Well, the obvious reason as to why Defense is prefferred to pure DMG, is that Defense is much easier to play and you don't have to watch your health all the time. That's the main attraction.
A pure DMG build sounds interesting though. I might have a go at some stage 
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Because I am not usually patient enough to wait for others to go in first. Because I like to use melee attacks. Because I take on more enemies than I should, just to see if I can.|
Originally Posted by Blue_Centurion
The general point of the post of course is why spend all the effort/money/limited enhancer bonuses to get any defense when just getting more damage bonuses and smarter killing strategy seems to work like a charm?
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Pure damage/recharge builds are fine, I have one blaster like that (and I build lots of scrappers where I focus almost entirely on damage/recharge and just use the base armors for safety). That being said, I find it more entertaining to have some mitigation for my general playstyle. That isn't to say I do not appreciate and use aggro managers when I team with them, but I also often make choices that likely make it difficult for them to help me as much as they may prefer.
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.
I've never cared at all to sacrifice anything for defense
Then again, I'm fire/fire/fire and Rise of the Pheonix recharges very quickly for me. If I do die, I have a brief window of invulnerability, plus it will be back up very quickly.
As Blue says, in a team defense hardly matters anyway.
My Blaster(Sonic/MM) is pure damage and it's awesome. I have tricks up my sleeve to deal with stray minions, LT's, and bosses, so I don't have too many issues.
For example, if a minion gets close to me he gets confused by World of Confusion.
If an LT gets close I can use Screech to stun him.
If a boss gets close I can use TK Thrust to knock him way back.
Mains (Freedom) @Auroxis
Auroxis - Emp/Rad/Power Defender Pylon Video Soloing an AV
Pelvic Thunder - SS/Elec/Mu Brute
Sorajin - Elec/Nin Stalker
Neuropain - Sonic/Mental/Elec Blaster
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Every control power one uses means one is not pressing a real damage power. One may have made a build choice to have a lot of defense on some characters or good resistance/regen, but then one doesn't need to spend as much animation time on Screech or TK Thrust or Char.|
Originally Posted by Auroxis
My Blaster(Sonic/MM) is pure damage and it's awesome. I have tricks up my sleeve to deal with stray minions, LT's, and bosses, so I don't have too many issues.
For example, if a minion gets close to me he gets confused by World of Confusion. If an LT gets close I can use Screech to stun him. If a boss gets close I can use TK Thrust to knock him way back. |
I am not saying blasters should forgo their control tools, as they are a valuable part of the blaster arsenal. But one cannot claim to be pure damage and then discuss low or no damage control tools.
There are many ways to play. A ranger may need less mitigation thanks to that range, but in many cases they will be sacrificing great melee damage in order to do so. You can wait for others on the team to instigate fights, but you may be sacrificing speed through missions (or you could be gaining speed, depending on the team). You can use controls to mitigate damage, but you will be sacrificing damage output (blaster aren't tankers, after all, if you wanted to control stuff with high damage powers what makes you think blaster?). You can use defense/resistance powers and IOs to gain mitigation, but you may be sacrificing recharge or damage bonuses.
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.
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Originally Posted by Blue_Centurion
The general point of the post of course is why spend all the effort/money/limited enhancer bonuses to get any defense when just getting more damage bonuses and smarter killing strategy seems to work like a charm?
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Your like a charm may very well be other people's exceptionally poor.
Edit: Just as a data point, above this is a post that refers to one of the most control heavy/debuff heavy combos as pure damage.
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If you took your build through a mission, then made a second build with high defense, I think you would see the high def build killing faster overall because you wouldnt need to stop/run away as much.|
Originally Posted by Blue_Centurion
The general point of the post of course is why spend all the effort/money/limited enhancer bonuses to get any defense when just getting more damage bonuses and smarter killing strategy seems to work like a charm?
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My blasters do way more damage than my scrappers, but I can solo missions way faster on my scraps because they fit my playstyle better. That is really what matters, playing the characters that you like in a way that is fun to you.
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Originally Posted by Blue_Centurion
Any comments that could improve my strategy is appreciated. I am very new to blasting. The general point of the post of course is why spend all the effort/money/limited enhancer bonuses to get any defense when just getting more damage bonuses and smarter killing strategy seems to work like a charm?
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- There's a limit to how much practical performance gain you can wring out of "smarter killing strategy" as opposed to numerical defensive superiority. This game does reward higher levels of skill, particularly for Blasters, but it's still overwhelmingly a numbers' game. A great player with a terrible build will tend to be no more effective in a generic combat situation than a terrible player with a great build.
