Blaster DP/Dev

Hi

I'm new to this game and have been playing my Brute. The folks over at th Brute forum have helped me with that. I now know my way around Mids and Brute options somewhat.

I'm now asking you concerning my friend's Blaster, who I team with a lot of the time. He's too busy to visit the forums.

My friend has a Blaster with Dual Pistols/Devices. Epic is Munitions but that can change (we're redside so patron pools are an option).
He is mostly concerned with solo and 2-3 team play and has limited funds so only IO and cheap (
He's got the Munitions for the body armor as suvivability is a concern. He alse has Superspeed and the cloak from devices and Manoevres to help with that. Also mezresist especially immobelize is a problem. He's been putting 2x Celerity in all the special run powers.

I don't know enough to know where to start. I'll show him Mids next week some suggestions for builds to play around would be really useful.

He's got Hasten currently and is VIP.

Thanks for any responses.

To prevent Immobilize, take Combat Jumping. There is not a lot that can be done about other mezzes, although Acrobatics (also in Leaping) prevents most knockback and has minor Hold protection (but not Stun protection). There are also Knockback protection IOs that can be used if Acrobatics is too much investment.

A note about mez protection. There are two types, one is normally called Protection and the other is called Resistance. Only Protection can prevent mezzing, Resistance simply shortens the durations.

Hasten is very useful for that build, it is good they chose it.

As far as survivability goes, Blasters do not get much, they want to make sure as many enemies are shooting your Brute as possible. Munitions Mastery has nice tools in Surveillance and LRM rocket, but since Body Armor is passive, it doesn't add much resistance.

One decent option is to build up some Range defense. Thunderstrikes are inexpensive IOs that can be slotted into several of Energy Blast's attacks and have solid bonuses. The option to take the fighting pool for Tough and Weave exists if they want. Targeting Drone can be six slotted with Gaussian's Synchronized Fire Control (some of these get too expensive though, so that would be a reach goal).

The following build is relatively inexpensive and should spark some ideas.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.956
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Mutation Blaster
Primary Power Set: Energy Blast
Secondary Power Set: Devices
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Munitions Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Power Blast -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(9), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(11), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(15), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36)
Level 1: Web Grenade -- Acc-I(A)
Level 2: Energy Torrent -- Det'tn-Acc/Dmg(A), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rng(3), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg(5), Det'tn-Dmg/Rng(5), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(11), RechRdx-I(23)
Level 4: Caltrops -- Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg(A), TmpRdns-Dmg/Slow(13), P'ngTtl-Dmg/Slow(19), AirB'st-Dmg/Rchg(43)
Level 6: Power Burst -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(7), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(7), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(9), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(13), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(23)
Level 8: Combat Jumping -- Ksmt-ToHit+(A)
Level 10: Targeting Drone -- AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx/Rchg(A), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx(17)
Level 12: Aim -- AdjTgt-Rchg(A), AdjTgt-ToHit/Rchg(15)
Level 14: Super Jump -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 16: Acrobatics -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 18: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(19), RechRdx-I(43)
Level 20: Cloaking Device -- S'dpty-Def/EndRdx(A), S'dpty-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(21), S'dpty-Def(37)
Level 22: Boxing -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(37), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(40), Stpfy-KB%(42), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(42), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(50)
Level 24: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(25), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(25), TtmC'tng-ResDam(37)
Level 26: Explosive Blast -- Det'tn-Acc/Dmg(A), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx(27), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg(27), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(29), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rng(31), RechRdx-I(34)
Level 28: Trip Mine -- C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngBlow-Dmg/Rchg(29), C'ngBlow-Acc/Rchg(31), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg(34), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43)
Level 30: Weave -- S'dpty-Def/EndRdx(A), S'dpty-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(31), S'dpty-Def(34)
Level 32: Nova -- C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngBlow-Dmg/Rchg(33), C'ngBlow-Acc/Rchg(33), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg(33), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(46)
Level 35: Body Armor -- TtmC'tng-ResDam(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(36), TtmC'tng-ResDam/Rchg(36)
Level 38: Gun Drone -- ExRmnt-Acc/Rchg(A), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(39), ExRmnt-Dmg/EndRdx(39), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(40), ExRmnt-+Res(Pets)(40)
Level 41: Surveillance -- AnWeak-Acc/Rchg(A), AnWeak-Acc/Rchg/EndRdx(42)
Level 44: LRM Rocket -- Det'tn-Acc/Dmg(A), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rng(45), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg(45), Det'tn-Dmg/Rng(45), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(46), RechRdx-I(46)
Level 47: Power Bolt -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(48), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(48), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(50), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(50)
Level 49: Power Push -- Acc-I(A)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Defiance
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 4: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 4: Health -- Heal-I(A)
Level 4: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 4: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(17), EndMod-I(21)
------------

