Erratic1

Arguably true, however he OP requested: From your own statement you really enjoy your AR/TA build. So presumably it does not fall into the category of "no-go". Is there some combination you could offer which is utterly unworkable?

I enjoy the game, have my favorite mission arcs, don't 2*xp outside of DFB, never request a farm (though quite happily join PI +4/8 which are not really meaningfully different...humans are strange about what they find a difference in), and admit annoyance at LFG being spammed by people looking for farms to join. However.... Influence is optimally generated nowadays by playing the AH market. Who cares if you do not get influence while levelling when you'll generate it like the US Treasury prints money. If xp is better grinding "real" missions, you have to factor in getting groups and travelling between missions. AE there is minimal travel time--exit, start next scenario. The farmer who invites who doesn't care that you are sitting safely at the entrance (heck, prefers you to be there), and poof, you're level 30 in an hour. People have different tolerances for what repetition is fun for them. I enjoy the entire 1-50 run and have only minimally done end game activity. I may have two characters who have their Alpha and Judgement slots filled and no others even with a small raft of 50s. I need breaks from my characters, but I see other players who have run their Veteran levels up on a character into the stratosphere. I asked one player I've bumped into because they host run the TFC taskforces all the time just how many merits they had. 50,000 merits on a single character is an inconceivable amount to me. I can barely drive myself to reach a thousand intentionally. Some people may be endlessly fascinated with end game and building their version of Omnipitus and for them, forgoing the earlier part they have endlessly done (or not) is their choice. All this to say, "Different strokes for different folks" (hopefully I've planted a earworm--yeah, I'm that old). It does not hurt me how someone else chooses to have fun.

I guess once one has sufficient defenses to survive long enough to trigger everything while being attacked Combat Teleport would be a real plus. Currently I'm Fly/Hover and sometimes the Hover portion is handy while the one-two is recycling.

Yeah, I really am. I have had a miserable history with blasters over the years, only taking one to 50 on Homecoming (Beam/MC). This feels as much fun and fires my imagination. Of course being a better IO builder may help a bit on that last bit. Touch of the Beyond surprised me with its significant boosting of Regeneration and Recovery. Its a real perk. Dark Consumption has been useful but I wonder if in the end it will be necessary. Of course that somewhat comes down to the speed at which you/the group moves. As for Soul Drain...oh my. Even just doing Soul Drain without a follow up Inferno, I can tell a real difference in how quickly a spawn melts when using Soul Drain (assuming I hit a nice number of targets). And then there are those times when I do follow up Soul Drain with Inferno. Will definitely check the thread out!

Kaboom.mp4 Reached the level where I got to try to do what drew me to Fire/Dark in the first place. The following is more test of concept. No doubt I will find strange new ways of committing suicide when trying this against something like Carnies or Malta.

Back to back missions in PI we entered building into sewers.

Dead brutes do no damage, so cap one side (Def or Res depending on what the secondary favors) then try to get as much of the other as possible.

Went 3 over. That lowered the contrast between top and bottom enough that I then decided to brighten the other colors thusly: I think your suggestion was a nice improvement. Thanks!

So something more like?

Really annoyed when someone ports in or out from another zone in motion, shoving me in some random direction. Know it is not their fault but it annoys me.

This seems pretty straight forward. What am I not understanding? Context. What oedipus tex wrote in full was: Notice the openning words--"Neither is strictly better...." For a particular portion of the game and in the opinion of the person making the statement, one particular AT based on a specific theme/powerset was better than a different AT based on the same theme/shared powerset. (oedipus tex knows his stuff, so while I mention it being his opinion it is in all likelihood a good opinion.) However that is cross-AT comparison going on. Most people will tell you that in general a Blaster will have an easier and faster time than any of the support ATs in terms of dispatching targets. The focus of this thread is intra-AT comparison with the notion that some powerset combinations are (I'm willing to be generous to the notion so use the next word intentionally) near uniformly inferior to others. So I am not sure how what oedipus tex was saying applies to this thread.

