DP CQC AT RSVP

[Black Zot]

LOL.

 

So I've been fiddling with potential Dual Pistols characters in MIDS, and I remembered DP has a PBAOE nuke.  That got me thinking "well, if I'm going to be that close anyway, what ATs can get mileage out of the Fighting pool?"  I suppose you could just as easily call this topic "Blapping on ATs that aren't Blasters", but I couldn't pass up the chance to spew out that many rhyming acronyms at once.

 

So.  The Fighting pool.  3 attacks that do diddly unless you take all 3, at which point the synergy bonus brings them ALMOST up to the level of melee attacks from primary/secondary sets.  But where does that leave them with regards to ATs that don't get melee powersets?  Do Sentinels, Defenders, or Corrupters get half-decent melee damage or no?

[oldskool]

You could make a surprisingly effective Sentinel.  

Take Pistols as the first power choice vs Dual Wield.  However, if you want to "Blap" you may not need it.  

Suppressive Fire has a lower cooldown on Sentinels and actually has decent base damage.  It also can ride every proc that all other versions can.  You can use this plus Executioner's Shot as your one-two ranged attack punch.  

You can skip Piercing Rounds.  You can decide if you really want Empty Clips or not, but do take Bullet Rain (hits more targets which has benefits).  

Take your Fighting Pool things.  Take an epic pool melee attack, and maybe even a single target hold (for more proc abuse like in Suppressive Fire).  Some of the better melee options can include: Havoc Punch, Smite, Mind Probe, or Cremate.  Knockout Blow sounds great but that cooldown is massive.  Same goes for Midnight Grasp. 

Pick a secondary that doesn't require a crap ton of investment like the Sentinel version of Invulnerability or Super Reflexes.  Sure, you'll want all the powers other than the T9, but these don't *need* a lot of slots to be effective.  Plus, you can skip at least 3 attacks out of Dual Pistols and replace it with melee.  

Cross Punch does really well.  So do the other powers I just suggested.  This is especially true with procs.  

Yeah, take your lawlz meme character and then realize it actually does damage.  Who's laughing now?

*Edit*

Also, for closed quarters but not necessarily playing with "lol melee" Dual Pistols plus Traps for toe bombing on either a Defender or Corruptor can be really good.  I personally run Dark Miasma/Dual Pistols/Dark Mastery and have good lawls with Soul Drain in Tar Patch into Hail of Bullets.  Can't do that every spawn, but still hilarious.  Working on a DP/Traps Corr (again).  So can confirm these work.  I prefer to blap on Blasters (DP/MC), but you can get creative here.  You're not going to exceed a Blaster, but you can still be effective even with this semi-joke build. 

It is should be pretty obvious that Dual Pistols and Martial Combat on Blasters works well together as will any other blap-friendly secondary.  However, Blasters aren't the point.  

*Edit Edit*
Just because I like stuff like this...  You could slot Gaussian's Build-Up proc in Sentinel's Invincibility variant in the Invulnerability set.  You have no control over the proc, but it will fire off.  If you want to group a lot, then Tactics can run that plus the full set for defenses.  You'll get some mileage out of it when you have more teammates.  Having more sources of to-hit like this (Invincibility, even Link Minds in Psi Mastery, Tactics, etc...) lets you worry less about accuracy to slot more damage procs.  This is how folks abuse stuff like this on Pylon tests even with the Sentinel to do higher damage than the AT is otherwise capable of. 

Edited March 5, 2021 by oldskool

[Gulbasaur]

On 3/4/2021 at 1:40 AM, Black Zot said:

So.  The Fighting pool.  3 attacks that do diddly unless you take all 3, at which point the synergy bonus brings them ALMOST up to the level of melee attacks from primary/secondary sets.  But where does that leave them with regards to ATs that don't get melee powersets?  Do Sentinels, Defenders, or Corrupters get half-decent melee damage or no?

Controllers get Containment, making the fighting pool fairly viable for them. I know you'd lose them in pistols, but they're worth looking at.

 

Defenders get the same raw melee numbers as controllers, but no double damage.

 

Corruptors get a slightly higher base amount plus about a third of the damage again through Scourge. A melee-friendly set like Time would work out fairly well. Storm could work as well as it has a lot of soft-control and decent damage for a support set. The Defender version of storm is arguably better in a few ways (including damage) but it's a good set either way. Dark is also a solid set with a lot of defensive and offensive capability, plus you get a mildly useful pet.

 

So... I'd go corruptor. 

 

I'll second the Tactics Gaussian's trick - in large groups it's something like a +25% damage boost overall. I think of it as a sort of off-brand crit mechanism.