nebber

Hi! Blasters very easily hit high resistance with the pvp res bonus plus an epic armour. Similarly they hit high regen with just their sustain power. Past this for survival, you want to build to max hp (1847hp) or as close as possible. Defense will not help. The panacea and performance shifter +health procs do help some. Water and dark blast also live longer, especially in 1v1s, when you use their self heals as part of your blast chain. Secondaries with an absorb shield like plant and sonic also can have a slight survival boost since they start the fight with a bit more effective hp. Atomic is still a fairly good secondary, though, because of the recharge boost and ability to slot the achilles -res proc in the hold. Other than that, survival on a blaster is kill them first (water, ice, dark, AR, and fire do more damage than dual pistols) and evade & pop greens when you are in trouble. There is small group PVP on Excelsior every Saturday 12pm EST at Pocket D arena terminals. If you show up to that you can get discord invites and build examples / help. Otherwise, I have an example AR/atomic build i could send you if you want to adapt it.

This proc is not refreshing if triggered again before the previous effect expires. Using the superior version on my lvl 50 Sentinel, this gives me +310 absorb for 20 seconds. I have it slotted in Electric Shackles, since it is a long recharge hold it gives me a 90% chance to proc. When this hold's recharge and animation time is more than 20sec, the +absorb ends before the new +absorb lands, and I can refresh the +absorb by using the hold again (minus the 10% chance to not proc). With slotting more recharge in the hold, I can get the recharge+animation time to less than 20s. If I use a second hold before the absorb from the first hold expires, it doesn't refresh and start a new 20sec absorb boost -- the original 20sec timer still applies and all the absorb goes away. Tested in RV lots of times and this was the consistent outcome for the latter (higher recharge) slotting. Seems to me the +absorb countdown should refresh if it is triggered again before the first one expires.

One of my best memories early on, when the game was new, was the most hillarious to me. I was on a PUG against 5th Column and we were very outmatched. We stood at the entrance of a room with a tightly packed mob and had no idea how to proceed, when the kinetics hero, who was in a clown coustme, said "watch this!" He turned on repel and sprinted through the mob sending them flying everywhere. He was just about back out the door when they all stood up, drew machine guns, and peppered him in the back, and he faceplanted at our feet. The comic timing of it was fantastic. It also showed me just how wonderfully expansive and variable this game was, in that I just witnessed a human pinball display and a clown get gunned down by nazis. I really, really still miss PVP back in the day, I most fondly remember Siren's Call, it was packed in the months following its intoduction. Before travel suppression and ED, it was so fast and dynamic and fun, but since it was capped at lvl 30, no one was terribly overpowered. Joustimg with bonesmasher, dodging Stalkers AS, hunting the bounties, seeing a variety of ATs participating, it was always such a rush.

If incarnates were on the table, I'm guessing my opening combo would easily two-shot the blue bar in PVP, with the extra boost from clarion radial, agility core paragon, and preemptive core interface. That would have to be in an arena match with incarnates on, which I've not tried with my sapper recently (or maybe ever). My experience is from some 1v1 fight club type showdowns in Warburg, so no incarnates there. Sometimes PBU+TB+Transference would crash the foes' blue bar, sometimes it would leave still a little endurance. It might be a matter of whether they have the +end accolades / set bonuses, or if they have used up enough endurance in opening attacks, or perhaps TB has a chance of additional end drain, not sure. In my opener I would follow transference with siphon speed (which does more slow with PBU) and either close in for a short circuit to finish the drain, or keep electric blastin' until transference recharges to finish the drain. But yeah it goes to illustrate that the best AT/powerset to help OP win would be affected by the rules and settings of her final showdown. Will they allow incarnates? Inspirations? Will it be in a zone? Will it be first kill wins, or who has the most kills in a timed match in the arena?

I dabble in PVP occassionally, here would be my recommendations. If your showdown is going to have a no-inspiration rule: A kin/elec defender, built for maximum sapping. It is the "I win" card against anything that doesn't have end drain protection (like Willpower). Open with Aim + Power build up + Thunderous blast (slotted for max end drain) + transference. That can sometimes two-shot a blue bar. If it doesn't you have to close in for short circuit and then they are done. Once drained, all you have to do is apply siphon speed and short circuit every time those are up and they will not be going anywhere and not recovering endurance. However if inspirations are allowed, he can bring a whole tray of giant blues and negate your one trick. For a drawn out fight with insps allowed, I'd go for slows / recharge debuffs, which WP doesn't resist. You can pop yellows when you are -tohit debuffed, you can pop greens when you are getting nailed with damage, blues when you are being sapped, reds if you are -dmg debuffed. But there's no inspiration which counters slows. If he slots a lot of Winter sets he'll get some slow protection, though. Rad/Ice defender would stack ice's slows and -recharge with lingering radiation. Good damage output when you add damage procs to Freeze Ray and blasts. You'll have to watch out for his holds (KO blow or any epic/patron) detoggling your rad debuffs and get them back on ASAP before resuming your blasting. Whatever hits he gets through, you should survive them as enervating field will be reducing his damage and you have the self heal. Power boost from soul mastery can also save you in a pinch by boosting your def, the -tohit of rad infection, and the power of your self heal for 15 seconds. Other sets will also deliver similar slows and debuffs -- like cold, trick arrow, and poison -- but the self-heal in rad really helps in the kind of drawn out fights that you get when you're up against a melee with a big bag of HP. Only other suggestion, not something I've played myself but have seen in action absolutely stomping in 1v1s: a Necro/dark mastermind. They stack crazy -tohit and their AOE heal outpaces incoming damage. The ones I've been up against ruined my melee toons without breaking a sweat, and even my fire blaster couldn't put out enough burst AOE damage before the debuffs kicked in and I was done for. Good luck!

