The "Dark Souls" of Blasters

[Lhanis]

…I’m sorry, that joke has probably been done already but I can’t help but think it every damn time I look at- 

 

(Wall of text ahead, apologies. TL;DR below)

 

I’m building a Blaster. My first one since ye olden days of early Live, an AR/Dev I loathed with every fiber of my being that somehow ended up being my first character to 50, as it was my shoe-in with the RP group I hung out with on Virtue. As such, it may as well be a whole new AT to me and I could use the help. 

 

I’m sort of married to Dark/_/Soul as primary and ppp, as this idea pretty much started as “I want to play the cooler version of Dark Blast” that I’d been side-eyeing from my nice and comfy Defender for several years. And I figure… if I’m going to be playing with cones, why not throw a few more onto the pile with Soul (I’m also a huge sucker for Dark Embrace’s aesthetic, even if a +Res armor isn’t ideal).

 

Where I’m having trouble is settling on a secondary. I’d originally considered pushing for a nice and safe hover-blaster, but some advice I got in a previous post has me wanting to give the AT a proper try of things. Some things that caught my eye:

 

Martial - Probably the one with the least synergies with Dark, considering I want to be away for cones and not in the middle of things. However, there are a -lot- of things that are very attractive to me here.
    Reach for the Limit: Not as potent, and loses utility for not being able to pick -when- you have it active, but will keep me from forgetting to press it at all. Which… does happen, I’m sad to say.
    Reaction Time: Having my sustain built into an always-on toggle is fantastic to me for mostly the same reasons as above, and the fact that it provides a nice safety net for when things do get in my face by slowing is just icing.
    Inner Will: I’m already leaning towards the Sorcery route for Rune, and having both it and this to cycle between for mez prot would put a lot of my worries about mez to rest.
    Eagle Claw: Character has hooves. ‘Nuff said. Maybe slow to animate, but that damage looks amazing.

 

Ninja - I don’t generally jive with weapon sets, but a friend pointed me this way and I do see the potential here.
    Choking Powder/Smoke Flash: I’m not sure how useful these actually are for their intended effect, but they’re definitely fun thematically. Choking Powder also has the benefit of being procable, and helping stack mag with Abyssal Gaze, so at least there’s that.
    Shinobi: Stealth and baby crits, this one looks amazing. I had very much considered dipping into concealment for a stealth option to begin with, and this would help free up a pool.
    Kuji-In Toh: As far as recovery buttons go, this is probably the best case scenario for me beyond a toggle. Long enough that I don’t have to remember to hit it often, and a good chunk of regen… might help considering I want a Res armor, might not.

 

Energy - Fairly self explanatory, and would push me toward that hover-blaster this all started as.
    Range Boost: Feels like it’d mix well with the cones, I know some of them end up being short.
    Energize: A great sustain, though I don’t know how much that -End consumption is actually doing for me until I have a build for it laid out.
    Power Boost: Helps everything. Will probably help shore up Def via the boosted -tohit dark provides too, if I come up short.
The problem I foresee with Energy is just that… that's a lot of clickies to be maintaining, something I’m admittedly not great at.

 

Honorable mentions to, ironically, Devices and Dark.
 
Devices would give me most of what I want from a secondary mechanically between the stealth, Target Drone and caltrops, besides the fact that I remember hating toebombing with a passion. It’s also about directly opposite of what I’m aiming for theme wise, as the savage little gremlin creature with a penchant for spooky magic probably doesn’t know how to cast “Explosion!” or build an automated turret.

 

Dark, on the other hand, fits thematically… but I’m not so fond of it mechanically. Relying on enemy saturation for damage via Soul Drain and needing an enemy to even start your sustain rolling via TotB isn’t ideal, and it doesn’t feel like it offers much that’d help with what I’m going for with its damage aura, melee cone, and stuns.

 

TL;DR: First Blaster in a very long while. Dark/_/Soul. Martial? Ninja? Energy? Something else entirely?

 

Any and all advice is appreciated! What do you think would be a fun and interesting combo to play? Are there synergies in other sets I might have overlooked? Interesting slotting strategies that might help?
 

