blaster Tankiest Blaster Epic

[ivioin]

So how viable would it be to have 57 S/L and 40 energy res with 30+ S/L, ranged and energy defense at end game?

[ivioin]

30 minutes ago, Krazie Ivan said:

even if i agreed with this, the sense of accomplishment from achieving things with chars that shouldn't, is just too much draw. it's almost like if one could beat a puzzle, not just solve it. absolutely my fav part of this game.
;D

Yea and besides I have a concept that I play and teammates always ask about my build when they see me handling things they struggle against. I’m lvl 39 now and have only had my butt whipped once by a lone carnival boss that kept holding me back 2 back. Other than that instance, this blaster destroys on +2/8

[Frozen Burn]

3 hours ago, ivioin said:

Why the hell did i not think of stealth for my stealth build….??? I think it’s because i hate the travel power and just blocked out the whole set. 

 

I don't think Stealth or Infiltration from the concealment pool will work with Field Operative.  Also Stealth and Infiltration's defense suppresses once you are in combat, so not much gain there.

 

Combat Jumping, Weave, and Maneuvers are probably the best options for you.  CJ is a low cost toggle and provides good def + immob prot.  Weave is a great Def to All, but can be a hefty toggle.  Maneuvers provides a little less Def to All than Weave, but does stack nicely and has about the same end cost.

[Haijinx]

4 hours ago, ivioin said:

Why the hell did i not think of stealth for my stealth build….??? I think it’s because i hate the travel power and just blocked out the whole set. 

 

The Travel power seems weird to me as well.  But I guess someone thought it was a good idea. 

[Haijinx]

1 hour ago, Frozen Burn said:

 

I don't think Stealth or Infiltration from the concealment pool will work with Field Operative.  Also Stealth and Infiltration's defense suppresses once you are in combat, so not much gain there.

 

Combat Jumping, Weave, and Maneuvers are probably the best options for you.  CJ is a low cost toggle and provides good def + immob prot.  Weave is a great Def to All, but can be a hefty toggle.  Maneuvers provides a little less Def to All than Weave, but does stack nicely and has about the same end cost.

 

You could add the Stealth IO to Combat Jumping or Sprint also to combine with Field Operative.  Field Operative taking over the Stealth Power.   Very true about supression.  The Stealth is more of the avoiding unecessary attacks while you close to BLAST! type of protection.  

[Ironscarlet]

Alot of people go Device but the only secondary I know of that can cap all def is Ninja.

 

 A handfull of primaries with Ninja can cap melee,range,and aoe def.

The issue arises with the build being so tight it cant afford procs. 

2nd No DDR without incarnate

Again what happens is to achieve that Blaster super damage with procs. You build for 33% def and eat a purp. So does capping matter?Aeon?

 

Pick the Epic that allows you to mule to 33% Def. Proc out your rotation DP have great procs. Find your rotation proc it out and mule everything else.

Edited December 30, 2021 by Ironscarlet

[ivioin]

16 minutes ago, Ironscarlet said:

Alot of people go Device but the only secondary I know of that can cap all def is Ninja.

 

 A handfull of primaries with Ninja can cap melee,range,and aoe def.

The issue arises with the build being so tight it cant afford procs. 

2nd No DDR without incarnate

Again what happens is to achieve that Blaster super damage with procs. You build for 33% def and eat a purp. So does capping matter?Aeon?

 

Pick the Epic that allows you to mule to 33% Def. Proc out your rotation DP have great procs. Find your rotation proc it out and mule everything else.

Thanks and no, I don’t care about capping defenses. I just want to be a very tough blaster. 

[Shred Monkey]

On 12/28/2021 at 11:09 PM, ivioin said:

I just can’t seem to find a lot of smash/lethal i’ll have to look again, but i kind of out of nowhere had melee high.

Melee attacks... the winter one has +5 in 5 slots... Kinetic Combat has 3.75 in 4 slots.  I sometimes slot brawl as a pure set mule if I don't have enough melee attacks.  

[Saikochoro]

My go to is scorpion shield. It makes softcapping s/l defense fairly easy and is easier than beefing up resistances in my opinion. 
 

I prefer defense over resists on blasters as their resist cap is lower and they have lower hit points. I’d rather not get hit at all and kite when I start getting hit and use range/cc to my advantage. 
 

