Help with a Mids Build for a Water/Energy Blaster

[Grinndo]

Hello everyone !

 

It is my first time posting but I have been reading for a while. Came back to the game recently and plan to main this Water/Energy blaster and would like to invest in a build. Before doing so like most, I want to get a build on Mids to have a better idea.

I plan on playing only in group content as a ranged hover blaster. I tried reading as much as possible on how to work with Mids (Nemu has great tips) But I am obviously a little over my head with all the possibilities.

So here is what i got so far. I am fully open on suggestions/change I can bring to it.

 

Thank you

 

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

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Here's more of an aggressive blapping approach. Key differences include higher damage, considerable effort spent on shoring up mez protection to stay more consistently in the fight, somewhat lower ranged defense and slightly lower smash / lethal resistances, but noticeably higher melee and AOE defense totals and roughly comparable for most other resistances (your build's psi resistance is noticeably better, of course). Power boost is close to perma by default, which means boosted defense totals on a more consistent basis, and often power boost ends up being perma or very very close because of force feedback +recharge procs in water burst. Resistance to slows is 50% in this alternative build, compared to 15% in the original build; slow resistance doesn't always matter, but when it does matter it tends to matter a lot. 

 

This build has been battle tested in higher end content (not hard mode, to be forthright, but +4x8 KM ITFs, LRSF, MLTF, etc). Damage is pretty good and defeats have not been common. Having a heal built into the single target attack rotation noticeably helps. Another edge for survival was being free to take barrier core T4 with little concern for incoming mezzes in most situations*.

 

* The most common mez is sleep because the mez protection available in this build only leaves room for sleep resistance, and not for reductions to sleep magnitude. But, sleep is also the easiest mez to break in multiple ways and in my experience it is seldom as problematic to be slept as it is to be stunned or held for a substantial period of time.

The second most common incoming mez is stacked holds (by default power boost only boosts the hold protection in acrobatics from 2 to 3.57, meaning that if 2 holds land within a short time of each other then that will overcome the limited hold protection provided by acrobatics + power boost. That was not a common occurrence, though, given that positional defenses are in a decent place even without barrier, limiting the number of incoming holds that are likely to land in a short period of time (as long as situational awareness is being exercised, so, for example, you're not trying to solo +4x8 spawns that are loaded with mobs that holds).

Having said all this, though, hover-blasting is such a strong defensive approach that your build will probably be even tougher to defeat in most situations than the ground-based build given in this build. Totally up to you, of course, to decide which kind of build you like better. Even this overall approach isn't to your liking, though, hopefully there are some ideas you find helpful somewhere in the build. 
 

Summoner of Waves - Blaster (Water Blast - Energy Manipulation - Mu Mastery).mbd

Edited May 2 by EnjoyTheJourney
Initially misremembered resistance totals when comparing, fixed that

[Grinndo]

Thank you for the response.

 

I will need to take a look and compare it to my build.

[Nemu]

I saw my name mentioned in the opening post. I looked at your build. Some feedback:

 

You have some temporary buffs like build up, tidal forces, vengeance and power boost turned on which skews your stats. See this thread for how to turn them off:
 

The 6th slot in positrons blast is netting you about 9% toxic/psi resist and 15% mez resistance. It's not worth it in my opinion. AoE Knockback/up/down powers are good candidates for force feedback +recharge procs. I'd reslot water burst and maybe geyser to see if you can fit that proc in. This proc provides a lot of value to your global recharge over time.

 

Instead of allocating 3 slots for thunderstrike in dehydrate you could have just rounded out the superior winter's bite set at 5 total slots for 2.5 range defense (I'm assuming you are shooting to shore up your range defense). Instead you only get 1.25 range defense from 3 thunderstrike. Less defense at the cost of more slots = not efficient use of slots.

 

Instead of adding 2 more slots to power thrust for 1.88 range defense with explosive strike, you could have added those 2 slots to total focus and rounded out a full mako's bite set for 3.75 range defense. Again, the latter approach is a more efficient use of slots.

 

You are missing both the Gladiator's armor 3%. and steadfast protection 3% global defense unique IOs. The slotting you have with Aegis in charged armor doesn't align with any common themes/build goals I see. Fire/Cold/AoE defense does very little (for your build) and you are not actively trying to stack bonuses for that type of defense.

 

You also don't need that many points of knockback protection if you are hovering. You don't need the steadfast kb nor the karma kb IOs.

 

Instead of vengeance I'd get evasive maneuvers for more flight mobility. Vengeance is situational, Evasive is something you can use all the time.

 

Here's a quick tweak of your original build, note the range defense value - 45% - which is at softcap, meaning you'll avoid 95% of attacks with a "range" tag.

