Psychic Blast has it improved?

[jeffmasterson]

So back in the day I was always interested in using this secondary on a defender but it was always getting trashed on reviews. So given all the improvements to the game as a whole I was wondering if the effectiveness of this power has improved? How would you stack it up in the rankings of Def secondary powers.

[Justaris]

Psy Blast has some good controls that come in handy when soloing.  The main issue, ironically enough, is that it's primarily psy damage which isn't as good in PvE as it is in PvP, and there are enemies who very strongly resist it, which can be frustrating when it's largely the only damage type you have available.  Also, the secondary effect of slowing recharge doesn't have as much impact as other debuffs overall.

 

It's viable, especially in teams, but I wouldn't consider it top tier mostly for the reasons above.  You'll definitely want TK blast as that's one of the few sources of other damage types

[jeffmasterson]

I thought smashing and lethal were the most resisted?  :( well I was going to pair it with sonic as the primary. Would the applied damage resistance debuff off set that issue?

[Justaris]

The problem isn't how often psy is resisted, it's how complete that resistance is when you encounter it.    It's extremely difficult to make much headway against psy-resistant enemies because of how significant their resistance is.    The -res debuffs in sonic should help a lot since it covers all damage types, psychic included.    You'll still solo notably slower against psy-resistant enemies, but it should be doable with the resistance debuff on board.

 

IIRC it's mostly undead and robots who have the really strong psychic resistance (but NOT clockwork, for lore reasons).