Help me find something new and fun

[OrionX]

Back on live I never really played a blaster.  But since the HC team (I believe it was them) fixed the snipe and the nuke, I decided to give it a try on and stumbled on an expensive fire fire build that after many months and tweaking has become my absolute favorite toon of all times.  It does what I hear a lot of blasters say...it works because it kills them fast, before they kill you.  So my toon is at about Vet Level 92 and I am looking fort another Blaster.  I have tried rad atomic and ice cold (may have got those power names wrong but you know what I mean).  Please reccommend your favorite blaster and why you like it.

 

Thanks!

[terrasmash]

BR/tac arrow. The pairing goes very well your sustain is very strong. some cc in glue arrow and esd vs bot types is super strong. builtin in resistance to kb/kd and imob.  also a auto +recharge of 20% and that comes with a 40% res to slow. can soft cap range def and be a small purple for smash and leathal. have enjoyed playing him up to 50 and will go beyond.

[Novacat]

Yeah I was just going to suggest BR/TA as well. Tac Arrow's a powerful set of self-buffs and utilities ("what trick arrow wishes it was" for several of the latter things) and though beam lacks a 'ball' it's an excellent set overall, offering a bit of -regen, some DoT, a few knockbacks (weak ones so more like knockdowns really) and some decent stuns. Overcharge's ranged though a bit weaker than most (you'll use it plenty as your 'ball' though) and Piercing Beam is a real gem.

[Nemu]

Fire/Elec/Mace

 

It's the fire/fire you always wanted but with more SMASH!

 

Pros:

1 Most of your attacks have 1 second animations, except thunderstrike.

2 Force of thunder and thunderstrike can chain juggle KD mobs and they are great FF proc mules as well

3 With scorpion shield you can almost softcap S/L/E/F/C

4 The melee attacks are crunchy and feels good

5 Endurance management via powersink and force of thunder

6 INFERNO!!!

7 When you activate thunderstrike yell "COOOOOMBBOOOOO BREAKER!!!"

8 It's not a sissy ranged blaster combo. You are damage incarnate and a MF'ing tank mage. Man up and get in there and punch face!

 

 

 

[Kaballah]

6 hours ago, terrasmash said:

BR/tac arrow. The pairing goes very well your sustain is very strong. some cc in glue arrow and esd vs bot types is super strong. builtin in resistance to kb/kd and imob.  also a auto +recharge of 20% and that comes with a 40% res to slow. can soft cap range def and be a small purple for smash and leathal. have enjoyed playing him up to 50 and will go beyond.

Be aware you're going to have to live with weapon redraw for both sets, whether that bothers you or not (It bothers me).

 

Water/Psi is really strong

DP/Energy is also pretty great

[Novacat]

Oh no that can be turned off. Both weapons can have their redraw removed, it's not like you're a Soldier of Arachnos!

 

Water's got no snipe though dehydrate's a health drain. It's an AOE-focused set with subpar single-target damage, but a massive amount of soft-control built in. Less good for soloing high level AVs, spectacular against large blobs of purple mobs. 

[Coyote]

Water/Psy can handle AVs well since Drain Psyche's -Regeneration more than makes up for that.

Otherwise, I like to pair Water with a secondary that has a Hold, so you can insert a Hold with 4-5 damage procs into the attack rotation and increase the single-target DPS. Running a Water/Plant now, and its sustained single-target damage seems solid so far.

[MTeague]

Dual Pistols / Devices.   Mostly because my costume is a pretty darn close hybrid to a Malta Operative and Malta Gunslinger.

[Kaballah]

2 hours ago, Novacat said:

Oh no that can be turned off. Both weapons can have their redraw removed, it's not like you're a Soldier of Arachnos!

The animation can be turned off, but the time spent running it is still there from what everyone has told me.

[Novacat]

The animations do their normal length.

The problem way back in the day, until just a few issues before the game ended, was that redraw added another second or so. You had your 1.67s cast time, but before that you also pulled out your gun.

So that was actually a problem (they'd even given weapon sets a 5% or so bonus on their base accuracy to compensate) since longer activation times mean a straight loss of DPA/DPS.

