Best Well Rounded Blaster?

[Justisaur]

I haven't had a blaster since before CoV (I remember a fire/dev and an Ar/dev, neither got to high level.) it and Tanker are the only ATs I haven't tried again on Homecoming.  I'd like to give each a try, If I'm going for a blaster, I tend to prefer more well rounded characters (Main a Bane) I'm not at all familiar with most of the secondaries, only Dev, and I gather it's changed since then, and only somewhat familiar with primaries from doing corruptors/defenders.

 

I'd prefer something that's a bit more balanced between ST& AoE, has some debuffs (or can slot procs that debuff) that are still useful in endgame, and a snipe.  I think I'd prefer something that's mostly ranged, but not absolutely married to the idea.  Decent defenses, and end.  Then as much damage as all that allows me 🙂

 

Any suggestions?

[TheAdjustor]

Ice/Ment should fit the bill. Drain Psyche is something of a pain to use, but you have a very good single target attacks. /ment's cone attack is excellent and rounds out any aoe chain, and blizzard is hands down the best nuke in the game  you might not be able to proc it out but you don't need to.

 

No snipe though.

Edited September 3, 2019 by TheAdjustor

[natewest1987]

I would vote for Water/Time as the most well rounded set.

 

You miss out on the snipe, but Waterjet bends to the role of single target nuke pretty accessibly.  Because of Water's mechanics, you can cast it once, let it cool down, hit tidal power, cast it again, and then a third time.  If you slot Gladiator's toxic proc and apocalypse's negative energy proc, then you're benefiting from 2 chances to proc, over 3 times, without effecting the chance to fire.   As long as you don't slot recharge in it, which you can get by with due to all the low hanging recharge the combination has to offer.  Another benefit to taking water jet over a snipe, is that you dont have to build out of the way to get the most of it.   Even with the recent snipe changes, you still need to build extra +to hit, just to get the damage to scale appropriately - but not with waterjet.     It has a quick cast time as well, so it's basically always insta snipe and sits at the same damage scale regardless. 

 

It has a good mix of ST & AOE damage, with two High damage ranged nukes, three High damaged ranged AOE's, one High Damage Melee attack, and one High damage PBAOE.  It also has a good mix of damage types ( Cold/Fire/Smashing/Psionic/Energy ( Time ) ).  More damage types = less damage resisted.  The secondary effects allow for a lot of flexibility for proc abuse.   Dehydrate specifically can be turned into a nasty single target attack.    Additionally,  you can slot several powers in Water with +recharge proc, complimenting the recharge bonuses from chronos ( 30% ) and timelord ( 20% ).

 

It also has the ability to debuff, which you mentioned, including slow, -to hit debuff, -recharge, -regen, -heal and -def debuff.  For defenses, Water & Time gives you a heal, tons of mitigation from Time's absorb toggle - which recharges in between enemy knockdown effects - and recovery/regen on top of that. 

 

ALSO.   You can color water to look like blood or LAVAAAA.

ALSO/PS.   Tidal Power is an interesting mechanic that atleast allows you to make choices in combat that other sets don't.   Need more single target damage? Need a stronger heal? Need more AOE damage + knockup?  Tidal Power.   Likewise, Chronos can be bent to fill certain scenarios as well.   Need a boost of recharge to get that attack/buff in right now? stronger absorb shield? extra damage?

Edited September 4, 2019 by natewest1987

[biostem]

23 hours ago, Justisaur said:

I haven't had a blaster since before CoV (I remember a fire/dev and an Ar/dev, neither got to high level.) it and Tanker are the only ATs I haven't tried again on Homecoming.  I'd like to give each a try, If I'm going for a blaster, I tend to prefer more well rounded characters (Main a Bane) I'm not at all familiar with most of the secondaries, only Dev, and I gather it's changed since then, and only somewhat familiar with primaries from doing corruptors/defenders.

