Energy/Device Build questions (Updated)

[TommyG]

Hey everyone!  Sorry if this double posted, I did one earlier and realized I uploaded an out of date Mids build.  This one is up to date with Homecoming database as well as current issue.

 

So I am currently working on rebuilding my Energy/Device Blaster. I just got back into CoH after a few years off so needless to say my builds are a little rusty!  I was hoping to get some feedback on this one as it is one of my favorite combos to play but feel I may be approaching it incorrectly.

 

My goal for the character is to build sort of a Blapper.  It will mostly be used for Incarnate/high level content but I am sure I will exemplar down from time to time (So I will be attuning most of it) 

 

I wanted to achieve Perma-hasten, soft capped S/L/R, have a healthy damage bonus, and not be under constant threat of end crashing.   I was also hoping to achieve this without using Agility Alpha (Not that I am completely opposed to it) so I could equip the Musculature Alpha.  I was able to achieve pretty much all of that but Perma-hasten.  I ended up getting soft capped E/N in the process too.

 

Hasten is about 8 seconds shy of being Perma.  I ended up slotting Force Feedback into Energy Torrent with the +chance for recharge.  If this procs it seems it will give me Perma hasten with quite a bit of time to spare.  Is this proc reliable?  I figure I will need to use Energy Torrent as often as possible to get this proc to trigger, so I slotted a KB to KD as to not drive my teammates crazy.  If it is reliable, is it overkill to push me 20 seconds past perma-hasten?

 

My Mez Resistance is also pretty low and my Status Protection is basically un-existent.  Often times a held blaster is a dead blaster, so is a low of 46% MezResistance going to be enough if I play smart and take down CC mobs first and carry Break frees?  I don't mind carrying inspirations but I also feel a build isnt truly complete if I need to rely on inspirations.  Would love some insight on this, especially if FF +Chance of Recharge is reliable enough to get Perma-Hasten from.  This would possibly allow me to free up some slots to focus more on Mez/Status protection.

 

Lastly I have both Aim and Targeting Drone.  This does feel a bit redundant but it was really just a way for me to get more S/L from Rectified Reticle.  The reason I mention this is I feel I may not be really utilizing the correct set bonuses in the correct places.  I mostly just use the "Set Finder" window and build from there, but I am no expert in the games mechanics or in creating builds so perhaps I am being wasteful when trying to achieve my goals and don't even realize it.  Do any min/maxers and build enthusiasts see spots where I could get more bang for my buck for my desired goals?  Inf isn't really a concern I dont mind grinding towards it and I have some 50's that can help fund it.

 

I am open to any and all feedback!  I would love to hear peoples opinions on how to really get the most of this character.

 

 

 

 

Taceus Jiwede - Blaster (Energy Blast - Devices).mbd

Edited August 6, 2023 by TommyG

[Hjarki]

Your goals and your power selections are at odds with one another. */Devices has no melee attacks so you're not Blapping, no matter what your intent may be. Even if you were using another secondary, Energy is horrible for Blapping since you're constantly knocking your opponents out of range.

 

You also don't need Hasten for Energy Blast (or, frankly, for Devices). The standard rotation - Blast/Burst/Sniper - runs at sub-300% recharge.

 

If you want to play a SLER Blapper, you need to pick other power sets. If you want to play Energy/Devices, your overall approach needs some tweaking (different power picks/slotting, etc.)

[TommyG]

Thank you for the reply Hjarki.  I suppose Blapper was the wrong terminology.  Melee doesnt concern me too much so maybe I should have just said a durable blaster as opposed to Blapper.  Ill get back to the drawing board and remove Hasten if it isnt necessary for Energy/Devices.  The character is already made so I wont be re-rolling to use other power combos but any insight into how to correctly slot En/Dev would be appreciated 

[Nemu]

Some areas of your build show a good understanding of stacking set bonuses. With a little fine tuning you can create good builds in no time.

 

You don't need to chase perma-hasten on every build. But hasten is nice for double gun drones and faster recharge nova. That said, don't discount what Force Feedback procs add to your overall recharge rate. The trick is to have multiple powers with it so you can more consistently trigger it.

 

Of all your powers that should get a KB-KD trip mine would be it. You are almost always going to plant it in the middle of a pack and that'll send stuff flying everywhere without killing them. All the other ones you can position yourself to direct the knockback if that's your thing, even Nova.

 

Slot attack as attacks. Dead things don't fight back. Heavy hitters deserve more slots than low damage attacks.

 

Caltrops and smoke grenade are one slot wonders. You have to make a decision between throwing that many slots into these powers vs slotting your attacks so you can kill stuff.

 

You also don't need both power bolt and power blast, do you really use both in your single attack rotation? I'd imagine you have enough recharge to string together power burst, snipe and one of these two. I can see taking both as you are leveling, but as a complete build, you can afford to skip one of those.

 

Blasters need to learn to deal with debuffs and mez, period. Inspiration use isn't a sign of weakness. High defenses help, but a lot of mez bypass those defenses and you have no protection from def debuffs. You can't have it all on a blaster, which is why the number 1 rule on blasters is still "kill stuff before it kills you" even if you decide to invest a lot into survival. Your nuke contributes a great deal to that. That said, stock up/convert insp to breakfrees.

 

Here's a rework of the build. Kb-kd procs are in all the AoEs but attacks are still slotted decently to do damage. Musculature pushes enhancement values on all attacks past ED softcap. When you exemp, you'll have very high range defense by level 30 and S/L/R softcap by level 35.

