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I failed at Blasters

Another_Fan

By Another_Fan,
Posted on: 2011-11-29 16:48 in Blasters

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
But you're going to be in melee as a Peacebringer: an all-ranged human PB is not, in my opinion, practical.
thx for the heads up. I was actually considering a HP Lovecraft themed villainous Blaster for a sec. But if it has the same prob that I am working with on Blasters I will stay with Blasters.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue_Centurion View Post
thx for the heads up. I was actually considering a HP Lovecraft themed villainous Blaster for a sec. But if it has the same prob that I am working with on Blasters I will stay with Blasters.
If your problem is that you don't ever really want to be in melee, I think that will be difficult with a human form PB. If your problem is that you *die* in melee too much, the PB will be much more resilient than your blasters.

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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
Technically, if you aren't in melee often on a human PB, you're probably heavily gimping your offense. The main difference between going WS and PB is that with a WS, you're diving into the crowd from the start, while with the PB you're either softening them up from range and then jumping in, or letting them come to you while you finish them off with melee. But you're going to be in melee as a Peacebringer: an all-ranged human PB is not, in my opinion, practical.
Yes, absolutely true. I never meant to imply that you would be able to stay at range all the time on a human PB. I simply meant that while a WS will be in melee all the time, a PB will be able to stay at range and just run in occasionally with their melee attacks or hit the things that run up to them.

I had, at first, thought that the OP was having a problem with dying in melee on their Blasters and so I suggested a PB since it would play much like a Blaster with higher health and great mitigation tools. If the OP is actually having a problem with melee occurring at all, then I would say a Kheldian is not the way to go. To solve that problem, it may be worth looking at a /FF Corruptor. Force Bubble makes enemies stay at range, and you would have no melee attacks. It also has the added benefit of being easier to softcap and having some (though not a lot) mez protection.

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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vauluur View Post
Yes, absolutely true. I never meant to imply that you would be able to stay at range all the time on a human PB. I simply meant that while a WS will be in melee all the time, a PB will be able to stay at range and just run in occasionally with their melee attacks or hit the things that run up to them.

I had, at first, thought that the OP was having a problem with dying in melee on their Blasters and so I suggested a PB since it would play much like a Blaster with higher health and great mitigation tools. If the OP is actually having a problem with melee occurring at all, then I would say a Kheldian is not the way to go. To solve that problem, it may be worth looking at a /FF Corruptor. Force Bubble makes enemies stay at range, and you would have no melee attacks. It also has the added benefit of being easier to softcap and having some (though not a lot) mez protection.
No can do. Corruptors don't get FF as far as I know.

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Posted

Argh lol, I was about to run to Wiki and look for a FF corruptor. I don't mind dieing, I dont love it, but meh. I do have a problem soloing because of the squishiness, but have decided I just will not ever solo with the Blaster. I've got a Brute for tips, badging, etc. I want to stay at Range, period. I also want him to be somewhat durable. Thats my whole concept for the build. Really seriously peeved everytime I go to create a character in the game and it says "Ranged". I don't think that word means what they think it means. I am back to considering Blasters because in the end I will add nothing to teams as a pure Ranged melee, it just is unfair. But I can still take quite a few things and use build tricks to make a sturdy Blaster.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
No can do. Corruptors don't get FF as far as I know.
Whoops my mistake. Sometimes I get confused between things I wish got proliferated and things that actually did. Regardless, a ff/ defender could still be pretty strong since repulsion bomb is an aoe blast now. It might be good to look into a ff/energy or ff/fire.

