Da_Captain

Elec so far is the only thing that I have pair with Grav and it does great, I haven't had any problems with it solo or teaming.

Honestly I like all the stuff with the side switch and extra powersets, but if they give 10 extra enhancement slots, that in itself is worth buying a new expansion. Also hoping for a couple more free character slots.

P.S. Don't get me wrong I am really looking forward to the Dual Pistols, have a good feeling that is going to be the new main

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Just for my own curiosity, I built a melee-crab last night using my 2nd build.

I have to say, my melee-crab seems to be doing better than my Bane and it's sad!

I start the battle with Aim (Crab's Aim is 50% dmg boost?) and Venom, jump in to Arm Lash first, then Frenzy. Then I just cycle Slice, Longfang and Arm Lash and Frenzy or Frag Grenade if I am overwhelmed.

Crab can survival much better and the action is much faster. In fact, this crab is comparable to night widow.

My twin brother and I are both semi-melee Crab now and we are amazed by how good it turns out. Fast action, fun slashing and can still deliver aoe dmg.

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I tested this out the other day solo, because I remember you talking about this just to see how it would do. Well I am impressed but not that impressed how they are survivable they still don't deliver as much damage, I attempted to solo an EB, I won, however, the time it took to win was unbearable. I might take the presence pool so pets don't take aggro, those little spiderlings were getting one shotted and when they get gone.

I mean as far as dps goes they were kinda horrible, Bash from hide does more damage than Armlash, Pulverize > Armlash, and Build up + Crowd Control >>> Aim + Frenzy.

As far as taking and giving damage Crabs are good tanks, but from what I have seen they don't do as much damage a Banes. A melee Crab is very survivable but they do their best at range, even though you can use ranged attacks in melee the ranged cones are far better at range and it also keeps your pets from going into melee too.

To my knowledge yes. I have also noticed it when I played my first /Energy Dom. Just kinda figured it was supposed to be different for Doms.

Maybe different device options.

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mis used

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Incidentally, "misused" is one word.

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Talk about ironic.

As for /Dev I like my ranged defense. With almost every other secondary that requires melee use I usually mix Melee, Ranged defense, with damage and recharge. That is how it is for my Fire x3.

Guess what they are when you crit.

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It's reached the point for me where I hold perma-dom and softcapped ranged defense in similar regard.

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Me too lol.

As of right now, my Fire/Dev. This guy is a ranged AoE beast. I like the concept of him more than anything. But I also built him up with some high ranged defenses, as of yesterday he is up to 27%. I blow through solo content and on teams I just stand back and blast. I love this toon, possibly my favorite hero.

Fire/Dev is my build for the actual powers I need to quit being lazy and download mids, it is just I can't stop playing to put it in.

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Admittedly, I've got enough Thunderstrike and Positron's Blast sets slotted so that, with Hasten up, the character has an (IIRC) +137% recharge bonus,

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Thunderstrike doesn't give +recharge though, but it is good for ranged defense and somewhat cheap.

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And it's still fun to Crane Kick an enemy over the face of a cliff.

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Crane Kick alone is MAs sexyness, I seen someone Crane Kick a Freakshow stunner Freak down some stairs and it was just the funniest thing I have ever seen. OMG I was playing with one of the greatest MA scrappers I have ever seen last night (Azone) wow to see him play made MA a set worth having.

It does lack AoE but with enough recharge you can spam Dragon's tail, it sucks you get it so late in the game though...well I guess halfway isn't that late

Oh yeah Eagles Claw is one of the coolest looking moves in the game, I think that reason alone is why I made my MA/Reg

To eaches own, on most of my ATs I like to build on strengths and weaknesses. Mainly building on weaknesses.

A Blaster is a ranged offensive Juggernuat dealing massive amounts of damage from range, why would I need to build on damage they already do enough. However they have low hit points and can't take a hit well. So I know that I am good a range but can't take a hit. Well if I stay at range and focus on dodging ranged attacks I am not just viable to high level enemies but taking on average groups will not be a problem.

I don't plan on taking on any AVs solo, but when I am fighting average enemies losing half of my health it sucks. Really I like the reduced down time. I am right now at about 24% ranged defense from IOs and solo I am able to swiftly move through mishes without the need of greens, resting or waiting for health to regenerate me. QoL

Also in some sets you are building up damage while building for defense. I don't do recharge because most of my attacks cycle fast enough, I guess you could for your Tier 9, but for a nuke that takes all your end not worth it me, I hardly use mine.

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If you reread what I wrote, I stated that you would be gimping yourself to be softcapping both. Softcap ranged and get AoE in the mid 20-30s and then you're gold. By the way, Smoke Grenade isn't going to be as awesome as you think, especially when fighting higher level enemies that have purple patch to reduce the effect and AVs that have AV resistance to let them laugh at debuffs.

