Jump to content

Sovera

Members
  • Posts

    4776
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    2

Everything posted by Sovera

  1. I'm all for buffs ^^ ... but it's also the best set as far as I am concerned. On non-tankers it has a gapless self-contained AoE chain, it has all powers early (thus exemplars well), animates fast and etc on top of Shockwave mitigation. On Tankers I've been unable to find something that breaks my record (2:30 on a non whiffing run but 2:45 average) which while still behind double stack Rage and Titan Weapons is still a better set that those two.
  2. You do need to wait for level 38 for it, and I don't believe it stacks with itself. Though you add that, then Defensive, then Cardiac, then the ATO proc, and yeah, you can start finally having decent energy resists for Bio Armor.
  3. No, procs in toggles are pretty bad because they check for activation once every 10 seconds. I don't exactly remember the %, but I do know I tested the Might of the Tanker when this subject came up and I came out of it with the data that the proc reliably got one stack, two stacks only some of the time (it has a duration, and checking once every ten seconds on top of possible misses made stacking it actually difficult), and three stacks almost never. The number of enemies did not alter this. This is when I changed it to a single target attack instead and it became much more reliable. Gaussian has a funny interaction with Tactics that makes it worth using (particularly with Claws that lacks a Build-up power that effectively triggers the Gaussian) and that the Gaussian procs -still- checks every ten seconds because it's in a toggle, but it gives a chance of going off per ally in range of Tactics ^_^ It ends being something like 40-50% chance with seven other players around (if I recall correctly but please do not quote me) which goes even higher with pets and MM minions. To be perfectly honest and as someone who exemplars a lot myself the level 50 build does very well. To give an idea I wanted to test the latest build with the procs and a friend wanted to run the Hess TF (level 30 if I recall) so we merged endeavors. ...she then forgot to change from +4, so there we were level 30 surrounded by +4 mobs. And we did it fine. At some point I actually had to use Healing Flames (gasp) when taking three +4 spawns at the same time (ok, it's Council, they are wimps). But trying to respect your choices here is what I would do with your build. It's not super perfect since resistances with two stacks of Might of the Tanker only end at 84-85% but trying to reach 45% without incarnates needed sacrifices. As a resistance set I feel 40% is fine (I reserve Barrier as a panic button or pre-emptive ambush defuser, so I'm not using on cooldown the second it recharges for the 5%) and with 40% you could increase the resistances some (switching back from Panaceia to Preventive Medicine and slotting Consume with a Synapse's Shock).
  4. - Well, why did you six slot Fire shield for example? 2.5% to fire and cold res? Neither is important in end-game, and you're over capped to Fire anyway. Even five slot is dubious since we do have a Toxic hole but it's not taking one bonus that will alter that. You could take those two slots and put them somewhere else. - 6 slot touch of death in Slash for the melee defense? Slash is your sole source of -defense which lets you slot the Achilles proc that boosts all your damage on that target you're hitting (including the damage of the damage procs in the attacks). - 6 slot Tactics for 2.5% melee? Melee defense is good, but S/L defense is better. Melee defends only against melee. Smash and Slash defense protects against everything that does smash or slash. Energy blasts are energy/smash for example. Sonic attacks are smash and energy as well. Some psi attacks (not all) also have smash. Arrows and guns do Lethal damage. Melee will do nothing against any of those but Smash/Slash defense will. So building S/L first is a better option and then, yeah, sure, Melee too, but what is melee? Melee is usually someone swinging a sword (slash) or a hammer (smash), or being punched with electricity (usually with a smash component). in the original post I talk about Barrier and how it adds another permanent 5% defense so there is no need to aim for 45% and instead 40% is fine. You might want to take Ageless instead (personal choice, go for it) but it's not adding much since the ST rotation is pretty much in place and we are not Blasters who live and die by their 40 second nukes nor do we need the endurance from Ageless since we have Consume. - Spin is in the red (meaning it has too much and its being wasted) for