WB skippable powers?

Ok, I got the WB fever after watching a few characters in action yesterday and wound up making a water/kin corr. Are there any WB powers I should skip in that set? She's only level 10 but so far in DFB runs she is a blast to play. I think this is one I want to invest the time leveling up, since my time is really limited between work, taking care of my mother who is in hospice and family. How should she be slotted? I'm really open to advice!

There aren't really any "bad" powers in Water Blast that I'd advise anyone to automatically skip. While you're leveling, pretty much all of them will be useful.

That said, if you're talking about a respec at higher levels, when you've already got plenty of powers and recharge, you might skip either one of the weaker single-target blasts (Aqua Bolt / Hydro Blast), or the Steam Spray cone.

My advice is to try ALL the powers as you level, and use the Second Build feature or a respect once you've identified one or two you don't care for.

As for slotting, standard damage slotting (1 Acc, 3 Dam, 1 End, 1 Rech) works for all the attacks except Dehydrate, which should be slotted for a mix of Acc, Dam, and Heal. Tidal Forces needs Recharge slots, also. When you get around to IO sets, standard damage sets for either Defense or Recharge bonuses are recommended. Frakenslot Dehydrate with Damage and Accurate Heal sets. Water Blast doesn't have enough long-recharging powers to demand tons of +Recharge bonuses, so your secondary will probably define a lot of your slotting goals.

Blue pretty much covered it. I don't think any of the powers so bad they should be skipped... a lot of it will depend on your playstyle and/or what you want to accomplish with the character.

As for slotting, it's a bit gimpy on damage, but I'd recommend slotting a bit more for end reduction than pure damage slotting. Granted, your secondary could definitely help some of the end stress too. I've been playing a Water/Fire blaster, and she spent more of her time trying to keep her blue bar running than she did actual blasting... until I slotted her. The single-target attacks are pretty cheap on end, so you can get away with 1 end enhancement, but I have 2 or 3 on the rest of the powers. (Granted, I'm also only level 20 and running DOs, so I can't say the same is necessary on an SO build.) And as Blue mentioned, Tidal Forces needs recharge, and Dehydrate can go with both damage and healing.

Just some food for thought.

I notice as I play I’m 34 now that Steam Spray cone power is a skip for me. I don’t play at melee range with my /storm so the cone doesn’t seem to be used to it full potential. Now if your play style or secondary calls for something more up close and personal the power could def work. I have been slotting for damage and end seems to be working well so far. Lunatic Ferror is the name if you want to pm me in game and see how he is; Hoping to get to 50 by the weekend.

Steam Spray seems to be a skip-able power to me, but I hesitate advising that considering its' range will likely be increased for the i24 blaster changes, at which point it should be a pretty effective AOE.

I imagine I could drop either Aqua Bolt or Hydro Blast once the build gets some sustained recharge going, but I wouldn't get rid of either of them until it feels "comfortable" to do so. Aqua Bolt has a little less DPS than Hydro Bolt when considering animation time but can surpass it with proper proc effect IO's.

Otherwise nothing really stands out.

EDIT: Just from reading Davonyx;

I always recommend slotting some junk Dam/End IO's into powers around level 25 or 30 to greatly reduce the stress of endurance management without sacrificing too much damage. You don't really need a dedicated IO build until 50, but this alone will cut out a lot of the hassles of leveling up.

To me, Whirlpool; at least for the moment. If I'm solo'ing (+0x0) there usually aren't a lot of mobs and they run out of Whirlpool pretty fast so...that 1 or 2 ticks of -1 won't do much good.


On teams with immobs or more buffs/debuffs? Sure Whirlpool works


Granted I'm only lvl 17 too so...

I'm totally skipping Aqua Bolt and Steam Spray with some focus on global recharge to smooth out my ST and AoE rotations.

I skipped aqua bolt and steam spray. I have more than enough aoe to skip steam spray and enough recharge to skip aqua bolt.

I skipped Hydra Blast and Steam Spray.
Hydra - 1. I do not like the animation and 2. Aqua Bolt recharges faster etc....more tidal

Steam Spray - Not a fan of cones and not needed with Water Burst, Whirl Pool, and Geyser.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paladiamors I love you, I Burnt the Toast!

Aqua Bolt can do more dps...it has -Def, and builds full stock of tidal within a few seconds. I'm thinking that's the first Primary to pick people.