How to survive while leveling

[Mashugana]

I want to level an Ice/Ice blaster by running content for fun - are there tricks to help me survive? I remember blasters being squishy - do you do anything for defense in low levels? do you just slot offense like crazy and kill them before they kill you? Do you use any IO sets at level 25 or so?

 

I do not want to level by teaming or fire farms - I have done a lot of that and I want to see some of the old stories.

 

Thanks for any advice :)

[Dark Dove]

Ice is about as safe as you want it to be.  Freeze Ray (level 8 ) and/or Bitter Freeze Ray (26) will take any dangerous enemies out of the fight. You can slot two heal enhancements and two endurance enhancements in frigid protection early for some survivability and end management, and it also slows enemies and reduces damage.  Ice patch at 20 makes enemies bounce and do nothing.

 

I don't think you'll need much more than that, slot things for damage, accuracy recharge and endurance, you'll be fine, it's a strong, safe solo build.

 

You can get knockback protection from base empowerment buffs for a couple cheap salvage, and at level 1 you can buy the amplifier buffs from the P2W vendor for something like 2000 inf per hour up to 8 hours that will give you mez protection and some other nice bonuses if you want to really maximize your early game.

[Coyote]

Blasters used to be very squishy, before each set got a Sustain power that gives them either +Regeneration, or either ticks of healing or absorb. After that, their defenses are reasonably solid for squishies.

[UltraAlt]

I'm just sneaky when I'm a softie.

Always attack from full strength; rest between fights.

Pull when you can. Run when you need to.

 

"Doesn't hurt to team up with a tank that has taunt." (tm)

"Team with a healer, my squishy friend!" (tm)

[Haijinx]

Disappointed that you threw out the most fun way, teaming.  

 

Short of that, grabbing the Kinetic Barrier temp power can help a lot with defense.

[Haijinx]

1 minute ago, UltraAlt said:

. Run when you need to.

This.

[Nemu]

I can teach you.

 

Battlefield awareness, Single pulls, Line Of Sight, movement/jousting/kiting, inspiration priorities, target priorities, timing, etc...

 

Max out all the p2w amplifiers powers at level 1 and those will last you until mid teens to level 20s depending on whether you have experience buffs or not. There are powers within your toolkit that helps with survival but the real edge comes from learning those things I listed.

 

Global is @Nemu, hit me up if you are interested.

Edited December 24, 2020 by Nemu

[Six-Six]

It's a fallacy that blasters are squishy. It's true they don't have the armour associated with the melee ATs, sentinels, and spiders. But they're hardly a rarity: Doms, Controllers, Corruptors and Masterminds (even PBs and WSs arguably) all start out with very little armour. What they do have is a unique tool set to mitigate that. Doms and Trollers have their holds and controls, corrs and fenders have some heals which could be worked around to benefit you as well as your ally. MMs have their pets. Blasters... blasters have damage, damage and more damage. Kill them before they can kill you. Blasters can fight from range or melee with devastating efficiency. As long as you're not being careless, blasters are quite survivable. here are just a few tips to enjoying blasters:

1) pick your fights. don't go rushing into a mob that's too much for you to handle. any blaster can easily take down one or two, but even brutes and tanks may have a problem with a +2 or a x4 solo. divide and conquer. use your T1 or T2 to pull them to a nice little corner where they can meet their death.

2) prioritise targets. If you do find yourself being mobbed, concentrate on killing one (kb is your friend--push back others, make them wait their turn to meet their maker). You can also do guerila tactics: run in. kill one or two, run out. next time you run in, the mob will be a bit smaller.

3) try to sneak in def and res through IO set bonuses. those can go a long way. I tend to prioritise defence and resistance against smashing and lethal AND range. the blaster's main weakness is mez. range def/res and to hit debuff is how to mitigate your enemy from mezzing you in the first place. but it's not that bad, blasters can still fire off their both their T1s and T2 primary even when mezzed, so don't skip those and build them up to do decent damage. (I have a few blasters that didn't take mez protection and you kinda get used to it after a while). having a few spare purple insps in hand don't hurt either.

4) don't be afraid to get into the thick of things. blasters are a damage AT, not just range damage, but ST, AoE, PBAoE AND melee. blaster melee damage can be built to high numbers. once you get the hang of it, congratulations, you are now a Blapper 😃

5) while they are primarily damage, they also have some nifty debuff powers. learn how to use your power set so you can squeeze every bit of effectivity out of them. It's not just about sniping and firing away (well, it is, but...) sometimes, you do MOAR damage if you set it up efficiently like a rad debuff prior to your high damage attack. Ice focuses on holds and slows--both slow movement and slower recharge... slower recharge = def/res for you: if they're powers are recharging longer, they're hitting you less.

6) find a way to stick a heal power into your build, like hoarfrost, Presence: unrelenting, aid self + field medic, etc. everyone needs a breather 😃

 

[Mashugana]

Thank you all so much - lots to digest and learn - i'll ask if I have more questions 🙂

[Shred Monkey]

I slot for ranged defense while leveling up, and I run around like a, well, a monkey to stay out of melee.   Defense also helps against control powers because they can't immoblize you if they can't hit you. 

 

Some common build tricks... get Tough from the fighting pool so you can slot the +3 defense IO uniques.  Thunderstrike 6-slotted in your ranged attacks, and Mako's bite 6-slotted in melee attacks give great ranged defense.   I buy attuned IOs so they level up with me.  Combat jumping is useful both for additional defense and movement, plus it uses very little endurance.

 

If it suits you, you can grab hover to stay out of melee completely, which is adds a huge increase to survivability.