Archery , /devices / Trick arrow

[warlyx]

devices has some DMG powers (time bomb hits like a truck , trip mine too , the drone helps) , however u are forced to be on melee to drop mines/bomb , +tohit toggle , stealth toggle

 

TA , has some nice passives -20% rech , +def +jump + fly , -res -def aoe arrow , oil sick + explosive arrow

 

hard to decide :S

[Tater Todd]

devices has some DMG powers (time bomb hits like a truck , trip mine too , the drone helps) , however u are forced to be on melee to drop mines/bomb , +tohit toggle , stealth toggle

 

TA , has some nice passives -20% rech , +def +jump + fly , -res -def aoe arrow , oil sick + explosive arrow

 

hard to decide :S

 

It depends on your overall playstyle.  I think /Devices is more for the Tactical Strategician type.  It has the most damage potentioal overall if you stacked a bunch of Trip Mines and Time Bomb as well as Gun Drone...

 

BUT!

 

/Tactical Arrow is better for a highly mobile play style and /Tactical Arrow helps you focus more on dishing out SICK damage with your Primary compares to Device which tends to Lean more on your Secondary over your primary.  Both have high dmg potential and both are extremely versatile.

[Adeon Hawkwood]

Honestly Trip Mine and Time Bomb aren't particularly useful. They can be fun to play with but in terms of DPS you're better off just using your primary.

 

IMHO the big draw of Devices is Targeting Drone which (among other things) lets you get fast-snipe up much more easily than other Blasters. Overall unless you want fast-snipe Tactical Arrow is probably the better option. Glue Arrow is better than Caltrops, and ESD Arrow is just a really nice power plus the defensive toggles in Tactical Arrow are just nice.

 

That being said Devices can be fun from a concept point of view, my first character back on the old servers was an AR/Devices Blaster and it remains one of my favorite combos to this day (especially since they added the fast snipe to make up for AR's weak single target damage) but I don't take either Trip Mine or Time Bomb.

[Yakisoba]

Speed + smoke bomb (IIRC?) allowed one to dash in and set bombs, then dash out unseen. But that was seven years ago.

[ScarySai]

Personally, I would go /TA for theme, or go either MM or NRG for min/maxing.

 

Devices doesn't seem like it compliments archery that much.

[Novacat]

Honestly Trip Mine and Time Bomb aren't particularly useful. They can be fun to play with but in terms of DPS you're better off just using your primary.

 

For pulling purple groups around corners or opening up on things with about 1.75 nukes (barring Inferno, 3/4 of a blaster Nuke is roughly what a trip mine's worth so you put it down and click the other one) which tends to just end a spawn, Trip Mines are pretty sweet stuff. They're not too too slow to put down but it does limit them to soloing quietly and slowly or those times when your group needs to take a few moments to prepare for a battle. Ideally of course, some form of stealth plus smoke grenades or flash arrows are used so that you can step straight into the very middle of your victims and lay it directly at their feet to catch the lot of them.

 

Time bomb's more often been the odd-one out due to the timer. In some ways it would be better if enemies COULD see and blow it up, since then you could just set it in the middle of them and let them stupid their own life away right then and there.