Novacat

A Blaster's Sustain is several times more powerful a recovery and regeneration buff than the Fitness inherents, and so is a whole lot more valuable slotted a little more for its numbers than for an extra you could fit elsewhere. It's similar with Tough and Weave: Personally I feel you're overslotting them, though they're certainly the best source of Smash/Lethal Res and all-Def available to a Blaster power-wise. If you brought both of them back down to 4 slots, you could stick one more in each of Health and Stamina (perfect for a 2pc of Performance Shifter and Numina's Convalescence maybe?) and have 2 more slots to play with. No point in heavy Recharge Time reductions or going red on the values after all, so while a 6pc bonus can be tempting, it may be worth considering additional 2pc and 3pc sets being fitted in other places too. For example, isn't Charged Armor also a toggle with some cost to it? How much better is your net endurance gain and your resistances if you stuff a second slot for Res/End from the same set you've already +MaxHP'd in it compared to that Endurance/Recharge you've got in Tough? And don't forget you've got a maximum of 5x of any one specific set bonus. I'm loathe to post builds because I'm never happy with mine but here's a something that assumes you'll either be in a team or not actually start getting shot at until after you've "arrested" enemies legs clean off with high-explosives, often with your overcharge ready to follow-up. In other words, your defenses and resistances are a bit on the low side - consider the Support-series for Hybrid Slot. - Get ready to abuse prestige movement powers, you'll be Ninja-Running and teleportering around a lot. - Smoke Grenades blind Rikti drones and the like so you can get close to their friends (don't try to toebomb the drone itself it will see you) - I've left Web and Taser partly empty to account for sticking post-beta enhancement changes in later - You'll probably want to 3-piece Thunderstrike into the toxic web grenades when the time comes, and put a Sudden Acceleration's KB to KD into Trip Mine as well. Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Natural Blaster Primary Power Set: Beam Rifle Secondary Power Set: Devices Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Flight Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Charged Shot (A) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge (45) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (46) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance (46) Empty (48) Empty Level 1: Web Grenade (A) Empty (43) Empty (43) Empty (48) Pacing of the Turtle - Chance of -Recharge (48) Pacing of the Turtle - Range/Slow Level 2: Cutting Beam (A) Superior Defiant Barrage - Accuracy/Damage (40) Superior Defiant Barrage - Damage/RechargeTime (43) Ragnarok - Damage/Endurance (46) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (50) Ragnarok - Chance for Knockdown Level 4: Caltrops (A) Pacing of the Turtle - Range/Slow (5) Pacing of the Turtle - Damage/Slow (5) Annihilation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime Level 6: Disintegrate (A) Apocalypse - Damage/Endurance (7) Apocalypse - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (7) Apocalypse - Damage/Recharge (9) Apocalypse - Damage (11) Gladiator's Javelin - Chance of Damage(Toxic) Level 8: Aim (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up (9) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance Level 10: Targeting Drone (A) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Endurance (11) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff Level 12: Lancer Shot (A) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge (13) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (13) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge (40) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance (40) Stupefy - Stun/Range Level 14: Taser (A) Empty (15) Empty (15) Stupefy - Stun/Range (17) Stupefy - Accuracy/Stun/Recharge Level 16: Smoke Grenade (A) Dampened Spirits - To Hit Debuff/Recharge/Endurance (17) Dampened Spirits - To Hit Debuff/Endurance Level 18: Penetrating Ray (A) Sting of the Manticore - Chance of Damage(Toxic) (19) Sting of the Manticore - Damage/Interrupt/Recharge (19) Sting of the Manticore - Damage/Endurance/Recharge (37) Sting of the Manticore - Damage/Endurance (37) Apocalypse - Chance of Damage(Negative) Level 20: Field Operative (A) Healing IO (21) Healing IO (21) Endurance Modification IO (23) Endurance Modification IO (23) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All) Level 22: Boxing (A) Pounding Slugfest - Disorient