Secondary help for AR/ power soldier theme, please

[Argulus]

All right!  I have been trying to finish my present bout of character creation (altitis) fever, and I am trying to nail down an Anthem/Space Marine/Mass Effect kind of armored soldier.  I went back and forth as to Blaster vs Sentinel and ended up leaning toward Blaster so that the Secondary is more active attack or control versus defense.

All of that to say, that I am presently looking at either /Devices or /Power but was hoping to get some insight on what powers in these sets are great and musts, and which are lackluster.

    Also, if someone had a separate suggestion for a secondary that would fit the theme and works well with AR/, that would welcomed, as well.

Super appreciate any input.

[plainguy]

I would look at the thread down below this I just posted in.. There are enough AR Device builds there to give you ideas.

[Argulus]

So, is /Energy just a poor option when it comes to AR/, or is Devices just too good of a symbiotic build?

[Blastit]

Energy Manipulation should be a decent choice for AR. It's got strong single-target attacks and I guess you could do something with Beanbag, Stun and Power Boost if you want to. Energize seems hilarious. Obviously it's a must-have and when you get a little over 100% recharge in it you can enjoy a permanent 80% end cost reduction. It's a bit of a hassle if you like Hasten, I guess, since it's a click power.

 

Devices is thematic but it lacks Build Up, which means that an AR/Devices Blaster is completely without major attack buffs. A primary with so many AoE attacks does particularly well with Build Up and it would help with the drawback of putting knockback reducers into them.

[Mercurias]

Energy is a good choice for people who want to blast at range. I personally wouldn't bother with the melee attacks, since you'd be too far to effectively use your cones. If you want them, though, they do hit single targets extremely hard.

 

I would suggest Tactical Arrow as your AR secondary. Tactical Arrow is a set based entirely around debuffing enemies from a distance, which will leave them open to taking extra pain from your rifle. 

[Seale]

too bad you asked for a space marine for theme, otherwise i would've gone original and suggested a commando/predator kind of style and said AR/Ninja. Why? /Ninja is sort of a /Device secondary (you get 20 hit and 45 damage each 30 sec as a first hit, then you drop to perma 5% hit 6.25 damage, which still is not too bad for AR, binding powder and choking powder are actually nice cc abilities, the only real loss is gun drone and maybe caltrops compared to /device but with way better slot savings)

 

otherwise /energy is an obvious power-game choise (if you bind stuff otherwise you will go insane) 

Edited August 9, 2019 by Seale

[Elthenar]

On 8/9/2019 at 8:59 AM, Seale said:

too bad you asked for a space marine for theme, otherwise i would've gone original and suggested a commando/predator kind of style and said AR/Ninja. Why? /Ninja is sort of a /Device secondary (you get 20 hit and 45 damage each 30 sec as a first hit, then you drop to perma 5% hit 6.25 damage, which still is not too bad for AR, binding powder and choking powder are actually nice cc abilities, the only real loss is gun drone and maybe caltrops compared to /device but with way better slot savings)

 

otherwise /energy is an obvious power-game choise (if you bind stuff otherwise you will go insane) 

 

 

Isn't /ninja just awful though?

[biostem]

Martial Combat could make for an interesting Mass Effect biotic, or perhaps a Rifts juicer, if you're familiar with that setting.

[Haijinx]

If sentinel was part of the consideration .. you could also consider ..

 

Bane soldier using the Assault Rifle attacks / ranged and melee 

 

You'd get decent armor (huntsman plus bane) with decent status protection. 

Stealth

 

An accuracy and ranged defense bonus

 

Leadership powers in the secondary with lower end cost and good buff values

 

3 ranged AOEs without the dumb sentinel AOE nerf.

2 ranged ST attacks

2 melee attacks that can crit from stealth

An AOE mag 3 immobilize