Honeygun – Natural AR/DEV Blaster

This is the first of a series of posts I’ll be doing on my various alts. The idea is to (a) garner discussion (“That trick will never work!”), and (b) possibly inform. Be advised that, as guides, these posts are “informed to the point of where I know things now,” as opposed to Wisdom Handed Down from Level 50. Let the reader beware.
It’s only in the last couple of weeks that I’ve started seriously considering character planning. Something I used to pooh-pooh a bit as something that only CoH geeks got into, I now realize that (within certain bounds of reason) it just makes good sense.
I track my characters using the CoH Planner. There are a number of similar programs out there; this is the first one I found that worked, though the interface is a scosh idiosyncratic. It’s remarkably powerful, though, if you want to have it calculate resistances and endurance drains for your powers as enhanced and toggled (which requires you do a fair amount of bookkeeping to note all your enhancements). As a basic character mapper, though, it works just fine. The stats below are from one of its export formats.

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So, let’s start with my current leading lady, Honeygun, specced to level 20 (currently at 13):

Archetype: Blaster
Primary Powers – Ranged : Assault Rifle
Secondary Powers – Support : Devices
Honeygun is a Natural-origin gun-toter. A lot of folks pooh-pooh Assault Rifle as a primary power (what comics characters carry guns — aside from, say, no-names like the Punisher?), but I think it’s viscerally very effective. Occasionally there’s audio confusion as to who is firing, me or the mobs, but it all works out.
Natural, though a fit for AR, does raise one problem. Clockworks are a Natural target (mission-wise and for DO drops), but Clockwork are resistant to Lethal damage, which is what the AR set throws out. Rrg.
Devices just fits, thematically, with AR. And it’s a keen power set to boot.

01 : Web Grenade immdur(01) endred(13)
01 : Burst dam(01) acc(3) dam(5) dam(9) dam(11)
01 : Brawl dam(01)
01 : Sprint runspd(01)
These are the starter powers, and quite effective they are. I’ve found Web Grenade to be a decent stand-off attack (“Get away! Get away!”), but it’s come into its own of late in dealing with higher-level baddies on a team — I run up (range is mediocre), WG them (twice, if it’s a boss), and then I can open up with my weapons without doing knockback out of the scrappers’ melee range (and into the sight range of as-yet-unpulled baddies). It also slows enemies, which, on the main enemies is always good, and for folks you’re trying to get away from (or ignore) is also handy.
I recently slotted this for EndRed, since it’s not cheap (and I was using them a lot as part of my chain). Note that ImmDur does not have readily available DOs (they only start showing up in stores at lvl 25, Talos and Independence Port); you must rely on Training enhancements or drops.
Burst, as a power, is sometimes considered lightweight, but I find it handy from two aspects. First, the number of rounds that hits is variable, which can push the damage higher or lower. But it has a shorter recharge than Slug, and lower End cost. More importantly, it does no knock-back, which makes it suitable for sniping/pulling, and for not torquing off the scrappers and tanks.

02 : Rest recred(02)
02 : Slug dam(02) acc(3) dam(5) dam(9) dam(11)
If Burst is for sniping, Slug is for heavy hitting. Good damage, and with knockback (which can be handy or irksome, depending on the application). This is currently my most powerful attack.

04 : Buck Shot dam(04) acc(7) dam(7) dam(15)
Buck Shot‘s dis-ads are several. It’s a weaker attack than Burst and Slug, it’s a cone so it can draw unwanted aggro from the various folks it hits, and it can do knockback which annoys the melee folk.
The advantages are the flip side to this. The weaker damage it does it does to several foes (within the cone), and can knockback/down a whole group. It takes a bit of maneuvering to group the baddies together, but it’s a great weapon to use at the right time.
At this point of the build, I had all the basic attacks to carry me for a while. The next big block of levels is devoted to slotting them up and adding various peripheral powers.

06 : Combat Jumping endred(06)
Combat Jumping is a power I use in most of my builds. It not only makes getting around the map a lot easier (and with better control than Hurdle), but it adds a small (5%) Defense buff. At the time, I was planning on HG taking Super Jump as her travel power.
In retrospect, though, I wish I’d skipped it. It took up an extra power slot I could have used later, and I’ve revised the travel plan, so it’s not as good as it could havfe been. Though the Defense is always something good to have.
I dropped an EndRed into it just to reduce the overall Endurance burden I was beginning to create. That, too, may have been an error; CJ is really cheap, Endurance-wise. Better, probably, to put in a Jump or Defense enhancement.