Edited December 11, 2023 by Lhanis

[Uun]

Not on your list, but I've got a Dark/TA/Elec that's a lot of fun. No melee attacks at all, but a lot of safety and utility. TA gives you Oil Slick, a 2nd hold, perception and speed debuffs, recharge buff, perception buff, accuracy buff, kb protection, and tohit debuff/slow resistance. Electrical Mastery adds Static Discharge, giving you a 3rd cone (you can also get this in Mu Mastery, however, the Mu version has a 32s recharge vs. 12s for Elec) and a S/L/E res armor. 

 

 

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Below are a few "not immediately obvious" things about /energy that might help to strengthen your blaster's build if you decide to choose /energy as your blaster's secondary. 

 

Energize makes it extremely difficult to run your blaster out of endurance unless recovery has been substantially debuffed. It offers very good stun protection of -8.3 mag. Consider slotting energize with either 5 panacea IOs or all 6 preventive medicine IOs for a noticeable heal and regen boost whenever you cast it. Your blaster can shrug off chip damage with energize well slotted with heal IOs. Also, remember to be proactive casting energize because if mezzed your blaster cannot cast energize until mez wears off. It is very easy to perma energize, which makes it noticeably easier to keep it always active. 

 

Power boost is worth hitting before energize, when you can, because power boost enhances the heal and regen gained from casting energize. So, set the icons for those two powers next to each other in a power tray. Perma power boost when you can because it has another very helpful buff that's described further down.

 

It helps to take energize together with combat jumping and acrobatics. Combat jumping offers -8.3 immobilize protection, which is quite good. Acrobatics provides -9 mag knock protection and -2 mag hold protection.  Hold protection of -2 mag doesn't protect against many holds used by mobs. But, when power boost is active the hold protection of acrobatics climbs to -3.57 mag protection, which means you'd like power boost to be as close to perma as you can get it. You can still have multiple holds on your blaster and end up held. But, good defense totals can reduce the frequency of that scenario by quite a bit. Then you only have sleep and confusion to figure out how to manage for mezzes that interfere with your ability to control your blaster. The blaster unique IO that offers resistance to mez is a good choice for further help with protection against mezzes. A couple of break frees in your inspiration tray can serve as your "fall back" for those occasions when mez breaks through anyways. 

 

Finally, the clickies in /energy are fairly easy to maintain because you can click them as you transition between groups. Boost range will only sometimes be relevant once combat has been joined. So, you can often forget about boost range while battles are in progress. 

Edited December 11, 2023 by EnjoyTheJourney

[Lhanis]

3 hours ago, Uun said:

Not on your list, but I've got a Dark/TA/Elec that's a lot of fun.

 

TacA is definitely a great kit, and one I considered at the start! Having played a few Trick Arrows, I'm wanting something a little different though. This Blaster is a chance for me to... get over the whole hiding the back mentality. I wanna get stuck-in and maybe use it as a chance to try to learn to joust and the like, even if Dark is probably not the best primary to start with that. ☺️

 

2 hours ago, EnjoyTheJourney said:

Energize makes that it's extremely difficult to run your blaster out of endurance unless recovery has been substantially debuffed.

 

A friend of mine has a slight obsession with Elec Armor as a set, so I know how potent a clickie it can be. It's definitely an appealing option, and good portion of why Energy was on my radar to begin with. I hadn't thought about Powerboost being used to amp it specifically though, that's an interesting idea!

[Ringo]

Martial has a repositioning teleport in Burst of Speed which allows you to jump in and out when you need.  If you set up a couple binds, one for Burst of Speed to target and then Burst of speed backwards 30ft you'll automatically line up your cones

[Nemu]

If you are going to venture down this path and learn the tricks of the trade and apply melee attacks with success then you might want to take a look at this

 

 

Others have discussed the benefits of combat tp and burst of speed to get you in and out of combat. I'll tell you why it's not my top choice for combat mobility. Those powers still need to be queued before they execute and as such mezzes will shut you down if they land while the powers are in queue. And due to the nature of powers and how they activate you can't simultaneously fire off eagles claw and teleport away. This will be problematic for powers with long cast times because during animation you are a sitting duck, not just from mezzez, but from all melee retaliation.

 

Jousting via combat jumping or Super speed or both gives you the benefit of momentum that can not be suppressed by mez, so even if you get mezzed during eagles claw animation your momentum will carry you to safety.

