Blaze Sabre Blank Slate!

[Sofaspud]

Okay. I've just launched Blaze Sabre, a Fire/Fire Blaster. I'd like to make her my first actual Blapper. I've played Blasters before, and have a
decent idea of how to make them work; I've played Scrappers, which seems to me like putting the game on easy mode almost. How best to combine the two?

So here's a chance! I'm not looking for full builds, but general advice. If you -want- to do a full build, feel free, but bear in mind she just hit
level 6... so it'll be a while. *grin*

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

[Ankhani]

First thing. Fire/Fire a blapper does not make. Fire/Fire Scrapper is your Fire/Fire Blapper. If you want fire meele go for a Fire/Fire Scrapper, It is very much like blapping, but you get awesome secondary powers too. (Rise of the Phoenix, first and foremost)If you really -want- a blapper you will need to reroll.

First Lesson: The Blapper works almost exclusivly out of their secondary power set, which is usually either Energy Manipulation or Electrical Manipulation, as they have a plenthora of Meele attacks. Tough, Combat Jumping and Acrobatics are extremely useful here, also get a Steadfast Protection and Karma: Knockback Protection IOs. Steadfast can go into Tough, Karma in CJ.
Second Lesson: Debt. Learn it, live it, breath it. If a blaster faceplants some, the Blapper will faceplant more.
Third Lesson: The Tank is your friend. When both of you are working correctly, neither should go down, and mobs should dissappear. Don't jump the gun on attacks, and wait for the Tank to gather Aggro, and Taunt.

That is basically all I can say, but there is certainly more to know.
---

The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."

>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI

[firvulag]

Ankh's covered most of it.

If you're going for all melee range combat, the only powers you should take from the primary are the first (you have no choice) and its version of aim.
For this reason, avoid AR (no aim). The two key powers for blapping are Aim and Build Up. With those two active HE-AT can take bosses with out too much
trouble. EBs still give her fits but, they're supposed to. You may also want to take the primary's nuke, just because. I find it's usefull for
the interminable "hunt X Rikti in Crey's Folly" missions, along with the large groups of monkeys.

Fire's not a great secondary for blapping, but you could do it. It has 7 melee/PBAoE powers, which do either minor damage (3) or moderate damage (4). EM
by contrast has only 5 melee powers but there are 2 that do minor damage, 1 that does moderate, 1 that does high, and 1 that does extreme damage. Elec is
similar but has 3 powers that do high damage and none that do extreme. And really with Boxing or Kick, you will not generally need more than 4 or 5 attack
powers in your chain. You're trying to do massive burst damage as a blapper, you won't survive long going toe to toe with stronger mobs so you have to
finish them quickly.

One more nice thing about EM is that its build up is tier 3, and everyone else's is tier 5.

You will want to add three slots to both Aim and Build Up as soon as possible, and fill them with +Recharge.

As Ankh said, and if you're like me and end up soloing most of the 20s and 30s, you will not be earning XP, but working off debt. With BU+Aim you can rip
through most small spawns, but every so often you'll run into something nasty (ie Lost Reactors and Council Vampires). And on that note, learn to love
being mezzed. It will happen, you will be held, slept, stunned, immobed, knocked up and knocked back (Get acrobatics, get acrobatics, get acrobatics). Just
remember, as you are technically a blaster, you can use any ranged primary powerset powers you took while mezzed.

And if you want a travel power other than Super Jump, don't worry. You should have lots of power choices available. HE-AT ended up taking two powers I
never use just because there was nothing else available that I actually wanted. Just remember you can only take 4 pools plus your Epic.*grumbles*.

[Acyl]

Note that your choice of powers for blapping depends on how 'pure' you're going for. Given that the first two blasts work while you're mezzed,
you may wish to consider taking those just because, even if you don't slot them extensively.

Many blapper players also favour Ice primary because it has two holds. Bitter Freeze Ray has a long animation, which limits its usefulness for a Blapper, but
Freeze Ray is good and quick. Elec primary has a similar situation with Tesla Cage.

That means you can use it together with the melee-range Ice or Elec hold, if you take Ice or Elec secondaries. Ice and Elec have relatively few pure melee
damage attacks, but they make up for it with the control toys.

Note that an Elec Blapper can take Short Circuit from the Elec Primary (which is a PBAoE, so you'd need to run in anyway), and also Power Sink from the
Elec secondary (likewise PBAoE)...and basically be as good a sapper as any other Elec, while also having the hold capability.

The point here is that given your lack of actual defenses, it's a good idea to pair a Blapper strategy with some kind of lockdown strategy as well.
Particularly if you need to fight bosses and suchlike. Minions you can shrug off...lieutenants and bosses can slay you in melee range.

Bear in mind that even Energy secondary for blasters has control options - namely your stun effects, and the click power you have to boost said effect. Thus if
you're playing an Energy secondary blapper, you don't wanna neglect the stuns as part of your arsenal.

This is why, in the end, I can't recommend Fire/Fire as a blapper combination. You have no real mitigation there.
-- Acyl

[OpMegs]

Being privy to Spud's thought process here(and having generally planned to imitate it on my own Fire/Fire Blaster), I think I can say that the concept of
the Blapper as "Scrapper with more ranged" isn't what either of us was going for.

When I think of a Blapper, I'm thinking more of a "damage, damage, damage, damage" build. You don't have mitigation, until maybe epics.
However, that ignores that a Blaster's primary mitigation IS damage. Screw debuffing; incinerating your opponent at any range is the best method of safety.
The faster they're dead, the faster you have no safety issues.

So, I dunno if that's actually textbook Blaster, but my previous Blasters haven't had melee almost AT ALL (Psi/Psi and AR/Dev aren't known for
their melee ability), so maybe I've just picked the odd ducks.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

[Ankhani]

Trust me, if you want a Fire/Fire Blapper go for the Scrapper. Its just great for that. I see Fire/Fire Blasters more as a ranged Blaster
---

The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."

>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI

[firvulag]

Yeah, damage output is your mitigation OpMegs, but fire doesn't have the damage output that some of the other secondaries do. There's a few PBAoE
toggles, which spread it around, but nothing it has does better than moderate damage. If you want to give Lt.s and Bosses a bad time, you need more damage,
faster. Hence why Elec and EM are typical blapper secondaries, their melee range powers do more damage per hit.

I'm not saying Spud can't do it, I'm just saying it's not going to be as effective as other builds, and probably more frustrating.

[Sofaspud]

Yeah, Ops pretty much nailed it -- plus there's the whole concept idea to work around, too.

I need to think about whether I want to keep it Fire/Fire (which is the concept constraint, after a fashion), or if I'm willing to sacrifice one of those
and go for Fire/EM, Fire/Elec, or possible keep it Fire/Fire but make her a Scrapper instead of a Blaster.

Nyarrgh. Must consider.

Thanks for the advice, folks; I'll update once I've figured out where I'm going

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs