Sovera

I've been asked about a ranking on the different Fire Armor builds so I'll put it here: - Fire/Martial Arts. The current Brunker. Amazing survival with Storm Kick. 45% to Melee/Range/AoE is so much better than just 45% to S/L. Dragon Tail provides good mitigation and is a great source of FF procs to speed everything up in AoE situations which is 99% of our game time. The only thing it lacks is an earlier Build-up. BU allows to overwhelm so much low level BS. It takes doing a Posi 1 and spend literally a minute seeing miss miss miss to appreciate how it allows to keep the train moving. - Fire/Claws. Slightly less defensive with only 45% to S/L, more offense oriented with Spin doing twice the damage of Dragon Tail. It can achieve the same acceleration of MA by taking and using Shockwave but much much later in the game. Taking and using Shockwave would make it go past MA for most of the game but since I do not in my current build MA gets ahead thanks to this. Downside is that Follow-Up is not Build-Up and does not play well with the Gaussian proc. This prevents burst to get past low level BS. - Fire/Ice. The recent changes have made this my personal favorite. But being unbiased about it Fire/MA still takes the Brunker spot. Regardless the recent patches shuffled things around. Ice Patch going from 4 seconds to activate to something like 1.7 makes a world of difference allowing it to be casually cast during a gap instead of being a strategic decision whether to use or not. And then the change to Afterburner means that Evasive Maneuvers is less of a necessity and more of a QoL. This allowed me to take Ice Patch at 20, move Consume to 24 (thus still usable for Synapse which is where the heavy sapping starts), and move EM to 30 where it becomes available by Yin. But with a low level BU allowing to power through low level BS, Frost being a worthy low level AoE, Ice Patch for defense (not super reliable in my experience, mobs can and do ignore standing on it partly because FT applies a -100% KB) and a medium level Freezing Touch available by Yin instead of waiting until 38 this combo can be pretty bursty. I'm currently trying a build without Frozen Aura (don't ask me why but I don't like it. I can't explain why since it does comparable damage with Frost and has the same animation time, but, it is what it is) as well as non procced out Freezing Touch. I'm still unsure about the new FT slotting. It is a -great- vehicule for procs and not frankenslotting it lowers the damage by around 130 damage. The upside is that instead of FT, Ice Sword, Frost, Ice Sword, I can FT, Ice Sword, Frost. It may be better on the long run, but I'm missing the heavier Dim Mak heart exploding caress. The downsides is not having any place to slot FF to speed things up. I have tried slotting Arcane Bolt but couldn't keep the defensive goals with it, and in any case would have to sacrifice a pool. Cross Punch is a possibility but I don't need a fourth attack and by the time I can pick and slot Cross Punch I am in my 30s which is too late for my exemplaring. Someone who doesn't care about exemplaring or who does not take Fly could probably remove Assault and fit Cross Punch by level 30 to then use the slots from Frozen Fists and rejigger things to find two more slots from somewhere. This is my current Fire/Ice. I don't particularly recommend it since not taking Frozen Aura is a peculiar choice. It's just a peculiar choice adapted to my own playstyle though. All the other combos have honorable mentions but have not passed muster. If it's not a solid start but a lame finish (Fire/Axe comes to mind where the very slow last attacks killed the flow (and pylon times)) then it's bad exemplaring (Fire/Katana, you could have been so good, but 35 and 38 to finish the ST attack chain is just plain bad in a game with exemplaring) or awkwardness (Fire/Super Strength with a super late AoE, and the set's linchpin only available at 28, who then proceeds to 'CC' us for 10 seconds on top of making us more vulnerable. Fire/StJ and Fire/Energy Melee both culprits in this where their linchpins have such awkward recharges that I couldn't stop from either using a T1 to fill the gaps or have to contort myself to follow a lengthy rotation, Fire/TW with attacks not usable because Momentum ran out and sometimes attacks becoming slow when expecting a fast attack), or they are just plain numerically bad (Fire/Psi. Fire/Fire. Fire/Kinetic Melee and Fire/Savage forced to use both T1 and T2 in their attack chain since Concentrated Strike/Hemorrhage was fixed to be bad on all ATs, Fire/Elec and Fire/Staff with bad single target and equally bad AoE despite boasting many of them, etc), and some are just... so close... (Fire/Stone (with bonus points for lava skins) with a nice ST but a single somewhat late and bad AoE). Most of this is just my opinion and with a serving of min-maxed dollop smeared on top. They all can be made to work and some are worth it for the theme alone (Fire/Lava Stone, I wuvs you).

