Psi/Mental
1. They are a painful grindfest to 50.
2. Poorly, that's why you will "never" see another one. Ranged Defense set bonuses.
3. You want to avoid pairing this primary with this secondary. In the late game there are several creature types that have Psi resistance and that Psi resistance is quite high. (Robots, Carnies). Pairing these sets together gets you almost exclusively Psi damage which means you won't have a quick way to take these mob types out.
Psi/ is a single target ranged set, /Mental is a Melee/Close secondary. The 2 do not play well together though /Mental does partially make up for the lack of AoE in Psi/
The best pairing for Psi/ is /Energy. These 2 together allow you to boost your range and slot up enough ranged defense to survive long enough to use your single target attacks and lets you blap robots and Carnies with a non-Psi type of damage. Hovering out of melee range eliminates that vector for being damaged. You can make up some of the Primary power set's lack of AoE by taking the Electric APP and slotting up Static Discharge. /Energy also improves the range on that power as well.
If you are more interested in the /Mental secondary it is excellent with just about any other Primary power set. The Primary (other than Psi/) that gets the least benefit from it is Elec/ but it is still better than Psi/ especially if you intend to go Elec/Mental as an endurance sapper.
The only caveat to /Mental is that World of Confusion is a less than stellar power. The Contagious Confusion proc by itself is better than this power when fully slotted. If you want to take this power I'd wait and take it last and make sure to slot that proc in it.
-Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein.
-I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo Galilei
-When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. - Thomas Jefferson
1. They are a painful grindfest to 50.
2. Poorly, that's why you will "never" see another one. Ranged Defense set bonuses. 3. You want to avoid pairing this primary with this secondary. In the late game there are several creature types that have Psi resistance and that Psi resistance is quite high. (Robots, Carnies). Pairing these sets together gets you almost exclusively Psi damage which means you won't have a quick way to take these mob types out. Psi/ is a single target ranged set, /Mental is a Melee/Close secondary. The 2 do not play well together though /Mental does partially make up for the lack of AoE in Psi/ The best pairing for Psi/ is /Energy. These 2 together allow you to boost your range and slot up enough ranged defense to survive long enough to use your single target attacks and lets you blap robots and Carnies with a non-Psi type of damage. Hovering out of melee range eliminates that vector for being damaged. You can make up some of the Primary power set's lack of AoE by taking the Electric APP and slotting up Static Discharge. /Energy also improves the range on that power as well. If you are more interested in the /Mental secondary it is excellent with just about any other Primary power set. The Primary (other than Psi/) that gets the least benefit from it is Elec/ but it is still better than Psi/ especially if you intend to go Elec/Mental as an endurance sapper. The only caveat to /Mental is that World of Confusion is a less than stellar power. The Contagious Confusion proc by itself is better than this power when fully slotted. If you want to take this power I'd wait and take it last and make sure to slot that proc in it. |
2. Ranged Defense is one of three ways to go with a typical IO Blaster build, the others being Smashing/Lethal Defense with Scorpion Shield or Ice Armor from the Patron/Epic Pools, and Damage/Recharge. I tend to go Ranged Defense, myself. If you look in the Blaster Guides section, on the last page I've got a link to my Psi/Mental guide that tells all about my build.
3. Avoid Robots and Carnies. Psychic Clockwork are a notable exception, because they have a strong weakness to Psi. Carnies... ugh. They still give me a tough time, but Ion Radial Final Judgement is a fun equalizer in the endgame for VIPs. And there are ways to take them down, it's just a LOT harder than point/click/win.
Characters
Bound Kitty: Cl/Regen Scrap lvl 50! Unified Kitty: PB lvl 50! Jenoma: Eng/Pain Corr lvl 50! Operative Jenoma: Fort lvl 50! Alicia Steele: KM/WP Scrap lvl 50! and others on Pinnacle/Virtue! @Bound Kitty on Live/Beta
I'd give Sonic/Mental a look as an alternative. You get decent controls comparable to Psi Blast and much better area damage.
It isnt hard to think of rings coming from your face as psychic attacks, especially if you color them. The cones from Sonic and Psychic Scream work very nicely together, and you're now outputting a mix of Smashing, Energy and Psi, so you have no obvious problem enemy groups.
If you dont like the Sonic Blast sound FX, dont do this obviously.
I have to admit that I havent actually played Psi Blast, but the numbers put me off - it really does look like a sub-par set on paper.
I'd give Sonic/Mental a look as an alternative. You get decent controls comparable to Psi Blast and much better area damage.
It isnt hard to think of rings coming from your face as psychic attacks, especially if you color them. The cones from Sonic and Psychic Scream work very nicely together, and you're now outputting a mix of Smashing, Energy and Psi, so you have no obvious problem enemy groups. If you dont like the Sonic Blast sound FX, dont do this obviously. I have to admit that I havent actually played Psi Blast, but the numbers put me off - it really does look like a sub-par set on paper. |
It is a sub par set on paper AND in practice. You have to avoid not only Robots and Carnies but any group that is mez heavy, unless you are playing exclusively on 1 player settings. Not only is having so little AoE a pain but having projectiles that you can out run with slotted up sprint means that the mobs are notified long before they take any damage.
My long deleted Psi blaster used more break frees than any another blaster I played. Hover is just about a must as a travel power and anything that can apply -fly along with mez (like arachnos) means a trip to the hosp. At least now you can buy break frees at the hospitals. At the time I was trying to level up a psi blaster that wasn't an option and I spent more time returning to the missions from the hospital than any other blaster I've played.
The shadow shard is bad for a psi blaster too. The only time I had any thing that resembled normal blaster performance was when I was fighting Clocks, Family, Council and Romans. If you want to experience all the content in the game this is not the primary to play.
-Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein.
-I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo Galilei
-When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. - Thomas Jefferson
Anyone have one of these?
How do they play? What should I slot for, aside from damage?
Anything I should avoid?
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