Sovera

Br00t Ice/Fire Armor. Full incarnates, no clickies used, no -res procs. 3:20 average.

It's being efficient. No, trust me, it's not a personal insult lobbed at your face. No, it's not about secretly thinking that people will be looking at the screen and sighing wistfully thinking how cool those people are. 🙂 Eight people are steamrolling content. If the content is to find something or kill everything then the main group going left and someone going right is speeding things up. Unless they are the meat shield. Or the content is actually hard. But the content is rarely hard if one person is capable of soloing it, innit?

How about not trying to interfere with those who like to tinker to keep on tinkering and those who don't know or care about it, not?

Same. Smelling shenanigans since we're talking of shaving an hour and half or more.

So you see @Bill Z Bubba, at least with this one it's not 10% better damage and much worse mitigation than a Tanker 😜 Inb4Boppercorrectsthatfinishingoneminuteearlieris10%actualdamage

Went for a spin in the test server. All incarnates, no clickies. Pylon time: - 3:24 - 3:19 It's an improvement over the Tanker version of the same build who averages out in the 4:15 - 4:20 but it's nothing fantastic compared to Scrapper times. I made some more tests changing Alpha to Musculature 45% and changing the slotting around but the best times were still 3:13. Roughly calculating the times and applying my trustee percentage calculator the Brute does about 25% more damage than the Tanker (actually it finishes a pylon 25% faster though I'm calling it 'more damage'). In exchange it has 17.5% less E/N resistances with otherwise both having the same numbers other than HP. The Tanker version ends with around 2.5k HP and the Brute with 2k which is still substantial but mostly unimportant: as long as the character does not die it does not matter how much HP was left. I'll leave a slightly edited build. About the same everything. It trades 15% -recharge resist (still leaves it at a decent 75%) for slightly higher E/N (67.4% without Barrier, so 72.6% with) and one extra damage proc in Burn. Burn loves procs but this will show itself more in regular gameplay than on a pylon. I'm still a bit worried about endurance costs and how it may either require to play with Recovery Serums or change to Musculature 33 for the extra 0.30 and better Consume. Intuition is a bit of an affectation anyway, but I'll see once I've collected the accolades. Burn has slightly better numbers than shown because of a bug with the Superior Brute Damage/Recharge. It should be:

Brute version of the Brunker. The build is a study of 'but'. On one hand not having to take Frozen Fists is good since it's a pretty mediocre power that isn't even needed once Freezing Touch is obtained, but, not having a filler for leveling or exemplaring means relying on brawl + origin power (honestly not that bad thanks to Fury but only during leveling. It stops being impactful at around... I want to say Synapse level, and is close to useless even if we exemplar down. At level 1 or so the origin power may hit for 20 damage which is a lot but a level 50 exemplared to level 1 has it hitting for something like 6 damage). Fury really pumps up the damage while under level 20, but, Burn only opens at 28 instead of 18 meaning only one AoE for Posi and Synapse, also no Fiery Embrace until 35 which makes the damage difference between Tanker and Brute pretty narrow until then. Taking Sands of Mu is an option too but it honestly feels terrible when I use it. The damage difference between Tanker and Brute is pretty narrow while leveling. Burn at 18 beats Fury. When Brutes get Burn Tankers get Fiery Embrace. It takes Brutes getting Fiery Embrace at 35 for the damage difference to finally settle in. After trying to exemplar and missing Burn too I am of a mind that Synapse and under I'll take the Tanker and Yin and above I'll take the Brute. The Br00t does more damage, but, not overwhelmingly so. On the other hand it is squishier than the Tanker, but, not overwhelmingly so either. A less measurable part of the equation is how some of the extra damage is also traded by narrow and smaller AoEs. It does have a hole in E/N where at best it only reaches 68%. Which doesn't seem so bad until fighting the cysts. Where even at just +2 they killed the Brute twice. To be fair I was leveling and had 0% -recharge but (at the time) 56% resist and defenses being ablated was death. Ultimately it is not nearly as squishy as I was expecting. Creative slotting and IOs makes it reach the same 40% to S/L as the tanker, and 85% to S/L, which then relies on Barrier for the last 5%. So far all similar as the Tanker version. As mentioned above the main difference is that the best E/N I managed (while juggling everything else including trying to reach decent recharge) was only 63%. With 5% from Barrier it makes about 68%. That's not 90% and it can be felt. In the early levels this was noticeable as low as Synapse where I had to kite and use Rest unlike with the Tankers. Also felt in places like Yin where I got whittled pretty hard and had to kite a bit one or two times to give time for Healing Flames time to recover. This is not a Tanker experience but obviously they are sturdier. But it does embody the Brunker spirit: have just enough survival to survive and then pour the rest on damage. I will give it a go in the test server so see how it behaves all incarnated out. After the experience with the cysts I went out of my way to grab more -recharge protection and ended with a rather beefy 90%. I traded 10% recharge for it and that makes for a worse Hasten than the Tanker with it being 140 seconds. But I find this typical of Brute builds since they strive so hard to slot resistances where the Tanker relies on better numbers and the ATO and can afford the luxury of recharge sets. Overall the combo works as well with a Br00t as with a Tanker. Ice Patch helps surviving when needed and more damage means killing faster. In a full team there might be no difference between faster deleting of spawns and buffs.