 

I'd prefer something that's a bit more balanced between ST& AoE, has some debuffs (or can slot procs that debuff) that are still useful in endgame, and a snipe.  I think I'd prefer something that's mostly ranged, but not absolutely married to the idea.  Decent defenses, and end.  Then as much damage as all that allows me 🙂

 

Any suggestions?

I'm gonna go against the grain here and suggest archery/bow manipulation (or whatever the archery secondary is called).  Not only do you have a great mix of single target, AoE, buffs, and debuffs, but you also get a status protection toggle and an nice auto-power that boost recharge (among other things).  Make sure to choose the "no redraw" option under power customization during character creation, and I think you'll enjoy it!

[Justisaur]

I know I said debuff, but most of the primarys with debuff don't seem all that impressive, or are missing snipes (ice & water), so I decided I might as well embrace blaster damage, I think it's between Archery and Fire.  Fire looks to have a lot more damage so it's the obvious choice, but Archery has the quick T9 which sounds fun too. 

 

If I were to go Fire I'm not sure what secondary would work best to avoid melee, have some defenses, sustain, and damage.  I see Energy, Martial, Mind, Temporal, and even Ice bandied about... but I'm not sure what the pros/cons of any of those are.  I did see someone say they thought Mind was a bit slow animating.

 

Then there's Archery, which obviously goes with Tactical Arrow, but are there any possibly better choices?  And if Tactical Arrow is so good, how about fire/tactical arrow?

[biostem]

6 minutes ago, Justisaur said:

I know I said debuff, but most of the primarys with debuff don't seem all that impressive, or are missing snipes (ice & water), so I decided I might as well embrace blaster damage, I think it's between Archery and Fire.  Fire looks to have a lot more damage so it's the obvious choice, but Archery has the quick T9 which sounds fun too. 

 

If I were to go Fire I'm not sure what secondary would work best to avoid melee, have some defenses, sustain, and damage.  I see Energy, Martial, Mind, Temporal, and even Ice bandied about... but I'm not sure what the pros/cons of any of those are.  I did see someone say they thought Mind was a bit slow animating.

 

Then there's Archery, which obviously goes with Tactical Arrow, but are there any possibly better choices?  And if Tactical Arrow is so good, how about fire/tactical arrow?

I've never tried combining tactical arrow with a different primary, so I can't speak to that.  For fire as a primary, though, take a look at martial or plant for the secondary.  Plant, in particular, is nice because its immobilize is magnitude 4, so it can affect bosses with only 1 application.

[Call Me Awesome]

Combinations I've played to 50 and enjoyed are Fire/Energy (Live from around issue 5 to shutdown and here on Homecoming... a whole lot of fun and highly effective), Archery/Energy (On Live around issue 18 or so, the king of long range) and Archery/Tactical Arrow (Currently leveling at around 40 right now so not 50 yet but highly survivable with a ton of control, plays like a Controller with lots of damage)

 

If you're looking for Debuffs then Rad, Dark or Sonic would be decent choices.  I haven't played the Blaster version of them but I had either Defender or Corrupter versions of each.  If you didn't have the redraw issues I'd suggest Tac Arrow for a control/debuff secondary.  Unfortunately Archery doesn't really Debuff anything but hit points.

[biostem]

15 minutes ago, Call Me Awesome said:

Combinations I've played to 50 and enjoyed are Fire/Energy (Live from around issue 5 to shutdown and here on Homecoming... a whole lot of fun and highly effective), Archery/Energy (On Live around issue 18 or so, the king of long range) and Archery/Tactical Arrow (Currently leveling at around 40 right now so not 50 yet but highly survivable with a ton of control, plays like a Controller with lots of damage)

 

If you're looking for Debuffs then Rad, Dark or Sonic would be decent choices.  I haven't played the Blaster version of them but I had either Defender or Corrupter versions of each.  If you didn't have the redraw issues I'd suggest Tac Arrow for a control/debuff secondary.  Unfortunately Archery doesn't really Debuff anything but hit points.

If you select the "no redraw" option from the power customization menu, (accessible during character creation or at a tailor/trailer), then the redraw issue is basically nonexistent.