accuracy and damage. Replace the acc/dmg IO for the knockdown one and you're losing nothing but instead gaining both recharge and a soft mitigation with the knockdown. - You have your Weave underslotted (same as Maneuvers but more noticeable in Weave) but have a Defense IO in Combat Jumping where it adds almost nothing (removing the defense from CJ drops your melee defense from 45.52% to 44.89%. That slot could go into Fiery Embrace. - Why is Swipe, your weakest attack, five slotted with a purple set? You're not even supposed to use it once you get to 28 (23 if exemplared down) since Focus replaces it. You could swap the slotting with Slash, still keep the Touch of Death for the bonuses, but Slash, which you do use, is now boosted with a purple damage proc (these both activate more often that regular damage procs but also do more damage). As a bonus you now have a sixth free space that you can put the freed slot from above and place the Achilles proc in. - You skip taking Focus, your strongest Claws attack ((470 damage with one stack of Follow-up, according to Mids. Slash only surpasses it once all procced out in the latest build) for Cross-Punch that does 256 with one stack of Follow-up. If you want a cone that does +recharge and superb mitigation you already have Shockwave for it (one stack of Follow puts it at the exact same damage as Cross-Punch, but animating in 1.2 seconds instead of 1.9 and with a munificent 30y range instead of Cross- Punch's 9y-ish range (with Tanker buffs). I have a build with Shockwave in the first post though it hasn't been updated with the proc findings. - Conserve Power is of little use since you have Consume and Recovery Serums from the P2W vendor NPC. - ...though you did not slot Consume (the slotting with Synapse gives 10% resistance to recharge slows (you have 35%, so you'll notice once you start fighting anything that does slows), 6.5% recharge and 4.5% resistance to negative and energy damage (you're still at 76% so another 4% would have you at 80%. See math below)). Consume is your endurance recovery clickie, why skip it? - Hasten is three slotted (acceptable if you examplar a lot as it gets more recharge that way but other than that two +5 slots gives the same recharge at level 50). - But then Fiery Embrace (your biggo damage boost) only with one? - Punch and Tough is rushed before level 20 but Cross Punch is only taken at 38 which defeats the purpose of rushing those skills. You need to consider you might want to exemplar down for whatever reason and if you do then what? Punch and Tough is not exactly going to be of use. If you had taken Cross Punch much earlier it would have made sense to fill out your attack chain. - I just want to re-insist with the exemplaring. You might absolutely 100% be sure that you are never ever going to exemplar down, but, there is no reason not to be 100% absolutely sure it will never happen and still place the powers in the right order. It will not hurt if you never ever examplar anyway, but if you do happen to do it (and this build is amazing for low level content) then you don't have your biggo damage boost at 47 instead of 28, and your travel power at 35. - Blazing Aura is a poor place for the Might of the Tanker to begin with (it's procs-per-minute mechanics), but why is it six slotted for the 6% to smashing and lethal resists if you're already at 103% (the cap is 90%)? Ditto for Follow-up. Your Might of the Tanker proc gives nearly 7% to all resistances and it stacks three times (though it's better to always just assume two stacks) so there is no point in aiming for 90% (less alone surpass the triple digits). You will notice the little green light in Blazing Aura. This appears in whatever power you slot Might of the Tanker into and when clicked (you can turn the lil green light on and off at will) you'll notice you gain those near 7% to all resistances. The program doesn't allow to add more stacks so you need to do the math in your head: if you have 80% with the lil light on, then assume you will get a second stack of the proc for another 7% making your 80% as 87%. If you want to go further once you're at 90% HP your Scaling Resists IO you've slotted in Maneuvers adds another 1% becoming 88%. So aiming for 90% with one stack (or 103%) is not good planning. This is why I did not want to go into detail 😛 But with all of this said you'll be fine if you run your build. CoH is easy and you'll still be melting enemies and headbutting Recluse into compliance. There is no 'but' in the above statement.
  5. There are too many weird or dubious choices for me to get into a detailed analysis. If that's what you want to run, then go for it, broseph.
  6. Sovera

