Nice!
I've only played Dark Blast (I have a Dark/Dark) to the early twenties and I've loved it so far, but I love the full gamut of range and melee that Blasters allow for... And that is why I almost posted in your thread, but didn't, because I figured I'd probably not be of much help!
Glad you found a Blaster that you're enjoying. Maybe... one day... you'll find yourself loving a bit of melee in there... and, before you know it... You'll love the blapping as much as the rest...
Regardless, I can imagine Dark/EM being a great ranged blaster!!
@Zethustra
"Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew come out
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
About time! 
(teasing, of course). Dark/NRG is on my list for future projects... so many projects lol. Anyway, a nice synergy you may not have considered is power boost, which will buff the to-hit debuff, the heal, the hold, and the immob. And, of course, boost range for bigger cones.
Also, I'll second the notion that you may grow to love your melee attacks as well. /nrg has some heavy hitters; depending on the team, I add 'support crew bodyguard' into my list of duties. Baddie near a squishy? I'm closest. Blap! Problem solved.
The nice thing about Dark/Energy is that it has good synergy and offers options.
Very glad to hear it!
I may have to try that - oh no the alt alarm just sounded.
I've got to admit, I do love playing the Blaster as a blapper.
but your ranged thread has made me consider trying something ranged. Looking at a Beam Weapon/Energy Manipulation right now...
The game ends at 50.
SmilegasmDo not ever give Mind Control a pet.
We need more control sets without pets.My characters are not "toons".
They are all project characters, though.Global chat @Lxndr My servers: Defiant, Liberty, Pinnacle, Virtue
I would again say try the sonic/ice blaster.
I was in an ITF last night and our tank went AFK. So I tanked for the team, I handled the alphas and the ambushes in the Crystal mission.
I had to tank Romulus when the tank was killed and did so without dying myself. Afterwards a few players on the team were like man you are like a Dominator on steriods!
I am actually trying a few different powersets now to further my project. AR/energy was one of the first suggestions, by a very clever player. So, i parked the Dark/Nrg at 34 and currently have an AR/Nrg at 23. I plan on trying approx 5 different groups of suggested powersets for range. This will allow me to determine which "far range" options I really enjoy, if redraw bothers me, if sonic bothers me. If I "love" something I thought I did not. Who knows, maybe I'm just a great Blaster player now?!? ...ya, no, lol. But the one I like the most is the one I will I/O out for ranged defense and play. It will become my "Blaster Main' and then I'll probably move onto the Dark and Grav Doms when i22 drops.
Okay, I have been posting off/on for quite a while in the Blaster forums. I have shared my struggles, my questions, my ideas (sometimes crazy). And now I share my success.
It took me a while to realize what I was struggling against. To me it is very obvious the Devs wrote up the Blaster as a Blapper. All (most?) of the power synergies in the majority of the sets are perfect for Blapping. Count the number of PBAoEs, melee attacks, and boosts that require contact of less than 10 feet. It's a minefield.
So, after much help (thank you all) in my Ranged thread I started to get some ideas. I wish I could like AR and Bow. But I cannot. I even have an idea for one of my old D&D Elf characters. I made a 1st level AR/Nrg to see if I could like the concept. I just have a real problem with guns & bows in my comic worlds. It's too bad, both are great Ranged sets. I made a couple builds in Mids. I looked at how each of the suggested sets might play. Then I dropped the hammer and started playing a Dark/Energy. It was not even mentioned in the Ranged thread. But it had everything folks were talking about, and a little more. The trade off is that it has *slightly less Range. Probably why no one mentioned it. But killing stuff at 60-80 is fine for me. I would prefer to kill stuff at 150, but in game those opportunities are rare unless on an outside map. The nicest part about Dark is it has a lot of tools to keep enemies at 60-80. A lot. And a self heal! ftw
I have currently leveled him to 32. For me this is not rushing. I did DFB to 22 then started teaming to see what I have. I have done Posi 1 & 2, Synapse, and Sis Psyche. He performs well in all of them, even though the Posi 2 was very rough, lot of deaths. The team was a bit ragged, even though it was organized by a friend. The Dark/Energy fights real well, especially once the self heal comes in. If you can stay at Range, watch to make sure you are not Zerged, don't get one-shotted, then you are pretty unkillable. At low levels I am doing a lot of cone work, but know that at higher levels I may need to dial down the AoE. And I have not even slotted I/Os yet, this is with SOs. I also did a level 47 Hero Alignment where they rescue the soldier from GV. We cleaned the map. I got into mage wars with Orange MU bosses. The build did very very well. I sniped a lot, did a lot of ST work, and generally helped the team and stayed alive. Yes! I expect this is how he will play in the trials. Tonight I hope to get a Citadel and maybe a Manticore, to further the testing. I think doing the Task Forces provides a great benefit to see how the build performs under long term pressure. Since I am not great on Blasters these little laboratories really tell me if I'm going in the right direction. So far, it is a big yes.
I have taken the Nuke as an o-crap button, and because I have not finalized the build and no other power choice seemed right. I also wanted to see what it looks like, if I have any use for it. I fully expect to respec out of it. I have no room in my set up for PBAoE. If things drop that far out of my plan my back up option is phase shift and leave. I will not be melee-ing with this character, even if melee-ing means sitting and exploding on folks.