Onlyasandwich

I did! I believe my response acknowledges what you said here in pretty good detail. I'm not sure why this whole conversation seems so controversial to you. Just play how you like! Clearly there is not a lot of common ground between what others have been saying about sets we have built and played many times and what you feel is useful in your own game. All that to say - carry on in strength! I don't think this conversation is leading anywhere useful at this point. It's just folks explaining their experience and perspective, then you denying the value of that perspective. I'm not certain what the goal is. If the goal is to optimize your build, that's fine! Lay out your priorities and I'm sure folks would be happy to provide feedback. If you are doing things like skipping powers they find to be vital, inevitably that will come up in said feedback. You can graciously ignore these suggestions rather than digging into them.

I'm seeing a lot of very strong opinions about Blaster playstyle here, @Akiceter. Clearly the arguments you are seeing from others aren't convincing to you! That's okay - we all have our preferred approach to the game. However, it is undeniably true that melee powers on blasters are very powerful. Blasters aren't really very squishy at all when properly built, and there are many ways to mitigate the dangers of melee (controls, timing, jousting, literally just killing them with the attack so they can't strike back, etc). I don't think real life comparisons are all that helpful. In real life, of course you would be daft to charge in with a knife when you have a gun. There is very real danger. City of Heroes is not as challenging as life, and the stakes are much lower as well. If you take advantage of the IO system, you are able to leverage these modest advantages in damage and also: Take advantage of more diverse set bonuses to achieve build goals. Proc bomb key powers (melee powers have more options as others have pointed out) to further exaggerate the damage advantage of melee. Drastically increase your survival by pursuing defense softcap or other useful IO strategies. Shore up weaknesses in certain primaries (lacking ST or aoe? Your secondary's melee attacks are here to help) In any case, all power to you if you prefer a pure ranged playstyle! You can still make viable builds, but certain secondaries will be much weaker than their potential with this focus. This is especially true if you are skipping key blaster powers like your nuke or sustain. I would encourage you to experiment with some of these powers, as well as other secondaries that you might dismiss as weak (tactical arrow is in fact outstanding), not having experienced them. Concept is king in CoH, and you are in control of your own character!

I haven't revisited this one in a while, but it still drives very smoothly when I play her. : ) Edit: Modernized the build for t1 skip, earlier power shifts. Optimized slotting for better overall ST damage. tinkertanker mk2.mbd Rad benefits from a heavy resist focus, doubling down on your strengths. The extra layer of melee defense here is nice, but aggressively stacking it leads to too many trade-offs for something with no DDR. Even so, the modest layer here is useful when not facing defense debuffs, and only a small hop to softcap with a purple or team buffs. Endurance is plentiful, and attacks are balanced between set bonuses, uptime on ATO usage, and as many procs as possible while pursuing these. Aoe damage is excellent. ST damage is good enough. Both incorporate FFback into the chain. Meltdown is here as backup for situations where you hit heavy volume on a damage type you aren't capped on. It also helps that it puts you past 100% on most everything, and therefore immune to damage debuffs of these types for the duration. Totals: Text visual of slotting: Note that FFback is toggled on in two powers right now when reviewing totals.

2 slotting it gives you more overlap for higher ddr. This is a decent argument to 2 slot.

I spun up a Rad/Atomic pretty recently, and he plays quite well solo. Survivability is more dependent on Bonfire, solid resists, and controls than a softcap strategy. I find softcap a bit too limiting in terms of proc damage potential. Plenty of hold stacking across many powers that also do excellent damage. This combo is especially ripe for procs! In any case, he can stay in the fray! He's built to easily toss out everything in pbaoe range without worrying about cones. Combat Teleport gets you a super quick engage/disengage as well to shut things down fast or pop out as needed. Ranged defense was still a secondary goal, and he has a modest baseline that is both meaningful as a supplement to survival, and makes reaching softcap on teams or with lucks a simpler task. I'm also a big fan of slow resist, so he's basically immune to slows. Blaster (Radiation Blast - Atomic Manipulation).mbd

Agree with all of the above, except I wish it were actually good for minion bowling these days! It just sort of gently nudges minions away, with the rare wooshy KB. I long for the days of yore when the tick rate was like 10X as rapid. The repel was powerfully fun! Still, I encourage anyone to take it and at least try it on for size. It has a much stronger place on corr/def versus controller. Even if you don't use it as a primary strategy, or in the specific situations @Ringo outlined all the time, it can really save the day when everything goes to hell. Just swoop around and keep the universe debuffed.

