Solo blaster combinations for +4/x8 content suggestions

[R jobbus]

I understand this topic may not make alot of sense, since it can be really hard to solo with a blaster, but I wanted to make it anyway.

 

I am interested in getting better with my spacing and 'jousting' with blaster, and trying to solo hard things is fun to me. I've been using alot of xyz/bio scrappers lately to do this and figured I would ask you guys about blaster. 

 

My first character was a fire/ice blaster which I really like and it does help with soloing due to the ice patch, maybe the hold (though I don't really care for it personally, for harder content it doesn't hold anything that isn't dying quickly for very long at all, which to me feels like i should just be trying to kill it instead. Anything that seems to get held at length should be dying in 2 hits anyways).

 

Adding to the fact that for soloing purposes, inferno is going to be a skillful and risky business on harder settings (And quite exciting and fun).

 

That being said, do you guys have any blasters that you enjoy soloing hard stuff with. I've literally never tried anything but fire/ice and fire/fire. I was wondering about beam rifle, anything that might excel at mostly just ranged damage and outspacing.

 

Again I know, people have said sentinel/corrupter/etc so on, I'm just curious about blaster right now. thanks for any suggestions/replies

Edited August 12 by R jobbus

[plainguy]

I am a big Defense cap player. I feel defenses beat out Resistance.. 

That being said. I have a farmer that I use to level up my crazy Petless mastermind builds. 
His fire resistance is 71 and his melee defense is 33. Picked up the build here on the forums. 

Now I do a lot of 8/3 settings on my all my builds, that includes my petless masterminds. I will even say that any build I do MUST be able to do 8/3 setting.. I will not create a build unless it meets the defense and endurance requirements without out Incarnate power assistance, excluding Petless Mastermind builds due to endurance issues.

The reason I do 8/3 because it just is faster then doing 8/4 setting. 
But on my Farmer I do 8/4 for the experience and influence.

Anyways.. 

I would say if you can create a build that can get smash & lethal to 70% resistance and Range to 40s. You could do good. 
I can say I take a bit more hits with 33 defense then I would like in the comic con farm, so I think 40s is better as explained in the link in my bio. Also if you can pick up some sort of -To Hit that would also be helpful with increasing your defenses.

Hover is also great to help you get into range defense damage category. 

The reason for the Smash/Lethal resistance is that MANY powers have this component in it. 

Or simply forget all the talk about resistance and just go Range Cap Hover blaster.. 
Mind you I Power Leveled my farmer with my AR Device character that was exactly that Range Cap Hover Blaster but I used a jetpack as I didn't have hover.   I did an S/L farm. 

Again other AT might be more helpful in this category to obtain required numbers.. 
 

[honoroit]

elec/elec - its fun to do bad things. you can see my AMAZING build in the blaster forums 'LVCK VOLTIA', or search for the tag #honoroitisfantastic

 

it deals its damage much faster than the fire or ice rains, the pbaoe smash punch is good, the elec fireball is good, the T9 is ranged.  you can end up with 2x holds between the primary and secondary.

 

 

 

Edited August 12 by honoroit

[PyroBeetle]

I can highly recommend Fire/Ice/Elec. You already have experience with the pairing, but maybe a but different build would help. As much as I try I just cannot get around the fact that Inferno is just that damn good. I combine the 2 minute boost from the electric pool with the one minute crashless boost from the Sorcery pool and am running around at 75 percent resistances whenever I want. I have macros to combine my inspirations into Lucks and Good Lucks whenever I move, and will pop a couple before I dive in. Combined with my ranged defense and Ice Patch amd 75 percent resists I am safe enough for an AoE alpha, then the 2 holds allow me to safely clear the remainder.

[Frozen Burn]

I've solo'd for decades and farm with my Ice/Fire/Fire Blaster.  I'm not even defense capped.  But do use inspires, like all good blasters should.  Target selection, kiting, 3 holds, heavy AOEs, all make it very survivable. 

