Water Blast/Ice Manipulation Blaster -- feedback requested

[Dazzer]

I just finished a high end blaster build. Some of the goals (which this  build meets) are:

• perma hasten
• capped defense S/L >= 45
• decent endurance recovery
• high damage, but willing to sacrifice some damage procs for faster casting
• water/ice theme

 

 

Any constructive criticism is appreciated before I try it out.

Stats Image
 

 

# **Hero Blaster**

### *Build plan made with Mids Reborn v3.7.11 rev. 2*


----

- **Primary powerset: Water Blast**
- **Secondary powerset: Ice Manipulation**
- **Pool powerset (#1): Leaping**
- **Pool powerset (#2): Leadership**
- **Pool powerset (#3): Fighting**
- **Pool powerset (#4): Speed**
- **Epic powerset: Ice Mastery**



----


# **Powers taken:**


**Level 1: Hydro Blast**
- A: Superior Defiant Barrage: Accuracy/Damage
- 3: Superior Defiant Barrage: Damage/RechargeTime
- 3: Superior Defiant Barrage: Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime
- 5: Superior Defiant Barrage: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
- 5: Superior Defiant Barrage: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance


**Level 1: Chilblain**
- A: Enfeebled Operation: Accuracy/Recharge
- 7: Enfeebled Operation: Endurance/Immobilize
- 7: Enfeebled Operation: Accuracy/Immobilize/Recharge
- 9: Enfeebled Operation: Accuracy/Immobilize
- 9: Enfeebled Operation: Immobilize/Range


**Level 2: Water Burst**
- A: Ragnarok: Damage
- 15: Ragnarok: Damage/Recharge
- 15: Ragnarok: Damage/Recharge/Accuracy
- 17: Ragnarok: Damage/Endurance
- 17: Ragnarok: Recharge/Accuracy


**Level 4: Combat Jumping**
- A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
- 19: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Endurance
- 19: Launch: Jumping
- 21: Launch: Jumping / Increased Jump Height
- 21: Launch: Endurance/Jumping
- 50: Karma: Knockback Protection


**Level 6: Whirlpool**
- A: Positron's Blast: Chance of Damage(Energy)
- 23: Positron's Blast: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- 23: Positron's Blast: Damage/Range
- 25: Positron's Blast: Damage/Endurance
- 25: Positron's Blast: Damage/Recharge


**Level 8: Super Jump**
- A: Launch: Jumping
- 27: Launch: Endurance/Jumping
- 27: Blessing of the Zephyr: Knockback Reduction (4 points)


**Level 10: Hasten**
- A: Invention: Recharge Reduction
- 29: Invention: Recharge Reduction
- 29: Invention: Recharge Reduction


**Level 12: Dehydrate**
- A: Decimation: Damage/Endurance
- 31: Decimation: Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
- 31: Decimation: Damage/Recharge
- 31: Decimation: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- 33: Decimation: Accuracy/Damage


**Level 14: Assault**
- A: Invention: Endurance Reduction


**Level 16: Build Up**
- A: Rectified Reticle: To Hit Buff/Recharge
- 33: Rectified Reticle: Increased Perception


**Level 18: Water Jet**
- A: Apocalypse: Chance of Damage(Negative)
- 33: Apocalypse: Damage
- 34: Apocalypse: Damage/Endurance
- 34: Apocalypse: Recharge/Accuracy
- 34: Apocalypse: Damage/Recharge/Accuracy


**Level 20: Ice Patch**
- A: Invention: Recharge Reduction


**Level 22: Frigid Protection**
- A: Invention: Endurance Modification
- 36: Invention: Endurance Modification
- 36: Preventive Medicine: Chance for +Absorb
- 50: Theft of Essence: Chance for +Endurance


**Level 24: Maneuvers**
- A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
- 36: Red Fortune: Defense
- 37: Red Fortune: Defense/Endurance
- 37: Red Fortune: Defense/Recharge
- 37: Red Fortune: Endurance
- 39: Red Fortune: Defense/Endurance/Recharge