@Rorn ---- Blue Baron ---- Guardian

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue_Centurion View Post
Argh lol, I was about to run to Wiki and look for a FF corruptor. I don't mind dieing, I dont love it, but meh. I do have a problem soloing because of the squishiness, but have decided I just will not ever solo with the Blaster. I've got a Brute for tips, badging, etc. I want to stay at Range, period. I also want him to be somewhat durable. Thats my whole concept for the build. Really seriously peeved everytime I go to create a character in the game and it says "Ranged". I don't think that word means what they think it means. I am back to considering Blasters because in the end I will add nothing to teams as a pure Ranged melee, it just is unfair. But I can still take quite a few things and use build tricks to make a sturdy Blaster.
I think I mentioned it the first time around, but give Sonic a try. And if you don't like the concept of screaming, there are alternate animations that make it look more hand-blasty.

Basically, you're playing Sonic to get to Siren's Song. Although I'm showing how it can make blapping somewhat safer than normal, it works equally well to make ranged blasting less hazardous. And Sonic does pretty good damage because of its stacking resistance debuffs.

Sonic blaster is good. Alternatively, you might like going Sonic corruptor and picking up a Corruptor secondary that is to your liking. I'm currently working on a Sonic/Time corruptor, and while its not indestructible, the soft control in that combo makes it very difficult to kill when playing any sort of standard content. If you stay away from Time's Juncture, you can pretty much stay at range the entire time. Alternatively, if you go Sonic/Sonic corruptor you can get personal resistance and mez protection with sonic dispersion, and stacking tough on dispersion will generate pretty good smash/lethal resistance. On top of the fact you'll be fighting sleep walkers half the time.

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Posted

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=278037

You are not the only one that is looking for something not represented well in the game.

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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue_Centurion View Post
Argh lol, I was about to run to Wiki and look for a FF corruptor. I don't mind dieing, I dont love it, but meh. I do have a problem soloing because of the squishiness, but have decided I just will not ever solo with the Blaster. I've got a Brute for tips, badging, etc. I want to stay at Range, period. I also want him to be somewhat durable. Thats my whole concept for the build. Really seriously peeved everytime I go to create a character in the game and it says "Ranged". I don't think that word means what they think it means. I am back to considering Blasters because in the end I will add nothing to teams as a pure Ranged melee, it just is unfair. But I can still take quite a few things and use build tricks to make a sturdy Blaster.
Actually Blue the problem may be that you don't understand the blaster (or blapper) playstyle. That's not a bad thing it just takes practice.

My main is an Energy/Energy/Force Blapper. My primary build is recharge focused and I play in Melee range most of the time. I only run about 7% total defense and I typically out survive my brute and scrapper teammates.

A lot of people will tell you that for a blaster range = defense but that's not entirely true. A blaster's best defense is positional awareness and the inspiration tray. Every spawn you are preparing to attack should have 3-4 seconds worth of pre-attack assessment.

You should identify the mezzers, You'll want to take them out quickly or if there are multiple mezzers you'll want to use a breakfree proactively.

What is the terrain like? Are you up on a platform with twice the amount of mobs that you can handle? If that's the case you can KB half the spawn off the platform and destroy the other half while the KB'd half try to get back on the platform.

Is there a convenient wall or obstacle? If so you can hide behind it, jump up and unleash an AoE, jump again and unleash another and have all the minions killed before they get to your hidey hole leaving a few lieuts to deal with.

Have an AoE slow power like shiver and a corridor with a corner? You can split the spawn again. Cast shiver on the front half of the spawn, throw in an AoE and duck around the corner. The back half of the spawn will pass the massively slowed front half and your AoE may be recharged again and or your slow may be recharged again. Slow the other half of the spawn and destroy it and about that time the first half of the spawn will show up for you to likewise destroy.

Use your inspiration tray. With lots of recharge you can pop 4 small purples and just waylay on stuff. If you are fighting at the 6-8 player level and have decent AoE and recharge your inspiration tray will fill faster than you can empty it. Just combine up what you can't use into what you want to use.