I did enjoy the duo my friend and I did of a elec/shield brute and kin/elec defender, and it became glorious after we got fulcrum shift. But there were also plenty of times when the brute would lose aggro and things went south all too quickly for the poor kin (me)., especially if the foes were tossing mez my way. Kept me on my toes, that's for sure. Maybe it also was because we mostly played on x8 difficulty settings for big spawns. So if OP is going to run at more balanced difficulty settings, it probably wouldn't be as split-second-life-or-death as I'm making it out to be.

Kinetics will be harder to make a success in leveling if he's a Brute because he'll not be as sturdy as a tank and he'll hold less aggro. With no real AOE debuffs in kin, you'll be reliant on Transfusion to keep you both alive, sometimes with only a split-second's warning -- that is unreliable because when you miss, or you're out of range, or you're in the middle of an animation, then it's faceplant time. I think a corruptor with good debuffs and who is a bit more self-reliant would be a better fit with that Brute. Dark is a good option, -dmg, -res, -speed -tohit on the mobs, a heal and other CC - that'll mitigate a lot. Pair with ice, fire, or water for the rains. I can also recommend an ice/time - good damage output, this also delivers a lot of slows/debuffs, and you can grant the brute good +dmg and +recharge (temporal selection and chrono shift) and defense (farsight) to compliment his resist-based shields. Difference to /dark being you'll have to wait longer for these powers, but in a way that could be a rewarding progression.

I did a duo with me on an ice/TW tank and my buddy on a fire/kin corruptor. It had lots of strengths and a few weaknesses. Speed boost was a big help to me as I did better with my heavy-hitter attacks recharging faster, and helped with my endurance problems. It was late blooming, but once we got fulcrum shift at 38 it was game-changing and we would absolutely melt through mobs the rest of the way to 50. The downsides were, aside from being late blooming, kin doesn't have much by way of mitigation, and things could quickly turn for the worse when I couldnt keep all the aggro. Taking the time out to taunt when you are in a TW-swinging groove is a bit of a drag. So if I were to do it again I'd keep kinetics but swap for a primary with some mitigation built in. Ice for the slows, or water for the kB/slows. I also think a ice/dark or fire/dark would have been a good compliment, tar patch is available early and great for keeping mobs around the tank and debuffing. So perhaps a smoother levelling experience to be had there, just not as uber in the higher levels. Scourge on rain powers is really good, and would shine even more in a duo (in bigger team stuff tends to die from other attacks before your rains finish). Ice is great for this with ice storm and blizzard. Fire is another good one, with rain of fire. I think whirlpool from water is also DoT and scourges, but not played it myself.

Oh, I just re-read your message, and you're asking about possible procs to use aside from damage. The damage proc approach makes freeze ray a very very strong ST attack, but I suppose there are utility options too... Devistation: chance for hold / Lockdown: chance for +2 mag hold: if you add these two you have a better chance of one-shot-holding a boss. Superior Entomb: chance of absorb / Entropic Chaos: chance of heal self - Perhaps these two might make the attack into a mini-heal like dark blast's life drain or water blast's dehydrate. I've only ever tried the damage proc option myself so can't say how effective the above would be, you can always try it out on the test server. Though I kinda now want to try taking Bitter Freeze Ray with the above 4 procs along with an acc/hold and a hold. Then it could be a button for "uh oh - I'd better hold that boss" or "uh-oh, I need a heal".... then I can keep Freeze Ray as the damage-proc-attack. There other procs options barely worth mentioning: Tempest: chance of end drain - useless Winter's Bite: Chance of neg speed & recharge - your ice attacks are doing plenty of this. Pacing of the turtle: chance of neg recharge - as above

