drbuzzard

I use web grenade, but don't think I've slotted it for damage. The DoT is too slow on teams, and I play my blasters only on teams. As you say time bomb is too damned slow to be useful (again, especially on teams).

I consider the toe bombing option of tripmines a relatively recent addition, and rarely use it ( I do like ambushes with it). Really the best attack in devices is taser which is damned good DPA and has a 50' range. Unless you are talking the time bomb, but that's crap.

Honestly, even if they come up closer in damage numbers, the lower AOE target numbers give blasters an edge. In my exploration of various other COH servers, I happened upon one (which is no longer running) which had sentinels which had scrapper secondaries (duplicate numbers) and blaster primaries. They just had no inherent. It actually didn't really work badly at all, and was not over the top. Mind you, I like most of the sentinel secondary versions here, but just saying that some more damage wouldn't break everything.

There are a couple ranged only blaster secondaries at that (which are the ones I like).

I tend to prefer defenders over corrupters since I'm of a mind that if I want to play buff/debuff, I want to be the best at it. As for mixing a bow and a rifle, umm... I got nothing. I mean there's no trick rifle, so what can you do?

This question does beg what your circumstances are. Are you new to HC, or are you well endowed in resources? One advantage of a SR/Claws tank is that you can softcap without even using IOs. That's a pretty nice luxury if you're poor. If you're in it for the damage, I'd say scrapper is your best bet. Follow Up is the cornerstone of the set (allowing a substantial permanent damage boost), and leveraging that with the biggest damage scalar available makes the most sense to me. I would generally advocate stalkers over scrappers myself (their controlled crits are devastating, though they usually give up AOE for it), but they have build up instead of follow up, and that really detracts from the set (and they give up some good AOE). With the resources softcapping a SR scrapper is not overly arduous.

Though I feel it necessary to toss out there that if the devs decided that fixing travel pools was more important than sentinels, I wouldn't get my hopes up on it happening any time soon.

That's already part of the IO system. Any particular numerical bonus value from sets can only be done five times.

Given how that soft cap comes about, I'm not really sure it's possible. It's based on the basic chance to hit. I suppose you could cap how much defense a character can add, but then you're crapping all over the buffing people (bubblers in particular).

Sentinels are very fun for the ride to 50, and are still fun to play at 50. They just aren't optimal at 50 compared to blasters. If you aren't one of those who needs to have the best possible option, sentinels are fine. They do need some damage help, and I believe it will happen eventually. For the moment, I just play my sentinels when I feel like it and still have fun. That's why there's different ATs, so you can enjoy the content in different ways.

This is a very impressive effort. Kudos.

I agree with the sentinels are the 'nice and easy' AT. They really make the road to 50 easy if you're actually going to play it instead of stand around and get leveled up by someone. Once you're there, they are better solutions to most challenges as all the tools are now available.

I don't solo blasters all too much. On teams things move fast, so (normal)nukes might be around every other spawn or so. Yes, you drop them when you have them, and if PBAOE, you move in to do it. Then <gasp> you move back out so the critter AOEs don't take you out. Not sure why you're talking about 80' since it's rather hard to maintain that. You stay at a reasonable range so you can get in with the nuke when needed, move back out to avoid damage. Personally I prefer the sets which let me ranged nuke altogether though. In fact I actually like nukes enough that my favorite blaster is archery/dev so I have my nuke on a 17 second timer and I nuke constantly, from range. I have a few blapper builds (at 50, IOed), but don't much care for them. If I want to be in the thick of things I like ATs with actual defenses (like a secondary or primary). But to get back to the claim that the primaries were designed with blapping in mind, one should recall that the nukes initially crashed out your endurance hard. That's hardly a blapping incentive.

Yes, it is clear that you discarded any argument which might have been carefully constructed. PBAOE Nukes are on a long base timer, and even with perma hasten pop around once every 30+ seconds. Now maybe I'm playing wrong (I'm not), but I'm not standing around waiting to pop off my nukes, and to be quite honest they are hardly the focus of the sets. They are best used at optimal times, since the recharge is long and in many cases the DPAS isn't all that hot if you're down to one target (some are standouts, but not most). The rest of the PBAOE nuke primary powers (except rad) are all ranged. Yes, for most secondaries you are expected to blap, but you were making an argument that primaries drive blapping which is specious. How about I quote you and take it apart directly? <quote>Blaster sets are sold as "Ranged" Horsecrap. The entire Archetype was built from the ground up as Blapper and there are some pure ranged sets. Not in secondaries. But Primary you have Electric which is almost all ranged and Ice. I just got tired of the 100x variation on Ice Machine concept. I mean, I love Ice...but running an ice machine is only so entertaining. Also the damage is meh. </quote> 'some pure ranged sets' - about 40% of the primaries only some? The rest of the sets minus one have 1 PBAOE. That looks pretty ranged in focus since it is the, well, primary. Then you go on to complain about ice which is actually excellent damage, and ignore the other 4 pure ranged primaries. Yeah, no point in expecting a carefully constructed argument.

The funny thing about it was that when I first used it, I thought it was actually fast since the animations 'look' fast to me. Then I check the animations times and meh. It's good against things which do unstoppable. Otherwise, meh.

Cold is fairly uncommon, but BP Ravagers can be trouble, and CoT ice demons are bad as well. The fact that ice damage is usually from a 1/2 lethal source is probably the saving grace.

