Fire / Energy Blaster

[Nemu]

Welcome to the forums. I'm going to be brutal but fair. The end goal is so that you start to look at why you slot the way you do, and once you start to understand the why you can start to optimize.

 

First of all turn off power boost and all the incarnates, they provide an inaccurate view of your overall performance, especially if you exemp down. With all the incarnates turned on you have pretty respectable numbers. With range defense at softcap and power boost perma with hasten, which is also perma. However your numbers dip much lower without those incarnate powers.  Even with powerboost you manage to muster about 35% range defense and hasten is not perma.

 

As for set bonuses you seem to understand the concept of stacking set bonuses and you mostly avoided  the newbie mistake of slotting full purple sets and replaced the 6 slot with a proc, except for Armageddon in inferno, whether that's intentional or an oversight I don't know, but you can certainly shave a slot or replace the 6th with a proc and keep the recharge bonus at 5 slots.

 

You are missing the gladiator's armor 3% def unique and the 2 +resist uniques from reactive defense and shield wall. There are opportunities to fit at least the Annihilation -res proc into one of your targeted AoEs. You can certainly put a damage proc in fireball, but a -res proc makes all your other attacks do more damage and helps the team as well. It's probably more bang for the buck.

 

There are some other questionable slotting decisions but before we get into that let's discuss your game plan. Are you planning to hover over enemies and shoot them, reserving bonesmasher and total focus to punish those who manage to get up close, or are you actively looking for opportunities to punch face?

 

Most newbie blasters learn towards ranged blasting, and they take bonfire to compliment that strategy. Bonfire is available at 35. Do you exemp a lot? Do you want to be effective throughout your career or just after you get bonfire?

 

First a few comments on questionable slotting:

 

Stamina. 6 slots gets you 7.5% recharge, I see that you are shooting for recharge but slotting stamina when Energize eliminates your end problems is something you do only if you have no better options to dump slots in, If you 6 slot that with preventive medicine which you already have 3 pieces of, you get 8.75% recharge AND and emergency absorb shield that kicks in the lower your life is.

 

3 Slotting vengeance - you get a paltry amount of +HP on a power that you may rarely use. Vengeance is typically a one slot wonder for luck of the gambler. Those 2 additional slots can be invested elsewhere for more meaningful returns.

 

5 slotting fire shield with Aegis. What's the rationale here? You don't have any fire/cold/aoe defense bonuses anywhere else in the build. More importantly, why do you think you need fire/cold/aoe defense? What's your game plan and how does having f/c/aoe defense factor into it?

 

Miracle in Health, You may find it unnecessary because energize will take care of all your endurance problems. That's potentially another slot saved that you can invest elsewhere.

 

Next some holes in your build:

 

Mez protection - blasters get mezzed easily and learning how to insp combine/pop breakfrees should be second nature, otherwise you are going to have a tough time enjoying the AT. You got kb protection covered but you can also eliminate having to worry about immobilization if you took combat jumping. If you wanted to fly during combat you can always grab a P2W jetpack temp.

 

If you are adamant about having fly then it might be worthwhile digging deeper into the pool for hover and evasive maneuvers, as the latter will provide -fly resistance and also immobilization resistance or protection. The last thing you want as a blaster is to be an immobile blaster, and I think you only need to be web grenaded once to be reminded how important it is to stay mobile.

 

Slow resist - -recharge debuffs and movement speed slows will wreck you. If you have the budget and it look like you do with all the purple sets, consider investing in some slow resistance, A easy 20% comes from the winter travel unique, The other options are Winter IOs which are considerably more expensive.

 

Before you start tinkering with the build and we move to refining it, answer this question first: What is your game plan and your goal with this build?

[Inverted]

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Edited November 22, 2021 by Inverted
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[Krazie Ivan]

On 11/18/2021 at 8:35 PM, Nemu said:

turn off power boost and all the incarnates, they provide an inaccurate view of your overall performance

^^^ 

but Nemu, how will i gain mad props for YUGE numbers at a glance? i want to impress all the ladies & make grown men swoon with my build prowess, thus securing my place in COH history & lore.

[DocRadio]

On 10/29/2019 at 4:50 AM, Wintercat said:

I'd say you're missing your bread and butter single target attacks completely in favor of loads of poolpowers. No bone smasher, no blaze, no flares and only the default slot in fire blast. 

Flares and Fire Blast can be used when mezzed, which is no small thing. 

I'd really hate having to level this build, to be honest. It looks more like a wannabe pool-power based scrapper with a few blasts thrown in.

 

Indeed. Following up Blaze with Bonesmasher... That's why you play Fire/EM.

 

[SeraphimKensai]

Reading this post is giving me nostalgia for essentially i4-i16 PvP with my old fire/em. I might just remake one for old times sake.