Which two of Flares, Fire Blast or Arcane Bolt?

[Story Archer]

Good evening, my friends.

 

I'm putting together a Fire/Ice/Fire Blaster and I intend to take the Sorcery Pool - I like Flying, I think Rune of Protection is a great power for a Blaster and the magic theme fits the character well. Of course, that means that I need to take an additional Sorcery power which means in all likelihood Arcane Bolt. Since I'm probably taking it anyway, I'm trying to decide if I should go ahead and use it in place of Flares or Fire Blast as far as devoting enhancement slots to and using in my attack chain (with the other, Blaze and Blazing Bolt). According to MIDS it deals more damage than either of the other two, but of course its recharge is (a little) longer and the activation time is cumbersome to say the least.

 

So, do I take Arcane Bolt and forget about it, or do I save a power slot by replacing Flares or Fire Blast with it?

[Uun]

Fire Blast has the best DPA of the three (Arcane Bolt is the worst). On my blasters with Sorcery, I typically take Spirit Ward and stick the Preventative Medicine %absorb proc in the base slot (it doesn't need to be in an active power). 

[Story Archer]

3 hours ago, Uun said:

Fire Blast has the best DPA of the three (Arcane Bolt is the worst). On my blasters with Sorcery, I typically take Spirit Ward and stick the Preventative Medicine %absorb proc in the base slot (it doesn't need to be in an active power). 

So your advice would be to keep (and slot) Flares and Fire Blast? I actually feel a little better about that due to Defiance (I tend to play more 1-50 than post-50), I just hated wasting a power slot. Selecting and slotting Spirit Ward the way you suggest would seem to keep it from being a total waste, even if it pushes Rune back from L20 to L24.

[Captain Fabulous]

I don't even bother with Arcane Bolt. Treat it like Kick/Boxing -- something you have to take but will never slot or use. The needlessly long animation time kills it for me. Seems like whenever I try to use it my target is dead before it goes off. Flares and Fire Blast are the way to go. Honestly, Spirit Ward is a better choice, even if it's something you'll only use occasionally (like AV battles). Cause that's better than something you won't ever use at all.

[Carnifax]

31 minutes ago, Story Archer said:

So your advice would be to keep (and slot) Flares and Fire Blast? I actually feel a little better about that due to Defiance (I tend to play more 1-50 than post-50), I just hated wasting a power slot. Selecting and slotting Spirit Ward the way you suggest would seem to keep it from being a total waste, even if it pushes Rune back from L20 to L24.

Default slot Spirit Ward would be my pick too. On teams you can just throw it on a grateful squishy 

[Story Archer]

That's the way I'll go, then. Thanks for the advice!

[Uun]

2 hours ago, Story Archer said:

So your advice would be to keep (and slot) Flares and Fire Blast? I actually feel a little better about that due to Defiance (I tend to play more 1-50 than post-50), I just hated wasting a power slot. Selecting and slotting Spirit Ward the way you suggest would seem to keep it from being a total waste, even if it pushes Rune back from L20 to L24.

Definitely Fire Blast. I would only take Flares if you want another power you can use when mezzed. Otherwise, Fire Blast, Blaze and Blazing Bolt provide all the ST damage you need. Even Fire Ball has better DPA than Flares.

[Zect]

Flares: 53.55 DPA

Fire blast: 58.35 DPA

Fireball: 62.81 DPA

 

Endgame high-rech builds usually skip flares, and use fireball as a 2nd filler attack instead.

 

However, this is difficult for a leveling build as the rech and endurance requirements are heavy. The fact that you state you play 1-50 more, and that you assume in your OP that you need two of flares/fireblast/arcane bolt, suggests that you frequently lack enough filler attacks for a gapless attack chain while leveling. In that case, you can take both fire blast and flares - a 2nd attack usable while mezzed may also be more useful to something that's not an endgame uberbuild.

 

Arcane bolt has a lower DPA than any of these attacks, if you ignore arcane power. It also doesn't give defiance (the damage buff that all blaster native attacks give), and a long-animating attack has other disadvantages like overkill and corpse blasting. I don't have data on arcane bolt procrates, however I suspect it's unlikely to be better.

Edited August 12, 2023 by Zect

[tidge]

I'll offer a minority viewpoint of (perhaps) no relevance for the Fire primary: My "Mystical Blaster" used the Sorcery pool as follows (page 5):

 

Level 4:        Mystic Flight    
 (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points)
 (*) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance

 

Level 12:    Arcane Bolt    
 (A) Apocalypse - Damage: Level 50+5
 (*) Apocalypse - Damage/Recharge: Level 50
 (*) Apocalypse - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge: Level 50
 (*) Apocalypse - Damage/Endurance: Level 50+5
 (*) Apocalypse - Chance of Damage (Negative): Level 50

 

Level 24:    Rune of Protection    
 (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%

 

I landed on this because (A) I wanted Rune of Protection somewhat early in the build and (B) I didn't have enough power picks to get everything I wanted (mostly in terms of powers to mule Enhancements). The DPA on Arcane Bolt isn't great... but it isn't terrible. I ended up using it as a place to 5-slot a Very Rare set.

 

Because of my choices I was going to end up with a gap in attack chain or have some other sort of  performance gap across a lot of content. For this character: level 24 is when I wanted Rune of Protection, often my builds that take it get it somewhat later. To be honest: unless my character looks like some sort of magic user, the Arcane Bolt animation kills the immersion for me. This guy leaned hard into the mystic aspect which made the above choices easier.

 

[arcane]

Take Fire Blast and don’t take either of the other two. Your best attacks are Blaze, Blazing Bolt, Freezing Touch, and Char.