[Snarky]

I have had great luck with a Fire/Fire/Fire Blaster in high end late game content.  I swear I tank with this thing half the time.  I mean, when stuff is dead, you do not need much armor.  I have joined a Fire Farm with a couple Brutes and a Tank.  In that I regularly jumped ahead to fresh spawns to nuke.  Never died.  I have run in 4 star LFTG to get the bonk.  there were deaths, but he performed well.  I am over 100 vet levels in and badging.  The thing is a powerhouse.  I run a lot of content at 4/8.  Granted, I do not solo that.  But I could see it.  With more planning and careful inspiration.  Also, the build and incarnate choices are all about front loaded damage.  

 

 

Blaster (Fire Blast - Fire Manipulation) 2024 v 2.01.mbd

[Linea]

My solo blaster is a heavily armored Water/Atomic.

[Frozen Burn]

On 8/15/2024 at 9:08 AM, Frozen Burn said:

I've solo'd for decades and farm with my Ice/Fire/Fire Blaster.  I'm not even defense capped.  But do use inspires, like all good blasters should.  Target selection, kiting, 3 holds, heavy AOEs, all make it very survivable. 

 

Additional blasters, which I didn't mention earlier as i was rushing to a work meeting 😄 .....

• Energy / Martial / Mace
• DP / Mental / Mace
• DP / Ninja / Mace
• Psy / Temporal / Mace
• Archery / Tactical Arrow / Force
• Rad / Atomic / Mace

 

All of these I will solo +4x8, and have a BLAST doing it.   🤣  

Edited August 18 by Frozen Burn

[Gamma XIII]

On 8/15/2024 at 4:01 PM, Frozen Burn said:

 

Additional blasters, which I didn't mention earlier as i was rushing to a work meeting 😄 .....

• Psy / Temporal / Psy

Do tell me more!  Any decent builds you know about?

[Frozen Burn]

3 hours ago, Gamma XIII said:

Do tell me more!  Any decent builds you know about?

 

Sorry, I meant //Mace.  There is no Psy epic for blasters, unfortunately.  But there should be!!

 

Here is my build....

 

Librarian Archivist - Blaster (Psychic Blast - Temporal Manipulation).mbd

 

[R jobbus]

On 8/15/2024 at 8:18 AM, Snarky said:

I have had great luck with a Fire/Fire/Fire Blaster in high end late game content.  I swear I tank with this thing half the time.  I mean, when stuff is dead, you do not need much armor.  I have joined a Fire Farm with a couple Brutes and a Tank.  In that I regularly jumped ahead to fresh spawns to nuke.  Never died.  I have run in 4 star LFTG to get the bonk.  there were deaths, but he performed well.  I am over 100 vet levels in and badging.  The thing is a powerhouse.  I run a lot of content at 4/8.  Granted, I do not solo that.  But I could see it.  With more planning and careful inspiration.  Also, the build and incarnate choices are all about front loaded damage.  

 

 

Blaster (Fire Blast - Fire Manipulation) 2024 v 2.01.mbd 43.23 kB · 15 downloads

Yea this is actually what I'm finding out lol, this is kind of my strat for practicing ITF +4/x8 no temp/inspirations with my fire/ice.. you just utilize barrier and go full damage, also rain of fire giving you a bit of time as they run around cause of slow. I threw as much defense as I could in powers that allow it but it's quite a fun playstyle to try to just damage rush/joust/spacing. I might try this build out if im feeling fire/fire/fire again, but i like fire/ice just cause ice patch is really useful for soloing things that are susceptible to kd. Big tanky +4 warwolves that would 3-4 shot you as a blaster, you can easily solo cause it just keeps falling down.

[Snarky]

1 hour ago, R jobbus said:

Yea this is actually what I'm finding out lol, this is kind of my strat for practicing ITF +4/x8 no temp/inspirations with my fire/ice.. you just utilize barrier and go full damage, also rain of fire giving you a bit of time as they run around cause of slow. I threw as much defense as I could in powers that allow it but it's quite a fun playstyle to try to just damage rush/joust/spacing. I might try this build out if im feeling fire/fire/fire again, but i like fire/ice just cause ice patch is really useful for soloing things that are susceptible to kd. Big tanky +4 warwolves that would 3-4 shot you as a blaster, you can easily solo cause it just keeps falling down.

