Frozen Burn

Yes, newbie 50s in iTrials need to tread more carefully than they may be used to in the non-incarnate content. And that is good that you do so as well - that is adapting your playstyle to the situation. However, as a Dom or Controller, you should also be able to engage an entire group along with a couple teammates to split aggro and increase survivability. You don't have to take the alpha, but you should be able to use your AOE controls to engage and lock down an entire spawn and help kill it all without dying, even a newbie 50. I know the portion of the BAF you refer to - let someone take the alpha while you back them up (and build your Domination, if a Dom), but you should still be able to use your Controls, Buffs/Debuffs, Damage powers without dying that often. Yes, mistakes happen, things go wrong, powers miss, or you accidentally jump in before the tank and you die. It happens. But if you're repeatedly dying, then you're obviously doing something consistently not right and you should earnestly look at your build, playstyle, and powers rotation. Again, not saying you have to "tank" spawns, but you should be able to engage an entire group WITH your team/league-mates and survive.

@Apparition is correct here. FF - even power boosted - is largely not needed for the iTrials and especially in Hard Mode content where you have a limited number of roles to fill. That +Def is not as useful since the powerset provides no debuffs (sparking big dabates on what to do with the set itself which can be talked about in other threads). Yes, Power Boosted FF Shields are good... no denying it. But it only provides a LITTLE use on iTrials to help newbie 50s, as you stated. But largely and overall, it's not that desired because there are generally a LOT of people who take Barrier that recharges every 2 mins and it HARD caps your Def and Resists - and even though it slowly wanes over the 2 mins, there are enough Barriers being cast that they overlap and the buffs stays stronger and longer overall. In addition, many people build their squishie toons to have high enough soft capped defense (pre-incarnate) to survive in the iTrial realm. So that even further limits the need for FF. I actually hate typing those words! One of my fav toons is a FF/Water Defender with Power Boost. I love that toon!! And yes, just like you, I can feel a difference when my FF'er is on a team and doing its thing - but I only feel that in normal content. When I play it in an iTrial, I feel mostly useless because the shields aren't really needed and my blasts don't do as much damage as a Blaster.

I'd like to also add in that you shouldn't be dying that much for iTrials, unless you're a newbie 50 - and even then, only upon occasion. Once you get your incarnate abilities and level shifts, those greatly increase your survivability. If you're faceplanting a lot, then you should look at your builds and try to find powers, sets, and bonuses to get you more defenses and damage mitigation. Also look at your playstyle - are you kiting or just standing still? Are you being aware of your surroundings? Are you standing in that blue or pick patch that does high DoT? Are you away from the healing "bubble" from all the healers auto-spamming their auras? and etc. I play iTrials regularly and with all ATs - from squishie dominators / trollers to Tanks and Brutes - and especially, Blasters (my fav AT)! I have no issues surviving with any of them at range or in melee. So ranged preference over melee doesn't matter. In fact, most of my blasters are melee blasters as many of my best attacks are melee high damage powers - so I build them to be able to withstand being in melee range, even for AVs and GMs (pre-incarnate). I do similar with my Doms, Controllers, Defenders, Corruptors - any "squishie" that needs to be in melee - again, all pre-incarnate so that when I do become incarnate, those abilities are added on top and not just to fill in "holes."

I do have the entire set in Blizzard. It's a good set and worth slotting as Uun states above. But the proc itself, as with most procs, it's best in the longer recharging powers as it will have a better chance to proc. Putting it in a rain power like Blizzard (or Ice Storm) it does not have a chance to proc on every tick (that'd be too OP) - instead it has a chance to proc per mob on initial casting (so you'll get some but not all), and then every 10 secs , it will have another chance to proc. So Blizzard lasts 15 secs which means it will proc twice - once upon casting and a 2nd time @ 10 secs in (5 secs before the power is over). So putting it in Blizzard can be a good thing - It makes them die faster to your DoT.

