How is /Martial?

[Mercurias]

I’ve only been back in the game a couple of days. Has anyone played a /Martial Blaster or seen it played? I’m curious at to how it performs.

 

Edit: I typed “Scrapper” instead of “Blaster”. Some of us,  it saying who, needs to learn to proofread his posts before publishing them.

Edited August 2, 2019 by Mercurias

[SeraphimKensai]

/Martial blaster? I have one in the 30's and it's interesting to play with given abilities like reaction time. I'd rank it personally within the top 5 secondary sets, but that's subjective based on my own desires with a blaster.

 

Personal experiences may vary.

[Crysis]

Just hit 49 this evening with my DP/MC/Force Blaster.  For me it’s been the most fun I’ve had leveling any of the 30 or so blasters I’ve taken to Incarnate levels between Live and Homecoming.  Fantastic  synergy and it’s thematically a very pleasing combination of Gunkata and pistol dancing.  Very durable as well.  Telefrag into the spawn, Hail of Bullets (DEF boost while you do that), Telefrag again and spawn minions and Lts are dead.  Backflip out a bit and finish off the boss, Ki pushing him away while delivering the killing shot.  Get in over your head?  Pop PFF and heal up (I have Aid Self).  Then go again!

 

Its the ultimate gun dancer combo.

[synfoola]

I'm with Crysis. My DP/MC blaster is the most fun I've had since leveling a blaster from when the game went live. I only made this toon as a gag-toon Matrix-Trinity knockoff and she's one of only 3 toons I have out of all of my alts that are almost 50 and will be end-gamed out.

In my opinion, the secret is that damned toggle...Reaction Time. Not only does it give fantastic absorb when health-slotted and +Recovery, but the Slow and -Rech to them in a 30ft radius gives you enough space to debuff them right as you cone attack--->AoE Attack, to which you can then Burst of TeleSpeed melee AoE -->Dragon's Tail melee PBAoE or just Hail of Bullets to your hearts content...and your blue bar has barely moved (with 1EndRed in your attacks, of course). If there are even any mobs still standing, they'll most likely be running away due to the low-health + debuff AI reaction, which means they're not trying to melee you.

Hit the boss that's left with a quick Ki Push while having Eagle's Claw already queued up and you'll still Trinity Kick them even as they're flying away in slow-mo' and, by then, you'll have an Executioners Shot coming out of the barrel. And, kinda like Reaction Time, there's a game element that works to your advantage since the Ki-pushed mobs can land in weird positions that make them take longer to get up (my experience compared to Energy Push).  That's more indirect control for you to take advantage of. 

Since you'll be mixing it up in melee, I'd recommend switching to Villain long enough to get Scorpion Shield (S/L/E Defense toggle) from Mace Mastery and pair it up with Tough & Weave. I also went with Combat Jumping/Super Jump (Matrix and all), and that leaves  you with a choice between Inner Will (ghetto Rune of Protection with a near-worthless heal component and a status/low-health trigger, but it frees up another space on your inspiration tray for, say, a big, fat, Defense Chiclet ) or getting Aid Self (if you skipped one or two powers like I did with Piercing Rounds and Suppressive Fire) and at least 2x Interrupt-slotting it. 

It's so nice to have a toon, let alone a blaster, that doesn't freaking need Cardiac or has to manage every other fight with an end-drain power before IO sets. lol

Edited August 2, 2019 by synfoola

[Sailboat]

Greatly enjoying Water/Martial.  Water has plenty of ranged killing power and mitigation (knockdowns and slows), but I've found that there's often a few guys trying to get all up in my grille.  Reaction Time literally gives me time to react before they reach me, and I can Ki Push them or kick the hell out of them (ideally both, as Synfoola says above).  I find myself enjoying Storm Kick and Dragon's Tail so much that I run toward danger just so I can kick.

 

You know, occasionally one sees threads wishing for a ranged attack primary/melee attack secondary Archetype, and it strikes me that /Martial Blasters are basically that.

Edited August 2, 2019 by Sailboat

[Seale]

have 7 full set/incarnate blaster 50 and did 6 other in the 40-44 range in homecoming, so i can kinda give you an objective PoV for /martial (keep in mind, i wont touch pvp subject, not the right forum for it) : 

 

Martial set is 1 of the 4 secondary set of blaster that will give you absorb shield in his sustained power (other are temporal / plant / ice ) , it lacks hold, immobilization and buildup (has a variance of the last one), and offer some blapping not so useful skill in his set. 

 

now, this "not so flattering" description may make it sound crap so let's go a little more in deep in the set presentation :

 

what makes this set special ? 