My main that I was talking about has slotted the ranged AoE attacks FOR KB. On 6-8 players settings Energy Torrent followed by Explosive Blast will reduce what is standing in my vicinity to 2 or 3 mobs, Power Thrust will reduce that by 1 further. Energy Punch and Bone Smasher can take out a mob and by that time Energy Torrent and Explosive Blast are recharged again and I can repeat the process. Yeah my AoEs do about 60% of the damage but I don't need them to be 100% I need them for the KB. About the 3rd or 4th time around all the minions are dead or running off and it's clean up time.

If I get in trouble I have Personal Force Field, Force of Nature, Eye of the Magus, and Phase Shift (you can have Phase shift at level 20) I can use to get out of a tricky or sticky spot. PFF or Phase Shift plus Aid Self fixes me up while the mobs waste their time.

That is the kind of stuff you need to keep in mind to get to level 50 so that you can uber yourself out with a full IO set build and incarnate yourself to the hilt.

One other thing to keep in mind is that MOST mobs have only 1 or 2 ranged attacks and those ranged attacks do roughly 60% of the damage of melee attacks. If you can keep them out of melee range they will only be able to use part of their damage powers and the weakest ones at that. You can handle 2-3 players worth of mobs if you can keep them out of melee range.

There are a couple of power sets that will allow you to accomplish this so you can learn HOW to be a blaster.

Dark/ gives you Tenebrous Tentacles that will allow you to keep a spawn immobilized and at range, Umbral Torrent will allow you to pile them all into a corner or against a convenient object so you can maximize your AoEs, Life Drain will allow you to heal the damage that is getting you from the mob's ranged attacks.

/Ice gives you shiver which can slow the spawn to a crawl. You can easily fight in retrograde and keep the spawn at range.

Hover will keep a spawn at range on open or outdoor maps.

My recommendation for a starter blaster to learn on would be Dark/Ice. Once you master the techniques of surviving as a blaster you could go Energy/Ice to slow the spawn and knock them away when they get too close or you could go with Dark/Energy to immobilize them and increase the range of your immobilize.

One of the highest mitigation secondaries for blasters is /Devices it gets a (deservedly) bad rap though because it takes 4 to 5 times the amount of set up that other blasters require to get that safety. The pay off isn't really worth the time investment though it is an interesting secondary if you have the inclination.

I'll close by echoing Arcanaville and recommend that you may also be happy soloing a Sonic blaster especially if you pair it with Ice. You can use stacking sleeps and slows and be extremely safe.

At level 18 you can open with Siren's Song, move into melee with Chilling Embrace, select a target and use Chillblain on it, kill it with single target damage, repeat.

At level 26 you can substitute Screech for Chillblain. The stunned mob will slowly wobble toward you and you can smack it with Ice Sword.

At level 28 you can respec out of Chilling Embrace and use Shiver instead. You can stay at range from this point on still using Screech to have the mobs drunkenly and slowly stagger toward you.

Level 32 gives you Dreadful Wail.

Level 35 gives you Freezing Touch, a melee range hold.

Level 38 gives you Frozen Aura, a mag 2 stackable PBAoE sleep (it has no damage component)

You can Sirens, jump in and Frozen Aura, this will sleep even Bosses, Amplify + Build up + Dreadful Wail will kill the spawn. 5% of every thing you attack is always missed but that's no big deal since it will still be asleep long after the end crash wears off.

A later game AoE chain that you can use to speed up your kills is Sirens, then use your single target attack chain while Sirens recharges, just as it recharges you can Shiver, Shockwave, Howl, Sirens and take virtually no damage.

Playing a blaster is an on the edge thrill and there is none better than when you have the experience to pull it off without being defeated.

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Posted

I still think you want to play a Corruptor or Dominator. Solid mitigation. Solid ranged damage (not that Doms don't benefit from going into melee, but you can manage without it on some builds).
Plant or Mind / Fire or Thorny or Electirc Dom
Fire or Sonic or Ice / Dark or Time or Rad Corruptor

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Posted

Given what you described as your goals Sonic isn't going to be your friend. The aoe sleep winds up being a brake pedal not an accelerator pedal. Its a sleep that you can't stack and precludes using AoEs.

