Sovera

Posted on the Scrapper Pylon thread EM/Stone Brute. I had my heart into trying this set and was pleasantly surprised. It managed to keep up with EM/Fire despite Stone not being as offense based as Fire. 2:34 2:32 It may not be Bio's time but it's nearly durable as a Shield and managed the output of a Fire Armor in ST. Also, I had everything toggled including Focused Accuracy -and- took Musculature 45% instead of the 33% for the extra recovery. Even so the endurance kept up and at the end of the each test I was at about half bar. I'm going to level it and see how it behaves and if EM's AoE without Burn or Power Crash will be too annoying or not. Also, for those not yet aware of it Solarverse rose up to the situation and made a mod that lowers the noise from the Stone Armor toggles. This is -so- welcome. Be sure to deluge the guy in thumbs-up because he deserves every one of them. It can be downloaded from here.

EM/Stone Brute. I had my heart into trying this set and was pleasantly surprised. It managed to keep up with EM/Fire despite Stone not being as offense based as Fire. 2:34 2:32 It may not be Bio's time but it's nearly durable as a Shield and managed the output of a Fire Armor in ST. Also, I had everything toggled including Focused Accuracy -and- took Musculature 45% instead of the 33% for the extra recovery. Even so the endurance kept up and at the end of the each test I was at about half bar. I'm going to level it and see how it behaves and if EM's AoE without Burn or Power Crash will be too annoying or not.

Brute instead of tank will make early levels fly. Martial arts for the free 7.5% defense but this will mean no AOE until 26. Something defense based to stack the 10%. Maybe Stone since it has strong early level defense and a bunch of goodies like damage aura that will pair well with Fury, more recovery, more recharge. There is no point in talking about a Tanker extra defenses if it takes long enough to kill that mobs have time to retaliate. That was my experience soloing half slotted with Shield/EM. The character was much more durable, but killed so so much slower that mobs had time to whittle me. But It all depends on intentions. If soloing at 0x1 then Blaster and hover outofthe way. Not much survives at 0x1 when AoEs backed by BU are unleashed. Same token for the rest.

As someone leveling a Bio.... There is no comparing. Bio makes the hits heavier, but it is so squishy, so very squishy.

There is a bit of overexageration on the tanker buffs. As someone who was super heavy on tankers post patch and then played brutes for a while, and then tried getting back to tankers, I can say brutes are very safe in the damage dealing angle. Even my favorites like Fire/MA hit like rheumatics barely ahead clearing a TF -with- Fiery Embrace -and- Burn compared to a Brute with just its standard PbAoE. Farmers have said the same that despite buffs Brutes still are ahead. But it is true that they are squishier. Hard to beat an AT who has modified values and a 20% to all resists that comes free. Not even a sacrifice since 4 slotting the set gives 10% recharge, and leave the skill with good enough raw stats that the remaining two slots can go to damage procs.

Degenerative 75% of damage proc is what I pick. Ithelps a wee bit in regular play and works on AVs. Assault is like you saw. If you test and do not get conclusive answers it just means it does not matter much. Go with the damage boost I guess since it will increase all your damage and a single AoE can proc it multiple times making it east to keep stacks up. The double chance is in theory better with a kin around, but gow often does that happen?

Nah, it's like I just posted on the pylon thread. All the uber mind maxed posts are slowly pushing a mindset that anything at 3-4 minutes is terrible when 3-4 minutes is actually the min maxed norm. But if we use Bio we shave a minute from a pylon time, if we use a snipe we shave another 30 seconds, and each -res proc is another 20-30 seconds. I just come from testing EM who is the ST champ, but since it's not paired with a Bio it got 2:40 - 2:50 times. Of course on raw power, no -res involved. As for incarnates it depends. Your defenses should be fine as a SR so perhaps you don't need Barrier and can go Ageless for your endurance needs Then Musculature 33% for a bit of damage and a bit of endurance both. Or try Cardiac for endurance and Rebirth for an emergency heal. Definitely try it on the test server by wailing on things like a pylon that takes a while because I don't have a sure answer.

