I failed at Blasters

in terms of ranged melee i would go with spine/* on scrapper

spines alone has 2 ranged attacks that when paired with APPs you can have an attack chain of up to 4 ranged powers

my spine/elec scrapper makes a lot of use out of throw spines, imaple, shuriken, and exploding shuriken (shuriken is on a very short timer so it can be used pretty fast and almost all 4 of those powers chain together fairly well so i can fight completely ranged if i want (albeit slower due to slight drop in dps)


i also agree that huntsman can be pretty surviveable at range, with minimal IOs my hunstman has 43% ranged defense

For those that are following it I do indeed know I am all over the board in this. Wanting survival, now looking at just pure ranged AoE. Its part of my marked frustration with the entire thing. But I feel I have tried and tried to get this thing to work, approaching it from different angles. I'll hit Fire/Psi Blast. Maybe I'll have some fun just laying out pain.

Hey dark blast/MM, the only blaster I got past 30!

AoE cone chain early on, Drain Psyche for survivability, recovery and -regen on AVs, and a blast that heals you too - oh and the hold in DB does good damage. Plus the blasts do -tohit.

Was a great pairing for me because I usually find blasters and scrappers too one dimensional when basically all they do is damage.

High Ranged defense plus Acrobatics will provide pretty good mez protection. Most mezzes that can be used at range are flagged as Ranged attacks, and the ones that are not (usually flagged as only Psionic) are usually holds, and Acrobatics blocks a single hold. The enemy has to basically get lucky twice in a row with Ranged holds (doesn't happen often) or hit you with two non-Ranged holds (and usually only one or two enemies per group has those) to actually hold you so as long as you pop Break Frees in the rare cases where you are fighting enemies with AoE mez like stun grenades (I say "rare" because when soloing a Blaster I avoid those factions like the plague) and don't let stunners get in melee you should be good. By all means keep a column of Break Frees in your inspiration tray, but you shouldn't need them continually even against most mezzers. Of course eventually you can get mez protection from the Destiny Incarnate slot, but that's not very helpful at levels 1-49.

Go for around 33% Ranged defense (one Luck from the softcap), Acrobatics, Aid Self (mainly for downtime reduction) and maybe some AoE defense and +HP if you can fit it in and you should have a decent leveling build. Upgrade to softcapped Ranged defense once you have enough slots (probably won't happen until the 40s) and you'll be fairly survivable. The nice thing about a high damage combo like Fire/Mental is that while you can't eliminate the alpha strike you can eliminate a lot of the enemies before they get to shoot again. Just accept that you will be keeping the difficulty turned down fairly low while soloing until you get some IOs and you'll be fine... at least you will once you break that Scrapper / Brute mindset and remember to stop and heal up after each fight because you really do need the whole green bar a lot of times. (That's why almost all of my Blasters have Aid Self.)

I have to once again suggest a Sonic/Ice blaster.

I didn't have one on Exalted so last night I started a new one and she is 1 bar from 17 now.

You have for powers:
Sonics

1. Shriek Ranged, Minor Damage(Smashing/Energy), Foe -Damage Resistance
2. Scream Ranged, Moderate Damage over Time(Smashing/Energy), Foe -Damage Resistance
3. Howl Ranged Cone, Medium Damage(Smashing/Energy), Foe - Damage Resistance(All)
4. Shockwave Ranged (Cone), Minor Damage(Smashing/Energy), Foe Knockback
5. Shout Ranged, Heavy Damage(Smashing/Energy), Foe -Damage Resistance(All)
6. Amplify Self +To-Hit, +Damage
7. Siren's Song Ranged (Cone), Minor Damage(Energy), Foe Sleep
8. Screech Ranged, Minor Damage (Smashing/Energy), Foe Disorient, -Damage Resistance(All)
9. Dreadful Wail Point Blank Area of Effect, Extreme Damage(Energy/Smashing), Foe Disorient, -Damage Resistance; Self -Recovery


Ice

1. Chilblain Ranged, Moderate Damage over Time(Cold), Foe Immobilize, -Speed, -Recharge
2. Frozen Fists Melee, Minor Damage(Cold/Smashing), Foe -Recharge, -Speed
3. Ice Sword Melee, Moderate Damage(Cold/Lethal), Foe -Recharge, -Speed
4. Chilling Embrace Toggle: Point Blank Area of Effect, Foe -Recharge, -Speed, -Damage
5. Build Up Self +Damage, +To-Hit
6. Ice Patch Location (Point Blank Area of Effect), Foe Knockdown
7. Shiver Ranged(Cone), Foe -Speed, -Recharge
8. Freezing Touch Melee, Minor Damage(Cold), Foe Hold
9. Frozen Aura Point Blank Area of Effect Melee, Foe Sleep


How do you play it?

Notice almost all of the attacks on both sides are Ranged. The few Melee powers are used to KEEP them at Range!

At low levels (pre-Sirens)
1. approach a group - use Howl to lower resistance and immediately Shockwave. With Chilling embrace on Combat jump over the group (which slows them all and -damage for good measure).

2. Keep alternating with Howl and Shockwave and immobilize your Lt or Boss target anchor with Chillblain and smack him with Shout as well once in a while.

This will let you shred any incoming foes and minions that near are slowed by Chilling Embrace and I use Scream on them.

At higher levels

1. Siren Song - it is a sleep with DAMAGE!
2. Drop Ice Patch under the sleeping foes also chilling them with your Embrace
3. Frozen Touch the boss after you Chillblain and it will freeze almost any boss
4. Frozen Aura - More sleep
5. Shockwave
6. Howl
7. Siren's again if any are left and freeze that boss again.

You can in utter and complete safety wipe out nearly any foes within a very short time and if any get near you Shiver, Chilling Embrace and Ice Patch keep them away from you.

In fact you have zero reason to even take any Melee powers except Frozen Touch, Ice Patch and Chilling Embrace.


You have it - the Tank Mage ranged blaster.