Never played a blaster high level what would you recommend

[I-Dirty]

Always played Tanks/brutes/scrappers

 

Wanna try a blaster.

 

What would you all suggest?

[Six-Six]

I love me some blasters, whether they be blappers or hover blasters. I particularly like fire/fire/fire (or ice mastery), energy/energy/force, elec/elec/elec, and my all time favourite AV killer: Rad/energy/force. I absolutely loved levelling up the last one that I rolled two identical ones. I have an AR/Devices/Munitions that's not as strong, but only because it's a toon that gimped itself by not taking certain powers for the sake of the concept; still quite enjoyable. I'm in the process of levelling up dark/dark, so far it seems promising.

[Nemu]

Beginners start with all ranged hover blasters, most will hover, have decent range defense and use bonfire as further mitigation. /Tactical arrow is the best secondary that lends to this playstyle and all primaries are viable.

 

If you think you have what it takes then you can skip blaster 101 and go right into melee blasters. If you can get good at that then you will most likely reflect on your experience playing CoH and regret the fact that you wasted so much of your short life playing not blasters.

[GhostDawg]

15 hours ago, I-Dirty said:

Always played Tanks/brutes/scrappers

 

Wanna try a blaster.

 

What would you all suggest?

That's a loaded question. I'm a long time blaster. I could likely make any build work. For me blasting is more about mentality than powerset. Basically dispense with the idea of being a ranged combatant. That's for Sentinels. Think of blasters as rat bastards. Saboteurs capable of doing massive damage as long as they can get in and out of combat upright. It's a game of figuring the odds, knowing when to retreat, and knowing when you can survive ridiculous odds. You can't afford to make many mistakes, so situational awareness is a must. You have to know your opponents, use the environment and their AI against them. Know your own strengths, and don't be afraid to get close if it nets you an opportunity to do massive damage. Stealth is your friend. All my blasters use at least some stealth, and with some I aim for complete invisibility. It let's you survey the battlefield before engagement.

 

All that being said, my first blaster on live was FIRE/FIRE. And that for a noob was a huge mistake. I didn't know the game well, didn't understand blasters, and suffered mightily because that build has very little in the way of mitigation. Not a big deal for a pro... but to a noob? The face plants were numerous. The good news is YOU don't have that limitation. You've been playing the game so you're not going in blind. Being a squishy is going to be a bit of a shock to you, but you'll likely adapt. I'm going to suggest ICE/Energy Manip. And while there are better builds out there this combo gives you the ability to lock down enemies and then take them apart with high damaging melee attacks. Given your melee focused background I think you'll like the synergy. 

 

Good luck.

[I-Dirty]

51 minutes ago, GhostDawg said:

That's a loaded question. I'm a long time blaster. I could likely make any build work. For me blasting is more about mentality than powerset. Basically dispense with the idea of being a ranged combatant. That's for Sentinels. Think of blasters as rat bastards. Saboteurs capable of doing massive damage as long as they can get in and out of combat upright. It's a game of figuring the odds, knowing when to retreat, and knowing when you can survive ridiculous odds. You can't afford to make many mistakes, so situational awareness is a must. You have to know your opponents, use the environment and their AI against them. Know your own strengths, and don't be afraid to get close if it nets you an opportunity to do massive damage. Stealth is your friend. All my blasters use at least some stealth, and with some I aim for complete invisibility. It let's you survey the battlefield before engagement.

 

All that being said, my first blaster on live was FIRE/FIRE. And that for a noob was a huge mistake. I didn't know the game well, didn't understand blasters, and suffered mightily because that build has very little in the way of mitigation. Not a big deal for a pro... but to a noob? The face plants were numerous. The good news is YOU don't have that limitation. You've been playing the game so you're not going in blind. Being a squishy is going to be a bit of a shock to you, but you'll likely adapt. I'm going to suggest ICE/Energy Manip. And while there are better builds out there this combo gives you the ability to lock down enemies and then take them apart with high damaging melee attacks. Given your melee focused background I think you'll like the synergy. 

 

Good luck.