For small spawns at low difficulty settings it works but those are the same spawns that other blasters can destroy with 2 or 3 AoEs. The set seems much more corruptor or defender friendly, than tank mage oriented

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Eldagore View Post
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=278037

You are not the only one that is looking for something not represented well in the game.
It really doesn't take a new AT. What is needed are changes to blasters so they aren't a giant divot of survivability.

Oh well at least we got a damage+range alpha at last

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Another_Fan View Post
Given what you described as your goals Sonic isn't going to be your friend. The aoe sleep winds up being a brake pedal not an accelerator pedal. Its a sleep that you can't stack and precludes using AoEs.

For small spawns at low difficulty settings it works but those are the same spawns that other blasters can destroy with 2 or 3 AoEs. The set seems much more corruptor or defender friendly, than tank mage oriented
True, its not a tank mage. But we were talking tangentially about revisiting blasters, since the OP was conceptually disappointed with the few ranged/defense combinations out there.

There is no such thing as a ranged-AoE heavy defensively strong combination without entanglements. If there were, we'd all be playing it. The farther you go in the direction of ranged offense, the more you're going to lose damage mitigation, outside of corner cases like going to a ranged mastermind like bots, which I don't think the OP's looking for.

If the OP is looking for ranged offense and survivability, Sonic has that. If you're looking to maximize offense, and still pick up some survivability, you can go something like Fire/Sonic corruptor. But I think if the OP could drive a Fire/Sonic corruptor with no primary mitigation, he wouldn't be asking for help.


On the specific subject of Sirens, when playing for real, and not for giggles, I use Sirens and AoEs all the time. If I could spam AoEs on large spawns constantly as a blaster and not get dead from the return fire, I'd write a book. Sirens is good for cutting the odds, even if you intend to use AoEs. The notion that blasters can literally vaporize everything in just a couple of AoEs is 99% hyperbole. Stuff is going to be still alive, or you'll have to kill time while BU and Aim are recharging. During those times, being able to take out an entire spawn of minions and LTs in one shot, and then hit a manageable subset of them with AoEs and single target attacks, is still tactically useful. Its comparable in difficulty to properly aiming knockback with an energy blaster.

Which would be the other alternative for an all-ranged squishy. If you can control it, the knockback in energy is a substantial survivability tool. What you need to make it work is a lot of speed, and enough endurance to be able to power attacks like energy torrent constantly, even if you're only attacking two things and would ordinarily pass on AoEs due to the inefficiency. Its all about getting as many bites at the knockback apple as possible, to keep the targets down.

In either case, the AoE objection to Sirens is mostly theoretical, especially during leveling, because Sonic's AoEs are not particularly good either way. Not using them constantly is not that big of a deal. Sonic is more of a single target attacker I've found.

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Posted

Why are you so concerned about redraw in the weapon sets? If you were trying to mix in attacks from your secondary then it could be a real problem, but if you're sticking to primary attacks then it shouldn't come up very often.

Also, I think you're doing yourself a disservice by dismissing archery. It's a really nice set for a ranged-only blaster. It has what I consider to be a blaster's best niche at this point: ranged AoE with good damage and excellent coverage. If concept is a problem, consider Green Arrow or Robin Hood or such.

 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
There is no such thing as a ranged-AoE heavy defensively strong combination without entanglements.
What about a Fire/Dark curruptor? Great ranged AOE damage, a slow patch, stacked stuns, a cone fear, a single target hold, an incredible heal, and massive to hit debuffs. Talk about ranged damage and survivability...

 

Posted

What about a Range cap Huntsman with Perma pets. Small number of attacks but they are extremely, extremely solid.. They all do high damage. Pick up Barrier and now you and your perma pets are completely defense capped and resistant capped. The pets are good but with Barrier they are that much better. I can tell you my SOA Huntsman was my first toon that could handle Malta on a 4/8 setting with no issues. The Inspiration Tray is just there for whatever you want once you pick up barrier.