Having decided on Fire and Dark as powersets the name Ebonblaze presented itself as the logical choice (because no way Darkfire wasn't taken). Combined, the name and powers suggested the colors for the costume--black and orange. Problem: Black and orange are Halloween colors. (Incidentally the colors of one of my state's universities, something I've long mocked them for, because their original mascot was a tiger.) I seriously considered dropping orange in favor of some other color, but worked at it, trying different approaches and what resulted looks pretty good to me even if the color palette diversity is extremely low. (Hmmm...how crazy can I get with colors?)

Repulsing Torrent, slotted to do Knockdown, is a wonderful, awesome thing. Very nice thinking adding Force Feedback: Chance for Recharge and Annihilation: Chance for Res Debuff to it.

My character history is littered with attempts at making Blasters which invariably bore me and end up discarded somewhere in their 30s. Only on my last attempt did I manage to take one to 50 (Beam/MC). Rather than leave well enough alone, I have foolishly gone back to the well. Only as she reached her mid-20s did I think to wonder what forum wisdom is on the combination Fire/Dark. Turns out there isn't any. I admit to a bit of misgiving at the thought of having to run in to use Soul Drain (and Dark Consumption) but it came to me, "People make Blappers, cap their defenses, and there is Dark Pit." But I am not going to have IOs at low levels and Dark Pit does not come available until level 35. Figured 35 comes quickly enough and started to play. But still, not a lot any mention of Dark Manipulation outside of Dark/Dark or DP/Dark. Is Dark Manipulation that unloved? Because what few times I've run up on a group and pushed my own damage up by 100% for 30s has me dizzy with joy. What am I missing?

I could toss together something I might like (haven't touched EM since live) but that might not appeal to you. My best suggestion is to look at a couple of builds involving EM regardless of secondary and Bio regardless of primary and see if there is anything that is being avoided. Another thing is you get a free respec every 10 levels so that allows you to try out powers you are unsure of and if you end up not liking them respec'ing out of them. However if you mis-slot or take a power you don't like I would suggest living with it until you have a final build in mind or until you have enough of a change in plans to warrant using the respec. I typically aim to do around level 30 and then again at 50--two used of the 5 you will get for free. There are some opimizations which might allow you to drop a power on the Bio side but frankly all of them are good and work, including the T9 (unlike with a lot of other sets). On the EM side, some people have a thing with any attack with a long animation, but like I said, try them out and plan on using a respec in your lowish 30s. Edit: You might consider grabbing Cross Punch (since you're likely going to be getting Tough and Weave anyway) as an extra AoE attack.

There is a lot of dislike of Bio's visual effects. Got an SS/Bio myself and do not see any reason why EM/Bio would have any problems.

At least they did not make Unrelenting the comparison...it has a 30s duration and a 600s recharge.

From the head of the thread:

If Support/CC lose value in the higher levels that has to due with the ability of most ATs to build not to care if mobs are CC'd because you're tough enough you don't care what the mobs do and tough enough to withstand their attacks without being buffed or them debuffed not because non-support/cc classes are suddenly applying cc's, buffs, and debuffs. It is an outgrowth of the IO system favoring defensive buffs all over the place. Had the IO system favored damage buffs to the same extent then we'd be talking about how Controllers/Corruptors/Defender/Masterminds don't really need anyone and those AT's respective forums would be all about Pylon times.

Note sure why the word "dunes" is in my previous post. I blame phone autocorrect.

Yeah but even Granite dunes stumbles on Carnies. And Shield does not do great against Malta. And it should be noted best performance is green, which Invulnerability and Bio Defensive stance have and both Shield and SR lack. But yeah, the view is a limited one.

Invulnerability and Bio in Defensive stance arguably do at least as well (if not better).

It does sadden my heart to make old references that others miss but I continue on for those times when someone gets it. Call it a weakness.

Though I am a bit confused why he's taking to task posts which are nearing two years old at this point.

Grant Cover gives you (and teammates) DDRand Recharge Debuff resistance: