Ston

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

If you care about damage, I would stick with Musc Radial. From the table you can see that Defenders, Controllers, Masterminds, and Brutes have some of the lower base damage scales. This means that there's less reward for slotting damage on them vs. just using a damage proc. If accuracy weren't a concern, all ATs would do the most damage with 6 procs in each attack. But since you need to get as close to a 95% hit chance as you can, you gotta think about the tradeoffs for getting accuracy. You'd lose more damage by using Vigor on Stalkers, Blasters, etc. than you would on a Brute. You would need to get that +33% damage from somewhere else to make up for it (set bonuses, Assault, inspirations, etc).

The difference is just in the number of procs to get the most damage while also getting enough accuracy. For tankers & scrappers, it’s more optimal to slot damage bonus up to the ED cap and then fill the rest with procs. My slotting is normally 2 acc/dam + 4 procs. And the. Musculature is used to get more damage. Since brutes have lower base damage, they benefit more from 5-6 procs. But to maintain this, they need more accuracy via Vigor or Nerve. So my slotting typically ends up being 1 acc/dam + 5 procs. All the decisions are made to try to maximize damage based on the AT’s modifiers. The procs themselves are constant damage, so i ran those calculations to show how they compare with the same slotting.

Pretty impressed with this sentinel damage!

To expand on my last reply... Here's how Claws compares on Tankers vs Brutes with about as much damage bonus as you can give yourself without outside buffs or long recharge powers (e.g. Adrenal Booster, Call To Justice). Power: Focus Active Effects: - Hybrid Assault Radial (Passive) - Follow Up (2 Stacks) - Assault (Leadership) - Gaussian's Build Up Proc - Decimation Build Up Proc - 4% Damage Bonus (Set Bonus) This happens more often than you would think. Especially on sets with Build Up where you can control getting 2 stacks of Build Up. Pretty often I'll use Build Up before running into a group of enemies and then immediately get another Build Up proc from Gloom.

Brutes don't benefit from Musculature as much as Tankers/Scrappers. Using Broadsword's Disembowel as an example: Base = 81.75dmg + 85% Fury = 220.7dmg + 85% Fury + T4 Musculature Radial + (2 * lvl 53 Acc/Dam HO) + 4 Damage Procs (3.5PPM) = 506.4dmg (average) 595.9dmg (max) + 85% Fury + T4 Vigor Core + (1 * lvl 53 Acc/Dam HO) + 5 Damage Procs (3.5PPM) = 499dmg (average) 610.8dmg (max) *Using latest Mids values, so these could be wrong. **Decided to create my own spreadsheet to calculate average damage using damage bonus, damage enhancement, and procs/ppm. I ended up getting the same value, so Mids should be correct here. So the damage ends up being almost the same for each slotting strategy. I chose Vigor for the Brute because I think the buffs (acc/heal/end) ends up helping them more than Musculature. They'd only be doing marginally more damage with Musculature and would have to sacrifice some Heal/Regen which they desperately need to survive encounters that wouldn't even make a Tanker flinch.

1 & 2) FS: Lady Grey FSC: Lady Grey & Achilles GFS: Achilles (I only use one Achilles in ST chain, would rather get more proc damage) 3 & 4) I’d have to run the numbers for DPS, not sure how Incinerate performs. But I didn’t end up using it at all during testing. Just used it to mule an ATO or Purple set. The Tank builds didn’t end up needing the +res proc.. but yeah i would put it in there if I were using it. I think the issue with Incinerate is that it won’t always do it’s full damage. So it’s better to just use Gloom>GFS>FS. Not sure what recharge is needed to maintain that, but on long fights i’ll fill that chain with Dark Oblit. In a real build, I’d switch Incinerate with Cross Punch, but couldn’t with the parameters of this test. If this were a hardmode build and I needed to do some heavier tanking, I’d probably just 4-6 slot GFS with the tanker ATO