Bonus Level 24: Tough (A) Aegis - Psionic/Status Resistance (25) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance (25) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP Level 26: Piercing Beam (A) Superior Defiant Barrage - RechargeTime/+Status (27) Superior Defiant Barrage - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime (27) Superior Defiant Barrage - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (31) Superior Defiant Barrage - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime (31) Annihilation - Chance for Res Debuff (33) Annihilation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime Level 28: Trip Mine (A) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (29) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (29) Obliteration - Damage (31) Empty Level 30: Weave (A) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage (34) Reactive Defenses - Defense (37) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed Level 32: Overcharge (A) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Recharge/Chance for Fire Damage (33) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (33) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Damage/Recharge (34) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (34) Absolute Amazement - Stun Level 35: Time Bomb (A) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Chance for Knockdown/Knockback to Knockdown (36) Overwhelming Force - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (36) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Endurance/Recharge (36) Overwhelming Force - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance Level 38: Gun Drone (A) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (39) Expedient Reinforcement - Damage/Endurance (39) Expedient Reinforcement - Endurance/Damage/Recharge (39) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage Level 41: Static Discharge (A) Ragnarok - Damage (42) Ragnarok - Damage/Recharge (42) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy) (42) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range Level 44: Charged Armor (A) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All) (45) Gladiator's Armor - End/Resist (45) Gladiator's Armor - Resistance Level 47: Hover (A) Winter's Gift - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range Level 49: Summon Adept (A) Soulbound Allegiance - Chance for Build Up (50) Soulbound Allegiance - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (50) Soulbound Allegiance - Damage/Recharge Level 1: Brawl (A) Empty Level 1: Defiance Level 1: Prestige Power Dash (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Slide (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Quick (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Rush (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Surge (A) Empty Level 1: Sprint (A) Unbounded Leap - +Stealth Level 2: Rest (A) Interrupt Reduction IO Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift (A) HamiO:Microfilament Exposure Level 2: Health (A) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery (3) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance Level 2: Hurdle (A) Jumping IO Level 2: Stamina (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End (3) Performance Shifter - EndMod Level 50: Musculature Total Radial Revamp ------------ ------------ Set Bonus Totals: 32% DamageBuff(Smashing) 32% DamageBuff(Lethal) 32% DamageBuff(Fire) 32% DamageBuff(Cold) 32% DamageBuff(Energy) 32% DamageBuff(Negative) 32% DamageBuff(Toxic) 32% DamageBuff(Psionic) 3% Defense(Melee) 3% Defense(Smashing) 3% Defense(Lethal) 3% Defense(Fire) 3% Defense(Cold) 9.25% Defense(Energy) 9.25% Defense(Negative) 3% Defense(Psionic) 8% Defense(Ranged) 3% Defense(AoE) 4.95% Max End 22% Enhancement(Accuracy) 10% Enhancement(Range) 13.75% Enhancement(RechargeTime) 22.5% SpeedFlying 216.9 HP (18%) HitPoints 22.5% JumpHeight 22.5% SpeedJumping Knockback (Mag -3) Knockup (Mag -3) MezResist(Confused) 26.25% MezResist(Held) 26.25% MezResist(Immobilized) 26.25% MezResist(Sleep) 26.25% MezResist(Stunned) 26.25% MezResist(Terrorized) 26.25% 19.5% (0.33 End/sec) Recovery 56% (2.81 HP/sec) Regeneration 8.75% Resistance(Smashing) 11% Resistance(Fire) 11% Resistance(Cold) 6.5% Resistance(Energy) 6.5% Resistance(Negative) 9.5% Resistance(Toxic) 14.5% Resistance(Psionic) 0% Resistance(Smashing) 0% Resistance(Lethal) 0% Resistance(Fire) 0% Resistance(Cold) 0% Resistance(Energy) 0% Resistance(Negative) 0% Resistance(Toxic) 0% Resistance(Psionic) 8.75% Resistance(Lethal) 22.5% SpeedRunning ... yeah don't use it as-is, it was done way too quickly.