- Your question makes superficial sense, but only if we take it as given that offensive bonuses don't cost resources, or don't cost as many resources, as defensive bonuses. Generally, high-order offensive builds are, if anything, more expensive than high-order defensive builds. At worst it's a tie, with the defensive build getting more proportional benefit out of stacked IO bonuses than the offensive build (it's hard to compete with ~90% damage mitigation to a favored position/type).
- Defensive builds can generally incorporate the bulk of the practical offensive bonuses available to any build. By that I mean that it's possible to have soft-capped DEF to a given position/type and still have high amounts of global recharge and incidental amounts of global damage (say ~10% or so). An offensive build can achieve noticeably higher damage output by selling out for global recharge/damage, but not by a margin to match the defensive build's significantly higher survivability.
- As Fan points out, at the end of the day performance standards are subjective. And as Strato points out (very eloquently) there's more to determining practical offensive output than simply measuring your on-paper DPS. DEF can actually give you higher situational damage output if it allows you more fully to concentrate on dealing damage.
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Originally Posted by Iggy_Kamakaze
Nice build
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Damage mitigation operates in layers. In general I class the layers as follows (in order in which they take effect):|
Originally Posted by Blue_Centurion
Any comments that could improve my strategy is appreciated. I am very new to blasting. The general point of the post of course is why spend all the effort/money/limited enhancer bonuses to get any defense when just getting more damage bonuses and smarter killing strategy seems to work like a charm?
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1. Stop the attack from happening (controls, defeating the foe, slows)
2. Stop the attack from hitting (defense buffs, to hit debuffs)
3. Reduce the damage from the attack (resistance buffs, damage debuffs)
4. Undo the effects of the attack (healing, regen)
Now for the most part it is impossible to stop all incoming damage with a single form of damage mitigation so you are left stacking different forms (baring the edge cases of successfully mezzing an entire spawn or killing them all with a single shot which rarely come up in practice). In general having some mitigation in each layer is more effective than having a lot of mitigation in a single layer.
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| If not I use stealth, pulling, inspirations, panic button phase shift to change the rules on them until I win. |
As for inspirations when I run my Blaster I convert the majority of my inspirations to reds. I have enough baked in survivability that I don't need to worry to much about defensive inspiration usage and con concentrate all of my inspirations on offense. When I solo I generally have 2 or 3 red inspirations running at any one time.
There is nothing wrong with a heavily offensive Blaster if that suits you but I think you'll have a hard time pushing the difficulty envelope as high as you would with a more balanced blaster.
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Originally Posted by Obitus
[LIST][*] Defensive builds can generally incorporate the bulk of the practical offensive bonuses available to any build. By that I mean that it's possible to have soft-capped DEF to a given position/type and still have high amounts of global recharge and incidental amounts of global damage (say ~10% or so). An offensive build can achieve noticeably higher damage output by selling out for global recharge/damage, but not by a margin to match the defensive build's significantly higher survivability.
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Quote:
You missed the stealth part I referred to in the OP. I run the full Concealment pool, including the panic button Phase shift, and I have +stealth I/O in flight. Not redundant since it gives partial stealth at full flight speed, and still allows attacking where invisibility does not.|
Originally Posted by Mr_Kingkillaha
If you took your build through a mission, then made a second build with high defense, I think you would see the high def build killing faster overall because you wouldnt need to stop/run away as much.
My blasters do way more damage than my scrappers, but I can solo missions way faster on my scraps because they fit my playstyle better. That is really what matters, playing the characters that you like in a way that is fun to you. |
I fly straight to the glowies and/or bosses in missions. You may be faster at killing your way all the way thru a mission, if you seriously want to solo farm the entire thing. That ain't my bag. I really just want to figure out the minimum I have to do, and hit that bad boy with a giant radiation mallet. For a boss fight at the end, a sup'd up EB posing as an AV? Take a bunch of purps to softcap, some reds, a yellow for good measure, have a breakfree on hand just in case. Uncloak and say Hi! If it is starting to looks bad? Hit the nuke, pop a sm blue, phase shift, and go recharge/rethink. Good chance you left the EB with no support at least, next round should go better.
then go back to AE or w/e, restock, head to next mish. That is solo, of course.