Bonfire in Fire Mastery has knockback.  That i convert to KD with OverForce. That gives me two DoT “rains” each with minor crowd control side effects.  I usually drop them both together when my nukes (reg and incarnate) are on cooldown.  

[Frozen Burn]

18 hours ago, R jobbus said:

Yea this is actually what I'm finding out lol, this is kind of my strat for practicing ITF +4/x8 no temp/inspirations with my fire/ice.. you just utilize barrier and go full damage, also rain of fire giving you a bit of time as they run around cause of slow. I threw as much defense as I could in powers that allow it but it's quite a fun playstyle to try to just damage rush/joust/spacing. I might try this build out if im feeling fire/fire/fire again, but i like fire/ice just cause ice patch is really useful for soloing things that are susceptible to kd. Big tanky +4 warwolves that would 3-4 shot you as a blaster, you can easily solo cause it just keeps falling down.

 

16 hours ago, Snarky said:

Bonfire in Fire Mastery has knockback.  That i convert to KD with OverForce. That gives me two DoT “rains” each with minor crowd control side effects.  I usually drop them both together when my nukes (reg and incarnate) are on cooldown.  

 

I've played triple-fire.... but I still prefer my Ice/Fire/Fire....

 

You get bonfire (converted to KD), stand in the middle so Hot Feet gets them too, Fire Sword Circle, Burn, Ice Storm - I even slot Consume for Damage as an extra PBAOE... and then you have Blizzard to KD and Nuke an entirely different group AWAY from you + you have 3 holds that you can chain hold 2 bosses or an EB between all your attacks.  

 

Survivability is much higher and Damage can be more widespread - or highly focused, if wanted.  

 

....some thoughts to consider.  🙂  

[Snarky]

5 hours ago, Frozen Burn said:

 

 

I've played triple-fire.... but I still prefer my Ice/Fire/Fire....

 

You get bonfire (converted to KD), stand in the middle so Hot Feet gets them too, Fire Sword Circle, Burn, Ice Storm - I even slot Consume for Damage as an extra PBAOE... and then you have Blizzard to KD and Nuke an entirely different group AWAY from you + you have 3 holds that you can chain hold 2 bosses or an EB between all your attacks.  

 

Survivability is much higher and Damage can be more widespread - or highly focused, if wanted.  

 

....some thoughts to consider.  🙂  

Ice is a beast.  I consider it a ST Dom with great AoE dps

[R jobbus]

6 hours ago, Frozen Burn said:

 

 

I've played triple-fire.... but I still prefer my Ice/Fire/Fire....

 

You get bonfire (converted to KD), stand in the middle so Hot Feet gets them too, Fire Sword Circle, Burn, Ice Storm - I even slot Consume for Damage as an extra PBAOE... and then you have Blizzard to KD and Nuke an entirely different group AWAY from you + you have 3 holds that you can chain hold 2 bosses or an EB between all your attacks.  

 

Survivability is much higher and Damage can be more widespread - or highly focused, if wanted.  

 

....some thoughts to consider.  🙂  

 

Yea, I really want to try all that. Honestly I have never given ice primary a shot on blaster that sounds cool.

 

I guess I'm just a bit biased, since I've been testing builds on the beta server. for my purposes, which is I guess solo +4/x8 with a blaster, bonfire to me is much too slow. I still use it, and throw kb to kd in it, but the ice patch is really what has saved me because it's quite a bit faster and the recharge is faster. but I do still use bonfire, there's no reason not to use it.

 

as for the holds, for my purposes on those settings, I have not had success at all with them. nothing seems to get held at length that's worth holding. Things that are held 10+ seconds are things that die in 2-3 hits on a proper build. Things that *need* to be held that long theoretically, like stuff that can kill you very easily, only get held for.. i dont know, maybe 2-3 seconds. it's hardly worth going into melee range to do it. Especially if they're susceptible to kd, which brings me back to the ice patch, and then not wasting time not trying to kill them

 

But again, this is just my testing, and maybe it's just my playstyle. I'm only basing this off of testing this stuff on the beta server by myself. it was largely tested on various PI radios and an ITF in those settings, so maybe I should run other content.