It's a good power, but highly situational. It's an "OMG I'm about to die power" that completely protects you and lets you regen and recover with a long cool down so you can't abuse it and there's a time limit so you can't stay in it forever either. Really, most ice tankers can get their defenses high enough that they don't really need it - so it is skippable. Or, I am sure a lot of people take it at lvl 47 or 49 (like me) for those rare moments when the 5% rule applies and you've just been hit with something mean that takes most of your hitpoints (like Lord Recluse or other nasties).

My current goto scrapper for soloing is my Katana/Dark. I run at +4x8 and just carve my way through missions from any of the lvl 50 contacts - including the Shadow Shard missions (especially the insp farms for keeping our base stocked).

First of all.... there is nothing wrong with having multiple Fire Blasters! 🙂 Fire Blast pairs with everything! So keep what you've got, if you enjoy it. If you wanna switch, then ST vs AOE blast set doesn't matter - play what you like. Given /Ninja is more of a melee set, you'll want to find Blast sets that compliment that. Dark, AR, and Sonic are better to use at range because of cones so I would avoid those. /Ninja also has swords - so weigh if you want to deal with redraw options between AR, DP, Beam, and Archery - yes, you can select "No Redraw" options in costume editor, but maybe that bugs you to have weapons magically appear (it does me). For the record - I am currently REALLY enjoying my DP/Ninja (with Redraw). Al the other sets would be fine to use. Ice is great for the control with holds and Blizzard and works well in melee range. Rad is excellent and you can stack Def Debuff with your sword attacks. Elec, Water, Fire, Psi, Seismic, Energy - would all work well.

Ah, ok. Cool. Did not know that all 3 ranks (min-boss) were needed to gain that full XP still. Thanks for the info. But it does still stand that you have to give your custom critters (any rank) enough powers to award that full XP - just because you load in all 3 ranks (min, LT, Boss) doesn't mean you get full XP if you limit their powers. The default setting when creating a custom critter is 75% XP, if i recall correctly and you typically need to add a power or 2 to get the critter to award full 100% XP. ...then just be sure to create Mins, LTs, and Bosses to load in, as you stated to get that full XP.

When making custom critters (any rank), there is gauge at the top of the power selection screen that shows the % of xp they are worth. The fewer powers the critters have, the less xp. Add powers to them until the gauge reads 100%. You can add even more powers to the critter if you want, but you can never go above 100%. To also get to 100% xp worth, the critter must have at least 1 melee and 1 ranged power. Then to make all LTs spawn... make a custom group with only LTs in it. You do not need to add in minions or bosses. Then add your custom group to the mish and the map will populate with just your LTs. Spawn sizes will be according to the team size as usual. If you gave your LTs full 100% with their powers, then they'll award full xp. But even then, LTs at full xp reward less than Bosses at full xp.

Maybe this is one of Special Tactics Division's special tactics! 😄

Is your character at the influence cap? That would keep you from earning more.

This is very easy. Create a single mish arc. The Orange warning text on the upper right corner tells you all you need to complete to make it work. Just click on the orange text, and it will take you to the part you need fix. Basically, pick a small map, a foe to fill the map, and then add in a single objective - like click a glowie. Fill in required text - don't have to get fancy... just put "test" in each field. Then Test the mish - get your badge. Publish it - get your badge. (Then unpublish it so others don't find it and think it's something.) lol There are also badges for testing an arc with a rescue or kidnap, destroy and object, and dying while in test mode. You could put all of those in the same mish, if you wanted to do it all at once. Once you publish, you get badges for doing those thing in "published" mode too. There is also a badge for testing with a team of 8. And yes, there is an AE section on the forums.

