The Case for AR/ENERGY (Build and Play)

[Sarkany]

Hello, friends! I've been a Paragon City citizen since the original beta, if you can believe it. Throughout my 20+ years (!) of playing this thing, the one powerset I always return to is Assault Rifle. Man, it just feels good to blast foes onto their backs with a giant swiss army knife gun. 

 

Over those years, I've experimented with every secondary option for AR blasters. I have long believed that Energy is the best possible secondary for AR (sorry, Devices fans) and with Homecomings new archetype specific enhancer sets and some upgrades to powers, I just respec'd my blaster build, fully slotted him out and ran some testing with the results. 

 

In short: this blaster can clear S/L farms at 8/+4 with low risk in 17 minutes. As good as a fire tank in a fire farm? No. But the fact that the build can achieve this so handily while not being specialized in farming and being a blaster, is interesting. The build brings soft capped defenses (ALL) 75% of the time (using power boost... doesn't rely on incarnates for this), soft capped ranged defense 100% of the time, 74% s/l resist, a static 220% damage bonus from sets, a personal force field allowing him to escape/avoid sticky situations, extended cone attacks (boost range), and a ton of mobility with some juiced up hover and fly speed.

 

The SL farm performance is particularly interesting because it showcases the fun "scoot and shoot" playstyle this build relies on. With a tad of slotting, hover let's you:

-Boost Range, Build Up, Power Boost

-Flame throw at a much safer distance

-Ignite

Move Back

-Full Auto

 

The only survivors are +4 Bosses and Elite bosses which you can now easily finish off with Slug, Total Focus and Sniper Rifle while moving around to avoid much of their melee attacks

 

It's an incredibly fun play style that is highly interactive and requires you to judge distance and constantly move around the battlefield to set up cone attacks and avoid getting mobbed. I find this so much more engaging than jumping my scrapper into the middle of a pack and just hitting things from one spot and, because of the aforementioned defenses (both all around defense and resistances) which rival less wealthy SR scrappers, the build is highly forgivable, especially when one includes the Rebirth destiny incarnate healing and regen power.

 

Defenses:

With power boost at a 19 sec recharge, the build is at ranged softcap almost always and with just shy of 500% regen (energize boosts regen!) with both the Panacea and Power Transfer procs (+ to heal), the build regains health rapidly. If you run into real trouble, you can hit personal force field for 10 seconds and regen 20% of health. Further, it provides softcapped S/L resist.

 

The one drawback is the one AR has always faced: most damage is lethal, aside from flamethrower and the energy component of total focus. I need to test how soloing an AV would work (EDIT: TESTED ON ITF! WORKED WELL!)

 

Throw in Clarion to ensure Mez defenses and the Archmage accolade for the toughest enounters and welcome to death incarnate

 

This build makes up for all of the faceplanting I've done as an overzealous blaster over the years. Wait for the tank? Ha! Not any more!

 

Build:

 

 

 

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HK 99 Ignite MOD 3- Blaster (Assault Rifle - Energy Manipulation).mbd

Edited May 16 by Sarkany

[Uncle Shags]

I've got 2 ARs.  They're fun.  I like the idea of range boosted cones. 

 

You don't like Ignite? 

 

Recently I became disgruntled when I realized the target cap for Full Auto is 10.  What a load of crap... 

[Sarkany]

On 3/19/2025 at 6:23 PM, Uncle Shags said:

I've got 2 ARs.  They're fun.  I like the idea of range boosted cones. 

 

You don't like Ignite? 

 

Recently I became disgruntled when I realized the target cap for Full Auto is 10.  What a load of crap... 

 

REVISED! I was going off of a way way old ignite experience.

 

Agree it's a must have! I soloed the ITF with this build after adding ignite

 

 

 

Edited April 29 by Sarkany

[WuTang]

I like it! Thanks for sharing!

[Hatchet_Manners]

On 3/19/2025 at 7:28 PM, Sarkany said:

Man, ignite doesn't really fit into the shoot and scoot playstyle. This build is meant for high tempo play:
Move-Gun Down Mobs-Move-Gun-Move

 

The surviving bad guys aren't going to sit nicely in one spot for you unless you have a tank/brute/scrapper with you. 

 

This build can probably solo entire TFs... although I stress again that I have some concerns about the AVs. I'd probably need to drop the difficult to 8/+2 to manage the AVs in a reasonable amount of time

 

I will say that waaaaaay back in the day, on the original game, I did build an AR/Ice blaster to combine ignite with ice patch. It was amusing.

 

 

Ignite sticks to the target of the attack. No need for him to sit in the burn patch. It's very powerful and perfect for tough bosses.

