Onlyasandwich

I got to run my first itf on this guy today, and my build is mostly complete. Even before catalyzing my winter sets and atos, he is super fun and powerful to play! Definitely don't miss fire breath, and I find myself using burn more often than I thought I would. The double slow action of rof and hit feet make it relatively painless even without a tank holding them tight. I think I have a new favorite!

The loud rip of a fully saturated War Mace crowd control.

Thank you! I'm up to 40 at this point and excited to slot it all the way. Indeed it is what I meant. Fire doesn't need to lean on its secondary for good st, though it does help to fill out the chain depending on recharge. /Fire has reasonable tools for this in fire sword and burn, though not as good as say /electric. If we are looking at it for purely aoe, I think /fire is still among the best options because of hot feet.

One thing I don't think has been mentioned here - not only are Tanker aoes larger, but they also have a higher target cap. Most cones that are capped at 5 on scrappers/stalkers are capped at 10 for Tankers. Most PBAoEs normally capped at 10 are increased to 16. This makes an enormous difference in more crowded content. Also, although this is less relevant on teams, the inherent taunt on most attacks is a great quality of life improvement when you are churning through tough crowds. Mobs won't trigger the damage fleeing ai, and you can keep everything easily packed tight to kill. On shield/ specifically, you have a heck of a lot less work to do softcapping defense, as your base numbers are higher. This leaves plenty of extra slots for proccing your secondary out. Ultimately, a Tanker isn't going to provide the raw up-front damage numbers of blaster/scrapper/stalker, but can compete well in many situations with a smoother overall play experience. I see that you have chosen a different direction with this most recent character. I would encourage you to give Tankers a try some time. Like many of the other folks in this thread, I'm a huge War Mace fan. a Shield/Mace may be a fun starting point for you.

I was inspired by both Nemu's build, and Dreadshinobi's. I like the idea of having RoP as a fallback and easy mez breaker, as well as a tool to help mitigate the lack of an epic resist when using Scorpion Shield. I've given up on keeping Fire Breath for theme - it just gets too much in the way of IO priorities. I think I'm pretty happy with what I put together! This build matches Nemu's recharge, and reaches softcap for S/L/E/R (well, it's ~.4 off for all but E - close enough for my purposes). I may try another iteration where I pick flame mastery and see how high I can keep defenses, but it won't likely be of interest to you given your stated goals. With RoP up, resists are modest across the board, though S/L is still a step shy of what an epic armor would allow. As Nemu noted, part of the fun and challenge of a melee blaster is using your movement and positioning to survive. I still need to get this guy to 50 to really get a feel for it, but I doubt this build would have a problem jumping in blindly most of the time anyhow. Burnout is a clear flex pick. You could drop consume in its place if you want. I would love to have room to drop a few strategic procs in blazing bolt and blaze. It's a sad day for me when I don't get to use any purple damage procs, but the defense slotting makes it too tight as far as I can see. Fortunately, fire/ isn't exactly hurting for ST damage, so doesn't really need to rely on procs to get an edge. Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.7.2.10 https://github.com/Crytilis/mids-reborn-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build! Char King: Level 50 Technology Blaster Primary Power Set: Fire Blast Secondary Power Set: Fire Manipulation Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Sorcery Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Flares -- SprDfnBrr-Rchg/+Status Protect(A), SprDfnBrr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(3), SprDfnBrr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(3), SprDfnBrr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), SprDfnBrr-Dmg/Rchg(5), SprDfnBrr-Acc/Dmg(7) Level 1: Ring of Fire -- Thn-Acc/Dmg(A), Thn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(7), Thn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(9), Thn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(48), Thn-Dmg/EndRdx(48), Thn-Dmg/Rchg(50) Level 2: Fire Ball -- Artl-End/Rech/Rng(A), Artl-Acc/Rech/Rng(9), Artl-Acc/Dam(11), Artl-Dam/End(11), Artl-Dam/Rech(13), Artl-Acc/Dam/Rech(13) Level 4: Fire Sword -- SprBlsCol-Rchg/HoldProc(A), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(15), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(15), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(17), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg(48) Level 6: Rain of Fire -- Artl-End/Rech/Rng(A), Artl-Acc/Rech/Rng(17), Artl-Acc/Dam(19), Artl-Dam/End(19), Artl-Dam/Rech(21), Artl-Acc/Dam/Rech(21) Level 8: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 10: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(23) Level 12: Aim -- RctRtc-Pcptn(A), RctRtc-ToHit/Rchg(23), GssSynFr--Build%(25) Level 14: Kick -- ExpStr-Dmg/KB(A), ExpStr-Acc/KB(50), ExpStr-Dam%(50) Level 16: Build Up -- RctRtc-ToHit/Rchg(A), RctRtc-ToHit(25) Level 18: Blaze -- SprWntBit-Rchg/SlowProc(A), SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg(27), SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(27), SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(29), SprWntBit-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(29) Level 20: Cauterizing Aura -- PreOptmz-EndMod/End/Rech(A), PreOptmz-EndMod/Acc/Rech(31), PreOptmz-Acc/Rech(31), PreOptmz-EndMod/End(31), PreOptmz-EndMod/Rech(33), PreOptmz-EndMod/Acc/End(33) Level 22: Tough -- GldArm-3defTpProc(A), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(46) Level 24: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(33), ShlWal-Def(34), ShlWal-Def/EndRdx(34) Level 26: Blazing Bolt -- StnoftheM-Acc/Dmg(A), StnoftheM-Dmg/EndRdx(34), StnoftheM-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36), StnoftheM-Dam%(36), StnoftheM-Dmg/ActRdx/Rchg(36) Level 28: Spirit Ward -- Prv-Absorb%(A) Level 30: Mystic Flight -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB(A), BlsoftheZ-Travel/EndRdx(37) Level 32: Inferno -- Obl-Dmg(A), Obl-Acc/Rchg(37), Obl-Dmg/Rchg(37), Obl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Obl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39), Obl-%Dam(39) Level 35: Burn -- SprBlsWrt-Acc/Dmg(A), SprBlsWrt-Dmg/Rchg(40), SprBlsWrt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), SprBlsWrt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(40), SprBlsWrt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(42), SprBlsWrt-Rchg/Dmg%(42) Level 38: Hot Feet -- SprAvl-Acc/Dmg(A), SprAvl-Dmg/EndRdx(42), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(43), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43), SprAvl-Rchg/KDProc(43) Level 41: Scorpion Shield -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(45), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(45) Level 44: Rune of Protection -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(45), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(46), UnbGrd-EndRdx/Rchg(46) Level 47: Super Speed -- WntGif-ResSlow(A) Level 49: Burnout -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Defiance Level 1: Quick Form Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A) Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A) Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A) Level 50: Musculature Radial Paragon ------------

