Looking for ideas on a "tanky" blaster

[r0adkill76]

I reloaded the game after around 2 years off, my friends stopped playing and as a result I lost my buddy who made all the builds.

 

I am looking for something that is tough enough for my slow "old man" reflexes. 

 

Ideas? besides play a Sentinel and accept doing 50% less damage.  (my sentinel dies too) 

 

thank you for any help you might have, I want to get into the game again, but I have to find a toon I love to keep playing, you know how it is. 

[Crowcus Pocus]

Hey welcome back! Sounds like it's time to make new friends then.

 

Few questions:

 

1) Will you mostly be soloing, teaming, or a mix of both?

2) Are you comfortable stepping into melee range or would you much rather kill things from a distance?

3) Any restrictions in terms of primaries/secondaries or even pool powers?

 

 

Edited February 27, 2023 by Crowcus Pocus

[r0adkill76]

2 hours ago, Crowcus Pocus said:

1) Will you mostly be soloing, teaming, or a mix of both?

2) Are you comfortable stepping into melee range or would you much rather kill things from a distance?

3) Any restrictions in terms of primaries/secondaries or even pool powers?

 

1.  Both

2.  If I can step in and not die, sure. 

3.  None that I know of...

 

I currently have two blasters (and more baby ones, I have a zillion level 2-10s)

. Ice/Fire its so complicated to play.

. Fire/Rad its slightly less complicated but man waiting for Atom Smasher animation, I could go up to the liquor store and still be in the air after I made my drink. 

. The rest are under 25-ish, not sure what kind, but several. 

 

The big problem is, the game has changed, and I have no clue how to build, my buddy I used to play with made all our builds...

 

"He makes the weapons, I use them.." -Blade

 

 

[Shocktacular]

I also found blasters too squishy to play most of the time, but I was determined to find one that I could play to 50. 

Dual Pistols / Martial Combat was the winning combination for me:

• It has a teleport power to get you into and out of melee quickly
• It has a slow power to keep enemies from running up on you and smashing you that also gives you some absorb and +recovery
• You can Swap Ammo to whatever your foes are weakest against to do more damage, or to add other effects including holds or -dmg
• There are stun effects in both powersets, which stack
• Ki Push (aka "super yeet") is a good "get out of my face" power and VERY fun to use
• It has a "get out of mez free" power that you can also use to heal yourself when below half health and it enhances your own mez effects

 

Overall, she was still squishier than I'm used to, but still pretty fun.  Plus, lots of cool animations!

 

Edited March 6, 2023 by Shocktacular

[BazookaTwo]

Easiest cruise to 50 that I had on a blaster was fire/martial. My main is an AR/energy, and I don't recommend that for someone who wants to have a good time leveling. 

[Nemu]

Ice/Tactical Arrow with Flame Mastery for bonfire + fire armor will suit players with "old man reflexes." You can always stay at range and you have slows and holds to keep stuff at range. The entire Tactical Arrow kit supports range play, unlike most blaster secondaries that favor melee. Build for range defense and you can hover blast to your heart's desire. This combo will give you a large margin for error.

 

You need more than old man reflexes to step into melee range and be effective. Mobility is key for survival. I wouldn't advise those recommendations that push you towards combinations that lean that direction.

 

Having said that you can absolutely be tanky as a melee blaster. Those blasters have way more style.

[Camelbobsled]

You're certainly going to get a wide variety of suggestions for builds but going back to your initial "tanky" quandary that without a doubt goes to Ice manipulation. It's got the best sustain for merely surviving. Slow/-recharge so enemies attack less often, check. -Dmg so you can survive longer, check. 30 ft radius so you don't even have to be melee, even better. It also is an Absorb which just works better than any of the sets that have +regen from their sustain. Take a Primary with a heal; water, dark, stone(not as reliable as the previous 2 sets) and you're looking at "tanky" blaster. Not to mention that ice manipulation has Ice Patch for some CC and you're looking at a blaster that can run in and stand still in a mob without a care in the world.

[biostem]

On 2/27/2023 at 5:20 PM, r0adkill76 said:

I am looking for something that is tough enough for my slow "old man" reflexes. 

Consider an ice/earth blaster - you'll have a ton of controls and other tools to keep you standing, plus some extra acc and perception, not to mention a nice HoT and some solid damage.  Throw the stealth power and perhaps stack it with a stealth IO, and you'll be golden!