Everything has been said already, but the question always boils down to: more damage or more survival? I haven't done SR Tanker because I'm too damage oriented and tbh I can do everything on a 'squishy' Fire Armor, but it seems like the best blend with easy access to resistance and better defensive numbers. But you'll be slow(er) to chop things down than a Scrapper. My own experience with SR Scrapperinos were that they got devoured in farm maps (for testing purposes, not because it's the AT/combo to farm with). 5% hits add up quickly when at agro saturation for minutes. BUUUUUT the real game is not about being at agro saturation for minutes and Bill has a different experience on this than mine. I would personally do Rad Melee with SR on a Tanker. The heal is completely nuts when franken slotted. 25% HP every time we are hitting something contaminated? That's nuts, and can be forced with Fusion.

S/L defense ends working better than Melee. Attacks with Smash or Lethal can be anything from ranged to melee to AoE. S/L is so common it is mingled in just about anything. Even psi attacks may carry a Smash component. Bullets are ranged but also are Lethal, an ITF boss doing their little spin jump are doing an AoE but it is also a Slash attack. Punches, or swords, or hammer blows, will be slash or smash though they are already covered by Melee defense. Most energy or electric, or sonic, attacks usually have Smash as well. So S/L is a more comprehensive defense though lacking defense debuff resistance it will be stripped easily. It's still better to have it for the factions who do not do defense debuffs though, and Barrier makes it a large buffer that they need to shave through for the creamy center (that is you). You're correct about the Armaggedon. I just glanced at it and mistook it for Apocalypse. That one's on me. Remove one slot from Alpha Barrier and place it back on Ground Zero for a little big more psi resistance. Now it will be on par with the others and hardcapped with two ATO stacks and Barrier where before it was slightly under the cap.

I don't want to change your mind, but Fire Melee is in a position where it does nothing really great. The animations are not fast, it has no secondary effects, and it is not great damage. You seem to know your way around Mids so I am a bit unsure as to why you've aimed to over-cap resistances. Nothing over 90% gives anything and you still have two stacks of the Tanker's ATO who will give an extra 14% on top of your already completely over the top resistances. I'm going to suggest messing with your slotting and aim for around 85% at most. That way two ATO procs will (slightly over) cap you and this gives freedom to add things elsewhere. For example aim for another 8% in S/L defense. No point in having 6 slotted Ground Zero for 5% psi defense when you only have 20% defense but a nice chunky 70% resist to psi. You could aim for a bit more psi so it is capped with two ATO stacks. Speaking of ATO stacks if you are not going to use your AoE on a ST fight it makes more sense to put it somewhere else than an AoE. I would suggest Fire Sword. You can shave it down to only four ATOs (or five if you want the psi resistance) there too because you're not going to miss 6% S/L resistance when you're already at 102%. Those two slots in Fusion could do with a Gaussian proc to turn that 80% damage boost into 160% (for only five seconds though, but great to open a fight with AoEs). Radiation Therapy would love a Theft of Essence proc to fill your blue bar from very early on. With it like that and Particle Shielding you could probably just remove the extra slots in Stamina and Health. You've aimed for Fire/Cold resistances a few times but they aren't very important. I've tried to respect your choices (puzzling as they are with neither Fire Sword not Incinerate taken, but you do you) but this is what I'd shuffle it into: - Your defense is now at 40% to S/L, - You don't need Tactics since nearly all your attacks are at the cap to hit +3 (which is where the T3 Alpha leaves you). - You don't need Ageless as well since Theft of Essence and Particle Shielding should have you sweating endurance and thus I suggest Barrier for a panic button and to give the last 5% to S/L defenses, as well as capping your resistances with two ATO procs. Hasten is already at 134 seconds and Beta Decay and being surrounded by enemies will lower this further. - The 'low' resistance numbers take in account 14% from two ATO procs + Barrier's 5%. For easy gameplay you don't pop Barrier on CD because, well, you know, it's easy? But when needed you can use it and for the duration you'll be softcapped to S/L as well as not relying on a third ATO stack.

Unfortunately I gave it a go but it did not even get past level 15. So slow animating with huge gaps, so low damage, so much KB tax I'll have to dedicate slots in near every power. The Soldier of Arachnos gun&grenade focused version was much better despite the terribad ST damage. My interest deflated and I've parked it.