Edited September 4, 2019 by biostem

[Call Me Awesome]

6 minutes ago, biostem said:

If you select the "no redraw" option from the power customization menu, (accessible during character creation or at a tailor/trailer), then the redraw issues basically goes away...

Hmm, I hadn't thought of that.  Interesting thought... as if I didn't already have enough alts to level up🤫

[biostem]

4 minutes ago, Call Me Awesome said:

Hmm, I hadn't thought of that.  Interesting thought... as if I didn't already have enough alts to level up🤫

I'm currently leveling up an archery/tactical arrow blaster, and she's really fun to play.  The /TA powers feel "weightier" than the trick arrow ones, and many also do some damage, which is a nice plus.

[oedipus_tex]

Blaster isn't a particularly well rounded class IMO. It is very good at killing stuff quickly.

 

If I had to pick something, I might say Sonic/Tactical Arrow for the resistance debuffing and Controller-like abilities. Sonic is a lower damage set with a lot of cones. Tactical Arrow is a strangely better version of Trick Arrow.

[MunkiLord]

Ice/Fire deserves a mention as well. Great single Target and AoE damage. Two holds, knockdown, slows. It's just all around amazing. 

[Zalkenai]

22 hours ago, natewest1987 said:

I would vote for Water/Time as the most well rounded set.

 

You miss out on the snipe, but Waterjet bends to the role of single target nuke pretty accessibly.  Because of Water's mechanics, you can cast it once, let it cool down, hit tidal power, cast it again, and then a third time.  If you slot Gladiator's toxic proc and apocalypse's negative energy proc, then you're benefiting from 2 chances to proc, over 3 times, without effecting the chance to fire.   As long as you don't slot recharge in it, which you can get by with due to all the low hanging recharge the combination has to offer.  Another benefit to taking water jet over a snipe, is that you dont have to build out of the way to get the most of it.   Even with the recent snipe changes, you still need to build extra +to hit, just to get the damage to scale appropriately - but not with waterjet.     It has a quick cast time as well, so it's basically always insta snipe and sits at the same damage scale regardless. 

 

It has a good mix of ST & AOE damage, with two High damage ranged nukes, three High damaged ranged AOE's, one High Damage Melee attack, and one High damage PBAOE.  It also has a good mix of damage types ( Cold/Fire/Smashing/Psionic/Energy ( Time ) ).  More damage types = less damage resisted.  The secondary effects allow for a lot of flexibility for proc abuse.   Dehydrate specifically can be turned into a nasty single target attack.    Additionally,  you can slot several powers in Water with +recharge proc, complimenting the recharge bonuses from chronos ( 30% ) and timelord ( 20% ).

 

It also has the ability to debuff, which you mentioned, including slow, -to hit debuff, -recharge, -regen, -heal and -def debuff.  For defenses, Water & Time gives you a heal, tons of mitigation from Time's absorb toggle - which recharges in between enemy knockdown effects - and recovery/regen on top of that. 

 

ALSO.   You can color water to look like blood or LAVAAAA.

ALSO/PS.   Tidal Power is an interesting mechanic that atleast allows you to make choices in combat that other sets don't.   Need more single target damage? Need a stronger heal? Need more AOE damage + knockup?  Tidal Power.   Likewise, Chronos can be bent to fill certain scenarios as well.   Need a boost of recharge to get that attack/buff in right now? stronger absorb shield? extra damage?

 

I made a water/time blaster without reading anything about it.  I agree with pretty much everything you say, mechanically.  I don't know why, I just am having trouble *liking* water as a blast.  I find it clunky to use, and I can't really articulate why.  I think perhaps I like my blast sets to feel like they have impact, and the water blast just sort of happens.  It doesn't feel like you're really hitting anything.

[Radiaria]

To the poster above, it is completely understandable to not enjoy water blast. It is longer on the animation times, and it is less damaging than a lot of other blaster sets. It is a fun set, it has highlights, but it isn't for everyone.

