Water Blast secondary?

[ScarySai]

Hey, returning after a bit of a break.

 

Moving on from my warshade and fire/mental, I'm thinking about giving water blast a go. 

 

Right now I'm torn between /fire, /devices and /atomic, but I'm not sure what will be the best combination from a purely min/max perspective.

 

Any insight is welcome. 🙂

[Rathulfr]

I've been playing and recommending Temporal, because of the stacking -Regen components of the T1, T3, and T5 powers (Time Wall, Time Stop, and End of Time), which are useful for AV fights.

 

[Tigress]

At the moment I can't recommend Devices at all, simply because the endurance regain power comes with practical invisibility, meaning unless you turn off your essential endurance recovery power, nobody will see you costume. To some that may be okay. For me it was a reason to remake the character.

 

/Temporal is pretty nifty and I hear good things about /Atomic but I am a huge fan of /Tactical Arrow. the area slow is amazing, the status protection is incredible, it comes with an accuracy buff and has a superb area hold that even does good damage against robots. Definitely something to consider if you can fit it in!

[Krazie Ivan]

Water/Atom/Mu is the most survivable Blaster i've made. not just the build stats, but also due to the 2ndary effects of both sets. it's fantastic for AoE dmg, but not quite as much as Fire/Fire... and won't keep pace with Fire/EM or Fire/Atom for ST/AV solo'g. it's very toggle-n-go, compared to some of the other durable combos which can be fickle. BetaDecay allows some breathing room to chase other bonuses while still having a ton o +Rech. @Profit has an Arch Blast that has even better durability stats, but i have no idea how it plays in comparison to other combos.

 

[ScarySai]

4 hours ago, Tigress said:

At the moment I can't recommend Devices at all, simply because the endurance regain power comes with practical invisibility, meaning unless you turn off your essential endurance recovery power, nobody will see you costume. To some that may be okay. For me it was a reason to remake the character.

That wouldn't bother me as much as being ineffective. Were the buffs sufficient, or is it still kind-of a weird secondary?

[Tigress]

Definitely kind-of-weird (to me), though not ineffective. Targeting drone remains awesome and the recent damage buffs make it stand out as one of the best powers of any Blaster secondary pool. Caltrops is a mixed blessing however, as it disperses groups as they pace off away from the damage source. Smoke grenade is a helpful debuff, however for a few seconds you can barely see your enemies yourself, so best use well before combat. Taser is quite okay, the bombs are not really my playstyle, but I hear they can be effective if slotted correctly and the gun drone apparently has a few taunting issues.

[Erydanus]

18 hours ago, Rathulfr said:

I've been playing and recommending Temporal, because of the stacking -Regen components of the T1, T3, and T5 powers (Time Wall, Time Stop, and End of Time), which are useful for AV fights.

 

I've got a lowbie with this combination but it's not thrilling me. The feel of it is not very comfortable and I don't like the sound temporal makes. Are there any key points in the leveling of this combo that you feel are particularly good? 

[Rathulfr]

1 minute ago, Erydanus said:

I've got a lowbie with this combination but it's not thrilling me. The feel of it is not very comfortable and I don't like the sound temporal makes. Are there any key points in the leveling of this combo that you feel are particularly good? 

 

Interesting question: I don't have any particular points to make in regards to leveling.  Bringing up baby is always tedious on Blasters, which is why I no longer do it.  Whenever I make a new squishy alt, I throw it into an AE fire farm with the Spines/Fire Brute on my second account and bake until 22 or 27, when I can slot SO-equivalent generic IOs.  Then I take it out to run the TFs for the Task Force Commander Accolade.  If it makes it that far, it's a keeper; if not, it either gets deleted or banished to another server for later consideration.

 

[Erydanus]

Hm that's fair. I take the opposite approach usually, at least when I'm unfamiliar with a powerset. I feel like I have to get into the weeds and really get the feel of every power in order to understand the performance deeply. I have a dark/dark blaster as well and playing him's a piece a cake since I'm familiar with all the various dark powersets, it was just a matter of mapping that to the blaster high damage / made of glass playstyle and he's doing just fine. So far this combo is leaving me thinking that I may just scrap it and play the powers separately because the most important thing is: I'm not enjoying it.