Best of Blasters

[FUBARczar]

Having leveled and played most powersets and many different powerset combinations I decided to put together this little ditty...

 

FYI here are a list of Blasters I have Played to 50 on Live or HC: Fire/Energy; Fire/Atomic; Fire/Mental; Fire/Martial; Water/Plant; Water/Temp; Beam/TA; Beam/Dev; Beam/Temp; Ice/TA; Ice/Plant; Ice/Ice; DP/Dark; Dark/Plant; Dark/Ninja; Sonic/Mental; Elec/Elec; Psy/Martial; Psy/Dev, Psy/Ninja, Ice/Ninja, Fire/Stone

 

Firstly, ranking the Blast sets according to several factors such as ST and AoE damage, debuff, control, etc.

1st tier:  Fire Blast

2nd tier: Beam Rifle; Water Blast; Ice Blast; 

3rd tier: Energy Blast;  Rad Blast; Archery;

4th tier: Dark Blast; Psychic Blast; Electric Blast; Dual Pistols

5th tier: Assault Rifle; Sonic Blast

 

Best combos by Blaster category (and I tried to do this without repeating sets under each category, offering a variety of solid choices under each category that also maintain good synergy.)

Blapper:

Fire Blast/Temporal --> high damage, quick animations, -regen debuff, absorb shield, etc. 

Honorable mentions: Rad/Atomic; Ice/Martial; 

Most Thematic: Fire Blast/Fire &/or Electrical Blast/Electricity

 

Blastroller:

Ice/Tactical Arrow --> Holds, -Speed, -recharge, -tohit, 

Honorable mentions: Dark Blast/Ninja; Ice Blast/Plant; Energy Blast/Energy

Most Thematic: Electrical Blast/Electricity

 

Debuffer:

Beam Rifle/Plant --> -Regen, -Resist, -Defense, -Damage, -ToHit

Honorable mentions: Dual Pistols/Temporal; Sonic Blast/Mental; 

Most Thematic: none perfectly fit the bill, but perhaps Dual Pistols or Beam Rifle /Ninja

 

Hoverblaster:

Fire/Plant - Lays down the damage ST and AoE, -regen, -tohit, -dmg

Honorable mentions: Beam Rifle/Devices ; Archery/Tactical Arrow;  

Most Thematic: Water Blast/Plant 

 

Worst Combos:

Sonic/Dark and AR/Mental

 

 

Edited September 27, 2022 by FUBARczar
Added sets

[Vulpoid]

Thank you for this!
I am wondering if I could ask,  based on your Beam/Temp ( Mine just hit 30) what powers you think are skippable or simply did not impress you?
I am thinking of picking up Acrobatics and Spring Attack, since I already use Combat Jumping and Super Leap and they might provide some KB/Hold protection and AOE.

What Primary/Secondary powers would you skip?

[FUBARczar]

Well with beam/temp I decided for myself that they are both great sets, but are not the best of friends.  This is because Beam likes to attack from a distance and Temporal shines best in melee range.  And Beam also works best by taking most of the attacks to take advantage of the various debuffs and the Disintegrate mechanic.  That said I favored the beam powers and just stuck to the core Temporal ones like Chronos, Temporal Healing and Time Lord.  Personally, I turned it into a hover blaster, which is why I created the Beam/Dev (for thematic reasons and IMO synergizes better) and Beam/TA which it probably the best pairing for Beam.

[Lockpick]

How about tiering the secondaries?

[FUBARczar]

On 8/23/2020 at 3:34 PM, Lockpick said:

How about tiering the secondaries?

sure I'll do that, later today

[ClawsandEffect]

I find myself wanting to roll a Sonic/Dark. 

 

I made a Broadsword/Dark Armor scrapper back when everyone thought DA was trash. I bet I can make Sonic/Dark work. 

[FUBARczar]

15 hours ago, ClawsandEffect said:

I find myself wanting to roll a Sonic/Dark. 

 

I made a Broadsword/Dark Armor scrapper back when everyone thought DA was trash. I bet I can make Sonic/Dark work. 

Sonic/Mental would be interesting

 

DA is one of the best, and BS with parry makes it stronger defensively even if doesn't provide the most synergy for DA.

Edited August 25, 2020 by FUBARczar

[Tsuko]

Beam / TA / fire for long range DPS / CC 🙂

[FUBARczar]

Ranking Blaster Secondaries: Ranking secondaries is harder because depending on the primary set, a Secondary set could be either awkward or have great synergy.  For instance AR/Mental is awkward because it's bread and butter attacks are cones (therefore AR likes to be at distance not in melee) whereas Mental likes melee b/c the sustain power is PBAoE.  So most sets don't match well with AR, but Energy synergizes well with it's boost range extending the reach of AR's cone attacks.  That said, I think there is more parity between secondary sets compared to the primaries.

 

There are basically three types of Secondary sets depending on its sustain mechanic: Absorb Shield, Regeneration Toggle and Other/Click.  As a general guideline the Absorb shields are the best kind of sustain mechanism for blasters, with the toggles second for ease of use and effectiveness.  Lastly, the Other sets have to be monitored, and clicked on which generally wastes DPS, may not be "On" when you need it, etc.

