Farming Follow-Toon Suggestions

[BurningDezire]

Hey All,

I want to try so many ATs and countless builds! Considering that, farming has been a fast source of funding builds. It's gotten a little boring though (I'm sure many can relate), so in an effort to make farming fun again, I've decided to build a toon to follow along with my farming toon. Suggestions for builds that can contribute while on follow? Thanks in advance! 

[Bopper]

7 minutes ago, BurningDezire said:

Hey All,

I want to try so many ATs and countless builds! Considering that, farming has been a fast source of funding builds. It's gotten a little boring though (I'm sure many can relate), so in an effort to make farming fun again, I've decided to build a toon to follow along with my farming toon. Suggestions for builds that can contribute while on follow? Thanks in advance! 

I assume you would want something that is survivable while provides as much damage from auras and a good PBAoE attack you can put on auto? Or did you have something else in mind?

[BurningDezire]

3 minutes ago, Bopper said:

I assume you would want something that is survivable while provides as much damage from auras and a good PBAoE attack you can put on auto? Or did you have something else in mind?

Yes, exactly! Would be great if powerset has toggle auras. Set it and forget it kind of deal. Not clicky buffs, but toggle buffs. 

Edited February 17, 2020 by BurningDezire

[Bopper]

29 minutes ago, BurningDezire said:

Yes, exactly! Would be great if powerset has toggle auras. Set it and forget it kind of deal. Not clicky buffs, but toggle buffs. 

For melee, I would look to either Rad Melee or Spines on a Tank.

 

Rad Melee offers Irradiated Ground as a toggle, and you can put Atom Smasher on Auto. If your main farmer is already a Rad Melee, then the Contamination from your follower should help. Also the -def AoE lends itself to the Achilles Heel proc for -resistance, and Fury of the Gladiator can go into Atom Smasher for more occasional -res. Actually, no matter what, you should just proc out both the powers and let the other non-used powers act as mules for survivability and recharge.

 

Spines offers Quills as a toggle and you can put Spine Burst on auto.

 

For armors, go with something with a damage aura: Dark, Electric, or Fire (Bio also has a damage aura, but its survivability requires lots of clicking. The others you can max out the resistance of some type you care about (Fire or S/L). I would recommend Electric since it comes with a +20% recharge and speed boost, which will help keep the follower stuck to your hip. If you go with Hover on the follower, that would help if there are walls you may have to go over, and the speed boost will again help the Hover speed out.

 

Leadership pool will be a given. Assault, Maneuvers, and Tactics. You won't need to worry much about endurance since you're just running toggles and firing one attack on repeat.

 

Speed pool is a possibility if you rather the follower stay on you with Super Speed. You could also use a KB->KD IO to turn Whirlwind into a fun little Knockdown aura, which you can proc with FF +Rch and a damage proc from Explosive Strike. Be careful about the endurance though. You might be able to offset the endurance cost by throwing a PS +End proc into Electric Armor's damage toggle.

 

Personally, I think I would go Rad/Elec/Energy (another PS+End you can throw into Physical Perfection) Tank with Whirlwind, Lightning Field, and Irradiated Ground toggled on, and Atom Smasher on auto. I might just throw a build together for fun and share it. Might even make it for the hell of it.

 

 

[Rokkeb]

An arachnid soldier could double up on leadership toggles wouldn't be adding too much beyond that other than one generic cone AoE probabaly. 

 

Maybe a gravity controller. Its pet will lock down enemies for you and pick a secondary with a buff on a short cooldown. 

 

Problem is I'm having trouble thinking of many toggle buffs other than small def+stealth, and of course leadership.

 

I dont lnow that any MM pets will survive a firefarm, but could be interesting to try. 

 

Also if you dropped cash on an I'll controller you could perma phantom army on auto cast. Then pick w/e you want for secondary and hot swap over for buffs when wanted. 

 

 

 

[MIG]

I have a "drag-along" sidekick that I should have called "Chum," since his primary job is to attract more aggro.  I went a similar route as Bopper suggested, but I went with a Brute Rad/Fire, with Burn on auto...  occasionally Atom Smasher on auto.  I like the idea of Whirlwind, but KU really doesn't add much when everything dies in under 4 mins.  