Kinda sounds like you are actually. Blasters were behind everyone and everything significantly. That's what the i24 buffs were all about - and even those were seen as a low-ball at the time as it was only going to - assuming no buffs to anyone else which there inevitably were going to be - bring high performing Blasters to the low end of the all-other-ATs median. Dominators are a LOT safer than a Blaster thanks to their Primaries. For one thing they eventually have one or two summons apiece such as Fire Imps or Haunt + Umbra Beast. Their damage isn't that far behind and they've got far better controls than the Blaster manipulation sets. Yes, Dominators were far ahead as well - especially with the damage bonus baked in and no longer part of just the inherent. I'm all for not nerfing the Dominator snipes, but "this isn't fair they should also get the higher base HP"? The performance issues were WITH that extra HP remember. That had been added in long ago, not with i24. Plus it feels like there's a very strong whiff of "yet" on your comment about not asking for their nukes. Most likely, what needs looking at in the assault sets is which powers are being completely skipped and ignored and why, not a blanket "we need to recover the giant gap we used to have over this other guy". I'd imagine Total Focus is on that list for example, and making the snipes worth taking for everyone that can seems a worthy goal as well.

One potential issue with that might be if you want most but not ALL your powers to be KD converted. For example you might want to keep Power-Push but have the rest knockdown.

Don't forget one of the strongest knockback resistances: Flight. Being in the air will roughly halve the offline-time you would have suffered otherwise.

Every few seconds, FOR a few seconds, you get a small layer of temporary hit points. Say, 50 for 3 seconds every 3 seconds. So when it ticks, you get 50HP on top of your usual health bar - WHEREVER it may currently be %wise. If you're hit these temps are lost before the real layer. If you run out that's it until the next time it ticks. If you don't, however many you had left of it expire and a new 50 is gained when it next ticks. Repeat ad-nauseum - which may not be inappropriate given the sound it made. Heal/Absorb enhancements can of course turn that 50 into 100 and so on and so forth. It's a more powerful defense against a moderate number of hits (and to a much lesser degree against focused-fire too) than +%Regen sustains do, but does nothing for the health bar behind it and so does not aid in recovering from heavy damage or being ready for the next spawn as quickly as the regenerative versions.

Range was never enough of an anything to justify melee hitting harder. It's a mild QoL improvement, meaning you have to fine-tune your little steps here and there less than the other guy, but that is all.

IIRC Total Focus is avoided no matter what your AT due to that casting time, so if Assault sets get a usable version that would be a nice buff there. Device changes are overall pretty nice, though better interrupt-redux compatibility in the trip-mines would be amazing. The fast-snipe damage seems alright - it's easy enough to at least get it back up to the 2.5 scale region without even trying to go for a proper 22%, so it makes for good, efficient powers overall even if a little weaker for some than the previous iteration a few days ago. - although as noted in the Bug Reports, Beam's snipe won't be spreading anything if the spread-delay bug sticks around. At least from the blaster side of things, the changes feel pretty good.

I've noticed two things - might be related to each-other... 1) On Live, Disintegrate spread pops up pretty much with the damage numbers on impact. -Currently in beta it takes maybe half a second after the hit and damage have shown up and affected the target. 2) On Live, kill-shots can spread disintegrate. -On Beta disintegrate does not appear to spread if the target dies between the hit that would spread it and the actual spreading event. How this is a problem for Lancer Shot and Penetrating Ray especially, should be rather obvious.

Wait, the device changes aren't listed anymore though - were they rolled back (patching right now) or did you just forget to write'em here? Edit: they're certainly still in the beta at least

That's Piercing Beam (the 3-target T3 shot with -res on it). While it's true that it's used primarily as a good single-target shot, lining at least one more up with it quite literally doubles its damage. For most non-blaster builds this is an expensive proposition for single-target work as Piercing is close to ball-priced, but thanks to our Sustains here that's alright. Penetrating Ray, that's the Snipe. Does decent extra DoT against a disintegrating target.

The others are all viable. But Energy's good stuff and its main claim to fame is probably that it works almost seamlessly with the grand majority of ... everything. Just about any combination of Primary/Pool/Epic will work perfectly fine with /Energy. That said, it's got some blapping (and total focus isn't all that great for one) but no ranged abilities of its own, and other sets may better serve particular builds or combinations, so it's not like it's king. You'll get great mileage out of it if you like what you see, but do not fear taking other sets either - you'll not be making an unoptimized choice by doing so.

