I might kill my main

[Jawbreaker]

Well, one of my mains. He was one of my favorites back on live. Frightningbolt, a DM/Elec broot. Buzzsaw build for anyone who remembers those ( basically maxed out recharge bonuses and procs galore in Shadow punch, Smite and Siphon Life. You pretty much cycle through Smite and SP in continuous 1-2 combos, working single opponents like a heavy bag.) It was a great EB killer and a blast to play.  

But since the changes to procs on Homecoming, he doesn't play anywhere near the same. (He was nerfed a bit on live with changes to DM that I've long since forgotten.) 

I love the name, concept and power combo. But I'm not sure what other AT or power combo to roll him into with Dark and Elec sets. Or maybe I just need to respec him? 

What would you do with a beloved main who's been put out to pasture?

[Machariel]

I don't think I've ever retired a main, but I'd imagine I'd leave all the sets in and keep the character around just for a comfort pick.  Plus, you never know how the game might change or someone might discover a new way to use the powersets that breathes new life into the character!

[Bopper]

Well, I would recommend holding off on retirement until we know more about how they're going to change procs. I would look into respecting (but save your build somewhere), and try to maximize procs differently. 

[Heraclea]

Dark Melee remains one of the strongest melee attack sets that can enhance the survivability of any character.  You get an extra self heal that does damage, and fairly hard single target control.  Where it falls a bit flat is in AoE damage, and there is apparently a move on Test to improve that as well. 

 

Electric armor also does well.  It is close to immune to the omnipresent endurance drains you face everywhere from Clockwork to Market Crash.  Enjoy the content other players avoid, like Carnie and Malta arcs. 

 

I would stop trying to recreate a damage proc based 'buzzsaw' build and work instead towards sustainable damage and leveraging the debuffs you do consistently.  The constant -tohit of Dark Melee should be improved on.  With procs, consistency - multiple procs that do the same thing - is more valuable than just having a bunch.  Put as many Dark Watchers' Despair recharge slow procs in the attacks that accept them, and that will be most.  That will reduce your incoming damage burden noticeably.  When you have multiple recharge slow procs firing, the cumulative effect is better than simply adding a bunch of joy buzzer damage procs.  Use your Rage to lift your damage. 

 

You may just need to put the character aside for a while and take him up again when you're ready for a new approach. 

[Mr. Vee]

I have a DM/Elec that i use as my tanky broot. it's still buzzsaw-ish but he basically uses the tier 1/2 with gloom and midnight grasp. the latter have 5x purple set with an extra proc thrown in. does ok damage but nothing like a build with a couple perfect proc options. makes up for it by being nigh unkillable and everything at least being quick hits. 

[Jawbreaker]

15 minutes ago, Bopper said:

Well, I would recommend holding off on retirement until we know more about how they're going to change procs. I would look into respecting (but save your build somewhere), and try to maximize procs differently. 

Oh I didn't know they were looking to change procs, that's good to know!

[Jawbreaker]

7 minutes ago, Heraclea said:

Dark Melee remains one of the strongest melee attack sets that can enhance the survivability of any character.  You get an extra self heal that does damage, and fairly hard single target control.  Where it falls a bit flat is in AoE damage, and there is apparently a move on Test to improve that as well. 

 

Electric armor also does well.  It is close to immune to the omnipresent endurance drains you face everywhere from Clockwork to Market Crash.  Enjoy the content other players avoid, like Carnie and Malta arcs. 

 

I would stop trying to recreate a damage proc based 'buzzsaw' build and work instead towards sustainable damage and leveraging the debuffs you do consistently.  The constant -tohit of Dark Melee should be improved on.  With procs, consistency - multiple procs that do the same thing - is more valuable than just having a bunch.  Put as many Dark Watchers' Despair recharge slow procs in the attacks that accept them, and that will be most.  That will reduce your incoming damage burden noticeably.  When you have multiple recharge slow procs firing, the cumulative effect is better than simply adding a bunch of joy buzzer damage procs.  Use your Rage to lift your damage. 

 

You may just need to put the character aside for a while and take him up again when you're ready for a new approach. 

Oh those are good ideas, i think I will work up a respec build and focus on the DW procs and -to hit bonuses. Thank you for the ideas!

[Jawbreaker]

2 minutes ago, Veelectric Boogaloo said:

I have a DM/Elec that i use as my tanky broot. it's still buzzsaw-ish but he basically uses the tier 1/2 with gloom and midnight grasp. the latter have 5x purple set with an extra proc thrown in. does ok damage but nothing like a build with a couple perfect proc options. makes up for it by being nigh unkillable and everything at least being quick hits. 

The quick hits are so much fun

[Mr. Vee]

2 minutes ago, Jawbreaker said:

Oh those are good ideas, i think I will work up a respec build and focus on the DW procs and -to hit bonuses. Thank you for the ideas!

Do you really need more survivability out of the combo? I barely even bother with siphon life and generally only use energize at the beginning of big fights for the extra regen. There's so much extra to-hit debuff with the quick hits i don't know why you'd need to slot for it. Dead is still the game's best debuff.

[Jawbreaker]

4 minutes ago, Veelectric Boogaloo said:

Do you really need more survivability out of the combo? I barely even bother with siphon life and generally only use energize at the beginning of big fights for the extra regen. There's so much extra to-hit debuff with the quick hits i don't know why you'd need to slot for it. Dead is still the game's best debuff.