Yes, you should test Meteor to see if you like it or not. No, Meteor does not break stealth. In fact, your stealth is not broken unless 1) something survives - so if all are dead, you keep your stealth; 2) if something does survive, your stealth doesn't break until AFTER the mobs get up and they have to hit you with an attack, or you attack. Tested this in open RWZ on even con and +3 Rikti mobs (without a drone, b/c they have high perception). Even when I only used Meteor and there were a couple boss and LT survivors on the +3 mob, even though my stealth was not broken - they could not hit me b/c of my defenses and I did not attack - they were still aggroed on me and knew where I was. However, I could run to the next mob and the new mob did not aggro because I was still stealthed. As for timing of the Meteor - yes, it's best as an alpha strike. Launch it, then you can get 2-3 more attacks (preferably AOEs) in before it hits. Obviously, your next attack will break stealth so you need to survive a couple volleys until the Meteor hits. But this just makes one HUGE instant strike to completely devastate mobs and typically, mobs are dead (even +4s) after the Meteor strike (as I've stated above, this mostly makes the KB issue a NON-issue). Also after launching your Meteor, you can use those next 2-3 attacks in the few secs you have to help pull in outlying mobs into the Meteor blast zone. The Meteor puts a shadow on the ground where it will hit showing you where to pull to. Sometimes (not always), you can get a couple outlying mobs to get hit as well. When on a team, it's like Rain of Arrows in that you have to think ahead of the team and fire it early so it hits at the right time. Not all like that. Others are fine with it. I do encourage you to test to see if you like it or not.

I have an Earth blaster and I also tank, and have had Meteor drops on my herds too... it's no big deal. So what if the mobs are KB'd -- they're dead! Maybe sometimes, there are a few stragglers that survive, but they're easily picked off by the blaster or teammates while the tank moves on to herd the next group -- which is what they should be doing -- finishing off stragglers isn't the tank's job. Any tank or melee toon that can't use their "W" button to move on shouldn't be playing a melee toon.

@Tahliah and everyone else.... Refresh yourself with the patch notes on Long Range Teleporter.... your Old "Base-Button" Macros still work! On a new toon, just grab all the Atlas explores and get your LRT button. Click you LRT and immediately hit your Base-passcode macro button and you will transport to your base so you can travel to any zone you have a teleporter for! From the patch notes: See last bullet point. 🙂 New Accolade Power: Long Range Teleporter Long Range Teleporter The Pocket D VIP Pass power has been significantly improved and is now the Long Range Teleporter If you previously owned Pocket D VIP Pass, you will now have the Long Range Teleporter with Pocket D unlocked as a destination Long Range Teleporter is unlocked by the Passport Accolade, which can be acquired by earning: An exploration accolade in any zone with a Base Portal (see the "Complete Base Portal List" below for reference), or The Pocket D VIP Gold Club Member badge (for spending 1 hour in Pocket D) Long Range Teleporter can be used once to teleport you to any zone that you have unlocked Collecting any exploration badge in a zone will unlock it as a destination Pocket D can also be unlocked with the Pocket D VIP Gold Club Member badge Only zones with base portals can be unlocked (see the "Complete Base Portal List" below for reference) Long Range Teleporter has a 2s activation time and a 10 minute cooldown Activation time is longer in PvP If you activate Long Range Teleporter and do not use it, the cooldown will begin counting down but the power can still be used again until you zone This is indicated by the red ring around the power Note that even if you zone without using LRT, it will still go on cooldown - it's not possible to determine if you zone with the power or not Examples: You activate the power. Spend 60 seconds looking at the options before clicking one. When you zone, the power will be on cooldown with 9 minutes left. You activate the power. You don't zone. Two minutes later you activate it again and zone. The power will go on cooldown with 10 minutes left (each activation resets the timer). You activate the power, then keep running around the zone for five minutes. Then you use a monorail or whatever to go to a different zone. The power will go on cooldown with 5 minutes left Long Range Teleporter allows you to use /enterbasefrompasscode to enter any base Provided you have a base with teleporters.... You don't have to fumble with the LRT interface... you don't have to collect explores in every zone... and you can quickly travel to any zone without slowing down your team. If you do not have a base for for quick travel, please feel free to use mine: /macro STA enterbasefrompasscode STA-8822 (Steel Transit Authority) All teleporters, trainers, stores, and other useful things for a traveler are right there for you to use. ...and feel free to explore the base!