 

Among the choices you listed I'd go energy manip. Power boost also boost dark's -to hit and life drain's heal. The melee attacks are all single target so there's nothing super spectacular that compels you to go into melee all the time to use them. The only problem is that it's very clicky, Boost range is optional, it helps with tentacles but you'll find yourself tagging the next 2 groups if you are not careful with torrent. I'd put energize on auto and click hasten and power boost manually.

 

If you want something more gimmicky sonic manipulation is proctastic since every attack can hold. The sustain doesn't aggro and I find that I get slept more than I get stunned on my high defense builds in regular game play and the sustain protects against that status effect. The -res toggle is a trap though, a late pick for me because early levels it's an endurance sink and you'll do enough damage without it.

 

You get used to dealing with mezzes after a while and combining inspirations should be second nature, but if you are super paranoid about it then follow enjoy the journey suggestion with /energy and acrobatics etc... that'll give you pretty thorough coverage against two of the more common hard controls.

 

One more thing. I see this in a lot of builds. I'd recommend not slotting any toggle sustain for heal, go all in on end mod, I prefer a full set of preemptive strike for the beefy range defense bonus. If you look at the numbers slotting those for heals doesn't give you enough return on investment, you are still going to die quickly whether you have 20 hp/sec regen or 40.

 

For that matter please don't slot life drain with a heal set, that's the kind of stuff that people that don't know how to play blasters would do.

Edited December 12, 2023 by Nemu

[Lhanis]

2 hours ago, Nemu said:

If you are going to venture down this path and learn the tricks of the trade and apply melee attacks with success then you might want to take a look at this

 

I did see these the other day when I started poking my nose into Blaster, and they're handy to have! Jousting is not at all what I was imagining when it was first described to me. The videos are absolutely appreciated.

 

2 hours ago, Nemu said:

Among the choices you listed I'd go energy manip.

 

My heart says Martial... but my brain does unfortunately agree with you. I mocked up a few test builds and took them around on Brainstorm a bit to see how they feel, and energy definitely was the one that felt like it had the most impact with what I ended up taking from it. It means I'm going to have to make some hard choices about pools though, if I do go that route.

 

2 hours ago, Nemu said:

You get used to dealing with mezzes after a while

 

Having spent the past four years doing solo content on Def, I'm going to have to agree to disagree 😓 but then again, I've always been of mind that a build's ability to function should not need to rely on insps/candy macros. Maybe I'm just the odd one out here.

 

2 hours ago, Nemu said:

For that matter please don't slot life drain with a heal set, that's the kind of stuff that people that don't know how to play blasters would do.

 

...I don't think that's a Blaster issue, I can't think of a single AT where that's actually a good idea. Do people really do that?

 

The advice is appreciated, Nemu! I'm picking away at things, slowly but surely. Hopefully I'll have something to show for this thread by the end of the week, there's a lot of great slotting examples on the forum here... which is great, because Blaster slotting is wild to me. So many attacks, so many Artillery/Thunderstrikes....

Edited December 12, 2023 by Lhanis

[Lhanis]

2 hours ago, Nemu said:

If you want something more gimmicky sonic manipulation is proctastic since every attack can hold.

 

I've actually had quite a lot of fun with Sonic Assault on Dom which is largely similar in premise, it's definitely an interesting one. It'd be a fun one to play with and I'll have to add it to my list of potential future projects, but I feel that like Martial it really wants to be paired with a punchier set that isn't so worried about lining up cones. Rad/Sonic might be a fun combo though, I'll write that one down.

[Nemu]

57 minutes ago, Lhanis said:

Do people really do that?

Imagine a new player who's being indoctrinated to think that blasters are super squishy, lacking survival, and that melee = death. Then they see a few powers in the blaster toolkit that have a heal component like life drain or one of the blaster sustains. What would be your first thought on how they would instinctively slot those powers? There was a time when I would have made the same slotting choices. Over time l dug in deeper and learned to play blasters and got better.

 

50 minutes ago, Lhanis said:

So many attacks, so many Artillery/Thunderstrikes....

I find my blaster builds use very few of those, but they are undeniably budget friendly options that can easily get you to the range defense softcap. Those builds that cram a lot of these sets in usually have very little recharge and slow resistance though, the latter I feel is another hole that should to be plugged for many ATs in high end expensive builds.