 

Absorb Shields: Ice; Martial; Plant; and Temporal

 

Regeneration Toggle: Atomic; Devices; Ninja; and Tactical Arrow... and Fire (a Heal Over Time toggle)

 

Other: Darkness; Electricity; Energy; and Mental 

 

The rankings below are NOT hard/set rankings b/c it really depends on the primary and what type of blaster you want (Blapper; Blastroller; etc.) but I will attempt to rank anyway!!!  Also, as before, even Tier 4 can be effective, fun and does not mean that they are bad.

 

1st tier:  Plant (Plant is on top for several reasons but mostly b/c of Spore Cloud (a targeted debuff toggle that does -regen; -tohit; and -dmg).  It has an absorption shield.  Toxins is a strong Build Up replacement which adds another damage type (toxic).  And it's suitable for any type of Blaster.)

1.5 tier:  Devices; Tactical Arrow; 

2nd tier: Atomic; Temporal; Ninja; Ice; Martial

3rd tier: Fire; Electricity; Energy

4th tier: Darkness; Mental (mental and darkness may be the weakest and strongest because they are feast-or-famine sets depending on targets, and enough recharge to make Soul Drain or Drain Psyche perma.)

 

Organizing Secondary sets by type (sets may appear more than once):

Blapper: Temporal; Atomic; Plant; Mental; Ice; Martial; Fire; Electricity; Darkness; Devices; 

 

Blastroller: Plant; Tactical Arrow; Ninja; Electricity; Ice; Energy; Darkness

 

Debuffer: Plant; Temporal; Mental; Ninja; Atomic

 

Hoverblaster: Plant; Tactical Arrow; Devices; Ninja; Energy; Martial; 

 

hopefully this is either helpful or at least gives food for thought...

Edited August 25, 2020 by FUBARczar
add bold

[FUBARczar]

On 8/25/2020 at 5:16 AM, Tsuko said:

Beam / TA / fire for long range DPS / CC 🙂

Beam/Dev/Fire also works well for this.  Glue Arrow or Caltrops + Bonfire with KB>KD is lovely.

[Crowcus Pocus]

Can confirm Fire/Temp is a serious powerhouse (soloed MsLib +4/8 with it). It's my go-to toon for most stuff in game and never lets me down.

[Pragmataraxia]

I really appreciated this information, but I'm not sure if I found an error, or if my understanding is wrong...

 

Isn't a "Blapper" a Blaster that focuses on Scrapper (i.e. melee) attacks?  Wouldn't Devices -- a set with no melee attacks -- be an odd choice for this?

[Vulpoid]

10 hours ago, Pragmataraxia said:

Wouldn't Devices -- a set with no melee attacks -- be an odd choice for this?

You want to SUPPORT melee attacks with the secondary.

Webs, Caltrops, a Cloaking Device,  and Toe Bombing with Trip Mines all support getting into melee range and unleashing on enemies that can't escape because they are held, slowed, immobilized or stunned.

Edited August 31, 2020 by Vulpoid

[GetRidOfWires]

I would respectfully disagree that Dual Pistols is so low and Beam Rifle so high In rank. One of the main reasons to make a Blaster is ranged AoE, which can be better than any other AT. BR is lacking in AoE for Blasters, while DP has more with seemingly faster animation.

[Greentea]

I heard there's a bug with DP's tier 9 though.

[Saikochoro]

On 9/5/2020 at 12:20 PM, Heliodorus said:

I heard there's a bug with DP's tier 9 though.

There is, but this is the fix should come through with page 6. 

[Neogumbercules]

I rolled up a water/elec and it's tier 1 in my heart. 

[Doomguide2005]

I've found an Elec/Fire to be an AoE beast ... something like 7 AoE's in the build I had on Live.  I was leveling the same on HC when the computer died.  Could already see how the sustain power was going to make the very end hungry build much happier.  Definitely looking forward to playing him again.

[Neogumbercules]

I love /Fires sustain because it's just toggle and go. You don't have to even think about it. 

[Bill Z Bubba]

Got a fully tricked out fire/time blaster and a fire/plant in the 30s. I can already tell that I'll enjoy the fire/plant FAR more.

[FUBARczar]

On 9/10/2020 at 6:08 PM, Bill Z Bubba said:

Got a fully tricked out fire/time blaster and a fire/plant in the 30s. I can already tell that I'll enjoy the fire/plant FAR more.

That's good, both top choices.  All ranged, or blapper?

 

[Bill Z Bubba]

43 minutes ago, FUBARczar said:

That's good, both top choices.  All ranged, or blapper?

 

Hover blastin in safety for the win.

[Hew]

On 9/5/2020 at 10:10 AM, GetRidOfWires said:

 BR is lacking in AoE for Blasters, 

So, this comes down to not leveraging disintegration. Fast snipe can cause disintegration to spread very effectively. Not all powers trigger it equally, but tinkering with it can cause you to spread disintegration like a mad fool, generating a lot of AOE that isn't readily apparent by the lack of obvious aoe buttons to push. It just takes some work, which some people may not want to do, in favor of ez button pushes, which are also great. 🙂

[dark201]

On 8/26/2020 at 3:45 PM, Falsey said:

Can confirm Fire/Temp is a serious powerhouse (soloed MsLib +4/8 with it). It's my go-to toon for most stuff in game and never lets me down.

Mind Sharing your build?

[ninja surprise]

On 9/9/2020 at 9:20 AM, Neogumbercules said:

I love /Fires sustain because it's just toggle and go. You don't have to even think about it. 

Same with /Temporal, one toggle and a super sweet auto power buff.