Miladys_Knight

Since you'll be on teams then you will want a heavy AoE Primary. I'd vote for Fire or Archery.

It's total Awesome Sauce with a side of Super Duper.

The below is the build I use. Except for Flash Arrow (which I took as a positioning tool to allow me to line up seeds) I skipped all powers that debuff the mobs ability to damage each other.

I was soloing with it on tenacious starting at level 11 and it only got more powerful as I went on.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Bechuille De Dannon: Level 50 Natural Controller
Primary Power Set: Plant Control
Secondary Power Set: Trick Arrow
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Ancillary Pool: Fire Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Strangler <ul type="square">[*] (A) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge[*] (23) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge[*] (40) Devastation - Damage/Recharge[*] (46) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage[/list]Level 1: Entangling Arrow <ul type="square">[*] (A) HamiO:Endoplasm Exposure[/list]Level 2: Roots <ul type="square">[*] (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage[*] (3) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance[*] (3) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge[*] (43) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance[*] (46) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy)[/list]Level 4: Flash Arrow <ul type="square">[*] (A) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff[*] (5) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Recharge[*] (5) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Recharge/Endurance[*] (7) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Endurance[/list]Level 6: Hasten <ul type="square">[*] (A) Recharge Reduction IO[*] (7) Recharge Reduction IO[*] (21) Recharge Reduction IO[/list]Level 8: Seeds of Confusion <ul type="square">[*] (A) Coercive Persuasion - Contagious Confusion[*] (9) Coercive Persuasion - Confused/Endurance[*] (9) Coercive Persuasion - Accuracy/Recharge[*] (17) Coercive Persuasion - Accuracy/Confused/Recharge[*] (19) Coercive Persuasion - Confused/Recharge[/list]Level 10: Entangle <ul type="square">[*] (A) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge[*] (11) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge[*] (11) Devastation - Damage/Recharge[*] (17) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage[/list]Level 12: Spirit Tree <ul type="square">[*] (A) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance[*] (13) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Recharge[*] (13) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance/Recharge[*] (15) Doctored Wounds - Heal[*] (15) Doctored Wounds - Recharge[/list]Level 14: Super Speed <ul type="square">[*] (A) Celerity - +Stealth[*] (43) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points)[/list]Level 16: Hurdle <ul type="square">[*] (A) Jumping IO[/list]Level 18: Health <ul type="square">[*] (A) Numina's Convalescence - +Regeneration/+Recovery[*] (19) Miracle - +Recovery[/list]Level 20: Stamina <ul type="square">[*] (A) Endurance Modification IO[*] (21) Endurance Modification IO[/list]Level 22: Acid Arrow <ul type="square">[*] (A) Accuracy IO[*] (23) Undermined Defenses - Defense Debuff[*] (40) Undermined Defenses - Defense Debuff/Endurance[*] (43) Achilles' Heel - Chance for Res Debuff[/list]Level 24: Ice Arrow <ul type="square">[*] (A) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge/Hold[*] (25) Basilisk's Gaze - Endurance/Recharge/Hold[*] (25) Basilisk's Gaze - Recharge/Hold[*] (37) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Recharge[/list]Level 26: Carrion Creepers <ul type="square">[*] (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage[*] (27) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance[*] (27) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge[*] (29) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range[*] (29) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance[*] (50) Debiliative Action - Recharge/Immobilize[/list]Level 28: Disruption Arrow <ul type="square">[*] (A) Recharge Reduction IO[/list]Level 30: Spore Burst <ul type="square">[*] (A) Fortunata Hypnosis - Chance for Placate[*] (31) Fortunata Hypnosis - Accuracy/Sleep/Recharge[*] (31) Fortunata Hypnosis - Accuracy/Recharge[*] (31) Fortunata Hypnosis - Sleep/Recharge[*] (34) Fortunata Hypnosis - Sleep/Endurance[/list]Level 32: Fly Trap <ul type="square">[*] (A) Soulbound Allegiance - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge[*] (33) Soulbound Allegiance - Damage/Recharge[*] (33) Soulbound Allegiance - Accuracy/Recharge[*] (33) Soulbound Allegiance - Chance for Build Up[*] (34) Undermined Defenses - Defense Debuff/Recharge[*] (34) Undermined Defenses - Defense Debuff/Recharge/Endurance[/list]Level 35: Oil Slick Arrow <ul type="square">[*] (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage[*] (36) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance[*] (36) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge[*] (36) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range[*] (37) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance[*] (37) Achilles' Heel - Chance for Res Debuff[/list]Level 38: EMP Arrow <ul type="square">[*] (A) Unbreakable Constraint - Hold[*] (39) Unbreakable Constraint - Hold/Recharge[*] (39) Unbreakable Constraint - Accuracy/Hold/Recharge[*] (39) Unbreakable Constraint - Accuracy/Recharge[*] (40) Unbreakable Constraint - Endurance/Hold[/list]Level 41: Fire Blast <ul type="square">[*] (A) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge[*] (42) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge[*] (42) Devastation - Damage/Recharge[*] (42) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage[/list]Level 44: Fire Ball <ul type="square">[*] (A) Ragnarok - Damage[*] (45) Ragnarok - Damage/Recharge[*] (45) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge[*] (45) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Recharge[*] (46) Ragnarok - Damage/Endurance[/list]Level 47: Consume <ul type="square">[*] (A) Armageddon - Damage[*] (48) Armageddon - Damage/Recharge[*] (48) Armageddon - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge[*] (48) Armageddon - Accuracy/Recharge[*] (50) Armageddon - Damage/Endurance[/list]Level 49: Fire Shield <ul type="square">[*] (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/Endurance[*] (50) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%[/list]------------
Level 1: Brawl <ul type="square">[*] (A) Empty[/list]Level 1: Sprint <ul type="square">[*] (A) Empty[/list]Level 2: Rest <ul type="square">[*] (A) Interrupt Reduction IO[/list]Level 1: Containment



