Archery with what (minimal redraw)??

All,

(TLDR; OTHER than Trick Arrow, Sonic or Force Field)

I am looking to roll up an Archery character. I hate blaster secondaries and blasters generally, so I am thinking Defender or Corruptor. I will probably roll a Defender. But I am looking for something to pair it with that has very little redraw.

Obviously, Sonic and FF are "Set it and forget it" sets, and Trick Arrow uses the arrow, so no redraw there, but I don't like any of those sets except on a controller (though I do like FF on a defender). I do those sets lots on controllers and I want to avoid them.

I know that by definition, all the other sets will have a fair amount of redraw, I just wonder which might have the least?

I am tempted to consider Traps, simply due to the fact that I will probably not switch back and forth between arrow shots and traps. I would probably move in and set up traps on the spawn and THEN do one redraw and simply kill everything, so it would be tolerable.

I like sets that add a stealth component so I am naturally attracted to Dark and Storm (and I guess Cold, tho I hated Cold Domination on controllers).

But anyway, whats a good low redraw set to combine with Archery, OTHER than FF, Sonic and TA?

Thanks,

Lewis

Not trying to dissuade you, and it can certainly be played that way, but I am dropping another acid mortar and pgt as soon as they recharge.

Mind you, for kicks, I imagine it would be hysterical to set up trip mines around the spawns perimeter and then toss an explosive arrow in the center of them for a fireworks show, but I would imagine it would get boring after one or two times.

It is definitely a combination I have considered, but never get around to rolling.

As for the actuall op... What about rad? Once your toggles are up and running you should be good to pew pew. Or twang twang as it were...

Traps and Cold would be my top two for that (probably Storm as well but I don't enjoy Storm). Time and Rad are borderline, they don't need a huge amount of in-combat redraw most of the time but there are occasions when you need to spam your heal which does cause redraw.

Yeah, I knew that Traps created lots of redraw, I just recall that when I played a Trapper on a blasting set before, I tended to either do one or the other, just because I am personally fairly laid back. But I knew that in a way, one of the sets I most want (Traps) actually defies my topic (minimal redraw) pretty severely.

Anyway, I am just looking for suggestions. Rad might be good, but I always found it a bit awkward outside of a Control set. But I do like Rad Emission. Hmm.

Any other suggestions? Or should I ignore redraw?

Lewis

I kinda do want Traps. However, my character concept is that the Archery aspect comes from equipment, but I want my character to be naturally winged. I mean, I guess he could have tech wings. But I was thinking of making him an alien hawk type guy with mutant powers, so I almost want a more "non-tech" powerset to combine it with.

Though he could just be an alien engineer of a flightless bird race who can use their wings in low gravity but otherwise just use tech.

But then again, sometimes wings really obscure my view, so maybe I dont even want wings.

I guess as you can see, I really want Archery, because I dont have one (I have characters with most other sets). But I am pretty undecided right now. I dont even know if I should be a Corruptor or a Defender. I also need to make a Dark Blast character and I am toying with Dark/Traps or Traps/Dark.

So, I was gonna kinda let redraw help me decide, or lack thereof, but I keep slipping back to other sets I want to do (I have Trappers but currently all my non-deleted ones are on Masterminds).

OK, well, I am open to suggestions, though I guess I am still a bit uncertain here about whether I really care about redraw.

Thanks,

Lewis

Dark/Archery should be quite solid, and not too bad on the redraw either.

You might open up with 3 or so powers (Fearsome Stare, Tar Patch, maybe Darkest Nights if you really need it) then after that its pew pew time until you need to reapply Stare.

Dark is great at locking mobs down at a distance. Allowing your cone AoE to do its job, and preventing them from scattering before you can fire off Rain of Arrows.

I would recommend slotting the new KB --> KD proc into Explosive Arrow. Otherwise it might blow mobs off of your Tar Patch.


You might have to fire off your heal a few times. But with all your debuffs going around that usually isn't a constant nagging thing unless the proverbial poop hits the fan.

I love Storm/Archery, and rarely ever notice redraw in my normal play style, but my style and yours might quite likely not be the same.

Freezing Rain and RoAs is a fun, winning combo.

The problem is, though, that other than suggesting TA/Archery, you will have some redraw, and we have no way to know what your play style is, or what amount of redraw you can deal with, and what amount for you is a deal breaker.

I've got a Beam Rifle/Thermal Radiation that I feel less fear of redraw. Of course, I only took the mandatory Tier 1 heal and put in my LFG window, "I am here to do damage & debuff. I took my shields cause I don't hate my team but don't look at me to heal you. Pop a green." So pretty much I pop shields on the team, forge a player or two, I'll lay down my long recharging AoE debuffs and go to balsting. If I had the choice, I wouldn't have the heal, but I wanted Scourge with Disintergration. As a Defender, you could just skip the heals (though I like the rez as a Teammate dead AoE and it gives me an explosion after I've just gotten the Damage and Accuracy boost from Vengeance). So if you deicide against traps, I think a case could be made for a non-healing therm.

I also have a Archery/Storm Corruptor that is pretty redraw light. Lay down Freezing Rain and rain shafted death upon them.

As stated, short of Trick Arrow, you're going to have some redraw.

I recently rolled a Beam/Rad Corr, and was pleasantly surprised to find that RI and EF do no cause redraw. Everything else does, but on a steam rolling team, or one where you are secondary support, you can get away with just those two and the occasional LR on hard targets.

Lots of Pew Pew.

Yeah, I already have a FF/Beam, so I am set there.

I do love both Dark Miasma and Storm summoning. I just worry that I will get burnout there, because I do them so much.

Lewis

What about Archer EM Blaster. Standard Range Cap Hover blaster with Aid Self. From what people are saying EM is going to be very good. Honestly I have zero clue what exactly is going to make it that good. But it is just the general statements I read about on the Blaster forum.

End result if you can work all this in with the upcoming i24 changes it might be worth while for you.

I am not considering blasters of any kind. I more or less loathe them. I hate all blaster secondaries (except Ice and, oddly, Devices) and even those are only barely adequate. Also, I am terrible at playing blasters. I don't have the right mindset for them.

I think I have decided to just go with Archery/Storm, even though I end up rocking the Storm Summoning a little too often. But I love it. I am just going to hope that I can adjust the sets so that the redraw is minimal, in terms of what order I deploy powers.

Thanks for the replies!

Lewis