    Build Up

    The math may be basic (and I would take it with a grain of salt) but the reasoning remains odd. If you're running to a pack of enemies you're not attacking since they are not in melee range yet. You click BU as you run. By the time you're in melee range and can attack BU is in effect. No attacks were skipped and the first 2-3 attacks are boosted by 160% damage (80% BU, 80% Gaussian). On a Brute or a Scrapper or a Tanker I don't run to the enemies until I am rubbing my nose on theirs, and -then- press BU. I use it as I run so my first attacks are boosted for additional burst. In WoW cooldowns are divided into 'uses every fight' and 'saved for when it matters'. Time to run between enemies is taken into account. There is no buff that we can click for 100% time, but, there are buffs that are available at every start of the fight since between killing the rest of the enemies and then run to the next pack the buff has finished recharging. BU is very much in this category and we can unleash the initial burst of AoE boosted by 160% damage + Fury. There is no need to choose and pick which to go with. This sort of math in any other game I'd say to just hit something for a minute with and without using BU and report the empirical results, but in CoH with 5% whiffs it's heh to test stuff.
  7. Sovera

    Build Up

    I find the arguments counter to using BU a bit odd. I always take it and don't see a reason to ditch free extra damage. It would take me to be at the damage cap not to take it. If nothing else it's a renewable red insp that I can munch every 30 seconds. More to the point if we are running to the next group of enemies and are doing nothing because they aren't in range, they why not click on it so it's active by the time we -are- in melee range of the enemies?
  8. Well, it's a choice. Strategy and double the output or wallowing in an ocean of enemies without having to click stuff but do half the damage. Now that I've improved on the build further with the procs I'm thinking I ought to try it again and see what times I'd get.
  9. Are you saying you tried it as a Brute or tried it as a Tanker?
  10. Accept your lord and savior Fire/Claws in your heart, Bill.
  11. I was so disappointed on the Fire/WM. Maybe the Bio/WM would act different.
  12. I haven't found a loooot of content that requires extra KB protection. I only do the base empowerment for the testing. At the top of my head... - Cabal witches would do KB with their Lightning Storm. Since they are medium level content the defenses aren't high enough to counter it. I don't remember Katie Hannon's TF being a nightmare though, but it's been a while since I've done it. I'll test it and report. - Fake Nemesis, but the staff uses Smash so they need to get past the 40% to even hit. - Something in Longbow was a nightmare to deal with. I'm not sure which one was doing it, maybe some Warden. Or perhaps Awakened? I do know I jumped into a group of them and spent my time being Levitated up and down until I died. The second time around I went for everything that looked important first (like killing sappers first) and it did not repeat. But I could have saved myself by popping a Breakfree. Which brings me back to inspirations. My current inspirations are: - One row of greens for emergencies. Might never be needed, but, if it's needed it's there. - One row of purples. Same deal. I used to have three rows while leveling but realized I stopped using them at around level 25+. Posi 1 and 2 has too many Vahz with toxic and either leveling or exemplared they -hurt-, so pre-emptive popping a purple makes a difference. But then we reach Synapse and everything else from Synapse on stops hurting nearly as much. While leveling they still whittle the HP down and an unslotted Healing Flames does not keep up, but if exemplared down there's not even that. For leveling even a small purple makes us invulnerable. Other characters may fear Devouring Earth in Numina but I just plunge even, without purples, without fear :D. - One row of yellows. It takes doing content with Tsoo or low level Circle of Thorns to appreciate being at the mercy of the AI. If the mobs did not deign to turn off Hurricane we simply cannot kill them. Fortunately they untoggle it on their own and there is a window of opportunity to kill the sorcs. So I keep the yellows for that. And once at a level where we can access Focused Accuracy (in theory just a mule, but priceless) I've waded into Tsoo and Arachnos throwing Blinds and etc and not even notice. - One row of misc insps. These are one blue (in case I am caught with my pants down), two breakfrees (for random terrorizing or the aforementioned rare KB situations), and one orange (emergencies such as re-toggling in a hurry or wanting to go into a fight with no ramp-up). Regarding your question I might ditch the Gaussian in Follow-up. It's the one who does the least noticeable impact. Bopper did the math about it back in page one and while it does -something- on the long run it's a pretty low chance. Or swap from Preventive Medicine to Panaceia. You'd lose 2.5% S/L but it's not a huge deal since it's the resistance covered by the S/L defenses, and you'd lose the absorb proc (which isn't a huge deal either, though both it and the absorb proc in Blazing Aura can make for a nice buffer).
  13. Since I was on a row I went to test a super heavily procced Fire/KM to see what would happen. The answer? Not much. 3:50 with Reactive. 3:27 with Degenerative. The build I used. The good thing about testing is that at least I get them out of my mind instead of pondering if they are the next best thing as I was with the DB one, as well as this one.
