Powerlevel to 50?

I might also suggest a Corr /Pain.

Or a FF or Sonic Def. Big aoe protection that also has mez protection built in, plus the individual shields. I'd probably choose FF for teaming with a pair of blasters.

Also, the VEATS are pretty solid choices. Big PBAOE +Def, and +Acc and +Dam too. If you pick a melee veat you can help keep aggro off them, too, as needed (but if they are hang back blasters they'd lose the buffs most likely, if they hang too far back). If they Blap, this is the way to go, tho.

I'll second what others have said, tho, too. Emps with decent investment in Fort can be a big game changer. Heck, any def with +Def buffs or -tohit and/or -dam debuffs can really boost a pair of blasters survivability.

How fancy do you want to be?

With a Force Field defender, which you may well hate, you can literally make them ten times tougher by [your] level 17:

Four slots in each of the little bubbles, with L20 IOs
Four slots in the big bubble, with L20 IOs
Four slots in Maneuvers, with L20 IO's

(Four L20 IOs = three SO's, roughly).

Pick one of them, set as target, stay within 25' of them and that person will have 45% Defense or very, very close to it. Tell your other friend to stay within 25' of you and HE will have 45% Defense or very, very close to it.

Now they're ten times tougher. I recommend a digital kitchen timer to keep track of the 3-minute "better rebubble" mark.

Think they can stay close?

If you can spare 200 million inf, pay someone to take you on a 54/x8 private cave farm. If you start at level 1, you should hit 31 or 32 by the end. By that point, you'll be plenty able to keep up with your friends at level 45 or so.

Yeah, do look into how Sidekicking works in this game, and let your friends know, otherwise all three of you are going to be "PL'd 50 n00bs" that everyone considers part of the problem.

I'd like to introduce you to MARTy, Metric Activated Reward Throttle (Y? Because exploits are bad!). Basically if someone is earning too much xp it kicks in and slows them down (bear in mind this is aimed at exploits, you can't get it to trigger through normal gameplay (it's been extensively tested)). So with MARTy and supersidekicking powerlevelling is no longer taboo and you are free to get to 50 as fast as you are able to.

When I have played my blasters I have my wife team up with me with a ill/emp troller.

Phantom army to take agro, group Invisibility for stealthing getting up close to mobs to fire away. A emp gives you plenty of buffs/heal/mez protection to help you survive.

I would run Death from Below to 12 and then run lower level TF's with them. Let them start them for max level and you will get really good xp from it.

Keep in mind a Tank is very powerful for this job by mid 20s. (Especially if you drop in the Kinetic combats and two global +3% def I/Os) BUT the agro cap is 17. That is the max mobs you can possibly control. After that the agro spill will wipe your friends in a few seconds.

I'm not sure why everyone is suggesting you pay for cave PLing or try to PL yourself in AE. You've got two friends who are higher level blasters. Have them "PL" you. Otherwise just play as normal.

Invite other players to your team to provide aggro management and buffs. Then run through normal content (lots of people do Council radio/paper missions because they're quick and easy, and have no extra travel time). If you find that the team is cruising through spawns, increase the difficulty to +1. If you're still cruising, increase it to +2. I find that anything above +2 is probably a waste of effort, because many SKed characters are unable to hit targets reliably.

If you're having trouble with a team of a 50 blaster and two 40-odd blasters, it may be your build and your tactics. With a level 50 blaster and lots of inf you could very well be able to make a build that can solo at +0/x8 (depending on power sets), especially if you get the incarnate powers and a level-shift.

Blasters cannot PL in cave farm. If you can prove they can post video. without Video it did not happen. Seriously though, the thread has been up for over a day. I could have researched all day yesterday for exactly my power sets, costume, name options, went home, started a character, and in less than a nights work be at mid 20s Tank. The OP said he has plenty of cash, so cram in some Kin Cmbts, +3% Def Globals, a few other choice I/Os and be ready. Then tonight be Tanking/Meatshield for his Blasters and everybody be happy. No need to PL to 50, no need to make complex team dynamic (I heal/buff, they blast, how do we hold?) The One Tank 2 Blaster (As pointed out by Forbin) team dynamic is so very strong the only way you can screw it up is by designing a really horrid tank, not tanking taunt or a strong taunt aura, or agroing multiple mobs until agro cap is a distant memory. When my wife started a new Blaster (her 1st character) I went right to a Tank. One with a very strong taunt aura and taking Taunt. She loves duoing with that guy. He sits up all the pretty targets and she blasts them out of his range (she chose Energy, of course...) and Then he taunts them back. She has endless fun. I endure it.

Maybe it is just me but I find it very annoying that someone came in here and literally suggested that you *pay* to achieve what you can do with very little effort on your part. That just comes across as someone trying to take advantage of someone like the OP who is seeking advice on how best to help out his buddies.

Best way to level are TFs.

My two cents:

I agree that a buffer/healer would be better than a tank to help your friends. A good defender/controller/corrupter can turn blasters into tanks.

I think that you should ask your friends to run a few Death from Below trials with you. They are very fast and fun, even for higher level characters. You should be well into the teens after a few runs and now able to have some basic buffs and attacks.

After that, do whatever your friends want to do. TFs, story arcs, AE, whatever you all have fun doing. As long as you are killing stuff the XP rolls in quickly in the lower levels.

You could also see if you have some XP boosters or Experienced temp powers from vet rewards or super boosters. Again, levels flow like water early so I wouldn't recommend using them until at least level 20 or higher.

Another little trick is to park your character at a Police Station in between play sessions. Leaving your character in certain locations grants time toward certain Day Jobs. The police station day job grants additional XP bonus.

Yes, there are AE maps and other popular farms that can get you levels at unbelievable speeds. Having someone run you through a few of these will be faster than anything else. There is nothing wrong with doing that, but it can get repetitive and boring. However, you should not pay for leveling in any currency. I never have and I never will.

Good luck to you and your friends!

I saw someone in Atlas selling farm runs +4/8


300 million per run.


I almost fell over

I sent him a tell telling him what it thought of that amount. I wasnt buying infact was just running to a train to finish a hero merit run i was doing.

who would pay that much for one farm map.

I have more influ than i can ever use. And i would never do that.

(also i dont have two since i can pl myself but still )

I'll go 10 mil a run. I will go 20 mil a run for a good farmer who can actually pull +4/x8 fast. But 300mil? Course, those are the old ambush farm rates. But I will not hand over 300 mil to a stranger for "possibly" the next hours work. The comp dies, dog ate my homework, AFK, Wifeagro, life happens.

Also, the best farms I have ever gotten were free, by far. I had one squishy teleport me around a warrior map in PI. No sure how he did it, he would TP every 5-10 seconds, everything died, everything. A level a run in high 40s and FAST. Another fellow(or fellowette) pulled me on one of the indoor AE crawls for an hour. Huge exp. I'm on Virtue now, and farming is very frowned on, at least in public. But of course I have friends that ticket farm, dont mind doorsitters for company. Also, I love TFs. So, I just run content. Plus, a lot of 50 door and tip teams on Virtue take anybody, I mean anybody. Virtues answer to AE I guess. GL in your strategies.