Thinking of Starting a Pain build...any expert advice?

[Doc Ranger]

So I've never played Pain Dom before. Thinking of giving it a go. My first 50 on live was Emp/Dark but I can't bring myself to play an Empath again and have seen many say that Pain is more useful in many ways so why not ty it. 

 

I play more Trollers and Corrs than Defenders but it's more because I am usually more focused on crowd control or damage. I want to try to be support focused for a change. What are the skippable powers in Pain? And what are the best sets to slot? If it's better on a troller then I'm open to switch to a troller as well.

 

Also was thinking of trying Beam Rifle with it if they work well together? Never played Beam before either. My favorite blast set is Ice but I have so many of those that I wanted to try something different. If Beam works well, what are the skippable powers and set slotting options?

 

Thanks!

Edited June 24, 2021 by Doc Ranger

[Xandyr]

Pain, I think,, brings a little more to the table than Emp. I'm playing a Mercs/Pain MM. I took every power. Your teammates may dislike/complain about Enforced Morale (as it does a small amount of damage to them), but remind them that they're now protected from mezzes,  AND have a small boost to recharge,speed,and perception.

 Nullify pain is your AoE heal. 6 slot it. Soothe is your single target heal, and mine is 6 slotted as well. Then you get to Share Pain. BE CAREFUL WITH THIS POWER! It heals a single target for over twice as much as Soothe, BUT it damages you, and you can't be healed and your regen rate is killed. However, I could see a Defender or Corruptor using this as a quasi-build up as it gives YOU a bonus of  over 18% to your damage.

 Suppres Pain...take it, 6 slot it, and never turn it off. For a MM, it increases the regen rate of all allies nearby. I believe for  a Defender, it pulses a straight up heal. Heals are good. On my MM, Suppress Pain adds 413.8% to regen.

 World of Pain is your PBAoE +to hit, +damage, and + resist all damage. Again, I 6 slotted mine and it is perma.  This gives me and everyone else +18.38% to all resists, +7.5% to hit, and +12% to damage.

 Anguished Cry is your PBAoE debuff. Again, mine is 6 slotted and it does -46.08% defense debuff and -22.5% to resists.

 You have Conduit of Pain, which is your single target rez. When you use it, it also buffs your to hit and damage, and end recovery. 

 Then you come to Pqinbringer. I 5 slotted mine, and my teammates love it. How's +1,276% to recovery, +943.94% to regen, and 37.5% to damage sound? Yummy. I watch my teammates health and end, and whoever burns thru either the quickest gets Painbringer. I cast this on a WP tank, and they were capped. It's a great power. Especially when a teammate makes the comment about not running out of end, or their health bar not moving.

 

 Again, I know the Defender version will have higher #s , and slotting may be a little more tricky since as an MM, all I really need to 6 slot are my pets and Leadership. 

 Hopefully that helps a bit.

Edited June 25, 2021 by Xandyr

[Doomguide2005]

On 6/24/2021 at 2:24 PM, Doc Ranger said:

So I've never played Pain Dom before. Thinking of giving it a go. My first 50 on live was Emp/Dark but I can't bring myself to play an Empath again and have seen many say that Pain is more useful in many ways so why not ty it. 

     Pain has two things going for it vs Empathy.  First is Anguishing Cry a PBAoE debuff.  In particular its resistance debuff, endgame favors debuffs especially resistance and regeneration debuffs.  Empathy is 100% buffs, arguably the strongest but generally those buffs are redundant with what IO builds self provide i.e. defense, recharge and freedom from endurance woes.  Second is many of those buffs for Empathy are single target while Pain's are AoE --> Fortitude vs World of Pain.  Again you can argue Fortitude is the stronger buff per target but you can hit the whole team with one click with World of Pain whereas the Empath has to both build for the very high recharge needed to cast it 7 times and then take the time to actually do it (which in turn is time not spent with other buffs or blasting).  The extra oomph of Fortitude is simply not worth this exchange 99% of the time.  But this is why as team size shrinks Empaths close and even surpass this 'gap'.

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I play more Trollers and Corrs than Defenders but it's more because I am usually more focused on crowd control or damage. I want to try to be support focused for a change. What are the skippable powers in Pain? And what are the best sets to slot? If it's better on a troller then I'm open to switch to a troller as well.

     Support says go Defender, the buff and debuff values are stronger.  In many ways the most skippable are Share Pain and Conduit of Pain.  Both however, have more potential use then their near clones in Empathy because they self buff the caster when used.  Share Pain is Absorb Pain with some nice self buffs for using.  If I took the power I'd use it after Panbringer was active to offset the self debuffs. Conduit of Pain has a couple issues.  First it's a rez, someone has to die first.  And like RadEm's Fallout ideally to really leverage the buffs they have to die before the mob is engaged and do so every time it's ready to cast.  At least where they die isn't vitally important.

     As for slotting I'm looking for pretty much the same thing as on my high end Empaths, recharge then more recharge.  Mitigation is from, in no particular order, teammates, inspires, epic shields (if any) and keeping Painbringer up (and to a lesser degree Soothing Aura).

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Also was thinking of trying Beam Rifle with it if they work well together? Never played Beam before either. My favorite blast set is Ice but I have so many of those that I wanted to try something different. If Beam works well, what are the skippable powers and set slotting options?

 

Thanks!

I've not run Beam Rifle but from what I've seen it should do well.

Edited July 6, 2021 by Doomguide2005
Clarity

[Lusiphur Malache]

My second fifty is a sonic/pain corrupter. Early on I used 3 heals rather often, aoe,st, and soothing aura. Endgame soothing aura is usually enough,I just keep the other 2 for emergencies. I got good use out of enforced morale,painbringer,and world of pain. I used share pain for a moment,I'm a blaster at heart and I'm not good at keeping an eye on my healthbar let alone others, so it had to go.

[Doc Ranger]

Still trying to decide if I want to go Def/Corr/Troller. But I definitely am in the planning stages of a Pain build. What is the optimal slotting using IO sets for each power? Not many pain build floating around.

[Doomguide2005]

Because of my dead computer and other things my last Empathy, Pain and Thermal builds (the 3 sets most likely to be called healing sets) were built as high recharge builds any defense would be incidental.  My mitigation would be, in no particular order, inspirations, teammates, epic shields (typically resist based ones) and keeping any self buffs (Auras on a Empath for example) on minimal cool down.  These days I'd be looking more into at least some defense, while still focused on high recharge.  That means typically either Doctored Wounds or Panacea in the heals.  I'd be reluctant on a team-focused build doing to much with procs.  I'd save that for a build more focused on solo and damage out put rather than getting buffs out to allies.  Trying to both I think would make both goals less attainable.   So again for the blasts I'm looking at Decimation for recharge not procs or defense bonuses.  Purples and ATO's for recharge etc..  I'd do build but just got this phone for internet.