**Level 26: Geyser**
- A: Superior Blaster's Wrath: Accuracy/Damage
- 39: Superior Blaster's Wrath: Recharge/Chance for Fire Damage
- 39: Superior Blaster's Wrath: Damage/Recharge
- 40: Superior Blaster's Wrath: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- 40: Superior Blaster's Wrath: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance


**Level 28: Freezing Touch**
- A: Superior Blistering Cold: Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime
- 40: Superior Blistering Cold: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- 42: Superior Blistering Cold: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- 42: Superior Blistering Cold: Damage/Endurance
- 42: Superior Blistering Cold: Accuracy/Damage


**Level 30: Boxing**
- (Empty)


**Level 32: Tough**
- A: Steadfast Protection: Knockback Protection
- 43: Steadfast Protection: Resistance/+Def 3%
- 43: Gladiator's Armor: TP Protection +3% Def (All)


**Level 35: Snow Storm**
- A: Pacing of the Turtle: Range/Slow


**Level 38: Weave**
- A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
- 43: Red Fortune: Defense/Endurance
- 45: Red Fortune: Endurance
- 45: Red Fortune: Endurance/Recharge
- 45: Red Fortune: Defense/Endurance/Recharge
- 46: Red Fortune: Defense


**Level 41: Frozen Armor**
- A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
- 46: Red Fortune: Defense/Endurance
- 46: Red Fortune: Endurance
- 48: Red Fortune: Defense
- 48: Red Fortune: Endurance/Recharge
- 48: Red Fortune: Defense/Endurance/Recharge


**Level 44: Tidal Forces**
- A: Rectified Reticle: To Hit Buff
- 50: Rectified Reticle: To Hit Buff/Recharge


**Level 47: Tactics**
- A: Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control: Chance for Build Up


**Level 49: Vengeance**
- A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed




----


# **Inherents:**


**Level 1: Defiance**


**Level 1: Brawl**
- (Empty)


**Level 1: Sprint**
- A: Unbounded Leap: +Stealth


**Level 2: Rest**
- A: Invention: Healing


**Level 1: Swift**
- A: Invention: Flight Speed


**Level 1: Hurdle**
- A: Invention: Jumping


**Level 1: Health**
- A: Panacea: +Hit Points/Endurance
- 11: Numina's Convalesence: +Regeneration/+Recovery
- 11: Miracle: +Recovery


**Level 1: Stamina**
- A: Power Transfer: Chance to Heal Self
- 13: Performance Shifter: Chance for +End
- 13: Performance Shifter: EndMod


**Level 1: Combo Level 1**


**Level 1: Combo Level 2**


**Level 1: Combo Level 3**


**Level 8: Double Jump**




 

 

Blaster (Water Blast - Ice Manipulation).mbd

Edited October 7 by Dazzer
Moved from Hover to Combat Jumping, improved endurance recovery, improved KB reduction, Frigid Protection and Tactics

[Nemu]

Why do you build for S/L defense when your game plan is to obviously stay at range, since you skipped pretty much all the melee stuff?

[tidge]

Even though IOs scale down with level, I don't think there is much of a reason to have three slots in Hasten. My own experience with Blasters has been that I typically do not need the Numina +Regen/+Recovery piece.... of course, I rarely bother with Hasten, so perhaps for your build it makes a difference. The build looks like it is chasing perma-Hasten just to chase perma-Hasten. If you end up playing it, I suggest you run some solo content without Hasten just to see if it feels like it makes a difference or not.

 

I'd take Tidal Forces before Build Up. On my Water Blast I usually end up with two of the "Build Ups", but Tidal Forces is always first.

[Dazzer]

6 hours ago, Nemu said:

Why do you build for S/L defense when your game plan is to obviously stay at range, since you skipped pretty much all the melee stuff?