Hurricane isn't really frowned upon so much as it is very polarizing. It's still a very powerful ability. I recently revamped my Defender storm/dark, and am very happy with the results. Most if not all the slotting should port 1:1. I do have flight powers, but chose combat teleport as well, and get a lot of use out of it. Perhaps you would find CT a sufficient thematic tie-in! If not, it's easy enough to swap out for regular TP, and move around my flight pool choices to your other desired port powers, though you'll lose some lotgs. Note that I dropped Night Fall on my build. It probably does a bit better on corruptors due to scourge, so you might prefer to keep it in. It is rather lacklustre DPA even when procced, and I prefer leveraging Torrent as an actual aoe by proccing it out. It comes out to similar DPA, has a great KD effect as slotted, and juices your recharge. Note that I do have my FFbacks toggled on here - toggle off for more accurate recharge totals. Defender (Storm Summoning - Dark Blast).mbd My build here focuses on just getting a baseline of defense that is decent, and relies on Hurricane to floor -tohit on mobs. Strong resists to support. Visual:

Because of the way it summons pets that carry their own little holds, it does surprising damage with hold procs. It's probably the aoe hold I'm least likely to skip.

Bonfire doesn't take well to procs. I'd honestly love to hear feedback on how @Nemu has found procced Rain of Fire to be in practice as well. Typical wisdom is that rains are not optimal for procs, but sometimes these assumptions aren't accurate. On my own build, which has just a hair less recharge (linked above in thread), Fire Sword, Blaze, and Blazing bolt are plenty ST most of the time. Although it often just ends in a dead mob, it isn't 100% seamless for AV smashes, and Char would certainly round out an optimal chain. Meanwhile, Fire Blast is above average for a T2 blast, and I'm happy enough to use it as filler when needed.

Thank you both for encouraging me to try it! What an absolutely hilarious power. I love it. Short recharge, strongish mez effect, even if chaotic. The damage is pretty respectable given how much you can cycle it and that the control effects are mag 3. If I'm feeling silly I can just run around the room kiting everything while spamming. Also, since it does like every status effect, it technically synergizes with all my other controls! 😄

I love grabbing Evasive for extra hover speed when I have room both in power picks and end consumption. The lotg mule is a nice bonus. It makes a very noticeable difference, and allows Hover to be fully combat viable even without speed slotting. I'm okay with Hover even without Evasive, and enjoy the precision, but Evasive is a great improvement. It's also really nice to have extra control and speed layered with regular Fly as well. I use a speed on demand keybind to swap between fly/hover, and keep Evasive on the vast majority of the time unless starving for end. The Knockback resistance is nothing to sneeze at either, and almost doubles the effective mag protection for any -KB IOs you have. I usually take Combat Jumping as well, so the immob protection isn't as big a deal, but nice for pool flexibility if you aren't grabbing it.

I think it would be a mighty fine combo, and a stellar pure ranged build. You'll readily light your oil slick with procs from glue arrow or psi darts (proccy proc these out for sure) just as you say. Glue+ psi debuffs = some actual meaningful mitigation from the recharge slows as well. Beyond that, there's no special trick to success here. You are familiar with both sets, and they should work just as you expect! /TA is in my opinion the best ranged support secondary for blasters, and Psy blast has some fun range advantages like the range bonus on snipe, extra range on powers. Other than the -recharge stacking, I don't think there are any super special synergies - just all around good powers. The main thing is that /TA doesn't demand any special positioning, so you can feel free to take advantage of that range.

Thanks for the input, @pawstruck and @twozerofoxtrot! Do either of you happen to use it with procs? I know that other chain powers don't play nice with procs (only the primary target really gets hit by them to any worthwhile degree). Is Scramble Minds any different in this respect? Mine is also a Psy/Nin. The only real swap I could make is to drop Smoke Flash. I'm tempted, as it serves a sort of similar purpose while also doing damage, though the effect is less instant.

I'm putting together a Psychic/Ninja Blaster, and having trouble wrapping my mind around the potential of this power. The animation time seems a bit long, even with the chain effect, and the random nature of the status effects make it unreliable at first glance for synergy with other mez you have access to. What is your experience with this power - is it worth it? Am I missing something about the potential of the mechanic behind it?

Explosive arrow is a pretty above average aoe these days. I wouldn't skip it. Good dpa, damage diversity in an otherwise lethal set, and a good place for ffback. Get it and love it. Worth the kd IO tax. Snap is an easy skip though. Choking powder is a pretty standard blaster secondary hold, which means it's pretty strong. Proc it out for big damage, and layer with an epic hold like char for extra fun. Personally I find lotus drops a miss. With its puny 8 ft radius and nothing special to make up for it, I don't see much value. I'd swap for explosive in a heartbeat. It's a contender for worst blaster pbaoe in my book. It does the trick if you enjoy the style of course.