 

It still looks pretty silly though.

[Mercurias]

I'm really enjoying my Dark/Energy Blaster. Rather than being an In-Your-Face Blapper build, it emphasizes soft control and super-long-range cones to keep enemies at a distance. 

[terrasmash]

On 2/14/2020 at 7:24 PM, MTeague said:

Dual Pistols / Devices.   Mostly because my costume is a pretty darn close hybrid to a Malta Operative and Malta Gunslinger.

I played with you then.. How's your build coming along? You where like a 3rd ioed when we played. 

[skoryy]

Its the current 'what blaster are you playing' thread!

 

Right now I'm working on a DP/Fire.  She's not  at Hot Foot -> Burn -> Hail of Bullets yet, but she's still great fun in groups.  Blast away at range, and then hit anyone who gets up close with a fire sword!

 

I also have an AR/Atomic redside that needs more team love, but he can come later.

Edited February 18, 2020 by skoryy

[MTeague]

9 hours ago, terrasmash said:

I played with you then.. How's your build coming along? You where like a 3rd ioed when we played. 

Actually....not even 1/3'rd IO'd yet.  He's still lvl 22.  But he's fun and I only see it going up from here. 

Would not surprise me at all that someone else also has a "Malta Man" among their alts though.

[SeraphimKensai]

Ice/Plants.

 

In PvE you play like a dominator with blaster level damage, and your mag 3 AoE hold recharges base 90 seconds, whereas Domi or Controllers is base 240. You can also be a quasi spines scrapper at the same time.

 

Your Alt build can be dedicated to PvP where Ice/Plant is one of the best blaster combos due to the sustain and the nature of ice debuffs on your attacks.

[SeraphimKensai]

Otherwise anything other than Assault Rifle or Elec Blast in your primary, and they can generally be a fun time.

[Without_Pause]

Water/temp. One of the most balanced characters I have played.

[Rathulfr]

21 minutes ago, Without_Pause said:

Water/temp. One of the most balanced characters I have played.

After playing Energy/Temporal and Fire/Temporal, I can't imagine why any Blaster would play anything but */Temporal, except for concept reasons (e.g.: I still love my Energy² Blaster, but mostly for nostalgia).  Temporal is just that good.

[Apparition]

1 hour ago, Rathulfr said:

After playing Energy/Temporal and Fire/Temporal, I can't imagine why any Blaster would play anything but */Temporal, except for concept reasons (e.g.: I still love my Energy² Blaster, but mostly for nostalgia).  Temporal is just that good.

 

Most of the hard core speed runners use Fire/Fire Blasters, but I'll take Temporal over the Fire secondary any day personally.

[Jayj456]

On 2/15/2020 at 12:50 AM, Mercurias said:

I'm really enjoying my Dark/Energy Blaster. Rather than being an In-Your-Face Blapper build, it emphasizes soft control and super-long-range cones to keep enemies at a distance. 

Dark/atomic here.  Every 25 seconds I have an area hold that lasts 18 seconds.  Two single target holds full of procs that hit for @400dmg.  Perma hasten, 46 ranged defenses several near cap and mid 30s for others, but coupled with slotting -tohit sets in my cones and with blackstar. Nothing hits me...

Edited February 20, 2020 by Jayj456

[Saikochoro]

I started playing an archery / tactical arrow blaster a week or so ago. It has been a blast.

[ZorkNemesis]

I love Blasters.  I roll lots of Blasters and here's a couple i've found.  They're a bit unorthodox but still a blast (ha!).

 

Archery/Energy.  Fast attacks, early build up, but most importantly Boost Range is freaking amazing at letting you put so much distance between you and your fight as possible.  Combined with Ranged Shot you can easily break 100ft range on Fistful of Arrows and practically Rain on groups that are just barely in render distance.  Grab another cone attack from your epic (I have Mace Beam Volley as well) and become a long-range death monster.  As an extra note, if you decide to take Teleport; Boost Range and Ranged Shot both affect it.  If you Boost and take a snipe, you can teleport over 600ft away at once, making it objectively the fastest travel option in the game other than someone recalling you.