When doing very hard content (especially solo) one will always have some melee. Also, you can cast range attacks in melee range but you can't use melee attacks at range, so I almost always tend to focus on ranged attacks unless it's a melee focused build even if the activation times are a bit slower.

Edited October 7 by Dazzer

[Dazzer]

6 hours ago, tidge said:

Even though IOs scale down with level, I don't think there is much of a reason to have three slots in Hasten. My own experience with Blasters has been that I typically do not need the Numina +Regen/+Recovery piece.... of course, I rarely bother with Hasten, so perhaps for your build it makes a difference. The build looks like it is chasing perma-Hasten just to chase perma-Hasten. If you end up playing it, I suggest you run some solo content without Hasten just to see if it feels like it makes a difference or not.

 

I'd take Tidal Forces before Build Up. On my Water Blast I usually end up with two of the "Build Ups", but Tidal Forces is always first.

3 slots are needed in hasten or it is no longer perma hasten, although removing it only adds a 5s gap to hasten which is probably ok. I love perma hasten. Geyser is the best damage ability. It is about 35s recast with perma hasten and would be in the 50-60s range with normal amounts of haste, that is a big win in my opinion. Also, with enough haste, I might be able to get rid of a single target power and slot something else or use the slots elsewhere, need to actually test that out though. Once you have a character or two with capped defense and perma-hasten it's really hard to go back...

Ah, I didn't see that tidal forces granted tidal power, I slotted the power that way because Build Up is 100% damage bonus vs 30% damage bonus of Tidal Forces. I'll swap them, thanks for the input.

Edited October 7 by Dazzer

[Dazzer]

Here is an updated version where I moved Tidal Forces up and added 2 resistance debuff procs.

Blaster (Water Blast - Ice Manipulation).mbd

[Nemu]

4 hours ago, Dazzer said:

When doing very hard content (especially solo) one will always have some melee

You as a human can dictate the flow of the fight by moving, whereas the mobs have but one choice to come after you. S/L is also no longer the catch all it used to be after the damage type revamp. Now mixed damage type attacks will check against only the highest damage type for that attack. Also, based on your statement of using ranged attacks in melee and that melee is an inevitability, why not take more melee attacks? At least frozen aura allows you to slot Armageddon if you really wanted to chase all the recharge.

My first post there highlights my thoughts on why range defense is more important even on melee focused blaster builds

 

Nowadays experienced builders don't chase perma-hasten just for the sake of perma-hasten. Liberal use of the force feedback proc can also help you achieve perma-hasten without over-investing in recharge bonuses. Honestly if hasten is a few seconds off perma it's OK, you are investing A LOT into getting those final few seconds covered via set bonuses and there are better ROI for those slots elsewhere.

 

If high recharge is a goal, then there are opportunities to proc out a few attacks to get more damage out of them, since most high recharge builds will have a good amount of +recharge and +acc set bonuses which are per-requisites for proc monster powers like freezing touch. More and more builders are starting to see value in slow resistance and take steps to get a decent amount of it via winter IOs in their builds. A few -recharge buffs can dramatically impact a perma-hasten build with no slow resistance, so it's wise if you are going all out on expenses to invest in a respectable amount of slow resist.

 

If you really want to solo hard stuff aggressively and have most of your survival bases covered via a build instead of inspirations, this is what I would go with. As I said in my post above, range defense is a better catch all for things outside of your zone of interaction and you will need that buffer. This build is designed so that you will have softcap range defense by level 30. You can also forgo theme and take scorpion shield so you don't have to wait until level 41 for your S/L shield, and  take and slot steam spray instead of flash freeze. You can get additional slow resistance and recharge through base crafts. Ironically this build will be sub optimal for hardmode team content like 4 star TFs.

 

Water ice Ice - Blaster (Water Blast - Ice Manipulation).mbd

Edited October 7 by Nemu

[Dazzer]

12 hours ago, Nemu said:

Ironically this build will be sub optimal for hardmode team content like 4 star TFs.

