A (Hopefully) Spines-Tingling Discussion

[Hexquisite]

I have a character concept that's mostly complete. Personality, backstory, all the delicious roleplay aspects have been figured out. Secondary power has been decided. Primary look and alternate costumes have been settled upon. But what has me in a stumble is the primary powerset. I have a few options that can work, but one in particular that has me most interested, and I feel would fit the character the best.

 

However, after much scouring of the Brute forums, I found my interest mostly unremarked upon, aside from one specific and, for me, entirely useless area. Perhaps it's been addressed before, and I simply have been unable to find it. Nevertheless, I felt it prudent to create a new topic in order to pose my query, and perhaps provide a place for others who might be looking for similar information.

 

So... tell me about Spines.

 

I have no interest in farming, a fact well-documented, but the only discussions I can find relating to Spines are about their use on farms. But what works on Generic Fire Farm #86753.09j isn't necessarily useful when facing down a horde of Trolls or parade of Carnies. What I want to know is what powers are definite takes, which powers may be skippable, slotting options for said powers - basically, anything about Spines as it relates to regular gameplay.

 

My intended secondary is Electric Armor. Are there any synergies? Any downfalls to this? How does it pair with other armor sets? Raw power and Orange Numbers are a tertiary concern at best, but does another AT utilize the powerset better? I'd settled on Brute because I like being tanky, but if the set works better on Scrappers, I could talk myself into swapping. (Maybe. She's a stubborn girl at times, but I know how to get through to me.)

 

Talk to me about Spines, and everything I need to know about using mine to shatter those of my foes.*

 

 

 

*This was an attempt at a pun, or a play on words; my spines would be the powerset. Those of my enemy would be their backbones. Did the joke land?

[Oysterhead]

1 hour ago, Hexquisite said:

My intended secondary is Electric Armor. Are there any synergies? Any downfalls to this?

I'd say the biggest thing to know about Spines these days is that: It still has redraw, and lacks any no redraw option. And the redraw is pretty lengthy (not staff bad, but noticeable)

So for optimal performance, you want to reduce that as much as possible. Electric armor isn't bad, mostly all toggles and auto powers, so only Energize, Power Sink and Power Surge (if you take it) will force you to redraw again. Spines makes a good case for Willpower because then you never have your secondary in the way.

 

I think Spines is still a strong, fun set. You have lots of attack utility, more than normal in a melee sets. You get a range, range cone, melee cone, PBAoE, and Damage Aura (double with elec armor!) and the two base ST attacks are quick. 

 

Spines should work just fine on either brute or scrapper. I think the armor sets are a larger deciding point than the primary sets between the two, and Electric Armor is far better on Brute if that is what you are looking at (scrapper elec armor has no taunt aura and its 75% resist cap makes an all resist set far less attractive) , though if you throw tanker into the mix, Spine on tanker is good too,  and the area attacks get A LOT better. Tanker has higher target caps, increased area sizes (Ripper and Throw Spines both go from a 90 degree arcs to a 180 degree!) though lower damage numbers. Spine's strength is hitting lots of stuff at once, and Tanker does that better.

[tjknight]

I found Spines/Dark really fun on live. 

[Hexquisite]

7 hours ago, Oysterhead said:

I'd say the biggest thing to know about Spines these days is that: It still has redraw, and lacks any no redraw option. And the redraw is pretty lengthy (not staff bad, but noticeable)

So for optimal performance, you want to reduce that as much as possible. Electric armor isn't bad, mostly all toggles and auto powers, so only Energize, Power Sink and Power Surge (if you take it) will force you to redraw again. Spines makes a good case for Willpower because then you never have your secondary in the way.

 

Good point, I hadn't even considered the redraw...

 

7 hours ago, Oysterhead said:

I think Spines is still a strong, fun set. You have lots of attack utility, more than normal in a melee sets. You get a range, range cone, melee cone, PBAoE, and Damage Aura (double with elec armor!) and the two base ST attacks are quick. 

 

One damage aura, actually. I won't be taking Quills. It's one of the two or three powers that can induce migraines for me. One of the others is Blazing Aura, which makes being around fire farmers who won't turn their shit off utter hell.

 

7 hours ago, Oysterhead said:

Spines should work just fine on either brute or scrapper. I think the armor sets are a larger deciding point than the primary sets between the two, and Electric Armor is far better on Brute if that is what you are looking at (scrapper elec armor has no taunt aura and its 75% resist cap makes an all resist set far less attractive) , though if you throw tanker into the mix, Spine on tanker is good too,  and the area attacks get A LOT better. Tanker has higher target caps, increased area sizes (Ripper and Throw Spines both go from a 90 degree arcs to a 180 degree!) though lower damage numbers. Spine's strength is hitting lots of stuff at once, and Tanker does that better.