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[ QUOTE ]
The very next blaster I make

[/ QUOTE ]

This sums it up.

I have an Arch/Dev/Munitions. It's my salute to anime'. Very fun leveling, very smooth leveling, and very safe leveling. It did take a bit longer than other blasters to get there but I did it mostly solo.

I arrived at 50 without even the first debt badge which is my first blaster to have done so.

This is the build I use on my FF/Dark/Dark. It's an all around build rather than a specifically for Ship Raids build.

It provides team mates with:

23.5% defense to all from grantable shields.
29.01% defense if they are within the range of Manuvers.
44.81% if they are also in Dispersion Bubble.

For personal defenses it gives:

Melee 32.8%
Ranged 51.5%
AoE 45.3%

I have extra ranged defense in the build since most defense debuffs are ranged attacks and I like to have a bit of a pad to handle one if it gets through.

If I were building specifically for ship raids I'd decrease the amount of extra ranged defense and put it into AoE since the Rikti Magus version of stalagmites is an AoE that has a strong defense debuff (3 hits will put you into red numbers on defense values) and has enough range that it can easily hit you even if you are quite aways above the fight.

There's no need to slot to hit debuffs into your attacks (they all have a base of -9.38% and they stack with each other).

I use stacked TT (it has no -KB component) and use Torrent to position the mobs where ever I want them. Since I am hovering at an angle they don't go very far and will stop when they run into objects on the ship. Once they stop they are immobilized where I put them.

I use Repulsion Bomb and Force Bolt to juggle Chief Mezmerists so they don't put me to sleep.

