Epic and patron power pools

[WitchofDread]

Which of above sets offers the highest ST damage and the highest AoE damage.

 

Fire and earth I imagine will be high up there in numbers.

[Coyote]

I would say Earth for single target, although it won't be on a fast recharge. Hurl Boulder isn't impressive but Seismic Smash is. Generally, the "basic" bolt attacks won't add that much to ST damage as they're comparable to Arcane Bolt, so it's a question of what extra heavy hitter is in the set.

 

For AoE, it's Ice in general, although if you have a set that has other damage sources (such as Storm), then running Earth for Fissure, or Psy for Psynado, so that you can get Force Feedback and use that to fire off your other AoEs faster might end up doing more damage. But Frost Breath with good procs does 400 damage every fight, which is OMG for a Controller, and then Ice Storm adds about another 400 damage every other fight. If you run a /TA Controller, although you may have to play tricks to get Oil Slick to light, you could alternate Oil Slick Arrow and Ice Storm every fight for 400 damage plus Frost Breath, and do 800+ damage every spawn.

[Peacemoon]

Soul is pretty good at AoE because of Soul Drain and Soul Obliteration. Maybe not the best, but definitely worth a mention. Soul Drain is PBAoE so you have to be amongst the mobs, but if you have them locked down that shouldn't be too much of an issue. Soul Drain also gives you +6.4% damage for 30 seconds, per mob hit (up to 10), so I often use it as a set up before unleashing my other attacks. 

 

Just to add, the main negative to Soul Drain is the tight radius. It really benefits to having mobs all clumped up together. If they are spread about, like in some indoor missions, then it can be a pain. But on nice outdoor farms where everyone is huddled together...!

Edited April 8, 2020 by Peacemoon

[WitchofDread]

1 hour ago, 5099y_74c05 said:

Burst or Sustained? This may shift the assessment slightly; more so for AoE.

 

In addition to what Coyote has provide a notable for ST is the Mace Mastery ST attack. It has some popularity since it provides -20% RES and also access to S/L/E Shield.

Well I'm currently looking at psi mainly for psinado and WoC both will be fully proc loaded.

 

I will be running elec/dark and I'm considering dropping servant in place of psi blast to get a more solid ST rotation.

[Coyote]

10 minutes ago, 5099y_74c05 said:

For AoE Fire and Ice are within ~30% (advantage Fire) but this doesn't account for AoE size (huge advantage Ice) which is why agree with Coyote's assessment. PROCs add another layer of consideration. For PROCs consider  @Sir Myshkin "8 - 60s rule of thumb" posted here:

 

To amplify on this: Fireball is probably a better attack than Frost Breath, with base stats, and using a full set for set bonuses. It has much better animation time.

However, Frost Breath has a 90% chance to proc a damage proc, while Fireball has about 71%. And FB has a 90% base accuracy, allowing you to get away with less Accuracy slotting. So if you were to 5-slot with Positron, I'm not sure which is better... but my slotting is 4 damage procs (and note that Fireball doesn't have access to Impeded Swiftness so it only takes 3 damage procs), and two Centrioles. If you have other sources of Accuracy you can get away with this slotting, and you end up around 400 damage with a 56' long cone. If you don't have accuracy, you could put in Positron's Acc/Dam and Dam/Range to get some small set bonuses while still slotting up Range. You can't get stats like these on Fireball, because

1: It procs at a 71% chance rather than 90%

2: It has a lower base Accuracy so you are less likely to get away without Accuracy enhancing.

3: It has access to one fewer proc.

 

So, Fireball vs Frost Breath is a close call based on slotting with sets for set bonuses. If you go with a proc-oriented build, it's no contest... Frost Breath is the best AoE attack for Controllers damage-wise. The only reason to go with another is the Force Feedback proc, or else other non-damage powers in the set.