In groups, I let the leaders lead. then I make everything in the mobs feel that little tickle that says radiation is melting the meat from their bones. Good times.
P.S. Well written Obitus. You make good sense. As you said, no wrong way. It is a strategy that I am espousing, and a build that matches the strategy. I have 2 (working) strategies, one solo and one for groups. I have worst case scenarios for both, where I might lose some effectiveness, but am still working towards the goal. But the worst case is definitely not usual, it is rare. In general, I simply, beautifully, Blast! I stand (or hover) and deal a tremendous amount of pain. I do question your statement that chasing Def does not take away from damage dealing. I am new to blasting, but from what I have read on the boards a high Def blaster build eats tons of build resources. Maybe I'm wrong, but it makes senses. After building one as a tank with a headstart it makes sense. I would like to see a softcap Def blaster and see how it compares for damage to this guy. I know with my softcap tank it took a lot of build power to get where I was going, and the build lost major damage, recharge, etc.
Adeon: I couldnt get anyone to comment on my build, but the global +damage bonuses in it are really just the ones that happened to be the lowest hanging fruit. I chose to build purple heavy. Damage at (or very near) ED, then for recharge (again, the easiest only), and using the remainder of the build for Procs and such. It is an odd thing, but if nothing else it puts damage downrange.
To me this type of building characterizes the quote from Paragon Wiki "His best defense is a great offense!" Of course, my secondary mitigation is really more the years I spent on Brutes, and knowing when to start looking for panic buttons/exits/etc. My primary mitigation is of course do not get hit. the Orange Bot is a predator, always looking for the next easy meal. Built for burst damage. Planning those bursts is the fun part for me. I choose to build this way because of all the time I spent on Brutes/Tanks. I really do not want to chase that playstyle in the least, but want to see how far I can push the Blaster archetype in the direction it was going already.
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Perhaps saying "pure" damage was a bad choice of words, but I'm still damage specced. In the rare cases where I need mitigation, I have it. In most other cases where I don't need mitigation, I have a whole lot of damage bonuses.|
Originally Posted by StratoNexus
Every control power one uses means one is not pressing a real damage power. One may have made a build choice to have a lot of defense on some characters or good resistance/regen, but then one doesn't need to spend as much animation time on Screech or TK Thrust or Char.
I am not saying blasters should forgo their control tools, as they are a valuable part of the blaster arsenal. But one cannot claim to be pure damage and then discuss low or no damage control tools. There are many ways to play. A ranger may need less mitigation thanks to that range, but in many cases they will be sacrificing great melee damage in order to do so. You can wait for others on the team to instigate fights, but you may be sacrificing speed through missions (or you could be gaining speed, depending on the team). You can use controls to mitigate damage, but you will be sacrificing damage output (blaster aren't tankers, after all, if you wanted to control stuff with high damage powers what makes you think blaster?). You can use defense/resistance powers and IOs to gain mitigation, but you may be sacrificing recharge or damage bonuses. |
Aside from control powers, I have capped HP, a resistance shield, Acrobatics, Drain Psyche, and inspirations.
Mains (Freedom) @Auroxis
Auroxis - Emp/Rad/Power Defender Pylon Video Soloing an AV
Pelvic Thunder - SS/Elec/Mu Brute
Sorajin - Elec/Nin Stalker
Neuropain - Sonic/Mental/Elec Blaster
Quote:
Just to note, you have some builds which don't see a huge sacrifice in Damage/Recharge for the defense. It's also arguable as to whether or not focused dmg/rech builds outperform the latter, especially when taking into account the player piloting a given build (I find this to be the greater factor, really).|
Originally Posted by Blue_Centurion
Any comments that could improve my strategy is appreciated. I am very new to blasting. The general point of the post of course is why spend all the effort/money/limited enhancer bonuses to get any defense when just getting more damage bonuses and smarter killing strategy seems to work like a charm?
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My main blaster is more oriented towards dmg/rech, and methods exist to boost survival when you aren't relying on direct defense, but it's made even easier when I can effectively avoid being the first to die on the team. As they say, you don't have to outrun the bear, you just have to outrun the next guy-- in this context, it means generous use of PB'd veng if I'm on an inefficient team. If the team is more than capable of holding it's own, there are typically fewer problems.
Variety is a good thing. Play what most suits your play style, but remain open to other styles which work.