Hi there, thanks a bunch for your input! What would improve this build for TFs?

I've updated the build somewhat based on your feedback except I kept the 2 -res procs rather than the 2 -recharge procs. I like the damage increase from -res and frigid protection and frozen fists already supplies -recharge.

This new build has capped s/l/range and a 2 sec cooldown on hasten assuming Spritual Core Paragon is taken or 14s gap if it's not taken. I'll probably accept the hasten 14s gap and go with Musculature though. Also the powers are much more closely aligned to when they are available and to the original build.

 

 

Blaster (Water Blast - Ice Manipulation)_updated.mbd

Edited Wednesday at 10:14 AM by Dazzer

[Nemu]

Building for S/L/R softcap is more conducive for blaster builds that NEED to go into melee range. The rationale behind investing in those 2 vectors is that Range defense covers stuff outside of your zone of interaction, and S/L will cover a lot of incoming melee attacks to give you enough time to kill what's in your face. You take your melee attacks to accelerate the death dealing to things in your face, especially when water blast has a pretty weak suite of single target attacks. Your S/L defense is not a fail safe but a means to buy you some time, and you supplement that S/L defense with additional melee range soft/hard control like ice patch so you can stay in melee range longer and kill the things in your face.

 

Your build doesn't need to go into melee range. And if enemies get close you don't haven any intention on standing your ground and going toe to toe with them. Range defense is important and should be softcapped based on your game plan, but all that S/L def set bonuses you are building for has very little ROI. You can probably get away with the base value that you have after your take and slot maneuvers/weave/frozen armor. Any defense above 32% means you can softcap it with a single luck, and that's a happy medium for your build and allows you to allocate those precious slots to other bonuses.

 

When you hover over an enhancement you can push + to increase the level of the enhancement. There are enhancement boosters you can use in game to increase the enhancement level of IOs by up to 5. Do this for the level 50 recharge IOs in hasten and you will not need to waste a third slot there.

 

This is what I would do with a game plan like yours. Tactics is essential for proc monster dehydrate to have max hit chance against +4s, which is my metric for to hit chance for all my builds. Some people settle for max to hit change (95%) against +3s due to incarnate shift, but I exemp often and +4s mean +4 for that type of content and sometimes even +5s.

 

Blaster (Water Blast - Ice Manipulation)_updated revision.mbd

 

Steam spray is a mule for range defense bonuses, but it's also a decent attack that rounds out your ranged AoE arsenal, you can either use it or take it off your tray, but the 4% range defense set bonus and the incidental 9% global acc boost for targeted AoEs offer a lot of value for the build.

 

There are some power picks I'd push back for my own preferences. I like to exemp so I want to make sure I have my range defense setup by level 30. Dehydrate as it is slotted requires tactics to function (76% chance to hit without vs 96% chance to hit with), so I'd make room for tactics and weave by level 30. I'd most likely push out hasten to a level 32 pick and build up into the 40s. The only power that really suffers during those levels without hasten is Geyser, but typically you use your nuke ever other fight and 10 seconds doesn't make a meaningful difference in how quickly you are able to use that power again. I doubt you'd spam Geyser when you are half done with your in between spawn.

 

 

[tidge]

17 hours ago, Nemu said:

Nowadays experienced builders don't chase perma-hasten just for the sake of perma-hasten. Liberal use of the force feedback proc can also help you achieve perma-hasten without over-investing in recharge bonuses. Honestly if hasten is a few seconds off perma it's OK, you are investing A LOT into getting those final few seconds covered via set bonuses and there are better ROI for those slots elsewhere.

 

This is a comment I was tempted to make, but since I typically don't bother with Hasten at all... better to say "I never plan to have Hasten in a build".... I wasn't sure how it would land. I definitely agree that unless something like Domination is in play, it is highly unlikely that perma-Hasten is critical. The End cost hits the same, and a tiny bit of lost recharge when Hasten is not in play (99% instead of 100%) is unlikely to make a difference in outcomes. 