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I am sorry misread a little bit of it. But as far as enemies and the purple patch solo don't plan on fighting that higher level of enemies, I am soloing on like diff 3, but when I team and the enemies are purple...well when I team I don't think I used my secondary...on a good team I don't need to lol. As for AV's I don't plan on soloing them anytime soon. As for the PToD EBs I just plan on keeping them immob and using purples and reds.

But thanks for the advice and thanks for letting me know about the purple patch did not know that existed til you brought it up and I checked paragonwiki.

Thank you all for the advce

To the OP Soul Drain and Dark Consumption are already in Dom PPPs so I don't think they would put it in a regular set too. Just my 2 inf

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Quick question getting back into Blaster and really loving it at the moment. The current build I am working on is being built for defense I just wanted to know should I focus mainly on just Ranged defense or should I build for AoE and Ranged defense equally, since the toon I have stays mainly at range?

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AoE attacks are rare enough that you can, in general, get away with slotting just for ranged defense, especially since, in order to softcap (which is the general goal), you're going to be gimping yourself to softcap both.

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I don't know I haven't really gimped myself, atleast I don't think. I haven't been able to put procs in my attacks but I have 3 powers 6 slotted with Thuderstrike and 2 2 slotted blessing of the Zyphers and from 3 slotting my 2 PBAoEs gives me 3.13 which gives me about 20.64% I plan on getting the two defense IOs which will give me 6% and I plan on getting about 13% off of stuff that was already going to be 6 slotted for max usage. On top of that Smoke Grenade offers -tohit and I will get a couple miles from Cloeaking Device and Combat Jumping so in essense I will exeed the cap and I will have about 20% - 25% AoE with some melee, but the way this toon mitigates, solo nothing will be able to get into melee and when I team I usually stand back and blast.

I was just wanting to know if it would have been better to alter some powers and slots to get about 35% range and about 33% AoE. BUt like you said Ranged AoE isn't as common as regular Range so I will take that and just keep what I have going.

But so far I will not be gimping my build to get the soft cap range

Quick question getting back into Blaster and really loving it at the moment. The current build I am working on is being built for defense I just wanted to know should I focus mainly on just Ranged defense or should I build for AoE and Ranged defense equally, since the toon I have stays mainly at range?

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After trying out my new semi-melee Crab, I think Bane needs a buff.

They can start by reducing the # of weapon redraws and some activation.

but my Crab can hit twice as fast and deal more damage in the long run.

Yes, Bane does a bit more damage than my Crab
My Crab also has much superior resistance/+HP to stay in melee.

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Trying to really figure out the bold part, when Bash from hide does more damage than any regular Crab power. Or outside of Hide Pulverize and Crowd Control. So as far as melee damage goes I wouldn't even try to compare a Crab to a Bane. Also Banes get build up

As far as resistances Crab has more but if you look at defenses a Bane has more not by a lot but Banes get a hold, so if I wanted to, I can stop the damage from coming in altogether, slows down killing but my chances of living are no longer based on percentages and luck seeing as how the person trying to hit me can't do anything, on top of that they have placate which in the same sense does the same thing but it doesn't really slow down killing and it does increase damage. Looking at other ATs Dom's use Holds as their mitigation to go in/stay in melee and they don't have the defenses or the damage like Banes.

As for the hp boost Banes get a perma 20% added on to the Armor that doesn't cost end or need recharge.

So I would say they have some nice tools to stay in melee.

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In case it's significant, I use a Yahoo Mail account (though not a yahoo.com address).

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Mine was a yahoo.com address switched to gmail today because I thought I was the only one. Seems as though as I am not.

If you come with a good concept you can play anything just as long as you like it. It is your 15 dollars don't let no one tell you what is not fun lol.

As for playing with it me personally I just like shooting blasts out of my hands or from a weapon, reasons why I don't have a /Psy or /Son. Well I do have a /Psy Dom but I can put money on it you won't be seeing him use and range attacks from his secondary unless he is mal'd below 32. Control is a different animal though because I do not mind playing a Mind/.

Teaming helps the most. Using that inherent of yours get that amaizing damage buff and resistance buff from each of your teammates and now works in forms. I wouldn't know about that since both my PB and WS are all hum from 1 - whatever level they are now. They are not my cup of tea, but they are nice, I kinda wanted a Jack of All but they were just a bit off I wanted a bit more control and a better pet along with some melee and ranged attacks, so you could guess what I rolled when CoV came out.

Yeah I was unable to recieve them, I went ahead and changed emails so I could see so far so good got the confirmation one.

Edit: I registered with the CoHGR site and I haven't recieved anything from them yet either, but I am guessing they haven't sent anything.

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Surveillance is, from the description, beneficial either solo or on a team, because it debuffs your target for everyone on your team, not just you, for the twenty seconds. With all the AoE attacks I have with my Ar/En/Mun Blaster, debuffing a target is better than just keeping them from attacking until my next AoE hits.

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Settled then. Thanks.

Couple of questions

1.) What do you think about Serum?

2.) Does PowerBoost boost defense of FFG?