Input on most strategic or fun combo for Fire/Ice/Electric choices. Which should be Primary, Ancillary, etc?

[cultclassical]

I hope to not be asking too much! Just jumping in after playing a few years, starting with original release. I considered controller powersets too, but I'm already planning on playing one and a Blaster sounds fun!

 

I'm going black mage for this one, but what combo of these three elements gets the most bang for my buck?

[Snarky]

You should prob move this to the "generic Archtype" forum if you are asking what archetype to be?  Fire is a great blast set, and the Cold Secondary on Corruptors is GREAT.  But I never play those sets (except cold randomly)  So...gl

 

[cultclassical]

21 minutes ago, Snarky said:

You should prob move this to the "generic Archtype" forum if you are asking what archetype to be?  Fire is a great blast set, and the Cold Secondary on Corruptors is GREAT.  But I never play those sets (except cold randomly)  So...gl

 

Does anything make cold domination better as a Corruptor than as a Controller?

[Snarky]

6 minutes ago, cultclassical said:

Does anything make cold domination better as a Corruptor than as a Controller?

i have not run trollers.  if it has the same powers i would suspect it is slightly better on trollers.  it is the two debuffs, one aoe one st that make cold so good.  pair that with scourge and DoT (i run ice ice, but fire is tasty) and you got a winner

[Zect]

12 hours ago, cultclassical said:

Does anything make cold domination better as a Corruptor than as a Controller?

 

Corrs and trollers have the same buff/debuff scalar, 0.75 of defender values.

 

However, corrs are a better AT than trollers. If you last played on Live, i25/Homecoming power creep massively improved blast sets. Snipes in combat cast faster, are uninterruptible, and gain bonus damage from tohit buffs up to 20% tohit. All nukes are crashless and have standardized damage. The proliferation of damage procs and powerful new sets that slot in attacks offer many ways to vastly increase defense and damage. (All these changes benefit Blasters too, if you're still interested in them! Gone are the days when fire/MM/mace was the only viable blaster.) Corrs also have access to Soul Drain, which trollers do not.

 

The metagame has shifted in a direction that plays to corr strengths but devalues troller ones. Modern CoH is much more fast-paced and dps-heavy than it last was on Live, making controls less relevant and firepower more relevant. You can putz around casting aoe holds on things... or you can drop a blizzard and apply the strongest hard control - death.

 

Corruptors are an S tier AT. Controllers will never be truly bad since a a buff/debuff set is the most powerful set to have in CoH. But unless you're doing builds and strategies that specifically play to troller strengths, using powers corrs can't get, like tanking hardmode ITF with PA, corrs outshine them by so much it's not even funny.

Edited October 30, 2022 by Zect

[twozerofoxtrot]

For a blaster, under the parameters you're looking for, I'd recommend one of these two:

 

Ice/Fire/Mu 

Ice Primary and Fire Secondary offers really strong ranged single target and melee aoe, but requires a flexible playstyle and a basic understanding (and funding) of Proc Invention Origin (IO) enhancements to make the most out of. For Mu (which is electric based) I would just take Charged Armor. There's an argument for Electrifying Fences as well to stop runners, but you're likely to fry most of them to a crisp first anyway.  Using your Ice Powers will lock down the remaining.

 

Elec/Ice/Flame

This combo is a bit more mixed in terms of single target and AoE, but has a really nice setup between Short Circuit and Frigid Air. Since you get both by level 10, early on you have a great tool to set up for Electric Blast's shock crits relatively safely. Just don't try to take the alpha strike with it. There's some stuff you'll want to avoid, like Tesla Cage. Some people might(???) like this power but it's mechanic is superfluous on a Blaster. Take Bonfire and Fire Shield in Flame Mastery, but slot Bonfire with a KB>KD IO (from the Overwhelming Force or Sudden Acceleration sets). This can be stacked with Ice Patch to provide multiple or overlapping knockdown zones, which is a really nice survivability tool. Finally, there is a self-heal proc from the Call of the Sandman set that, if slotted into Frozen Aura will essentially guarantee a 15% heal every time you use the power in large groups. Don't use the whole set, just that proc alongside what you'd normally slot in a damaging power.

 

Both of these setups require a bit of advanced slotting knowledge to get the most out of, but the first is likely to be your strongest while your second might be be more survivable due to the wide area soft controls.

 

 

Hope this helps.