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This is good advice. ^^^

Sometimes you don't need to spend billions to make a build better than capable of beyond SO's. DP and Devices offers this flexibility ironically (with SO's it is very ordinary).

I got a lot of smart people to think about /dev in my 'ar/dev retrofit' thread- DP isn't AR, but there should be some synergies there for you to think about.

long story short, caltrops + capping your ranged defense is a great way to improve survivability.

Thanks. I pointed my friend to this thread, and we already got some ideas.

Any more advice is welcome especially concerning Dual Pistols, the swap ammo thing and such.

RogerWilco, thanks for posting this
A bit more information, as I found that I had little defence I took:
Fighting: Tough (kick is a prereq. and a bit wasted)
Munitions Mastery: Body Armor
Together this seems to give me reasonable defence against damage.

However sleep and stun effects are troublesome. More than once I had a hospital visit because I was stunned for a too long period. The solution is inspirations (break free). But have to use them to often.

A hold is less of a problem as I still have knock back and can use all inspirations.

I do have incendiary ammo, but I love the knock back of executioner's shot. Are they almost near me, pang, start walking again

status effects are always troublesome for a blaster- with a dp/dev, you should be able to mitigate most of the annoyance with caltrops. If you're dealing with a spawn you know generates annoying status effects, it can be helpful to pull them to a corner or other obstacle where you've laid out your caltrops. Shoot someone, run back behind your trops where they can't see you then open up once they're all stumbling around in slo mo.

Not completely foolproof, but does vastly reduce your exposure.

Mez is the biggest problem with blasters, so generally for blasters, and most AT's, defense is better just for that reason. Now, resistance combined with defense is even better, but you don't have the ability to make such an amalgam using a blaster, so just stick with defense.

Those links in my signature will give you info on Defense and game mechanics.

With the Device the best you might be able to get is Range Defense cap. I would look to the Retro AR Device thread further down the page to get some build ideas.

Defenses will determine if you get hit and resistances is what is taken away from the damage if you do get hit, assuming the resistance matches the damage type.

Some people are from the camp of resistance is better and some believe getting a bit of both is good. The reason is some will mention cascade failure. Basically what that means is many mobs will hit you at once basically causing you do die instantly. Sometimes those things happen when your pulling many mobs and they all end up getting the lucky streak hit which is built into the game mechanics for everyone including mobs.

End result from personal experience it happens but does not happen often enough for me to get worried about it.

A big problem I see with DP is its big attack is PBAOE. Since your pretty much going to be thrust into melee range to pull off the attack. I would imagine your going to be pretty much toe bombing mobs and then firing off HOB.

For this type of build I would suggest Smash and Lethal Defense cap. The easiest way of doing this is going Rogue and picking up the shield from Mace Mastery. A bit of a pain to do but I think it will work out in the end for you.

It would be pretty interesting if you could obtain the shield and also go range defense cap. I don't think it is possible, but would be pretty cool if it didn't gimp out the build. Would need to play around in MIDs and see.