Sadly, I've been advocating an 'invisible' color to hide such things but the powers that be have never answered. For those curious this is already in the game. Prestige Slide Sprint has one such 'invisible' color we can click to completely hide the visuals. Radiation Siphon comes extremely close to this as well. Certain obnoxious effects could be wonderfully masked with this. Offensive Adaptation with the Minimal FX does an incredible veins of power effect that I'd love as an aura tbh, but then does a weird drippy cloud FX around the fists. We could delete that drippy cloud effect and keep the veins. This would open a lot of customizing including not glowing like a radioactive Chernobyl refugee 99% of the time on 99% of the characters or out of the stacking of three or more glowing auras just keep a single tasteful one. Unfortunately the god devs have not pronounced themselves on this.

Several months ago there was a fix for this.

I'm just reporting what I've tested. This is not math or spreadsheet talk. Reactive OR Degenerative had little to no measurable effect on regular enemies. Tested by clearing farm maps and checking the times. Differences in clearing times happen once switching to the 75% DoT chance instead of 75% debuff time. There was no difference between runs done with no Interface slotted and runs with Reactive 75% debuff. With 75% DoT it lowered the times in one minute (from seven minutes to six minutes, no Assault clicked, no inspirations in order to make it repeatable). Degenerative with 75% debuff showed no difference from runs with no Interface slotted. With 75% chance for DoT it lowered the times in about 30 seconds. So, not much, but it's a measurable effect at least. Tested on multiple different +4 (+3 with Alpha) AVs Reactive 75% DoT or debuff had zero effect on killing time, same times as doing a test with no Interface slotted. Degenerative had a large impact on AVs be it 75% DoT or 75% debuff (1+ minute difference). The uptime of the debuff stacks obviously was enough to make do with only 25% chance for them to happen. So from what I've tested Degenerative 75% DoT helps killing more quickly regular mobs and helps killing more quickly AVs. I only tested on Tankers. It is not difficult to test on different ATs though, as long as we use the PTS. Just do a run without Interface slotted. Then a run with the Reactive of your choice, then one with Degenerative 75% DoT. My only point is that Degenerative works on both scenarios while Reactive only for maps, and only with the 75% DoT implying the fact it is a Medium DoT (instead of Degenerative's Minor DoT) that actually makes an effect rather than the -res debuffing. Which makes sense since the -res effect is small to begin with, then needs to stacks (and mobs probably died by then) and the -res is then nerfed by the purple patch. But it's like I've said in the past: testing instead of gut feelings or spreadsheets is the best. If you do decide to test let us know since more data is always welcome.

You both get away from Burn, I'll cut ya! *brandishes butter knife!* Seriously though, if Burn is 'fixed' I hope it gets a tweak because I've played Burn on SOs only and it's a mild hot breeze gently tickling mobs. We don't need more Hemorrhage 'fixes' that simply made the general recommendation being not to take it on ANY of the ATs. Fixes like those I could do without.

Visually one click gives half a level of rested XP. Two give a full level. Rested XP is an extra 50% XP (not double XP (100%)), so I should at least have obtained half a level more from two uses of the Experienced power, but there was no effect during the DFB run where I barely barely got enough to reach level 7 where level 7 is where one DFB run usually puts me at regardless. I can see what you're saying though. As long as the rested XP scales with the required XP (AKA 'half a level') then if I need 500 XP to level I'd get 250. But if I need 500k then I'd get 250k. If it works like that then yes, using it in the low levels is of nearly no use.

After some testing Reactive seems to have no impact on regular play (more testing from different ATs required) and zero influence on an AV. The 75% chance for dot version does for maps however. Degenerative with 75% for DoT is a middle ground that shaves some time off maps while having a substantial impact on AVs. This is of less import on pylons who gobble up every scrap of -res thrown at them which is why -res effects are disproportionately important for those tests. Even so Degenerative will probably be a bit better (and still work on AV/GMs).

I just noticed something odd. I will usually do two runs of a farm map to PL a new alt. This invariably ends with the new character at 23. I ate two double XP from the anniversary and ended level 23 exactly the same. I will usually run one DFB and end level 7 (terrible btw, forces me to AE the last level so I can do Posi 1). Ate two double XP from the anniversary and just barely squeaked past to reach level 7. Where did that whole level of rested XP even go??

