Fastest ranged powerset

[Chalkarts]

I was curious about the refresh times of the various ranged sets.

I'm considering making a rapid fire build.

Lots of reduced recast time and reduced endurance costs so that I can spam nukes as quickly as possible.

I'd like to start with the set that's fastest at its base.

 

Is there a fastest ranged power or does it matter?

[Abraxus]

Electric, and Ice are pretty quick.  Not sure if they are the fastest though.

[Piyerus]

You can check the cast times and recharge times of the powers during character creation, click on the green "i" in a circle in the upper right corner of the power select menu. One thing worth noting is that the casting time of the first 2 primary powers are standardized across all sets, but recharge time and damage differ from set to set. Looking at Blasters and going from the basic first two powers alone, the fastest (in terms of recharge) would be Archery and Fire Blast. But that may not be representative of the whole sets, I'm just looking at the first 2 powers.

 

I think Archery also has the fastest nuke, but I haven't compared all the sets.

 

Keep in mind there is a standard formula for powers that the devs tried to stick to, which took things like recharge time, endurance, and damage into account to try to balance powers out. While exceptions do exist, in general a fast power that you can spam easily won't be doing as much damage as a slower power of the same type. 

[siolfir]

If you're talking about recharge times, they're all fairly easy to get animation-limited in single-target chains, and if you're trying to create a straight AoE chain you want a set with a lot of AoEs, all of which have similar base recharges (cones are usually 8-10 seconds, targeted AoEs are 16-20). So to answer the last question you asked first, it really doesn't matter.

 

If you're talking about animation times, the t1 and t2 animations were normalized when Paragon Studios redid Defiance for Blasters (1.0 second animation for t1, 1.67 seconds for t2). So that means you should look for sets with fast t3s or fast AoEs. Fire Blast has both (Blaze: 1s, Fire Ball: 1s), Ice Blast has a fast t3 (Bitter Ice Blast: 1.07s) and can proc Freeze Ray (1s) for a lot of damage, but the AoEs are all fairly slow (2 seconds+). Electric Blast has Ball Lightning with a 1.07s animation, but no t3 single target blast (if that matters to you).

 

If you're just looking at fastest animations for nukes, Psychic Wail and Dreadful Wail are the only t9 "nukes" with animation times under 2 seconds; Blizzard is 2.03 and is great for Corruptors for all the changes to Scourge but otherwise it's a DoT and a lot of people don't like that.

[siolfir]

1 minute ago, Piyerus said:

I think Archery also has the fastest nuke, but I haven't compared all the sets.

On the old servers, Assault Rifle had the same base recharge (60 seconds).

 

On Homecoming, Rain of Arrows has a 65 second base recharge for Blasters, Corruptors, and Defenders, and Full Auto has a 60 second recharge. Both of those sets also have the slowest animations for their nukes (4 seconds, with most being 3).

 

For Sentinels, Archery has the slowest recharging nuke (95 seconds), and every other "nuke" was normalized to 90 seconds.

[biostem]

1 hour ago, Chalkarts said:

I was curious about the refresh times of the various ranged sets.

I'm considering making a rapid fire build.

Lots of reduced recast time and reduced endurance costs so that I can spam nukes as quickly as possible.

I'd like to start with the set that's fastest at its base.

 

Is there a fastest ranged power or does it matter?

I have found archery to be very fast.  The catch is that you're dealing lethal damage, which is more highly resisted in later levels.  Still, I rather enjoy it!

[DreadShinobi]

17 hours ago, Chalkarts said:

I was curious about the refresh times of the various ranged sets.

I'm considering making a rapid fire build.

Lots of reduced recast time and reduced endurance costs so that I can spam nukes as quickly as possible.

I'd like to start with the set that's fastest at its base.

Sentinels have a reduced base recharge on their t9 nuke powers compared to blasters, defenders, and corruptors.

[Extor Prime]

Ice.

Electric is also fast but overall godawful.

[Without_Pause]

I must be missing something for people saying Ice is among the fastest. Water feels faster. Fire's T1 is near auto fire worthy.