/electric provides better st dps than /fire, though this is almost moot if you have high enough recharge to more or less chain blaze and bolt. This one is a personal favorite. All of the melee powers except perhaps thunderstrike here are exceptional, and it still has a damage toggle. As a minor note, power sink is way better than consume. For aoe damage, most if not all secondary powers will slow you down vs just chaining what fire already provides. It we are ignoring mitigation, this leaves passive damage, buffs, and debuffs to consider. /Fire actually has an edge here with a second pbaoe toggle in hot feet, which has the added benefit of making rof easier to manage. Atomic has some interesting +recharge tools that may allow you to shift some io focus to defense more easily and maintain your totals. /Plant provides a fiery embrace type power that gives you a damage buff that operates outside the damage cap, so interesting for optimal teams. Obviously there are non damage oriented reasons to pick a secondary, but these are the standouts from my pov if you are laser focused on this aspect.

Other than the absolute excellence that is bonfire, I agree that flame mastery is not optimal. I generally start from a character concept and pick my sets/epics based upon this, then optimize from there. In some cases this meshes well with what would be the best possible synergy, but not always. I have run plenty of fire blasters before, but not since they introduced the sustains. I'm glad to hear the sustain is sufficient, as I'm not a big fan of consume. The end drain protection can come in handy on occasion - I guess the real problem is that there aren't any great candidates to replace it with that don't require more slots. As for cold mastery, the heal and +hp does help soften the blow of not having the extra layer of s/l resist, but cold defense in the armor is strictly inferior to energy defense in Scorpion Shield. I'm universally not a huge fan of Snow Storm, even on my stormies. It's useful for grounding fliers, but I imagine not worth the end cost and animation time for this sort of build. I'm just bumbling through my 30's on this guy right now - will put my heart into a build a little later.

A few questions, @beradical - do you find yourself using consume much? I see that it is left at base slot. I suppose if you are pumping recharge, even the endmod of a blaster sustain could run short. Is it just because it is a usable on-slot wonder, or do you need to lean on it a bit? I want to find a way to work Fire Breath into my own build - maybe there will end up being an IO reason to do so. It is thematic for my specific look, and a welcome addition to aoe power as I'm leveling up. Do you ever miss it when exemping down? I do get that it would conflict with the later level playstyle which requires living in melee more or less all the time to leverage the toggles.