You should go take a look at the Beta, because a lot of your secondary powers are about to change for the better. This is about to become difficult on "what to take" because you're going to be damn low on slots. Spent an hour in Pines trying to make a rough build for you, but the moment I take those beta changes into account, I get unhappily dry on slots (power and enhancement both). Web Grenade (soon to be "Toxic Web Grenade"): You have no choice. But it will soon add a DoT component that will have it hit about as hard as Single Shot should it run its duration through. Like many Immobilize secondary starters, it's not about the actual rooting despite it being advertised all over - the real value is in the other parts of it. Most notably a huge -recharge, and soon the damage to go with it. Stuff that attacks almost half as often isn't hurting you as much. - This should also make it compatible with the Winter's Bite set, for even more -speed and -recharge on that AV. Caltrops: These are nastier long-term than they may appear to at first glance. If given a chance their total damage is pretty high, and they do that whole "oh gods I need to get out of this damage zone" thing to people which can cause them to dance like idiots if being shot. What you do is you give'em just a bit more slow - I like "Pacing of the Turtle" for Range/Slow and the Chanceof-Recharge thing. Then go over and give'em some damage and a knockdown or immobilize chance from a different IO set. Can't get out if you're stuck in. - In regards to this, Mu Mastery [sirocco Patron epic] has Electrifying Fences which is an AoE immobilize... Not a strong one, but every little bit can help and hey why not a second summon while you're there? Taser: Is about to get a massive damage buff, making it basically a 20ft Energy Punch. This is gonna be damn sweet. Still ranged damage for now not melee, but that means you can stuff it with one of the many ranged damage sets for various procs or a defensive global such as thunderstrike. Quick, good damage, short ranged but maybe Stupefy's Stun/Range could slot right in Targeting Drone: You know what to do here. No not Gaussian's build-up chance - stick that in Aim for a hell of a clicky. But get just enough to-hit for instant snipes, and any other slots should help with the endurance cost on the way to the bonus. I like a 2pc from Adjusted Targeting, To-Hit/End, and To-Hit/End/Recharge (the recharge don't do much but whatever). Smoke Grenade: This plus your Field Operative means anything short of a Rikti Drone (which still won't see you from more than like ten feet away while blinded here) you can just take your time and plant high explosives quite literally under their feet. No need to heavily slot it, but 2 or 3 pieces of Dampened Spirits can give you another 2% damage buff and a like 1.3 extra max endurance (every tiny bit counts). It's surprisingly handy once you get used to it. Wide area, can keep things from joining a nearby battle... Field Operative: I stick Shield Wall's 5% resists in there just because. For the other 4 slots, up that regen, up that endurance modification. You took this at 20, you did not not take this at 20, this is your level 20 power, and it solves most of your endurance and "how long do I have to sit here before my next battle" problems. It costs no endurance, it needs no real recharge rate to speak of, so do be careful about what IOs you slot in there; the pure Heal/Absorb and EndMod are a given, but those that are half-recharge or half-endurancecost are slightly wasted. Panacea's 2pc using the pure Heal and the +HP/End unique can be a fine choice, as can flat endmod 53s if you can find such drops. Tripmine: BOOM! It's a PBAoE. It hits harder than a snipe. It's mostly Lethal with some Fire. These are "toe bombs": You stealth (field operative), you smoke (grenade), and you walk right up to the middle of'em, put it down and 2 seconds after it's completely set you get some fireworks. Ideally, you of course had another power already careening towards them to make sure they all die Time Bomb: It's about to be changed to a 5s timer. This makes it incredibly grabbable. Put an interrupt reducer in your Tripmine, and you'll be able to set a timebomb, set a tripmine, and fire off another power so all three alpha-strike at the same time. Their first clue as to your existence is two and a half nukes blowing their legs off. For both the mine and timebomb: Not a bad idea at all to turn that knockback into knockdown however, as it can toss everyone every which way due to how it works for that. There's two IOs that offer this; Overwhelming Force's unique, and Sudden Acceleration's special that is not a unique and can thus be slotted everywhere you need it (just those two powers for the most part). Gun Drone: Per attack it's not that impressive. And it can die. But what does this really mean? It means that every few minutes, for a little while, this thing with guns floats around, attacks with you, and draws some attention and therefore shots that otherwise would go your way. Like most pets are wont to do, really. It's not very complicated if you think of it as a mobile ultra-long DoT that can change targets and randomly causes enemy fire to shoot something that's not you instead. There are Pet and Recharge-Intensive-Pet invention sets - it likes damage, it likes a bit of accuracy and recharge, and it likes more damage. Some advice on IOs: Use pines designer. They're not all in there but the "okay this activates'em, this doesn't work" helps immensely plus there's so damn many sets to begin with. What you must know is that sets get their bonuses from being on the same power. You can also get up to five times the same bonus (like "2% damage", or "+4% recovery" or "1.25% Ranged Defense"). Doesn't matter the source though, so it's not just "five times the bonuses of this one set". So a sixth 2% damage won't do anything even if it's from six different sets entirely, but four 2% and three 4% all from copying the same two sets work perfectly fine. If you want, say, just the 2pc/3pc parts of a set, even a unique, you could just split it across two powers. Like if you want to double up on the range boost of Superior Blaster's Wrath at the cost of that 4% damage and the other higher bonuses. For the MOST part, other than set bonuses which are like every other MMO (save that you have to slot'em in the same power rather than just have'em equipped on your character), IOs are really just normal enhancements that tend to have better values, and often cover two or three things at a time. If you understand any enhancements you'll understand what "15% Accuracy, Damage and Endurance Cost Reduction" means after all.