I went back to test and without the proc in I could only get an average of 82 fury, or 165% damage bonus. When I placed the proc in Radiation Siphon I reliably went to 180-185% and sometimes broke the 190% barrier. But Radiation Siphon is good for procs unlike Contaminated. I can't tell you how much 20%-25% damage boost actually is because of things like Assault where a 15% damage boost is actually 4-5%. I don't know if it is the same with Fury or not. But as for your question I'd put Unrelenting in Siphon (loss of a damage proc, but endurance sustain) and Brute's Fury either in Atom Smasher or in Contaminated (in either less for the proc and more for six slotting). But this is a bit moot because I have a big doubt you'll manage to have endurance to sustain yourself at 50 and with all the toggles and etc. Once you then head to incarnates to help with this then the placement of Unrelenting Fury becomes less important. Then maybe swap the ATOs for more damage. When other people are around our damage becomes irrelevant. With eight people around shooting, nuking, and blasting it's not a bit more or a bit less that makes a damage with all the overkill floating around. You are correct that Devastating is not a good skill for a player. The super long animatoin that may result in a whiff, choosing carefully whether to use it or not because of corpse blasting, the way it delays everything. Not something a pylon test reflects but the healing output of the Contaminated rotation was pretty amazing when I was tanking both AVs at the end of Manticore. It's not that Rad Siphon suddenly became good, just that it was being used twice as fast as before. Like I said when I switched to Contaminated and started the character from scratch it just feels a lot better and a lot smoother to have a fast rotation from early and not fuss about which buttons are being pressed. That said 4 minutes (with -res procs helping!) is just bad. It's just a metric, but the metric shows it's bad.

Started over with the reigning champ, Energy Melee Scrapper and then paired with Energy Aura. ...this time I made sure to be with incarnates slotted in. 2:40 2:51 Considering it is raw power only not bad, but of course not 1:20 minutes since not Bio. Basically this does seem to put things in perspective. Bio shaves one minute off, snipes/gloom shaves another 30 seconds. -res stacking same. New players watching this may think their build is not all that great when in truth if they aren't running Bio they aren't even in the same league. Basically it's like weight categories where Bio does not mingle and then everyone else can see where they fit in amongst themselves.

I was re-reading the old pages and came across a quote 'okay, we get it, Bio is great, now test something else' and I have to say it's spot on. I would like to see a bit more of the rare tests where people run their actual builds (assuming people don't just run Bio all the time) to get a bit better grasp of what's around. Reading and looking through the spreadsheet is basically: - Average 3 minutes. Add Bioarmor and it shaves 30-40 seconds. Add a snipe and it shaves 30 seconds. Make it EM and it brute forces to 1:30 or less. Any thing else relies on -res procs to get the same times. Also, every -res proc can shave 15-30 seconds. I went to test Rad/EA. I did Rad/Bio in the past and got 1:45. First thing I noticed is that it's so hungry that Recovery Serum was unable to keep up, which is a first for me. I had to spam Energize. Second thing I noticed is that between crits and the -res procs I was taking chunks out of the pylon. Third thing I noticed is that despite taking chunks it was still a pretty poor 3:40 time. Uh. Wait, I'm a moron, I forgot about incarnates! Okay, slot everything. Test again. 3:37. LOOOOOOOOOL! 2:54 Safe to say Bio shaved like a minute between -res and +damage.

Just wanted to chime in that the Stone Armor SFX is perfect. Even Mudpots burping and wheezing calms down after the activation and it and Crystal Armor with the humming were the bigger culprits. Good job, Solar, and thanks for the help you're kind enough to offer.