 

but I mean I'm always open minded about things, thank yall for the ideas. I do want to give ice/fire/fire a go sometime just to mix it up.

[Frozen Burn]

5 minutes ago, R jobbus said:

 

Yea, I really want to try all that. Honestly I have never given ice primary a shot on blaster that sounds cool.

 

I guess I'm just a bit biased, since I've been testing builds on the beta server. for my purposes, which is I guess solo +4/x8 with a blaster, bonfire to me is much too slow. I still use it, and throw kb to kd in it, but the ice patch is really what has saved me because it's quite a bit faster and the recharge is faster. but I do still use bonfire, there's no reason not to use it.

 

as for the holds, for my purposes on those settings, I have not had success at all with them. nothing seems to get held at length that's worth holding. Things that are held 10+ seconds are things that die in 2-3 hits on a proper build. Things that *need* to be held that long theoretically, like stuff that can kill you very easily, only get held for.. i dont know, maybe 2-3 seconds. it's hardly worth going into melee range to do it. Especially if they're susceptible to kd, which brings me back to the ice patch, and then not wasting time not trying to kill them

 

But again, this is just my testing, and maybe it's just my playstyle. I'm only basing this off of testing this stuff on the beta server by myself. it was largely tested on various PI radios and an ITF in those settings, so maybe I should run other content.

 

but I mean I'm always open minded about things, thank yall for the ideas. I do want to give ice/fire/fire a go sometime just to mix it up.

 

Understood.  You do have to slot for hold duration and the holds are ranged attacks so you can keep bosses / EBs at bay, if needed.  And sometimes, even if they are Knocked down, they can still get a hit or two in on you.  EBs are less likely to be susceptible to KD. 

 

Holds are also useful for negating pesky ranged LTs or Mins that aren't in the immediate PBAOEs to die quickly - yes, they can die in 2-3 hits, but that's also 1-2 hits less on even higher priority targets.  1 hit to hold to them, while you deal with larger immediate threats - like burning down that boss / EB, or the entire mob surrounding you.  It's just target selection and putting them on "pause" until you're ready to deal with them.

 

Also, if you're mostly fighting a lot of Romans, yeah, holds are less useful because of their battle cry mez protection, but that's why Ice/Fire/Fire still has an advantage over triple-fire...  You can rotate Blizzard and Bonfire every other mob so you're always knocking them down.  With triple-fire... you generally have to wait and deal with a mob without Bonfire.  

 

Additionally, Ice Patch is a /Ice (secondary) power and it's not as large of a radius as Bonfire.  And you also don't get Hot Feet and Burn to go with it.  Personally, /Ice is one of the worst blaster secondaries, imo.  Ice Patch being the only star, but also does no damage.  With Bonfire, you can get your recharge down enough for it overlap (so, multiple ones out at once). 

 

You aren't the only one that is biased towards triple-fire builds.  People swear by them, and they are good.  But having played Ice/Fire/Fire since 2004 and Fire/Fire/Fire.... I still think Ice/Fire/Fire superior overall for survivability and AOE coverage of damage.   ....just some more thoughts and I hope you do give it a try sometime.  🙂  

[R jobbus]

18 minutes ago, Frozen Burn said:

 

Understood.  You do have to slot for hold duration and the holds are ranged attacks so you can keep bosses / EBs at bay, if needed.  And sometimes, even if they are Knocked down, they can still get a hit or two in on you.  EBs are less likely to be susceptible to KD. 

 

Holds are also useful for negating pesky ranged LTs or Mins that aren't in the immediate PBAOEs to die quickly - yes, they can die in 2-3 hits, but that's also 1-2 hits less on even higher priority targets.  1 hit to hold to them, while you deal with larger immediate threats - like burning down that boss / EB, or the entire mob surrounding you.  It's just target selection and putting them on "pause" until you're ready to deal with them.

