[ETA on Shield & Seismic for Sentinels?]

On a biomechanical level, using just one arm for all your attacks over and over again incites a repetitive action muscle strain so horrible that I don't think my character could logically reach level 10 without serious injury to oneself.

[Team Corruptor]

1 hour ago, StriderIV said:

Up there with Corruptors would be Defenders and VEATS, specifically Fortunatas. I feel like Fortunatas can do a bit of everything.

 VEAT stacking has a self imposed limit because of their low damage caps, low base hp, lack of self healing, and lack of damage resistance. The damage cap is the biggest issue with a full team of veats because 8x assault and 8x TT:assault is a 240% dmg buff, and VEATs do not have a damage cap that supports most of that going to waste. Hitting 300% defense to all also has dubious benefits when your hp and base resists are all sitting super low, especially in the case of fortunatas and night widows.

[Team Corruptor]

When I ran speed TFs back on live going for completion time records (pre-incarnates) we often ran with 1-2 kinetics corrs (usually 2 for consistency, unsuppressed movement speed and fulcrum shifts) and 2-4 cold corrs (sleet, heat loss, benumb, shields), and 0-1 radiation corrs (aoe -regen for simultaneous AV kills such as LRSF vindicators, freedom phalanx, STF patrons, ITF romulus/nictus fights), and 1 brute. This was our science. When going rogue happened we found replacing some supports with blasters to be beneficial. Kinetics + Cold Domination at a 1:2 ratio was always our recipe for best success and regardless of some of the variance of team comp the kin/cold core was the defining aspect. Corruptor stacking has always been a thing.

[Mind/? or ?/Psi]

Mind/Fire, Mind/Energy, Mind/Earth, Plant/Psi, Fire/Psi are all really good combos. Mind/Psi is an ironic thematic pairing that has little synergy.

[So is Rad any good as a primary?]

3 hours ago, ZorkNemesis said:

 

It's not just that, Neutron Bomb animates slower than practically every other targeted AoE blast as well.  Compare it to attacks like Fireball, Explosive Blast, M30 Grenade, Water Burst, etc and you'll usually see Neutron Bomb firing later than everything.

 

Plus in my opinion, the damage doesn't match the animation.  When explosions make a mushroom I want to see the crater left behind.

 

Power -         Cast Time - Arcanatime

Fireball -              1.00s - 1.188s

Explosive Arrow - 1.00s - 1.188s

Ball Lightning -    1.07s - 1.32s

Explosive Blast -  1.67s - 1.848s

M30 Grenade -   1.67s - 1.848s

Neutron Bomb - 1.67s - 1.848s

Bullet Rain -       1.67s - 1.848s

Water Burst -      1.73s - 1.980s

Psi Tornado -     2.37s - 2.508s

 

There is no issue with Neutron Bomb's animation time. Projectile Speed is not animation time/cast time. Slow projectile speed can also be taken as an advantage to a power, as the critters are not notified of Neutron Bomb when the cast time completes, but when the projectile hits, (misses can alter this), and gives you some buffer to fire off your follow up attack before combat begins. 

 

 

 

[Settle an Age Old Question: Achille's Heel Proc in Sleet/Freezing Rain, yay or nay?]

I do not consider achilles in freezing rain and sleet to be worth the slot investment due to the inconsistency in application. For cold domination I put the proc in infrigidate, which is more reliable in applying the Achilles heel to hard targets.

[Whats the best way to slot Time Manipulation??]

Time is definitely a worthy choice to invest in having multiple builds if that suits your purposes. As you can definitely make a very offensive build with softcap defense or go all in on a tank build.

[So is Rad any good as a primary?]

Neutron Bomb is a 1.67 animation pre-arcanatime. 1.84 arcanatime I believe but that is just off the top of my head. For an aoe that animation time is actually quite good. It can *feel* slow but there is no pause/lag after you toss the ball which I think is why it is continually incorrectly quoted as being a slow animation when it isn't. 

[So is Rad any good as a primary?]

Rad blast efficiency comes from how many procs you ram into each attack which lends itself more towards being great for defenders over blasters which get more mileage from just capitalizing on good base damage and low animation times. Defenders also have better access to oppressive gloom because they get soul drain in the same ancillary whereas blasters rarely choose OG because that's all you get from that ancillary choice. I consider OG to be very important in making rad blast feel strong because it allows your cosmic burst to 1 shot stun bosses.

[Storm - Who wears it best?]