 

This is a question for the uber-testers in the room (cough... Bopper... cough... Myshkin...).  I tend not to believe everything in Mids (probably a decent policy) and I was wondering which "damage aura" is the best, looking at the available tools:

 

Rad Melee (Irradiated Ground)

Spines (Quills)

 

Elec Armor (Lightning Field)

Fire Armor (Blazing Aura)

Bio Armor (Genetic Contamination)

 

I might be missing something, but I am wondering if there is a clear winner(s).  

 

[Troo]

1 hour ago, BurningDezire said:

farming has been a fast source of funding builds. It's gotten a little boring though.

*gasp

[SeraphimKensai]

If I'm making influence, I use a rad/fire brute followed by an auto burning spines/fire brute.

 

If I'm leveling an alt, I use which ever brute is on the opposite account of the toon I'm leveling.

[Bopper]

4 hours ago, MIG said:

Rad Melee (Irradiated Ground)

Spines (Quills)

 

Elec Armor (Lightning Field)

Fire Armor (Blazing Aura)

Bio Armor (Genetic Contamination)

I will need to look stuff up on Irradiated ground since it is a patch and I can't look at the numbers right now. But for the armors, Fire>Elec>Bio. The damage is better in that order (0.22>0.20>0.15) and the commonality of enemy resistance favors that order (Fire>Energy>Toxic). 

 

Edit. Did some looking on Irradiated Ground and Quills. Quills is the equivalent of Bio Armor's Genetic Contamination as it does 7.92 damage every 2 seconds. Irradiated Ground is a patch that drops every 5 seconds but lasts for 10 seconds. It does 4.89 damage every 2 seconds, and if double stack it averages out to 4.89 damage every 1 second. But the biggest thing I saw with Irradiated Ground is the fact that it can proc on a target after every 5 seconds (when a patch drops) as opposed to every 10 seconds with regular toggles. Double the proc opportunities makes Rad Melee the superior choice over Spines.

Edited February 17, 2020 by Bopper

[Sir Myshkin]

Why not a Kin? Fulcrum on Auto-fire, stack up its defense as much as possible to keep it alive, toss Whirlwind on it with a KD converter and it can act as a little ball of chaos. Surely the damage cap would be more supplemental than an Roomba.

 

Side note about Irradiated, with it being a drop-patch pseudo pet trigger, it does function a bit differently and isn't quite so "waltz" into a spawn and go, it could very easily drop itself in between spawns and leave you sitting without it for five seconds. The patch-dropping also changes its dynamic mix with procs and Containment too.

 

If Melee follower is the choice, a Rad/Bio Armor might be interesting in Offensive. A little DoT damage, a little -Res, patch dropping Irradiated, and put Atom Smasher on auto. Curious how that would compare to a Fire option running around with Burn on auto. How much difference would a little random -Res have in the speed performance.

[Darkir]

6 hours ago, Sir Myshkin said:

Why not a Kin? Fulcrum on Auto-fire, stack up its defense as much as possible to keep it alive, toss Whirlwind on it with a KD converter and it can act as a little ball of chaos. Surely the damage cap would be more supplemental than an Roomba.

 

Side note about Irradiated, with it being a drop-patch pseudo pet trigger, it does function a bit differently and isn't quite so "waltz" into a spawn and go, it could very easily drop itself in between spawns and leave you sitting without it for five seconds. The patch-dropping also changes its dynamic mix with procs and Containment too.

 

If Melee follower is the choice, a Rad/Bio Armor might be interesting in Offensive. A little DoT damage, a little -Res, patch dropping Irradiated, and put Atom Smasher on auto. Curious how that would compare to a Fire option running around with Burn on auto. How much difference would a little random -Res have in the speed performance.

