Need some tips on building a Blaster with decent defense without Scorpion Shield please

[Heatstroke]

Im thinking of a Storm Blast/ Fire Build and because i dont build blasters often im looking for some tips of how to build up some defense. Im not taking Scorpion Shield because im going with Bonfire from the Epic Pool. 

 

Im figuring S/L/E is the way I should go because with Burn and Hot Feet I will be in melee range a bit. 
 

Any tips would be appreciated. 

 

Thanks

[Parabola]

1 hour ago, Heatstroke said:

Im figuring S/L/E is the way I should go because with Burn and Hot Feet I will be in melee range a bit. 

Don't completely discount the idea of building for ranged defence on a squishy that plays in melee a lot. Particularly one that is running a slow field (not to mention the avoid effects). Melee attacks are very short range and you will in all likelihood be kiting a lot, even small movements (which you should probably be constantly making) will force enemies to use their ranged attacks.

 

Ranged defence will also protect against quite a bit of Mez and it's a lot easier (and cheaper) to build for on a blaster.

[lemming]

Most of my blasters don't bother with Scorpion Shield because there's other stuff.

Ranged defense is one of your best friends, even if you go into melee.  Though I didn't both with hot feet or burn on my /fire,  Storm Cell will give you a bit of help in more a soft fashion, though added with Bonfire, more floppage.

[Cryoterm]

Check mine, its not running SS…

 

I’ll send you the Build if needed.

 

C.

[SwitchFade]

Stack ranged and kite 

[tidge]

My Water Blast/Atomic Manipulation has positionals of Melee 20%+, Ranged 19%+ and AoE 29%+ from just toggles, Globals, and set bonuses.

 

He also went Epic Flame Mastery, and has Rise of the Phoenix *wink*

[Harlequin565]

This is not an answer, but after going through my blasters and not finding a single one that didn't have Scorpion Shield apart from my A/TA (who is never in melee), it got me thinking. I then opened mids to have a look at the powersets and came to the conclusion that I didn't really have an answer to the OP.

 

However if you're not sold on Blaster, I would humbly suggest a Fire/Storm controller with the Fire Epic pool. The difference is building fully offence rather than for any kind of defence working on the basis that everything is stunned, held, or has -tohit floored. (I did a guide here which you can read if it's an option).

 

Apologies again if you just want a blaster. Just tossing ideas about.

[Uun]

None of my blasters have Scorpion Shield and only one has a defense armor. 

 

Ice/Time/Cold w/ RoP

Water/Martial/Munitions w/ Fighting

Dark/TA/Electrical w/ RoP

DP/Ninja/Flame w/ Fighting

[Laenan]

There are ways to soft-cap ranged and melee defense if you want to be extra tanky, but there are trade-offs obviously. You never have to build a defense this high but you can! I attached a fire/fire/fire build with melee/ranged soft cap, but it has no hasten.

 

Generally if you want to be soft-cap tanky, it's gonna require all of your pool picks, or you need a secondary with a defense boosting power (ninja, tactical arrow).

 

But building just for ranged is very viable, especially if you have hover or are just good at staying at range.

 

Hope that helps.

Green Phoenix.mxd

[SwitchFade]

Also, if you want to skip scorpion, then bonfire is your new best mate.

 

Bonfire with KB to KD.... Savory.