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| But one cannot claim to be pure damage and then discuss low or no damage control tools. |
My fire/em makes ample use of power thrust on bosses, which specifically opens up a full damage chain before they can return to their feet. There are other mitigation methods, but it's arguably helping damage output, and not so much disrupting it, given the quick animation time and ability to queue an attack to fire from the same rooted position.
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A couple of point here. First off if you are stealthing mission then the rate at which you kill the boss is virtually irrelevant. You probably spend more time zoning in and running between missions than actually fighting the boss anyway. Killing him safely is a lot more useful since it saves the extra time from a hospital run.|
Originally Posted by Blue_Centurion
You missed the stealth part I referred to in the OP. I run the full Concealment pool, including the panic button Phase shift, and I have +stealth I/O in flight. Not redundant since it gives partial stealth at full flight speed, and still allows attacking where invisibility does not.
I fly straight to the glowies and/or bosses in missions. You may be faster at killing your way all the way thru a mission, if you seriously want to solo farm the entire thing. That ain't my bag. I really just want to figure out the minimum I have to do, and hit that bad boy with a giant radiation mallet. |
Secondly if your goal is rewards/time solo stealthing missions isn't always the best options. It's useful if you are farming tip missions on a bunch of characters but that's about it.
Thirdly full stealth isn't needed to stealth a mission. If you run on +0/x1 (which you should be if your goal is to complete missions as fast as possible) you can generally just run past all of the enemies without any stealth even on a blaster (it's worth carrying a BF or two just in case).
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Can you post a build like what you are talking about? May not be for me, I am very character concept driven. Still I would like to see what a Top notch defense build that scratches at ED cap on its attacks and has significant recharge looks like.|
Originally Posted by Krouget1
Just to note, you have some builds which don't see a huge sacrifice in Damage/Recharge for the defense. It's also arguable as to whether or not focused dmg/rech builds outperform the latter, especially when taking into account the player piloting a given build (I find this to be the greater factor, really).
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P.S., b4 we go off into tangents. This particular character is a PVE badger. The build is a "boutique" build that is just pushing the limits for the heck of it.
Now, the Strategy is what I am really asking about here. (I play chess a lot, and strategy is very fun for me) So, the merits of just building for damage/recharge are fascinating. Can you actually use offense as a defense? I have only been blasting a while, but it seems you might be able to.
A response in reverse order.
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You can use offense as a defense, but as before, there's a fairly low practical ceiling on how well you can mitigate damage through sheer killing power. On a Blaster, the vast bulk of your ability to leverage your offense as defense comes just from being a Blaster.|
Originally Posted by Blue_Centurion
Now, the Strategy is what I am really asking about here. (I play chess a lot, and strategy is very fun for me) So, the merits of just building for damage/recharge are fascinating. Can you actually use offense as a defense? I have only been blasting a while, but it seems you might be able to.
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The average Blaster is, perhaps perversely, somewhat less well-suited to derive offensive benefit from IOs than other ATs, both because Blasters deliver more damage to begin with (and thus, static damage boosts like procs give them less proportional benefit), and because Blasters have access to high-order damage boosts as a matter of course (Defiance, Build Up, Aim -- which again diminish the net benefit of straight global +damage).
In other words, and I think most of the respondents in this thread have skirted this issue, the amount of offensive benefit you can wring from IOs is generally much less significant than the benefit you can wring from defensive IO bonuses. There are exceptional cases: Archery, for instance, is unusually well-suited to deliver a devastating alpha strike; if you can get Rain of Arrows and Aim/BU to recharge fast enough that they're available for every spawn, then you will be indirectly increasing your survivability as well as your offense. But even then you have to consider that opponent sturdiness scales up rather dramatically; even the best AoE Blaster is going to have a hard time dropping two or more bosses clumped together before they can direct several attacks your way.