 

Water energy tweak.mbd

 

There will always be people that think blasters are so fragile that hover blasting and avoiding melee at all costs is the only way to play them safely. But if/when you are ready to level up and learn how to use melee attacks successfully and overcome your fear of melee, I can teach you.

[tidge]

I have a Water/Atomic, and it is definitely a Blapper. I can't imagine playing Water/Energy and wanting to stay at range only.

 

I realize that there are different opinions about the following, but I skip Water Jet from the primary, even after the fix to the way the power works with Tidal Force. I suppose if a player is skipping all the melee attacks it will be useful.

[Fever Dream]

12 hours ago, Nemu said:

I saw my name mentioned in the opening post. I looked at your build. Some feedback:

 

You have some temporary buffs like build up, tidal forces, vengeance and power boost turned on which skews your stats. See this thread for how to turn them off:
 

The 6th slot in positrons blast is netting you about 9% toxic/psi resist and 15% mez resistance. It's not worth it in my opinion. AoE Knockback/up/down powers are good candidates for force feedback +recharge procs. I'd reslot water burst and maybe geyser to see if you can fit that proc in. This proc provides a lot of value to your global recharge over time.

 

Instead of allocating 3 slots for thunderstrike in dehydrate you could have just rounded out the superior winter's bite set at 5 total slots for 2.5 range defense (I'm assuming you are shooting to shore up your range defense). Instead you only get 1.25 range defense from 3 thunderstrike. Less defense at the cost of more slots = not efficient use of slots.

 

Instead of adding 2 more slots to power thrust for 1.88 range defense with explosive strike, you could have added those 2 slots to total focus and rounded out a full mako's bite set for 3.75 range defense. Again, the latter approach is a more efficient use of slots.

 

You are missing both the Gladiator's armor 3%. and steadfast protection 3% global defense unique IOs. The slotting you have with Aegis in charged armor doesn't align with any common themes/build goals I see. Fire/Cold/AoE defense does very little (for your build) and you are not actively trying to stack bonuses for that type of defense.

 

You also don't need that many points of knockback protection if you are hovering. You don't need the steadfast kb nor the karma kb IOs.

 

Instead of vengeance I'd get evasive maneuvers for more flight mobility. Vengeance is situational, Evasive is something you can use all the time.

 

Here's a quick tweak of your original build, note the range defense value - 45% - which is at softcap, meaning you'll avoid 95% of attacks with a "range" tag.

 

Water energy tweak.mbd 43.12 kB · 0 downloads

 

There will always be people that think blasters are so fragile that hover blasting and avoiding melee at all costs is the only way to play them safely. But if/when you are ready to level up and learn how to use melee attacks successfully and overcome your fear of melee, I can teach you.

@nemu

 

You always post such in depth responses. I'm currently looking for a do it all character.  You might remember my post on the brute forums. 

 

What blaster would you make for a do it all character? Badge hunting, tfs, solo missions, group missions, etc.

[Grinndo]

Thanks a lot Nemu ! this great feedback, it will help a lot.

I do have a level 50 blaster Radiation/atomic that i play sometimes and i am always in melee spaming my pbaoe. It is a lot of fun. The idea behind my water/evergy blaster and why i want to play range has nothing to do about being afraid to get close. It is more a question of RP/backstory type of thing.

 

Again, huge thanks ! I will for sure study it. 

[Nemu]

10 hours ago, Fever Dream said:

@nemu

 

You always post such in depth responses. I'm currently looking for a do it all character.  You might remember my post on the brute forums. 

 

What blaster would you make for a do it all character? Badge hunting, tfs, solo missions, group missions, etc.

There are a lot of builds that fit that mold. What works for me might not work for you.

 

I have softcapped melee blasters

I have proc monster blasters that have less survival

Mecha Banshee - Blaster (Radiation Blast).mxd

 

I have meme builds that legitimize the use of whirlwind

 

I have homage builds with guns/bows/RPGs.

 

All of them effective in their own way.

 

I find that having an emotional level of attachment also helps with the longevity of the character. Mastery of the play style also helps with how much you enjoy playing whatever you are playing - if you are good at something you enjoy doing that thing more. Otherwise you are constantly looking for the next peak in performance and chasing that high.

 

With that, Jezebel is the reason I yearned for COH's return and came back to Homecoming. Full transparency though, I built her on live after I learned about real numbers/softcap and the value of cast time/DPA. Electric wasn't a popular secondary outside of end drain builds but it had all these fast attacks so I thought why not pair two sets with high DPA attacks together? At that time Fire and Ice blast were top tier but I favored Fire because it didn't rely on patches as much for AoE, and I felt the combination of Fire/elec offered a better balance of ST damage and AoE damage. Of all the characters I had on live, she is the embodiment of what I loved about this game. I loved the jousting playstyle and there was nothing comparable that can scratch that itch. As my play style matured, and as the homecoming team introduced numerous enhancements to blaster QoL, she's only gotten better,

 

I recommend finding that emotional connection first, then you can min/max any build.