I just started up a fire fire blaster myself! I'll plug in your build and see how it runs. I think we have a similar playstyle. I like living on the edge in melee and juicing recharge at the cost of predictable survival. I may end up going fire epic for thematic reasons. It is, as you noted, a solid challenge to juggle baseline defensive io priorities with recharge without the benefit of scorpion shield. I'll share if I come up with anything interesting!

Thank you for the clarification, @Bopper! I figured I might have misunderstood the implications, as otherwise there would likely be more discussion around this.

@Jimmy I'm dubious about the damage proc accuracy "bug fix." Did damage procs previously have an accuracy check that was later removed inadvertently? If not, what led to the determination that this behavior is a bug? It is not intuitive to me that an accuracy check should be required. The proc is a part of the power, and already has a percentage chance of triggering. This will have a fairly measurable impact on proc damage, especially in slotted powers heavily leveraging the mechanic. This also nerfs hybrid doublehit in comparison to core. Is there a balance reason behind this? This seems beyond the scope of a "fix." I know @Bopper has done a lot of proc testing. I may have misunderstood the notes or how it already works in game. Is anyone able to confirm?

The only possibly argument I could make against plant/kin is that its pet is ranged, and will thus benefit less reliably from fulcrum shift. Plant is strong enough with all its other tricks that it is not a major issue. Plant/Storm would more reliably leverage the pet, and of course Storm is more amazing than ever these days. Since it's a controller, both sets will solo reasonably well late levels. Both Storm and Kin are top tier support sets in general - just pick what you are inspired to play!

Most any solid traps build that chases ranged and/or S/L softcap is going to give you a solid soloer, regardless of secondary. You will have to translate the set bonuses accordingly for AR if you want to have a strong build. For example, don't take a Traps build that chases resistance and melee defense and combine it with an /AR build that is chasing Ranged defense. You will end up with a piddling amount of both and waste your set potential. Traps overall has a lot of built-in soloability, before you even taken other factors into account. You have strong base defense, mez protection, an alpha breaker, and other distractions to keep the mobs busy. Here is my own Traps/Beam for reference. I have S/L/E incarnate softcap defense (and more), with a heavy focus on extra damage with procs in my secondary. Honestly, if you have FFG and Scorp Shield in your build, you have a lot of freedom for how you build for solo content, as those two basically take care of most of your defensive needs by themselves. A neat trick that Nemu showed me is slotting the Decimation buildup proc in Seeker Drones. It pops really reliably when you cast the drones, letting you basically use them as a buildup in addition to their normal utility. This is especially helpful in Assault Rifle, which has no Aim equivalent.

The st feels at least ok these days with quicksnipes being part of the regular attack chain. Great point about the multiple pulses, Carroto. Throw in a two or three damage procs and x-ray is solid enough. The fact that -def opens up two more damage procs and achilles really helps pick up the slack. Neutrino bolt is unfortunately a sad shell of its former buzzsaw glory.

It does help a little with the formula. I haven't made a rad blast build in a while, so I don't have one at hand. It isn't always perfect, but I mostly rely on mids to estimate damage totals with procs, as it is usually accurate. I can say that I've given electron haze a chance several times and always dropped it. Neutron Bomb, on the other hand, is easy to use at any range and has a high target cap. I like it overall. Darkir's kintank thread is a great resource in general, and you may find a rad blast build in there. As always, there will likely be a firm trade-off between defensive ios and reaching beyond the damage cap with procs. One thing worth considering on a kin is that it is easier to forego some base damage enhancement in pursuit of set totals, and kin itself is not slot hungry at all. This gives you more to throw at maximizing Rad's potential.

Rad kin won't be slow, but like most blast sets, it is definitely lower than fire. It has some nice proc opportunities to help make up for this, anda little handy Mez in its tier 3. Kin and rad are a classic combo - you won't go wrong. Rad's fastest aoe is irradiate, which is pbaoe, and plays well with scourge. If you want to move fast, you'll find yourself living a lot in melee, so should build accordingly for defense. The nuke is of course great, though the other two aoes are slow to activate.

Lightning clap is pretty, but way too slow to be very effective. You could go dark epic and stack with oppressive gloom, depending on how much you like using hurricane. Neutrino bolt is ok but not optimal. For me it just comes down to whether it makes sense thematically for my character to shoot lasers out of their eyes. You may find yourself busy enough with storm powers that the aoes, snipe, and cosmic are all you have time for in most battles anyhow. The heal is not something to be relied upon, but I usually pick it up at some point as a mule with occasional utility. There again I don't usually go fighting pool on my stormies, so you may be shorter on picks. It's definitely skippable. I like to throw the preventative medicine proc in it. I mostly use it to unstun folks who use wakies, or to buff a tank against carnie end drain and the like. Rad's best standard aoe is irradiate, so you are somewhat pushed away from heavy hurricane usage. You do have two other okay aoes to make up the difference of course, but both put you in longish animations. I think you'll find it to be a very successful combo either way! Rad and storm both have a lot of interesting proc opportunities to really crank damage if you are open to sacrificing some io defense potential and leaning more on hurricane. Hurricane is super strong and I enjoy it, but not everyone enjoys the dynamic involved in managing its repel, as well as the visual obstruction.