I never run Force Bubble on ship raids. That forces the melee players out side of dispersion bubble and most of them will need the extra defense to counter the effects of the Rikti Magus defense debuffs.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Ebon Pearl: Level 50 Magic Defender
Primary Power Set: Force Field
Secondary Power Set: Dark Blast
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Dark Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Personal Force Field <ul type="square">[*] (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed[/list]Level 1: Dark Blast <ul type="square">[*] (A) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage[*] (5) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance[*] (11) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge[*] (23) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge[*] (23) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance[*] (25) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge[/list]Level 2: Deflection Shield <ul type="square">[*] (A) Gift of the Ancients - Defense/Endurance[*] (3) Gift of the Ancients - Defense/Recharge[*] (3) Gift of the Ancients - Defense/Endurance/Recharge[*] (5) Gift of the Ancients - Defense[/list]Level 4: Gloom <ul type="square">[*] (A) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage[*] (25) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance[*] (27) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge[*] (27) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge[*] (29) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance[*] (29) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge[/list]Level 6: Insulation Shield <ul type="square">[*] (A) Gift of the Ancients - Defense/Endurance[*] (7) Gift of the Ancients - Defense/Recharge[*] (7) Gift of the Ancients - Defense/Endurance/Recharge[*] (11) Gift of the Ancients - Defense[/list]Level 8: Hover <ul type="square">[*] (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range[*] (9) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance[*] (9) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points)[/list]Level 10: Swift <ul type="square">[*] (A) Flight Speed IO[/list]Level 12: Dispersion Bubble <ul type="square">[*] (A) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance[*] (13) Red Fortune - Defense/Recharge[*] (13) Red Fortune - Endurance/Recharge[*] (15) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance/Recharge[*] (15) Red Fortune - Defense[*] (17) Red Fortune - Endurance[/list]Level 14: Fly <ul type="square">[*] (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range[*] (17) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance[*] (19) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points)[/list]Level 16: Health <ul type="square">[*] (A) Numina's Convalescence - +Regeneration/+Recovery[*] (19) Miracle - +Recovery[/list]Level 18: Tenebrous Tentacles <ul type="square">[*] (A) Enfeebled Operation - Accuracy/Immobilize/Recharge[*] (36) Enfeebled Operation - Endurance/Immobilize[*] (46) Trap of the Hunter - Accuracy/Immobilize/Recharge[*] (50) Trap of the Hunter - Endurance/Immobilize[/list]Level 20: Stamina <ul type="square">[*] (A) Endurance Modification IO[*] (21) Performance Shifter - EndMod[*] (21) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End[/list]Level 22: Night Fall <ul type="square">[*] (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage[*] (36) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance[*] (36) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge[*] (37) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range[*] (37) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance[/list]Level 24: Force Bolt <ul type="square">[*] (A) Force Feedback - Damage/Knockback[*] (33) Force Feedback - Accuracy/Knockback[*] (34) Force Feedback - Recharge/Knockback[*] (34) Force Feedback - Recharge/Endurance[*] (34) Force Feedback - Damage/Endurance/Knockback[*] (43) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge[/list]Level 26: Repulsion Bomb <ul type="square">[*] (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage[*] (46) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance[*] (46) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge[*] (48) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range[*] (50) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance[/list]Level 28: Torrent <ul type="square">[*] (A) Force Feedback - Damage/Knockback[*] (40) Force Feedback - Accuracy/Knockback[*] (42) Force Feedback - Recharge/Knockback[*] (42) Force Feedback - Recharge/Endurance[*] (42) Force Feedback - Damage/Endurance/Knockback[*] (43) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge[/list]Level 30: Maneuvers <ul type="square">[*] (A) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance[*] (31) Red Fortune - Defense/Recharge[*] (31) Red Fortune - Endurance/Recharge[*] (31) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance/Recharge[*] (33) Red Fortune - Defense[*] (33) Red Fortune - Endurance[/list]Level 32: Assault <ul type="square">[*] (A) Endurance Reduction IO[/list]Level 35: Life Drain <ul type="square">[*] (A) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Endurance/Heal/HitPoints/Regeneration[*] (37) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge[*] (45) Touch of the Nictus - Heal/HitPoints/Regeneration/Recharge[/list]Level 38: Tactics <ul type="square">[*] (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff[*] (39) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge[*] (39) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance[*] (39) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Recharge/Endurance[*] (40) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance[*] (40) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up[/list]Level 41: Dark Consumption <ul type="square">[*] (A) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Accuracy/Recharge[*] (43) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Accuracy[*] (45) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Recharge[/list]Level 44: Dark Embrace <ul type="square">[*] (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%[*] (45) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/Endurance[/list]Level 47: Soul Drain <ul type="square">[*] (A) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Endurance/Recharge[*] (48) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Recharge[*] (48) Adjusted Targeting - Recharge[/list]Level 49: Combat Jumping <ul type="square">[*] (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed[*] (50) Luck of the Gambler - Defense[/list]------------
Level 1: Brawl <ul type="square">[*] (A) Empty[/list]Level 1: Sprint <ul type="square">[*] (A) Empty[/list]Level 2: Rest <ul type="square">[*] (A) Empty[/list]Level 1: Vigilance



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I'll throw you a curveball on this and make 2 different suggestions based on using storms Thunder clap.