True but the other aspect of mez is that your three powers available at level 1 (T1/2 blasts and your secondary's starter) all function while mezzed. This gives you good reason to slot them up. Even a 1-2 punch of Toxic Web Grenade and Snap Shot can keep you in the fight. By all means snipe the sapper before you leap into battle, but don't forget your old Charged Bolts when it inevitably happens.

In terms of slotting, you want to bring your attacks into early ED. If using pines, that's late-green to early yellow - and you'll easily reach and surpass this once you start using IO sets. This way you won't be wasting too much space once the 1/2 (and later 1/3) part of your alpha slot that does count against enhancement limits is added in (you'll still loose some % value technically but that's alright). You are a blaster, so if anything's going to be inefficiently heavily ED'd, it's your attacks that have the most to gain. Technically depending on their level difference, pre-alpha with 3 Damage SOs you're scratching the threshold of high diminishing returns due to ED, so it's even easier to reach once it's all inventions. Beyond this you want some Accuracy (about one SO's worth is more than enough), some Recharge, some Endurance reduction and usually to tack on some special effect booster or at least a proc. Again, with IO sets much of this is already covered. Regarding Endurance and Recharge, if you can get the reductions in the 50~70% range that's already an ample level of power. No need to break the bank over this, but don't forget the end-redux: the faster you're recharging the more blue juice you're burning through.

The i24 ones are live. So there's been instant snipes around. The new beta ones are not live yet (unless they were patched in while I was sleeping I just got up?). They change how one gets instants so it's easier as some secondaries had a harder time of it than others. Also buffs /Devices quite nicely.

Oh that's quite straightforward: It can give like 8% defense which to a Blaster is phenomenal and it's an AoE aura. Think of it as a multi-leadership in a single power. For anyone else, the Endurance discount passive is pretty hot stuff (not as critical to us), and the (mild) damage, accuracy, special-duration and defense buff can stack as well. If you don't want one of the Assaults, the support'll give you some nice survivability.