Definitely the way to go! Procced out it's a beast, and even out DPAs a lot of standard blaster aoes. 5 procs for 409 Damage on average and 1.16 second cast time is pretty outstanding. This leaves room for 1 Acc as well (or a handy Acc/end IO from Impeded Swiftness). The aoe control is just extra sauce, though I find it extremely useful. The proccability definitely puts it above electrified net arrow in my book, though I will often take both for the reasons you noted, @Uun.

Yeah - I really truly miss the old repel rate. It was such a disappointment when this nerf went through. I think it was for pvp reasons? I'm not sure.

A good build overall! However, Carrion Creeper slotting could use some work. They are very responsive to procs, but Targeted Aoe procs will provide significantly more return. From there, if you have room and want to add more procs, immob procs are a distant second. Slow procs do very little at all due to the behavior of the summon. Additionally, you will ideally want some native accuracy in Creepers, as they are not auto-hit when making their own attacks. You have sleet to help with this, but it's high level only and won't always be applied to all targets. Since you're not properly hitting softcap, you might consider ditching the halfway approach, and doubling down on damage throughout the build. Additionally, you may find it hard to sustain end with the fighting pool here. You might consider going sorcery for Rune instead. Even with regular injections for domination refills and sometimes consume, the timing will not always work out with only ~1 end per second in the positive. Your Global Recharge is high enough for perma hasten, which is handy, but not high enough for Perma-dom without Hasten. I would consider allowing some of these bonuses to drop in pursuit of more proc damage and better slow resist totals. You'll still have plenty of fudge room for perma-dom, and won't be thrown out of it by errant slows. One easy change is putting your celerity +stealth into Sprint, and dropping Winter unique into Super Speed. Here's my own Plant/fire/fire for reference (note my snipe is on quick form) in mids: Dominator - Plant Control - Fiery Assault mk2.mbd Not everything is 1:1 with the different epic of course, but the slotting focus may be useful as a reference!

I almost always take Hover on my fliers, as I appreciate the fine air control as well as unsuppressed speed, and don't like the end expenditure of running the full travel power. Fly+CJ is nowhere near as smooth. If not flying, CJ every time. Even on my fliers, I will very often take CJ as well for extra lotg mule and defense. This is my go-to on characters that are more end-hungry and can't support Fighting pool comfortably. More and more I just don't like dealing with the empty power picks, heavy end cost, and toggle management of Fighting pool.

Kin is pretty, but by far the most underperforming primary out there. You can get the job done if you love the theme, but MA is much more powerful.

I basically agree here, but Sonic siphon is just such a boring power. How many st debuffs out there just do one thing like this? I'd love some even small benefit that follows through on the "siphon" concept. Maybe a small, but pretty lengthy damage buff, or even an extra tiny aoe res boost.

I love this combo, and it's probably in my top 3 favorite characters period. My own is in the "rely on controls, maximize damage" camp. Supported by perma-dom, near slow immunity, and a healthy baseline resist, this works out really well! Seeds of Confusion is exactly as strong as you suspect. The main weakness here is severe overaggro scenarios - but what Dom really handles that easily every time? You can even manage there quite nicely if you are very aware and aggressive with your extra controls. This is where Vines does come in handy - it's your emergency "whoops, an extra spawn" button, and mules a great set to boot. Here is is for reference: Dominator - Plant Control - Fiery Assault mk2.mbd This build is made to play primarily at range, which /fiery is uniquely suited to. Incinerate is mostly a mule, but you can use it when exemping just fine. At range, you won't need flares for a complete ranged attack chain anyhow. Note the slotting for carrion creepers here. Due to the unique way its pet summon mechanic works, the procs here turn it into an absolute damage monster. It looks like @Meknomanceris already on the right track with slotting here for their build as well. : ) It's worth noting that Creepers do require accuracy to hit, and the only way to actually get that accuracy to them is with native power slotting, so you want some incorporated into the power itself. I very much dislike tough/weave on my doms in general, as the toggle management is annoying, and the endurance cost is hard to balance with the tools available. I tend to lean on Sorcery/Rune more often if I want extra resist support, as in this build. Sure you don't need the mez protection from Rune most of the time, but sometimes even that aspect is a problem solver (ie after a death/rez, missed dom cycle). It is more of a useful power spike in truly troublesome scenarios to pull you through. This combo doesn't need extra help in the moment to moment mob grind - it obliterates everything in its path. What it does benefit from are extra tools to solve surprises.

