marcussmythe

Lord, that posts been a hot minute. That said, we know that they are supposed to look at EM at some point, and so far, I've been impressed by the work the devs have done on HC. ((I don't always agree 100% with every choice, but if I wanted to make the decisions, I should have done the job myself)). As such, I am hopeful. Impatient! But hopeful.

The problem with Spines is that Rad Melee exists. Spines was always a solid AOE set, but unless your schtick is drippy spikes, Rad will fit more concepts. It is also a better AOE damage set - Spines gets a ranged attack and a nice big cone, but thats not enough draw for some people. The problem with Dark Armor is that Radiation Armor exists. Both solid resist sets, but one gets huge end costs and two semi-counterproductive toggles, while the other gets end income, absorb shields, and pocket nukes. Dark Armor might be theoretically tougher, but Rad also has a great self heal and just brings more to the table. Power Creep was a thing, and by the end it was a serious thing. Newer sets seem to often invalidate older sets if they have the same tasks.

This is certainly possible. Ive not tested FA against Bio if both ignore survival for damage - I find in general play, I have to build more survival into Fire Armor than I do into Bio to reach my own personal survival goals - leaving Bio more headroom to leverage for offense. I suppose it comes down to whether Bios multiplier effects (though it does have some linesr damage addition) are outperformed by Fires very large linear damage bonus (though we must respect firey embrace as a second build-up style effect) Given the synergy of fiery embrace with fire melee, and fire melees overall place as a very solid damage set, Im frankly surprised that fire/fire does not hold pride of place at the top - arguably it *should* in terms of justice, but likely the extreme value of TW coupled with the multiplier effects of Bio are what swamps it. If TW gets detuned, and maybe GFS gets its soul destroying animation looked at, this may change.

DM is still good - but its top performance back in the day was based on the old proc rules and the buzzsaw approach. I still like Dark, because of its fast animation, early maturity (handy if you like to run a lot of low level content), self heal, and accuracy debuff (huge on mixed and def focused sets). I really love DM with SR, Inv, or Shield, in particular.

Individual variations will swamp most differences between specific powersets. More broadly (IMHO, YMMV): Stalker>Scrapper>Brute>Tank Bio>Fire>Rad Armors Titan Weapons>Everything (Mace, SS are the closest to TW, IIRC. This changes on Stalker, with I think? StJ being the top Stalker for single target?) Titan Weapons is so strong in this that though Stalkers are generally better single target, TW/Bio scrap is the highest performer. Note TW is probably in line for an adjustment.

Id watch Energy Damage very carefully - you are at 40%, have no DDR, and low energy resist. Vanguard, PPD Awakened, and their cousins are going to trigger cascade collapse very quickly and very brutally. Now, I was on a scrapper with slightly lower survival values there - but she could also defeat faster than a tank would. Just be aware, and have a plan.

General Rad Armor Advice - if you can cap resist while making your other build goals, do that before you chase Defense. Im coming from a tank perspective - I dont know how much room youll have to get the resists while still doing other things on a Brute, due to lower base Resist values.

So.. -no-set should be best at single target? They should all be max AOE focus? Maybe we can streamline down to Rad Melee and Fire Armor and just avoid the ‘nerf’ of playing anything else? There is room in the game for a set with awesome single target, better than anything else, in exchange for mediocre AOE. If you want yet -another- Rad/Elec/Spines AOE fest, only in glowy pink pom-poms - Rad Melee and the ability to recolor powers is right there, waiting for you. Now, EM is worse at AOE than it needs to be. Some splash, buff to whirling hands, rewrite Stun until its an AOE Stun and possible Procbomb - Im right there. But dont throw the single target baby out to get another ‘oh lookie AOE Radius yawn’ set. We have plenty of those.

Some set will be the best at single target. Some set will be the best at AOE. And some set will be the worst at each as well. I think the point Im at with EM is wanting best single target, and accepting worst AOE in exchange.

Get them all! Swap Incarantes and Builds to fit mission and mood! Profit!

Fire would also be an excellent choice for that. Ive got an oldschool Fire/Fire (aiming for Fire/Fire/Fire) waiting in the wings - shes just a bit hard for me, because were still low level and she is soooo squishy in her 20s, compared to what I'm used it. Ill be curious when I get her to 50 to see how tough I can make a Fire/Fire on her 'tough' side (thats definitely a great use case for a double or triple build - one to prove Fire can tank Recluse without support, and one to see how much damage I can get out of a Tank chassis). If I ever get her up there, I'll likely be cribbing off the fire side of your build.

That is the entire theory behind my 'Tough Enough' Invuln/EM - though there are very strong arguments that a 'Tough Enough' approach is better suited to Radiation (inasmuch as Radiation hits diminishing returns on survival investment far earlier than invuln does). I recommend Invuln for multi-build setups, and Radiation for single-build approaches. Both are excellent.

An aside - I love my Bio right up until I hit Vanguard or PPD-Awakened. Bio's poor energy resistance, coupled with no DDR on its Energy Defense, means that those two groups cut through it like a (ahem) laser - cascade collapse and Ive seen it go from 'Im fine' to 'def and res are showing red on the monitor' to 'faceplant' in a second. Very disorienting when it happens. Of course, that lack of DDR is basically the only vulnerability the set has, and a cycling ageless can cover it to a large degree. Bio is very, very, very good.

I keep it on my primary build of my main, as thats the outfit I wear for exemplaring and I find it useful in low-level TFs, where my AOE hasnt matured and Im taking for a collection of often new players with very aggressive play styles.

And the version I'm using... everything good about it is Sir Myshkin's work. Everything less than good is a matter of my fiddling with it - I usually trade off some performance for comfort, due to personal preference.