Strictly speaking Fire and Cold is not a big worry due to the lack of enemies doing that sort of damage in the higher levels, where Smash and Lethal are universal, and Energy and Negative the second most common.

😄 I would split it between Shield Charge and Radioactive Siphon in order to increase E/N resistances. Shield doesn't need the Melee defense. Something like this. Live off Recovery Serums until 32 and then alternate them with One with the Shield. At 50 you don't need Barrier just for 5% resistance so take Ageless and use that for endurance with One with the Shield as your panic button.

After leveling three characters with Sorcery I must say the game of whack-a-mole with Spirit Ward and Enflame gets old fast. I'm not sure of the reason why Enflame has to be this hybrid of toggle and click where it needs to be reapplied like a click every 60 seconds but has an EPS during the duration, but it's not an interesting mechanic for sure, furthermore as the re-toggling needs to be done each time an elevator is taken. I would understand a change of maps and needing to re-apply, but not floors. This means that: A) It continues being a toggle and gets a stretchier leash so changing floors does not break it. B) It becomes a click and changing floors does not matter. Tweaking the numbers so the toggle is on all the time is much preferable since it avoids having to find our tank person and reapplying instead of playing the game. At this point I don't know why it was not made to be a 60 second buff like Inertial Reduction (which suffers from the same once-every-minute annoyance further multiplied since it is meant for the whole team and needs to be re-applied for the straggling team members). Of Spirit Ward I have nothing but good things to say other than suffering from the same leash problems of Enflame. Same solutions in my opinion, with strong emphasis on a toggle we can cast and forget. Were it not for the restriction to only have four pools I would remove some of my inane whatever-shall-I-pick choices like Assault for Spirit Ward and throw it on one of my squishy team mates.

Tbh I might still re-think TA. I'm not going to be balls deep in theme but still, dropping a state of the art (of war) multi-gun to plink wif a lil bow just jars me 😛 But it avoids the whole 'go into melee range' when there are enough AoEs to cycle (with a brutal range) until everything is dead.

I've tried it a couple of times but couldn't get into it. Not because of the slowness but because of the cones AND the initial slowness. I kept trying to move to position myself for the cones and the piss poor damage of the initial attacks coupled with all the bouncing trying to position myself, with the mobs flocking around, and then Momentum running off and I need the initial swing again, and... I said screw it.

I place it on Radioactive Smash since my rotation is invariably Devastating(ly slow) Blow, Radioactive Smash, Radioactive Siphon, Radioactive Smash. Repeat.

Might I suggest some sort of test that proves or disproves things? I have always disliked these forum arguments where one person insists everyone else is wrong but they have found the secret holy grail. Downing a pylon, perhaps? Or whatever other metric such as the Scrapper forum Trapdoor test.

I have been playing different ATs from my beloved Tankers and I'm poking Blasters again. So, AR has been recently changed but none seems to think it was enough because at least I see no AR builds posted since the AR tweak patch. The damage seems a bit weak to my un-Blaster trained eye. AoEs hitting for 125-260 damage is nearly Defender levels. Ignite has a nice heavy feel to hit, but, 4y radius, really? Am I missing something? I know the mobs will run away from it straight away so I've tried proccing it out, immobilize and KD to make them sit there for a few seconds more. The ST is also a bit puzzling without dipping into the secondary. Slug, Sniper Rifle, Slug, then something. Ignite, perhaps? With a bit of recharge in it Ignite would recharge fast enough to do this. Two second cast time for Ignite and Full Auto makes for decent use, and all the Bombardments and Intuition there is some outrageous range boost. Buckshot from 40 to 82, Full Auto from 80 to 164. Piece de resistance is adding Oil Slick which Flame Thrower/Ignite ought to light up. Is a Tanker's agro aura even enough to handle all this fear? I have not finished messing with it since bed beckons but I'll throw it in.

Force Feedback proc. It's under Knockback.

I distinctly remember Containment messages, but, back from pre-sunset. We're talking issue 7 to 14.

Doom&gloom. Getting bored with a game is normal. I've been playing it for two years now and I'm there myself. Done all the things I wanted to do and the RP community isn't GW2 (at its heyday) so I'm out of things to do. Nothing abnormal in this.

Is this still a thing? I used to see the Containment message pop up all the time but I don't think I've ever seen it for my Grav. Is this a thing that was rolled into Impact, or does Impact replace Containment? I keep thinking I'm getting Impact -and- Containment but I'm no longer sure.