If you mean worthwhile by best, then yes, it's worthwhile.

Leveling build.

First post has math, but tbh for the rest of us we just look at the times so we know a 1:30 build is better than a 3 minute build.

A mere two years later 😄

Quick and dirty test against a pylon. No procs involved to not muddy waters. Frost 154 GiS 184 That's exactly 30 more points damage which is nothing to sneeze at. According to Mids I should be doing 187 with Frost, but since the pylon has 20% resists to all the difference maths out to 17% which seems good enough. So back to Mids once Frost has two damage procs it goes to 239 where GiS with two damage procs goes to 304. The damage difference is now 65 points. According to Mids with my slotting Frost has 33% chance for a proc to go off while GiS has 53% which favors GiS and why the gap increased with procs involved. So in a world with infinite slots and powers I'd take GiS for those pure ST moments. But for regular gameplay where we are surrounded by mobs using Frost instead of GiS is a no brainer. A person with a regular Ice Melee build (AKA not someone weird who does not like Frozen Aura for whatever reason >_> >_>) will be doing FT, Frost, Frozen Aura, FT, Frost, gap (Burn if using Fire Armor). Start over. Personally, because I play with Fire Armor and have Burn, and because I know bosses last the longest, I found focusing on the boss (Ice Sword and Freezing Touch instead of Frozen Aura) works best for me. But more AoE killing minions and lieutenants is not a bad thing to have when they keep on pumping out debuffs. So again in a world of infinite slots and powers I'd take GiS for the pure ST moments and also Frozen Aura for the pure AoE moments. Frost and GiS both have (nearly) the same recharge and same animation time so FT, Ice Sword, GiS, Ice Sword works just as well. Now it's up to the individual to decide about the cost of a power and six slots for 65 extra damage.

For a T8 it's just weak. With two damage procs it does 304 with a 2.5 animation. Crippling Axe kick, for example, also a T8, does 342 but animates in 1.9. Or take Devastating Blow at 2.9 but who does 576. Soaring Dragon for 1.6 who does 388. And this is with Mids. There might be under the hood mechanics but if you go to the character creator and check the average damage of Frost and GiS the first does 124 and the second 103. The one thing it does better than Frost is that a ST power has better proc chances (53% in the example above) than Frost (33%). So according to Mids it will do about 70 damage more than Frost at 233 which is not as much of a 'tiny fraction' I was talking above. Though I'm not sure how it relates to the character creator showing different numbers. It probably asks for some empirical testing in game, but it's too late to start that now. I'll do it tomorrow.

Fire Armor. Not kidding. If someone asked for the toughest set I'd answer something else, but best powerset for a new tanker? Fire Armor. Fast recharging heal, endurance clicky, early Burn to kill things dead before they hurt back. Couple it with Ice Melee and you can start a fight with Ice Patch and kill things as they flop. With two Build-up mechanics + damage aura + Burn it's all the tankiness of a Tanker with nearly the damage of a Scrapper.

Imagine 2021 and not having Focused Accuracy. I kid, I kid. But it's the reason why I don't leave home without it 😜

Ice Sword, Frost, Ice Patch. Frozen Aura, Build-up. Swap your Greater Ice Sword for Frost and suffer a tiny fraction of damage less and in exchange you're hitting in AoE. Focus the boss and the spawn dies while you're doing your ST rotation of Freezing Touch, Ice Sword, Frost, Ice Sword.