I'm shocked that storm/sonic defenders weren't mentioned. They absolutely shred hard targets with all the -res from sonic boosting your damage from tornado and lightning storm. It is even more synergistic than that because tornado and lightning storm deal so much damage without relying on constant animation time casts in an attack chain which gives you more time to get very solid stacks of -res from your sonic chain. Sonic attack is also very endurance light and works well with the endurance heavy storm summoning. I even run Burnout on my storm/sonic to double cast freezing rain, tornado, lightning storm, and dreadful wail which contributes heavily to some disgustingly fast AV/GM kills with how fast you can ramp up your dps when you start the fight with 2 lightning storms and 2 tornados pinging an AV with over 150% resist debuff.

[Bio/WP DDR]

On 2/9/2022 at 8:07 AM, arcane said:

Dunno man, I think your proposal is modest and reasonable, but if we lean any further into “DDR mandatory” thinking, we probably have to give every non-defense set some base DDR like 15-20% at that point.

 

This is a slippery slope.

[How to improve tank damage]

Outside of the above build suggestions which are all great, you can also comfortably carry a full tray of 20 red insps as an invulnerability tanker as your survivability shouldn't be a concern even with a more offensive IO build. You may also consider using an insp combine macro for more reds on the fly. Consider using offense amplifier and the recharge sg base buff, this will give you +35% more recharge for more TFs and ETs. I also will second the mention of Gloom and Dark Obliteration for your ancillary choice. If your accuracy from set bonuses is high enough and your endurance sustain is solid, dark Obliteration can take 5 dmg procs + annihilation or ragnarok-dmg or ragnarok-proc.

[How do YOU Perma-Dom]

Build for about 128% global recharge before hasten. This keeps your domination up without needing to click hasten so you can use the bathroom or what have you. This doesn't mean skip hasten though. Hasten acts as an effective buffer against recharge debuffs without needing to slot such IOs. Having your domination recharge as fast as possible is always beneficial because it means more resets to your blue bar. For dominators, more recharge means more recovery or avg end/sec. You can get 20% more rchg from sg base buff and 15% from amplifier. And last but not least, align as a villain so you get access to Frenzy which automatically fills your entire domination bar, so you never actually need to waste time building up your initial domination street sweeping or whatever. Basically all my characters are vigilante, and my dominators are villain-only. Sucks, but an easy choice to make. Domination is the auto power, hasten is a clicky.

[MSR is stupid, and possibly one of the dumbest designs in MMORPG history]

Yeah, I'll just echo that if you don't like it do other activities. There is plenty to choose from. On homecoming I did exactly enough MSRs to get the badges and then I was done with it. I don't understand the appeal that people find running it on repeat. The time and effort it takes just to gather bodies is ludicrous. 

[Do procs Scourge?]

No. /thread.

[AR Ignite peak anyones interest?]

I feel like AR might be at it's best playing alongside a gravity controller utilizing wormhole and fold space to continuously tightly clump mobs. If you had a friend that wanted to duo in such a way I would try that.

[Really Hard Way Blaster]

4 hours ago, Snarky said:

Dominators....this comment intrigues me....I thought they were way overshadowed at incarnate work. 

 

Sure, let's take a look at Dominator Fiery Assault and compare it to Blaster Fire Blasting.

 

Blaze - slotted 5x Apoc with proc, skipping the dmg/rchg, 6th slot Glad Jav dmg proc. 

Blaster - 437.2 dmg

Domi - 413.6 dmg

 

Blazing Bolt - slotted 5x Manticore, 1x Glad Jav proc

Blaster - 749.7 dmg

Domi - 673.8 dmg

 

Fire Blast (the power, not the set) is way better on Dominators because they were immune to the Blaster/Defender/Corr tier 1/2 blast animation time normalization. Fire Blast for dominators still has the original 1.2 sec animation while blasters had their Fire Blast animation increased to 1.67s. Blaster base dmg here is 84.72, Domi's Fire blast is 105.4.

 

Dominator abilities have higher base recharges, but much of this is mitigated by global recharge though you may find more gaps in domi attack chain depending on your recharge set bonuses. Dominators can use a 6 dmg proc ST hold to shore up their attack chain. Mind and Fire primaries are best here due to the animation time discrepencies of holds in control sets. (control set ST holds really needed an animation time normalization more than t1/t2 blast sets did and still do). 

