Best DP Secondary?

[drgantz]

I've been playing a DP/Devices Blaster.  I've heard some talk that DP/MA is good.

I'm still low level, so am thinking of rerolling.

Is MA or something else much better than Devices for a DP?

 

[Seale]

if instead of good you mean thematic to look like Christian Bale in Equilibrium : sure

 

otherwise being dp already a not so amazing primary (lack of snipe, damage based on lethal, lack of aim) i guess it doesnt change much what you pick on secondary for a casual build

 

edit to add : if i were forced to play dp on a blaster (which i would ask then, why not corrupt or defender instead?) i would probably going for ice rather then martial, difference isnt huge but since you are stuck for a crapload of time in hail of bullet animation without chance to move and on blaster the defense bonus you get isnt even that great, at least ice frigid protection would lower the damage of enemies which the martial counterpart actually lack into reaction time)

Edited August 7, 2019 by Seale

[TheOtherTed]

Disclaimer:  I'm not the guy to go to for optimized builds.  That said, I tried DP/MA, and I got bored very quickly.  Part of that, I think, is because I couldn't find much interesting synergy there - with every power pick, I felt like I had to decide if the character was ranged DPS or a Scrapper with a glass jaw.  It felt like the two sets were competing with each other rather than acting together.

 

DP/EM (energy manipulation), on the other hand - now that's a fun Blapper!  It may be my imagination, but it felt like the melee attacks in EM were much better at keeping the baddies at bay than MA.  Or, if you're smarter than me, EM can instead provide strong ranged support with Conserve Power, Boost Range, and, of course, Build Up.

 

Edit:  Just in case, by "MA" you meant "Martial Combat," yeah?  Apologies if not.

Edited August 7, 2019 by TheOtherTed

[plainguy]

To ME..

 

The best secondary is the one that gives me Range Defense cap and allows me to maybe get Melee & AOE defense capped via Hail of bullets defense buff. 

 

Without having to use a power that requires an Anchor to get a hit debuff like from dark as an example. 

 

Again that is MY personal choice.

 

That being said.  

 

I had a semi- petless ( Last pet only ) DEFENSE CAPPED demon pain mastermind that I wanted to get incarnates on.

I slotted SO in the build and did all my incarnates to get to T3. 

Never had an issue. No one ever looked at my build live in game and said hey you have not set bonuses. 

 

So my point is best is really objective. 

 

I would rather do 100 points less damage on a power but be alive all the time then trying to be a glass cannon for example. Because in big content your useless. In big content you loose defenses. In big content mobs are much tougher.  Which means you won't kill them and they will hit you back and kill you because your not capped at all with a glass cannon. At least I can eat 1 or even 2 luck inspirations to shore up the debuffs.  You get it.  The glass cannon has to eat at least 4 luck. 

 

Personally when I see someone die several times I look at their build and look at their set bonuses real quick. 

Most are frankenslotting for recharge and dps.  Which is fine. UNTIL you pull aggro. 

I had about 20 lvl 50s and I did exactly that, frankenslotted for best DPS and recharge. 

Then I seen another guy with a similar build and he was just crushing the content while I kept dying. 

I asked him and he said defense cap.  I was what is this magic defense cap ?

I went to the forums, did searches.

Went to the Wiki pages

and BAM... 

It all clicked in.. I was a born again defense cap players.

I spent the next several months running content to redo my builds on all my toons that I could get defense cap on. 

 

 

 

 

[synfoola]

Replace MA (which is, sadly, terrible for more than this AT, even after the pass they gave it back in the day) with MC. 

The slow KB of Ki-push is useful from the beginning until you're insta-queuing Eagle's Claw on a boss to kick them while they're still flying back. By then, Executioner's Shot is back off of CD and it's right back into it. There's also a weird slow-motion KB ping-pong glitch that you can take advantage of when it happens sometimes, effectively "herding" that KB'd enemy wherever you want depending on how you position yourself near them while they're flailing slow-mo in the air. I expect this to get fixed eventually, though. 

3-slot Reaction Time with Health/Absorb and then, maybe with a high lev End Mod or two after you have all your must-have toggles like Tough/Weave, Ice/Scorpion Shield, and Maneuvers. It's a fantastic toggle, even without that weird turn-off boost mechanic that I never use. 

I generally CJ in close enough to tag the mob with the Reaction Time debuff, Empty Clips cone attack, AOE attack, Burst of Speed AOE-port in, Dragons Tail PBAoE KD the mobs around me, then CH back and Empty Clips the mob again if they happen to still be up (by then the Reaction Time debuff + low health AI reaction has them slowly running away from you).  RT's absorb has handled quite a bit of the ranged damage soak and your defense toggles and RT are handling the melee. A purple chiclet or Inner Will (don't slot for health...just don't) handles mez. 

So, ya. With /MC you get some martial arts moves with a little wire-fu thrown in, a fantastic toggle and MOAR AoE's. Whether the lack of a real Build-up clicky vs the proc-passive means something to you or not, I'll leave that on you. There are some ghetto-IO ways around that as well. Either way, it's the most fun I've had on a blaster since the game was released. 

Edited August 8, 2019 by synfoola

[Mercurias]

I’m on the bandwagon when it comes to DP/Martial being a whole lot of fun. You might get value out of Temporal Manipulation, because it looks like a solid set, but I really enjoy using Burst of Speed and the Martial attacks for DBZ-style shenanigans. When you can Ki Push a boss, skeet shoot it in mid-air, Burst of Speed to where it lands, and Eagle’s Claw it before it’s gotten up from the ground, then it’s a good Blaster. 

 

Either way you go, I hope you have fun!