Best primary with /Devices?

[Galaxy Brain]

Looking at the upcoming changes to the set, as well as the sweet, sweet targeting drone, what would be a fun primary pairing?

 

AR is the go to of course, but I dont wanna go for the classic this time around ;)

[TfStormcry]

I used to have a really fun archery/devices ambush blaster back in the old COH days. I'd be able to stealth up, set up trip mines in the pull path of the mobs, set a time bomb in the center of the mobs, and stand back and wait. When the time bomb went off, they'd pull into the tripmines, then I'd AOE them with rain of arrows and such. In a full group run, I'd normally be able to solo a full group of enemies. I want to remake that build, have no idea how it'd work now. I left the original back before it went FTP.

[JusticeBowler]

Honestly, I love my BeamRifle / Devices (wrote about it in a previous thread). The animations are crisp and I never feel "slow" which has a surprising effect on the experience of play with something like devices which doesn't offer a lot of clicking in team play except throwing smoke grenades. It looks thematically right too (much like AR would)... but it isn't AR which means you can tech-faux-futurism yourself out in your costume design rather than be "yet another super soldier".

 

You do good damage, not much DoT (END wasters if you ask me) and there are some good AoEs once you have everything if you care about that. Generally though, I scrap from a distance, taking down bosses and LTs targeting through the tank or just picking my own. I contribute hard numbers, but don't worry so much about nuke-melting...

[Novacat]

AR's one of the least enjoyable combinations with Devices. Smash/Lethal, and cones (two short and not too wide, one long and really narrow) that don't catch all that much if you don't immediately leap far back to compensate for "I just put down something on your foot". Now you have neither Aim nor Build-Up.

 

Beam Rifle's a better pairing. Devices can help plug its AoE hole rather well, it has more (and highly damaging unlike beanbag) disorients to work with your Taser. You've already put your explosives down once the fight starts, so you can focus on disintegrate mechanics a bit more than if you were blapping

 

Electrical won't be getting any help whatsoever for its endurance draining - so Devices won't do you all that great in there

 

Water Blast on the other hand - you're already up close, and what if you had a timebomb AND tripmines AND whirlpool AND water burst AND Geyser AND a seriously wide and high powered cone unlike buckshot? Surely that's not nearly enough AoE for you but that's what epic pools are for.

[Galaxy Brain]

You do good damage, not much DoT (END wasters if you ask me) and there are some good AoEs once you have everything if you care about that. Generally though, I scrap from a distance, taking down bosses and LTs targeting through the tank or just picking my own. I contribute hard numbers, but don't worry so much about nuke-melting...

 

Beam sounds fun! However, what do you mean by DoT powers? There are very few I can think of, but the ones that jump out are usually pretty good?

[JusticeBowler]

You do good damage, not much DoT (END wasters if you ask me) and there are some good AoEs once you have everything if you care about that. Generally though, I scrap from a distance, taking down bosses and LTs targeting through the tank or just picking my own. I contribute hard numbers, but don't worry so much about nuke-melting...

 

Beam sounds fun! However, what do you mean by DoT powers? There are very few I can think of, but the ones that jump out are usually pretty good?

Apart from crazy things like Rain of Fire most DoT powers in big teams kill to slowly and solo or in small teams you end up shooting them again because you never know if the DoT will be enough to finish them off. It is like the DoT never happened because it never gets a chance to maximize its potential.

 

That's just my experience.

[Novacat]

DOT: Disintegrate is a heavy damage over time effect and applies its namesake debuff. It deals its damage over fifteen seconds, so often in groups even a +2 Elite Boss will barely survive long enough to suffer half of its actual potential. Additionally Cutting Beam and Penetrating Ray both add a short DoT to targets if they're already disintegrating.

 

However:

1) Other powers get a bonus on hitting Disintegrating targets. Single Shot adds an extra -75% regen. Overcharge turns its Stun chance into a guaranteed and longer mag3. The rest gain extra damage; about 20% for Lancer and 33% for Piercing Beam most notably

2) Disintegrate's other form of damage is -150% Regen (-225% combined with Single Shot) for its duration

 

This is where Beam gets really interesting. When soloing that extra damage can actually put you in Fire (not quite Ice though) territory on your single (and Piercing Beam) attacks. The longer the fight the better it is too, so Beam really shines on Giant Monsters and Archvillains, where reducing their regeneration (if they're not resistant to such debuffs) by about 11/s starts to add up quite spectacularly as the fight drags on.

[Frostweaver]

I actually quite like pistols with devices. Not only the thematic synergy, but also with change ammo. The aoe's work well with trops, Ice ammo plus trops can slow things to a crawl, and changing damage types/reducing defense can make up for devices damage types. Not to mention switching to fire ammo can make up for lack of boost when you just need to unload the pain.

[War Hawk]

Energy blast!

[DocRadio]

Running Beam\Dev right now. Beam takes a bit of getting used to, but the disintegrate effects are nice. Only level 15 right now... so the only power in the secondary that matters is targeting drone. Trops helps a bit too... but I'm looking forward to the sustain and trip mine.