Thought I'd make a post about my Fire/Fire/Fire Mastery Blaster, the first toon that I took all the way to level 50. The toon's name is Ammon-Ra and by far has been my most favorite toon of all of them, although my Ice/Ice Blaster (Arctic Rime) is coming in at a close second.

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The origin of Ammon-Ra:

Ammon-Ra is the Latin translation of the Heliopolis sun-god, Ra (sometimes spelled Re). Later in Egyptian history, he was combined with the Thebian sun-god name Amun and called Amun-Re (or Amun-Ra). Ammon-Ra was the paramount diety in the Egyptian's religious practices, symbolized as the Sun.

The Circle of Thorns (CoT), in an attempt to harness the raw power of the gods, performed a formerly long lost ritual originally designed to allow man to communicate with the gods. Given the perverse nature of the CoT, the ritual was redesigned to steal power away from the gods and placed inside a mortal. During the ritual, Ammon-Ra felt a disturbance in the flow of the Egyptian pantheon and left to investigate.

Due to an unknown sequence of events, Ammon-Ra was somehow brought through the vortex onto the mortal plane of existance. Needless to say that in his anger, the CoT performing the ritual did not survive for long after his arrival. When he calmed, he realized that, although still extremely powerful, he had only one-tenth of his original powers, denying him of a quick return to the Egyptian pantheon. With the CoT who had performed the ritual laying in smoldering heaps of ashes at his feet, Ammon-Ra understood that he would have to go looking for those within the CoT who had the knowledge of what transpired in the ritual. Once he has that knowledge, he could soon hope to return to his home among the gods.

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I guess you could say my love for blowing things up led to my decision to make a blaster instead of a different arch-type. I also went with Fire/Fire, at the time believing that they would make each other stronger in some way (i.e., if I hit a villian with Chilbian, then a fire bolt, wouldn't that melt the ice?). However, I learned that CoH had been designed that no matter what, you'll ultimately face a villian that is more resistant to one of your powers.

I also went with the Fire Mastery Epic Pool, too. I had studied the other Epic Powers and none of them just really seemed to match up to what I wanted. More or less, they are the basic powers of other arch-types that they get in their first few levels. For example, the Fire Shield in my mastery set is nothing more than the Fire Shield that Fire/ Tanks get with their first level. Why would I want that being a blaster? I'm a ranged hero, not one that goes toe to toe with villians (shut up, droeblek9).

The reason why I went with Fire Mastery is because of the fourth power in that set...Rise of the Phoenix. Never again do I have to ask for a teleport, an awaken, or ask that the team waits for me while I teleport to the hospital real quick. This power revives you, gives you half health and endurance points, and disorients your foes for about 15 seconds. Awesome power to have, in my own opinion.

I'll post stats on the build later on, but for now, enjoy the badges that he's earned so far. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the Isolator badge and that irritates me. I've offered bribes to the CoH GMs; however, it has fallen on deaf ears.

Rob

Me? Say something disparaging?!? Surely, you jest!
Although one word does come to mind: squishy (ack...where are the smilies?).

Very cool write up (i especially like the character origin). I'm really interested in seeing your build for Ra.

Are you going to have to respec when i5 goes live, or will your current build work?

Quote: Originally Posted by droeblek9 Are you going to have to respec when i5 goes live, or will your current build work?

As it currently stands, my blaster is what I consider the ultimate perfection of Fire/Fire Blasters.

But then again, that's my own opinion. What I've built works really great for me but might not for someone else. You'll see once I post the specs on him....whenever that may be...

Rob

Here are screenies of the powers I've got Ammon-Ra set up with. I'll be back tonight to make comments on why (EDIT: see the paragraphs below).



The two most common attacks that I used range is the Flares and the Fire Blast. I just wish that the Flares didn't have the lengthy animation that it does; however, it does take up that one second it takes for the Fire Blast to recharge. So, these being the two most common, that's why I've got them six slotted...five with damage and one for accuracy.

The reason why I've only got Fireball four slotted is that I was running out of slots that were desperately needed elsewhere. The reset on this power is longer than my two primary powers, plus it uses a little more endurance. I don't rely on this power hardly at all since it's an AoE attack and drawing attention to my squishy blaster is the last thing I want to do. I do use this an a finishing move on +1 to +2 villians after I hit Consume right after Inferno.

I've got both Aim and Buildup four slotted with recharge. I imagine that I could take this down to three slots to put it a little bit more on par with the reset rate of Blazing Bolt since I always use these two with Blazing Bolt to take out really nasty villians (i.e., sappers) before they get ranged.