 

Also, if you're mostly fighting a lot of Romans, yeah, holds are less useful because of their battle cry mez protection, but that's why Ice/Fire/Fire still has an advantage over triple-fire...  You can rotate Blizzard and Bonfire every other mob so you're always knocking them down.  With triple-fire... you generally have to wait and deal with a mob without Bonfire.  

 

Additionally, Ice Patch is a /Ice (secondary) power and it's not as large of a radius as Bonfire.  And you also don't get Hot Feet and Burn to go with it.  Personally, /Ice is one of the worst blaster secondaries, imo.  Ice Patch being the only star, but also does no damage.  With Bonfire, you can get your recharge down enough for it overlap (so, multiple ones out at once). 

 

You aren't the only one that is biased towards triple-fire builds.  People swear by them, and they are good.  But having played Ice/Fire/Fire since 2004 and Fire/Fire/Fire.... I still think Ice/Fire/Fire superior overall for survivability and AOE coverage of damage.   ....just some more thoughts and I hope you do give it a try sometime.  🙂  

 

Well this is interesting, so you can slot bonfire to loop with itself, let me ask, is the % of kd going to happen the same for bonfire and for the ice patch?  I'm not opposed to trying out fire/fire/fire again. I did try this out in the beta server and compared it to fire/ice pretty obsessively, and I concluded that as far as fire primary goes, I just preferred /ice for the easy kd. And because hot feet will randomly make enemies just run all around the map, which can be a good thing and a bad thing. And it also unreliably will make them just completely ignore hot feet as well and just swarm you, instead. the unpredictability of it, and the fact that they were susceptible to kd and me not having the ice patch, kinda made me think for my purposes it wasn't the best idea.

 

but if bonfire has the same kd % as ice patch and can be slotted to loop itself i'm not opposed to giving it a go. I couldve sworn ive seen stuff just run through bonfire even when slotted and just ignore the kd when i felt like they shouldn't .. but that's not really enough evidence. im just genuinely curious. I'm open to fire/fire/fire just I felt like not having an ice patch for fire primary for my specific solo purposes was a bit silly, considering stuff will repeatedly fall over and over on a non-slotted ice patch for free, opening up the build to slot tons of other important things.

 

Also for ice/fire/fire do you have an example build I might be able to load up and try? I'd love to get some time with the build if you have one around, sounds cool. The above ^ i really was just musing about fire primary, ice/fire/fire sounds dope and I'd love to give it a go 

Edited August 21 by R jobbus

[Frozen Burn]

5 hours ago, R jobbus said:

 

Well this is interesting, so you can slot bonfire to loop with itself, let me ask, is the % of kd going to happen the same for bonfire and for the ice patch?  I'm not opposed to trying out fire/fire/fire again. I did try this out in the beta server and compared it to fire/ice pretty obsessively, and I concluded that as far as fire primary goes, I just preferred /ice for the easy kd. And because hot feet will randomly make enemies just run all around the map, which can be a good thing and a bad thing. And it also unreliably will make them just completely ignore hot feet as well and just swarm you, instead. the unpredictability of it, and the fact that they were susceptible to kd and me not having the ice patch, kinda made me think for my purposes it wasn't the best idea.

 

but if bonfire has the same kd % as ice patch and can be slotted to loop itself i'm not opposed to giving it a go. I couldve sworn ive seen stuff just run through bonfire even when slotted and just ignore the kd when i felt like they shouldn't .. but that's not really enough evidence. im just genuinely curious. I'm open to fire/fire/fire just I felt like not having an ice patch for fire primary for my specific solo purposes was a bit silly, considering stuff will repeatedly fall over and over on a non-slotted ice patch for free, opening up the build to slot tons of other important things.

 

Also for ice/fire/fire do you have an example build I might be able to load up and try? I'd love to get some time with the build if you have one around, sounds cool. The above ^ i really was just musing about fire primary, ice/fire/fire sounds dope and I'd love to give it a go 

 

For clarification, because you state it a couple times, I'm not saying to do Fire primary... but Ice primary instead.  