[Dazzer]

5 hours ago, Nemu said:

Steam spray is a mule for range defense bonuses

@Nemu Thanks again for your help! I really appreciate it. I'm coming back from a two year break so am a bit rusty.

I really love the slotting of dehydrate, but do Musculature, damage inspirations, Build Up and other damage buffs affect procs? If not, then when heavily damaged buffed would a more regular slotting pull ahead?

Also, having three 6-slotted mule powers seems a bit unsatisfying to me (Steam Spray, Hibernate and Flash Freeze). I personally hate cone powers (Steam Spray).

Let me play around with my build again with incorporating some of your ideas about power placement.

Edited Wednesday at 06:01 PM by Dazzer

[Nemu]

The typical pairing of proc heavy builds is to use Musculature to improve the damage slotting of proc powers that have lower damage enhancement. You don't want any alphas that increase recharge because those act as slotted enhancements and that will skew your proc rates for the worse.

 

You will notice that instead of a 6th proc, I added a +5 Apocalypse damage IO because the damage average is higher with that IO than with another proc. But if I add a second 50+5 IO instead of another proc, the damage average between the 2 slottings are negligible. Muscalature will bring the damage enhancement level of dehydrate close to the ED cap.

[Dazzer]

This is the final version that I think I'm going to go with, changes include:

• Replaced Frozen Fist with Chilblain (unslotted)
• Replaced Hibernate with Jump Kick and 4 slotted with Kinetic Combat enhancements that were in the old Frozen Fist.
• Removed slot from Hasten and added Kismet enhancement to Combat Jumping
• Moved Tactics to before lvl 30
• Ranged is capped at lvl 30 now
• S/L is capped at lvl 41
• Only has two 4-slotted mule powers

The only down side is that I don't have the -recharge procs and Dehydrate isn't all procs as suggested, however, I suspect when heavily damage buffed the damage of regularly slotted Dehydrate will catch up, if not even pull ahead of proc-heavy Dehydrate. Another drawback is that many important damage powers don't have a proc. As a benefit, this is S/L capped where the suggested build isn't.

 

Blaster (Water Blast - Ice Manipulation)_updated2.mbd

Edited Wednesday at 08:04 PM by Dazzer

[Dazzer]

On 10/8/2025 at 10:40 AM, Nemu said:

You don't want any alphas that increase recharge because those act as slotted enhancements and that will skew your proc rates for the worse.

I'm not sure I quite understand this reasoning.

 

I've played this toon to 50 doing 4 DFB, some missions and mostly a lot of ToT. Some lessons learned:

• Elite bosses can do more than 4 magnitude knockback, so I picked up acrobatics. This will also help with low level stuns.
• Being terrorized is really bad so I improved status resistance
• Out of all the Water Blast damage powers, the one that needs the most ideal slotting is Water Jet since it is the most damaging single target damage and Tidal Power allows one to double cast this.
• It seems that Ice Patch works on bosses so getting into melee range is much safer than I expected, so I picked up Frozen Aura since is does major PBAoE damage
• I realized that the Force Feedback proc is +recharge rate to yourself, I had mistakenly though it was a -recharge to enemies so I added it back in.
• Since I had to drop Build Up, I added 2 random chance Build Up procs to help make up for it.

 

 

Here is the updated build after partial play testing.

 

Blaster (Water Blast - Ice Manipulation)_updated3.mbd

Edited Friday at 11:50 AM by Dazzer

[Uncle Shags]

1 hour ago, Dazzer said:

On 10/8/2025 at 1:40 PM, Nemu said:

You don't want any alphas that increase recharge because those act as slotted enhancements and that will skew your proc rates for the worse.

I'm not sure I quite understand this reasoning.

 

Agility Alpha, for instance, reduces recharge for your powers, which is nice. But it does it in a way that decreases the chances of dmg procs to fire. So if you're leaning heavily into procs it can lower your damage. 