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| Can you post a build like what you are talking about? May not be for me, I am very character concept driven. Still I would like to see what a Top notch defense build that scratches at ED cap on its attacks and has significant recharge looks like. |
It's hideously expensive, but then it's just an example. 45% Ranged DEF, 90% global recharge (before Hasten), +20% global damage. Depending on how much you plan to rely on Drain Psyche, you could run with any number of Incarnate options with this one.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.94
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Code:
| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1422;670;1340;HEX;| |78DA6593DB4E13511486F74CA794B61468A10222420F5828EDD00A4A3C45E594686| |882805E8975844999A4B4935222DCF90A5EA8F1C2E3957AEDE9418C1AF5093CBF41| |5DB3FE5D6C3293767FBBFF5AEBDF7BAFCE2EECCD770871E7BC504273656367A7384| |B63DDAC790B46C9DA685B33B76DB3E613420CC84071C5A894CC4D7DD1AA99484E34| |23ABBBB65DADD5F58259A91BE562C1A858F66ED9A85BD54AF85265CBAC91AE37278| |1E56AB5ACAFDAA6B919E4E962D92A6DD543983B53AB52EAE25F4BA6B169D676B62C| |3BB2605B1B94696C9B64EF2CBADF4F7B1BA7EF05D17C1A5EF1889017EA6386F6047| |8CA687B063C67DC75576550954555165559544DA2EA228D8AAC5250D58EAA765475| |A0AA13559DA89AA5D1832ACD33A53A52F734708271E824A37F8611A7AE7B799586E| |A9D60877E600498A7D127FD7CAF598ABD01DE02EF1889F70C3FE5FAE1A7F9A38A23| |05BEF04A81AF8C8E04E7E567089A47CC1182D23E08FB04EC13B04FC23E09FB20D98| |790AE84E09BFEC6B8475A1722A20B5B5FA4312C1B18CE725644072619BD39208FC6| |4C634B0B841EE9D4032795968D4252A3B755273EB907EC333C94D0276BFA8E7BF84| |D2069407676009D382C0FDD6498520665CA20528EC850930F0843F20C43D7799F47| |D7811B40913172133018F7297F985F9E8677F80A1B275718A955608D91BE0A5C634| |4683B716C47C4637CF087348ECABF67F4147B1F3B0D9C01CE3252E7182FE8E46348| |F78C7D509DAD8F7F063E029F182F296F421E7CA24F71A44C9290129914E31525E8B| |2E1FA77AEC9FF007E327A69AF39D9F09C6C9D7670CBE8438F8869CD2BD468A45DD1| |9C4BC9BB94299732ED52965CCAB276707385C28ABFFBE056367E0528AAB446FFB42| |A97B901BF5D497FFF2B8A3282D712580E381ACCD75BE646CBFC56CBFC1F7A51F2E0| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|
A ranged DEF build (with a +RES shield), provided your playstyle favors ranged combat, will tend to be more survivable than an S/L DEF build, too.
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Originally Posted by Iggy_Kamakaze
Nice build
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A more extreme defensive example, just for illustration purposes. 45% Smash/Lethal/Energy and Ranged DEF. Only ~56% global recharge this time, but as this is more of a melee-focused build, you're meant to take Spiritual Alpha largely for its effect on Drain Psyche:
(Edit: T4 Spiritual Core gives you a minimum equivalent of ~32% in global recharge.)
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.94
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Code:
This build is a slight variation of one I drew up months ago -- my attempt to counter all of the copious mez effects that get thrown at you when you're soloing at high difficulty levels (a large number of which are Smash/Lethal-typed AoE grenades). With sufficiently large spawn sizes, even a momentary lapse of your toggle protections can spell death. What ultimately kept me from playing something like this was:| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1448;703;1406;HEX;| |78DA65935D4F1341148667BB5B6B692B052CA502D2523E8B2C14502F55C0261A6A0| |A45AFC4BAC2A66C52DBA66C13BDF32788F1234611F0171851FC2FC01F307E5EEB45| |3DFB9E696DD206E6997DCF7B66CE99D94D3F5AF40BF1E48A50020B05636B2B374FA| |36D563CB70CBB5A310AFE55F361D9AC4453D5BC657B84101169C8AD18C5BCB9A1A7| |AC8AC949F17A245B2D974B155B4F9B45DB28E4D246D12A570B866D958A1D378A9B6| |68574BD3E69CB944A053D5B36CD0D1FA6A98295DFB4033C77A65631EFC7D3926994| |E92172BD6CADEBF5CDD2C6BA4983337FDC43F525E8FF9AA8FF6A6EB143E817DDEF1| |8BB40CF1E706E9FF11ED86ECD3AE3449222B80774EE037DCE52A3A26F1798A751E1| |2C4D99713906D72C630E387B917109B84A46556EA2F2261A97A6716941DEB2932B1| |CE70A176874CB4DDC07904E7D627C064E1F32BE008B347AA4DD7388F5DA128C0F80| |FF80F1118893D7CB76E18D411A24C987B66A2EDF04A421C608C3478600E72881131| |70EEB1878415ABB8CB4BF25A94B4CBE0152A475C8DE3BB8F728F71EE5DE63DC748C| |9B8EF1B55C174E2EAFD7C5EB4DED002EAA21C411359481796A993028922B8C2CA09| |22F2C57088715BC0033AAD3854691886C331242E4FC657AD24483DD64E9658BD2CB| |96718454E1A550BFCCEE97D9C7B8E5C4118EE2258506F076D4DC03CB30446F03A32| |B8C2C631598BA03BC728AE665DD8377B15E7C8D718F910386EE330CE035F987B949| |D7F0576C3FF28DF11DF81314624C9ED6D853C5C9197F0E5CD806269F017FC93721B| |B9A08B1419E459D616A5C9707AA1F61FBE409D04391694E16D3FC2AF5698DCF4A15| |195C48826F29C1B734C9B7B4F4DF477FF41319ADF16909054A4CAB7F6DB55AA6CDD| |99EE76B4DF3074D736FB0F1B5D57E90AEC8D294384AFBD92C8D41FAD52CDDC47DFC| |6E96A2704DB7D49A6851922DCA5C8B32DBA22CD3AB9E94D51B4D9DFC0358EFF088| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|
