Ston

I was using -res procs. I would use both if possible. If you look at the table, I made a column for how many -res procs each set had. I understand this is useless if you have teammates with the same proc, but the intention of this test was to measure solo DPS. It might make a set like Katana look better than it really is, but either way it has access to -40% resistance reliably which is pretty significant. A set like Kinetic Melee will have to get it from Cross Punch, but i don’t think it would compete with Katana either way. It might depend on the enemy, but I doubt it’s highly skewed. If i wanted the most accurate results, I’d have to do the math for each set to measure how much of each damage type they’re dealing (including procs) and compare that against the average resistances that enemies have throughout the game.

Each build had about 90-100% recharge before hasten. I’ll add a .zip for all the builds used soon! I don’t think i’ll have the energy to do non proc tests for all of them, but I’ll do it for a couple sets to see how things measure up!

This is fair. But yeah I’m pretty opinionated on the test parameters. My goal was to see what DPS each set is capable of. Gloom/Snipe are pretty standard, yeah. But sets like KM and Staff rely so much on CP and Gloom and it’s reflected by their results. You have sets like Katana that can make a full chain without Cross Punch that does really good DPS, and it just isn’t possible on the weaker sets. If a set is carried by Cross Punch and Gloom, I wanted to measure that in this test then see if any improvements are made in the future. If i did just primary powerset powers, the gaps between sets would be even wider. It doesn’t necessarily need to be high DPA attacks either. Eagle’s Claw is relatively low DPA for a T9 attack but the bonuses it has end up making it worth it. Sky Splitter, for example, is just abysmal in almost every way and nothing really makes it worth using.

I didn’t use Boggle and wasn’t even aware of that interaction. But I’m gonna retest them all with that in mind because I would like to see better ST times for Psi. GPB was definitely hitting hard. Probably has comparable burst damage to the top sets. But the randomness of insight might have been slowing it down, but I’ll try it out with Boggle!

My Discord: @Ston#0707 This will be a WIP as long as I'm playing this game, but I've finally wrapped up some initial results for all the primary powersets of melee archetypes. My goal is to get a baseline of how sets compare with each other before any new changes come out (particularly changes to archetypes and procs). All of this testing was done with what has worked best for me. I don't claim to be an expert on each AT & powerset, but I did do several rounds for each and used what got the best results. Hope this can give some of you guys some useful information when it comes to melee ATs! 😄 As I update results, I'll change the screenshots on this post and make a changelog at the bottom. Tests Performed Pylon ST DPS Test A lot of players are familiar with Pylon tests at this point. Basically, a Rikti Pylon offers a stationary target with standard resist/hp that you use to test your ST DPS. *** I do not claim that every attack chain used in these tests are the best possible for each powerset. I tested several for each and used what was getting me the best results. Would be happy to test better chains if suggested. *** Trapdoor AoE/ST Clear Speed Test (Stalkers omitted) A repeatable mission meant to be run solo on +4/x8 notoriety to measure how fast you clean clear large groups of enemies that include bosses and an Elite Boss at the end. Enemy groups are Council and Arachnos with a wide variety of debuffs and resistances you have to deal with. Stalkers were omitted from this test since they don't have a taunt aura to manage aggro and would have too much variance. Just know they would be the slowest by far. Test Parameters All tests use a standard Willpower build that is identical for everything except for primary powerset slotting. This includes all pool powers (Speed, Leaping, Fighting, Leadership) and epic powers. I do believe that pool/epic powers should be included for these tests as they use archetype damage modifiers. Scrappers/Stalkers use Mu Mastery for Zapp & Ball Lightning Tankers/Brutes use Soul Mastery for Gloom & Dark Obliteration All builds use the same incarnate powers. T4 Musculature Radial T4 Degenerative Core (For Pylon tests) & T4 Reactive Core (For Trapdoor tests) T4 Ageless Core T4 Assault Core (Active for Pylon tests, Passive for Trapdoor tests) All attacks had a 95% chance to hit Attacks use the same slotting approaches for Brutes/Tankers and Scrappers/Stalkers. The goal is to maximize the average damage output for each attack. Scrappers/Stalkers use 2 acc/dam HOs + 4 procs. This puts them at the Enhancement Diversification damage cap to get the most out of crit damage and then as much proc damage/utility on top of that with the remaining slots Brutes/Tankers use as many procs as possible. For most builds, this was 6 damage/utility procs per attack. This is the best way to get the most damage out of these ATs since they can't get as much average base damage as Scrapper/Stalkers. Any powers that could not take 6 procs would have a lvl 53 acc/dam HO put in the remaining slot(s). This only applied to a small number of powers. I ran tests where I slotted attacks with acc/dam HOs and they were consistently slower on average than using as many procs as possible. Pylon Test Results Pylon/Tradoor Averages Tier List Commentary on tier list (more emphasis on ST DPS when considering Stalker rankings): S-Tiers: Exceptional AoE and ST DPS. Fast animations. Good proc opportunities. A-Tiers: Very good AoE and ST DPS. Fast animations. Good proc opportunities. B-Tiers: Either very good AoE or ST DPS. Decent animations. Good proc opportunities. C-Tiers: Okay AoE or ST DPS. Slower animations. Decent proc opportunities. D-Tiers: Poor AoE or ST DPS. Slower animations. Lacking proc opportunities.