 

Blasters get the stacking dmg buff from defiance and a higher dmg cap but otherwise Dominators can do great damage, and access to Sleet in the Ice Ancillary is a huge boon to shore up the difference. If you're going fire primary for Char in your single target rotation you also have access to Fire Imp dps which can be huge when they stay alive. Dominators also get mez protection 😆

 

A blaster is of course going to deal more damage, but the utility from being a dominator is not something to ignore completely. I didn't want to come across as saying blaster is not a good choice for the role you're looking to fill in the original post but I wanted to open the conversation to exploring all your options. I do think you should really consider some proc based builds for the role you are approaching as I said in my previous post, because in league content you can absolutely forgo so much personal protection for higher dps if you are making a character or alternate build that has a very specific function. Good Luck!

[Really Hard Way Blaster]

First, if the character is being designed for league content and only league content certain build philosophies and paradigms shift. Procs like Achilles heel drop in value significantly because there can only be one application of the effect on a target. If 6 people are applying achilles heel on tyrant you get one not six. 

 

Second in league content softcapped defense building diminishes in value compared to squishier variants of characters that focus on dmg proc slotting. You will more than likely be supported by solid aggro control and defense buffs from allies. Furthermore, you may even consider +hp set bonuses and resistances over defense set bonuses. I know proc based builds are a bit foreign to you @Snarky but this may be an instance for you to really delve into that and explore the possibilities here.

 

The last thing I wanted to bring up is why a blaster for the role in endgame content. Having a rez is massively useful for fights like tyrant for others who struggle with the crackle. Tyrant also resists debuffs pretty hard that can put more emphasis on sets like nature that provide a league wide 82.5% dmg buff with overgrowth and have that unique debuff in corrosive enzymes along with a powerful rez. Dominators also deal quite competitive dps with high base damage, fully from range in sets like fiery assault or have brutal regen debuffs in psi assault, -1000% regen from slotted drain psyche that you can joust alongside sleet from ancillary which has defender modifiers. 

 

[Suggestion - Status on Friends List]

Love this idea. Other games do the same. /signed

[Question about slotting recharge into a proc power]

I just use mids and see if I can slot a power with recharge without lowering the average damage produced by slotted damage procs. If my proc damage goes down I don't slot the recharge where possible. Because mids automagically displays proc damage as an average I've never found myself needing to delve into the math too much. Just be careful around powers that display proc damage incorrectly in mids, such as rain powers and pseudopets.

 

If mids displays normal proc damage as 64.58 (90% of 71.75) and purple dmg proc as 96.38 (90% of 107.1) then you're good to go! If your proc damage is displaying lower than this you can use that number to calculate your proc chance and decide if you want to lower your slotted recharge or decide if slotting the proc is still worthwhile to you.

[Your most used IO's]

4 hours ago, Uun said:

As far as IOs I almost always slot, .......  Numina's +regen/recovery, Regenerative Tissue +regen, ...

 

Just a quick note about regen tissue +regen, because you said you always slot it. Regen tissue is +25% regen. If you are slotting both Numina unique and Regen Tissue in health, a +5 boosted Numina: Heal is strictly better than regen tissue because of the 2 pc set bonus in Numina (+12% regen) which puts the value of the Numina: Heal at 33% !. Of course you can have both, but if you had to choose the regen tissue unique should be dropped in favor of a 2 pc Numina set. Impervious Skin is also strictly better than Regen Tissue unique because the first one you slot provides the same +25% regen in addition to some status resist.

[Tip: order of procs is 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.]

@InvaderStych I don't reccomend testing on a brute because of fury as you noted. For -res application testing you can get around this by damage capping yourself with a bunch of red insps if a brute is who you have to test with.

[Tip: order of procs is 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.]

This is an awesome thread, thanks for the testing @Sovera

[Triple Stack Spider's Bite Damage Bonus?]

Veats also don't have much room for damage buffs. They're stuck with an awful 400% cap, which will hopefully be addressed someday. Really should have been addressed during the brute/tanker damage cap adjustment though where I did bring it up.

 

400% dmg cap

100% base

100% enhanced value

30% musculature alpha

10% hybrid passive 

15% TT: assault

15% leadership assault

15-30% set bonuses

 

=100-115% available margin to increase damage.

 

That is not even enough room to fully benefit from bu/aim with a gaussian proc. You cap out with about 4 small red insps. Ally damage buffs are often wasted.

[How do I get the best mez protection?]

30 month thread necro op