Rad/mace for sure! Mace is my favorite tanker secondary, and rad covers everything I could ever want in a primary. Crunch rip crunch. I had a blast with my bio/ss, who is also my badger and a close runner-up. I have plenty more I enjoy. I think the only one that ever made me go "bluh" is my elec/tw. Powerful, but, I just don't vibe with TW.

Bio can still reach important resist caps with work, especially in larger crowds, and provides basically every possible layer of mitigation beyond that. You may not get easy out of the box def or resist cap, but you get a solid typed defense baseline, resists to everything, huge absorb shield, strong regen, and a strong heal. Even the next runner up in the game of "how many types of protection do you have" only has three or four of those. You have at least three built in "oh crap" buttons. Bio is definitely an active set if you are interested in more than its offensive bonuses. This gives you a number of ways to capitalize on defensive bonuses, and also makes you a more optimal recipient of defensive buffs of any stripe. Just a little nudge and you are capped on anything. This is or course looking it at only from the defensive pov. End management and offensive tools are the special spice.

@Nemu I wanted to thank you for your suggestion on the buildup proc in Seekers. It works really well! I had struggled dropping aim for tactics in this build, but this little maneuver lets Seekers double as on-demand buildup for my nuke as well, giving the power a whole new life. I wonder if it has a chance to proc for each seeker - so far it fires super reliably. Great tip for any traps players.

Thank you for the build, Nemu. I definitely recognize that yours is an overall more survivable route. Proc damage focus is definitely a baseline goal for this build though. I'd love to choose an epic resist shield and still achieve my goals, but it looks like there is no secret compromise to get there without more traditional slotting. I am not on desktop to access mids right now, but I don't recall the option to put ranged sets in seekers. Buildup proc would be a great use if you can though! This may be a good option for my flex slot. I actually like seekers well enough, especially when exemplaring. Later on I can just dive in to most spawns, but an alpha breaker can come in handy. Since they double up on debuffs, they are not a bad emergency mitigator in higher content as well. I do agree they could use a buff. In theory trip mine would be good to supplement the weakish beam aoe, but it's just too slow for me.

@beradicalI got a chance to look at your build in mids. You definitely aren't afraid to take it apart and reassemble! You mentioned making this into two builds - I assume this is geared specifically towards big-game hunting. It is indeed very specialized. If you are now running Ageless, do you still need the extra endredux in EF? You could steal that slot, switch the base slot in RA to Preventative medicine heal/rech, and add the PM proc as second slot. This caps your Smash/Lethal resist, which is running a little short now. The PM proc is also very powerful defensively. Tactics would also be a good slot to steal from. The HO cytoskeleton enhanced++ gives pretty much the same tohit enhancement alongside solid endredux for just one slot. You could drop it into tough with a 5th unbreakable guard to pump your psi resist even further. I like your slotting of Dreadful Wail - you've really cranked the damage up with procs and still built good set value for your mission. It does look like you really emphasized psionic resist in this iteration as well. I hit 50 with mine, and have finally settled on my 100% complete build. As I mentioned earlier, I aim towards a build I will be happy with solo and on teams. The biggest functional difference I see here is that your procced nuke does way more damage than mine. I still have two really strong punch ST powers, retain my standard aoe, and the defender ATO procs are in powers that will see proper use. My final build is softcapped ranged, 36 melee defense. Melee is not a big deal most of the time, as choking cloud does its work and I have a great hold to supplement. Thank you for the great back and forth on this - it has really helped me refine this build to where it is now.

Very solid time. I wonder how low you could get it with assault active. I messed around with power usage in game and pretended I didn't have scream for a session. Very rarely did I find myself needing it as a filler, so I took your advice and dropped. This really opened up the build, and let me shore up a few compromises I had made, as well as pick up assault. You are right about shout too. Keeping it instead of screech. It recharges more quickly, so I can maintain a good chain without scream.

This limitation only applies to procs. If you enhance the accuracy of a pet power, no matter what class of enhancer you use, everything within that would benefit from accuracy is improved.

Reactive is usually recommended in the damage focus version rather than higher debuff proc. I don't know if the -res will be more than a blip on the attack chain radar. It should trigger on dom though, yes.