Dual blades/fiery aura - should I have taken Fiery Embrace

[Heraclea]

Spoiler

 

 

I have a 50 DB/Fire brute.  I took the whole  primary to have all the combos, and Taunt because it is handy and needs no slots.

 

I skipped Fiery Embrace as well as Rise of the Phoenix in Fire.  My understanding is that FE was eminently skippable: it was really only beneficial to fire-based attacks, and Dual Blades isn't.  My main attack combos now are Attack Vitals and Sweep.   On the other hand, I rely on the combos with Nimble Slash when exemped.  I could drop Blinding Feint - I gather that Fiery Embrace would take the same set, which is rather ad hoc in any case.  This wasn't really a carefully planned build, as you can see by the separation of the two Steadfast pieces that prob'ly ought to be together, maybe put all that stuff in Temperature. 

 

Is Fiery Embrace really worth having?  Isn't it weak and skippable unless your primary is also Fire/ ? 

Spoiler

Don't want to lose the Kinetic Combat in Nimble Slice either.  Again, this isn't a 'plan' build, I don't have a Mid's for it.  This is just the picture I took planning for a respec so I remember to put most things back where they were. 

 

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by Heraclea
Try as I might, I just can't get rid of that second spoiler box.

[Camel]

16 hours ago, Heraclea said:

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I have a 50 DB/Fire brute.  I took the whole  primary to have all the combos, and Taunt because it is handy and needs no slots.

 

I skipped Fiery Embrace as well as Rise of the Phoenix in Fire.  My understanding is that FE was eminently skippable: it was really only beneficial to fire-based attacks, and Dual Blades isn't.  My main attack combos now are Attack Vitals and Sweep.   On the other hand, I rely on the combos with Nimble Slash when exemped.  I could drop Blinding Feint - I gather that Fiery Embrace would take the same set, which is rather ad hoc in any case.  This wasn't really a carefully planned build, as you can see by the separation of the two Steadfast pieces that prob'ly ought to be together, maybe put all that stuff in Temperature. 

 

Is Fiery Embrace really worth having?  Isn't it weak and skippable unless your primary is also Fire/ ? 

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Don't want to lose the Kinetic Combat in Nimble Slice either.  Again, this isn't a 'plan' build, I don't have a Mid's for it.  This is just the picture I took planning for a respec so I remember to put most things back where they were. 

 

 

It’s definitely worth having. Quite simply, you will do more damage. But most importantly, when you’re at the damage cap, FE will push you past that and increase your damage further from the flat fire damage bonus it gives, which is directly related to how much damage your attacks do upon activation. I would recommend looking for a Dual Blades thread, I’ve never mained one but iirc certain powers are skippable in the DB set and will yield better performance. I’d recommend taking a look!

 

edit: Fiery Embrace does not accept To-Hit IOs, it doesn’t accept any sets actually. I can help you take a look at your build and give you some more tips, but one thing I noticed is you slotted Blinding Feint with no Acc, this attack needs to land on an enemy to get the benefit and is also a perfect place to slot the build up proc for maximum benefit. Slotting it with Acc/Dmg is priority.

Edited May 8, 2020 by Camel

[Heraclea]

4 hours ago, Camel said:

It’s definitely worth having. Quite simply, you will do more damage. But most importantly, when you’re at the damage cap, FE will push you past that and increase your damage further from the flat fire damage bonus it gives, which is directly related to how much damage your attacks do upon activation. I would recommend looking for a Dual Blades thread, I’ve never mained one but iirc certain powers are skippable in the DB set and will yield better performance. I’d recommend taking a look!

 

edit: Fiery Embrace does not accept To-Hit IOs, it doesn’t accept any sets actually. I can help you take a look at your build and give you some more tips, but one thing I noticed is you slotted Blinding Feint with no Acc, this attack needs to land on an enemy to get the benefit and is also a perfect place to slot the build up proc for maximum benefit. Slotting it with Acc/Dmg is priority.

I did the respec anyways.  Dropped Nimble Slash, needed for the lowbie combos, but that isn't the chief use of the character anyways.  Put both Steadfasts with the Gladiator's in Temperature Prot.  Put an accuracy in Blinding Feint, which does not loom large in my attack chain, which is Burn - Attack Vitals - Sweep, then repeat.  I added Fiery Embrace, and put it before Burn, where it probably does the most good.  I already have a baseline accuracy of something like 1.53 from the get-go; Dual Blades needs a lot of accuracy generally. 

[Generator]

On 5/7/2020 at 8:31 PM, Heraclea said:

Is Fiery Embrace really worth having?  Isn't it weak and skippable unless your primary is also Fire/ ? 

I think you're thinking of Fiery Embrace 1.0; IIRC at some point it was changed, such that it flat-out adds fire damage to your attacks.

[Heraclea]

2 hours ago, Generator said:

I think you're thinking of Fiery Embrace 1.0; IIRC at some point it was changed, such that it flat-out adds fire damage to your attacks.

If that's the case I don't remember it happening.  That the power was skippable if you weren't Fire/Fire was the received wisdom I remember. 

 

I suspect DB gets less out of it than most.  DB is not about burst damage; it's about the combos, and the most important of them - Attack Vitals - puts a DOT on the mobs you hit with it.