Looking to upgrade my AT

[StompyOne]

I'm seeking suggestions from the Blaster vets out there.

 

I admit it, I used to have a bias against Blasters on Live. I could never get them where I wanted with regards to soloing. I know things are different now, but when I came Home I still avoided them. I've been playing a lot of melee, along with Sentinels and Corruptors and the like. And while they're durable, I go numb sometimes with all the setup, and slow grind of gumming their food to death. Sometimes I just like to kill things to death and move on to the next customers in line! It's time to play the AT that put the DAM! in damage.

 

However, I know myself well enough that I know I will screw up a glass cannon. I've gotten too comfy with my tanks, sents and CC toons. I will absolutely murder myself trying to play something too far out on the edge. So it needs to be somewhat tanky/forgiving while I get used to the AT. 

 

I do mostly soloing because of frequent RL disruptions, so it needs to be self contained. I like to do TFs when time permits, so it needs to Exemplar well. Conceptually, I'm tentatively leaning magical, ice primary, hover blasting.  Beyond that, I'm open to anything that works well. If it matters, money and accolade grinding is not a particular concern.

 

Suggestions?  Thanks in advance!

Edited yesterday at 02:32 PM by StompyOne
Typos

[Six-Six]

Hover-Blasting is a good way to get your feet wet, especially if you're coming from an armoured AT. A blaster might feel naked. But once you get used to it, you'll realise that def and res are over rated when you can murder your way through a mob. I myself learned the game through a Sentinel, and it took me a while to gather the nerve to try a blaster.

Flight gives you an automatic anti-melee def. You can concentrate your little def and res opportunities on ranged def/res. You'll need to get into the habit of chasing set bonuses. Incidentally, ranged def/res will also prevent mez, because that's how mez gets to you. of course, a tray of purple skittles is a nice thing to have in case mez gets through.

Once you get the hang of the different play style of Blasters, you should feel comfortable dishing out pain up close and personal. A lot of Blaster secondaries will have some sort of soft control powers like immobilise and holds... even KB can be treated as a soft control -- knocking back one foe renders it unable to attack while you pound on another.

Blasters are quite capable solo, in fact my first successful hardcore permadeath toon was a blaster. As for powers and power combinations, it's totally up to what floats your goat. I personally make my choices based on toon concept and power animations. That said, I've never met a blaster I didn't like. One of my all time favourites is Dual Pistol/Ninja Training.
Just pick one... or better yet, pick them all. the important thing is enjoy. 

 

[Xandyr]

7 hours ago, StompyOne said:

 I just like to kill things to death

I love this.

[MonteCarla]

Pick a primary that has some built-in self-defence.
I'd highly recommend Energy Blast because of the knockback that's baked into it all attacks. You get this for free, no extra animation time or endurance cost or anything, as you blast.

Otherwise, pick a primary with a hold at least so you can use a bit of active defence against troublesome enemies.

 

You only need to survive the current fight - your sustain power at level 20 will typically fix you up between groups as you solo.

 

Building for Ranged Defence:
- Thunderstrike set is cheap and wonderful for single target attacks.

- Artillery is a cheap and good set for Ranged AOE attacks.
- The Steadfast and Gladiator's Armor uniques are worth getting. You can take Fighting and slot them in Tough, or wait until your Epic Armor. /Sonic Manipulation, /Ninja Training and /Plant Manipulation have sustains at level 20 that can take Resistance IOs. /Time could slot these at 30 in Time Lord.
- All six Gaussian's in Build Up or Aim 

- Blaster's Wrath is a good expensive set for a big +Ranged Def bonus

  

Mez Protection
- Defiant Barrage: Chance for Status Protection in one of your Tier 1 or 2 attacks

- Inner Will in Martial Combat can be used like a Break Free

- The P2W Defence bonus adds +5% Defence and Mag 4 Mez Protection. If you can afford this, use it!

[Shocktacular]

I always had trouble with Blasters because they always felt too squishy to me.  However, in my determination to get one of every AT to 50, I rolled various combos in the hope that something would click.  Then I saw another player's DP/Martial Blaster and decided to try it (he was herding mobs and playing mostly in melee, so it looked reasonably sturdy).  I'm so glad I did!  It's a great combo.  DP is very versatile with the Swap Ammo power, which also lends itself to some interesting proc opportunities, like being able to put Slow sets pretty much anywhere (another thing I did was put the Lockdown: chance for +2 mag hold in Suppressive Fire along with the Chance for Hold from the Devastation ranged set, so now it's a decently reliable hold power whether I have cryo ammo equipped or not).  I really like Martial because Burst of Speed lets you get into and out of melee quickly, Reaction Time slows incoming meleeists down so they don't just run up and gank you, and Ki Push is very useful for getting the few that DO get to you back out of melee range (plus it's friggin' HILARIOUS to use. I call it "super yeet").  Putting the Defiant Barrage status protection proc in one of the two first ranged powers helps prevent/escape mez and even if that doesn't work, Inner Will is a good "get out of mez free" power, plus an emergency heal.  Overall, I highly recommend it.