How to Defense soft-cap as Blaster

[DrCereal]

Hiya all. Apologies in advance, I recently (re) started playing, and I'm still wrapping my head around builds. Thanks to the advice of people here, I settled on an AR/Dev Blaster. Possibly using hover, or possibly using the new repulsion field defensively. My idea is to then max out ranged (and aoe?) defense.

 

I'm having lots of trouble achieving that (using Mids to theory craft build)s. Could I get pointers? What's the usual method/road/technique that people use to soft-cap ranged (and aoe?) defense. Is it even possible to soft-cap with my AT/Pools choices above? If not, what numbers should I be aiming for? What power pools could help me out here?

 

Thank you all kindly!

[MonteCarla]

Hopefully I can help...
 

Power pool picks are:
Fighting, for:

- Tough, which allows you to slot two unique +Def IO's, Steadfast Protection and Gladiator's Armor (+6% total)

- Weave, 5.5% for Blasters slotted

 

Leadership

- Manouvers, 3.5% when slotted

 

Hover or Combat Jumping

- About 2% (or 4% if you take both!)

 

That gets you a start of 17% Defence vs everything, or more like 19% with your Field Operative bonus from Devices

The Steadfast IO is about 4 million, the Gladiators Armor one maybe 8 million. They'll be your main big budget items.

(If that sounds like a lot, do some Task Forces, buy Enhancement Converters with the merits and list for 1 inf each. They'll sell for 60,000 or so, netting you around 0.9 million per 5 merits! So a Penny Yin and a Citadel will pay for these.)

 

Thunderstrike in ranged attacks (6 slots) Gives you +3.75% Ranged Defence in two bonuses.

Artillery (6 slots) in ranged AoE attacks gives you +4% Ranged Defence in two bonuses.

Mako's Bite (6 slots) in Melee Attacks gives you +3.75% Defence.

These are all pretty cheap, way less than 1 million per enhancement, and give great bonuses to the powers they're slotted in.

 

So you could go:

Thunderstrike in: Burst, Slug and Toxic Web Grenade +11.25%

Artillery in: Buckshot, Grenade, Flamethower, Full Auto: +16%

Mako's Bite: Taser +3.75%

 

And you're over soft-capped for Ranged Defence!

 

Ranged is much more important of the two, as Ranged attacks typically do bigger damage and more mez than AoE.

 

If you're looking for set that give AoE Defence:

Blessing of the Zephyr gives a small bonus to both ranged and AoE for 3 pieces - great in Hover or CJ

Aegis gives +4.6% for 5 slots. So take Tough and a resistance epic armor, 5 slot each with Aegis and split the two +Defence IO's between them.

Scirocco's Dervish (5 slots) in Trip Mine give +3.125%, or Eradication (6 slots) to give a bit of extra Ranged Def too.

 

You can maybe work your way up to 45% Aoe Defence. Here's a useful link for sets that give AoE Defence bonuses:

 

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Category:Sets_that_improve_Area_Effect_Defense

 

 

Edit: Gaussian's Synchornised Fore Control (6 slots) in Aim or Build Up gives you +2.5% Def to all positions!

 

Edited January 31 by MonteCarla

[Biff Pow]

The Winter themed enhancement sets all give a lot of +Defense, especially when they're boosted to Very Rare (at level 50).

[MonteCarla]

And the Blaster Archetype sets give good Defence bonuses too, as well as some recharge, if you have money to spend.
 

I've just checked out my toughest most expensive Blaster in game - she had 46% Ranged Defence, around 32% AoE Defence and 35% Melee Defence, and this is with the P2W buffs active!

So I don't think you can softcap completely with a Blaster, but a little purple pill will put you there!

[DrCereal]

Thank you much for your responses so far! TBH, I haven't even considered costs right now. I've only made it to MIDs so far; and I was already struggling!

 

I think one of the problems is I'm also trying to "perma" hasten. That already has me pool starved: if I take Speed, and and and epic pool, according to MIDs I'm down to three more pools. 

 

And then there's the issue of all of those 6-sets you mentioned competing for slots with the 6-sets that have 10% recharge.

 

Might be trying to do too much? Sorry, just a noob trying to do what people on the forums seem to insist I must do on my builds: perma-hasten and soft-cap positionals.

 

Thank you again for your help though! Way more thorough than I could have hoped for.

 

[Snarky]

here is one of mine softcapped to range 

Blaster - Assault Rifle - Devices v1.01.mxd

[MonteCarla]

Defence vs Recharge...

 

These are probably the two most common build goals. They kind of compete, and kind of don't.

You could take Hasten and Fighting, Leadership and Flight as your pools.

 

Every Defence power you pick is a socket for a Luck of the Gambler Def/+Recharge unique. About 6 million a pop, and you can stack 5 of them in say, Weave, Manouvers, Vengeance, Hover and Field Operative.

 

Some sets benefit both goals:

The Blaster Archetype sets give +Recharge and +Def bonuses.

Sting of the Manticore (x5) in Sniper Rifle gives +2.5% Ranged Def and +7.5% Recharge.

Expedient Reinforcement in Gun Drone gives +6.25% Recharge and +3.125% Ranged Def.

Stupefy in Beanbag gives +6.25% Recharge and +3.125% Ranged Def (and makes you beanbag do knockback, which does look cool!)

Basilisk's Gaze is +1.25% Ranged Def and +7.5% Recharge for just 4 slots!! (Good for an epic hold)

 

The Blaster I mentioned earlier had 93% global recharge on top of all the big defence numbers, but no Hasten.

 

My own AR/Dev Blaster had capped Ranged Def, 25%-ish Melee and AoE Def and 103% Global Recharge, so pretty much perma-Hasten. That's probably a good goal to aim for: perma-Hasten and capped Ranged Def, and skimp a bit on the other positions.

 

Oh, and my mistake above, Taser takes ranged set enhancements, so Thunderstrike, not Mako's Bite.

[Nemu]

17 hours ago, DrCereal said:

Could I get pointers?

Take a look at this for some insights into the build process.

 

 

When you mature in your blaster journey and decide that you want to dip your toes into using melee attacks read this:

 

 

And watch this for tips on using movement to your advantage:

 

 

Playing blasters is 75-90% play style/understanding fundamentals and the remaining % build. When you are proficient at the former and want to be more adventurous with how you approach a build and not focus so much on defense softcap, then you can take a look at these for some ideas:
 

 

 

Good luck! If you have any questions feel free to post here.

Edited February 1 by Nemu

[DrCereal]

Thank you tons!

[Story Archer]

Another enhancement slotting technique to consider is Lockdown in your Hold abilities - 6-slotted it makes your Hold potentially much more powerful and gives +2.5% AoE defense and +3.75% Ranged defense for each one. I have a Fire/Atomic Blaster that has only three purple IO sets (no Incarnates) and he's soft-capped on defense for Ranged and AoE both, largely due to three sets of Lockdown and a full set of Gaussian's in Tactics (+2.5% defense to all positional defenses).