Blaster as a team leader?

[biostem]

I've generally taken to playing a melee AT or a Sentinel, in part due to their ability to lead a team from the front.  Given that playstyle, what kind of Blaster could fill a similar role?  Please note that I am not looking for some build that can pull this off only after spending large sums on IOs and I'd prefer they not rely too heavily on Incarnate abilities.  Thanks for reading! 

[Shred Monkey]

I'm going to suggest Dual Pistols... primarily because of Hail of Bullets.  This power is your nuke, and it's just the best way I can think of to open a fight.  You run into the middle of the spawn and Hail of Bullets for massive PBAoE as your opener.  It also briefly boosts your defense to help keep you upright through your animation, although you'll still want to add more defense for best effect.  After the big alpha you spin around picking off whatever is left running in all directions.

 

You could do similar things with other sets, but I've always felt like Dual Pistols was made for this playstyle.

 

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Not sure if the budget constraint you're mentioning is workable or not, given your goal. But, even with an unlimited budget there's probably a fairly narrow range of builds that can be robust enough to lead a team across a wide variety of content. 

 

The key constraint to meet is to have mez protection. You can't rely on teammates to always have it if you're playing in PUGs. And, without mez protection trying to take alphas would probably be an exercise in frustration management for a large amount of content. If leading teams while fighting at level 44 or lower is desirable, then clarion won't be enough mez protection, on its own.  

 

There seems to be 2 basic build paths that can provide reasonably good mez protection for a blaster for level 44 and below. One build path involves taking the martial combat blaster secondary, while the other build path involves taking the energy manipulation blaster secondary. Inner will is the key mez protection power to take from martial combat, while energize is the key mez protection power to take from energy manipulation. 

Martial combat and inner will are best complemented by rune of protection because even with good recharge inner will has some downtime during which it will be unavailable. Break free inspirations will still be needed from time to time, such as when both rune and inner will are recharging and unavailable. 

 

Energy manipulation and energize are best complemented by combat jumping, acrobatics, and power boost. Then mez protection lines up as follows ...

 

energize - solid stun protection

combat jumping - solid immobilize protection

acrobatics - solid knock protection, -2 to hold mag

power boost - while active, boosts hold protection from acrobatics to -3.57 mag. Can be made perma or very close to perma.

 

In the end, this second build pathway leaves a "sleep" hole in mez protection that will need to be managed in other ways. Also, hold protection is limited to one mag 3 hold at a time, as long as power boost is active. 

 

Either of these build pathways allows for clarion to be skipped in favor of a T4 barrier destiny, which helps defense so much more than clarion. The need for clarion really falls if melee core hybrid incarnate is taken, as well. 

[Nemu]

Use inspirations and lead with your alpha strike/nuke. You don't need fancy IOs (though they help in other areas like recharge). Combining inspirations into useful ones during downtime should be second nature.

 

Area mitigation also helps you "lead." My fire/elec has been diving headfirst into mobs since the teens when it picked up thunderstrike. You don't need build recommendations, you need to embrace the blaster playstyle.

[tidge]

10 hours ago, biostem said:

I've generally taken to playing a melee AT or a Sentinel, in part due to their ability to lead a team from the front.  Given that playstyle, what kind of Blaster could fill a similar role?  Please note that I am not looking for some build that can pull this off only after spending large sums on IOs and I'd prefer they not rely too heavily on Incarnate abilities.  Thanks for reading! 

 

My hot take: Spending on Enhancements (for a Blaster) is to do these things for a Blaster who wants to be seen as a "team leader"

• High global recharge, to AoE and aggro lots of enemies
• High defenses to survive the above

Mileage may vary, but if Very Rares are off the table, here is what I would go for:

• The Teleportation pool, to quickly get teammates around zones...
• ...especially Combat Teleport, to get to where your melee buddies are (use macros for self-positioning)
• I would pack debuffs, particularly AoE -resistance. A stronger single-target debuf for GMs/AVs is appreciated... you can do this through relatively inexpensive slotting and power pools choices.

Ultimately it is going to be about Quality-of-Life for your teammates.

[lemming]

3 hours ago, Nemu said:

Use inspirations and lead with your alpha strike/nuke. You don't need fancy IOs (though they help in other areas like recharge). Combining inspirations into useful ones during downtime should be second nature.

 

Area mitigation also helps you "lead." My fire/elec has been diving headfirst into mobs since the teens when it picked up thunderstrike. You don't need build recommendations, you need to embrace the blaster playstyle.

Slotting Rise of the Phoenix for recharge helps! 

[Thraxen]

I five slotted rotp on the fire fire blaster I finally made.  I don’t use it nearly as much as I thought and I play like a scrap. 

[Yomo Kimyata]

Ice Manipulation.  Ice Patch in and of itself, but Frozen Aura also.

[Snarky]

A "good" Blaster is at/near the front for most builds.  Mat Dark Blaster comes in with big AoE -to hit debuffs and Mag 2 AoE stun that I stack with a Mag 2 stun for more protection against bosses.  Then quickly melt the "junk" mobs.  But it is not Tanking.  It is Blapper lifestyle.  If the team stays together you may feel like you are leading.  If the team goes to the other side of the room in the ITF caves you may feel the need to follow after getting in a few good AoEs.  Or it might work.  Blapping ain't for the weak kneed.