How about a Traps Defender or a Storm toon, Range cap and hurricane will help you cap put via hit debuff melee and aoe. But of course aoe has to take by mobs within your hurricane. I am running a Sonic Storm ATM. Between the resistance debuff of Sonic and the defense / resistance debuff on storm I can take on mobs that are much higher cons solo just by being aggressive and pushing them with hurricane for the debuff.

1. Why Soft Cap is Important : http://dechskaison.blogspot.com/2011...important.html
2. Limits: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Limits
3. Attack Mechanics: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Attack_Mechanics
4. Rule of Five: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Rule_o...e_Law_of_Fives

 

Posted

Honestly, I believe the main reason you had trouble was that you were trying to play a pure ranged Blaster without allowing yourself to use the sets that are actually best for a pure ranged Blaster. Archery is, bar none, the best option for an all ranged Blaster (and Assault Rifle is one of the next best). You get the single best ranged AoE attack in the game (Rain of Arrows), a complete single target chain with an 80 foot base range, and a longer than normal cone attack to go with your standard targeted AoE shot. You even get a decent ranged stun for Sappers or mezzing Lts. Add in /Energy for Boost Range and Hover and you simply don't have to get close to things at all. The key is getting plenty of Ranged defense and some decent recharge... which brings up the number one rule of soloing as a Blaster:

Solo Blasters that actually fight large spawns require high end IO builds.

There's no such thing as a decent cheap solo Blaster if you are used to Scrappers and Brutes. Mowing down +1/x6 or so spawns at the speed of an average Scrapper is possible, but will require either softcapped defense or high recharge and a crashless nuke (and some defense). Taking on +2/x8 mobs at Brute speed requires even more investment and probably picking high end power sets (Fire/Mental, for instance). If you just want to solo tough spawns a Blaster is a bad choice, not because they can't do it but because they take more skill, inf, and build planning to do it. Where Blasters become a good solo choice is if you have near-unlimited inf to spend, are willing to face a much steeper learning curve, and are just tired of how slow your purpled out SS/Fire/Soul Brute is and want to see what real destruction looks like. (Granted the Brute can survive better, but nothing kills as fast as a high end Blaster.)

Note: I'm not saying a high end build is required to solo on a Blaster. I'm saying it's required to solo on a Blaster at the level that a Scarapper / Brute player is used to. Blasters have soloed the ITF, but you can bet that many billions of inf and a great deal of painful learning was involved.

Before resorting to a ranged build on a melee AT I'd suggest giving some of these a try though, even if you do write off Blasters:

Plant/Fire or Plant/Psi Dominator - Seeds of Confusion is probably the best every-spawn AoE control power in the game, and perma-Domination gives you mez protection if you want to spend that much.

Fire/Traps Corruptor - good ranged AoE plus defense, mez protection, and debuffs.

Rad/Sonic Defender - not as fast as a Blaster but one of the few builds that regularly solos giant monsters without Incarnate powers. Build for ranged defense, debuff the enemy into mush, and yell at them until they fall down.

Huntsman build SoA - no spider legs, just a badass guy with a gun that can dodge almost anything and call in pets.

Archery/Energy/Munitions hover Blaster - build for enough recharge to fire off Rain of Arrows every spawn and enough ranged defense to get within one Luck of the softcap (if you are soloing large groups you should get enough inspirations to maintain one Luck and if needed one Break Free at all times). Ignore the melee attacks in Energy, it's just there for Build Up and Boost Range. Sit back at 100+ feet wiping out 90% of the minions in every spawn before they can fire a shot, then shooting the surviving mobs with lots of pointy sticks, flaming pointy sticks, and exploding pointy sticks. Go Munitions so you can occasionally pull out a missile launcher and toast a group so far away you can barely see them.

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

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Posted

I have previously suggested (if the goal is to have a Blaster) going with a Sonic/Dark blaster. If the goal is a ranged character who can largely stay at range and not worry about things getting to them, a Sonic/Time corruptor (or really anything */Time) would seem to fit.

