Looking for suggestions on the most effective AOE AT combos

[Wavicle]

or it could just be the price to pay for TW's all around greatness

[Outrider_01]

20 hours ago, crkohl said:

Anyway OP, for what you're asking for specifically, I think you want War Mace

Agreed.  Rolled an Mace/electric brute, different AT but you can't go wrong with mace.  Very satisfying smacking things around, even better when you use the wrench graphic 😆

[Razia]

Also another vote for Warmace. It's totally underrated.

[ninja surprise]

On 1/7/2020 at 5:12 AM, nihilii said:

Honestly, this is a pretty important consideration. I build all my characters for ST damage with a couple AoEs, and in my experience lieutenants and minions die as a side effect while I focus on bosses.

 

On 1/7/2020 at 4:06 AM, Sovera said:

Spines is *the* actual AoE set but the ST is weak and that makes enjoying it harder when we are whittling down a hard target.

On 1/6/2020 at 11:36 AM, Mitchman said:

Spines/Ice - A slept on build, Strong fun AOE, tanky as all get out, gives for a fun interactive primary and secondary. Lacks ST though as well.

 

My Spines/Ice Scrapper is a blast on teams, but a bit of a pain solo when tough bosses come out. It's great having two damage auras and stacking slows, less-resisted damage, etc. But only three single-target attacks... takes a long time to defeat some critters. Particularly those Devouring Earth, when they drop Cairns that buff their damage resistance. I spend all my time defeating Cairns so I can defeat one mob then they drop 4 more cairns!

 

Over in the Brute/Tanks forums there's been talk of Street Justice replacing Spines for farming, and supposedly it has good single target damage too. So don't forget it exists too.

On 1/7/2020 at 12:35 PM, Frosticus said:

tw despite its unreal performance isnt my cup of tea though. Build momentum roots you which really interrupts progress into the next spawn and tw while momentum is down is not a good experience. It can be frustrating sometimes on teams.

 

Totally agree. My observation of team play is: "everyone will attack everything, regardless of whether anyone else on the team is already fighting it", and "It doesn't take 8 heroes to defeat one critter."

My endurance is my most precious asset, so I'll try to avoid even attacking something with less than 1/4 health. The Defender can take that thing down.

And when the spawn's down to about 3 nearly-dead critters it's time to move on to the next spawn. Particularly true if I'm the Tank or lead Brute.  I'll get to the next spawn a couple seconds before the rest of the team; Just long enough get aggro and soak the alpha when the team arrives and begins Operation Mop-Up.

Ain't nobody got time to wait for the tank to take a swing at the very last critter that was just defeated by the blaster but his attack is still gonna animate over a dead body.

[TinyH]

If you do go with war mace, use the pipe wrench. You will feel all powerful. 

[Gulbasaur]

On 1/7/2020 at 4:34 PM, crkohl said:

People always sleep on Claws for some reason. KB->KD IOs took Claws to top tier AoE easily. Pure Lethal damage is probably what scares some people, but you shred mobs so fast you won't even notice. 

People mistake "not optimal" with "utter trash". There really isn't that much in it mathematically, and lots of lethal sets are quick-animating, low endurance sets so you really do obliterate enemies very quickly and if you're focussing on AoE you end up taking down enemies almost by mistake.

 

My fortunata wrecks enemies in melee range. 

[Rokkeb]

Claws is the answer to this thread. Full st and full aoe chain. Pick a secondary at random, doesnt matter, claws will carry it to glorious conquest. 

[ninja surprise]

New opinion: A week or two ago I made a Titan/Ninjitsu Scrapper and it's a royal hoot. I just did Black Scorpion's patron arc against all the Crey.  I'm not a glutton for punishment so I'm on +1/x4.

On a Crey spawn I'll target the Paragon Protector boss and on a single dose of momentum I can use every AoE attack and most ST attacks and defeat the PP before it can MoG. So that's fun.

 

A bonus from Ninjitsu is the hide power gives you an auto-crit on your first attack. So Build Momentum + crit + the spin attack usually wipes out the minions, then throw a cone in each direction and everything's dead but the boss, but they die in the ST chain before momentum drops.

 

The Ninjitsu heal and Endurance powers activate quickly enough to use during momentum without losing it, so they work pretty well together. 

[Microcosm]

25 minutes ago, ninja surprise said:

A bonus from Ninjitsu is the hide power gives you an auto-crit on your first attack. So Build Momentum + crit + the spin attack usually wipes out the minions, then throw a cone in each direction and everything's dead but the boss, but they die in the ST chain before momentum drops.

It says you have to spend 20 seconds not attacking to be able to do this. Am I missing something with it? Because it seems like you'd benefit from that on the first attack in the mission and that's it, unless you walk to the next spawn and wait which nobody is going to do.

[ninja surprise]

2 minutes ago, Microcosm said:

It says you have to spend 20 seconds not attacking to be able to do this. Am I missing something with it? Because it seems like you'd benefit from that on the first attack in the mission and that's it, unless you walk to the next spawn and wait which nobody is going to do.

Depends on how far apart the spawns are, or how much of a ninja you are. I do a fair amount of stealthing and it's easy to go 20 seconds running across a map before I need to ambush something. Or you defeat a spawn, take an elevator, and run to the next spawn.  It pops up pretty regularly.

And totally the opposite of a wimpy Brute that would start out at the bottom of the fury bar - Scrapper jumps in at full power with a crit in hand. 😎

 

 

[MunkiLord]

On 1/6/2020 at 10:18 AM, Murcielago said:

I'd say go for either War Mace or Fire Melee with Shield or Bio or just make whatever combo sounds cool and enjoy playing the game lol. 

I like this suggestion. My Elec/SD ST isn't ok, or sub par, it's fucking terrible. My War Mace Scrapper doesn't do AoE as good, but it's still very good, and the ST is excellent as well. And that's with Willpower as the secondary, Shield or Bio would obviously be even better damage.

 

Haven't played Fire/SD since live, but I remember it being my strongest character back then by a good margin, so that's a great choice as well.

[DrBasics]

Just wanted to update and say that thanks to this thread, I went War Mace/Shield. This is one of the most fun characters I have! Thanks guys!