 

Blaster (Energy Blast - Devices).mbd

[TommyG]

@Nemu Thanks so much!  All of this is wonderful advice and very helpful.  I do have a tendency to try and perma hasten all builds even when its not necessary haha.  I really like this build you have posted and will be following it after hitting 50.

 

I really appreciate all the insight!  All of your points are concise and really helped paint a clearer picture on how to approach the build!  I forgot to embrace the blaster motto of "The best defense is a good offense"

[lemming]

As someone who threw together a Energy/Dev Blaster recently as a lark, then found out it's a fun combo, I appreciate the builds guys.  (I also need to brush up on my usage of JSON readers since I don't use mids...)

 

And here's my build that works well enough for what I play them in.  Tends to be more a solo or duo and great for setting up a bunch of trip mines while I make dinner...  Nothing in particular chased and as long as I don't play too reckless very serviceable. 

blaster_energy_dev.txt

[Thrax]

Here is mine.  It takes barrier.  It is a lot of fun.  I'd still take hasten for quicker Nova and double gun drone like mentioned above.  

 

Mega Thrax Energy Devices Blaster 2023 with hasten.mxd

[Thraxen]

One other thing to note on mine is that gun drone is a huge boost to survivability that a lot of people ignore or are unaware. Stuff gets close to you then just turn to the guns. And they are sturdy lil guys. 

[Zect]

The most serious issues have been dealt with already, so I will just emphasize a few salient points:

 

1. Make sure you slot KB2KD in your attacks, especially aoe attacks such as trip mine and nova. Energy is only a mid-tier dps set, because it is a top-tier soft control and mitigation set. If you don't abuse this mitigation, you are not properly exploiting the set's unique advantages. You should consult the Nemu build above, because it does include these procs.

 

2. You should take and use aim even though you already have targeting drone. Aim, when slotted with the gaussian's chance for build up proc, has a very high change of proccing it on demand (can be capped at 90%, depending on how much rech you have in aim). Aim-BU combined with your nuke and other powers such as tripmine delivers a powerful broadside that instantly wipes all non-bosses reducing incoming damage and mezzes, and Aim can be popped while moving in to engage ensuring minimal exposure to return fire. Aim-BU is a key reason why blasters are overpowered in the current meta; abuse ruthlessly, and make devs cry.

 

3. While energy is indeed one of the primaries that doesn't need haste for its ST attack chain, haste is nevertheless very useful for it and for all blaster primaries that have a 145s or longer base cooldown nuke. The reason is that at permahasten levels of rech, the nuke's recharge shortens to ~40s or less which is close to the amount of time it takes most teams to kill a spawn and move to the next, allowing you to use it almost every engagement. If you go from nuking every other spawn to nuking every spawn, that is twice the number of nukes used (a +100% increase). This demonstrates the power of hitting a performance breakpoint.

 

4. In your original build, you are not 8s away from permahasten, nor will a single FF proc perma it. Mids naively assumes that all rech buffs are permanent, even when they are not. When hasten is not permanent, only part of its duration is buffed by its own +rech and therefore its actual recharge is longer than what Mids displays.

 

A lot of people have no idea how to deal with rech buffs that are only active for part of the power's duration and can only hope that things will work out in practice. The math, and its derivation, is discussed in detail here, however I will just inform you that given the following:

• Your global rech that is permanent: 83.8%
• Rech enhancement in hasten: 95.9%
• Hasten base cooldown time: 450s
• Hasten's buff: 70.0% for 120s

...Hasten, in your original build, will recharge in 130.85s.

Spoiler

(450 - (0.7 x 120)) / (1 + 0.838 + 0.959) = 130.85

 

If you get a single FF proc during that time, this shortens to 129.07s, assuming that the proc runs for its full duration (not cut off by Hasten completing its recharge).

Spoiler

(450 - (0.7 x 120) - 5) / (1 + 0.838 + 0.959) = 129.07s

 

Simple algebra will show that the number of procs required to make hasten permanent with this amount of global rech is 7, assuming they all run for their full duration (6 procs gives a recharge of 120.13s).

 

In general, if you are already familiar with the more well-known recharge formula of Recharge = Cooldown / Real time elapsed, a single FF proc is mathematically equivalent to shaving 5s off the power's base (not remaining) cooldown.

 

Hence, for hasten, recharge required for permahasten = 450 / 120 = 3.75, or 375% (but the power natively has 100%, so you need another +275% from enhancements and global rech, including Hasten's own +70%). If we expect to get a single FF proc during those 120s, the rech required decreases to 445 / 120 = 370.08%, or +270.08% from enhancements and global rech.

[Thraxen]

Changing the aoes to knockdown is key. I wouldn’t bother on the st ones. If it’s something single target that gets kb’d you’ll kill it quickly enough that it won’t mattter that it is awa from group for 5 seconds while you shoot it once or twice more. 

[TommyG]

Sorry I havent checked this in a few days!  Thanks for the replies everyone.  Lots of great advice from everyone and I really appreciate it!  I agree with the KB to KD.  I was being stingy with slots and it would have made things very annoying for any group that had me along so ill be changing that.

 

@Zect Very descriptive thank you!  I still am getting the hang of mids, that was one of my big concerns is that my recharge was actually lower than what was being showed.  

 

When I get home from work ill take a look at some of these other builds posted as well.  Thank you everyone for the advice and helping me get back into the swing of things.