[PyroBeetle]

I differ in building my blasters, primarily in the fact that I don't go overboard to try and get to the ranged softcap. I find much more flexibility and overall effectiveness if I get myself to 32.5 or so, within range of a purple, and then maximize the build for damage...procs, recharge, etc. My reasoning is simple:

 

Dead enemies do no damage, and nobody is better at creating dead enemies than a Blaster.

 

YMMV of course, but I generally put 2 50+5 End Mod in the sustain.

Edited December 12, 2023 by PyroBeetle

[BazookaTwo]

AR/energy is the first thing I built in game (and is my forum handle). It's still my favorite blaster. And fun to troll melee folks with! 

 

Widen your cones all the way out, and dark/em/dark should be beastly. Don't discount the stun mechanics in /EM either! Power Boost works on damn near everything. 

[Nemu]

You can't slot energize with end mod sets even if you wanted to. I did qualify my comment with "toggle sustains" 😁

 

Energize gets 6 piece prev med for my builds. The set bonuses and the absorb proc are too good to pass up.

[EnjoyTheJourney]

16 minutes ago, Nemu said:

You can't slot energize with end mod sets even if you wanted to. I did qualify my comment with "toggle sustains" 😁

 

Energize gets 6 piece prev med for my builds. The set bonuses and the absorb proc are too good to pass up.

Doh! I never knew that and I obviously misread your post. My apologies. 

I went ahead and hid the earlier post. It didn't contribute to the thread, after re-reading your earlier post.

Edited December 12, 2023 by EnjoyTheJourney

[Nemu]

That's ok, I'll be your friend again for tree fiddy.

[Gerswin]

I have a dark/atomic/soul and it is a very solid combo. It is surprisingly 'controllery' but it unloads PBAOE damage very safely. There is a lot of proc potential and the -tohit is very noticeable. I recommend atomic if you want to skip a bunch of secondary powers.  I only take the initial pick, ionize, the toggles, and atom smasher. Cone-Cone-(close to melee)-blackstar-atom smasher is a fantastic combo.

 

Ironically, the toon is mostly played by my 5 year old daughter and it is pink-princess-magic-sparkle themed with sorcery pool for flight and teleport along with speed, leaping and fighting. Definitely not a evil scary darkity theme, but Dark/ and /atomic both have very customizable visuals.

 

[Lhanis]

2 hours ago, Gerswin said:

I have a dark/atomic/soul and it is a very solid combo.

 

Atomic is a very cool set, and was definitely on my list. It only really got trimmed out because the remaining three either felt they meshed better or would just be a more fun secondary to play with. Plant and Temporal are missing from my lineup for similar reasons. Beta Decay looks so bloody useful, I may have to reconsider it's removal...

 

2 hours ago, Gerswin said:

Ironically, the toon is mostly played by my 5 year old daughter and it is pink-princess-magic-sparkle themed

 

There's something so strangely heartwarming about the idea that this 20 year old game still might have youngsters running about and enjoying smashing badguys in the face with superpowers. ☺️

[Icono04]

On 12/12/2023 at 3:25 PM, Gerswin said:

I have a dark/atomic/soul and it is a very solid combo. It is surprisingly 'controllery' but it unloads PBAOE damage very safely.

+1 vote for the dark/atomic, I have one as well and it plays very smoothly. There are a few extremely nice powers in the secondary, but also a bunch of skippable ones; for me, this is a positive, as you can get a lot of goodness with just a few power picks and still have a good number of picks left over for utility/pool powers. 

The damage of dark/  is a bit underwhelming compared to some of the other blaster primaries, but as compensation you more controllery effects than from most other blast sets.

 

On 12/11/2023 at 6:14 PM, Lhanis said:

a chance for me to... get over the whole hiding the back mentality. I wanna get stuck-in

Another possibility to consider, since you are looking to learn the melee blaster lifestyle, is the /ice secondary. The sustain power, Frigid Protection, is a thing of beauty when it comes to keeping you alive and fighting, and Ice Patch helps with that as well.

[Nemu]

I paired my dark/atomic with leviathan because I love spending ~3 seconds on Positronic Fist and another ~3 on KO Blow, and another 3 on Atom Smasher, and another 3 on Blackstar.

 

Now that I think about it how could I omit Flurry? Another 3 seconds. You don't need hasten and you can still have a smooth attack chain.

 

I'm going to rename him 3 second man.