Earth/Storm/Stone or Fire/Storm/Stone.

Both will be recharge intensive but allow you to use Stalagmites or Flashfires plus Fissures to perma stun entire spawns.

Fire will be more damaging as you can use Hot feet and Bonfire as AoE damage powers while you season with pets and Tornado.

I have a hurricaneless Fire/Storm/Stone that is built this way it's quite fun to play.

Fear and blaster AoEs don't play well together since the mobs get a chance to retaliate after taking damage.

Presence pool doesn't get very long durations and gives you no ability to fear a boss.

All that said, your best bet may have been to go with Fire/Mental. Mental gets the Scare power and other emotional type powers (Drain Psyche, World of Confusion). Scare stacked on top of Intimidate gives you a boss tool.

The short durations means that getting a useful amount of fear is going to be very slot intensive.

It's not without merit as you can fear a boss from range then the rest of the spawn in melee and (fairly) safely use Drain Psyche for maximum effect.

I did try this and it is reasonably effective but the opportunity costs in powers and slots wasn't worth it and I respected into a more damage oriented build and was much happier.

It's doubtful. The changes to PvP were for the arena. They weren't needed at all for base raids since there are actual goals other than simply killing your opponent(s).

The changes have actually harmed and bogged the zones down.

The only thing that may fix PvP will be a rethink of the changes and the devs actually reverting many of the I13 changes out and going in the direction that the players wanted instead of the opposite direction.

[ QUOTE ]
Fighting one opponent, taking melee def as an example, unslotted, sr gets 19.5% and SD gets 15%. SR gets better def debuff resistance too. I think mids screws up phalanx fighting.

[/ QUOTE ]

Mids automatically assumes that you have one target in range of Phalanx Fighting. You can change this to 0 by altering your Mids Data Base.

Earth/TA/Primal. There is nothing that offers more control in the game plus it has a very nice mix of defense and resistance debuffs.

The only thing it doesn't do is lots of damage but that's what team mates are for.

I have more than 1 favorite. They have very different play styles depending on what power sets you choose, which powers within those set that you select, and how you slot those powers.

My main and most favorite is an Energy/Energy/Force Blapper.

Second is an Arch/Dev/Munitions.

The rest are all tied for third and include an Energy/Elec/Fire slotted for maximum AoE Knockback.

A Sonic/Ice/Fire.

My Arch/Energy/Ice.

A Fire/Energy/Force.

A Fire/Fire/Fire.

An Ice/MM/Ice.

and some other level 50s and a few that haven't made it that far yet.

[ QUOTE ]
Has flares been buffed in the last 2 years??

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, twice in fact. With the change to defiance 2.0 Flares had its animation reduced to 1 second.

Then a few months later its range was increased to 80 feet.

Most of what the other posters have said is true.

The Contagious Confusion proc IO is actually better than this entire power, aside from the chance for the proc to fire.

One nice thing about this power is that you don't really need to slot any end red in it. It only uses .13 end/sec which is where most toggles are after you have them slotted for end red.

These are the ways that I have seen/used/slotted this power and how effective I rate them from top (most useful) to bottom (least useful).

1) Set bonus mule. This is the most effective use of the power. Once you hit 50 this is the place for the purple set. 5 slots if you are a recharge focused blaster (skip the confuse/rech) all 6 if you are slotting for ranged defense.

Prior to level 50 running the power even after you have it slotted as a set mule is a play style choice. If you find your self in melee alot then it's probably worth running other wise it's not.

2) Proc mule. You can slot 5 damage procs and an Accuracy in this power. If you spend a lot of time in melee you can actually rack up a decent amount of damage with this power.

3) As intended. A power to shed minion damage when you close for Drain Psyche. One SO enhancement's worth of confusion duration is all you need here. Just enough to make the duration longer than the cast time of DP.