 

Fire/Dark.  Strange but fun.  A weird mix of running into groups for your dark AoE buffs then dropping Inferno or bouncing out for Fire Breath.  Plus some nice utility with a ranged fear and to-hit debuffs.  Not perfect, but it fit my style.

 

Water/Fire.  What I love about Water Blast is how customizable it is.  While you can recolor other sets, they're usually still the orginal power (purple energy is still energy) but water gives better creative control.  With dark coloration, I have an oil theme on this character that looks cool and does tons of damage.  Lots of close quarters fire AoEs and oil blasts.

 

Sonic/Mental.  Mental is an excellent secondary for Sonic.  Psychic Scream gives you another excellent cone blast for Sonic's decidedly lacking AoE potential and Psychic Shockwave is a great followup after a Dreadful Wail to clean up survivors.  Not to mention Siren's Song sets you up for a free crowd-sized Drain Psyche to turn you into an unstoppable machine.  Sonic's -res can also make your Psi attacks more useful on the enemies that frequently heavily resist Psi damage like machines and zombies.  The two sets just work really well together.

 

Dual Pistols OR Assault Rifle/Martial Combat.  These are combos that just make you feel like an action movie star.  Gunplay and roundhouse kicks.  If you want to play like you're Keanu Reeves, this is how you do it.  Martial also comes a status protection power (it's basically a Break Free as a power) and a weird teleport attack that can work to rapidly adjust your position in combat which can be helpful for getting out of a jam, positoning for cones, or jumping in with Hail of Bullets.

Edited February 21, 2020 by ZorkNemesis

[Coyote]

3 hours ago, ZorkNemesis said:

a weird teleport attack that can work to rapidly adjust your position in combat which can be helpful for getting out of a jam, positoning for cones, or jumping in with Hail of Bullets.

 

What's interesting about Burst of Speed is that it seems to have a very high chance to proc Martial's +Damage power, turning that from an annoying "not sure if it will happen" to "guaranteed 37% damage boosting in every fight". And it seems to stack duration, though there seem to be some strange lockout timers... but I can reliably start a fight with Burst of Speed to get into PBAoE range with a damage boost, then hit PBAoE attacks (and 2 more Burst of Speed attacks), all with the damage boost. Just don't put procs in it unless you really want to finish off a set for the 6th slot bonus, since they activate based on toggle activation formulas 😞.  Hail of Bullets is a very good follow up to the initial Burst into position.

[ScarySai]

Dp/martial won't break dps records, but clears +4x8 well enough while being pretty fun and thematic.

 

Water/atomic with procced holds and bonfire is like a roided out controller, lots of damage, lots of CC.

 

Fire/mental is my strongest character overall, probably. It kills GMs, AVs and missions without too much stress.

 

Beam/TA is my most recent character, and I have to say: The hype for the combo earlier in this thread is fully justified. If you want pure range, go with this.

[Six-Six]

My first blaster to 50 was also Fire/Fire/Fire. Hella stronk (no pun intended... welll, maybe a little). His only weakness was getting held, put to sleep and stunned quite too often. I got it fixed after a bunch of respecs and trial and error slotting. Still one of my faves. 

I have a DP/MA in the works. I can attest to the fun factor of the pairing. puts a smile to my face. shoot, shoot, kick and the critter flies off Kung-Fu movie style way... I can even shoot him while he's in the air for a few seconds. she's still low level so I don't know what kinks or snags I'd have to straighten out with her, but very promising. DP animation is awesome. 😃

I'm not much for numbers and stats, and I don't really mind if they're THAT strong or THAT solid. The play style and fun factor does it for me.

You might want to check out Controllers and Dominators. They have a totally different concept of survivability. Instead of the blaster/corruptor's overwhelming offence is a good defence, or the sentinel/arachnos' just try to get through my armour mentality, trollers and doms' lock them in place so they can't hit you while they slowly die. Now I don't have a high enough level troller or dom to be an expert by a long shot, but I've tried a few lowbies to see that they can also put a wide grin on my face.