 

For pure PvE content, I will say that fire is a tried and true proven successful vs everything primary that takes the cake in many ways. Want a super high damaging nuke? Got it. Want it done instantly? Got it. Want a sniper power? Got it. Want fast animations? Got it. Want enemies to not resist it that often? Got it. Fire checks the boxes everyone wants to fill except that it has no additional effects though lots often argue the effects aren't that noticeable and fire great/y improves clear times which makes up for the lack of a secondary effect.

 

Ice is a fun one that has decent AOE and single target but does not get either the Pylon or clear time fire will. However, ice has very nice secondary effects and it does contain knockdowns and very good tools that really help the blaster to stay alive. For farming, this set actually supersedes fire in that it has greater target caps and continues to kill enemies even after they're dead along with the knockdowns which greatly aid survivability. It does take a backseat to fire though for general PvE due to the fact it is an overtime and it does not "insta kill" like other T9's do.

 

Those are the two by far and away most popular sets that have a proven track record to produce high yielding good results. However, as you can guess, it is rather redundant and boring to play the same thing over and over.

 

I'll briefly go into the rest. Assault Rifle is the most abandoned set for good reason. It's hard to use and make it "good." You can see why this is a controversial set in many other posts. Dark is a great soloing set and can really help the user for tough fights and is probably the most mitigating set available along with probably ice, it does suffer from being weaker in damage though. Psychic is one of the objectively worse late game blasting sets, lots of late game enemy groups have robots that resist this damage type heavily and the damage bases aren't high to begin with and the AOEs it provides aren't too impressive and this one really takes a hit because lots of its abilities are just lackluster in comparison to what other sets offer. Beam is cool and nice. Dual Pistols is a set that is fun and good but is often resisted and doesn't have high base values either and doesn't offer a whole lot of mitigation and thus it is a "lower tier" but it is fun to watch/play. Archery is fine and good and it is one of the better ones but the T9's damage imo is rather lackluster but it makes up for that with it being extremely spammable. Energy isn't high damage and it has the dreaded knockback effect on a lot of its powers, this makes teams less likely to love you, there is KB to KD, but why do that when you could've just picked something else that doesn't force you to slot it (yes I understand that there is an argument for "oh well those teams that don't want you, you don't want to be on them anyway," but realistically, if you were a /kin and trying to help people and some blaster knocks everything out of your fulcrum, would you really be inclined to team with them? I'm not saying it's bad but a lot of the worse players have given this primary a bad rep.) Radiation offers decent AOE and single target but its single target lags far behind fire's, does provide -def side effect which is cool! Sonic arguably has the most desirable secondary effect which is -res, huge damage boost. Sonic blast on its own can be the most damaging by itself because of all the -res you gain, however, on teams, they often have -res as well and this doesn't have high base values and the AOE in this set isn't particularly impressive, though Siren's is a bit of a beauty for a blaster. And finally, electric, which is not the highest or best T9 for either damage or mitigation, but paired with /elec as a secondary, it can actually be a very nice mitigation with how much -end it can produce and is quite a fun set in general despite it lacking damage, the sniper change as well has helped its damage. Wow. That was a lot of info. 

 

For secondaries, lots of people go for /energy. I personally think you get way more damage and AOE carnage out of /fire than anything else obviously and this is another really popular secondary set for a very good reason though it doesn't offer lots of mitigation. Elec offers lots of mitigation especially when slotted properly and can really help boost single target damage with Havoc Punch's high DPA. Another very powerful honorable mention is Mental, for Drain Psyche. Beautiful power, not really helping you to stay in range, but it helps you to not have to care if you're in melee :). Shockwave is also beautiful. Fantastic secondary, extremely well-rounded. Atomic also offers good AOE, regen, and +recharge, again, very popular and very good. Tactical arrow is also a great secondary for staying at range and getting lots of excellent buffs and controls at your fingertips and helping you to be a true "blaster." These are the most popularly chosen primaries for good reason. I'm not stating the rest are bad, in fact, energy offers lots of buffs and is in fact very good, really all the secondaries do shine some more than others at some aspects. IMO, the secondaries are lot closer in the power grid than the primaries are.

