Energy/Atomic Ranged Build Help

[Lightslinger]

Hello blaster friends! Needing some help building out my main, Lightslinger. Energy/Atomic, prefer ranged fighting and flying almost always except for Nova time. Durable as can be without crippling damage, required powers are Hover, Flight, and Evasive Maneuvers.

 

Build and advice are much appreciated, thanks in advance!

 

Update: forgot to include, need KB-KD in pretty much all KB powers. I know I know, energy blast is what the original Lightslinger was so I stuck with it, but not a fan of KB.

Edited April 6 by Lightslinger

[tidge]

IMO: /Atomic is not a great choice of secondary for staying at range. I find it to be one of the better "Blappy" choices, so picking range is IMO "crippling damage". I suppose the secondary choices would be something like:

 

T1 (level 1, mandatory): Electron Shackles, probably just a single slot with Acc/Mezz

 

T3 (available level 4, but could delay): Positron Cell, could take as few as 4 slots for a Recharge bonus, or could eventually  be a better source of set bonuses. Probably not worth investing %damage since it i a single target.

 

T4 (available level 10): Ionize, take after picking up Sniper Blast, take instead of Aim. Invest as few as 2 slots or better 6 slots of Gaussians'.

 

T6 (level 20): Metabolic Acceleration, slot as needed.

 

If you don't intend to Melee... there isn't much reason to prioritize the other powers. The T1/T9 combo is pretty great, and while in melee the T8 is golden, as is the T7. The T5 Beta Decay is also surprisingly useful. On my /Atomic, I use all except Electron Shackles and Positron Cell.

[Lightslinger]

I agree Tidge, he's already my main and my first character rolled up here at Homecoming. I'll take some blapping, sure.  I appreciate the insight, very informative.

[tidge]

I recommend Combat Teleport (with Macros) to support the Atomic Blapping/PBAoE. It should be possible to build up a fun sort of synergy with the knockback of the Energy primary with the close-combat of Atomic.

[Lightslinger]

1 hour ago, tidge said:

I recommend Combat Teleport (with Macros) to support the Atomic Blapping/PBAoE. It should be possible to build up a fun sort of synergy with the knockback of the Energy primary with the close-combat of Atomic.

 

Ooh, never done that before and it sounds super fun, I'll give that a shot thanks.

[tidge]

Here are the ones I typically use (I swap out the images). The first 'ports me into melee, the second one 'ports me backwards for cones/range.

 

/macro_image "StaffFighting_StaffMastery" "BAMF" "powexec_location target Combat Teleport"
/macro_image "StaffFighting_AssassinsStaff" "BACK" "powexec_location Back:25 Combat Teleport"

 

and

 

/bind shift+lbutton "powexec_name Combat Teleport"

 

The mouse bind is for those times when I get stuck on a map.

[Lightslinger]

That's super helpful, can't wait to try it out sounds fun.

[Nemu]

On 4/5/2024 at 10:59 PM, Lightslinger said:

Hello blaster friends! Needing some help building out my main, Lightslinger. Energy/Atomic, prefer ranged fighting and flying almost always except for Nova time. Durable as can be without crippling damage, required powers are Hover, Flight, and Evasive Maneuvers.

What you are looking for is a hover blaster with a resist epic shield and 45% range defense. This is a pretty typical hover blaster ask/goal for those that haven't embraced the finer nuances of blasterhood and/or developed expertise in playing blasters that can function in and out of melee range.... But that's OKAY because hover pure range blasters are still very functional.

 

Although you CAN skip all your melee powers, they do provide a place to slot full sets of mako's bite for 3.75% range defense, my recommendation is to keep at least 1 for that bonus and as a "you'll regret getting in my face" power.

 

Besides Mako's bite, other sets that provide range defense bonus that's pertinent to your combo include Thunderstrike (full set), blessing of the zephyr (2 pieces), eradication (3 pieces), preemptive optimization (full set) . I wouldn't worry too much about kb on single target powers. But do put a KD proc in your AoEs. Artillery is a great set but it has greatly diminished value for energy blast because you will not be slotting the full set due to the KD proc tax.

 

For Epics Dark Mastery and Fire Mastery are both attractive for hover blasters. Bonfire is still pretty strong even after the adjustment to KD rate. Dark Mastery gives you fearsome stare AND possess, the latter can be slotted with a full set of Coercive Persuasion for 10% global recharge and +5% range defense. It is the best bang for the buck if you have the funds to get that purple set.

 

Powers that you can absolutely skip from Atomic manipulation as a pure ranged hover blaster include atom smasher and beta decay, with positronic fist a distant third (although you might consider it for the Mako's set as a mule and never use it). Beta decay is a trap power since it requires mobs within melee range for the bonus.

 

Fighting pool for tough/weave is the norm for defensive blaster builds, you may want to also consider leadership for Maneuvers for the extra defense as well. The last pool depends on your preference, most go speed for hasten, but I can see the case for something like stealth or combat jumping for more defense and you can somewhat make up for recharge by slotting force feedback procs in your AoEs along with the KD IOs. Since you have to pay the KB tax those defensive picks might just be what you need to hit softcap.