I did a fresh pass on my triple fire recently, with a more balanced version that is still very proccy/damage maximized, but with stronger ranged defense as well. Not softcap, but within easy range, and good resist support. Here it is for reference. Blaster (Fire Blast - Fire Manipulation).mbd As with the previous build @Nemu referenced in the linked thread, this is optimized for ease of use - no cones. Just pop in and start smashing big aoes. One thing Hot feet is pretty decent at is leveraging ranged defense in a somewhat melee oriented build. With this build, you hop into melee and everything starts running away slowly, maybe stopping to potshot you through ranged defense. They move just slowly enough that they are almost always fully dead by the time I finish the combo. Because of this, runners are largely a non issue, though blaze and blazing bolt will clean them up readily. Otherwise, Fire breath is indeed a great power! I wouldn't skip it on a more ranged focus character. Blaze and Char are both top tier blasts when properly slotted. I definitely wouldn't forego blaze on any build, however. On my own, I didn't have the spare slots to give Char the love it wants, and my ST chain is robust with Blaze, Blazing bolt, and Fire sword. Even Fireball is really strong ST. I do have consume but honestly very rarely need to pop it given the blaster sustain. I totally get why some folks may not dig on hot feet. It is pretty useless for a ranged playstyle, or a jousting focus when engaging melee. However, If you aren't taking it, /fire manip is a pretty mediocre secondary. You'd be much better off with something like /elec if you want in/out melee action, or /plant, ta, or maybe /time if you are trying to stay ranged. Style wins the day of course if you just want pretty blasty flames across the board!

Hello Controllers! @Darkir posted a damage oriented Dark/time a good while back, which served as inspiration for my original iteration of this character, which has been sitting at 50 for a long time gathering dust. With the new ability to save a power by skipping the secondary T1, and new perspectives otherwise, I thought I'd revisit this guy and bring him back to life. I'm very pleased with the results! A lot of this is of course on the strength of Farsight+PB = your accuracy and defense problems are sorted with no set bonuses needed. At that point, just build for perma Chrono shift and squeeze in procs where they make the most sense. This current version has a few strengths: Excellent ST damage, as both holds are proc bombed to the gills, and you have Arcane bolt to round it out. Near defense softcap to ranged (42.35 will do fine given the -tohit we're throwing around). I managed to fit 85% slow resist as well. This is huge QoL against certain opponents, and will mostly preserve your hasten/Chrono shift cycle even when debuffed. Rune is here to help you out of mez land or as a resist steroid when needed. Where it falls short: Aoe damage. I didn't pick an epic aoe. It's actually serviceable with the bombed HoD and Fearsome, along with a trickle from Living Shadows, but I'm not wiping +4 spawns in one rotation here outside of judgements. Resists? They're actually pretty okay, especially when rune is up. That last little bit of ranged softcap, I guess. I don't care enough to steal slots from more beneficial places though, given the above referenced abundance of -tohit. Even better - the -tohit will be in my alpha (Fearsome). Honestly I struggle to really identify a solid weakness, especially given the amount of proc damage jammed in here. End consumption is decent as well, with extra juice from cs and conserve power too. Anticipated playstyle: Open with Fearsome, Pop in for a HoD bomb, slowed response, back out for living shadows. Start burning big targets with my holds and arcane. Reapply these as up. If it's a tougher fight, keep Dfield up, summon haunts as well. Shadow field in reserve for emergencies. Mostly I'm just super happy with how this worked out and wanted to share! However, if you see any optimizations for further damage without sacrificing perma CS and my slow resist, I'd love to hear. Room for FFback in Arcane might be neat, but not all that impactful given total recharge I think. Controller (Darkness Control - Time Manipulation) mk2.mbd Visual: Update: Went ahead and respecced - wow! I take back the low aoe comment. I ran a +4X8 Asteroid farm and everything was absolutely melting. Granted, the pets don't last long in that heat, but that's okay. The ST chain is perfect! There's just enough gap in the chain to make Arcane a meaningful addition, especially with Arcane Power up. If I have containment and arcane power, I'm hitting three ~350 damage attacks back to back cycling. This wins my personal award for most improved character upon respec, at least for builds I actually approached thoughtfully in their first form.

Yeah. Same feelings on kin repel. I believe this is international to keep kd conversion from being too powerful in always on powers, but I think it goes too far.