My main blaster is a scorpion shield blaster that doesn’t have rune and takes the assault hybrid. I did put a build on test that takes the Mu shield for s/l/e resistances. I also took rune of protection and melee core hybrid. I was actually quite excited to have capped resistances to s/l/e. I also adjust my build to make sure my resistances for s/l/e were high even without rune/melee core. I was genuinely curious to see if it would be more tanky than softcapping s/l defense. 
 

I fought the cimemora large mobs on the walls and in Romulus’s fortress. I have to say I was actually quite disappointed. It may have just been bad luck, but after running both builds back to back for over an hour I came to the conclusion that scorpion shield worked FAR better. 
 

I was able to pull multiple mobs with several bosses with my DP/MA scorpion shield blaster and have no problem whatsoever killing them all and have plenty of health left. I was never in danger of dying. And I didn’t click the assault hybrid. 
 

When I tried to do the same with my resistance blaster I face planted over and over against the same mobs. Even when I popped rune or melee core. I was actually quite shocked. I figured the resistance blaster would have been better against the defense debuffs.

 

I will likely try it again at some point, but from that test scorpion shield was very noticeably better than the mu epic shield. 

Edited January 2, 2022 by Saikochoro

[Krazie Ivan]

21 hours ago, Saikochoro said:

from that test scorpion shield was very noticeably better than the mu epic shield

+Def is absolutely better than +Res for a blaster, due to HP & Res caps as you noted... but... +Def powers/bonuses/uniques/etc are far more plentiful than +Res (considering effective caps being more achievable too, naturally lowering target values). you even elude to it here: 

21 hours ago, Saikochoro said:

My go to is scorpion shield. It makes softcapping s/l defense fairly easy and is easier than beefing up resistances in my opinion. 

it's prioritization. another way to look at it...
if you take Scorp, you'll never reach the same standing/idle Res levels through powers/bonuses/uniques/etc as you will with Mu.
if you take Mu, you absolutely can still reach the same standing/idle Def levels (softcap is softcap, icap is another story) through powers/bonuses/uniques/etc as you did with Scorp.

it's not that Mu's Res is "better" than Scorp's Def, it's that Def is easier to build for than Res ...and so by making the best use of availability, you end-up with a more durable & well-rounded Blaster. much in the same way we make proc-bomb Defenders, or take melee primaries for +Def on Res-based Scraps/Brutes/Tanks, or attempt to add AoE to Stalkers... filling the holes by way of prioritizing powers/bonuses/uniques/etc.
:)

[Nyghtmaire]

33 minutes ago, Krazie Ivan said:

it's not that Mu's Res is "better" than Scorp's Def, it's that Def is easier to build for than Res ...and so by making the best use of availability, you end-up with a more durable & well-rounded Blaster.

Preach!

 

Additionally OP, softcapping has an appreciable impact on survivability. Hitting 75% of a resistance vector just means you’re still taking an appreciable amount of damage. 

 

As an aside @Krazie Ivan, I just noticed your photo was of a motorcycle (checking the forums on a larger screen). On my phone, I always thought it was a wacky looking cat … 👀

[Krazie Ivan]

59 minutes ago, Nyghtmaire said:

just noticed your photo was of a motorcycle (checking the forums on a larger screen). On my phone, I always thought it was a wacky looking cat

ME-OW!

[Parabola]

My rule of thumb is if I've softcapped ranged def on a primarily ranged blaster then I look to add res through the epic. If I'm primarily a blapper I may try to cap s/l/e and ranged using scorp shield or if I have slots and powerpicks to spare I'll think about ice for the extra utility. If my secondary doesn't have something reliable for breaking up alphas then that becomes a factor too.

[Haijinx]

13 hours ago, Nyghtmaire said:

Preach!

 

Additionally OP, softcapping has an appreciable impact on survivability. Hitting 75% of a resistance vector just means you’re still taking an appreciable amount of damage. 

 

 

The big one for me is that at 75% Resist you only Resist 75% of damage, you don't resist any of the status effects

 

With Def if you avoided 75% of attacks you also avoid those status effects 

[DreadShinobi]

I have always found Mu Mastery s/l/e resists + 32.5 positional def (at least ranged, melee/aoe can rest a bit lower) to provide a functionally beefier blaster than a 45% softcapped blaster using scorpion/ice armor. Layered mitigation is highly valuable. 32.5% def puts you one small purple insp away from the softcap, an orange insp can not replicate the strength of charged armor in the same way. A solo only blaster may find more value in scorpion because a blaster whose playstyle is more oriented towards playing on teams will often not need to rely on that purple insp pop because def buffs from allies are also more common than res buffs, which puts yet higher value on mu mastery for team play.