Yep, go kinetics with fulcrum on auto. I can easily auto follow on my fire/kin corr fire build and not die. No need to go with whirlwind, as you have access to repel (I slot it with one end redux, one FF proc, and one kb to kd IO). Running repel and whirlwind is so endurance intensive that not even a T4 ageless can keep up (I wanted it to work so badly...). The amount of added damage that fully capping the brutes in your party is worth it if you have 2 or more.

 

Essentially, if you are going to use followers:

 

2 brutes > 1 brute+1 kin

2 brutes+1kin > 3 brutes

 

If people are going to fully play the toons and not just be followers, a corruptor fire/kin and a rad/fire brute should beat a 2 rad/fire brute on most maps (not asteroid where the brutes can eat a shit ton of reds and repeat). I will admit that I have not tested times since the brute dmg cap nerf though (but doesn't fire ball have a higher dmg scale now? It might make up for it in AOE farming).

[MIG]

Thank you Bopper, Myshkin, and Darkir!

 

All very helpful observations and information.  

 

Last question of the day, how would you slot Irradiated Ground, with the goal of maximizing a proc and/or damage potential?   

 

[Bopper]

12 minutes ago, MIG said:

Thank you Bopper, Myshkin, and Darkir!

 

All very helpful observations and information.  

 

Last question of the day, how would you slot Irradiated Ground, with the goal of maximizing a proc and/or damage potential?   

 

Since it is a follow-toon, and most of your damage will come from your main, I would say debuffs should be prioritized. So I would put Achilles' Heel in there for certain. Then the question comes down to whether or not you put the unique Fury of the Gladiator resistance debuff into Irradiated Ground, Atom Smasher, or a Defensive Damage Aura (Lightning Field if you go Electric Armor). Personally, I would put it in Atom Smasher since it can hit up to 16 targets and I think it would have a 15 foot radius. So personally, I would go Achilles' Heel and 5 regular damage procs (Obliteration, Scirocco, Eradication, Shield Breaker, Touch of Lady Gray) into Irradiated Ground. I wouldn't worry about enhancing damage as the base damage is already so low. Some numbers:

4.89*0.424*5/5s = 2.07336 DPS  (Adding one lvl 50 Damage IO, you get 5 ticks of damage and can cast every 5 seconds)

71.75*3.5/6/(1+.75*.15*8)/5s = 4.40570 DPS (Adding one regular damage proc)

As you can see, adding one damage proc to IG is equivalent to over two level 50 IOs (+90% over base damage). 

 

With Atom Smasher, procs also will be more beneficial than a lvl 50 Damage IO:

81.89*0.424 = 34.72136 (Adding one lvl 50 Damge IO)

71.75*3.5*(2.93+22)/60/(1+0.15*0.75*10) = 49.102

 

In this case, regular damage procs are still superior. But if you don't mind investing in Armageddon and using enhancement boosters, I would probably go with a +5 Damage (+66.25%) and/or a +5 DMG/EndRdx (+41.4% each). Since Atom Smasher is an endurance hog, going with the endurance reduction might be desirable. In the end, my slotting would probably be Armageddon Proc, +5 Armageddon DMG/End, Achilles' Heel Proc, Fury of the Gladitor Proc, Touch of Lady Gray Proc, and either an Eradication Proc or +5 Armageddon DMG.

 

[Seigmoraig]

I use a Sonic/ Defender for this. Since this guy can't really take hits to well he is best suited to the asteroid space mission where he can just fly above the center of the map, very low maintenance and never dies.

Basically you give him the Invisibility power from Concealment so mobs will never see him and buff your farmer with Disruption Field for the -30%res debuff aura. Give him Leadership toggles for extra value and you are set. Both of the +res shield buffs are good if you have a character that you want to farm with but isn't res cap yet but become unneeded once you attain those caps with IO sets.
The space asteroidy map is the best for this guy because even though mobs will never break his stealth, he will still get hit by AoE attacks and can get killed that way. Dispersion field is nice because it has a very long range, longer than Leadership, so you can just have him float there and only move him around when you change maps.

0 maintenance
0 need to actually dual box except when changing missions
0 inf investment

Edited February 17, 2020 by Seigmoraig