really down on Beam Rifle for Blasters

As someone said in another thread, make a BR/TA/Mace and call him Captain Redraw!

Seriously though, some people get bothered by redraw, others don't, but I love the utility of TA and you can conceptually go for a "hot shot" master of all weapons kind of theme.


I have decided to try Br/NRG because I can make a decent one (read Ranged Def Cap) with relatively cheap sets (T-Strike, Mako, Posi Blast)

If Corruptors ever get FF, I'll make a BR/FF Corr since the damage is scaled up frmo a Defender.

I went with Beam/Ice for my blaster because of the weapon redraw/cone + melee=suck thing. /ice's melee is skippable, and it has Shiver and Ice Patch to keep things at a distance where you can cone them repeatedly.

So far I've only ever played it in groups, though. I should try soloing to see how well it actually works. It *seems* to work. I mean, ice patch is beautiful in groups where someone else already took the aggro, but I already knew that. q:3

Beam Rifle is another one of those sets that seem made more for Corruptors and Defenders than Blasters. The high ST damage is nice if you want to make a sort of ranged MA Scrapper but the lack of AoE (at least every-spawn AoE) hurts since Blasters tend to use the "kill them all before they can kill me" defense and not being able to quickly wipe minions prevents that. Among Blaster secondaries I would definitely recommend Mental or Energy though... Mental gives you more AoE (which really helps) and some extra utility while Energy gives you Boost Range to maximize your cones and make short range attacks easier to use, as well as giving you very solid melee with decent control built in to fall back on if things do get in your face.

If you go Corruptor instead, Beam/Traps is a natural pairing and will be very useful (/Traps is always very useful). You'll be like a Beam/Devices Blaster that actually has good devices.

I dont know much about what would make a good synergy....

But i took the Energy Secondary...becasue i thought it might be nice to increase the disitegration effects or increase the ranges of the attacks...

And I too dont like doing alot of melee ranged attacks....and so i end up using the energy first attack power alot to smack the enemies away from me if they get too close.

So i guess ia msuggesting that you try energy as a secondary....maybe it will work out for you...or maybe not....

Like i said i dont know what makes good synergies...but i like the combinations i make and play on characters i have.

I think if you're going to play Beam as a blaster, you want to avoid the redraw...

If I weren't currently enjoying my Beam/Poison Corr I would probably do a blaster version, just because with any Corruptor you're looking at delaying the disintegrate effect.

I think perhaps in the long run maybe Beam is best suited for blaster, but personally I wouldn't mix it with something that has you bouncing back and forth between the primary and secondary... keep on blasting for best results with it. In a way I guess I'm saying Beam is very attention heavy...

Was just playing my Beam Nrg on a team. What noticed is with a good tank and your fast enough you can target the boss disintegrate and then snipe for the spread. The issue is when the tank does not have enough aggro and your spread pulls aggro to you. With limited defenses or range defense your really taking a beating as your leveling up to the spot to start placing IOs for the set bonuses.

My best guess is 35 will be the sweet spot where you can pick up boost range. My issue/hope or worry is of course is using boost range then disintegrate followed by the snipe is going to cause the group to move where the spread will be less effective.

I get what Gemini_2099 is saying about ignoring the spread. But it really is an integral part of what Beam is about. I think you either have to make a conscious effort to incorporate it or your just better off picking up a different type of blaster.

Again I'm just going along for the ride to try something new and see how it goes. I will probably play with the build and see what is the minimum level I can get close to obtaining Range defense cap and work from there. I'm 7 bubs away from Overcharge (32). Maybe once I pick that power up things might get a bit better as I will have another multi target attack. I just haven't had that warm fuzzy feeling with Beam yet that I get with my other toons when I feel they finally have come together.

After getting Overcharge at 32 I think with IO slotting and using build up it will be a nice group killer with the bonus of no crash and decent recharge.

What I am also starting to notice on full teams is that when I can get disintegrate followed by snipe to get the spread ( assuming it works, I currently bugged it as I noticed several times that disintegrate followed by snipe is not giving me a spread as described ) Then followed by Build up and Cutting Beam its a pretty decent opener.

Currently in SOs only I am seeing some decent results with Beam Nrg at least.

Piercing Ray is a pretty decent high damage attack as well. I feel I am getting more targets with that narrow cone then I do with my DP narrow cone attack ( forgot the name sorry ).