Ground Zero; did you take it or skip it?

[InvaderStych]

So, what is the consensus on Ground Zero for Scrappers?  Just opened it on the Kat/Rad scappy I'm slowly leveling and it seems like an excellent power, for a different toon.

 

Haven't slotted it up yet, so bear that in mind.  On the surface it's got a *huge* target cap hampered by limited radius (on a scrapper), and seems to do OK damage.  Long recharge time, so one could probably pack it with some enhanced recharge and still keep a 90% proc rate if one were so inclined and had the slots to spare.  Also haven't seen the effects on teammates as I've mostly solo'd since grabbing the power, so I can't speak to that either.  Seems like a "nice to have" side effect, if anything though.

 

On the other hand, it has a really short animation against a long (3s) activation time, so there's a moment after the power fires where you're just standing there that I find disorienting.  That 3s also eats quite a bit of a Build-Up cycle unless you fire it just before BU expires.  Of course as a big AoE it would be best used on a fresh enemy group right after firing BU.  BU->GZ->(Primary AoE like Lotus Drops, et al) seems like an excellent opener in theory, but it just isn't because of that 3s time.

 

On a tank or a brute that gap would be less of an issue, but even going Particle Shield -> Ground Zero the "stand there for a second or so" moment on a scrapper seems pretty dangerous in a lot of situations.  For those ATs it seems like a no-brainer choice.  Especially on a Tank with AoE radius buffs.

 

Seems more conditional for a Scrapper though; there might be builds that have room for or can leverage it, but I am not sure that Kat/Rad is one of them.  Even as an occasional use proc-nuke, I'm not sure the 3s break in flow is worth power choice/slots.

 

Thoughts?

Edited July 5, 2020 by InvaderStych

[Pzn]

I put achilles heel in it and open with ground zero before activating build up.  The damage from ground zero itself is insignificant compared to the procs loaded in it.  I would rather have extended build up duration after applying achilles.

 

[Coyote]

5 damage procs on my Stalker show it as about 470 damage. With a 90 second base recharge, that's comparable to a Sentinel nuke... in terms of DPS, it's comparable to a 600 damage nuke with 120 recharge from a Blaster. I definitely see it as worthwhile, especially when paired with an attack set that is low on AoE like Katana. Heck, I have Rad Therapy fully procced also, and that's over 300 damage... so almost 800 damage as my opening AoEs for every fight, from an AT that usually struggles with AoE (Stalker). And Katana is low AoE for a Scrapper, so... I'd slot both up for damage and nuke spawns with my radioactive emissions before I started slicing into the bosses.

[Krazie Ivan]

i agree with Josh & Coyote... 5-6 dmg procs & open on mobs before using BU. can't imagine skipping GZ.

with -Res in Therapy, you also get a free dmg boost to powers that are dmg-locked, like Judgement. i didn't have 4-5 slots to dmg proc Therapy on my TW/Rad/Soul, as i wanted to maintain extremely high saturated +Rech for TW to shine, w/o giving up softcap Melee & effectively-capped SLENFT. if it was Kat, i'd happily drop some +Rech for fully slotted Therapy bomb as well.

[InvaderStych]

Hmm. Thanks all.

 

I'll have to mess around with it some.

 

I have a Rad/Rad tank on the back-burner where I'm definitely going to leverage GZ against Atom Smasher, but on the scrapper my gut feeling was "I can fire of x# of Lotus Drops within 1 Ground Zero cycle ..." initially, so I started thinking that the power choice/slots might be better spent elsewhere.  Even if I am sort of focusing this build on hard targets vs. big groups, there's something to be said for having the extra tool.  There's plenty of time to experiment with it though, heh.

 

ATM Rad Therapy is slotted for heal with ToE's Chance for +End proc (which, imo, is a must have regardless of what else is slotted), but now that I have figured out that Particle Shielding is better used on-demand than set to auto I might revisit that idea.

 

Regarding -Res; the Excellent and Frustrating thing about Kat/Rad is being utterly spoiled for choice as to where to slot -Res procs.  Beta Decay will take 1, GZ, Lotus, Flashing, and GD could all slot 2, and all the remaining Kat attacks can take 1.  Hell, if you wanted to get really silly you could take a targeted-AoE from an Epic set and slot the 3rd -Res proc if you wanted to, but I don't think that would be all that effective.

 

On the one hand, having them in GZ means getting that sweet 90% fire rate on an opener, but on the other it means they're on long recharge and not available against AVs unless you duplicate them elsewhere or lose DPS firing the AoE on a single target.  Duplicating them isn't the worst thing in the world but it does complicate slotting.

 

I recently moved FotG's -Res into GD (was in Lotus Drops), and Achilles' into Beta Decay (was in Flashing Steel).  I'm liking the former, though not really impressed with the latter and I'll probably move it again.

 

All that said, I love having -Res in Savage Leap on my Brute; but that recharges and activates around twice as fast.  So, if I had to hazard an extremely rough and non-scientific guess, GZ slotted with procs is going to, at best, be up every 20-40s without enhancing it for recharge (basing that on Leap's 40s base and currently between about 12-20s on my Brute depending on +rech status).  That might actually be not as bad as I think.

Edited July 8, 2020 by InvaderStych