It's my favorite Fire Armor combo. I have a build in my signature. And Ice does well, just need to get away from the Frozen Fists/Greater Ice Sword trap.

Tried it a couple of times and things were going well, but once the spinning happened it was a no go. Same as with Positron. That one nearly demands something with DDR and a solid slow protection.

The problem with a Scrapper is that Fire Armor doesn't hold the enemies close because it has no agro aura. Consider a Brute for nearly the same damage and enemies not haring off once their HP gets to 30%. Or a Tanker if the thought of Burn at 18 fills you with joy (it does to me 😄 ).

It is. It's more to keep topped off than to actually prevent death. Things like -def on a secondary that can't handle it won't be stopped by Siphon Life.

They can, but it takes hot damage. Surviving an AV isn't hard for most (all?) tanks, but beating it with raw damage requires a bit of optimization. But once optimization comes in most builds can-ish.

A different take. Let Barrier's 5% finish capping S/L defenses/resistances. Sad lil E/N though.

Man, you're complaining over basic stuff. Read my guide if you haven't, and then type /ah between missions to make sure you have a stock of purple inspirations. In the case of the Blaster also of Breakfrees. Or if the Sentinel then purples and reds. Once you get to 32 the Sentinel catches up. A Stalker is not about slow assassin strikes-in-stealth because it's slow. Hit with your strongest attack while in stealth to force it to crit, -then- use AS. Try to copy builds instead of trying to pile something yourself until you are more used to the game and builds.

In that quest for a little bit more damage but still be sturdy I've cooked this. Maybe someone will find use for it. It has all the rad goodies: - 96% protection against slows. - 40% to S/L - 70% to S/L/E/N/Toxic leaving Psi at 30% and Cold at 25% as the holes. - Infinite endurance with Radiation Therapy + Theft of Essence that doubles as a heal. The intention is picking Barrier as a panic button which then hardcaps resistances and softcaps defenses. It also has all the Ice Melee goodies: - Exotic cold damage less resisted than most. - Freezing Touch, Ice Sword, Frost, Ice Sword for ST is not bad at all and will cleave enemies while the boss is being focused. - Ice Patch to either get a breather or wreak malicious havoc on tough enemies. After much consideration I've placed the 50% crit in FT despite this meaning no low level proc and that the 50% will not buff FT itself. This has different reasonings backing this decision: A) Freezing Touch hits pretty hard already. Ice Sword and Frost are the weak links. Buffing the weak links so it feels satisfying to hit those buttons isn't bad. B) In an AoE scenario I'm going to be hitting Frost and Frozen Aura on cooldown. FT as my hardest ST skill will also be usef on CD. This excludes Ice Sword since it will go something like FT (if proc goes off it buffs the next two skills), Frost, Frozen Aura, FT, Frost, gap. I'm not replacing any of these skills for Ice Sword until the gap comes. C) This does not exclude placing the 50% proc in Frost though. Frost is used in both AoE and ST and if it goes off it will nourish FT. Frost is also an AoE so multiple chances for the proc to go off in regular gameplay. My reluctance comes from Bombardment being a dream set with S/L res, a chunky E/N res, accuracy, recharge, plus a bit of range for Frost itself. Seriously, if I could slot this everywhere I would. I'm not sure what is the best answer but the current slotting seems like a good compromise. The powers are in order for optimizing exemplaring but not the slots. There is a free power to take since I saw nothing of interest (to me) to take. If someone needs it I can make a leveling build.

If you're not using -res procs then 4 minutes is my average on a Fire Armor + Claws/MA/Ice. It completely skews things if a set can use both -res since it shaves a full minute off making it seem much better. S'up to you if you feel -res procs are worth using or not though since they don't seem to make a large difference on other stuff than pylons. The Assault question has come often and the general rule of thumb remains +damage for solo since more bang, and double hit for team play in case of Kin with mythical damage capping. On a Tanker and on a pylon I noticed no difference either after multiple tests. I'm willing to bet a dime I wouldn't notice a difference even with a Kin in the party since my experience is poor Kins struggling to reach a group and hit FS before it has been reduced to a red mist.