Under construction

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Miladys_Knight View Post
Actually Blue the problem may be that you don't understand the blaster (or blapper) playstyle. That's not a bad thing it just takes practice.

My main is an Energy/Energy/Force Blapper.
That was a really good post. I thank you for the time you put into it. But it went sideways (and I think you know this) with pretty much the first sentence here. Not your fault, you are absolutely correct. Blasters are not built to be Ranged, no matter how big the letters "Ranged" get in character creator, or how many times it is said they are Ranged. Blasters are purely designed as Blappers. If you want to make it Ranged you have to accept some sacrifices (usually at least some AoE damage, definitely ST damage, and many times a lot of neat buffs go out the window as well.)

To me it is a giant con. I really hate to be conned. The more they say Ranged the more I feel conned. If they just said Blapper, or High Damage Character w/ some Ranged powers, or even just called them Blasters. But nope, they keep insisting the thing is Ranged. Either they are stupid or they think I am. It aint ranged.

 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by StrykerX View Post
Honestly, I believe the main reason you had trouble was that you were trying to play a pure ranged Blaster without allowing yourself to use the sets that are actually best for a pure ranged Blaster. Archery is, bar none, the best option for an all ranged Blaster (and Assault Rifle is one of the next best). You get the single best ranged AoE attack in the game (Rain of Arrows), a complete single target chain with an 80 foot base range, and a longer than normal cone attack to go with your standard targeted AoE shot. You even get a decent ranged stun for Sappers or mezzing Lts. Add in /Energy for Boost Range and Hover and you simply don't have to get close to things at all. The key is getting plenty of Ranged defense and some decent recharge... which brings up the number one rule of soloing as a Blaster:

Solo Blasters that actually fight large spawns require high end IO builds.

There's no such thing as a decent cheap solo Blaster if you are used to Scrappers and Brutes. Mowing down +1/x6 or so spawns at the speed of an average Scrapper is possible, but will require either softcapped defense or high recharge and a crashless nuke (and some defense).
You are right, I am limiting my choices. I really actually love the mechanics of both AR and BR. But I just dont see Magneto with a Gat. If they would alter the animations for AR or BR to be "standarad blaster animations" I would take either in an instant, I love them both.

That still leaves the secondaries as a heaving mosh pit of Blapper love. Not sure what to do about that easily.

Lastly, and i hate to admit this, I was struggling with +0/x1. And for the Banks (badging) was even struggling at -1/x1. And my build had hover, stealth, and invisibility. Okay, I'm gonna shut up now. Sigh.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
There is no such thing as a ranged-AoE heavy defensively strong combination without entanglements. If there were, we'd all be playing it. The farther you go in the direction of ranged offense, the more you're going to lose damage mitigation, outside of corner cases like going to a ranged mastermind like bots, which I don't think the OP's looking for.
Crabs/Huntsmen/Fortunatas/ Many Varieties of corruptors/ Dominators if you go the active defense route.

Pretty much its blasters that sit in that survivability divot.

Quote:
On the specific subject of Sirens, when playing for real, and not for giggles, I use Sirens and AoEs all the time. If I could spam AoEs on large spawns constantly as a blaster and not get dead from the return fire, I'd write a book. Sirens is good for cutting the odds, even if you intend to use AoEs. The notion that blasters can literally vaporize everything in just a couple of AoEs is 99% hyperbole. Stuff is going to be still alive, or you'll have to kill time while BU and Aim are recharging. During those times, being able to take out an entire spawn of minions and LTs in one shot, and then hit a manageable subset of them with AoEs and single target attacks, is still tactically useful. Its comparable in difficulty to properly aiming knockback with an energy blaster.
There are plenty of blasters that do spam AOEs and survive at typical blaster survival levels. The problem is that there are other ats that can spam aoes and achieve higher kill rates while surviving at much higher levels.