 

Regarding Bonfire and the /Fire secondary... I do not know the %proc rate of KD compared to ice slick.  I do know the the radius is larger, so more can be affected.  And yes, some foes can run fast into / through it between proc pulses or get a lucky proc roll and not fall down, BUT.... Your Hot Feet will also slow them down to keep them in the Bonfire longer and thusly increase the chance for being KD'd.  Plus, you have your holds from Ice primary, Ring of Fire from Fire secondary, and/or Char from Fire epic to help keep them in the Bonfire.

 

My build is below. 

• Slotted Bonfire for damage and decent recharge.  The power lasts 45 secs and I have it down to 37s recharge (more could be had, down to 24s max, if you wanted).  
• Hot Feet slotted with Sup Avalanche to get max Acc and Damage and really good End redux + a -Res proc 
• Consume slotted for Damage, not Endmod since Cauterizing Aura gives more end than needed.
• Again, stand in Bonfire with Hot Feet (and -Res proc), Burn, Fire Sword Circle, and Consume - such melty goodness.
• ST attacks rotated in as well, of course, and their inherent slow also stacks with Hot Feet to keep them in the melting zone longer too. 
• I even use Frost breath - I know many people hate it for the animation, but it's AOE damage and it slows as well.  And yes, I'll use a cone in melee to capture a certain slice of the pie I'm in as needed.

 

Then with Ice Primary, again, Blizzard can KD and nuke a second mob, or if you find you're still waiting for Bonfire to recharge, you can stand in the middle of Blizzard and do your PBAOE rotation to quickly dispense the group.  By then, Bonfire is recharged and you can open with that again.  

 

Ice Storm with the KD proc can usually get a couple foes upon casting and couple more 10s later - I'll use this to aggro a 2nd / 3rd group or to drop it on top of me and my Bonfire melting zone.  

 

Frozen Burn - Blaster (Ice Blast - Fire Manipulation).mbd

 

 

Edited August 21 by Frozen Burn

[biostem]

On 8/12/2024 at 9:34 AM, R jobbus said:

do you guys have any blasters that you enjoy soloing hard stuff with

I really like devices on blasters.  Coupled with teleport target/fold space and rune of protection from sorcery as your "Oh shi+!" power, used in conjunction with caltrops, trip mine and remote detonator, not to mention gun drone's inherent taunt, can lead to some fun results!  If you add into that a set with some strong controls, like ice blast, (not to mention its rain powers), and you should be very successful!

[Biff Pow]

Sonic Attack is great for soloing. Put the Minions/Lts to sleep and deal with the Boss.

[R jobbus]

What's the best way to get AVs to not just destroy you on blaster, at +4 soloing them, just stack defense as high as you can or is it kinda a lost cause with this AT? even ranged attacks seems tough

[honoroit]

Best blast? Dual pistols / energy manipulation!

 

Just trust, kupo.

 

 

Everyone will want to be your rival or fanboy!

 

-- Figs senpai 

 

[ShimmerDoll]

Dual pistol/Martial, zero problems. I don't even have the best build.

Edited August 28 by ShimmerDoll

[Ukase]

On 8/12/2024 at 8:34 AM, R jobbus said:

maybe the hold (though I don't really care for it personally, for harder content it doesn't hold anything that isn't dying quickly for very long at all,

So, just a thought on the ice blast hold, Freeze Ray. Freeze Ray doesn't require hold set slotting - you can slot with ranged, or even damage procs. It even does more base damage than ice blast, albeit in a fast DoT. It's a super fast animation, too. What's not to like? 

As for bitter freeze ray, on one build, I have it. On the other two I skip it, because the animation is too long for the damage it provides (and doesn't insta-snipe the way other sets Snipes do, so although it's situationally useful, I can do without it) 

I would consider ice/fire, with an eye towards melee & ranged defense. 

Alternatively - fire/atomic is super nice.  

[WuTang]

Dual Pistols? Really? Isn't Lethal the most resisted damage type in-game?