 

AR is one of my favorite sets too. There's a few secondaries I wouldn't use it with (like dark and mental), but otherwise they're all good. 

 

I suggest to slot FFback in m30 and buckshot, and I slot KB to kd in m30.

Edited March 21 by Hatchet_Manners

[Sarkany]

On 3/21/2025 at 2:31 PM, Hatchet_Manners said:

Ignite sticks to the target of the attack. No need for him to sit in the burn patch. It's very powerful and perfect for tough bosses.

 

AR is one of my favorite sets too. There's a few secondaries I wouldn't use it with (like dark and mental), but otherwise they're all good. 

 

I suggest to slot FFback in m30 and buckshot, and I slot KB to kd in m30.

HEARD! Yes I revised the build awhile ago based on the ignite feedback. Please see new build above. Total beast mode with it. I was going off of a bad ignite experience from 2004 or something.

[Octogoat]

On 3/19/2025 at 5:57 PM, Sarkany said:

Hello, friends! I've been a Paragon City citizen since the original beta, if you can believe it. Throughout my 20+ years (!) of playing this thing, the one powerset I always return to is Assault Rifle. Man, it just feels good to blast foes onto their backs with a giant swiss army knife gun. 

 

Over those years, I've experimented with every secondary option for AR blasters. I have long believed that Energy is the best possible secondary for AR (sorry, Devices fans) and with Homecomings new archetype specific enhancer sets and some upgrades to powers, I just respec'd my blaster build, fully slotted him out and ran some testing with the results. 

 

In short: this blaster can clear S/L farms at 8/+4 with low risk in 17 minutes. As good as a fire tank in a fire farm? No. But the fact that the build can achieve this so handily while not being specialized in farming and being a blaster, is interesting. The build brings soft capped defenses (ALL) 75% of the time (using power boost... doesn't rely on incarnates for this), soft capped ranged defense 100% of the time, 74% s/l resist, a static 220% damage bonus from sets, a personal force field allowing him to escape/avoid sticky situations, extended cone attacks (boost range), and a ton of mobility with some juiced up hover and fly speed.

 

The SL farm performance is particularly interesting because it showcases the fun "scoot and shoot" playstyle this build relies on. With a tad of slotting, hover let's you:

-Boost Range, Build Up, Power Boost

-Flame throw at a much safer distance

-Ignite

Move Back

-Full Auto

 

The only survivors are +4 Bosses and Elite bosses which you can now easily finish off with Slug, Total Focus and Sniper Rifle while moving around to avoid much of their melee attacks

 

It's an incredibly fun play style that is highly interactive and requires you to judge distance and constantly move around the battlefield to set up cone attacks and avoid getting mobbed. I find this so much more engaging than jumping my scrapper into the middle of a pack and just hitting things from one spot and, because of the aforementioned defenses (both all around defense and resistances) which rival less wealthy SR scrappers, the build is highly forgivable, especially when one includes the Rebirth destiny incarnate healing and regen power.

 

Defenses:

With power boost at a 19 sec recharge, the build is at ranged softcap almost always and with just shy of 500% regen with both the Panacea and Power Transfer procs (+ to heal), the build regains health rapidly. If you run into real trouble, you can hit personal force field for 10 seconds and regen 20% of health. 

 

The one drawback is the one AR has always faced: most damage is lethal, aside from flamethrower and the energy component of total focus. I need to test how soloing an AV would work, but I imagine it will be a tad slow. 

 

This build makes up for all of the faceplanting I've done as an overzealous blaster over the years. Wait for the tank? Ha! Not any more!

 

Build:

 

 

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Hi I can't get the data chunk to import to mids do you have a mids file handy please?

[Sarkany]

8 hours ago, Octogoat said:

Hi I can't get the data chunk to import to mids do you have a mids file handy please?

I do!

 

AND I have a revised build that adds in ignite. It can solo an ITF and runs +3 s/l farms like a beast 

 

I’ll post in a few hours 

[Sarkany]

11 hours ago, Octogoat said:

Hi I can't get the data chunk to import to mids do you have a mids file handy please?

POSTED in OP! Added saved file. 

 

 

[Octogoat]

9 hours ago, Sarkany said:

POSTED in OP! Added saved file. 

 

 

Thanks! Impervium eagle can now rain terror town from above

[Sarkany]

On 5/16/2025 at 8:05 AM, Octogoat said:

Thanks! Impervium eagle can now rain terror town from above

Love it! Don’t forget laterally too! So much of the fun of this is lining up those fast recharging cones!