4) As a passive minion only mitigation tool. It's not even really good for this. Any minion that closes to melee range gets their attack off anyway. Usually the duration is only long enough to get them to switch targets long enough to change attack types before it wears off and they go back to smackng you around.

Technique 1 is always useful whether you are teamed or solo.

Technique 2 is more useful on a team when you have a tank controlling aggro or a controller using AoE hard controls and can be useful solo if you went with Ice Epic and slotted up lots of defense.

Technique 3 is not so useful on teams but can be helpful solo if you play a suicidal blaster that likes to jump into minion swarms. This isn't really necessary since you can easily wipe out all the minions from range as an AoE focused blaster and you only need 1 target for unenhanced DP to give you as much recovery as 3 slotted stamina PLUS Miracle and Numina uniques.

Technique 4 is a n00b trick. Most minions will be dead before they get into melee range unless you are playing a low AoE damage primary like Psi or possibly Ice and you fight without moving from your start spot.

[ QUOTE ]
To be honest, I can't recall ever seeing a Psi/ blaster, let alone a Psi/MM. Kinda wierd. You'd think I'd have noticed some by now given the thematic pairing.

You'd be fairly unique anyways.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've seen a total of 2 (3 if you count the one my wife never plays). One was a Psi/Energy the other a Psi/MM. Both were played by 24+ month vets, both had decent set bonuses and both died more often than any other blaster on the team.

I started 3 different Psi/* blasters a /MM a /energy and a /ice I deleted all of them before hitting 35 and won't be playing psi/* again unless the set gets a major buff and rework.

Most of the people here are forgetting Plant/*.

You get seeds of confusion at level 8, you can have it 3 slotted at 9, 5 slotted at 11, and 6 slotted at level 13.

You can perma it early (level 11 using level 14 confuse set IOs) with 5 slots and then franken slotting confuse IO sets.

Throw seeds of confusion then follow up with roots, the mobs all be come your pets, the damage from roots assures that you get XP, and you can use strangler on any thing you missed with seeds and/or roots.

The AoEs can get kind of expensive on endurance if you have fewer than 3 targets so I always recommend a setting of at least Tenacious as soon as you have seeds perma. You will almost always have 3 mobs per spawn that way.

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Fulmens, World of confusion and body armor are fillers.. I honestly can't find more powers that I want heh. I will move things around and maybe pick up the frankengun =) Thanks!

Besserwisser, Having never played a blaster to snipe level I wasnt' aware of the drawbacks, thank you. About snap shot, I was reading another Archery guide that said to stay far away from it. Hrm. I will see if dropping the snipe and world of confusion gives me power space wise.

Thank you both!

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The archery guide you were reading that reccomended that was probably either:
[*]an old guide before archery's animations were updated.[*]a pre-defiance 2.0 guide.

Things have changed significantly for blasters in the last year or 2. No blaster should really skip their tier 1 attack any longer.

Psi/* is pretty pathetic. All the best things out of Psi attacks from defenders got removed from the blaster version to keep it from being overpowered in PvP.

Then they changed PvP but didn't repair Psi/* for PvE.

The only decent pairings for Psi/ are /energy as a single target focused hover blaster with boost range and /MM which makes up for many of Psi/* weaknesses.

*/MM is as unique as is /Devices but /MM works well whether you are teamed or solo. */MM goes well with every blaster primary.

Bottom line is the devs did an excellent job with */MM and a very poor job with Psi/*.

You are pretty much an outlier as a data Point Twisted. Yes I'm sure it's possible to do. I would be willing to bet that less than 5% of the total CoX population does so and it's not my experience in the pre-22 game.

If they were data mining your data point would most likely be discarded as an outlier.

Congrats on being able to do so but that is not the norm.

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My question to you all is, who'd win?

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The villians

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I meant, even if it is done poorly, if what they are doing is allowing characters to switch sides, then it won't divide the playerbase.

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If the Markets remain seperate then the player base is already devided. If I can either take my MM on redside (bad market) or blueside (good market) then which one do you think I'll choose if I enjoy playing the Market? That's what I mean by deviding the player base...redside will lose players because now villains can have the blueside market but I don't see too many heroes going redside.

It's long past time for the Markets to be merged...

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I have a single villian that hasn't been deleted. It's a dom. It's my signature villian. It's not a perma dom and because of the suckage that are non-perma doms It hasn't been played in almost a year.

