GreenBone

I've lost count of the number of alts I have. And a great number of these are blasters of all flavors. I love laying waste in either AOE or ST style. But I've run into what I consider is a serious problem - and that's the survivability of blasters at higher levels. As a result of this, I haven't been able to level a blaster past 36, and at 36 I'm having a real hard time staying alive.

At high levels, my damage remains respectable, as long as the villain group doesn't resist it too much, but I see controllers, scrappers and tanks owning the battlefield while I play pick-off artist from a distance. And if I attract any attention - pow, I'm dead. Some may argue that this is a good reason to play team "roles" better on higher level teams, but come on. I've played every other AT and the blaster feels by far the most fragile.

My first 50 was a Dominator, so I'm don't feel I'm tactically insufficient or don't know when to retreat. So have you experienced the same? Have any tips and tricks?

I'm hoping one of my current alts Lil Fren, my AR/Dev blaster will change the bad taste in my mouth. So far, at level 33 and now with Full Auto, she's proving to be the most survivable of my many blasters by far. Unfairly so. The controllery aspect is my lifesaver. But no other secondary (no, not even /ice) seems to offer /Dev's safety. And to be fair, I haven't tried /Mind.

Thanks for your insights. I really do like blasters. I really do.

I thought Poo-man was the most damaging Troller pet.

I agree with the spirit of DarkCurrent's message. I have had the most fun on Controllers and Doms in this game, with Doms taking the lead in the fun category. Fun to me is challenge in the game, and no other AT to me spells challenge like Doms. Knowing how many to control (= aggro), when to run into melee, retreat, blast from a distance, run around a corner, control again... Doms are the greatest utility player, and easily move from controller to blaster and even to bleeding edge scrapper continuously based on battlefield conditions and team makeup. My first 50 in the game was a Fire/Fire Dom. There was never any "waltzing in" per your OP. It was a quick combination of firing off controls and then dishing out damage, damage, and more damage quicker than they damage you. And even though your flaming crackmonkeys are a big source of this damage, they become another source of aggro that just adds to the stress....errr...."fun."

I think all villains are designed this way to a point - more utility, less ease, more considerations, more to do in the late game than their uber hero counterparts late game. Other than most blasters, I find most heroes too "easy" late game. Doms remain a fun challenge from 1 to 50.

All that being said, I've often told people that because of the utility and secondary effect of "more damage," I found my Fire/Fire Dom to be the Easy button in the game so far. So much control and so much damage... Things move fast and furious, and it felt like a sprint to 50 instead of a jog.

You want a challenge? Take on my current project - a melee-focused Ice/Electric Dom. People usually scratch their heads on that one...

So I'm newly in love with my Ice/Thermal Controller, but my first love is Dominators. My first 50 was a Fire/Fire dom, in fact. Because I love Ice so much, and I like being a scraptroller, I was looking for a good melee-style Dominator and came up with Ice/Electric. I'm assuming Ice/Ice with its swords would be a good choice as well, but I enjoy the diversity of powers put together from different sets.

Does anyone have experience with an Ice/Electric they can enlighten me about? Thanks!

...crickets...

I guess this build is as rare as I thought.

So admittedly, Doms are some of my favorite toons, but I have a renewed love of Controllers lately. My Plant/Storm remains one of my favorite toons, and I recently built an Ice/Thermal that I just LOVE! Incredible utility player who can do anything, and most things very safely with Ice's mitigation and slows.

My problem is I want to take everything in both sets, so can either do dual builds for different purposes - for instance ranged versus melee, though melee would be admittedly support, not damage - or I can find out if anyone here has run these builds and has recommendations. So here I am.

There are no guides that I see for this combo, and a really small number of search results. I know /thermal is relatively knew for controllers, so maybe that's why.

In addition to the safety and utility, I have to mention the effects are just right. Earth seems to pollute the screen too much for me, Illusion feels real hands-off. Mind and Grav, too, have minimal effects. Fire I've played to 50 as a Dom, and Plant, well, how much more giggle-worthy could a set be than that?! Ice seems to have visible lockdown and slows without getting in the way, and Thermal is the same with visible cool-looking shields.

Anyway, enough rambling. Does anyone have build advice for what is skippable in your opinion? What would be best for a melee-focused toon (I like being in the thick of things) and a utility player style versus sticking to a single spammable repetition of moves?

Thanks.

Scrapper - BS/SR
Blaster - Ice/Energy
Tank - WP/Fire
Controller - Plant/Storm
Defender - Rad/Sonic
Dominator - Fire/Fire (easy mode) or Earth/Thorn (giggle mode)
Brutes, MMs, Corruptors, Stalkers... meh

What happened to the Soldiers and Widows Comparison Chart by Linea_Alba? I loved that when I saw it, and now the link appears to be gone or broken.

I consider myself a smart player, and just started playing an Empath. The choices are/were a bit daunting and I was starting to figure this out on my own. Thank the gods I ran into this series of posts. 2 cookies to the OP and other wise ones in this thread. Thank you.

Thank you so much for the guide. It's a great primer that reinforces my insane idea of creating a BS/SR Scrapper may not be as crazy as I originally had thought. Obviously, animation and endurance problems are concerns for me, but I've recently learned positioning and pacing are powerful allies - as much as high damage output and DPS.

I'm curious about any builds anyone has had success with using this combo. I'll take Colette's advice to heart and will try building something in Mids.

Thank you again for the kickstart!