 

Yeah I was thinking that was the way to go to. Just have to find/figure out a build

[StriderIV]

8 hours ago, Nemu said:

Beginners start with all ranged hover blasters, most will hover, have decent range defense and use bonfire as further mitigation. /Tactical arrow is the best secondary that lends to this playstyle and all primaries are viable.

 

If you think you have what it takes then you can skip blaster 101 and go right into melee blasters. If you can get good at that then you will most likely reflect on your experience playing CoH and regret the fact that you wasted so much of your short life playing not blasters.

Fire/Elec for the win? 😂

[InvaderStych]

18 hours ago, I-Dirty said:

Always played Tanks/brutes/scrappers

 

Wanna try a blaster.

 

What would you all suggest?

 

Anything/Martial Combat

 

Not even kidding. Having also come from the world of melee, this felt the most familiar.  Fire/Martial turned out to be my favorite toon to date.

 

Forum regulars are probably tired of hearing me suggest it. 😛

[Haijinx]

Anything except FIRE/

 

that way you have room to move up for the next one 

[twozerofoxtrot]

I'm a relative novice Blaster acolyte (I too enjoy the press and scrum of melee), but the two I most enjoy are an Elec/En/Elec and a DP/Nin/Mace.

 

The Elec/En is mostly a ranged build, taking supreme advantage of using Power Boost before activating Aim and Buildup to max ToHit and Damage before launching the Ranged Nuke. Also has two hard hitting melee attacks for vaporizing anything that gets close. That said it's actually the tankier of the two and can suffer standing in front of anything short of an AV.

 

The DP/Nin is a whirlwind of damage, with little to no thought required to play. Neither sets have an on-demand Damage/ToHit click, so there's nothing to manage. Instead it has a chance to crit on every attack, and crits out of hide like a Stalker, so you just stealth into the middle of a mob and unload fury. It's scrapperesque and leans towards a more zoned-out style of play. A mix of melee and ranged but you'll be in melee most of the time.

 

2 hours ago, I-Dirty said:

Just have to find/figure out a build

 

DM if interested and I'll shoot you my builds.

[Nemu]

4 hours ago, StriderIV said:

Fire/Elec for the win? 😂

Woah Woah Woah!!! Pump the brake there, he's gotta drive a Civic first before moving up to a Ferrari. This is an RPG after all.

 

All newbie blasters start with AR/Fire, I saw it posted as a rule somewhere on the internet.

 

Jokes aside, Elec/Eng is one of my favorites besides the obvious. It's got a unique mechanic and can keep a melee blaster relatively safe. Obviously it's efficacy diminishes with the purple patch but it's still one of the better mass drainers out there.

Edited October 4, 2021 by Nemu

[GhostDawg]

2 hours ago, InvaderStych said:

 

Anything/Martial Combat

 

Not even kidding. Having also come from the world of melee, this felt the most familiar.  Fire/Martial turned out to be my favorite toon to date.

 

Forum regulars are probably tired of hearing me suggest it. 😛

The more I use martial the more I love it. It really does pair well with just about any primary. So far I've used it with both Ice and DP to great effect.

 

[DreadShinobi]

On 10/3/2021 at 3:19 PM, Haijinx said:

Anything except FIRE/

 

that way you have room to move up for the next one 

 

True story. If you start with Fire and succeed with your fire blaster every other primary will feel disappointing. Good thing blasters have 14 secondaries to make 14 unique fire blasters though.

[Cenozoic]

Lies.  
 

Fire/Dev/Mace

 

Hover blast and location control.  Pets and weird stuff if you want it.  Lots of build options in one slick package.

 

Rad/Fire/Mace is a ridiculously good PBAoE toon if you wanted to let go of the fotm bonfire silliness and get to melting mobs.  Great rad animations too (Irradiate is a favorite across the whole game).

 

[DarknessEternal]

I still like Hover for Blasters that melee.  It's the smoothest way in and out of groups without getting stuck on anything.

 

But never play an Electric Blast/Electric Melee Blaster.  Stalkers exist and use all the same powers for vastly more damage and survivability.

Edited October 8, 2021 by DarknessEternal