Tanky Blaster?

[You]

Can a Blaster be tanky?

 

certainly I am not talking about tank or brute or scrapper level of durability. But I am looking into the possibility of a tough ranged class that is not a Sentinel. 
 

Any advice and suggestion?

 

Thanks!

Edited May 8, 2020 by You

[reib]

/martial or /time +tough and weave +hibernate can tank Lord Recluse.

Edited May 9, 2020 by reib

[Coyote]

Leaving aside Hibernate or other tricks, you can make Blasters, especially with Water or Dark primary, who can tank AVs at range. And you can Hover or use Immobilize, and therefore make sure that the fight IS at range.

 

Straight-up tanking versus an AV... I bet that at higher levels you wouldn't have to use Lucks, either. I used them at lower levels, but you also have no set bonuses then, or Weave. The Skulls AVs were easy, and so was Vahzilok.

[tidge]

41 minutes ago, Coyote said:

... you can make Blasters ... who can tank AVs at range.

[therealtitanman]

3 minutes ago, tidge said:

 

 

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by therealtitanman

[Rathulfr]

I consider most of my Blasters to be "tanky".  I build them as hover-blasters, and focus on soft-capping Ranged defense and Smashing/Lethal.  They are not blappers: being in melee for longer than the time it takes to set off the primary T9 (usually Nova, in my case) is a death sentence.  I've attached a couple builds for your review, below.  Perhaps you can use them for ideas.

 

 

Wrongbow - Blaster (Archery).mxd Rathstar - Energy² Blaster.mxd Blasterman - (Energy_Devices).mxd

[Uun]

I just leveled a Dark/TA blaster and was pleasantly surprised by how survivable it is. Dark has a heal and TA has a stupid amount of regen in its sustain power. Unless an entire spawn attacks me at once, there's not much I can't heal back.

[Yamato]

5 hours ago, Uun said:

I just leveled a Dark/TA blaster and was pleasantly surprised by how survivable it is. Dark has a heal and TA has a stupid amount of regen in its sustain power. Unless an entire spawn attacks me at once, there's not much I can't heal back.

I'm looking at /TA and not understanding why it hasn't gotten more attention. 

 

I'm getting ready to roll a Fire/TA and looking for capped ranged defense and over 50% S/L resist. to go along with almost a perma AoE hold, perma -spd, -recharge, +regen, +rec.

 

What isn't ti like?

[Coyote]

9 hours ago, tidge said:

 

Fortunately, I have 65% Resistance to zings 😉 ... even penetrating ones using Princess Bride quotes 😄

[You]

Thanks for all your suggestion. What are the good secondary to go for? TA? And what else?

 

Thanks again!!

[Shred Monkey]

"Tanky" is a relative term.   Keep in mind that anything you do to a blaster build can also be done by one of the melee classes to make them even more "tanky."   So really the question is can a blaster be made "tanky enough"  

 

I would say the answer is yes.  In particular if you go all-ranged and hover-blast... but even if you stay on the ground and go into melee, you can be at soft-capped to most attacks with a very good regen rate, which makes you safe against most enemy groups.  You'll have some weaknesses, but those can be covered with inspirations and/or teammates.

 

On the other hand, you have no taunt.  And if you want to truely be a tank, taunt is critical.  A blaster can hold agro against other non-taunters, but many AVs will run if not taunted... which can get really really really annoying.

 

 

[Coyote]

29 minutes ago, Shred Monkey said:

many AVs will run if not taunted... which can get really really really annoying.

 

This is what I really like about my Water/Plant... defensive ability from a lifedrain, and a Mag 4 Immobilize. Stay put, track star AVs!!!

[Krazie Ivan]

16 hours ago, You said:

good secondary to go for? TA? And what else?

i prefer Atomic, esp if "blapping" (aka: Blaster done right, imo).

[SwitchFade]

So, I just got my DP/mental/fire to 50 again, recreated from live with some new tricks.

 

I play like so:

 

Run straight into melee, drop bonfire, hit BU, hit drain psyche, hit HoB, hit psy shockwave, hit bullet rain, hit empty clip, hit exe shot, then repeat from shockwave.

 

I stay in melee too. When bonfire isn't up, I still run sttaight into melee, hit BU, hit drain psyche, hit HoB and rest of attacks as above.

 

Drain psyche is just amazing when it hits more than 4 MOBs. If it hits like, say 8+, Regen is so high it's like being on a Regen scrap. /Mental is the bomb diggity.

 

I stay at +3/8 or +4/8 depending on type of foes.

Edited May 13, 2020 by SwitchFade

[Sovera]

My Archer/TA has 45% defenses to S/L/E/N and ranged on top of hovering out of range. That is very definitely tanky, but not a Tanker. That said it's plenty enough to lay waste to all in perfect security since out of melee thanks to the all ranged setup offered by archer/TA.

[TheLeprechaun89]

On 5/8/2020 at 7:09 AM, You said:

Can a Blaster be tanky?

 

certainly I am not talking about tank or brute or scrapper level of durability. But I am looking into the possibility of a tough ranged class that is not a Sentinel. 
 

Any advice and suggestion?

 

Thanks!

100% 
My DP/Martial blaster tanks AV's all the time in melee range.

He also herds huge mobs and is usually the center aggro for the mobs for some time as I wait for groups to merge for AOE Barrage.

Incarnates help a lot to make this happen but that's mostly only doing 45+ content.  However taking Melee and Barrier as well as the Eye of the Magus accolade you can pretty much keep yourself a tank SOB at all times.  Of course Weave, and combat jumping (Instead of hover for me) are a must.  Absorb proc from Preventive medicine and the scaling damage resistance from Reactive Defense also helps and the 4 accolades to increase your health/endurance.  My current health is 1707.75

[Nightmarer 2]

On 5/8/2020 at 1:09 PM, You said:

Can a Blaster be tanky?

 

certainly I am not talking about tank or brute or scrapper level of durability. But I am looking into the possibility of a tough ranged class that is not a Sentinel. 
 

Any advice and suggestion?

 

Thanks!

Almost any blaster can be tanky, take your pic and we'll try building it as tanky as possible.

[Snarky]

I have an elec/time build that uses invisibilty phase shift and Personal Force Field from Force Mastery.   Having high ranged defense then having two extremely powerful and very different get out if jail free cards with a fully ranged set is pretty sturdy

[Chelsea Rorec]

I like my Elec/Elec for tanking..so funny

My DP/Ninja strangly has capped ranged and nearly capped melee def with some S/L resist and the heal. Suprised even me.

Dark/Dark/soul Such Wow much fun. It's gaining levels in my opinion.

AR/Dev will always be my fav.