[Frozen Burn]

My Dark blaster, is Dark/Dark/Soul.  I open with cones for debuffing, but spend most of my time in melee range to leverage PBAOEs and melee powers.  And occasionally use Mystic Flight's TP power to pop back out for more cone usage as necessary.  Quite a fun Blaster to play!  (Despite /Dark not being as synergetic with Dark Blast as most would like.)

 

"We are the souls of the men, women, and children who perished at the hands of Nemesis in his 1893 march through New England.  We come together as one.  We will have our revenge.  We are... The Spectral Legion."

 

[Snarky]

I have a dark dark soul.   I do not live dark secondary on Blaster.  I have a Dark Temporal Soul that I think is smoother

 

[Lhanis]

5 hours ago, Snarky said:

I have a dark dark soul.

 

Your post way back about yer conesconescones Blasting is what actually inspired me to give the AT another go! I'm... maybe sorta kinda stuck in a rut and probably enjoy the Dark themed sets a bit to much. After all this testing though, I think I'm mostly coming to the same conclusion... I find myself missing my support kit and all the utility and control Miasma brings. If nothing else, all of this work on Blaster setups has made me appreciate Def and Corr more than I may have before.

Edited December 14, 2023 by Lhanis

[Snarky]

57 minutes ago, Lhanis said:

 

Your post way back about yer conesconescones Blasting is what actually inspired me to give the AT another go! I'm... maybe sorta kinda stuck in a rut and probably enjoy the Dark themed sets a bit to much. After all this testing though, I think I'm mostly coming to the same conclusion... I find myself missing my support kit and all the utility and control Miasma brings. If nothing else, all of this work on Blaster setups has made me appreciate Def and Corr more than I may have before.

My ultimate Dark Ranged toon ended up not being a blaster.  I went Corruptor.  This gives away up front damage for some of the meanest tricks in the book.  

 

Of particular note is how Dark Pit works with Oppressive gloom to create a mag 4 stun area.  In this niche you can drop Soul Drain, Blackstar, and then lash out with ST and cones.  The Stun, Fear, To-Hit debuffs, and wonderful Corr Damage does the rest.   To me this is the ultimate Dark non melee.  Able to use all those PB powers without much of a care.  

 

Corruptor - Dark Dark Mez build v 1.02.mxd

[C U R S E]

Dark/Ninjitsu hands down my go to for pure raw damage and survival. 3 proc all your attacks with the Shinobi critics and you will have a AT that puts out absurd damage like no other toon. It's an insanely ridiculous death machine.

[Nostromo21]

On 12/18/2023 at 12:45 AM, C U R S E said:

Dark/Ninjitsu hands down my go to for pure raw damage and survival. 3 proc all your attacks with the Shinobi critics and you will have a AT that puts out absurd damage like no other toon. It's an insanely ridiculous death machine.

 

I can never stick with a blaster, although ranged (and pets, stealth) are my preferred play style. Ok, I'm giving this combo a serious go now! ;)

The highest I've ever gotten was low 40s ice/fire way back in the live days (Kelvin Ator - my first toon actually :). I now have 60 toons on HC, with at least the 1st 2 pages played to the teens and a 39 + few 20s.

 

Being a casual scrub, I must be doing something wrong with my blasters. I know they are generally best played a blappers, but I really don't like melee, except maybe on my stalkers. So, playing keepings off strictly at range, with the option to bypass trash/content I don't want to do, that leaves 2 secondaries - Devices or Ninjitsu for the stealth power - much prefer Ninj for the look/theme and powers from what I can see (but yet to try). Dark as primary is a no-brainer for me as part of the theme I'm going with (plus I just love it on all my other ATs :). It's got the lowest sniper power at lvl 8 (still can't beat my psychic corr at 2nd!), so I'll let you know how I go, especially as I get past 10th and get Shinobi - should change the entire approach to completing missions I hope.

 

Hopefully the squishiness I always fall prey of with my blasters won't be as bad with this toon, given all the tricks dark and ninjitsu have up their sleeves! :)

Edited January 4 by Nostromo21

[Snarky]

The revamped AR is insanely good.  
 

Having said that I tried getting Dark to work and never loved it… on a Blaster.  Dark Dark Soul on a Corr is insanely OP.  Check the Corr thread for my build

 

 

Dark/Temp/ Soul was the most comfortable Blaster for me, even though it insulted my purist nature

 

thought this was a new thread lol.  Still…

Edited January 4 by Snarky