I've been having a blast testing and recording data. Thank you for the support! And yeah I'll keep editing the OP as I retest powersets. I'll try to make a note of what changed so that it can be referenced later! I think the Radiation time of 1:25 was a fluke on the first round of testing. I must've gotten very lucky with procs. I think the results are getting more & more accurate as I keep testing. I've been using HeroStats to parse combat logs to refine my testing strategy. For example, I threw out one of my Ice Blast tests that would've been the fastest time but I noticed it had 0 misses. I want to try to get each test around 95% accuracy to match what's expected in game.

I ran through this test again and added more data for accuracy, amount of attacks, FF procs, and -resist procs. Didn't get around to adding data for individual proc rates for each attack, but could always expand on that if needed. Gonna leave a screenshot of the new results here and also add them to the OP. I didn't get around to testing a different chain for Sonic Blast. But according to mids, Shout has higher DPA then Shriek and Scream since the animation reduction. I used Musculature Core this time for Elec Blast. It did end up adding a decent amount of DPS! Also added Fury of the Gladiator -res to Short Circuit.

I’m with MoonSheep on this one and would go Scrapper or Stalker. Energy Melee on either of those ATs are ridiculously good for ST burst damage. You can join any team and deliver instant value by 2-shotting bosses… it’s amazing. Tanker is alright. You can get the most AoE out of this combo on a Tanker with the increased radius/targets on Whirling Hands & Power Crash. And yeah, don’t really see any reason to choose it on a Brute in the game’s current state.

I’ll give that a try in my next round of testing. Going to do another round with some suggestions in this thread so far. Your suggestion does sound like it’d be more DPS, it just depends on how much recharge is left on Screech after using Shriek/Scream. It might mean Screech needs more recharge enhancing or I’ll need to chase more global recharge to keep the chain gapless. But interested to see if Sonic can squeeze out some more DPS!

I’ll record times for 5 runs each in the spreadsheet when i get a chance. I do agree that would make it more accurate. I don’t think much would change though. If anything each set might be 5s slower on average but similar variance.

All tests had 95% chance to hit on all attacks

Heavy Mallet is good but I think it's far from the best in secondary melee attacks. But I found it was good melee attack to use when focusing on the primary set's DPS. It has a decent recharge rate and animation time. But IMO the best melee attacks would probably be Charged Brawl, Energy Punch, Fire Sword, Golden Dragonfly, Smite, TK Thrust, Skewer..

This was probably an oversight by me and I was overvaluing the extra endurance modification for Elec Blast. I will re-run the test and see if results change with the extra +dmg. I had been doing some testing with an elec/elec blaster earlier and was getting my best times with Musc Radial, so I carried that over to this test. But it's not getting as much value from the +endmod when using Earth Manip, so I think you're right and that Core would be better here. Also, yes I was using a -resist proc. Radiation Blast is the only set that can have both Achilles and Fury of the Gladiator -resist procs in its attack chain without including a nuke. It can get Achilles from any of the ST attacks, and then Fury of the Gladiator in Irradiate.

I went with Earth Manip because it seemed like a good set with limited variables for DPS testing. You don't have a damage aura or any special mechanics that could swing things. Heavy Mallet is a pretty standard melee attack with a 12s recharge which allowed it to fit in any attack chain. It certainty isn't the top performer, I would give that to Elec, Ninja, or Fire. But the goal was to just use some melee attack that does pretty consistent damage. And I chose it over a Seismic Smash just because of SS's long recharge time. 20s just didn't really fit well in attack chains and would vary too much across different primaries.

Rad Blast is fine. Its actual among the best when considering procs. It will never do as much damage as Fire, if that’s what you want. The game exchanges raw damage for secondary effects. Rad has defense debuff as a secondary effect, so it won’t be doing as much damage as Fire, which has DoT damage as a secondary effect. If you look at base damage, the attacks have the same damage modifiers as other sets, so it’s not really disadvantaged in any way other than maybe slow animations and projectiles. You can quickly make up for this difference by putting -resist procs in ANY of the attacks, which is something pretty unique to Rad. In my testing, it can clear AoE and single targets just as fast as any other set. You may not be using it efficiently. We could probably help you out if you share what build you’re using.

Illusion / Psionic Assault Dominator 0:46 This is my new fastest without any insps/temps that boost offense. This obviously isn't really sustainable since it has all pets focused on one target, but I never would've thought a dominator would be pulling some of the highest DPS in the game. Some keys to this working: - 500% regen debuff from Drain Psyche (using burnout this becomes -1000%) - FoTG -20% resist proc in Cross Punch - Achilles -20% resist proc in Weaken Resolve (on top of -7.5% resist) - Sleet -30% resist - High DPA between Psionic Lance & Mind Probe (with BU proc in Lance)

Yep! The reductions to animation times really gave the set much better feel & performance. It's at the top of the list for AoE and very decent for ST now.