My pedantic nature won't let this stand. Honestly, electric has the best resistance coverage in the game. The only thing you can't cap resistance for with that set pretty easily is toxic, which is pretty uncommon. On a tanker you start with 35% base for lethal, smashing, fire, psionic, and cold. You also have 30% for negative energy, and 82.5% for energy. With slotting it's very easy to get quite high resistances even on just SOs, and with sets, capping all those to 90 is not a challenge. You are left with the toxic hole though, and outside of the tier 9, it's just there. Compare this to dark: lethal, smashing, fire, and cold are all at 30% base. Negative energy is at 40% base and psionic is at 50% base. Energy and toxic are at 20% base. Thus you really have both energy and toxic holes. Radiation: you have lethal, smashing 30%, fire and negative energy 35%, energy 45%, toxic 50%, psionic 15%, and cold at 7.5%. These are strong numbers, but you basically have 2 holes in cold (especially) and psionic. Both dark and radiation armor have holes, and start with lower base resistance numbers for most things. Dark has a rather (IMO) glaring energy hole, and radiation has a cold damage hole (and psionic), both of these energy types are a lot more common than toxic (especially energy). Now this is not to say that electric is superior, as it surely is not. The heal is on way too long a timer, and it is far lower in actual survivability than the other two. Personally I think it could use a reduction in the timer on the heal to at least get it into the ballpark, because right now it is one of the weaker armor sets in actual play .

This is a truly odd paragraph. Electric has just as much ranged as the rest (1 PBAOE). Yes, most of the sets have a PBAOE nuke, but that's really not a defining power which makes them mixed or melee. Yes, you can pull the recharge down pretty low, but you're starting with a fairly high number, and are not cycling the attack in terribly often. But let's look at primaries which are pure range: Archery Assault Rifle Ice Beam Rifle Water Blast Then we have primaries with a single PBAOE Electric Fire Energy Dark Psionic Dual Pistols And then the single primary with more than 1 PBAOE Radiation Now to say that the primaries demand blapping is rather specious. 40% are pure ranged. Most of the rest have a single PBAOE, and in most cases it's the nuke on a long timer. For electric you can skip it since endurance drain is an iffy prospect. Yes, you can argue that radiation blast is a blapper set, but it's hardly the king of the hill, and something you don't see a lot of for fairly good reason. Heck, there's devices which can be played as a purely ranged secondary without missing much of anything. Heck, as I see it only some of the secondaries have good enough attacks to really justify blapping in any case. I play blasters as purely ranged, and I really don't suffer for it. Oh yeah, and calling ice damage meh? Huh, it's the best single target primary, and blizzard is damned good.

When I first started on HC, I followed the policy of waiting till I hit 22 and then slotting up with lvl 25 IOs. They are about the same value as even level SOs (32% for example in damage) and never expire, so will not cost you more in the future. Sticking to lvl 25, 30, 35 IOs will keep costs down, and allow you to save money. Using SOs ends up being a money pit as you have to update them with levels. To make some quick money as you go along, convert merits into enhancement converters and craft any uncommon IO recipes which drop. Then use 2 converters to change them into rares, and keep converting the rares till you hit something valuable (resistance, defense, are tops, some healings are good, some end mod are good).

From what I understand, the aggro cap is a setting of enemy AI, and hence universal. Thus I don't think it can be adjusted at the local scale.

Once upon a time 'Man Builds' were a fad. Nobody would claim that they were a good suggestion in terms of effectiveness. When people are asking for advice, it's reasonable to assume they want advice so as to be more effective. Telling someone that they can skip anything they like and do anything they like is true, but it is also about as helpful as pointing out that water is wet.

It can be demonstrated objectively and quantitatively that the powers you skipped in the time power set would have enabled you to do things more effectively. Time is a great set, and honestly there's very few powers (likely zero) which can be skipped and make your build better. Your subjective preference is fine as it is your character, but when I'm giving advice I prefer to give suggestions based on hard data.

This is certainly true. However the rest of us are running with the assumption that he actually wants to be effective or something.

1: This depends on what the primary does. It depends on if it is damage, control, debuff, or defenses (I'm leaving out MMs, but I don't play them- but the pet should be the obvious choice). This also depends on if you're talking what you pick initially when you make the character, or what ends up present in a final build. Those are often different in my case. For attacks, I'll pick a fast recharge when I'm starting, but final build will have the better DPAS (unless it is really close, then it is the one which allows a smoother attack chain). I don't play control much, but I'd like opt for a hold or another harder mez over an immobilize, though in the final build immobilizes can be handy and I end up with them. Debuff sets are a mixed bag, but I'll want something which either makes it harder for the enemy to hurt you and your team or easier for your team to hurt it. Debuffing is rather complicated so an easy answer doesn't really work. Defenses- there's a decent chance you'll want all of the lower stuff, though I'd go with what fits the theme and stacks. IE -If you've got a defense primary set, grab more defenses. 2: Umm, not sure what you mean. You're stuck with the T1. I'll take the T2 if it is good. Often I'll end up with a unslotted T1 if it's lousy enough. For example, while War Mace is a great set, the T1 attack is crap, so I end up with it present (have no choice), but with no slots in it and it is not in my power tray. Same for defenders, where sometimes the T1 is crap. I'd say this is less of a concern in defenders because they aren't exactly major damage dealers, and you're probably better off chasing damage through procs. 3: T9s are a mixed bag. Defensive T9s I usually skip. I'm like Luminara, I prefer consistent performance rather than having 'OH SHIT!' buttons available. Offensive T9s are almost always good (can't think of a bad one offhand). Most debuff/support T9s are good (most, not all- Traps- I'm looking at you). Control T9s are usually the pets, and they are key to damage. 4: If a power doesn't add towards my goals I skip it. Goals vary by character of course. A power can contribute directly or if it can offer a place to put a useful IO set or proc bonus.

Good to see you're keeping up. That doesn't mean we need to keep tedious ones. Also, if you were not aware, they keep the tedious versions in Ouro whey they update TFs.