  14. I return, Fortunately it was much easier to strip one of the previous Fire Armor characters than to painstakingly recreate it from scratch. Drumroll...... 3:51... Yeeeeeah, no. 3:37 - Switched to Degenerative. Don't feel that there is a point in continuing.
  15. I've made this build my lil bitch and roll over to offer its tummy. I've managed to keep Whirlwind Mace and Crowd Control, AND near max resistances, AND include damage procs, AND not skimp on recovery or endurance reduction on attacks, AND just abouts 40% defense, AND quite decent recharge (132 Hasten with no FF proc active). Looking at Mids I'm not sure it will really surpass the Claws though. Claws with two stacks would make Follow-up do 196, Jawbreaker with no Build-up does 240. Slash all procced out would do 513, Shatter would do 366. Focus 433, Clobber 479. Burn 585. WM Burn 361. ...of course these numbers don't include Build-up with Gaussian Fiery Embrace likes WM more too. With two stacks and FE: Follow-up 271. Jawebreaker 349 Slash 572. Shatter 491. Focus 522. Clobber 635. Burn 731. WM Burn 465. For funsies I clicked on FE and Build-up (but removed the Gaussian since it only lasts 5 seconds). Jawbreaker 469. Shatter 631. Clobber 814. Burn 598. So overall I have no idea which of the two would come out ahead. Claws hits for less but nearly does three attacks in the time WM does two. WM has bigger bursty numbers, but Claws has theirs pretty much all the time. So, best way is to not try to math but just empirical it. Be back in a couple of hours. In the meanwhile this is the build.
  16. Onyxia is deep breathing more?
  17. Considering how well the Claws showed itself to be I've been thinking that War Mace ought to push the envelope even further. I just don't have the room for Crowd Control. Taking War Mace and not taking Crowd Control verges on blasphemy, but it's either not take Whirlwind Mace and only have Burn for an AoE for 38 levels or take Whirlwind Mace and skip on the 180 degrees hard hitting FF ensured knockdown mitigating cone. Well, ok, the solution is to have two builds and if doing content lower than 33 then go with build 1 and if 33 and more then use build 2 with Crowd Control 😛
  18. This is some weird topic made out of statements of nonsensical fact. The Scrapper VS Brute comes up every other week. If anything pity the poor Brutes who seem relegated to AE farms while if wanting melee damage a Scrapper is the choice.
  19. Tested the procced out build and it behaved well. Not much difference in endurance consumption. The slower Burn is noticeable but it comes out regular as a clock after FU and Slash. I did not notice a huge damage increase in Burn but it only went from 700 damage to 800 (though I don't think Mids takes in consideration Burn's pseudo-pet second chance at procs). The single target definitely felt the bump with both -res procs much more prevalent than they were. Considering the sloting took my previous average of 3:15 (peaking at 3:07) down to 2:45 (peaking at 2:30) this is understandable. I tested it exemplared and the lack of recharge was more noticeable with some gaps. It wasn't a big deal, but I feel like the more well rounded version would be changing Burn and Slash to their purple sets, and then +5 those (Focus too). While the gain is minimal at level 50 the +5-ing translates well when exemplared It's actually a minimal increase either way (tested at Positron part one level). For now I'll keep the procced out version and test some more. Speaking of testing and since I had the purples +5-ed I went for a quick and dirty test with the build all purpled out and +5-ed instead of procced. I removed the Eradication and kept the Fury as my second proc in Burn: 3:40. 'Nuff said.
  20. The only 'downside' is that surviving well is good, but all tanker armors do that already. So we need to look at utility and what else other than surviving a given set brings to the table.
  21. After all the testing done with my Fire/Claws (new record of 2:30, no clickies used!) I took a look at Dual Blades and thought it could adapt well. Basically all attacks could be procced thanks to the lengthier animations and the extra attack, and Attack Vitals would basically be free damage. There would be a spot for Fury of the Gladiator outside of Burn too. All T4 using Reactive and Cardiac (even with Cardiac it was touch and go and this with some toggles off: 3:54 Switched to Musculature and Degenerative: 3:30 I expected perhaps a bit too much. It does highlight my point about Cardiac when the Recovery Serum kept my bar near to full for the duration of the test and Cardiac saw it dip down to 15-20%. I had such high hopes for this too, and it was so much trouble (almost finished slotting everything when I had the sad idea of checking what 'auto enhance with IOs' did and it wiped all my slotting with random sets). The build could use some tweaking still (dat Rectified Reticule in Blinding Feint...)
  22. One thing I see mentioned a lot is the desire to have good combat mobility and I feel that people sleep too much on Hover + P2W backpack. Moving at Fly speeds while fight a pack of enemies, to another pack, etc, was a big big change. All praise Bopper! I use these to alternate them. jetpack2.txtjetpack.txt Good show on the ITF! Also, good gracious, but that was a string of rotten luck that you had there. Three minutes on a Rad was pretty damn good though.