- that I just don't like Mace Mastery very much, on any character. Web Envelope is probably the best pure AoE immobilize available to Blasters (important given the scatter that you tend to run up against), but it has an absolutely terrible activation time, complete with redraw penalty;
- that I found a better (and thematically analogous) option in my Mind/Fire Dominator.
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Originally Posted by Iggy_Kamakaze
Nice build
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Well as the old saying goes the best defense is a good offense so yes, you can use offense as a defense.|
Originally Posted by Blue_Centurion
Can you actually use offense as a defense? I have only been blasting a while, but it seems you might be able to.
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The problem is it's not a form of defense that scales particularly well. Unless you kill an enemy in one shot (which is only possible with minions and hard to do on a full group) they will get at least one shot off. That means that by relying on offense you limit how high you can crank the difficulty before that one shot is enough to kill you.
Additionally the tools for increasing damage do not scale as well as the tools for increasing passive mitigation. For example defense and damage set bonuses are both reasonably available in similar quantities. Now having 25% worth of Ranged Defense bonus would reduce the number of ranged attacks that hit you be 50% effectively doubling how long it will take an enemy to kill you. Conversely having 25% worth of damage bonuses decreases the time you take to kill an enemy by about 11%.
So, yes, offense is a form of defense, but it's less useful to build for that other forms of defense.
Here's how I solo play my fire^3 blaster, which is slotted for recharge and damage:
1) Set difficulty to x8 enemies.
2) Enter mission, eat my entire inspiration tray. Combine stuff as needed to get some purples running, plus whatever is leftover on oranges or reds or whatever, just EAT IT.
3) Destroy a bunch of groups before the inspirations expire.
4) My inspiration tray is full again. Repeat as necessary.
Not really a "defense-free" playstyle since I'm shooing up an eightball worth of pills every 90 seconds, but it's fast and furious.
The Bacon Compels You.
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I have softcapped S/L defense (plus high Energy and decent Ranged) on my Fire/Fire Blaster and think it was well worth the inf (despite costing a significant chunk of my total reserves). While going the max damage route can be fun, I really like being able to jump into a spawn of Romans in an ITF and lay waste to them rather than wait for the Tank / Brute to grab aggro or go head to head with a pair of Freak Tanks. My playstyle tend to be "stand right next to the tank with Hot Feet running and PBAoE / fireball everything that comes to smack him", so I need to be able to handle all the splash damage and stray aggro.
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Originally Posted by Blue_Centurion
Any comments that could improve my strategy is appreciated. I am very new to blasting. The general point of the post of course is why spend all the effort/money/limited enhancer bonuses to get any defense when just getting more damage bonuses and smarter killing strategy seems to work like a charm?
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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
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I'm in the process of purpling my elec/energy/flame blaster (musc core, ion core, ageless core, diamagnetic radial, seers radial for my incarnate stuff) with basically my only defenses coming from Hover and Fire Shield. No defense/pure damage is perfectly valid as a blaster, but it takes some setup and skill to do well.
My particular strategy involves a HUGE spike of opening damage, chaining up to 3 nuke-level AoEs together. As long as I can get off at least one, picking off the rest is not a problem. I'm fully capable of soloing +1x8 at my current, incomplete build, and death is typically not an issue: Rise of the Phoenix is part of my attack chain.