[Seed22]

On 2/27/2023 at 4:20 PM, r0adkill76 said:

I reloaded the game after around 2 years off, my friends stopped playing and as a result I lost my buddy who made all the builds.

 

I am looking for something that is tough enough for my slow "old man" reflexes. 

 

Ideas? besides play a Sentinel and accept doing 50% less damage.  (my sentinel dies too) 

 

thank you for any help you might have, I want to get into the game again, but I have to find a toon I love to keep playing, you know how it is. 

How comfortable are you with IOs?

 

If you're decently comfy, I'd recommend building for softcapped(45%) ranged or melee def. Some will say you don't need it because teams, but well...sometimes folks just wanna get on an punch some capes in the face er uh arrest some folks I guess😛

 

This should make you fairly tanky. Also grabbing one of the melee hybrids(radial if you literally want a taunt aura :P) will help immensely. It worked for my Ice/Fire who ended up tanking a +2 reich and AVs, with two brutes trying to peel aggro. This sounds like hyperbole, I guarantee you it is not(Melee hybrid came in handy here!).

 

Good luck on your journey to prove to folks that no, blasters do not taste floor anymore 😄

[Thrax]

Ice/Ice/Ice.  Slows, slows, more slows, ice patch if they do get close, three holds, and can easily soft cap s/l.  

 

Sentinels got buffed recently but they still don't do great damage.  They are the obvious solution though if you want a tanky blaster.  It depends on if tanky means just being able to survive or hold aggro though.  Sentinels don't get held which I love but the aoes don't hit as many or as hard which I don't like.  I have about as many toons of both.  Way more scrappers than either combined though.  Maybe a scrapper?  May I suggest spines/something?  Or claws/something?  They have ranged options if that is your preference.  Could easily make an all ranged scrapper with either of those and pool/ancillary powers. 

[High_Beam]

On 2/27/2023 at 10:18 PM, Shocktacular said:

I also found blasters too squishy to play most of the time, but I was determined to find one that I could play to 50. 

Dual Pistols / Marital Combat was the winning combination for me:

I can totally second this, the first one I ran up to 50 on Homecoming was a DP/MC (Di Di Guns) and it was a blast, especially once I embraced the Blapper that had been hiding in me.

[TygerDarkstorm]

On 2/27/2023 at 7:18 PM, Shocktacular said:

 Marital Combat

🤣

I imagine that could be rather deadly

[Shocktacular]

4 hours ago, TygerDarkstorm said:

🤣

I imagine that could be rather deadly

Coming April 1st!  😛 

[SeraphimKensai]

Depending on how you slot your blasters, you can make any of them tanky. Sometimes it's possible to chase M/R defenses, but every once in a blue moon you'll have a blaster chasing a wide spectrum of typed defenses and getting to that 45% mark. Sure it might not be incarnate or hard mode soft caps, but when your enemies only have a 5% chance to hit you, yeah you're pretty tanky.

[C U R S E]

On 2/27/2023 at 5:20 PM, r0adkill76 said:

I reloaded the game after around 2 years off, my friends stopped playing and as a result I lost my buddy who made all the builds.

 

I am looking for something that is tough enough for my slow "old man" reflexes. 

 

Ideas? besides play a Sentinel and accept doing 50% less damage.  (my sentinel dies too) 

 

thank you for any help you might have, I want to get into the game again, but I have to find a toon I love to keep playing, you know how it is. 

Sentinels doing 50 % less damage, ummm FYI after the last update and 15 % damage buff, rethink that you might.

[User]

Rectified Reticle 2 piece in both build up and aim and then 4 piece kinetic combat in as many melee attacks as you can stand, up to 5, along with the global defence uniques and scorpion shield will get you to 45% s/l on a budget and with reasonable slot efficiency.

Edited April 15, 2023 by User

[Xandyr]

My DP/Martial blaster has soft capped defenses, and is a hoot to play.

[InvaderStych]

On 2/27/2023 at 2:20 PM, r0adkill76 said:

thank you for any help you might have, I want to get into the game again, but I have to find a toon I love to keep playing, you know how it is. 

 

<Your Favorite Blaster Primary>/Martial Combat.

 

Everyone should have at least one (or have at least given a decent test drive to the set) /MC blaster.

 

Because Ki Push is a Repel you can chain it and Burst of Speed (or combat teleport, but that's a different thread) to nullify bosses while soloing. Dragon's Tail and SK have very good KD for a bit of control. Set Inner Will to Auto and never need to click a break-free again - really helps with those old man reflexes.