 

End of this massive chunk of info I've thrown at you?

 

Want a chain AOE killer for all PvE? Fire/Fire

Want a farmer? Ice/Fire

Want to survive well with/without IO's? your pick of Ice/ or Dark/ and then pick /Atomic /Mental/ Elec /Tactical or /Energy (really needs to be paired with mitigation primary though!) as a secondary. You will hardly die if you're playing this properly and spent at least some inf to get at least IO's and practice enough of their unique playstyles.

[Rathulfr]

My new main at 50+3 is Energy/Temporal.  I won't belabor Energy, as it's pretty well described in the Wiki and elsewhere.  But Temporal Manipulation stood out to me for these reasons:

 

• Time Wall: -25% foe regen + Time Stop: -50% foe regen = -75% foe regen stack.  Very useful for AV fights.
• Temporal Healing: +50% recovery (!) and repeatedly refreshing +absorb.
• Time Shift: a decent targeted AoE stun.
• Time Lord: free resistance slots for +3% defense Gladiator's Armor, +3% defense Steadfast Protection, and Impervious Skin status resistance globals.

With my IO sets, I'm soft-capped at 45.5% ranged defense, 33% melee defense, and 27.5% AoE defense, which makes me pretty durable for a Blaster.  My weakness is still a lack of mezz protection, but my mezz resistances are pretty good, so I'm not mezzed for long.  The Kismet +6% ToHit proc plus Tactics 6-slotted with Gaussian's boosted +5 brings my ToHit over 22% for the permanent bonus on Sniper Blast.

 

I consider this the best well-rounded blaster I've ever built, and I enjoy playing him immensely.

 

Edited September 5, 2019 by Rathulfr

[Eirwen]

I'll just throw my 2 cents in as well with my ICE/ICE/ICE blaster, a little of everything. Crazy amount of holds for control. AOE sleep/hold. High single target damage, nice high AOE damage. VERY nice aura giving absorb and high +end recovery( and acts like a taunt). Good heal, decent defense/armor. And a get out of trouble skill with immune/crazy regen and recovery.  Slows, and the fish of water skill always fun to watch,......oh and did I mention holds...lol.    Pretty well rounded as far as a blaster goes.

[Apparition]

I love my level 50+3 Dual Pistols/Temporal Manipulation Blaster for many of the same reasons @Rathulfr laid out.  It doesn't have a snipe, but it's more versatile.  Need damage?  Load fire rounds.  Need debuffs?  Load toxic rounds.  The mez protection hole has been filled by a Tier 4 Clarion Core Destiny.  A Tier 4 Melee Core Hybrid gives the Blaster great regen and nearly capped resistances.  (Plus seeing the really high mez protection from the overlapping Clarion Core Destiny is amusing.  You ain't stunning me, bro.)

[Haijinx]

If you use no redraw do the weapons autovanish when you are done attacking?  

 

Ive always wanted to do dual pistols but the run animation is so horrible i always end up deleting 

[Tsuko]

On 9/4/2019 at 9:58 PM, biostem said:

/bow manipulation (or whatever the archery secondary is called). 

Tactical Arrow 🙂

1 hour ago, Haijinx said:

If you use no redraw do the weapons autovanish when you are done attacking?  

 

Ive always wanted to do dual pistols but the run animation is so horrible i always end up deleting 

Yes, the No Redraw is awesome !

Edited September 5, 2019 by Tsuko

[Tsuko]

8 hours ago, 3333053222 said:

I'll briefly go into the rest. Assault Rifle is the most abandoned set for good reason. It's hard to use and make it "good." You can see why this is a controversial set in many other posts.

Nice "résumé" ! 🙂

 

Just about AR : the no redraw costume option + tactical arrow saved AR imo : fast animations, crazy area damage, best sniper to build PPM and tactical arrow's Glue  / EMP / Ice arrows provide the tools to contain just enough the Ignite fear effect.