08 : Swift runspd(08)
Another attempt to cut down on Endurance costs. I kept forgetting to turn Sprint off in missions, which sucks a lot of Endurance. Swift takes care of that, is always on, and is one of the prereq Fitness slots toward Stamina, the Endurance Mecca.
As it turns out, that’s been a handy choice, both for those reasons and because it works so well in conjunction with the next power I got.
As a note, having both Swift and Sprint on gives you a very nice proto-travel ability. That is to come in handy, too.

10 : Stealth defbuf(10) endred(15)
Usually running as a duo, and with a non-aggro-magnet scrapper, as well as being the point person for pulling, HG was beginning to draw a lot of attention. It took a page out of Boulder Dude’s book and took Stealth, which both makes me much less spottable (or only spottable a lot closer), but adds appreciably to my Defense.
As a down side, it’s an Endurance sink (though the cost is comparable to Sprint). It also slows you down something terrible, but Swift makes up for that (as well as Sprint, if you’re not in combat). I try to leave this up inside a mission whenever possible.

12 : Targeting Drone endred(12) thtbuf(13)
I had been going to take this at 10, but the Defense thing was getting to be too much of a hassle. Targetting Drone rocks, though, in bumping up your Accuracy. I went from 85-90% accuracy (per HeroStats) to 98-99%. Sweet. I’m considering (assuming I get flush enough to buy some) dropping the Acc training on my firearms, now that I have this.
Biggest annoyance, aside from the Endurance drain (comparable to Stealth) is that the sound FX for the drone are enough to drive you mad, mad I tell you! It’s only kind of annoying for other players (or so Margie tells me), but for me, it’s a constant irksome drone — and one that can easily mask the sound of glowies. Rrg.
Second biggest annoyance is that the ToHit Buff (not Accuracy, but ToHit Buff) is only available in DO form at Level 25 stores. So far that’s not critical, but it would be nice to have.
That all said, I wouldn’t not have it for the world. Pays for the whole secondary.

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So, that’s the level I’m currently at. The immediate future I have planned?
*sigh* So many powers, so few power-ups. The following is still in the planning stage, so may change as advice and/or experience dictates. I’m still in the middle of trying to build up support powers, rather than focusing on my main mission (blowing the snot out of the bad guys). And there’s no end in sight …

14 : Hasten recred(14) recred(17) recred(17) recred(19) recred(19)
16 : Super Speed endred(16)
So no new attacks here, but Hasten will bump up my fire rate substantially, which should accomplish much the same. Plus it has a good Defense buff.
And it’s the pre-req to Super Speed. I decided, around level 8, to move toward SS as my travel power, which meant (given the other needs) pushing it from the “standard” 14 to the not-unheard-of 16. I think this will work well for HG,

18 : Health hel(18)
20 : Stamina endrec(20)
Meanwhile, Endurance is a problem already, and too many of the above powers will just add to it. So for 18-20 we drive toward Stamina, taking Health along the way (instead of Hurdle, since we have CJ already) to help with recovering from damage.
And from there? Back to combat basics — Sniper Rifle and Flamethrower will both be available at that point (indeed, have been already), and Cloaking Device looks like a good replacement for Stealth (lower End, no movement penalty).

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Roads not travelled … powers not taken …
M30 Grenade looks like a AoE variation of Buck Shot (comparable but more smashing damage, longer range, a bit more End). As such, I’d recommend one or the other but not both. A lot of damage purists turn up their noses at Beanbag, but there’s nothing to sniff at about mez attacks (aren’t they just what most players curse the most?); I may actually go back and take this some day, if I have a free slot.
On the Devices side, Caltrops is a skip I considered long and hard — again, mez attacks (slowing, in this case) are worth thinking about, and it would be a good stand-off. That said, I think it functionally overlaps with Web Grenade, and I made my choice on that one. Taser is another mezzing stand-off, but it’s lack of range limits its functionality in this case. I’m still considering Smoke Grenade if I can free up a slot for it, but I think I have more important powers to take first (see above).
I’ll have gone into four power pools with all this, which is the max (and so also limits other avenues). There’s not a lot else in the pools I’m that interested in (though Margie keeps hinting I should consider Grant Invisibility), so I should be able to focus for a while on the remaining combat powers for the time being.