[Dazzer]

7 hours ago, Uncle Shags said:

Agility Alpha, for instance, reduces recharge for your powers, which is nice. But it does it in a way that decreases the chances of dmg procs to fire. So if you're leaning heavily into procs it can lower your damage. 

@Uncle Shags thanks for the info. Is there documentation about this somewhere?

[Black_Assassin]

1 hour ago, Dazzer said:

@Uncle Shags thanks for the info. Is there documentation about this somewhere?

 

The information on procs is out there on the forums and on the discord. It's just spread around quite a bit unfortunately. 

[Midnight Mystique]

The key information here is that the chance of a proc going off in a power is based on the activation time and recharge rate of the power, the longer the activation and recharge, the higher the chance of a proc going off.

 

However, the formula (which I don't know off the top of my head) only counts recharge reduction slotted in the power, not global recharge reduction. So recharge reduction slotted in the power, either as a recharge reduction enhancement or enhancement from an IO set, reduces the chance for a proc to go off but global recharge from set bonuses, hasten, external buffs (speed boost) and the like do not. 

 

The alpha incarnate slot  works by effectively adding an enhancement to all powers, so if you slot an agility alpha or a spiritual it is effectively the same as adding an extra recharge reduction enhancement to all powers, which then reduces the chance of a proc going off. If you want to add global recharge reduction through incarnate powers your best bet is an ageless destiny, as that increases global values just like set bonuses or hasten. 

 

[Renatos1023]

So, I am not a "build magnate", nor are Blasters my main AT. But I did just recently get a Water/Ice Blaster to 50 and am in the throes of getting my Incarnates to T4 (I think I'm at 2 T4, 4 T3 -- although that isn't relevant). One of my differences from your build is that I did not take Hasten, but my nuke is still up every ~33 seconds according to Mids. Plus, I have slightly over soft-capped S/L defenses.

 

I also don't really rely on proc-ing powers....if a proc happens to be the 6th piece in a set I want, then I put it in. Since I didn't rely on proc-ing powers, I also took the Agility Alpha slot which ups my recharge. As others have said, if you want to rely on procs, you might not want Agility.

 

I just wanted to share my build as an alternate, non-Hasten option, that also has decent global recharge.

 

If this build isn't your style, feel free to disregard everything I've said, I won't be offended 🙂 

 

 Reina Frost - Blaster (Water Blast - Ice Manipulation).mbd

[Uncle Shags]

On 10/10/2025 at 4:08 PM, Dazzer said:

@Uncle Shags thanks for the info. Is there documentation about this somewhere?

You can probably use mids to check it out. See what the damage difference is with agility turned on then off. I tried to get on my def build and give you numbers from my super proced water jet but my stupid mids isn't working. 

[Dazzer]

6 hours ago, Uncle Shags said:

You can probably use mids to check it out. See what the damage difference is with agility turned on then off. I tried to get on my def build and give you numbers from my super proced water jet but my stupid mids isn't working. 

I don't 100% trust mids for this, half the time it shows average damage and the other half the time it shows max damage even though I have it set to average damage. But I will eventually test out the proc version of dehydrate.

Here is the build I'm currently using. I'm using exactly this build and have been pretty satisfied. It currently doesn't use the proc slotting on dehydrate.

Some of the changes:

• improved resistances, status protection, and status resistances
• changed procs a bit based on testing
• no slotted mule powers

Some of the drawbacks that I see are:

• max ranged not capped till lvl 32 (rather than 30)
• dehydrate and hydro blast don't have damage procs
• lost the -recharge resistance proc
• no endurance lost for single target chain, but aoe chain will slowly lose endurance. I'll probably end up +5ing the toggle powers that have endurance and the endurance slots of the aoe powers to make up for this and so that I can continue to use damage incarnate powers rather then endurance ones.

 

Blaster (Water Blast - Ice Manipulation)_updated4.mbd

Edited 13 hours ago by Dazzer