About Blaster Powers
Your primary power set is full of ranged powers and your second is mostly Melee range powers. Some people prefer to make "Blappers" who are strong in melee range, but I think that if you want that, you should make a Scrapper. They're much better at it.
That doesn't mean you can't get up close and kick butt, the key is to let others handle the aggro then wipe out the enemies before they have the chance to hit you…much. Anyway, read below for my Power Pool recommendations and then hit the next page or two for the Fire Primary and Secondary Powersets.
Power Pool Recommendations
Read my Power Pools Guide for general information on the pools, but the following are Fire Blaster specific issues with power pools.
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Fighting
If you're desperate for the defensive bonuses of the last two powers in this set, go for it, but the melee range attacks are a waste considering you have plenty of more powerful stuff to choose from in your Primary and Secondary powersets.
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Concealment
Useful for sneaking up to stuff, sneaking past stuff, or if you play PvP.
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Presence
This pool is such a waste of time. The final power is good, but the rest are pretty much only good for tanks.
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Medicine
This can be useful because of the self heal. It also makes you more valuable to the team for obvious reasons, but takes away from other powers you could be taking.
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Leadership
Useful for the buffs. You could certainly use more defense and attack, but these will draw endurance that you probably won't have. Perhaps after I get Consume at a higher level or with enough End reducers, it would be worth it (assuming I have the space).
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Teleportation
Recall friend is always useful if you team a lot, but this power is better for people with natural stealth for Sneak and TP. Teleport Foe is useful for Scrappers to pull an enemy close for elimination, but as a Blaster, this is pointless since you can hit them fine from afar. If neither of these are useful, there's no point in taking Teleport as a travel power.
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Fitness
There are some Archetypes and builds that can skip the Stamina series. This is not one of them. The only real decision to make here is whether you want Swift or Hurdle. Take Swift if you plan on Fly as a travel power for the speed boost. Otherwise, it's up to preference.
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Speed
- Given that basically every power you have is an attack and they all come back fairly quickly, there's very little use for Hasten. Super Speed is fast, but dangerous for Squishies because if you get stuck on an environment object while running, any nearby enemies will notice you.
- As a squishy character, Super Jump is a risky power to take because you can land in the middle of a group of enemies and get killed very quickly. However, if you're desperate to have Acrobatics for the immobilization defense, you don't really have an option. On the other hand, fly will prevent Knockback effects at the least and you can just avoid story arcs full of Mezzers if it's a huge problem.
- Fly may be slow, but I've already got Swift from the Fitness pool which will speed it up slightly. It also gives me safe travel, protection from knockback/knockdown/knockup/ground-based slow effects and it's the best power for badge hunting so if you are building a badge-er, Fly will be your best bet (it's the one I chose for Shazel).
Leaping
Fly
Inherent Powers
For many of my builds, I leave these unslotted. That's mostly because each power becomes useless over time. In this case, brawl is meaningless after a few levels because you'll use much better attacks instead. Sprint is unecessary after you get real (or temporary) travel powers so there's no point in taking the endurance drain to leave it on. Rest is useful until you get Health and Stamina…. Well, for your fire blaster, it's still useful. When soloing, you'll probably end up resting plenty enough for it to be worth one recharge enhancement. Therefore, my recommended slotting for default powers is as follows:
 | 01: Brawl |  |  01 |  |
| 01: Sprint | | 01 | |
| 02: Rest | |  02 | |
Read the previous page for my take on Defiance.
Ping/Trackbacks
January 26th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
I’ll post this on the power pool section as well, but just an FYI, leadership is pretty much useless for Blasters. The effect of the powers changes based on the class. For a full break down you can go here:
http://cityofheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Leadership
But basically
Blaster, 2.275% Def 10.50% Dmg 7.0% to hit
Even 3 slotted with 40% defense buffs, which is very high, you’re looking at 6.2% defense buff on Manuevers. That is totally worthless. Since you can’t enhance to-damage, you’re stuck with 10.5% on Assualt. Tactics can be buffed to 19.2%, if you don’t mind taking one of the other powers for basically no reason. But then you’re looking at at least 5 slots for a power-pool power (as you’ll wreck your endurance without modding that). And most blasters get Aim, which is much easier to slot and you don’t have to pick another power for it, and drain your endurance.
Manuevers is worthless for Blasters, Scrappers, Tanks, Brutes and Stalkers as they all have the same bonus. For Kheldians, Dominators, Masterminds, Controllers and Corrupters, it is marginally better at 2.625%, which lets you get up to 7.2% - still worthless in my opinion. Defenders start with a 3.5, which lets you get to 9.6% - marginal at best. You really have to get two or three people to stack this before it really gets usefull.
March 10th, 2008 at 10:08 am
And yet, if there was a unique IO that added 6.2% defense all around, I bet most people would take it. Even small percentages can make a difference, but your point about whether it’s worth the power, the slots, and endurance is definitely valid.