Incarnates & Fortunatas

[Gulbasaur]

I'm running a half-melee, half-ranged fortunado (Doctor Fortune on Everlasting, come and say hello) and he's just hit 41. I'm enjoying the hybrid master-of-none playstyle (I loved my Peacebringer but find it hard to pick back up). Information for widows is sparse as they're the least played archetype. I, coincidentally, ran a /psi defender and a mind/ controller back on Live and got a stalker to 50 on HC so the powers are all pretty familiar... but incarnate stuff is something else.

 

My current plan is Musculature (because I'm a scrub) but beyond that I have no idea. Probably Ageless because endurance and recharge are always welcome, but Barrier is a great "Not Today, Satan!" power. I'm also torn between Assault and Control.  

 

What incarnates are people running, and what would they recommend?

[KaizenSoze]

A note about ageless, if you are using procs. It is my understanding that Ageless will hurt your proc rate, because it enhances your recharge enhancements and is not considered global recharge. Agility does not have this issue.

 

Proc guide - not my work

[Gulbasaur]

 

56 minutes ago, KaizenSoze said:

A note about ageless, if you are using procs. It is my understanding that Ageless will hurt your proc rate, because it enhances your recharge enhancements and is not considered global recharge. Agility does not have this issue.

 

Proc guide - not my work

That's worth knowing about. Thanks

[Darkir]

1 hour ago, KaizenSoze said:

A note about ageless, if you are using procs. It is my understanding that Ageless will hurt your proc rate, because it enhances your recharge enhancements and is not considered global recharge. Agility does not have this issue.

 

Proc guide - not my work

This is incorrect. It is the agility and spiritual alpha that will affect your proc rate as they act as enhancements. Ageless acts as global recharge and does not affect proc rate.

[Omega-202]

28 minutes ago, Darkir said:

This is incorrect. It is the agility and spiritual alpha that will affect your proc rate as they act as enhancements. Ageless acts as global recharge and does not affect proc rate.

^This.  KaizenSoze is incorrect.  Ageless has no effect on proc rate, its only enhancements and Alpha slot recharge bonuses that have an effect.  

[KaizenSoze]

Sigh. Thank you. I can never keep that straight.

[Darkir]

24 minutes ago, KaizenSoze said:

Sigh. Thank you. I can never keep that straight.

No worries, its a lot to keep straight.

[slacktech]

I am so sorry if this has been discussed elsewhere (I've tried to search but haven't been successful), but what is the general consensus for most useful Alpha Incarnate power for a widow build (very melee).  I've looked at all the options, and was leaning towards those with recharge in them, but after reading this thread I now think that's a bad idea.  I'm now leaning towards Cardiac Core Paragon (simply because a lot of her powers would use end redux and dmg resistance).  What are people's thoughts on the subject?

[Gulbasaur]

 

5 hours ago, slacktech.oz said:

I am so sorry if this has been discussed elsewhere (I've tried to search but haven't been successful), but what is the general consensus for most useful Alpha Incarnate power for a widow build (very melee).  I've looked at all the options, and was leaning towards those with recharge in them, but after reading this thread I now think that's a bad idea.  I'm now leaning towards Cardiac Core Paragon (simply because a lot of her powers would use end redux and dmg resistance).  What are people's thoughts on the subject?

As boring as it is, I went with musculature. It's not glamorous, but it allows you to cover a few IO-set sins so you can focus more on survivability through bonuses. A huge amount of my survival tactics are "it can't hurt me if I take it down first".

 

That said, I can see the argument for cardiac. If you're happy with your damage, you can certainly build up your overall tankiness - both EndRed and DamRes will allow you to just keep on going for longer. 

 

So, glass cannon or mighty glacier. Pick whichever you think would get the most from. Personally, from experimenting with my stalker, I found I got more bang for my buck with musculature as survival became less of an issue and the endurance problems can mostly be addressed with IOs and set bonuses, so I just went straight for musculature on my fortunata. 

 

The other one I think I get the most from is the melee hybrid - it's worth getting to T4 for the resistance bonuses, but I got to that point after deciding I was happy with my damage output and didn't really know what else to take. 

Edited October 23, 2019 by Gulbasaur

[Omega-202]

12 hours ago, slacktech.oz said:

I am so sorry if this has been discussed elsewhere (I've tried to search but haven't been successful), but what is the general consensus for most useful Alpha Incarnate power for a widow build (very melee).  I've looked at all the options, and was leaning towards those with recharge in them, but after reading this thread I now think that's a bad idea.  I'm now leaning towards Cardiac Core Paragon (simply because a lot of her powers would use end redux and dmg resistance).  What are people's thoughts on the subject?

In my opinion, Musculature is the way to go.  Lets lay out the main 4 options:

 

- Agility and Spiritual: You would take these for recharge, which is always nice, and for the added boost to defense in Agility.  However, you can get capped defenses without Agility, so more is overkill.  For recharge, you can get a ton of recharge from set bonuses, hasten and FF procs.  Once you hit perma-hasten levels, you're pretty much good, and on a Widow you have a ton of places to slot Gamblers.  At a certain point, more recharge reduction hits a point of diminishing returns where, for example, going from 250% to 300% only gets you a 2 second reduction on a 60 second base cooldown.  Plus, as discussed above, these hurt your proc rate.  

 

- Cardiac: Endurance shouldn't be an issue at lvl 50.  If it is, slot up performance shifter, numina, miracle, and panacea, drop 2 end mods in Stamina and get Atlas Medallion and Portal Jockey.  If you do all of that, you should never have end issues.  

 

- Musculature: Yes, its boring.  Yes, its just more damage, but all of the above issues can be solved in other ways.  Damage on the other hand can't be easily boosted on a Widow/Fort.  You have Aim or BU and Assault, but those are short duration/small bonuses.  Unlike the above endurance and recharge solutions, there isn't really a lot of IO ways to boost damage above the ED cap.  By comparison, core musculature gets you an extra 30% boost, past ED, equal to double Assault.  And if you go radial you also get End Mod there so you can help address any end issues while still getting a 22% boost over ED cap.  Finally, there's no real diminishing returns on damage.  With recharge, as I said, 50% boost can be as little as a 2 second benefit if you already have a lot.  With end, its binary, either you're sustainable or you're not, and once you're infinitely sustainable, more doesn't matter.  Same with survivabilty.  With damage, more is always better.  

 

I think most people agree that Musculature is the optimal choice if the rest of your build is in order.  

Edited October 23, 2019 by Omega-202

[slacktech]

Thanks to everyone who replied to my post.  You've convinced me to go Musculature.  I don't really have a major issue with endurance, but do need to work on getting those accolades.