Please sell me on /bio

[OrionX]

I know a lot of people love it and I do love the offensive stance damage boost.

But, when I look on Mids and in my combat attributes window I just don't see it as a great set.

Its hard to compare to some other sets since it has some click powers for absorb/regen.

Maybe I'm just playing it wrong.

 

Thoughts?

[Pzn]

Run it on a scrapper.  The damage boost from offensive adaptation makes a way larger difference on scrappers than it does on brutes.  Any damage boosts on scraps also increase the damage of their critical hits, so it's like double dipping.  Brutes on the otherhand have lower base damage with tons of  +damage.  That  30% damage boost from offensive is hardly noticeable compared to the nearly 200% from fury.  It ends up being proportionately less of an increase in damage on brutes.

 

[aethereal]

In terms of the mitigation, rather than the offense boost, you have to understand that Bio lives and dies by its clicks.  Ablative Carapace gives you both a chunky absorb shield and a big regen boost.  So while people are working their way through your absorb, you're healing up your actual hit points.  DNA Siphon gives you a big heal (in a crowd) and a big regen boost (if there are DEAD targets to hit).  And Parasitic Aura also gives absorb and regen.

 

You simply won't have the same defense/resist numbers that an equivalently slotted other set will give you, and you have to use these powers, and use them well.  You'll want to get the recharge of all of them down to the point where you continuously have your regen boosted, and you need to think about when to activate each one.  It's pretty easy to get Ablative Carapace and DNA Siphon into an "every spawn" cadence, while Parasitic Aura is on a longer recharge cycle.  DNA Siphon has big swings in what it does based on the number of alive and dead targets it has.

 

If all your clickies are on cooldown, you will absolutely be more fragile than other sets.  And regen is really important for bio armor -- I keep it monitered so I can see if it's debuffed, because the way this set works is it gives you relatively little passive resist/defense, good regen (if you're metering out your clickies) and then absorb shields to let the regen do its work.  If your regen is floored, you will die as soon as your absorbs get eaten through, which they will fairly fast.

 

Like other regen-based sets -- and I think that bio is best understood as a regen-based set with a sideline of defense/resist -- bio rewards max hitpoint super hard.  Plan to do the accolades for this one.  Slot your max hp stuff aggressively.

 

In general, I find the defensive side of Bio to be a bit black and white.  One mission, you're a god, just tearing through your enemies.  Next enemy group hits one of your holes, and it's all you can do to stay alive.

Edited October 21, 2020 by aethereal

[Onlyasandwich]

Bio can still reach important resist caps with work, especially in larger crowds, and provides basically every possible layer of mitigation beyond that.

 

You may not get easy out of the box def or resist cap, but you get a solid typed defense baseline, resists to everything, huge absorb shield, strong regen, and a strong heal. Even the next runner up in the game of "how many types of protection do you have" only has three or four of those.

 

You have at least three built in "oh crap" buttons. Bio is definitely an active set if you are interested in more than its offensive bonuses.

 

This gives you a number of ways to capitalize on defensive bonuses, and also makes you a more optimal recipient of defensive buffs of any stripe. Just a little nudge and you are capped on anything.

 

This is or course looking it at only from the defensive pov. End management and offensive tools are the special spice.

Edited October 21, 2020 by Onlyasandwich

[ninja surprise]

Bio is an acquired taste. Its defense is being all in on offense. 

You get hit points, recovery, s/l resist, and e/n defense.

But you get squat debuff resist so slows and defense debuffs will get you killed before a heal recharges. 

It can be great fun and amazing to watch or super frustrating. 

Edited November 17, 2020 by ninja surprise

[OrionX]

Thanks all for the replies!

This really helps put into perspective.

I'm going to go back and try more /Bio

 

Thanks!