  23. So I decided to try a monstrosity of a procced out build. As usual I've cheated with the base empowerment buffs for KB protection and using Recovery Serum to not waste time using Consume. Purposefully upped the recharge in Follow-up despite it hurting the procs. FU is where my gap happens and I wanted it lower. Can't say I noticed much change either way. As it I have a 0.6-ish gap here. 3:07 - Not much change. 3:10 - Still not much change. Too many gaps in the rotation. 3:03 - Swapped from Reactive to Degenerative. As usual little difference between Reactive and Degenerative. 2:40 - Swapped from Barrier to Ageless. Now that fixed the gaps alright! But I'm not intending to play without Barrier. 2:05 - Ageless and Assault and Degenerative. 2:20 - Ageless and Assault and Reactive. 3:15 - Went back to the original slotting and just kept the procced out Burn. No appreciable difference. 2:56 - Swapped one of the damage procs in Burn for the Fury. It seems like a much better choice as I almost got the pylon at the 2:45 before it ticked. 3:05 - So... many... misses... 3:02 - Kinda frustrating to see the damn pylon tick at the last moment. 3:30 - Changed the Gaussian for a damage proc. 2:49 - Re-procced Slash on the fact that the gap came from Focus having a higher base recharge. Maybe a fluke. 2:46 - Maybe not a fluke. 3:05 - The 5% chance to miss can go die in a fire. It is near impossible to test small changes with whiffs at crucial moments. 2:46 - Horrid start and even so. Seems like this is the new average. 3:05 - Dontcha hate trying to beat times and hear the lack of sound meaning you're hitting something front of your nose but missed? 2:30 - Degenerative. Slight change in rotation is giving dividends. I've been using Focus second and Slash third. But often I'd use Burn after Focus which wastes the FF proc for the animation time of Burn. This is dumb. I'm dumb. Always using Burn after Slash from now on. 2:41 - Reactive. So small a difference it can be attributed to whiffing. 2:42 - Replaced the Fury in Burn by a Scirroco. This is burstier than the -res proc and the gain/loss seems minimal. 2:30 - Either Fury in Burn or Scirroco times are not dramatically apart. The change in rotation did more than the slotting. 2:46 - Decided to test the theory that the rotation did more than the slotting and returned to the original Burn. 3:37 - Tried to return to Slash's original slotting. Seems like this one does make a difference. 2:43 - Returned to procced out Burn and Slash. 2:47 - This is the new average. So, the summary is: - First of all testing something in this game is a nightmare. Missing a few hits can change everything. We have this in other games and can divert stats to reach a 100% hit chance but not in CoH. Here we get to sigh and 'enjoy' it. After I changed the rotation both 2:30 times is when I did not miss as much with the 2:45 as the regular amount of misses. - Second, Slash can and should be procced. It recharges fast enough and is low in endurance cost that neither stat is needed. - Third, Focus and Follow-Up ought to stay properly slotted since neither has the recharge to withstand the tight rotation. With infinite slots (and endurance, or not bothered with trying to build defense) Shockwave could be added. - Burn is six of one and half a dozen of another. All procced up it is trrrremendous burst. But then we throw fewer of them over a long fight. Properly slotted it only gains three seconds though, and the Fury of the Gladiator in Blazing Aura brings very little dividends where instead it sits much better in Burn. But Burn takes to damage procs pretty well with the double chance of them going off and this plays more with the short nature of fights in CoH. If someone has Fury and uses it ours now does nothing. So despite being near sacrilege, yeah, I'm thinking to just dump the Fury. Burn just seems to prefer damage procs and in Blazing Aura it has a pretty limited chance to go off to the point where testing with or without it there showed a difference (but it's difficult to test due to whiffs). - The best times came with having Fury in Burn and Degenerative. Basically Degenerative is sliiiightly better and gains a few seconds, and Fury in Burn sliiiightly edges ahead by a few seconds. Both combined are enough to beat a pylon before it gets an extra regen tick. This is almost build-for-pylon instead of regular play. For regular play I'd still go with Reactive since regular mobs don't have the HP pool of an AV for the -HP to make a difference, and a Scirroco since burst damage reigns in CoH. Though to be fair I think Fury is fine too. IF no one has it slotted then we are helping the whole team. - New rotation is Follow-up, Slash, Burn, Focus. Or Follow-up, Burn, Slash, Focus. But trying not to do Focus and then Burn as the animation of Burn wastes half the FF proc. This is going to be the new official build. Since I exemplar a lot to help friends with their alts and solo/duo TFs I'm keeping the Fury in Burn. I don't think there is a correct answer for this slotting.
  24. I haven't strayed from Musculature 45%, Reactive 75% DoT, Assault 65%, Barrier 120, Pyronic DoT.
  25. Does this look a bit mad? I tried this once on a Stalker and it reached 2:30 on a pylon so I doubt it would crush anything on a Tanker, buuuut... According to Mids Burn is comparable to AS (160 base AS versus 186 base Burn, at the cost of Burn animating slower (0.9 versus 2.25) and having a longer recharge (15 seconds versus 25 seconds). Alternating Power Siphon and FE should help with KM's short comings too. As always it's a damn shame we don't have that useless Torrent swapped with Burst.
×
×
  • Create New...