This is just BRILLIANT! 😄

@Uun and @InvaderStych both have good suggestions. Yes, other blast sets like Water and Seismic have some KB/KD and are great sets. Unfortunately, most Blaster Secondaries do not have a KB power or lend itself to it, unless you slot the few procs I mentioned above. Martial and Sonic do have KB with their T1s and they are GREAT to use and fun! I have an Energy/Martial Blaster that i just LOVE! But with a Blaster, it'd be like FF in that you get a couple powers with KB/KD that you can chain together to do a LOT of KB/KD. Lots of fun, sure! AND I encourage you to play these combos. But you asked for the "King" - which would be Energy Blast as all powers in the set (but Aim) would be a KB power and also being a Defender or Corrupter with Storm - that again is your "King."

FF has 3 powers that KB/repel.... Force Bolt, which is great, but single target. Repulsion Field, which imo, isn't all that great as the ticks to hit are too far apart and only has a 9 ft radius. And then there is Force Bubble - 50ft radius bubble of repel/KD. So with FF, you're really only looking at 2 powers that are viable with useful KB/repel. HOWEVER, the Force Bolt + Force Bubble combo is GREAT and could make the set a "Contender" - but still not king, imo. ...Maybe FF would the KB-Queen. Storm's KB powers are all AOEs. 2 of them are pets, so they can be KB'ing while you do more - whether more Storm powers (4 other AOE powers) or more Energy Blasting. With FF, you have the Force Bubble running doing it's thing, but you only get 1 other FF KB power (Force Bolt - and single target) + your Energy Blasts. That's why I say Storm would be King vs. FF. Also, as a defender or corrupter, you could take some epic/ancillary powers to help with KB/KD: Dark Mastery: Opp Gloom and Soul Transfer will take a Stupify Chance for KB, and Dark Consumption and Soul Drain will take an Avalanche Chance for KD - you can only slot one of those, but you could the Overwhelming Force Chance for KB to KD proc and it would make an otherwise no-KB power at least KD. Electric Mastery: Thunder Strike is AOE KB Flame Mastery: Consume can take Avalanche Chance for KD and of Rise of the Phoenix KBs for when you die. 🙂 Power Mastery: Power Build Up will BOOST your KB'ing of your powers! Total Focus can take a Stupify Chance for KB Psy Mastery: Telekinesis is an AOE foe repel, but it is a VERY tricky power to use and even harder to use well. Soul Mastery: Soul Drain takes an Avalanche Chance for KD and you also get Power Boost that BOOSTs you KB'ing. So you have additional choices depending on toon concept. But Dark and Soul seem best with Power and Flame being secondary, imo.

I was on the live forums back in the day... but after seeing this thread, I had to google what "jranger" meant. heh! This is a lot of posting about such an minor issue. And I joined in - look at me - I'm participating!! 😄

I love knockback and its control as well. I am with you in that others tend to hate it. But whatever. This is all for KB-lovers! 🙂 One of my favorite controllers is an Ill/Storm. The KB and chaos is GREAT! But it's Controlled chaos. But really, if you're searching for the most powers with KB, Storm is it. Illusion has very little except Phantasm's Energy blast. So I would think a Storm/Energy Defender or Energy/Storm Corrupter would provide the most. Storm has: Gale, Hurricane, Tornado, and Lightning Storm that all KB. For Thunder Clap, you could slot a Stupify Chance for KB in it as well. And of course Freezing Rain does KD, but that is added control. So that is 6 out of the 9 powers that has some sort of KB/KD component to it. Add in Energy Blast and voila - your KB King!

