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xtreme_hippy

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Medicine for blasters

I was thinking of starting up an energy/energy blaster to play around with quite a lot. So I was pondering his pools, and wondered if medicine was a good idea - I've heard somewhere (here I think, but that's beside the point) that Aid self is great for blasters.

Any thoughts appreciated

01/25/06 02:17

BishopDon

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RE: Medicine for blasters

Well...Eng/Eng for blaster is a very good choice for a damage dealing blaster. Personally, I did not and more than likely will not take the Medicine pool, however, depening on what you want to do with your blaster the choice is yours.

I could be mistaken, but I believe that the medicine pool heals are interruptable. If so, then it would be a little tough to heal yourself or anyone else if your are actually engaged in battle. If you are in a team and at a good distance and want to heal, that is great or if you are soloing and escape aggro for a bit and heal up, also great. However, if you are looking for the quick heal in the middle of battle, I'm not sure that would be possible with that pool.

If i'm wrong about this pool, please someone correct me.

01/25/06 06:43

xtreme_hippy

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RE: Medicine for blasters

I was thinking of dumping at least one interrupt down into aid self, and I am also planning on soloing now and then (which is the main reason I thought about it).

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01/25/06 07:48

Sapphire_Gypsy

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RE: Medicine for blasters

the heals in the medicine pool are interruptable... however if you were planning on dumping some interruptions in there... since you can't 6 slot for heal anymore... I don't see why this wouldn't work.

I have a "friend" I teamed with all the time... he's a scrapper... he was our emergency healer... because he took the medicine pool... now he took it so he could get the healing badges but I don't see why this would't work.

another pool that I personally love for any character is the leaping pool... combat jumping and acrobatics add a little defense and mez resistance which are really great, especially if you're soloing. I have it on my fire/eng blaster and when teamed she took more damage than the scrapper I was teamed with... aka he died first ;) I love the eng/eng combo, my hubby played one and he's just in love with the set. The eng primary does some nice damage and the secondary with conserve energy is great. It used to be before ED that if you had hasten and conserve eng you didn't really need stamina... but now that you can't have perma hasten and conserve 6 slotted w/ recharge I haven't tested it recently but I think any blaster deserves stamina.... I am however gonna do my best to avoid it on my blaster cause I love the idea of a build that's hasten and stamina free... the 2 powers that most people think to HAVE to have. :)

Ok well off on a tangent there... I don't see why you couldn't take the medicine pool... just be aware of the fact that it is interruptable.. even with it slotted... and don't count on it always saving your butt...oh and when you get the chance... Rise of the Phoenix (fire EP)... great power! :)

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01/25/06 09:25

gec72

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RE: Medicine for blasters

I could see it being very useful for reducing in-between fight downtimes. The most I've really played with a blaster is my "son's" ice/ice, and there were times when a battle would be a near death experience, and really it was best to wait until full health until doing the same again. I think a way to look at it too is which pools best supplement which AT's. I'm not sure medicine really helps a defender much, as most of them have heals anyway (depending on your set obviously). Same goes for controllers having defender skills as secondaries. Many scrapper/tank sets have heals - dark armor, regen, invuln, fire, stone. Blaster is the AT left out, so it would seem the best suited for picking up Medicine imo.

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01/25/06 10:44

blacktomcat

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RE: Medicine for blasters

I agree that it is better for some types than others. I'm taking it (granted once I'm in the 20's) for a ff defender I created. I've also seen an empathy defender, uber-healer with all the available heals, including medicine pool. I can see having two rezes, but otherwise, seems kind of redundant.

I've considered it for my blasters as well, but I just haven't been able to find a good place to fit them in.

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01/25/06 22:13

MajorTwilight

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RE: Medicine for blasters

I have a few toons who have taken the Medicine pool. I have a ice/electricity blaster who uses to 'heal other' ability of the medicine pool to toss a bandaid or two onto the front line beaters while I'm waiting for my powers to cycle. It's nice as a backup emergency heal. My highest character is only 11th level, so I haven't gotten Aid Self yet.

Drawbacks: These powers are very interruptable. It takes a while to pull out the medical tricorder (that's what it looks like, really) and use it, and if you're hit, forget it. The heal amount isn't bad. It's better than several other heals and automatically works, unlike some that need to hit a target.

In the end, it's a decent emergency heal, but if there's anything else of use in the power list to choose as you level, then you should probably skip Medicine. As far as using it as a heal while soloing, you'd have better luck just buying a ton of respites. The power takes too long to activate, and one hit makes it all for nothing.

Bottom line: Respites, and lots of them, are probably better than the Medicine self heal, unless you can run away and use it unmolested.

01/26/06 00:40

jinxycat

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RE: Medicine for blasters

ok it wasnt until my I6 i think it was respec that i picked up medicine, and i have to say i like it. ok yes sometimes you need to use it urgently and get interupted but its also saved my life many a time when i didnt have a green, i have 3 heals in aid self and just the 1 in aid other. i think it does around 450 a heal and 250 aid other and it can make all the difference in a fight. i will suggest though only pick it up if you have the power slots open. thats what i did, i had a space to fill in the higher lvls when i respeced and got that.

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01/26/06 06:32

spitfiredd

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RE: Medicine for blasters

I just did a respec with my lvl 22 magic blaster and this time i gave him the medicine power pool with aid self, aid other, and resesitate. It works well for when you don't have a defender, or when your defender dies because of stupid or unforeseen "accidents."

