Poison Guide

[Frosticus]

1 hour ago, Coyote said:

 

Well, I don't think players are generally looking to solo AVs with a Storm build WITHOUT filling out the holes at least a bit. Using Illusion or Earth for aggro management, Dark for -ToHit, or Dark Blast/Water Blast for self heals. Maybe Electric (Control or Blast) to leverage the Heal Self proc, etc. And probably build for a high Ranged Def build with solid AoE Def, and use an APP with a resist shield to stack onto the defense. I'm liking Mu in general for /Storm, as it provides a pet that heals and a resist shield, as well as some other solid powers. As a Defender I'd probably use the Electricity APP or whatever its name is, as it has a single-target Immobilize with good duration.

 

Agreed. All of which are sizable tradeoffs, which earlier in the thread it was asserted that storm is amazing and can be tacked on to any set with little to no consideration given. 

 

I love storm, but I dont share that mindset. It has holes you you can drive a bus thru before it excels. But if you do patch them up it is great. 

[Coyote]

Yeah, I agree. Storm has great strengths and also gaping holes that need to be filled before it will drive well on the road. Great engine... brakes need work 😄  And it's not "add onto anything without care", that's more like Time or Dark Miasma/Affinity.

[Frosticus]

1 hour ago, Redlynne said:

So ... when I combine -30% Resistance from Slowed Response and add another -20% Resistance from an Achilles' Heel proc in Slowed Responsed (90% proc chance) and use Piercing Rounds for another -20% Resistance when using Standard Ammo in my Time/Dual Pistols/Soul Defender build to achieve a -70% Resistance total from a distance that's not too shabby?  Especially since I can keep that going (and I think the Piercing Rounds -Resistance debuff is allowed to stack with itself)?

 

Near as I can tell, Poison (according to the posted Guide) can do -40% Resistance to the main $Target (and another -20% Resistance "splash" to the AoE) from Envenom, and Venomous Gas adds another -25% Resistance to the PBAoE, for a theoretical maximum of 85% without Achilles' Heel procs (and 105% with Achilles' Heel procs) so long as there's more than one $Target so as to reap the benefits of the "splash" AoE from Envenom in order to "one and half up" on the Resistance debuffing from Envenom.

 

So the tradeoff then becomes (in a single target only scenario, removing the opportunity for "splash" debuffing from Envenom) a difference of -65% Resistance (-85% with Achilles' Heel proc) while needing to stay in what amounts to melee range with Poison ... versus a -50% Resistance (-70% with Achilles' Heel proc) in a Time/Dual Pistols/Soul Defender build strategy that can do ALL of its Resistance debuffing from a distance.  -65% vs -50% for a difference of melee vs ranged (setting aside the Achilles' Heel procs).

 

So Poison is still "better" in the Resistance debuffing department, but it's possible for other powerset combinations to get close to Poison without needing to resort to being in melee range for the privilege.  To be honest, I would have expected the differential to be higher than that ... although, to be fair, Poison would get an extra -20% Resistance from Envenom "splash" in a 2+ $Targets situation that Time/Dual Pistols/Soul basically won't be able to match, meaning that Poison is clearly superior (by a goodly bit more) in multi-target situations.

 

Interesting to game out the dependencies on context in this way for Poison.

My personal stance on -res procs is that they are nice to have and to understand how they work. 

 

I dont really count them as part of my abilities though because if I put down Achilles and you put down achilies who should be attributed with it?

 

I've never made the claim that poison can stack the most -res. But it can stack a lot very quickly. With the current speed of the game it can keep up and contribute pretty well. 

 

Poison can pretty reliably trigger achilies between envenom and venomous gas. It can also fairly reliably trigger gladiators fury -res. 

I discuss those aspects in the guide but I dont use them in any of the calculations.

[Redlynne]

Exactly.  Just as important as "I put an Achilles' proc HERE" is knowing what the chances are that it's going to proc when that power is used.  This is why you'll see proc chance calculations on almost all of my build posts nowadays, so that I can KNOW how "reliable" a proc is going to be within a particular power.  Doing that also lets me calculate "thresholds" for how much recharge I can slot into a power before it starts impacting proc chances, and so on.  That then lets me step right up to the line on having a 90% proc chance while also slotting as much recharge as I can fit into a power like Slowed Response in Time Manipulation.  When you start getting to really high reliability for procs, that's when things start getting REALLY interesting and a lot of the calculus changes.

 

However, in terms of "raw" debuffing, Poison can do all by itself more than what I can get out of two powersets combined ... which is not shabby ... and that's assuming that you don't have Poison/Sonic for even more debuffing on your side of the ledger.

[DekayXxX]

Can anyone work up a Poison/Beam Rifle build? I have a character this would fit with thematically and would like to use Experimentation as a pool instead of Sorcery... I understand what I'd be losing in RoP.

 

Inf cost isn't important. I am using the previously posted Poison/Beam and love its potential.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Blaque Zeke]

I love this guid! Did you ever check out the experimental powers?  I MM poison was closer to Defenders!

Edited June 3, 2020 by Blaque Zeke

[Frosticus]

49 minutes ago, Blaque Zeke said:

I love this guid! Did you ever check out the experimental powers?  I MM poison was closer to Defenders!

The instant teleport is a great fit for poison.

 

but I just cant get away from rune of protection is sorc.