New day. Time to test with Devastating Blow. Placing Unrelenting Fury in Radiation Siphon was not enough with the more infrequent use. Averaged 11% endurance discount and the big costs in Devastating meant it reliably detoggled at the two minute mark. First pylon about 2:50... which is reasonable considering EM/Fire did it in 2:30. Next try 3 minutes. It's reasonable times but skewed by the -res procs. The EM/Fire achieved 2:30 on pure raw power, and if someone brought -res procs it would just go lower. But 3 minutes is good enough. It's not Scrapper times who would probably shave another minute off it but they don't get Stone Armor (not with an agro aura anyway). Regardless despite all the math the Devastating Blow rotation is securely ahead in actual gameplay,

There's a Trapdoor test involving Fire Melee Scrappers. Their times seemed... average. Not bad times, just not great times either. That's about as close to actual gameplay as it gets without hitting a pylon with its universal resists that ignore slash/smash being so blunted by end game mobs.

While in the PTS and all incarnated and slotted I might as well do the pylon test... and it was a bit ghastly. 4 minutes. Ow. 3:25 4:37. Double ow. The safety of Stone Armor had to be paid.

Went to the PTS to test this. Using the normal version. - Placing it in Contaminated Strikes indeed is not good as it does not stay up using the high recharge rotation. - Placing it in the aura against a single enemy (pylon) it gave me two stacks semi reliably, rarely three, rarely just one. - Placing it in the aura and surrounding myself with enemies -seemed- to make it go off more reliably. Switching to the superior version made the proc go from 4.75% to 6.25%. - In the aura and surrounded by enemies I reliably obtained three stacks (15%) from the proc. - In the aura and against a single enemy it was difficult to get an average since it was all over the place. Sometimes 6%, sometimes 21%, sometimes in-between. I'm going to roughly say 11 to 16% though there were plenty of times with 6%. - In Contaminated Strikes there might be periods where it simply did not get a stack, then it would stick to one stack, perhaps two. Using the low recharge rotation with one more Contaminated Strike gave more stacks but not more reliably since it could drop to zero stacks. - Radioactive Smash's testing with Unrelenting Fury gave -very- good results averaging 21% reliably, sometimes 25% (four stacks). Considering this: - Radiation Siphon is the heavy hitter of the set. Placing Unrelenting Fury there reduces the damage from 495 to 411. - Radioactive Smash losing a damage proc is not a big thing since it just goes from 336 to 310. But is the only place to place the FF proc. The FF proc might not be -completely- necessary since Earth's Embrace is easily permanent, but it does push Fusion (Build-up), Hasten, Atom Smasher, and even Recovery Serums. - A damage proc brings low dividends in Contaminated Strike (176 to 187) so it's still a good place to six slot something. It was a quick and dirty test but it does look like placing the endurance reduction back in the aura is the best place. It's a pity we can't place it in Irradiated Ground, eh? I'm not 100% sold on the aura since it has that awkward 10 second cycle which makes it slow to start and then if a miss happens, welp, gotta wait ten seconds. But since I'm over the PTS I might as well test if it's necessary to really putz around with this. I'm going to incarnate, get the final slotting, and then place Unrelenting in the aura. Alright, testing done. Had to tweak the build since Mids shows incorrect values for Minerals. Builds shows 44.8% psi defense but in-game it was 39.1%. Now the build shows 51.3% but in-game it's Two tests with everything toggled on including Focused Accuracy. Both reached the three minutes mark on non stop hitting. With normal gameplay there would be pauses and the endurance ought to last longer.

I have but one thanks to give. Someone hire you for SFX duties, Solar. I'm not sure who thought it would be a grand idea to have a perpetual crystalline humming and rumbling and burping. I'm okay with the toggles having an activation noise, but not 24/7. I'll test and let you know how it feels.

You are a man among men, Solarverse.