Literally, whatever you want. Judgement - Pyronic is thematic. But can't go wrong with Ion or Vorpal. Void and Mighty are good if you spend a lot time in melee range too. Interface - Reactive and Cognitive are thematic and good. Diamagentic is always good to the -tohit and -regen. there are others that do good debuffing as well - totally your choice, Lore - again whatever you want. Do you have a character theme to go by? Do you want 2 damage pets or 1 damage + 1 Support pet? And if you want a support pet (Radial side) - what buff/debuff powers do you want from them? They all do varying things. Destiny - what do you need more of? Barrier is always good for +Def/+Res, Clarion for mez prot, Ageless for +end/+rech, Rebirth for +Heal/+Regen/+Max HP, or Incandescence for TP team/league. Hybrid - Assault is always good for damage, but if in melee a lot, maybe go with Melee Hybrid. Control Hybrid is also good for adding +1 mag to controls - which can be useful for those times when you have to build your domination bar again - it'll almost be like you still have Domination active.

Yes, but one should also consider if they will Ex down later as well before rearranging a build to solely rely on an alpha, as some above have indicated to do above. If the the player will never Ex-down and will always remain incarnate - it's no issue. But if they do choose to Ex down and they removed all Acc from their powers because they were relying solely on an Alpha that is not available at lower levels - this is an issue. While Vigor Core is still the way to go no matter what, the advise above about dropping Acc slotting from powers to proc out powers or use full sets that have no Acc bonus (like Prev Med or Numia) may not be smart if the player will Ex down often enough.

Also to note: Hot Feet has a -fly component to it, so you can drop them by just flying near them. Yes, your immobs do too, but this can be handy at times as well if you want to drop them without immob'ing them - like to herd them together to where your Tar Patch is/will be. As for your slotting - there are many ways and theories out there. Yes, your 133% acc is fine. But consider the end cost - do you have enough overall recovery to for this slotting? Do you need to swap out a proc to pic up some IOs with endredux in them? Also, the proc rate in Hot feet is not that great. If I recall correctly, once every 10 secs, there is a chance a proc can fire in it. So yes, more procs means more chances they will fire, but it's a gamble and not guaranteed all will - and then in the meantime you're doing minimal damage. I personally slot a damage set that maxes the damage bonus (so I am guaranteed max damage from the power), has 70-80% endredux bonus, and then add in 1-2 procs to push the damage output over the top. I prefer more constant max damage from the power with the occasional 1-2 procs firing vs. gambling on 6 procs with minor constant damage. ....but that's just me. Others may disagree. Also, with Tar Patch, I don't think you really need the -Resist proc in Hot Feet. Normally, I would say it's a must have, but given you have Tar Patch that provides -Resist, you may be able to put something else in instead - just something to think about, especially if you need more endredux in it.

Here is my 1 and only Sentinel (because I'd rather be playing a Blaster!) 😄 Dax Starkiller (Beam/Atomic Sentinel)

Sorry I missed your original post back then and haven't replied until now. I know you say your style is playing at range, but you should REALLY consider playing it as a melee blaster. Rad/Rad blasters have SO many great PBAOEs and melee attacks, you're doing yourself a disservice by staying at range. All your big attacks require you to be in melee and your damage output will be low if you stay at range. Irradiate: is one of the best PBAOE debuffing attacks in the game. It makes all your (and your team's) attacks hit and it does good DoT when slotted/proc'd. Beta Decay: debuffs nearby foes, and buffs your recharge Atom Smasher: PBAOE high damage, debuff, and stuns Radioactive Cloud: PBAOE foe hold - also afterwards, it can make foes "sick" which gives it bonus hold duration as they are locked in the barfing animation - the Lockdown +2mag hold proc makes it so you can hold Lts and Bosses too! Negatron Slam and Positronic Fist: high and very high damage single target attacks that are wasted if not used. Atomic Blast: and of course, the nuke is PBAOE here is my Rad/Rad build and I do play her in melee range. She is a pretty unstoppable force. She flies and has stealth, like you wish. Hopefully, this will give you some ideas and I hope you do consider trying to play in melee. GL! https://www.midsreborn.com/builds/download.php?uc=1610&c=742&a=1484&f=HEX&dc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