Honestly the build I have now is nowhere near what it used to be on live, so I'm just looking for something that will bring it back to life for me. It does ok damage, survivability is fair but not what it's currently built for.  

[Tahliah]

1 hour ago, Jawbreaker said:

What would you do with a beloved main who's been put out to pasture?

I can't speak to your specific build questions, but what would I do if my ice ice ice blaster didn't work anymore?  Cry.  Then I'd try to figure out if I could respec her to work as well as (or even better than) before, and if not, sadly move her to the last page of my character list.  And cry some more. 

 

I will say that the improvements to blasters have been a blessing.  I was super slow to embrace them and kept my original main on live the same even after newer and better enhancement sets came out and I could have built a stronger ice blaster, but with HC, I was forced to start from scratch, so I did.  And she's actually better now than she was on live (more damage, better survivability, all the goodness plussed). 

[Heraclea]

1 hour ago, Veelectric Boogaloo said:

Do you really need more survivability out of the combo? I barely even bother with siphon life and generally only use energize at the beginning of big fights for the extra regen. There's so much extra to-hit debuff with the quick hits i don't know why you'd need to slot for it. Dead is still the game's best debuff.

Buzzsaw builds were enjoyable, but don't work like they used to.  Unkillable melee gods are also enjoyable.  I'm not saying to slot everything exclusively for -tohit.  What I am saying is that adding a proc to several attacks that does -rech gives both extra toughness and team utility to the character.   But I definitely do slot up Siphon Life with accurate heal sets.   (Heraclea has hers frankenslotted with 5 Touch of Nictus and one Crushing Impact Acc/Dam.)  And brutes don't really need to slot damage so much, given their ability to buff their damage. 

[Bill Z Bubba]

4 hours ago, Heraclea said:

And brutes don't really need to slot damage so much, given their ability to buff their damage. 

 

But... but... MOAR DAMAGE!!!

 

I can't offer much help to the OP. My DM/Inv brute has an attack chain of MG, Gloom, SL, Gloom, repeat. (4 left handed attacks is very dull.) But the ST DPS ain't bad.

[Snarky]

43 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

 

But... but... MOAR DAMAGE!!!

 

I can't offer much help to the OP. My DM/Inv brute has an attack chain of MG, Gloom, SL, Gloom, repeat. (4 left handed attacks is very dull.) But the ST DPS ain't bad.

I tried war mace.  stopped at about level 30.  one arm moves.  that is the whole animation.  like a bad SNL character pretending to fight. 

[Without_Pause]

The forthcoming Dark changes and potential changes later on would let me keep it around even if the buzzsaw style of build has essentially kicked the bucket. At least wait for changes in procs and the Dark change to hit live and go from there. I don't like Shadow Maul in its current form, but I made a Dark/shield specifically because of the forthcoming change.

 

I never got my Dark/elec brute to 50 on Live so it was one build I was looking to create here, but there are new powersets I got distracted by. I remember a EB kicking my tail and then going back in with him back at full health, me out of inspirs, and pulling it off. Damn that felt good.

[Greycat]

The only things I can point out to people wanting to delete characters due to changes are:

 

1. Things will keep changing.

2. You have 1000 slots.

 

Shelving? Sure. Put it away a while. Much easier to unretire than recreate. 🙂

[Riverdusk]

1 hour ago, Greycat said:

The only things I can point out to people wanting to delete characters due to changes are:

 

1. Things will keep changing.

2. You have 1000 slots.

 

Shelving? Sure. Put it away a while. Much easier to unretire than recreate. 🙂

Yep, between 1,000 slots and free renames, retiring is fine, no need to ever delete (if that's what was meant by "kill")

[Chris24601]

Yeah... if you’re pondering a re-roll just change the name of the current one and re-select it on the new build. If things change later you can just rename the re-roll and put the original name back where it was.

[Clave Dark 5]

Proc changes?  First I'm hearing of it, can someone fill me in, or point me to a link?

[Myrmidon]

On 3/17/2020 at 11:22 PM, Machariel said:

I don't think I've ever retired a main, but I'd imagine I'd leave all the sets in and keep the character around just for a comfort pick.  Plus, you never know how the game might change or someone might discover a new way to use the powersets that breathes new life into the character!

My main was reborn here as a KM/WP Brute which pretty much collected dust for months after reaching T4, apart from the occasional TF. After years of the Tanker version on live (Invul/SS switched to WP/SS) playing ad a Brute just never felt right. The Tanker update changed all of that and now Myrmidon is back to running as a WP/KM Tanker. Perhaps an AT change might be an option for you as well, however, I have to agree with waiting to see what happens next before killing your main off.

Edited March 20, 2020 by Myrmidon

[Jawbreaker]

On 3/19/2020 at 7:06 PM, Clave Dark 5 said:

Proc changes?  First I'm hearing of it, can someone fill me in, or point me to a link?

From i24 I believe, procs were changed so they have less of a chance to fire based on the recharge of the power they're slotted in

[Clave Dark 5]

Ooooh, I misread, I thought there was talk of upcoming proc changes.  Thanks for clearing that up for me.