[zenijos10]

People are saying Blapper, but Water/ NRG is also great at range.  Water works great from range, and NRG can add a lot of it.  Blappers arent for everyone.

[tidge]

12 hours ago, zenijos10 said:

People are saying Blapper, but Water/ NRG is also great at range.  Water works great from range, and NRG can add a lot of it.  Blappers arent for everyone.

 

I say Blapper, because so much of the DPS potential from a Water/NRG is in the secondary Melee attacks:

1. Energy Punch (melee, or pick Power Thrust)
2. Power Thrust (melee, or pick Energy Punch)
3. Build Up (More +Damage than Tidal Forces, I'd take both but only one of them early)
4. Bone Smasher (melee)
5. Energize (the sustain)
6. Stun (melee)
7. Power Boost (click self boost, don't overlook that a significant fraction of 'extra effects' are the stuns in the NRG melee attacks)
8. Boost Range (click self boost, I suspect this was the power that made NRG look appealing to "range only")
9. Total Focus (melee)

I've played a variety of Blasters as Blappers, and also as Ranged-only. I have a few Ranged-only that went very light into the secondary.  My cautious advice comes from a place of my recognition Water Blast is a great Ranged set (although I think Water Jet is still inferior!), but IMO relying only on the primary for ranged damage (with this combo) has issues:

• A huge amount of potential DPS is being left on the table
• The options for slotting different types of enhancement sets is going to be quite limited without taking secondary attacks... and if you take and slot them, they should be used!
• The control (stuns) from the NRG secondary are all melee, as opposed to other secondaries that offer ranged controls
• The NRG secondary doesn't offer any thing like a PBAoE should the player get surrounded by more than a couple enemy critters

This is not me trying to yuck in anyone's yum: I can imagine a circumstance where a player wants to play a Blaster, and also wants to find a secondary where they can skip most of the secondary powers (I've done it!), maybe to focus more on the primary, maybe to slip in a LOT of power pool powers, or whatever. When I made the choice to make a Blaster that avoided (as much as possible) the melee attacks in a secondary, I found that a nearly identical version of the character played as a Sentinel performed 'better' than the Blaster variant. The AoE was worse, but the Sentinel doesn't care what the enemies try to do to him and he can stand his ground.

[zenijos10]

1 hour ago, tidge said:

 

I say Blapper, because so much of the DPS potential from a Water/NRG is in the secondary Melee attacks:

1. Energy Punch (melee, or pick Power Thrust)
2. Power Thrust (melee, or pick Energy Punch)
3. Build Up (More +Damage than Tidal Forces, I'd take both but only one of them early)
4. Bone Smasher (melee)
5. Energize (the sustain)
6. Stun (melee)
7. Power Boost (click self boost, don't overlook that a significant fraction of 'extra effects' are the stuns in the NRG melee attacks)
8. Boost Range (click self boost, I suspect this was the power that made NRG look appealing to "range only")
9. Total Focus (melee)

I've played a variety of Blasters as Blappers, and also as Ranged-only. I have a few Ranged-only that went very light into the secondary.  My cautious advice comes from a place of my recognition Water Blast is a great Ranged set (although I think Water Jet is still inferior!), but IMO relying only on the primary for ranged damage (with this combo) has issues:

• A huge amount of potential DPS is being left on the table
• The options for slotting different types of enhancement sets is going to be quite limited without taking secondary attacks... and if you take and slot them, they should be used!
• The control (stuns) from the NRG secondary are all melee, as opposed to other secondaries that offer ranged controls
• The NRG secondary doesn't offer any thing like a PBAoE should the player get surrounded by more than a couple enemy critters

This is not me trying to yuck in anyone's yum: I can imagine a circumstance where a player wants to play a Blaster, and also wants to find a secondary where they can skip most of the secondary powers (I've done it!), maybe to focus more on the primary, maybe to slip in a LOT of power pool powers, or whatever. When I made the choice to make a Blaster that avoided (as much as possible) the melee attacks in a secondary, I found that a nearly identical version of the character played as a Sentinel performed 'better' than the Blaster variant. The AoE was worse, but the Sentinel doesn't care what the enemies try to do to him and he can stand his ground.