 

- Ki push : this sort of blapping skill, replace your usual immobilize first skill, is a punch that will repel a single opponent with a fast animation, it is not too bad as a tradeoff (due to repel mechanics), on a decent build you end up having it at 1.5 second cooldown with 1 second of animation.

 

- as mentioned before, the absorb sustained toggle (Reaction Time) : this work quite like ice manipulation shield frigid protection (without the damage debuff and affecting 1 target less, only offer slow and recharge debuff passive, they also share the same value for them even if the game loves to write wrong value of the martial effect while giving you the same result ) in a 30 feet radius (quite huge) with a small higher animation cast time to toggle it on (this to prevent possible exploits with the effect once you turn it off, since it give you a speed and recharge boost for 10 seconds ONCE the power is deactivated, worry not, it's 90% useless this part), 

note n1 : same as temporal manipulation, it get benefit from incarnate clarion special effect boost, in fact increasing the amount of absorb of each tick under his effect

note n2 : in group or in stealth, non aggroed mob in range with your aura WILL get aggro by the debuff, so this set require you to deactivate the absorb if you plan to stealth

 

-  Burst of speed : now this is a teleport with good range (200 base affected by range modification), with a pbaoe on destination (aoe on target but you basically go INTO that target) on a small radius, the nice part is you can actually use it 3 times with a really small delay in between before it goes into cooldown (it will actually go in cooldown for 1 second each time you use it just to reset till you used it 3 times), still it offer a lot of potential fun combo (especially if you slot a chance of kd in it), each use give you a negligeable boost of damage (2.6% for each)

 

- Reach for the Limit : you gave up build up for this always active power, basically instead of a boost of 20% hit / 100% dmg of a buildup you will get a chance to trigger a 15% hit / 37.5% dmg buff. now the tradeoff looks terrible, but is not so dire if you consider that, it proc on damaging skill use (your burst of speed can trigger it even if you tp without hit anything same as gtaoe's, ground target aoe like rains) and seems to lack an internal cooldown since it kinda loves to refresh itself on a proper spamming build.

 

- last but not least, Inner Will : this skill is a status cleanse with a heal, that offer a status boost and status resistance buff on use : sadly it can be used only if either your health or your stamina is under 50%, or if you are under a status effect. While you wont really abuse it before incarnate, it will quite shine once you reach endgame (you will get used to his weird activation time, it's a fast animation but require no skill spam to trigger), only downside, you wont be able to have it perma up (you will end up having 10 second cooldown between uses)

 

final verdict : who  should go for /martial ? is a solid secondary for blaster, that will love to give you wrong value when you power analize mob (-340 movement!), good if you wanna build it in special builds (soul mastery kinda shine with inner will), or you want to save a clarion spot and still be able to solo stuff thanks to a good abs, downside is the lack of recharge (and it require a good spamming primary set and build for it to shine), some mechanics that wont really be blaster friendly in their use before 50, and the lack of a hold built into the secondary itself.

 

p.s. :  i skip the description of the melee blapping skill like storm kick, dragon's tail(small pbaoe), throw sand(cone stun), eagle claw (bad animation high damage blap) aside for the fact i dont really like blapping, i find out of all 4 of those the only viable without actually lose dps, would be storm kick but you will have better option most of the time.

 

hope that helps

 

 

   

 

Edited August 3, 2019 by Seale
typo

[Crysis]

I’ve got a few /MC blasters now.  On all of them, I find the secondary power picks to be pretty much “limited” to the following:

 

Ki Push (you have to take)

Reach for the Limit

Burst of Speed (Great leveling power, but feel free to Respec out at 50)

Reaction Time

Inner Will

Eagles Claw

 

Pre-50, attack was tab-target the Boss or Mezzer, Burst of Speed into spawn, drop Nuke, Burst of Speed within spawn second time, Ki Push the boss, jump out of spawn, single target boss/AOE the remaining spawn until dead.  

 

As needed, Ki-Push + ST hold (on my DP/MC I use Suppressive Fire 6-slotted with Lockdown set with Chance for +2 Hold proc), and fire at range until defeated.

 

Works very well.  Probably the most consistent damage without death I’ve ever had on any Blaster toon.  I’m softcapped DEF to Range via IO sets pre-incarnate which also helps.

 

My issue late game with Burst of Speed is that stuff dies so fast that I rarely have time to use Burst of Speed unless soloing.  I’m teaming late game frequently.  

 

I’m sure others can accomplish similar playstyles from /Time or other Blaster secondaries, but I’m really happy with how /MC works in practical use.  Very non-clicky also.