Dark/Mental

[TungstenShark]

Helping my brother build a character...his concept will play best as a Blaster with Dark/Mental. I had almost zero experience with Blasters back in Live (and I'm pretty sure neither Dark nor Mental were Blaster options back then). I have found no info on this combo (which leads me to believe its unpopular and perhaps not effective, but I'm not worried about that - concept > all). Does anyone have any advice for this combo, tips for powers to avoid, or a build posted anywhere? I want him to enjoy the character, even if it's not the most powerful version of a Blaster, but I also don't want him face-planting all the time or spending all his time resting.

[Bopper]

I also am not too familiar with blasters, so I can't offer much advice. But overall it seems like a fun combo. You get 3 cones (2 from dark, 1 from MM), you get lots of PBAoE (which isn't ideal for a squishy, but with all the -toHit and -recharge you can probably mitigate a lot of incoming damage).

 

So overall, I think there's some synergy there and I think you can have multiple playstyles in a single build which can be fun. 

[Coyote]

I've played this. It is a solid combination, quite strong defensively. On offense, it's not one of the stronger combinations... but you have to balance defense and offense, and this is a very strong defensive build.

1: lot of -ToHit, which is great for a squishy character

2: a self-heal, very rare for a Blaster. And it's in a solid attack, so you can afford to spam it and not feel like you're cripping your attack chain.

3: a Hold with solid stats and good damage, and its long Recharge means that damage procs in it are at 90% chance to activate. So you get a Hold that does over 300 damage.

4: an AoE Immob in the primary. Nice. And it adds -ToHit. And you get a 100% Knockdown attack, also with -ToHit.

5: Two cones from the primary work well with the cone from the secondary, so you get 3 ranged cones... an Immob, a Knockdown, and a -Recharge. These mean that you lock mobs in place, lower their attack rate and the chance for their attacks to hit,  while knocking them down regularly.

 

Drain Psyche is normally a great power, but not quite as great for this combo: you want to be in cone range, but DP likes to be at melee range. So you'll have to do a bit of jumping in for DP and then back out for AoEs. It's basically the only downside that I've seen... and at high levels, it's not that bad, because you get Blackstar and Psychic Shockwave, so you have two more reasons to be in melee at the start of the fight before you back out to finish the spawn off with cones.

 

Don't expect OMG wow AoE damage from the combination, but it does good damage and with great defenses (on a Blaster scale, of course).

[Llewellyn Blackwell]

Dark and Psi got added around year 3, so no they are not knew. In fact Dark/Mental may be one of the most powerful comboes from the old live days. As was mentioned above, drain psyche is a huge boost to ones survival on a blaster if it is used with thought. Dark brings to hit debuffing into the mix which gives another layer of protection.

 

Basically I suggest stealthing into the center of groups for a drain psyche and psy shockwave, then push through groups to drag them, turn around and unload cones at them.  You friend may need to learn to blast, but his power sets are very good options and will carry him to the top off of the mountain if he stays with it.

[TungstenShark]

5 hours ago, Bentley Berkeley said:

Dark and Psi got added around year 3, so no they are not knew.

They are if you stopped playing in Year 1. 🙂

 

Thanks for the feedback. I could never find much info on this combo so I assumed it was under-powered or did not synergize well. Good to know. What powers are skippable in both Dark and Mental?