I wasn't aware it replaces like that, I'll try again with that in mind! My recharge was definitely high enough to make them overlap. And yeah it had 5 Ragnarok in it, so capped damage & recharge. But these AoE patches typically don't help with this test since a ST attacks usually have better DPA. Ice Blast, for example, is slower when casting Blizzard whenever it's available. But worth testing since Storm has special mechanics.

I tried several different tests for Storm and found just using C5 was the fastest. I did a test using Storm Cell, C5, and Intensify as often as they recharged, and that test ended up being the slowest of all around 2:15. So I think the animation time ends up eating into DPS too much, but would definitely be worth it on a full team against larger groups of enemies. And @Nyghtmaire, yes they reflected the recent Page 6 changes 🙂 Gloom is actually a very strong DPA power now.

I'd be interested in doing a test for Defs/Corrs when I get a chance. That'll be next on my list! But yeah, the results for them will likely be pretty different. They don't have high DPA melee attacks to weave into their chains so they'll have to rely more on their primary attacks. This might mean filling chains with lower damage / aoe powers. I'd imagine most of the list will stay about the same though.

Back with more spreadsheets! This time I was interested in testing ST DPS for all the blaster primaries. Tried to isolate damage from the primary set as much as possible while throwing in one melee attack from the secondary. I think this was important because most Blasters will be throwing melee attacks in their chain pretty often. I chose Earth Manipulation because it has a fairly standard melee attack (Heavy Mallet) and no damage aura or special mechanics that could swing damage. The target used was the Mobile Dummy Combatant pet which has the same HP/Stats as a Rikti Pylon. *** DISCLAIMER: Yes, procs were used. Force Feedback +Recharge procs were used wherever possible and the usual slotting would be 2 acc/dam HOs + 4 procs. Gaussian's Build Up proc was put into Build Up. The only proc I didn't include was the Decimation Build Up proc. Some sets could get more proc damage than others, but this was something I wanted to see measured. Things will probably look different if it were done on SOs, but not really interested in that testing. *** There were a few surprises: - Radiation Blast gets a ton of value from the -res procs in Irradiate when using it as a filler attack. - Seismic Blast does crazy DPS if you are on the ground the entire time and use Stalagmite when it's powered-up. - Archery has ABYSSMAL ST damage. The 2:01 was actually pretty lucky because most tests with it were closer to 2:10. Tried several different chains, even weaving in Explosive Arrow. It needs some dev help next time blast sets are looked at.

Thanks for quoting your own post, I did read it. But I can’t tell from that statement whether or not you think the new Full Auto is a big performance difference. Easier doesn’t always mean better. I think you’re undervaluing the change here. It’s the same damage per activation. But that is not the same as damage per second in actual gameplay. It’s very noticeable how much faster the damage is applied now, especially if you use it from max range. Your math doesn’t include distance or projectile speed. And in a game where things die in seconds, those are pretty important. And I could be biased because I do a lot of solo’ing at x8, but it’s been a lot easier for me now to hit full groups of enemies. Before, I’d usually have to back up, hover, jump, teleport, etc to get a majority of enemies in the arc. Most of the time if I was standing in front of a group, I’d be too close and would probably miss half the enemies. This is especially true on indoor maps. That’s not the case now. You can basically hit them all from only a few feet away.

Toxins gives you extra proc damage which is usually better than BU. And it can proc Gaussian's, so I'll count it. I'll give you Darkness & Ninja, though. But both of those would be very poor pairings with AR since they want to be in melee range basically the whole fight. So you're gimping yourself by using them anyway. And no, the statement didn't apply before the patch. I wouldn't downplay the Flamethrower buff, the projectile speed means more DPS. And you must've not done much testing with Full Auto before & after the patch. It is insanely easier to hit a full group of enemies now. You have to spend less time positioning yourself which means more DPS. Myself and others have been getting trapdoor test results using AR/TA that compete with Fire/Fire at around 3:30. Neither AR or TA would have dreamed of competing with Fire/Fire before these changes. (Yes, I know Trapdoor isn't the gold standard for testing. But I've also been clearing the Battle Maiden farm easier & faster than ever with the new AR. It's excellent on any map and against any enemies now).

Assault Rifle was never a “high sustained dps set”. Would love to see any data that supports that. Also kind of ironic you like the AR changes yet dislike the meta.. AR is now the best set at clearing groups of enemies. The ST DPS is pretty average, but BU/Full Auto/Flamethrower/Buckshot will melt things faster than anything else. Full Auto alone will kill pretty much anything but bosses and can be used over twice as often as Inferno. The tradeoff for that before was that it had a narrow cone and you needed precise positioning. Now, just stand in front of a group of enemies and you’ll probably hit all of them. Beanbag will forever be a Homecoming meme now. At least they gave it more damage.. but Aim would’ve been better in pretty much any scenario.

Sorry for the late response, haven't been checking the forums often lately! But sure thing, here it is! Got my time with this down to 3:28 since the original post. It is quite ridiculous. bio fire soul - Tanker (Bio Armor).mxd