 

We have one main AR / Tactical in the sg : to give you an example : it's not possible to do the "Kitty got claws" badge in Tin mage 2 with him in the team, cause Bobcat and Neuron die almost at the same speed (if we dont "park" Bobcat far from Neuron).

Edited September 5, 2019 by Tsuko

[Apparition]

4 hours ago, Haijinx said:

If you use no redraw do the weapons autovanish when you are done attacking?  

 

Ive always wanted to do dual pistols but the run animation is so horrible i always end up deleting 

 

Yep, with the no redraw option the weapons go *poof* after you finish attacking.

[natewest1987]

7 hours ago, Apparition said:

I love my level 50+3 Dual Pistols/Temporal Manipulation Blaster for many of the same reasons @Rathulfr laid out.  It doesn't have a snipe, but it's more versatile.  Need damage?  Load fire rounds.  Need debuffs?  Load toxic rounds.  The mez protection hole has been filled by a Tier 4 Clarion Core Destiny.  A Tier 4 Melee Core Hybrid gives the Blaster great regen and nearly capped resistances.  (Plus seeing the really high mez protection from the overlapping Clarion Core Destiny is amusing.  You ain't stunning me, bro.)

I wish I could get into those animations.  I’d love to try out dual pistols, but it’s such a weird visual set.  Like the one where you’re baically just shooting into random spots in the air. 

[Justisaur]

I decided on Fire/Tactical Arrow after looking through the secondaries for the umpteenth time.   It was hard to figure a concept that would work for that, but settled on an Efreet - fire magic, and uses a bow with magic arrows for additional effects.   

 

Not really far into it, like level 7 maybe a little disappointed in fire's damage as compared to early MMs - other than fireball being quite a nice early area attack... that rarely hits more than 2.  Though I did have one time 5 guys surrounded me and I was a sliver from death and fireball finished off all but one lt which I just managed to get.  The forced single target immob just seems wasted, as it's usually easier to just do more damage and kill stuff.  I haven't died yet, which is a bit surprising though.  I did a bit of street sweeping to start off, did one tunnel witch AE run, then started on Dr. Graves (villain side) all solo.

 

/TA seems fine with no redraw combined with fire, it goes pretty fast, though I only have the one power so far.  

[biostem]

1 hour ago, Justisaur said:

I decided on Fire/Tactical Arrow after looking through the secondaries for the umpteenth time.   It was hard to figure a concept that would work for that, but settled on an Efreet - fire magic, and uses a bow with magic arrows for additional effects.   

 

Not really far into it, like level 7 maybe a little disappointed in fire's damage as compared to early MMs - other than fireball being quite a nice early area attack... that rarely hits more than 2.  Though I did have one time 5 guys surrounded me and I was a sliver from death and fireball finished off all but one lt which I just managed to get.  The forced single target immob just seems wasted, as it's usually easier to just do more damage and kill stuff.  I haven't died yet, which is a bit surprising though.  I did a bit of street sweeping to start off, did one tunnel witch AE run, then started on Dr. Graves (villain side) all solo.

 

/TA seems fine with no redraw combined with fire, it goes pretty fast, though I only have the one power so far.  

My Archery/Tactical Arrow blaster is around level 25 now.  Got her kitted out with level 25 IOs and a couple pool powers, (arcane flight, aid self, stealth), and she's quite good.  That eagle eye toggle is very good, and I can't wait for gymnastics at 38.  The flash arrow allows me to easily setup some devastating AoEs.  I skipped fistful of arrows, but may take it later on.  I actually prefer the lack of melee attacks in the /TA secondary...

Edited September 6, 2019 by biostem

[Frostweaver]

see, I am trying to figure out what works best with /ta that is NOT archery.

 

I figure it's pure range, so maybe all the cones from /AR? does it have the defense to keep fire alive? Is fire even a good choice with it's PBAOE? would it do better with all the aoe from dp?