In the game range is not the magic, the game treats it as.

Back to sirens, if you wake up the enemies you have put to sleep you have negated its utility. If you have a build that can survive the damage from what you have woken up why did you bother in the first place ?

Quote:
In either case, the AoE objection to Sirens is mostly theoretical, especially during leveling, because Sonic's AoEs are not particularly good either way. Not using them constantly is not that big of a deal. Sonic is more of a single target attacker I've found.
That is of course the point, sonic is aoe poor, and even using the ones you have undercuts its big survivability tool.

 

Posted

I think Siren's could be used pretty well if you position your AoEs well and give it a good duration. You could, for example, only wake up half the spawn. Then you could kill that half before the other half wakes up. That makes it a pretty powerful mitigation tool.

@Rorn ---- Blue Baron ---- Guardian

 

Posted

I took another detailed look at it. My 100th??? I compared every Primary and Secondary, looking for the most Aoe Range. I left out Archery, AR, BR, and Devices. Not saying they are not good choices, but they do not fit my super concept at all.

I came up with Fire/Psi. Probably not a shock to many of you. In fact a few of you have throw it out to me before, of course. I'll have 4 big range AoE attacks I can spam before even hitting epics. Fireball, Fire Breath, Rain of Fire, and Psychic Scream. I really want to avoid close contact for the most part. However, with 4 years experience, I know when its safe to drop in for a free leech with Drain Psyche. I will get Psychic Shockwave and concentration, of course. I will start looking at epics or patrons next. Ranged AoE is what I am looking for. Not sure how much I will throw at the build, if anything besides SOs. Just gonna play test it for a couple weeks, sorta relaxed. (I am currently endlesssly iTrialing my new main) This will be the off hand project.

Now I just need a concept. (I always build backwards) Demon/supernatural seems the natural here. Going to do a little research on-line for ideas.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by TwoHeadedBoy View Post
What about a Fire/Dark curruptor? Great ranged AOE damage, a slow patch, stacked stuns, a cone fear, a single target hold, an incredible heal, and massive to hit debuffs. Talk about ranged damage and survivability...
Dark Miasma in general offers a lot of survivability, but you have to know how to use it. Also, while you can get a gigaton of survivability out of /Dark, it takes a lot of time to use all those tools. I'm not sure its really a good ranged blaster analog: its a borderline controller with fire blasts.

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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue_Centurion View Post
I took another detailed look at it. My 100th??? I compared every Primary and Secondary, looking for the most Aoe Range. I left out Archery, AR, BR, and Devices. Not saying they are not good choices, but they do not fit my super concept at all.

I came up with Fire/Psi. Probably not a shock to many of you. In fact a few of you have throw it out to me before, of course. I'll have 4 big range AoE attacks I can spam before even hitting epics. Fireball, Fire Breath, Rain of Fire, and Psychic Scream. I really want to avoid close contact for the most part. However, with 4 years experience, I know when its safe to drop in for a free leech with Drain Psyche. I will get Psychic Shockwave and concentration, of course. I will start looking at epics or patrons next. Ranged AoE is what I am looking for. Not sure how much I will throw at the build, if anything besides SOs. Just gonna play test it for a couple weeks, sorta relaxed. (I am currently endlesssly iTrialing my new main) This will be the off hand project.

Now I just need a concept. (I always build backwards) Demon/supernatural seems the natural here. Going to do a little research on-line for ideas.
Now one I have not seen you mention and having made one I can tell you it is NOT a melee blaster is:

Sonic/Ice

You have 2 sleeps that do stack and one sleep does damage as it lands. You have a mass knockback cone. I used to use superspeed, sleep them with the sonic sleep to lower resistance, knock them back further lowering the resistance, sleep them again and repeat as necessary using the single hit attacks on the bosses. I could in complete safety solo at +1 x 8 with boses - because the bosses were sleeping too!

You also have Ice patch.