First, you make sure to take your Sustain. It's worth several times the fitness pool in a single power pick. For the most part these do little(absorb) to nothing(regen) against a mass of focused fire, but make you surprisingly quick at topping back off from the occasional glancing hits and between fights. Depending on your secondary it may even include a very mild defense or resist component too. Second, a warning: Those who de-slot their attacks for a little safety will obtain neither DPS nor safety. Softcapping? IF it can be done, you'll have gimped your throughput so hard you'll just end up murdered real slowly, while watching that defender outdamage AND outlast you despite being in a team of 4+. Instead, you're looking at probably 13-14% defense (or more likely a staggered result of IOs with like 12% here and 18.9% vs energy and 15% there) before accounting for a Support Hybrid incarnate toggle on. That said: -Tough and Weave are prized here, Weave especially - but Blasters have so few places to slot resistance sets that Tough will do you some good too. -Maneuvers may be the lowest pool value compared to a Defender, but it's still one of the higher base def% offered to blasters -Hover or Combat Jumping (or both) offer a smidgen of defense - nothing worth going heavy on the slots for, but that Sustain, remember that? You've got spectacular base endurance recovery compared to most forms of most ATs. Now of course, there's also your Epic. All of them have some sort of protection - most of them toggles but an auto resist in Munitions with Body Armor. Those toggles tend to come with an extra damage type or two that they protect against, like Energy which is quite nice in incarnate content. Let's be honest with ourselves: Even with all of these, before IOs, we're sitting on utterly pathetic levels of defense and resist. But we should still make sure to at least obtain them: 10% defense against a 50% hit chance means you're now taking 80% of the hits that you would've. This adds up, especially now that we have the ability to actually regenerate some of that health given the time. You are a squishy. This level of survivability will give you an edge, but your real job is industrial slaughter. Come IOs, the most important things are probably the globals. Oh you'll want some of those +def set bonuses, but the big gamechangers are the +3% all defenses IO in your resistance sets, the +7.5% max HP, that 5% resist all in your defense sets... you get the idea.

I can only speak for Beam on the must-haves but: 1) Disintegrate. If you don't get this you don't get beam: There was no point. What are you even doing. 2) Piercing Beam. A Tier 3 blast. Except it slots as a Targeted AoE and can hit 3 targets in a very very thin cone (basically it's a line). Deals 1/3 more damage on disintegrating targets. Now this would be a little end-intensive for other ATs to use for single-target but you're a blaster and you have a Sustain. Enjoy. 3) Single Shot. Better DPA and offers -regen against Disintegrated targets. Since you gotta pick at level 1... I pick it over Charged Shot every time. 4) Overcharge. It's your nuke. And it's ranged. If they ain't dead they're probably under Stun Mag 3. 5) Penetrating Ray: It be snipe. It can be instant under Aim. It be pending some nice buffs. Enjoy. 6) Lancer Shot: may soon be a source of Auto-Spread. It tends to Stun Mag 3. Tier 3, Mag 3, spread-to-3... Lancer Shot 7) Aim. Yup Charge Shot I find somewhat skippable especially if you have a good secondary starter. Cutting Beam isn't great, but, beggars can't be choosers so if you've got no other AoEs other than Overcharge available (what DID you take for your Epic?), do consider it.

Often the snipeless powers were actually a bit more powerful: Ice is a DPA monster whose Bitter Ice Blast was already an 80ft instant snipe in terms of power - and that's not all it had DP and Water are both designed around not having or needing a snipe Water in particular is an AoE atrocity of titanic-sinking proportions In addition, honestly? Anyone who wanted instant snipe could get it - it was just a matter of how easy. If you had aim and build-up you could have it during those durations (use a recharge/to-hit-buff instead of just a flat recharge in build-up to yellow-circle your sniper). If you kept a supply of yellows you could have it whenever you need. If you had Targeting drone. If you usually ran around with friends who offered two or three Tactics auras. If all else failed you could Kismet and overslot tactics yourself to attain it. i24 made instant snipes available to those who need it most of the time they may need it, or all of the time if they really want to have it ready all the time. So the biggest change, to me, is actually the massive upgrade on a slow snipe's power output.

Slotting-aside the biggest change is you should now take Energize (no longer a mere 'conserve power') at 16. Since your secondary starter's a melee it's still best - as you'd originally stated - to take both level 1 primaries for this character.

