Hoverblast question

New to blasters and I was curious about hoverblasting. Can any powerset hoverblast or Whichpowersets are more tailored to it? I remember one of the secondaries have a boost range. Would that be a mandatory thing? And it would make sense to shoot for just ranged def from IOs.

Just curious because I think this would be a fun project as I play and only have 50s as a tank brute scrap and mm

Anything with range can hoverblast. As long as you're in range for that power. The hover is a form of mitigation and also allows you to see better. Hoverblasting coupled with targeting through folks, to keep aggro off you and to save their rears at times, is excellent mitigation. If you can't escape aggro, you'll have to switch to ST and target through the tank, which is boring. AoE FTW.

/Energy has boost range and boost power, which can be nice if you have good secondary effects, but ironically Energy/ has kb like nobody's business and it is an art to playing that AT.

There are two schools of thought as to damage mitigation. I mentioned the hoverblaster aspect, which is not considered a big debate, but I build for recharge. Permahasten is easy and if you team you might as well be more powerful than any two other team members. Heck, why not. And once you've hit ED on your damage slotting, the only way for more damage is to speed up.

The other set, and they are the most vocal here, are people who build for defense, tanks with range. If you are going to build for defense, obviously SL is best. Range is good. But why would I want some slow, ranged tank?

This thread might interest you: Death from afar

The only set I have found to be strange while hover blasting is Dual Pistols. It does not mesh visually, and it can be difficult to line up your AoE powers. Plus, you really want to be on the ground for Hail of Bullets anyway. Every other primary can manage fairly well.

For secondaries, Energy Manipulation (the one that has Boost Range) is certainly a good choice (you get Build Up very early on) but is by no means necessary. If you are going to be hover blasting, I would avoid the melee attacks of whatever secondary you take. Your strength will be power from distance, and floating in and out of melee range to use your punches will likely just slow down your damage output. All of the secondaries have enough utility powers other than the melee attacks to be useful.

Since you say that you don't usually play blasters and want to try a primarily-ranged based toon, I suggest choosing a secondary with a ST Immobilization as it's Tier 1 power (essentially, any current secondary except Energy Manipulation). Lean toward Ice, Electric, Mental, or Fire, since Devices "Web Grenade" does not do damage. All of the others provide good mitigation for the early levels, with some nice DoT effects. And since you sound like you will be picking most of your Primary attacks, the fast recharging immobilizations of the above sets will supplement your toon very well.

I have a Sonic/Devices hoverblaster, and he's just beastly.

I went with Mu Mastery for the AoE immobilize, and between that and the 2 cones he lays down some decent AoE carnage.

I also have him sitting at about 32% ranged defense, with the potential for around 37-38% when I get a couple more sets slotted in him.

Pretty much any combo can hoverblast, and it isn't just blasters who can do it. I've got a Rad/Sonic defender that is softcapped to ranged defense....he solos GMs (very slowly). Corruptors can do it well too.

Super Speed is just on for the stealth. Its movement modifier doesn't affect flight speed.

For comparison's sake, if I turned off Hover in that video and ran around with SS, I'd be moving roughly twice as fast (~80 MPH versus fast enough for most people's purposes -- faster than base Sprint speed by a healthy margin, in my case.

And thanks

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iggy_Kamakaze Nice build

My Ice/Ice Blaster stays in the air most of the time. I use the Speed-On-Demand binds in CityBinder, so I don't have to slot Hover for Flightspeed. I also have Superspeed with a stealth IO for when I want to stealth, but he spends most of his time overhead out of melee range. I didn't take any of the melee attacks but have some of the melee control powers (Ice Patch, Freezing Touch), so that I can stay at range even in tight quarters.

Shiver is wonderful for a Hoverblaster. The -Recharge keeps foes from shooting at me very often and gives me time to pick them off.

It only takes 2 Fly Speed IO's into hover to make Hover work quite excellently, and I find the Speed on Demand binds to interact very oddly with your attacks, often resulting in plummeting from the sky at inopportune times, mostly when you decide to attack just when SoD is trying to switch from fly to hover. Also, having the extra defense and -fly resistance from hover all the time is well worth an extra slot to make the speed respectable.

I never thought of my high range defense range types as Tanks myself. But I have found high range defense and hovering to be quite an effective means of mitigation.

I've used it in tunnels versus Cims, who then resort to Spears as I'd just be out of Melee range.

Dual Pistols can work, but it takes you getting used to judging just being out of melee range, so you can make full use of Hail of Bullets.