Let me tell you...I had a lot of people try to tell me to skip Blaze and I consider it my second most powerful attack move. Granted, it's got limited range but with it six-slotted (5 damage and one accuracy), it takes up to 75% of the hit points of an even level foe. I typically use this attack when fighting "red" classed villians or higher right after I hit Aim, Buildup, Blazing Bolt, then this one (while Aim and Buildup are still active).

Rain of Fire? Well, it was one of the most sure-fire ways to get the Illusionist badge. Besides, I like using it as the effects are awesome.

Blazing Bolt? Two words...Malta Sappers. This power is so awesome that with Aim and Buildup (and possibly a red or two), it can take out an orange villian in the blink of an eye. This is a great power to start off a fight with a mob if you are going solo...it allows you to take out the most dangerous villian in the mob, whether it be the Iron Men of the Carnival of Souls (smashing damage) or the Sappers of Malta (those bastards...).

Inferno? Hehe, until you've seen what it can do, don't knock it. I've got a keybind when I activate the power that I use sometimes..."Ring around the rosy, pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all...FALL DOWN!". Aim, Buildup, Inferno...bye, bye.

Ring of Fire? Absolutely unavoidable as it's the only secondary power you can take when you build a /Fire blaster.

Buildup? Combined with Aim, this is a total powerhouse. I've got both Aim and Buildup four slotted with recharge that allows me to hit them both a few times during a mob battle. I could slot them again when I drop Fire Shield but probably not. It's great to use with Blaze, Blazing Bolt, and Inferno; however, the animation is critical when you are near death. I'd rather fire off one or more attacks than use these as that can be the difference between life and debt...(come on, that was slightly funny).

Consume? Absolutely essential if you are going to use Inferno, no ifs, ands, or butts. When you hit Inferno, you will have ZERO endurance points left. The three enhance recharge will pull enough endurance from any surviving enemy to give you at least 50% of your end back with only one villian. More than one villian, you'll come back with full endurance.

I took Fire Sword because I needed one more power and that's the coolest one of all.

Enko asked below why I didn't take Fire Breath. Fire Breath is another AoE but a cone AoE. Again, something I don't like using because it draws attention to yourself. Plus, the animation on this power is sooooo loooong! I initially took it at a lower level and had it four slotted but again, the animation is sooooo looooong that I quickly grew bored with it. I'd rather do as much damage to a single foe as possible to take them out of the equation, then move onto the next foe in the mob.




Hover is great being four slotted with enhance defense; however, not against psi attacks. Against smashing damage, it works like a dream and if it looks like I'm gonna have a tough time with a mob, I'll run into range attack and use it. I also use this one quite a bit when fighting either Arch-Villians or General Monsters...gets me mostly out of their reach while I wail away on them.

Fly is four slotted, strictly for speed. I did the equation and anymore than four slots and the increase is minimal. Being four slotted, I get around pretty fast.

Stealth and invisibility isn't slotted (but is now) because I have no use for those two powers after I had gotten Phase Shift, which totally kicks ass! I should have put an extra slot or two in there for reducing endurance so I could use Fly with this power, but as it is now, I'm able to zip around the special zones to find what I need before I run out of end.



Hasten. Get it. Six slot it with recharge. Upgrade the enhancements first and as soon as you get the influence for it. Without this, a blaster is practically worthless and I won't team with other blasters that don't have it. Why? Because those are the blasters that are constantly searching for quarters (i.e., dying). Hasten speeds up your powers recharge rate, plus lowers the endurance cost of those powers. At level 22, six slotted with increase attack (recharge) rate Single Origin enhancements, it becomes permanent.

Swift. One slotted with speed. Anymore isn't needed and is wasted. Only got this to open up the rest of the pool.

Health and Stamina. Two other powers essential to being a blaster. I can't tell you how many hours I've wasted standing around inside a mish waiting for my health or endurance to recharge. Then when I /respec'd my toon, I made sure to grab both of these and I've never had a problem with it since.



These are all self-explainatory. Yes, I did slot brawl, even though it's not needed after lvl 5. I only did this because I was so freakin' happy to reach lvl 50.



Bonfire - Get it and use it only in certain situations. It's an AoE knockback that works wonders inside confined environments. Accuracy on this is extremely, extremely high. I had entered one mish at lvl 42 after taking this power and I was able to use it on a +3 LT (purple), knocking her back 16 out of 17 times, allowing me enough time to take her down. The damage is extremely low...I ran over to Perez Park and used it on a group of lvl 10 (I think) Skulls and it only took about 1/8 of their hit points. Don't bother using this in the open because most villians 40+ all have ranged attacks. Yeah, it'll knock them back but they'll just get up and use their ranged attack on you, which defeats the purpose anyway. However, in a confined environment...it's a godsend.