I abuse Power Boost + Build Up + Aim, and typically don't hesitate to use my accolades either. Geas of the Kind Ones and Vanguard Medal are excellent Blaster accolades.
The best advice I have for no-defense:
1. Get thee Flame Mastery for Rise of the Phoenix if you don't already have it - nothing like getting ANOTHER nuke out of dying.
2. Break Frees are your friend. Blues are your friend around a nuke.
3. Start and finish combat quickly, be mobile, and be AGGRESSIVE. See #1. Enter combat with a bang - preferably your biggest.
4. Know your enemies. This goes for anyone, but knowing that Carnies can pile infinite mezzes on you, Malta can eat your end for breakfast, or Nemesis can stack Vengeance can help you avoid situations where your primary advantage (massive frontloaded damage) is countered.
5. Are you Incarnate? Yes? Use the powers!
Happy blasting. 
A lot of my characters end up slotted this way, although I focus more on recharge than damage, because they're either already tough (WP Brute), survive using their powers that are good enough without extra slotting (Dark Defender), or (in the case of my blasters) work on the philosophy of "The best debuff is death."
Aoleleb approves of this playstyle 
"Life is hard; it's harder if you're stupid." - John Wayne
Quote:
YES! My personal version is "Death is part of my attack chain." but I love seeing someone else who has as little self-preservation instinct on a blaster as I do! |
Originally Posted by AlishaShatogi
Rise of the Phoenix is part of my attack chain.
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"Life is hard; it's harder if you're stupid." - John Wayne
Have never had defense on a blaster...
Never will...
The hard things I can do--- The impossible just take a little bit longer.
If numbers are so much more important than a teammate who is fun to play with, forget about the game altogether and go play with a calculator instead. -Claws and Effect-
Quote:
That's the way to do it, baby.|
Originally Posted by Blue_Centurion
I just wait until some smuck, doesn't matter who/what, could be a tank, a happy scrapper, another blaster, even a pet, to grab any agro, Then I unleash hell. Seriously not missing defense powers, defense bonuses, or armor. My one nod to game mechanics is 12 pts of KB protection. Stand and deliver is what I say. (or hover and deliver lol)
Any comments that could improve my strategy is appreciated. I am very new to blasting. The general point of the post of course is why spend all the effort/money/limited enhancer bonuses to get any defense when just getting more damage bonuses and smarter killing strategy seems to work like a charm? |
Most people who'll comment here solo also, so they're all about the defense. My survivability is the +stealth in hover, hovering, throwing bonfire at my feet or so it's difficult to get to me, aggro being on others, and having RotP up every two minutes. Though, just ran Statesman and never had my health get even to half.
I don't solo unless I just want to kill a group on the street as I fly by.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by AlishaShatogi
Rise of the Phoenix is part of my attack chain.
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Edited to add: And be smart, I "/bind u customtargetnext [whatever]" all the time. I need to make a bind to put that into the chat blank for me. Aim+Buildup+snipe will get the sapper.
I have just completed the trials (yep, 4 tier 4s, and tier 3'd my alpha, starting from nothing) Took about a week, so not unhappy.
My build is a Rad/Nrg, purp'd out. There is a post a couple weeks ago in this forum if you want. The build is pure damage, with musculature Alpha (soon to be 4 as well), Ion, Reactive, etc. Pure PVE btw.
pretty happy running the Orange Bot, especially after 3 years on Brutes, last 4 months on one single tank. Nice to do raw damage.
Tactically it's pretty straightforward isn't it. Hang back and unleash hell. Strategically, when solo I look at the Boss, or small group, or large group, and decide if I can take them in mostly one chain of attack animations before they get me. If not I use stealth, pulling, inspirations, panic button phase shift to change the rules on them until I win. When with a group of heroes/villains/praetorians/rogues/vigilantes/pets... (did I leave anyone out?) it gets even easier. I just wait until some smuck, doesn't matter who/what, could be a tank, a happy scrapper, another blaster, even a pet, to grab any agro, Then I unleash hell. Seriously not missing defense powers, defense bonuses, or armor. My one nod to game mechanics is 12 pts of KB protection. Stand and deliver is what I say. (or hover and deliver lol)
Any comments that could improve my strategy is appreciated. I am very new to blasting. The general point of the post of course is why spend all the effort/money/limited enhancer bonuses to get any defense when just getting more damage bonuses and smarter killing strategy seems to work like a charm?