Radiation / Plant - Build Critique

[Spellbook-Everlasting]

Hello,

 

I am still learning Mids, but I don't think I did too poorly on this one.  I would love some feedback though.

 

 

Landscape - Blaster (Radiation Blast - Plant Manipulation).mbd

[SeraphimKensai]

What build goals do you have for it? Know what you're trying to accomplish can help cater build feedback to accomplishing your goals rather than someone else's.

[Spellbook-Everlasting]

Honestly survivability.  While I know high damage is the goal, being able to consistently do so (rather than sporadically) would require a bit more defense and resistances, I tried my best to balance it from how I understood it.

 

[Meknomancer]

19 hours ago, Spellbook-Everlasting said:

Hello,

 

I am still learning Mids, but I don't think I did too poorly on this one.  I would love some feedback though.

 

 

Landscape - Blaster (Radiation Blast - Plant Manipulation).mbd 44.91 kB · 3 downloads

 

Rad has 4 really good powers but you skipped 2 of them, i'm not sure this was intentional or part of a theme. I can see you don't want to get into melee but you took the nuke which forces you to melee so why skip irradiate. Cosmic Burst is your heavy hitter. Are you set on these power picks? If you swap neutron bolt for cosmic burst and grant invis for irradiate you can very easily hit 40% ranged for a tiny loss in s/l resists and just run a t4 barrier for the rest as well as gaining some more slow resistance and proc damage.

 

 

RAD PLANT - Blaster (Radiation Blast - Plant Manipulation).mbd

[Nemu]

You skipped all the melee attacks, that tells me where your mindset and comfort level is at. That's a good set of starting clues.

 

45% range defense + epic resist shield is the cookie cutter route for range survival, most people also hover blast if they go down that route. 45% range defense is the softcap for normal content, meaning mobs will only have a 5% chance to hit you without buffs with range attacks. Add a resist shield on top of that means attacks that do get through will hit you for less. Then you layer the controls/other tools you have from your toolkit (including killing stuff fast) to further limit incoming damage. That's called layered mitigation.

 

Don't skip cosmic burst. It's your hardest single target hitter with a guaranteed stun.

Slot attacks as attacks first and foremost and not for debuff/secondary effects, looking at neutrino bolt. Typically you can skip either the Tier1 or Tier2 primary pick if you have enough recharge, I'd skip neutrino and sub in cosmic burst.

 

Wild fortress and for that matter any other blaster sustain should be taken the moment they are available so you can mitigate/eliminate any endurance issues.

 

IO sets for your build that's good for range defense:

Thunderstrike (3 pieces or full set)
Artillery (3 pieces or full set)

Blessing of zephyr (2 pieces)

Both blaster ATOs (full set each)

Basilisk's gaze (2 pieces but you should get 4 for the 7.5% recharge bonus too)

Preemptive optimization (full set)

 

I'm going to make the claim that the only reason you went force mastery is because of personal force field so you can turtle up. Temp invuln is just a nice little bonus. Once you get comfortable with playing blasters or if you have a build that hit range defense softcap, you can open up your selection of epics. Soul master and Fire mastery both offer attractive powers that help with your ranged game plan via soul tentacles and bonfire, in addition to providing a resist shield with S/L and other element resists.

 

Finally, learning to play blasters is not an easy journey. There are a lot of things you take for granted playing lol melee that will serve you a hard reality check when you play blasters. A build can only take you so far. Success in playing blasters is a combination of:

Understanding inspiration usage

Understanding conditions that allows you to go all out vs when you should hold back

Understanding your toolkit and how to use them for survival if you have such tools

Understanding mob targeting priorities

Understanding positioning (where you should and should not be standing)

Understanding and leveraging game mechanics such as line of sight, mob fear mechanic, movement, etc...

 

Having said that, a good build can help mask a lot of those nuances and carry you through a lot of content.

Edited April 10 by Nemu

[Spellbook-Everlasting]

Ah! I don't know why it didn't notify me people replied again! 

Anyway, I appreciate the words and yeah, I've only seriously played Controllers since my time back and I guess I'm still used to Blasters from Live being what they were and trying to be "help me save me" and only taking the ranged options.

Thank you though very much, both of you, for the advice and what to look for and possibly change about the build.