Request for Playtest: SSA #3

TL;DR Try SSA #3 on a solo Blaster, +1/x2, starting with empty insp tray, and let me know how you do.

I was just trying to figure out if "Regen is going to be enough" to fix blasters, more or less, and I got thoroughly spanked. I was trying to see how an Ice blaster performs, on the theory that enemy -speed and -rech should give similar results to +regen . I had an old Ice/Ice with a near-Frankenslot build that I hadn't touched since issue 9 and I had a really off day. I started scrapperlocking and it just spiraled down from there.

I actually proved either that "A blaster who's not paying attention is a dead blaster, all the time" or "Arachnos is full of Blaster-killing." Maybe both.

It occurs to me that this is probably a good test for Blaster performance.

Rules: Start with an empty insp tray, on +1/x2. I had no useful insps left after SSA #2. If you can keep the NPCs alive, go you; they died about the first or second time I did.

Please post what sets you're using, rough level of IO's (none/frankenslot/some set bonuses/dream build) and how you performed.

My experience was that frequently, one or two guys would all of a sudden get ugly [come in from another spawn, get unslowed, whatever], drop some burst damage in on me and I'd go from, like, 75% HP to 10% HP and immobilized.

So, I ran it on a dark/dark. Which admittedly has a bit more mitigation than most blaster sets. As per your rules, I started with an empty tray. I would never do that heading into an Arachnos ambush, hehe...

That said, I'm not sure what kind of data point this really determines... Arachnos and Arachnoids are not easy, even on melee AT's

Anyway, I figured dark blast's heal might kinda stand in for the regen buff we're getting. 40m, no deaths. On my 2nd try. 1st time I got mezzed and dropped on the ambush in the 1st mish. And yep, I had to be careful about it. The 2nd mish was essentially an insp farm for me, after that I could stop worrying and play. Which says something perhaps... My normal modus operandi is just to head in with a stocked tray and shred. After all, the contact is also a store...

Anyway, my NPC help in the 2nd mish died in the tunnel. Good riddance.

I generally agree with your 'proofs'. On the other hand, that's part of what I like about playing blasters.

Here's the build as it is on live, I'd call it IO'd but not quite a dream build... I mean to slot some purples where the decimations are and fill out tough with a couple of pvp IOs

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I'm all for shiny buffs, but I expect the devs made this to be challenging content intended for teams. The fact that a blaster has trouble solo probably isn't going to raise any red flags. Besides, Hawk has that dev-hacked energy/devices, hehe...

Anyway, I ran a few more blasters through it.

Fire/Fire/Pyre, no defeats. Similar IO build to the dark posted above.

Rad/MM, 2 defeats. Again, similar build. I was defeated in the 1st mish (mezzed, with no insps) and again when the EB landed a couple of lucky hits. This worried me, as I was now out of insps and felt it'd be against the spirit of the thing to buy insps at the hospital, but it turned out to be a non-issue as I discovered I could immobilize and out-range him.

Rad/Fire, 5 defeats. SO build with the numi and miracle uniques and a -kb io. Twice in the first mish by the initial ambush... *shakes fist*. Mezzed, with no insps. Again by an arachnose ambush in the 2nd mish. Again by arachnoids in the tunnel on the third mish. These last 2 may have been avoidable, as I was hoarding insps for the EB fight... who killed me anyway, for the 5th defeat. Hit me with an executioners strike for 990 pts of dmg. At that level, my blaster had 1175 hp. And stunned me, which dropped scorp shield, allowing his next hit to find me that much more easily, and I was dead before I could react. Barely eked out the win, with an empty tray.

Tried this on a L49 stone/will brute (zero defeats) and a L33 dark/sonic defender (three defeats in the same fight, first boss of the second mission.) I'm going to consider this to be a case where medium build squishies get spanked hard, and it's just a question of HOW hard.