Finally reached Manticore and soloed it again to pit myself against the tanky AVs at the end. I got to say I'm impressed with the healing output of the new rotation. Siphon has always been a bit eh because of the need of the Contaminated mechanic (not to be mistaken with the skill) but now that it's being spammed in half the time of the usual rotation the heals come in hot. Which was good because amplifiers ran out and then the AVs did not stay separated and I had to take both at the same time. Without amplifiers the endurance drain (and I didn't even have Focused Accuracy on) forced me to use Recovery Serums for the AVs. But careful monitoring of Earth's Embrace to keep the HP buff and the occasional green saw me through the amplifiers-ran-out-so-psi-is-at-36%-and-E/N-at-38%. No purples used. Now in the 'end game' rotation I notice the stacks of Unrelenting Fury are not building up (Brute ATOs useless? Say it isn't so!). I'll test in the aura again but where two Contaminated Strikes per rotation helped building stacks a single one with the low chance is not making it useful. It's still the normal Unrelenting Fury with 6 PPM though, the superior goes to 7 PPM.

I came sniffing around for the same in regards to Stone Armor.

My signature has a guide with some information. The game has no dailies so you do whatever the heck you want to do. If there is a 'to do' thing I would say it is a Tinpex (check signature) because it's 80 merits (signature) and you get the materials to craft incarnates. This is a half hour thing so worth it, but even then it's not a thing you absolutely must do because just playing will also get you incarnate crafting materials.

It's good, but, 30% of the damage of all moves were placed on the T9. So we hit with wet noddles until we can spend it. Also, MA has the 10% defense if playing Brute or Tanker.

So I decided to try the new Contaminated Strike rotation. And obviously this mean deleting the level 50 Rad/Fire Brute and start again. ...what do you mean I could have just resppeced? ...or used the test server? Nonsense. Anyway. Obviously having Contaminated Strike makes for a much nicer leveling experience since it's available so soon after having been used. There is a lot less slow feeling with something to press all the time. Soloed (easily) Posi 1 and 2 at 0x8 with a couple of deaths along the way but interestingly not from the usual CoT BS. Rather a couple Luminous Vhaz in the same spawn and getting a few lucky hits that debuffed me hard and human stupidity such as trying to save 50 inf insps while tanking three Earthquakes. Play stupid games, etc. By the time I had reach Yin I was level 37 and the final rotation was juuuuuuuust there, almost with a small gap, and I still had a LotG and Earth's Embrace to slot. I do have amplifiers running though, but at 50 that is replaced by the purple sets. I started using it despite the small gap... and it feels good. Spamming Radiation Siphon on cooldown makes for heftier healing than the usual rotation (Siphon every 6.3 seconds with Devastating VS Siphon every 3 seconds with Contaminated). Yin was done in 45 minutes, it did not feel slow and Clamor with ambush, and ambush after she flees, being tanked in the middle of the room. Endurance so far has been ok despite Rad Melee and Stone Armor being heavy. I only used Recovery Serums at Yin because dem Super Stunners. I did not look at it but I would not be surprised if the endurance protection also scaled with level. I am monitoring endurance reduction to see Unrelenting Fury's endurance discount and.. it's.. doing something. A stack of the normal proc gives 4.75% if not mistaken and I'm usually hovering at 10-15% which is obviously helping considering the lack of Recovery Serum guzzling. I'm not sure if this state of grace will hold on with more and more toggles added in, soon to be Brimstone, tough and Weave. Another slightly different approach was slotting an accuracy/endurance IO in Irradiated Ground. It -felt- better (especially in Posi), but, feelings. Looking at City of Data Irradiated Ground itself has 1.0 accuracy (https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=brute_melee.radiation_melee.irradiated_ground&at=brute) and spawns a pseudo-pet who also has a 1.0 accuracy (https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=pets.radiation_melee.irradiated_ground&at=minion_pets). That 1.0 is what other powers have so it should translate to a 48% chance to hit +3. Mids does not show IG's hit chance but looking at a random power and removing all slots, then looking at it's accuracy chance with Mids factoring in set bonuses and focused Accuracy it has a 73% chance of hitting. Slotting the +5 boosted ACC/END pushes it to 91%. Whether the 18% accuracy boost is worth one less damage proc is for mathmagicians like Bopper to answer, but the 33% endurance discount is welcomed as well.

Mids has a tool for that,

Mids shows this information.

You already have a build that was posted. Just check the numbers in resists/defenses from one to the other and if your changes are improvements.