 

I make too many Tankers.... but those larger arcs are very, very tempting.

 

Thanks for the reply! Gave me a lot to think about, and a lot I didn't know before!

[Outrider_01]

Surprisingly, for a set based around electricity and the common theme of endurance drain being its thing....it works very well on your primary but not so much for its own self in the secondary.  So far, a Mace/Electric brute who I would expect to have a high endurance consumption with a slow ass weapon, can run out pretty quick.  And now, a SM/Electric with even the endurance reduction built in to Savage....still drains endurance at a rate faster then I care (to many toggles, my fault really Maybe replace Manuevers with Stealth and find that last 2% defense).  Then factor in the Power Sink kind of sucks...cause it has a huge endurance cost at 13 vs Consume for in Fire at *drumroll* .52 and you are like 🤔 what can I do about that.  Well, apparently you have to hit Energize before Power sink making that endurance reduction semi-pointless  so you have to do it at about 1/5 endurance left (yeah, its like topping off every time you have 1/4 of a tank left) but the recharge is long vs the shorter 30 second duration (IO built has recharge just over the duration, with SM's small +recharge it is just about perma and Incarnate it is).

 

I like the set, but every time I have built it out Electric I get disappointed by Powersink and Energize.  Built with soft cap smash/lethal defense, capped Eng and 75-80% S/L/F/C resist it tanks pretty well, Energize has just enough regen to keep hitpoints topped off; until its hit with a -regen and f$@#&!!!! hate CoT bosses.  Mace/ is better then SM/ at tanking , little bit more resist in the build but SM feels more fluid and slightly better damage. 

 

tangent note - SM/Fire farm brute on the other hand, even some Rad/Fire says it kills pretty fast; thanks to Fiery Embrace and Burn; +5 boost all enehancements (only guy I did it to) and the right Incarnates which I need to finish; seen Rad/Fires and Spine/Fires take the defense defense toggle incarnates instead of the offensive ones so they are much slower.  So SM/Electric should be nice, but got to respec it again; Hemorrage blows ass like Taco Tuesday at the buffet line and an hour later your sphincter is kicking your asshole out.

 

All in All, give /Electric a 8.3/10 stars.  Would like to see a slight tweak to Power Sink and Energize; tiny improvement in endurance reduction to PS cast and a little more endurance reduction buff on Energize.

[Bill Z Bubba]

On 5/19/2021 at 12:00 AM, Hexquisite said:

It's one of the two or three powers that can induce migraines for me. One of the others is Blazing Aura, which makes being around fire farmers who won't turn their shit off utter hell.

 

Sound or visuals? If it's the sounds (I have the same problem with many of the loop noises) silence those farkers! It's easy. I currently have 20 different game sounds permanently gone thanks to this thread and its sister from back before the snap.

 

 

[Hexquisite]

38 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

Sound or visuals? If it's the sounds (I have the same problem with many of the loop noises) silence those farkers! It's easy. I currently have 20 different game sounds permanently gone thanks to this thread and its sister from back before the snap.

 

Both. Quills and Blazing Aura (and a third, I think, that I can't recall) go off on a steady, uninterrupted rhythm while toggled on. My brain doesn't react well to steady rhythms at certain speeds, such as an idling engine or construction equipment. Both the sound and the visuals are set to this pulsing rhythm, and the longer I'm around them, the more my brain focuses on them, and the worse it gets.

 

I can ignore it in combat, when there are other things to take my attention. Outside of combat, such as when I'm working in AE, my usual solution is to just leave the area.

[Bill Z Bubba]

Roger that. Should you give the sound silencing a try, I think you'll find it helps. If you've already tried it to no avail, understood.

[kelika2]

Spine/Ice, call yourself The Walking Snare

Or Spine/fire with the name Notallspinefire

Spine/bio, makes sense

Spine/regen, call yourself OldOGFOTM or Fallen From Grace

Spine/stone and use power recoloring to your advantage, Spinning Slate

Spine/energy, call yourself Rose Prick and go with the Teleport pool and try not to abuse Fold Space

Spine/dark, thorny abyss, prickly abyss, or something.  rest of my suggestions are prick based so im ganna stop here

[siolfir]

3 hours ago, kelika2 said:

Spine/stone and use power recoloring to your advantage, Spinning Slate

I had considered a Spines/Stone just to use Slow Poke for a name. Decided against it, because one Stone Armor character in the NCSoft days was enough.