[Frozen Burn]

Almost any blapper would be good for this.  From my list of blappers, I will lead teams with:

• Ice/Fire
• Fire/Fire
• Psy/Temporal
• DP/Mental
• DP/Sonic

• DP/Ninja

• Rad/Atomic

• Energy/Martial
• Archery/Tactical Arrow
• Dark/Dark
• Seismic/Martial

I'll also lead with my Archery/Devices blaster as I stealth ahead and set up ambushes for the team to draw foes into.

 

[UltraAlt]

There is a difference between a "team leader" and a "point man"/"point person".

 

The "team leader" has the star. In general, I think they should be the one that recruited for that team.

The "point man" is the character that starts the fights. It can be a tank diving in (and, hopefully, taunting) or whichever character is okay with taking the alpha for starting the fight.

 

The "team leader" is going to remain consistent unless they log out, dc, or give up the star.

The "point man" ... well ... someone is going to decide that they are the point man with no input from the group ("I'm the tank, chase me", etc.), the Team leader can assign someone to be point ("SuperWhateverPerson, please take point.", etc.), or the team can talk about it as a group.

 

The "team leader" and the "point man" do not have to be the same character. The "team leader" has the boot; the "point person" does not.

 

Most of the time, the "point man" seems to end up being the character/player that decides that they are going to do it - either because they are a tank or a brute, or they are a level 50 running on a sub-50 level team. 

I've seen plenty of successful team when players randomly take turns jumping in or blasting first to start combat.

The "point man" definitely does not have to be a tank or a brute.

 

 

[Doomguide2005]

     And I've discovered a love for the temp power "Stun Grenade".  Even my Claws/SR has taken to using this while exemplared down to lower levels such as Posi 1 and 2.  While my Emp/Rad/Dark still uses them at lvl 50+3.  For the scrapper exemplared low it's not so much about her survival/surviving the alpha but not being a Tanker or Brute her ability to hold aggro is much slimmer when the rest of the team opens fire.  But as she moves in Focus on a boss (kd and plenty aggro), Spin (just before the debuffs and damage start coming in from the team) followed up or even proceeded by hitting them all with a  Stun Grenade.  She may not have taunted but she does cause a lot of staggering which both helps her make the alphas even more survivable but limits the mob from firing at pretty much every team mate.  The Empath just continues that sort of behavior to help herself while destroying a mob even at high levels.  Surprising how few lvl 50+ mobs actually have protection against such if you get the first hit in.  But all you have to do is look at the effectiveness of AoE stun attacks to realize the effectiveness overall of stuns to take out the trash. 

Edited November 15, 2023 by Doomguide2005

[Snarky]

My Dark Dark Corruptor with two stacked mag 2 AoE stuns (mag4) and a PBAoE Nuke that leaves people as accurate as Stormtroopers is great on point.  Even has a meh non suppressed stealth to get in close.  Move fast, hit hard, stun/nerf toughest mobs, burn (scourge) repeat.  

Edited November 15, 2023 by Snarky

[Frozen Burn]

1 minute ago, Snarky said:

My Dark Dark Corruptor with two stacked mag 2 AoE stuns (mag4) and a PBAoE Nuke that leaves people as accurate as Stormtroopers is great on point.  Even has a meh non suppressed stealth to get in close.  Move fast, hit hard, stun/nerf toughest mobs, burn (scourge) repeat.  

 

Get that filthy corruptor out of our Blaster thread!  😄  

[smnolimits43]

lol one of my favourite characters is energy/energy Blaster, named Brother Skirmish.  At one time, i had him fully slotted.  I have 435mil, maybe ill try cheap slotting him.

[High_Beam]

Look at Blapperella's build.  I believe she's energy secondary, fire primary.  Most mobs are melted by her before the rest of the team catches up.

[PyroBeetle]

I have been the point person on teams with my blasters recently, Fire/TA and AR/TA, and have had quite some success doing it. It is a razors edge playstyle, but can lead to quick TF completion when done well.

 

A blasters best survival tool is always going to be more damage and both of those have damage in spades. Dead enemies cannot hurt you. Flash Arrow, Glue Arrow, and Oil Slick Arrow are available every 15 to 20 seconds with my build, and I open the engagement with those debuffs, then follow up with M30 Grenade slotted to knockdown, which ignites the oil slick most times, then follow up with Full Auto, which also knocks enemies down with the Ragnorak proc, then Flamethrower, which will ignite the oil slick if nothing else already did which polishes off most groupings. At this point ST the bosses who are just getting back up. On to next group with full alpha strike available in 20 seconds or sooner, depending on +recharge proc.

 

No I don't hover, I don't have capped defenses, and I have never felt the lack. I do combine all but reds into purples when I move, and pop one or two if facing certain enemies (looking at you wolves), or if doing Incarnate content. Being the point man is about attitude, not thr build.

[ninja surprise]

On 11/16/2023 at 10:09 AM, High_Beam said:

Look at Blapperella's build.  I believe she's energy secondary, fire primary.  Most mobs are melted by her before the rest of the team catches up.

 

I've teamed with Blapperella a few times and she's very effective.

 

I was on a +4 ITF yesterday and the team leader was a Blaster. But like UltraAlt describes, the Blaster team lead wasn't the alpha absorber, but he did call out instructions on where to go, etc, so the whole team was going the same direction. It was a cool team with ~4 Blasters (including me on a DP/Devices), a Corrupter and Controller or two, a Brute and a Stalker.

No single person was always first to the next spawn; often it was either me or the Stalker sneaking in first.

 

But the Blaster was still leading with good communication.