01/26/06 08:47

Thundarpants

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RE: Medicine for blasters

Going back to the original question about Medicine on an Energy/Energy Blaster, I'd say that would be one of the better Blasters to try to use the Medicine pool. The fact that they are interuptable is a pain, but can also be modified. If you run a Blaster long enough, you'll learn that there are times to find some defalade(cover) to block you from direct line of sight, and stop the incoming DPS for a second to get your stuff together for you next attack. This should buy you time to health back up as well. Don't forget you can enhance interupt time to reduce it. You'll definately want to look into those enhancements as well as the heals.

Some reasons why and why not on a few blaster types:

Energy: You are a bit more of a single target devastator. You draw a little less aggro than a heavily AOE laden Blaster, and you have knockback. I've been able to pull off a second snipe attack while an enemy was getting back up on my AR Blaster. This means you should have time for the heal to execute as well in certain situations.

Ice: Another good potential Medicine using Blaster. Because of all of the holds and inherent slow effects, you will have more time between incoming attacks. I have a friend with an Ice/Ice, he gets to use it all of the time......... on my Fire Blaster.........lol

Fire: Forget it. Can you say aggro magnet!? All of the AOE's and no effect means you just really tick everything off that doesn't die in the initial onslaught. You're lucky if you get ro run away, much less use an interuptable power.

Electricity: I can see in a tight battle between me and a Death Mage, I could have used that. It all depends on how much you utilize the endurance drain features like Short Circuit. I've had a DM just sitting there like a bump on a log because I drained his endurance away, and knew full well the first one of us to get an attack off was going to win. With the lack of any effect like knockback or slow, it's a toss up.

AR: Toss up as well. My AR/DEV is an aggro magnet. Between Flame Thrower and Caltrops, I pick up all of the "stray aggro" in the fight. If you worked more on your knockback, you might have better luck with it. I'm still waiting to put M30 back in. I tried to cut down on the KB because I team a lot.

Arrow and Sonic: Never did enough research to know good or bad on this one. They didn't really float my boat, so I never made one.

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01/30/06 17:46

blacktomcat

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RE: Medicine for blasters

QUOTE

Arrow and Sonic: Never did enough research to know good or bad on this one. They didn't really float my boat, so I never made one.

Toss-up on both. Sonic has a lot of cone action and a big-boom AoE. Depending on how much these were relied upon, you may or may not be able to do it. Granted, of the cones, one knocks back and another sleeps, so it may be possible between attacks. Archery seems more targeted, with only an early cone, the AoE grenade arrow and it's big rain at the end. Probably more likely, but again, it would matter how much these were utilized.

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01/30/06 18:15

Novapulse

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RE: Medicine for blasters

A little late but my 2 cents.

I have the medicine pool on my blaster, and I have found it useful from time to time. Aid Self really helps between battles when you want to get your HP up, and it works as a situational heal in battle. (I suggest at least 2 interuption reductions, and the power has a long animation so be careful)

Aid other I have found is very difficult to use when the other person is moving around, so you might want to consider Stimulant rather than Aid Other.

If you mostly team and have good healers you might be better off using the power slots for somthing else. I'm thinking of respecing out of Medicine, but it's just useful enough to make me want to keep it.

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02/09/06 09:38

Red Hero

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RE: Medicine for blasters

I think medicines are never for blasters, but i can be wrong too.
Because they are interruptable.

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05/11/06 11:48

infernalstorm

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RE: Medicine for blasters

I was a fan of the medicine pool until I learned how to better use range, line of sight, and defensive positioning (fight or flight management) to my advantage.

Three disadvantages I found with Aid Self:

1. The times I needed it most were when I was held or mezz'd; by then it was too late.

2. The animation/interrupt time pose a large risk when used in the heat of battle. Many a times distancing ones self from the battle can be the wiser choice.

3. Unless attempting to get a healing badge, having to select aid other or stimulent imho is a waste of a power slot. As a damage dealer, we should not have to withhold our might to pass a bandaid to others.

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06/22/06 15:47

DemonLight

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RE: Medicine for blasters

I have a lvl 38(almost 39)blaster who is energy/energy, and i have to say that i kill them so fast that i die once every 10 mishes so even if i had gotten aid self, i would rarely use it.Exspecially energy, the primary kills enemies so fast you barely get hurt unless you dont slot your powers correctltyIf you hide behind boxes or covers,then you should be fine without aid self. So i have to say,dont get it unless you get hurt a lot,i suggest not to get it exspecially for a blaster. Thats my 2 cents

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07/04/06 00:52

MajorTwilight

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RE: Medicine for blasters

Right now on Pinnacle I have a Ice/Elec blaster who has medicine pool and it is handy to use on the front liners when we're between battles. I'll probably respec it out when I do the I7 respec, but for now it is useful in a limited way, and it's about the only way out blaster/tanker/scrapper SG has of getting healing badges. :-p

07/04/06 10:37

lenway

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RE: Medicine for blasters

I have a fire/fire blaster, and I realized that having the low defense as a blaster, health/stamina are great pool powers for a blaster. Your endurance is always regenerating, and your health also. Personally I dont think medicine is a good idea.

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07/04/06 11:47

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