dark armor Obscure Sustenance -- huh?

[cohRock]

I have a level 19 dark/dark sentinel.  One of his powers is Obscure Sustenance, whose one line summary is:

 

PBAoE Minor Dmg(negative), Self +Regen, +Recovery

 

Sounds good.  Its Detailed Info affirms that it is an AoE with a 35 ft. radius.  It has a default accuracy of 150%.  However, it also says "(1 target max)".  Huh?  In-game play seems to confirm it only ever hits one guy, so there is not stacking of regen and recovery from multiple hits.  Isn't "1 target max" known as a "single-target attack"?  The only thing I can think of, assuming the documentation is correct, is that it functions as a chain attack, not a PBAoE.  If it hits the targeted guy, it is done.  If it misses him, it tries someone else within the radius.  Repeat.  But they could have accomplished pretty much the same thing a lot simpler by giving it an unslotted 250% accuracy on a single target.  I guess another possibility is that the power gets better as the character levels.  at 20, might be 2 targets max, at 30, 3 targets, etc.

 

Does anyone know how I should interpret this obscure information?

Edited November 24, 2020 by cohRock

[oldskool]

There is nothing to interpret.  You read it correctly.  The power never scales off targets.  As in, the power doesn't suddenly add more targets as you level.  

Obscure Sustenance essentially grants you three regeneration and recovery effect buffs which stack.  Each buff has its own duration.  The recovery effects have the shortest duration and the regeneration effects are effectively permanent (60 second duration of the longest effect and the power has a default 60 second cooldown).  

The recovery effects drop down one grade every 10 seconds or so and finish within 30 seconds or so (running off memory).  The regen effect drop off rates are a bit longer.  

Obscure Sustenance is most effective as a proactive endurance maintenance buff as long as there is an enemy within its range.  My endurance per second spikes over 5 end per second for 10 seconds whenever I use it which is huge.  So trying to maximize the uptime is pretty important.  I generally recommend trying to keep the cooldown at 20 seconds or less.  This lets you keep the second strongest recovery buff active with a very high degree of uptime.  The lower you can get the cooldown the better, but no need to break the build for it.  

Obscure Sustenance is the polar opposite of Dark Regeneration.  It has a completely different purpose than the melee set version.  Also, due to the spherical nature of the power and limited target cap procs do not work very well.  Theft of Essence kinda sucks as do most melee PBAoE set procs.  I use a full set of Preventative Medicine in the power since the high innate accuracy means you need to slot... A ZERO accuracy in it. 😉 

[cohRock]

@oldskool Thank you for the information and advice.

[arthurh35353]

Hmm. I may have to re-slot this. But does it cost Melee AOE costs or single target costs?

 

{edit} And why the hell isn't a +Recovery power allowing +End Modification? You pretting much need this power to run all your toggles all the time.

Edited December 26, 2020 by arthurh35353

[oldskool]

15 hours ago, arthurh35353 said:

But does it cost Melee AOE costs or single target costs?

It would be on the lower end of most AoE costs but moderate end of single target.  Keep in mind AoE vs ST isn't the only factor on how endurance works.  

[arthurh35353]

Yeah, it's just annoying that the power that you have to have to run all your armor toggles because of End Modification not accepting End Modifiers is GD weird.