Beam Rifle: Boring as &*$%£?

[Scarlet Shocker]

I have been playing a Beam Rifle/Traps over some weekends, regularly teaming with a buddy. The character is actually surprisingly competent but BR is boring my tits off. I mean it's just so unprepossessing. It works, it kills uh... defeats enemies reasonably well  and it doesn't seem to be an end hog.

 

It sounds fucking annoying, but that's about it's worst aspect but it's boring. It isn't exciting it doesn't give you me a sense of accomplishment and it doesn't seem to have a massive impact on enemies but they do seem to fall down.

 

It could be that it's paling into insignificance next to Traps and the teamage going on (my buddy is a Merc/Traps MM - I'll let him chime in on this if he wants to) and we are finding ways to set up and pull and watch those hapless NPCs fall into our traps and cease to be, shuffling off this pixelated coil in short order. So BR doesn't get to work out so much but...

 

the more I think about it that annoying left to right arc seems lacklustre, and the ST attacks, whilst competent, aren't exactly setting the world (or anything else for that matter) on fire.

 

Am I alone in feeling this way? It's not a bad set per se, it's just incredibly boring to me and that lack of pizazz is affecting how I feel about this character which in all other ways seems to be pretty good. He's early 30s yet but I fear he may not make it much past 40 before he gets consigned to the sin bin where all dull toons must go to.

[Lunar Ronin]

Beam Rifle is one of my favorite power sets, but it's not for everyone.  It's one of the worst power sets for AoE damage, but also one of the best for single target damage.  Its specialty is in taking down bosses and above.  There's a reason why most of the Really Hard Way badge runs back on live were mostly comprised of Beam Rifle Corruptors.

 

As for the sounds, yeah I don't care for those either, but they can be easily modded.  I use the Beam Rifle Movie SFX mod.  It sounds pretty good.

[Maelwys]

1 hour ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

I have been playing a Beam Rifle/Traps over some weekends
...

It's not a bad set per se, it's just incredibly boring to me and that lack of pizazz is affecting how I feel about this character which in all other ways seems to be pretty good. He's early 30s yet but I fear he may not make it much past 40 before he gets consigned to the sin bin where all dull toons must go to.

Beam Rifle is actually one of the better sets mechanically speaking. It has a very solid Single Target attack chain with both -res and -regen; and it has a ranged Nuke with the ability to set up -res first (via Cutting Beam with Achilles' Heel and Annihilation Procs).
However its animations can definitely be a bit bland though since the gun is doing all the work. And apart from Overcharge its AoE damage isn't anything to write home about unless you're a Sentinel (which get Refractor Beam instead of Penetrating Ray - and despite its description it isn't really a "chain"!)

At least on a /Traps you can Toebomb Trip Mines I guess... and Epic Pools will open up stuff like procbombed Thunderstrike.

[Go0gleplex]

Have a red side Beam Rifle/Elec Armor Sentinel I've solo'd to just ding 40 and while the set isn't overly flashy, as others have noted, it is very solid damage and attack speed-wise. Taken out AVs and red bosses quite handily.  One of my favorite toons. 

[Uun]

I've got a Cold/Beam defender I quite enjoy. It shreds hard targets. While I share your dislike of the SFX, there are several mods available. In actual play, I found BR became more interesting once I learned how Disintegration interacted with the other powers in the set. For example, while just about all the powers get bonus damage when used on Disintegrating targets, Lancer Shot and Penetrating Ray (in slow mode) also have a 100% chance of spreading Disintegration when used on Disintegrating targets. 

[MTeague]

I've never gotten a Beam Rifle character past lvl 8 before I say "meh" and delete them.

Not everything is everyone's cup of tea, and BR is not mine.

 

But if it was just the left-to-right arc that was disappointing, maybe we could get a right-to-left alternate animation...?  Ok, I'll show myself out....

Edited Monday at 02:56 PM by MTeague

[Snarky]

I used one a hundred? Times in incarnate trials as ranged dps.  It does a job 

 

 

pick something you like

[Scarlet Shocker]

6 hours ago, Snarky said:

I used one a hundred? Times in incarnate trials as ranged dps.  It does a job 

 

 

pick something you like

 

I didn't know I didn't like it til I tried it did I?

[KaizenSoze]

10 minutes ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

 

I didn't know I didn't like it til I tried it did I?

 I have a Trick Arrow/Beam Rifle Defense. Very effective, lots of -resists, just like you though it's boring.

 

You can mod the sounds. But it's a lot of just standing in place pressing the same 3-4 buttons.

 

Before anyone says it, no a lot of other sets are not anywhere as stationary.

[TheMoneyMaker]

I like that Beam Rifle is boring. It's a nice alternative to the ridiculous over the top animations of dual pistols.

 

Pull out gun, aim gun, blast baddies. One doesn't need to spin around, do somersaults, or otherwise be super-action-oriented when you have a gun......save that nonsense for super reflexes.

[PartyKake]

oh dual pistols is wild. 

When DP came out, I created a character to use it and gave her an awesome costume, and that just happened to be the first person I used ninja run on...

and those three together were absolute joy.

 

And let me tell you, a defender with dual pistols and dark miasma is absolutely awful at dps. I got wrecked all. the. time.

(I am poor and have no invention thingies on my characters, so no set bonuses)

 

Those animations go a LONG way.

 

Beam rifle, though, is just point and shoot and synth fart noises.

BVVVVVRRRRTT.

[Clave Dark 5]

My firs 50 on HC was a Beam Corr.  The utmost boring set of all the ones I've tried so far is Kin.  Yes yes, attack number go up and we rush around faster and recharge like mad, but playing it?  So boring.

[High_Beam]

I have a Beam/Rad Sentinel at 50.  Solid but yes boring.

[Paradox Fate]

There's also the weird sound lag on Cutting Beam, where the effect on the enemies is coming several seconds later after you used it.

 

Otherwise Disintegrate requires a bit to ramp up and spread across enemies, though that is often not possible due to the rapid killing speed in teams.