Fire Shield? It sucks and stay away from it. I'm respecting out of it as soon as I do my last TV trial. Out of 17 times I used it, it got knocked off 15 times. However, I will say that I used it and hover when I solo'd against Anti-Matter and it worked like it should. I'm still going to dump this, get Char, and use those three enhancement slots somewhere else.

Rise of the Phoenix? What can I not say about this power? I sincerely believe that this power should be offered in the level 30 range for blasters (that's when they die the most, it seems) since blasters are very squishy and are very familiar with the hospital staff. With it two slotted with health, I regain probably about 7/8 of my health back, so I saved the rest for the recharge. I tried damage but the damage it does is about as minimal as Bonfire is.

Well, that's my build. What do you folks think?

Rob

Just as a side note, the fire shield for blasters isn't exactly like the fire shield for tankers. The one thing that would have made it worthwhile for Incendia Dicio was the fact that it had disorient resistance. The blaster version does not carry this resistance so making it not as useful. I respeced it out since I'm trying to get the healing badges but since I am a melee blaster most of the time, I might put it back in since I can use all the resistances I can get.

edit: well you answered most of my questions . just different play styles i guess. i love going melee so being able to blast the entire mob with the AoEs works wonders. i definetely agree with Blaze; its one of my mainstays. Never liked sniping so blazing bolt is gone, probably replace it with SS again since running around in mishes is so slow with it gone ... I just use aim+buildup+total focus to kill anything dangerous. i'll test out the timing with aim and build up since i finally got herostats to be able to record the recharge times of all my powers.

bonfire can also be used to isolate a crowd. put it so one guy is on one side and the rest are on the other and you can take out the loner with ease. the rest of them will keep trying to run through the bonfire to reach you. eventually one of them will get through and get knocked to the other side and get isolated or just go after them when they're on the ground. i've been killing lvl 53s with it. pretty fun. also fun to use power thrust and play catch with them. kind of fun to see a lvl 50 fake nemesis getting bounced back and force

Aim and Buildup recharge slightly slower than Blazing Bolt does. My Blazing Bolt has a reset of about 75, so I'm going to guess that Aim and Buildup have a reset of 140 or thereabouts. That's still quick enough to be able to use them twice in one mob battle.

Rob

Nice write up, and nice build !
I love the rate at which your Aim and Build UP recharge (very happy medium with perma-hasten).
4 slotted Hover (speed) is a godsend for combat movement (it keeps Nyte out of caltrops and quicksand - although quicksand will suck an airborn toon into it if you get too close).
I'll post Nyte's build after i5 goes live and i figure out what i'm going to wind up with

The only thing i might have changed in your build is Hurdle instead of Swift, but it's a matter of preference (especially on a toon that has hover/fly).

What are your keybinds/macros?

As always, another lesson learned.

Just used my free /respec and although I got exactly what I wanted, I wasted some slots here and there.

I dropped Phase Shift and picked up SuperSpeed instead. I figured that I would use invisibility combined with superspeed from now on and it should work just as well. However, I slotted superspeed four times, which is pretty much worthless beyond the one slot I should have had in it. Granted, I do go faster; however, it was only to be used in missions where I needed to stealth my way through it so speed is not a factor there.

Also, I wasted an extra slot in Fly when I should have used it elsewhere. That fifth slot shows absolutely no noticable increase in speed over four slots. I should listen to myself before making decisions next time.

I also dropped that worthless Fire Shield in favor of Char, which is pretty nice.

So, I've got one /respec left and that's from the third Terra Volta TF. I'm going to have to plan this one carefully as my toon may need to exemplar in the future. I'd hate to be stuck having some pretty unbalanced powers and fight my way through a miserable Ernesto Hess TF like I had the other night (droeblek9 will back me up on that).

I took the extra three slots from Hover (since they nerfed the defense) and now both Aim and Buildup are five slotted with Enhance Recharge and Consume is now six slotted.

AGAIN, COPY YOUR TOON TO THE TEST SERVER AND TRY THE RESPEC THERE BEFORE DOING IT ON THE LIVE SERVER!!! YOU'LL SAVE YOURSELF A TON OF HEADACHES!!!

Rob

SS only needs 2 slots to reach its max speed