Avoiding stat jackery.

[DocRadio]

I'd played COH for years before the shut down. And mostly I played ranged classes. But not always. I had Scrappers, Tanks, Brutes, and at least one stalker. Night and day comparison and not because of the mode of combat. But because the melee classes could basically ignore status effects while my other builds had to pack breakfrees or be in constant fear of a dirtnap. Imagine my surprise upon my return when some blaster secondaries now contain little gems like inner will, and accelerated metabolism that afford some resistance. Not to mention what can be attained in certain IO Sets. Problem is when I'm looking to build for mez resistance the planner doesn't mention magnitude. Just percentile. Looks to me that mag 5 or higher resistance is the goal, but I have no idea what percentage that equates to. Anyone got a build guide that could help with planning out an enhancement plan for a blaster who can dance on mezzer's graves while shrugging of the many annoying effects found in the mid to late game? And yeah I already know about acrobatics and combat jumping. They're great against knockback, immobiles and holds, but stuns and sleeps are still there to ruin your fun.

[Vanden]

Status Protection (which is where Mag comes in) and Status Resistance are different. Protection prevents the status from affecting you; resistance only reduces its duration on you. In a nutshell, you can't build for Protection, only resistance.

[DocRadio]

Yeah... I was afraid of that.

 

It's probably still worth building for resistance because at least you'll be drooling like an idiot for a shortened period of time...

[Hjarki]

It's probably still worth building for resistance because at least you'll be drooling like an idiot for a shortened period of time...

 

Defiance means you're not 'drooling like an idiot' but can still function fairly effectively. The major issue for Blasters is defensive in nature - getting held in the middle of a pack where they can beat you senseless is why status protection is necessary. Slightly cutting down the time where an entire army can pound away on your minimal melee defense doesn't help you all that much.

 

If you're worried about status effects on a "squishies", Hover + high ranged def is the almost unbeatable solution. This is especially true of Blasters, most of whom can ground fliers even while stunned.

[Novacat]

There's a few exceptions, mostly in the form of a single mez type in some of the secondaries.

But, for the most part? You remember what the devs thought we deserved compared to those dealing only slightly less damage with numerous times the survivability, to the point where folks used to jokeforesee that the day Blasters got any love was the day the game died.

 

On that note:

Knockback: being in flight reduces the duration, but there's also plenty of magnitude for it in the IO sets. Tactical Arrow's Gymnastics also packs a lot.

Immobilize: Not that we really care much but Combat Jumping gives a ton.

Confusion: To my knowledge, Plants has 7+ mag against this.

Fear: Kujin-Toh from Ninja Training. A bit over 8 magnitude.

Holds: Mag 2 in Acrobatics

Stun: Time Lord (the level 38 Temporal Manip) gives you just under 3 magnitude of it - going to just a bit over 3 while under the Accelerated effect.

 

All: Rune of Protection in Sorcery. Clarion Destinies. They're not permanent but they're quite strong

All Proc: Defiant Barrage Global: Mag 1. Do put it somewhere you can use WHILE mezzed.

 

Special Mention: Iron Will in Martial Combat will zero out whatever mezzes you've got on when you pop it.

 

This leaves us of course with your final Mez Protection: Slotting up your starters. You may only have two (the T1 secondary and one of the two starter blasts) of the three, but when you're mezzed they're all you have. And they will regularly save your life.

[DocRadio]

Not a big fan of trying to rely on hover as a defensive tactic. I like to stay fairly mobile and that's a problem in many areas that have low ceilings. It probably would make more sense to plan on slotting for defense to the degree that I can and abandoning the idea of building for status resistance. Or hell.... just slotting for max damage. Dead mobs don't mez. I do plan on taking the leaping pool for combat jump and acrobatics.

[Novacat]

Well you should be taking your damage into the yellow at least before your alpha-slot (which will send it clean into the red with the ED-vulnerable portion of its enhancement) for sure. A bit of resistance ain't bad though, as a shorter duration does mean those stacks run out faster. Hover helps with knockback and offers a bit of defense, but it's not like you can't get a decent amount of knockback from IOs.

 

The most important thing is, as you say, dead things aren't a threat no more. You WILL be mezzed once in a while, you're not a <insert basically any other AT here> but if it misses, it don't mez, and if it's dead, it don't mez more. A good opener wiping those minions out before they can toss in a stack will greatly diminish your worries in the first place.

 

And from THAT point of view, your greatest Mez Protection is Build-Up.

[Tremalion]

Yeah, my favorite status protection is Build Up w/ Gaussian proc -> crashless Nova on a 30s cooldown.