Never tried Savage Melee. Tips?

[Xandyr]

Greetings all!

  It's time, once again, for a new tank. I'm going Stone Armor (bc I haven't played it since Live), and thought I'd pair it with Savage Melee (which I've never played).

 Anyone have any tips or suggestions on Savage Melee? Powers to definitely take or skip? Slotting advice?

 Appreciate it!

[Onlyasandwich]

Savage melee is great fun, and I think you'll find it a good fit for any tanker primary.

 

The biggest downsides here are lethal damage and the ST damage in general. It lacks a big heavy hitter, as Hemorrhage is poop. 

 

The aoe is very smooth, with a seamless aoe chain between Shred, Rending, and Leap. Leap is especially powerful as a proc bomb and positioning tool.

Some people don't like Shred. I find it really nice on a Tanker with our cone buff. It's strong aoe, and usable in ST to round out your chain.

 

Outside of trying to spend my blood frenzy on Rending when possible, I don't pay a lot of attention to the mechanic. You can play around with it to help optimize your ST chain, though, and the end discount is a happy bonus. The long animation time of Blood Thirst (the buildup for Savage) is a little sad, and I believe unwarranted.

 

I don't think Savage is the way to go if you are looking for top-tier optimization, but it has lovely animations and feels good to play. If they fixed Hemorrhage into something useful, I'd be 100% satisfied.

 

 

[KauaiJim]

I usually keep my grunting noise low so as not to scare off any of the 'peoples'.  I'll look around scratching and grunting quietly until something moves...  THERE!  There's a plaything - GO GET IT!.  I leap excitedly into a crowd of newly found playfriends.  I thrash about happily until my playthings stop moving.  I stand there looking at my broken playthings waiting to see if they move again.  Then I beat my chest and roar with satisfaction then scamper off to find more 'peoples' to play with.

 

I know this isn't the kind of 'tips' you were asking for, but dang it's fun!

[Dark Dove]

@Onlyasandwich covered most of the highs and lows really well for the Tanker version of savage.

 

You asked about slotting, I think a few of the keys are the -res procs (Shred takes Achilles Heel, and Fury of the Gladiator can go in Rending Flurry or Savage Leap though I tend to choose Rending Flurry) and the Force Feedback +rech proc in Vicious Slash which will keep the mediocre single target chain at least cycling fast (Vicious Slash can be slotted well with Force Feedback, 4x Superior Might of the Tanker and a damage proc like Hecatomb or some other five piece set for bonuses).  I like Savage Leap with four procs (Scirroco's Dervish Acc/Dam and Acc/Dam/End and Chance for Lethal / 3 other damage procs).  For the other single target attacks (Savage Strike and Maiming Slash) I tend to look for a space for Touch of Death Chance for Negative procs (or whatever proc you like) and a five slot set bonus from another set (Sup Gauntleted Fist or Sup Blistering Cold or Hecatomb kinda deal). Blood Thirst is probably fine with just a Gaussian's proc and/or a single recharge +5 IO.

 

On a Tanker I only skip Hemorrhage, but you could theoretically skip Shred (I wouldn't, it's best on a Tanker compared to all other AT's and fits in a -res proc) and you could skip Taunt if you aren't intending to use it for prime tanking (you can prime tank without taunt but it helps to have it).

 

I'd drop a build for it but Stone Armor is the only set I haven't touched since the earliest releases of CoH, so I can't really confidently help on that side of the coin.

 

Savage is a lot of fun, it just isn't optimal in a few ways.  It has a great feel in play, I just wish it packed a little more punch.

[KauaiJim]

1 hour ago, Dark Dove said:

@Onlyasandwich covered most of the highs and lows really well for the Tanker version of savage.

 

You asked about slotting, I think a few of the keys are the -res procs (Shred takes Achilles Heel, and Fury of the Gladiator can go in Rending Flurry or Savage Leap though I tend to choose Rending Flurry) and the Force Feedback +rech proc in Vicious Slash which will keep the mediocre single target chain at least cycling fast (Vicious Slash can be slotted well with Force Feedback, 4x Superior Might of the Tanker and a damage proc like Hecatomb or some other five piece set for bonuses).  I like Savage Leap with four procs (Scirroco's Dervish Acc/Dam and Acc/Dam/End and Chance for Lethal / 3 other damage procs).  For the other single target attacks (Savage Strike and Maiming Slash) I tend to look for a space for Touch of Death Chance for Negative procs (or whatever proc you like) and a five slot set bonus from another set (Sup Gauntleted Fist or Sup Blistering Cold or Hecatomb kinda deal). Blood Thirst is probably fine with just a Gaussian's proc and/or a single recharge +5 IO.