When the dom buffs go in and Going Rogue goes live that Dom will be pulling up stakes and moving to Paragon City permanently.

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So that means that Siphon Life should be effected by +Heal set bonuses, yes?

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Yes, and Reconstruction is not.

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Having lots of holds on a blaster is nice when you're up against groups with problem lieutenants (controllers tend to focus on AoE control on teams, I've noticed), but usually two is plenty (because it lets you hold PPs to keep them from godmoding).

Anyway, my assault rifle/fire blaster thinks:
Sleep Grenade: Ugh, this sucks.
Cryo Freeze: Whhhhhy doesn't this stack with beanbag? Isn't this supposed to be the set to complement AR?
Body Armor: Did I forget to turn on my toggle? Oh wait.
LRM: Heehee, this is a lot of fun, especially with full auto. Looong recharge though.
Surveillance: Not especially noticeable, but peeking at stuff is nice.

I skipped Cryo Freeze Ray because of the not-stacking issue, but I think I'm going to swap out the sleep grenade instead because it's really useless. Or maybe body armor, since it's really pretty lame.

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It's really easy to stack Cryo Freeze Ray using just SOs. You can get almost triple the duration of the cast+rech time with out any outside buffs or global bonuses.

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Wow thanks all for the advice, they all seem like great powers. Hold is great for taking someone out of the fight, AoE sleep great opener, Body Armor some passive resistance, survallence (I have on my Bane I already know), and the AoE Rocket.

Which one would be the least useful since I can only choose 4.

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That depends on your Primary and Secondary. If you are a Sonic/Energy then Sleep Grenade is pretty pointless.

If you are an Ice/* then Cryo Freeze won't do you much good.

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I could see the Sonic one since sleep doesn't stack, but with Ice/ wouldn't that give you three holds, is that too much for a Blaster?

Thank you

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Well actually sleep does stack if the second application doesn't do damage. That's why I like my Sonic/Ice. The blaster version of Frozen Aura does no damage and that allows a sonic/ice to stack up a mag 5 sleep on a boss.

As far as 3 holds for a blaster goes....

The blaster's Job is to kill things quickly. If you take a 10 second window and use all 3 holds the cast time from those 3 powers has used 5.37 seconds which means that you are spending most of your time holding stuff and aren't doing much damage.

Ice is also noted for a lack of AoE which you can really only mitigate by going Ice/MM.

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Wow thanks all for the advice, they all seem like great powers. Hold is great for taking someone out of the fight, AoE sleep great opener, Body Armor some passive resistance, survallence (I have on my Bane I already know), and the AoE Rocket.

Which one would be the least useful since I can only choose 4.

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That depends on your Primary and Secondary. If you are a Sonic/Energy then Sleep Grenade is pretty pointless.

If you are an Ice/* then Cryo Freeze won't do you much good.

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I would be willing to place money on them working it so that if you have a character switch sides, you start from square one; at level one, with no enhancements or inf. But in order to make it your character you keep the same powersets, AT, costume slots and character name. It makes sense from a business standpoint; leveling up your character takes time, and in an MMO time=money. It makes sense in a play standpoint; just because you have a lot of reputation and security clearance with Recluse doesn't mean Hero Corps automatically recognizes your authority, you have to earn it.

In a perfect world in order to accomplish this the devs would add another step to the login process; enter name and password -&gt; choose server -&gt; choose character -&gt; choose faction. It wouldn't be that different a mechanic than dual builds currently is, just more involved.

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Uberguy is right. If this is the way it works very few people will pay to do it......

Unless of course they put Incarnates in the game and the way to unlock the Incarnate AT is to level up as one side then crunch all the way back down to level 1 on the other, grind your way back up to 50, and tada you have unlocked the Incarnate Power set for that character only.

I'd be inclined to do something like that if the incarnate AT could combine AT classes.

Say like my level 50 Blaster could choose to keep the blaster primary but take a controller primary as a secondary power set. My archer would be in there as a Archery Blaster/Trick Arrow Defender in a heart beat.

Yeah I know wishful thinking but it would take something as over powered as that to make me grind twice to get there. This might also be "the way" that you expand past 50 that was being hinted at.