Build Recs for Energy Blast/Force Field?

[Sage1208]

Tl;dr: New player with a Level 17, almost 18, Energy Blast/Force Field Corruptor looking for build recs please ^^

 

Hey y'all! I'm a new player to Homecoming and was hoping I could get some wisdom from any build-savvy people here 😄 I've been having fun with an Energy Blast/Force Field Corruptor, who is just about to hit Level 18. I've noticed though even as I'm levelling I'm still struggling a bit with damage & survivability where even a small group of enemies at my level or a level above can be intimidating sometimes. I feel like I need to optimize my build a bit, but I'm just not quite sure where to start/what setup might be more viable?

 

I usually play solo, but sometimes I'll group up with a friend on occasion. But why pick Force Field when it's all about defending/buffing others you might be wondering?

 

The choice of Energy Blast/Force Field powersets is purely for the sake of the concept of the character I'm playing (I like to give them little backstories and such ^^). I understand that means there will definitely be hurdles to work around and that I won't be getting a lot out of the power set. However, I'm willing to work with that for the sake of fun/having a character concept I can enjoy 😄 

 

Mostly my powers come from Energy Blast with only the one power from Force Field. However I'm thinking of getting Repulsion Blast and Repulsion Field to keep enemies back. I also have Sorcery for some more damage from Arcane Bolt as well as travel powers in Arcane Flight/Translocation. I also recently got Medicine to get some heals.

 

Below is a list of all the powers I got at the moment. I'd appreciate any help y'all could offer! 😄 Just, nothing like pick a different powerset/delete the character please xD

 

Energy Blast:

• Power Bolt
• Power Blast
• Energy Torrent
• Power Burst
• Sniper Bolt

 

Energy Blast:

• Personal Force Field

 

Pool Powers:

 

Sorcery:

• Arcane Blast
• Mystic Flight

 

Medicine:

• Aid Other
• Aid Self

Edited July 12 by Sage1208

[Psyonico]

Force Field is not a particularly solo friendly set in the low levels, it gets better at 20 for corrs, but even then it’s not amazing solo.

 

dispersion bubble doesn’t keep away foes, but it does give you defense and some mez protection.  The defense it provides is really key for soloing.

 

 You’ll want to look at Force Bomb as well, it does guaranteed knock down and -resist in an AoE, so it helps defensively and offensively.

[MonteCarla]

I wrote a guide on Force Fields here. 

 

 

If you're looking for a kind of flying tank mage experience, I'd go with the following plan:

 

Take most of the Energy Blast powers except Power Push, which is low damage, and Repulsion Bolt is better.

Slot the 4 single targets with Thunderstrike set when you get to level 27. Its cheap-ish and provides +3.75% Ranged defence per set. 

Take Hover and Fly.

Don't bother with Arcane Bolt or anything - that's better for low damage characters like Controllers.

Work on building up ranged defence.

To begin with your main survival tool is knockback, but as you hit your 20s you can start building up Defence to have decent passive survival.

 

1 Power Blast, <- 6 slot for Thunderstrike eventually

1 Personal Force Field <-- for emergencies

2 Power Bolt  <- 6 slot for Thunderstrike eventually

4 Energy Torrent

6 Power Burst  <- 6 slot for Thunderstrike eventually

8 Sniper Shot  <- 6 slot for Thunderstrike eventually

10 Hover                   <- Single def          

12 Fly

14 Repulsion Bolt                 <- does -Res debuff, so you do more damage to target after, and guaranteed KB

16 Deflection Shield   OR   Kick  OR Aid Self

18 Insulation Shield    OR Tough  <- takes 2 unique IOs that add +6% defence to all together. OR Aid Other

20 Dispersion Bubble  <- slot 1 end redux, 3 def

22 Explosive Blast

24  Weave if you took fighting? Manouvers?

26 Nova

28 Force Bomb                  <- does -Res so you do more damage, and knocks enemies over

 

Your defence will be 12% from slotted Dispersion, 3% from Hover and +15% Ranged Def from the four Thunderstrike sets in your blasts. so 30% Ranged Defence.
Enemy chance to Hit is 50%-Defence, so you're now only getting hit 20% of the time! Eat a small purple luck and you're scraping the 45% Defence cap against Ranged attacks.

 

Level 16 and 18 - If you intend to NEVER team up, skip the Deflection and Insulation Shield. If you do team without these, expect some big disappointment from teammates though.

Or for purely solo, start digging into the Fighting pool to get some extra Def via the Steadfast Protection and Gladiators Armor unique enhancements. (These will cost about 4 million and 8 million, so only do this if you can afford that) Or take Aid Other to get Aid Self, which works nicely with Personal Force Field.

 

Slotting priorities are your attacks and Dispersion Bubble

 

Hope that helps! 🙂

Edited July 13 by MonteCarla

[Doc Spectre]

I’m wondering if the character concept requires the Force Field power set because of the name?

The Force Field poweset is more heavily focused on the teaming side of the game and I think if you want the get the most out of the build I would suggest joining Taskforces in your level range.

If you do the I would recommend putting a Sudden Acceleration knock back to knock down Invention Origin enhancement in your Area of Effect attacks because blasting enemy groups in five different directions at once tends to get annoying fast for melee focused teammates.

 

If your plan is to mostly solo then I suggest you may want to give an Energy Blast/Energy Aura Sentinel alt character a try.

 

Either way I also recommend dropping the sorcery pool in favour of getting Hover and Flying. With Hover you can use it in missions to keep melee foes out of you face and also it enables you  little bit more control over knock back direction with positioning (like into the floor ).

[The_Traveler]

i would second/third a lot of this info, and add a couple notes.

 

• Repulsion field is AMAZING at keeping mobs away from you, except in large quantities.  The end drain can be hard to manage, but if you are hover blasting and expect to only be knocking back a couple mobs (flyers), OR staying in the back field and protecting the ranged players... *chefs kiss*.  this leaves the meleers without your +Def toggle buff (although many dont need it anyway).  DO NOT USE SOLO 😃  Hover blasting and ranged/aoe  defense is plenty in the solo case
• Sorcery is good, but!  you should be trying to cap defense asap as a bubbler (thats your strength, lean into it til cap instead of trying to layer early).  even if you still end up taking sorcery, id suggest the +defense pool powers earlier, especially if you solo (consider fighting pool instead of sorcery if you solo)
• KB of energy pool is the real deal, and while most people hate it on teams (and you should slot the SA-KB>KD IO in the AOEs) this is a non issue solo.  kd/kb is EXCELLENT soft control!  EVERY player would want it in all their powers if they were solo. so its playstyle thing.  you can bring dmg and CC to a team with KB>KD, or leave the KB and solo, or leave the KB and team and just whatever any hate 🤣
• The truth is... FF is a team buffing set, not exactly a solo set.  you do get a defense buff, but so does time and dark, but they also have the ability to heal themselves and debuff targets, which puts them far ahead of FF for solo potential.  when compared to other sets, FF will feel lacking.
• Since this is a concept character and it sounds like you want to push through these hurdles... Personal Force field is a GREAT way to "take" the alpha strike(the initial attack from first engaging a group).  toggle it on, and aggro the mobs.  since you have capped defense and almost capped resist any dmg you do take will be minor unless you are EXTREMELY unlucky.  then you can drop the PFF toggle and get to work as they mobs need to cycle their cooldowns.  or smash with AOE kb, pop PFF for the return fire, drop and clean up.  PFF is really good and not just an emergency button.  PFF is so good at eating alphas it even works GREAT on teams even if they have a tanker/brute (just maybe let them know what you are doing)