Journal II:
Real life has taken strong hold, and I haven't logged into the game since I last posted here until 6-8am this morning. Playing solo, I went from level 9 to level 12, and am close to level 13.
After careful consideration, I decided that Will Domination was weak, useless, and took way too long to recharge. I swapped into my alternate build at level 10 and picked the following:
-Psionic Dart
-Power Thrust
-Mental Blast
-Telekinetic Blast
-Build Up
-Energy Punch
-Psychic Focus
This went over far, far better. Psychic Focus (Which is Aim for Psychic Blast) and Build Up are a huge part of this guy's damage dealing potential, which is a departure from the two Blasters I stuck with all the way to 50 (Sonic/Mental and Fire/Mental). While using Aim and Build Up on those blasters was always NICE, the impact wasn't as dramatic as it is with Psychic Blast.
I ended up playing Barbatos as a head hunter. He'd take out a single enemy at a time, killing groups in order from strongest to weakest. When enemies got too close for comfort, I'd duck around a corner and use Energy Punch and Power Thrust, then go back to the ranged hits. In the long sewer corridors, I ended up blapping my way through when Build Up and Psychic Focus were recharging, and otherwise simply blasting away at range.
I have to say that this was actually a lot of fun. I didn't die once, though there were several close calls where only inspirations kept my blaster from eating dirt. The Resistance, with their G.I. Joe cartoon lasers, are biggest problem enemies due to their crazy firing squad nature when the whole mob locks onto you, but hopping into melee and sending two of them flying with Power Thrust and TK Blast cuts down on the number of active attackers. The target of TK Blast would go down first, and by then Power Thrust would be recharged and used on the next enemy while TK Blast would hit the first target of Power Thrust who would just be standing up.
After a while, I figured out how to time Energy Punch so that it could hit a mob flying through the air from Power Thrust if it hadn't yet flown beyond the 7 ft range of the attack. THAT was a lot of fun, and usually a Mental Blast can finish off a minion given that treatment.
At level twelve, I can already see that Psychic Blast isn't going to be a powerhouse. In fact, I'd say it's right there with Radiation Blast for Blasters as a mediocre set with light AoE (that suffers from long animation times). It isn't BAD, and I'm having a grand time, but it's extremely different from Fire Blast, where everything in a thirty foot radius can be effected by your powers consistently. As a matter of fact, Psychic Blast is far worse off than Radiation Blast in terms of AoE, because Rad has the relatively quick-animating Irradiate to throw around in melee range, while Psychic Blast has...Psychic Tornado, a low damage AoE that sends enemies flying and has too long an animation to bother with when enemies are up close. Psychic Tornado, a good nuke, and nothing else.
On teams, I'm going to have to see how best to utilize this Blaster. I'm worried that players will look at Barbatos and see AoE minion/lieutenant clearing, which he really isn't built for.
Matter of fact, this blaster is almost more of a Boss/Lieutenant/RAE (Really Annoying Enemy) Disabler/Killer simply by virtue of his powers. Seems like it would also be fun in PvP, though not as good as my Elec/Ice Dom when it comes to gathering missiles in Warburg due to his lack of a Confuse. The range is decent, and with Boost Range, I could probably have him blow up Stalkers, Dominators, Corrupters, and other Blasters before they can successfully get away...
Anyway, I'm having fun with my baby Psy/EM Blaster. Looking forward to maybe logging in tonight and getting him to level 14.
Too many alts to list.
Figured I'd throw this out here after having made the toon on a whim. I made a Psy/EM Blaster before inherent Stamina and loathed it due to constantly bottoming out on endurance. Now, with Incarnate powers and Stamina at level 2, I'm hoping it will be more fun.
Rolled him up, picked Psionic Dart and Power Thrust, played with colors/animations, and named him Barbatos at my girlfriend's suggestion (Fallen angel, duke of the bad place, the usual). Dark blue blasts and pom poms of doom for me. So far so good.
Started up in Praetoria, and ran through the Veteran's tutorial for a quick level 2 and chance to pick my Alignment (Loyalist). When I got out, I met my girlfriend's toon (an Illusion/FF controller), snagged Mental Blast, and formed a team with two Nin/Nin Stalkers, a Plant/Storm Troller, a DS/Therm MM, and a Sonic/Sonic Corr who just happened to be looking.
Needless to say, this met the same fate of PUGs everywhere, and we had a rough time. The Plant troller spammed Roots, grumbled about how he was drawing aggro and how he liked his Brute better, and eventually quit. The stalkers dropped like flies, and then dropped the team. The remaining team did much better by virtue of buffs (Therm Shields, Sonic Shields, and FF bubbles) and playing to one another's strengths, but we still had a lack of damage that Barbatos, with his three mighty powers, wasn't able to help push through.
The team disbanded when the MM finally quit. Praetorian missions seem oddly difficult compared to red or blue side, and we came into an oddly high number of bosses, as well as extremely large numbers of enemies, even at +0/x0. As for the ambushes, well is -is- Praetoria.
By the time it was down to just my ladyfriend and myself, Barbatos was level 7 and her controller was level 8. Another friend of ours, also playing a Psy/EM Blaster, joined us for more storyline missions, which went well. Barbatos is on the Power Storyline, and the evil things he does during those arcs are quite amusing.
When I logged out due to real world commitments, Barbatos was level 9, and had picked up Telekinetic Blast, Build up, and Will Domination. TK Blast and Power Thrust are probably my favorite powers so far, since they allow me to juggle bosses and Lieutenants up and down the map until they meet their untimely demises, and Build up is always nice for clicking before opening fire.
Will Domination is good for activating and then immediately following up with Telekinetic Thrust for a fast damage spike against enemies (the damage has a delay before it reaches the target, it seems like), but not much else due to its low damage and unreliable sleep. I was pretty disappointed, and might jut use my level 10 build as a freespec to get rid of the power.
I was surprised that the Praetorian Clockwork don't seem to have much Psy Resistance, but I certainly wasn't complaining. The Resistance were the most frustrating enemies to face. They show up in big numbers and never seem to miss with those damn laser guns. We had more trouble fighting Resistance enemies than any other group.
Psionic Dart was extremely useful over the long run, while Mental Blast seems vanilla. TK Blast's knockback has come in quite handy, and by focusing it on one target at a time, I bet I can keep from making the melee characters squeal.
I hope to get to level 14 at least, tomorrow. As for now? Bed.
Too many alts to list.