Damage procs you can slot: Ranged dmg: Apocalypse - Chance of Damage(Negative) * Gladiator's Javelin - Chance of Damage(Toxic) Holds: Neuronic Shutdown - Chance of Damage(Psionic) Ghost Widow's Embrace - Chance of Damage(Psionic) Unbreakable Constraint - Chance for Smashing Damage * Gladiator's Net - Chance of Damage(Lethal) Blaster ATO: Superior Blaster's Wrath - Recharge/Chance for Fire Damage ** Slow (Bitter Freeze Ray only - Freeze Ray doesn't accept slow sets) Impeded Swiftness - Chance of Damage(Smashing) Ice Minstral's Torment - Chance for Cold Damage * The purples are higher activation / chance - 107 dmg, 63% chance with no recharge slotted vs 72 dmg, 64% chance for the standard procs) ** This one has recharge in it and that drops chance of all procs in the power, but it balances out by having a higher damage and fire rate. I only use freeze ray and have one +5 thunderstrike A/D/E, apocalpyse, and the four hold ones. You can do six procs for more damage if you have good global acc bonuses, decent to-hit, and no endurance problems. I don't, thus the thunderstrike.

If you might change your mind and could be convinced to invest in defenses, ranged defense is very complimentary to the hoverblaster playstyle, and means you can save your heal/hibernate more for the "uh-oh" moments and keep on blastin' non-stop otherwise. Also ranged defense will greatly cut down on the mez that gets through to you. There's only one way for a blaster to get status protection through enhancements... The defiant barrage recharge/status protection IO. Otherwise you can get status resistance from some IOs and set bonuses, but those just cut down the mez time, not prevent it from happening. Beyond this you'd need power picks, like acrobatics which protects from hold; combat jumping or evasive maneuvers which protects from immobilization. Or clarion as an incarnate power, but you don't have access to that under level 45. So the status protection IO from the defiant barrage set, it has a chance to activate and give you status protection each time you hit someone with the attack it's slotted in. The chance is worse in a quick-recharging single target attacks, better in long recharging ST attacks, and best in AOEs. Since you want to stick with your single target focus, then you can put it in an attack you use most frequently and it'll activate some of the time. There is merit in putting it in one of your T1/T2 blasts since you can still use these when mezzed, you might get lucky and have it activate and free you. So see what you think of the above before we talk more about set bonuses to chase. Also, what's your budget? Glad you're having fun with your blaster and enjoying your playstyle.

I'm not bothered with neutron bomb being slightly slow because it's balanced by irradiate being fast. Does any blaster gets two potent AOEs that are both quick activating? Fire gets fireball which is great, but then it's other main AOE is firebreath, a slow-activating cone. I did some quick calcs -- the combined DPA of fireball+firebreath is only slightly ahead of irradiate+neutron bomb. But i prefer the latter because irradiate is a 20ft radius to fireball's 15ft and takes some great -res procs, and neutron bomb hits more targets than firebreath (15ft radius TAoE / 16 targets max vs a 30 degree cone / 10 targets max). And no time spent lining up cones. In comparing my fire/nrg to my rad/nrg, my rad does better on aoe, but my fire does better single target.

I agree with Six-Six it's a great set for a blapper playstyle. My Rad/Nrg is in my top 3 favourite toons, and I play it full on blapper. Two good AOEs you can fire off standing in the middle of the fray. A well-slotted irradiate is a beautiful opener. I have slotted: Armageddon - Damage (boosted +5) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Damage (boosted +5) Armageddon - Chance for Fire Damage Defiant Barrage - RechargeTime/+Status Fury of the Gladiator - Chance for Res Debuff Achilles' Heel - Chance for Res Debuff This gives me status protection and res debuffs the mobs most the time, so my blaps hit even harder. Follow this up with the nuke or neutron bomb (mine has 4 dmg procs), then I keep punching whatever left is standing (energy punch, bonesmasher, cross punch, total focus, and power thrust with KB2KD - glorious). To me, this blapper build is so gratifying and a fun take on a blaster.

Have you considered a corruptor instead of defender? Scourge works wonders in Ice Storm and Blizzard, you'll have much better damage output soloing. My build has capped ranged def, 42% melee def (though time's juncture will take care of the rest) and 40% AOE defence. Enough recharge for perma soul drain and blizzard every 40s. Killer AOE - drop distortion field (proc'ed out), slowed response, jump in, soul drain, ice storm, blizzard, laugh manically, repeat.

I have two endgame builds and I switch between them - 'tankmage' and 'moar damage'. Tankmage is S/L/E/R capped with T4 barrier, and has good mez protection between energize, combat jumping, acrobatics, capped range def, and defiant barrage status protection IO in Fireball (open with this on a mob and it rarely fails to grants you the protection). Very surviable, very balanced, good for exemplaring all levels. I play this most of the time. Moar damage was theorycrafted purely to get the maximum global damage bonus (73.5%) at the expense of everything else. When I'm on a team that keeps aggro fully off me, I switch to this and go to town. Also has some attacks I skipped in the tankmage build (Rain of Fire, Total Focus). Tankmage Moar damage Enjoy!