I have an WATER/NRG blaster and it is one of my favorite characters.  I wasn't saying never use melee attacks or range only.  I was saying it can play great from far away, as opposed to Blapper which to me means staying in or near melee range.   Water is so good you can stay at long range all day and always have a decent attack ready.  I skipped NRG Punch, BoneSmasher, and Stun.  I mostly use the other two attacks, power thrust and Total Focus for crowd control, and I don't need them that often.  

Edited May 10 by zenijos10

[Nemu]

I think it really depends on your definition of blapper.

 

I hate the term by the way. It's a construction of yesteryear when people didn't figure the blaster AT out and relegated it to a "pure" range AT, and "blappers" became an anomaly. While that may have been true 15 years ago, it doesn't hold up now. Can you think of any other AT where it's OK or even encouraged by the masses to skip pretty much all of its secondary? We did away with taunt only 1 attack tanks, 1 attack pure healers with the medicine pool, etc... Blasters is the last hold out where this idea that somehow using all your tools from both your primary and secondary is not normal and deserves a name. "Blappers" are just regular ass blasters, they use both their primary and secondary, the same way every other AT is played.

 

There is also a difference in the mindset that "if you use melee you stay in melee" vs leveraging melee attacks as another tool to be used at the appropriate time and place. The former is the the mindset of a melee player resigned to the fact that they need to operate in melee range, and the latter is how smart blasters operate. More often than not I see the former applied to the tons of blaster builds I've gave feedback on. If nothing else melee attacks are great mules for mako's bite which shores up range defense, or a set of hecatomb/armageddon for 10% global recharge, and by using those as mules you open up your build to other set bonuses instead of dumping/limiting all your slot investment/build goals into your primary attacks.

 

I'm resigned to the fact that a lot of people will never move past their bias that blasters should always operate at PURE range because it's "safer", but I feel a strong need to correct this notion that you should skip all your melee attacks just by virtue of the IO bonuses they accord a build.

 

(not that you skip your melee attacks, but I do see a lot of builds over the years that do.)

 

 

[tidge]

Well.... there are Blaster secondaries which don't contain melee attacks... and it isn't like the Epic/Patron pools are brimming with melee attacks.

[Linea]

I am currently enjoying building a ranged only blaster concept, but that's not at all the norm for me, and even it has a couple of mostly unused melee attacks.

 

My standard builds are heavy armor intended to fight in melee range, and stay in melee range.  Water is an excellent primary for this, perhaps even the best primary for this. That said, most players will prefer a more offensive and less defensive build.

 

Here's a quick conversion and rebuild of one of mine, adapted to Water/Energy.  It is intended to run Rune/Hybrid/Rune/Demonic/KitchenSink.

 

Water Energy - Cia 2b - [i25].mbd

Edited May 11 by Linea

[zenijos10]

On 5/10/2024 at 7:21 PM, Nemu said:

I think it really depends on your definition of blapper.

 

I hate the term by the way. It's a construction of yesteryear when people didn't figure the blaster AT out and relegated it to a "pure" range AT, and "blappers" became an anomaly. While that may have been true 15 years ago, it doesn't hold up now. Can you think of any other AT where it's OK or even encouraged by the masses to skip pretty much all of its secondary? We did away with taunt only 1 attack tanks, 1 attack pure healers with the medicine pool, etc... Blasters is the last hold out where this idea that somehow using all your tools from both your primary and secondary is not normal and deserves a name. "Blappers" are just regular ass blasters, they use both their primary and secondary, the same way every other AT is played.

 

There is also a difference in the mindset that "if you use melee you stay in melee" vs leveraging melee attacks as another tool to be used at the appropriate time and place. The former is the the mindset of a melee player resigned to the fact that they need to operate in melee range, and the latter is how smart blasters operate. More often than not I see the former applied to the tons of blaster builds I've gave feedback on. If nothing else melee attacks are great mules for mako's bite which shores up range defense, or a set of hecatomb/armageddon for 10% global recharge, and by using those as mules you open up your build to other set bonuses instead of dumping/limiting all your slot investment/build goals into your primary attacks.

 

I'm resigned to the fact that a lot of people will never move past their bias that blasters should always operate at PURE range because it's "safer", but I feel a strong need to correct this notion that you should skip all your melee attacks just by virtue of the IO bonuses they accord a build.

 

(not that you skip your melee attacks, but I do see a lot of builds over the years that do.)

 

 

My definition of a blapper is a blaster who fights primarily within melee range.  This means they have probably focused more on survivability then the average blaster OR have an extreme amount of PBAOE damage (best defense is good offense) or both.  For me a blapper doesn't even really have to use melee attacks, at least in theory, though melee attacks certainly help to scrap at melee range.  Its an attitude thing: "I'm gonna get right up in your face and destroy you, then before your body hits the ground I'll be off to the next group of foes to do the same."

 

Edited May 12 by zenijos10