and I skip most of it, leaving me room to pick up the concealment pool for LotG7.5 mules.

Fire/ is great. I can't say enough about it. But, if you've played that long, you know what a fire blaster in the right hands can do.

I discourage DP, Energy, and Ice. If you do choose to do DP, make sure you only use the fire ammo. Energy knocks people away, which you might like if you solo. You've tried ice, so have I, and that toon is parked at around level 30. I'll eventually delete her.

For secondaries, I discourage Dev and Energy. I know, Energy gives your build up soonest and has boost range, but who cares. It's full of melee I won't use and the non-melee aren't worth it. If I'm in melee range, it means I've got no end after a nuke and I'll buzzsaw for a while popping blues. Dev...do I really have to point out why?

But, that said, play what you want. I personally think Fire/Ice is the best for fun. I found archery to be too non-hero like and couldn't be bothered to wait for the 32.

The only thing I dig about AR, and it's why I have one at 43 [stalled], is Full Auto. Not the best nuke, but my favorite.

As for Fire, if you run Herostats you'll see something you don't expect. Blaze eclipses all your other powers except Inferno. And, heck, I can only hit inferno a few times in an hour and it'll overshadow my spamming blaze the whole time. You need to get your rech up so you can buzzsaw blaze and blast, ball if you need to. And it's really easy to permahasten if you do the stealth-mule thing and get Spiritual alpha.

Aside: My mains have always been scrappers, but then I did this blaster and love it. My current project is an ice/dark tank which might take pyre unless it looks like I need PP. But, eh, if I needed PP I'd go Cardiac...maybe.

For conceptual reasons was thinking Radiation/Energy. At high levels the build will be recharge heavy, depending on tactics solo, and teamwork in groups for survival. (Plus tons f kill them first). Will the debuff (and debuff boost) be what i am thinking it might? Or should I really just try to make a Fire/Ice concept work?

Rad debuffs defense. As a blaster, you should already not have any problems hitting stuff, so the debuff is mostly useless. Actually, most players out there don't have any problems hitting stuff, so you wouldn't be helping them much either.

Sonic is the one blaster set that does significant debuffs, because it's -res, which always helps.

Rad/fire may be an interesting "melee AoE" build if you're set on rad.

If you want to stay at range, think /ment or /energy. /Ment is the only secondary with an extra cone attack and /energy has boost range.

Except 2 of the best powers in /MM are PBAoEs, namely Drain Psyche and Psychic Wail.

Yes, I can see that Rad is only Def debuff, was hoping it was resists. I absolutely cannot stand sonic for both conceptual and aural reasons. (sorry Sonics). I would go with Energy, even with the Knockback, because I can use that sometimes. But I have decided on Radiation. I can make it work for my concept. It is great the 50% time I want no knockback, and it has an extra AoE. Granted the AoE is Point blank, not great, but still Rad gets that instead of a really dumb super knockback 1 target minor attack NRG has. What is that attack built for? super minions?

I am very particular about costumes, backstorys, and power choices. Unfortunately, I hate most of Blaster primaries for various reasons. Not just blasters really, same problem with every class, I am very picky. For almost any Blaster character I would only consider Energy, Radiation, Electrical, Ice, Fire, or Psychic. This is just for concept reasons, not game mechanics. For this particular character I would only consider Energy, Radiation, or Electric. I do love so many things about pure Energy, but Radiation won it by a nose this time.

Thanks to everyone for suggestions and tips. If anyone has a good bit of advice on leveling/building a Radiation/Energy Blaster, i would be glad for the help. I am starting in Praetoria, mostly for a few extra badges, and in no particular hurry. Once out of Prae, I plan on mostly trying to hit every SF/TF Redside and Blueside as I level. Will Exemp down to get the early ones. I will also be using Ouro to pick up mish badges possibly missed as I level and to fill in Experience between TF/SF. Planning on popping out Redside and immediately going Rogue.

I'd agree with many of the previous posters, fire seems the way to go, given what you've said you want it to do. I also think for secondaries your best choices would be energy and mental. I'd choose mental myself because of the -regen debuff, but you do have to get close to use it.

If you only look at energy, Elec, or rad for your primary, I don't know how I'd vote, it's a tough call. Energy is better damage, but the KB often isn't helpful. Rad is nice, but seems to have very long animation times on several key powers.

Glass cannon with huge damage?

Fire/Fire. All the way. Screw defense, screw debuffs, screw finesse trickery, we've got tons of AoE and tons of single-target huge hitters. Ditch the training wheels and say goodbye to City of Casual Mode.

... It's pretty addicting actually.

Rad/Nrg now at 15, beginning last series of missions for Praetoria. Things are going pretty smooth really. Just slotted my first I/O, a Flight+Stealth level 15. Very happy about that, much easier to get around/ghost missions.

I do want to add some Achilles Heal -Res Procs. I was thinking of putting the first one in my Snipe. My question is: since the Snipe is a weird damage over time hitter, does the proc have a chance of firing on each tic? Can it fire on the first tic, and will that affect the rest of the damage?

I don't get the hate shown in this thread for ice blast. I don't think there is anything wrong with that set but bitter freeze ray is pretty skippable, unless you really want to break boss mag or something.