Looking for ideas on a "tanky" blaster

[Chance Jackson]

Dark blast allows you to stack a lot of -tohit on enemies, a cone immob & you get a self heal attack then pair that up with Martial Combat which has mez protection & a pbaoe KD & you're good 

 

Alternatively any secondary with a ranged hold like /Rad should be good

[Cryoterm]

Fire/EM blaster

 

[Decaying Rose]

Assault Rifle/Tactical Arrow is, even on SOs, a really good "stand back and hose 'em down" combo.  Throw in Hover and make liberal use of Glue Arrow and you've got a shooting gallery.  That said....

 

Build for range!  Throw in a couple of pieces of the Bombardment IO set anywhere they'll fit and you'll get a few +5% +range bonuses.  If you get the ATOs, split up Blaster's Wrath into a couple of three-piece chunks for more +range bonuses.  Take the Intuition Radial Alpha Slot power for +damage, +range, and various debuff effects like slow and -toHit that'll help your arrows.  Lastly sprinkle around various whatever/range IO pieces or some regular range IOs until all your cone powers can reach out to 70-80 feet.

 

Then hover waaaaaaay in the back and unload.

 

Also use this macro for Oil Slick Arrow:  /macro OSA "powexec_location target oil slick arrow"  Now you don't have to fiddle with a location cursor when using it, just target and shoot.   You can easily use Flamethrower to ignite the slick, along with placing a strong DoT on everything nearby.

 

If there's any dangerous piece of this combo and +range build, it's that sometimes you can accidentally hit the next spawn down the hall.