Two ways, one of which is slightly harder with Nova due to a lack of range on it. 1) Knockback is always away from the emitter, so if you're above them, you're throwing them at the ground. If they're going into some corner, they're being piled up. Fly or at least make use of the terrain. Dirt-easy on single target, moderately easy to control with E.Torrent and Ex.Blast, but you're still gonna scatter things if you catch a group in your nova due to proximity and 'firing' angle. 2) KB to KD. An instantaneous solution for your nuke, and removes any and all thought from the equation. They now stay where they are DO NOT apply #2 to single target abilities unless you're really desperate to not have to think about your aim, because throwing something halfway across the room instead of right here on its ass is a massive drop in how helpful knockback is to your defenses. A well placed power-push can toss a boss out of the fight long enough to kill the rest of its buddies. A power-pushed rad-anchor will get you kicked.

I can't say much about plants - I didn't like how it looked visually and never again touched it. When you go to power customization (the one for the colors), you can set weapon based powers (so all your AR attacks for example) to "No Redraw". So basically when you select to make a power colored the way you want it you'll see something like "Light, Dark, Light No Redraw, Dark No Redraw". A note: Arachnos soldiers in their FIRST costume slot don't seem to be able to do that - but their other costumes'll work fine.

The question you're asking is whether you want utility or higher power in melee. Tactical Arrow's starter is a full-fledged T1 (and cheaper than it ought to be end-wise). Tac-Arrow offers NO melee attacks, but gives you Glue Arrow (it wasn't so hot in the 30-45 range especially due to the recharge but once IO procs become a thing you can spare slots on it's quite good), a good Sustain, 2 self buffs (Gymnastics and the auto-power Agility), Upshot(a +recharge Build-Up, did it even need that buch of a buff actually?) and the ever-handy smoke grenade analogue "Flash Arrow". And ESD's a devastating hold/end-drain that also does significant damage to freakshows and machines of all sorts. No melee, but a strong set particularly valuable to those too busy with their primary like Beam users. Temporal is actually a lot more 'standard'; an oldschool manipulation set. It offers a strong -recharge with mild -regen, an AoE stun with no damage but a (very mild, more for the ability to select those IOs really) to-hit debuff and more speed reduction, two PSIONIC melee attacks (one of which has Fear on it), and a Cold/Energy regen-reducing melee PBAoE with good damage and decent radius for a melee. Its sustain is an absorb type (but I find it noisy) that resists slows and regen-debuffs, but due to Absorb it's one of those things you'll want to slot up high to keep that mild shield layer on. You finally get a bit of energy resist once you become a Time Lord, to go with the recharge bonus. So really; do you want to punch things in the face with time, or do you want to stand back with a little less damage and a bit more debuffing?

DOT: Disintegrate is a heavy damage over time effect and applies its namesake debuff. It deals its damage over fifteen seconds, so often in groups even a +2 Elite Boss will barely survive long enough to suffer half of its actual potential. Additionally Cutting Beam and Penetrating Ray both add a short DoT to targets if they're already disintegrating. However: 1) Other powers get a bonus on hitting Disintegrating targets. Single Shot adds an extra -75% regen. Overcharge turns its Stun chance into a guaranteed and longer mag3. The rest gain extra damage; about 20% for Lancer and 33% for Piercing Beam most notably 2) Disintegrate's other form of damage is -150% Regen (-225% combined with Single Shot) for its duration This is where Beam gets really interesting. When soloing that extra damage can actually put you in Fire (not quite Ice though) territory on your single (and Piercing Beam) attacks. The longer the fight the better it is too, so Beam really shines on Giant Monsters and Archvillains, where reducing their regeneration (if they're not resistant to such debuffs) by about 11/s starts to add up quite spectacularly as the fight drags on.

Is there a way to redirect to that data, or to just let it wall-of-text us for its different conditions, or at worst mark down the basic values in the description or something (like the damage scale and the such)? I've noticed many powers have those little green expansion sections in their details, but those again sometimes are empty in themselves - is it just that redirecting doesn't actually work with the engine thus all those empty "click to expand" parts?