 

On a Tanker I only skip Hemorrhage, but you could theoretically skip Shred (I wouldn't, it's best on a Tanker compared to all other AT's and fits in a -res proc) and you could skip Taunt if you aren't intending to use it for prime tanking (you can prime tank without taunt but it helps to have it).

 

I'd drop a build for it but Stone Armor is the only set I haven't touched since the earliest releases of CoH, so I can't really confidently help on that side of the coin.

 

Savage is a lot of fun, it just isn't optimal in a few ways.  It has a great feel in play, I just wish it packed a little more punch.

 

Now you have me thinking of working shred into my build.  I like the ability but I was trying to be economic with enhancement slotting and since there is already another consumer for blood thirst I thought I could skip it.  But I do like it.  Hmmm...

[Dark Dove]

2 hours ago, KauaiJim said:

 

Now you have me thinking of working shred into my build.  I like the ability but I was trying to be economic with enhancement slotting and since there is already another consumer for blood thirst I thought I could skip it.  But I do like it.  Hmmm...

 

It's certainly skippable as cones don't always fit a playstyle or build, but with the Tanker AoE buff it hits a good amount in a crowd and the -res proc is always helpful to add in.  Shred doesn't consume stacks, it builds one stack per use, Hemo is the other one that consumes if I recall correctly.

[Onlyasandwich]

48 minutes ago, Dark Dove said:

Hemo is the other one that consumes if I recall

This is correct! Only Hemo and Rending consume Blood Frenzy stacks.

 

I was confused at first myself regarding Shred, as for some reason Mids power text says that it is a spender. In game it actually builds.

 

Initially, I struggled to choose between Maiming Slash and Shred . Maiming slash would have been a bit better on the ST front, but honestly not a lot better. Shred, on the other hand, provides a solid filler for both ST and aoe, and modest aoe when you exemplar. I was actually pretty sure I'd take Maiming, but after running with both for a while, Shred was the clear winner in practice.

 

The cone on Shred is really healthy with the tanker buff. My /Savage Tanker hovers above the spawn, and it easily hits ten targets in a decent crowd. I just sort of hover there and spam aoes - it works out pretty well! It feels a bit like swimming - I hover up to leap down, shred/rend, then pop up again for another leap down to repeat the graceful diving dance.

 

Hemo is really such a shame, though. I don't believe there is a stinkier high  level "big hitter." Most of the other big hitters like Seismic Smash, Freezing touch, or Clobber also come with a CC component on top of superior up-front damage, not to mention the fact that they don't rely on stacking blood frenzy to max out. It even makes Greater Ice Sword look kinda okay.

I feel like it deserves either an absolutely gigantic damage buff (like keep the painfully long DoT, but make it HURT), or a third the animation time or less. Honestly even then I'm not sure. A resistance debuff in addition to one of those buffs would be pretty thematic.

 

Anyhow, play and enjoy!

 

 

 

Edited April 25, 2021 by Onlyasandwich

[Nightmare Shaman]

It's easy to get caught up in the whole "smashing and lethal is the most resisted" blah, blah, blah, but the truth is...it really doesn't matter.  You're either going to like the way it "feels" or not.  Don't worry so much about the details.  Just play it for a bit and see how you like it.  

Here's why I personally like it:

 

1) Fast firing, low endurance, fast recharge attacks.

2) 3 AOE attacks.  (technically one is a cone)

3) The cone drops enemy defense.

4) As you gain blood frenzy, you gain a damage buff and an endurance reduction.  Both are noticeable. 

After returning to the game two weeks ago, I tried A LOT of tank secondaries.  Savage feels the fastest, least endurance heavy, and kills very quickly.  Even at low levels.  Just try to put the min/max, anti-smashing/lethal noise on the backburner.  What matters is if you like how it "feels" to you.  Good luck.

[Grindingsucks]

Savage is cool.  Stone seems like a strange choice to pair with it, but whatever floats your boat.  👍

[ninja surprise]

On 4/25/2021 at 10:36 PM, Nightmare Shaman said:

It's easy to get caught up in the whole "smashing and lethal is the most resisted" blah, blah, blah, but the truth is...it really doesn't matter.  You're either going to like the way it "feels" or not.  Don't worry so much about the details.  Just play it for a bit and see how you like it.  

 

Plus, Claws is a beloved and powerful set despite being lethal. 

[Daeryth]

Starting a new tank after being gone for a couple of years. Does anyone have a Dark Armor/Savage build that has worked out really well that they could share?