 

Most importantly, its as fun as a blaster secondary gets, imo.

[ClawsandEffect]

Gonna throw out my secret weapon. 

 

I do the Patron arc on all my blasters for Scorpion Shield at level 35. Yeah, it locks you into one epic pool, but it makes it trivially easy to softcap to Smashing, Lethal, and Energy defenses. Which if I recall correctly covers something like 70% of the enemy attacks in the game. 

 

I did that with 3 different blasters and they are stupid hard to kill now. 

Edited April 19, 2023 by ClawsandEffect

[Shred Monkey]

I see a lot of great suggestions on AT... but I'm going to add a playstyle suggestion.  Be a hover blaster.  Get hover, choose sets and powers that do damage from range (not melee or PBAoE... in particular look at the nuke, because you don't want to skip that).  Then fight from above and out of melee.  This will reduce the incoming damage dramatically simply because the majority of enemy attacks can't be used against you.  Enemies will also spend time moving and trying to get to you, which further reduces incoming damage because they're not attacking.  You can also add in some other soft controls like slows, and knock downs, etc to further augment this strategy.   Layer on some defenses, particularly to lethal since a high amount of enemy ranged attacks are bullets, and you'll be extremely tanky.

 

Also, every blaster secondary has a "sustain" power, which boosts Health (regen or absorb) and endurance recovery.  These powers are very strong.  Slot them up when you can.  A well slotted blaster has more hp/sec regen then any other AT unless it is specifically a regen-type set.  35+hp/sec or the equivalent absorb component is very doable.

 

 

Edited April 19, 2023 by Shred Monkey

[Psiphon]

4 hours ago, Shred Monkey said:

I see a lot of great suggestions on AT... but I'm going to add a playstyle suggestion.  Be a hover blaster.  Get hover, choose sets and powers that do damage from range (not melee or PBAoE... in particular look at the nuke, because you don't want to skip that).  Then fight from above and out of melee.  This will reduce the incoming damage dramatically simply because the majority of enemy attacks can't be used against you.  Enemies will also spend time moving and trying to get to you, which further reduces incoming damage because they're not attacking.  You can also add in some other soft controls like slows, and knock downs, etc to further augment this strategy.   Layer on some defenses, particularly to lethal since a high amount of enemy ranged attacks are bullets, and you'll be extremely tanky.

 

Also, every blaster secondary has a "sustain" power, which boosts Health (regen or absorb) and endurance recovery.  These powers are very strong.  Slot them up when you can.  A well slotted blaster has more hp/sec regen then any other AT unless it is specifically a regen-type set.  35+hp/sec or the equivalent absorb component is very doable.

 

 

This how I play mine, only difference is I cap ranged defence.

[ClawsandEffect]

On 4/19/2023 at 7:28 AM, Shred Monkey said:

I see a lot of great suggestions on AT... but I'm going to add a playstyle suggestion.  Be a hover blaster.  Get hover, choose sets and powers that do damage from range (not melee or PBAoE... in particular look at the nuke, because you don't want to skip that).  Then fight from above and out of melee.  This will reduce the incoming damage dramatically simply because the majority of enemy attacks can't be used against you.  Enemies will also spend time moving and trying to get to you, which further reduces incoming damage because they're not attacking.  You can also add in some other soft controls like slows, and knock downs, etc to further augment this strategy.   Layer on some defenses, particularly to lethal since a high amount of enemy ranged attacks are bullets, and you'll be extremely tanky.

 

Also, every blaster secondary has a "sustain" power, which boosts Health (regen or absorb) and endurance recovery.  These powers are very strong.  Slot them up when you can.  A well slotted blaster has more hp/sec regen then any other AT unless it is specifically a regen-type set.  35+hp/sec or the equivalent absorb component is very doable.

 

 

 

Solid suggestion as well. I play a few of my blasters like that. 

 

But with my DP/Martial it almost feels criminal to skip the melee damage potential in the secondary. 

[00Troy00]

On 4/15/2023 at 11:08 AM, Xandyr said:

My DP/Martial blaster has soft capped defenses, and is a hoot to play.

What did it cost you to make?

[Xandyr]

15 hours ago, 00Troy00 said:

What did it cost you to make?

couple hundred million maybe?

[00Troy00]

A lot less than I would've thought!