Seismic Blast - Defender Ideas

[Mythical Creature]

I am pretty stoked for Seismic Blast and wanted to start discussing what we think goes well with it. It appears to be pretty heavy in the -Def department so defender seems like a natural fit for archetype. I am thinking about making mine a cold domination / seismic blast defender themed after Santa Claus. The seismic blast will be stylized to look like charcoal. Thoughts on this combo or any ideas on good combos for seismic blast?

[Without_Pause]

I have been thinking about using it with Thermal. I currently have a lowbie with Fire, but Fire feels weakest on a defender. I'm not saying it is bad on a defender. I'm saying at least Corrs and Blasters get better versions of it. I just need to see some animations so I can figure out how much I would like the set.

[Without_Pause]

Scratch that. Until the screen hogging animation of Upthrust gets changed, I have zero desire to use the set.

Edited November 26, 2021 by Without_Pause

[The_Warpact]

I did a Nature/Seismic got her to 6, that seismic shockwave power is pretty cool how it auto and keeps enemies away.

 

[DreadShinobi]

On 11/16/2021 at 1:52 PM, Without_Pause said:

I have been thinking about using it with Thermal. I currently have a lowbie with Fire, but Fire feels weakest on a defender. I'm not saying it is bad on a defender. I'm saying at least Corrs and Blasters get better versions of it. I just need to see some animations so I can figure out how much I would like the set.

 

Yeah I used to be a sonic-only defender kinda guy then I made my poison/fire defender and realized Fire Blasting defenders are actually really good with the correct primary. It is a little bit counterintuitive. 

[balor]

Right now I'm having a lot of fun with Time/Seismic.  The chance to knockdown has been an awesome addition.

[BurtHutt]

I was hoping Sents would have this power but I guess that'll happen SOON! So, I made a rock/rock blaster and a dark/rock DEFENDER. I think Dark works well with seismic as allows you to tar pit, hold and freeze enemies and then hammer them with the seismic AoE attacks and so on. I am sure there are other great combos and I am also curious to hear about them.

 

 

[Erratic1]

12 minutes ago, BurtHutt said:

I was hoping Sents would have this power but I guess that'll happen SOON! So, I made a rock/rock blaster and a dark/rock DEFENDER. I think Dark works well with seismic as allows you to tar pit, hold and freeze enemies and then hammer them with the seismic AoE attacks and so on. I am sure there are other great combos and I am also curious to hear about them.

 

Since two of the Seismic attacks knock opponents on their butts they don't leave the tar patch and the tar patch debuffs resistances. It's a marriage made in Heaven.

[BurtHutt]

1 minute ago, Erratic1 said:

 

Since two of the Seismic attacks knock opponents on their butts they don't leave the tar patch and the tar patch debuffs resistances. It's a marriage made in Heaven.

This! I was decided to do some street sweeping with my DEF and this is exactly what I did. I went into Talos and attacked small mobs a level or two higher than me. It went great other than having to watch my END (not too many IOs on him right now and dark just has that knack of killing your END!).

[Nightmarer 2]

What about Rad/Seismic? sounds awesome but then Rad Defenders always are

[Meknomancer]

Mines a rad/seismic its a lot of fun although i think i made a mistake taking rock shards its tough trying to line up a cone when i want everything tight for choking and the pbaoe. Pretty good although i still prefer the rad/elec.

[JStacy337]

I rolled mine as Cold/Seismic. Using the Crystal-theme for the blasts with them colored to look like snowballs and icicles.

 

I have shields that teams like with enough debuffs that I can just stand in melee-range for the perma-KD of the seismic ripples. Mobs can't run away from Sleet when they're flopping on their butts

[Mythical Creature]

On 12/4/2021 at 6:58 AM, JStacy337 said:

I rolled mine as Cold/Seismic. Using the Crystal-theme for the blasts with them colored to look like snowballs and icicles.

 

I have shields that teams like with enough debuffs that I can just stand in melee-range for the perma-KD of the seismic ripples. Mobs can't run away from Sleet when they're flopping on their butts

 

That is what I ended up doing, albeit Corrupter, since it seems like Cold Domination as a set performs well on them. It has been a lot of fun! 

[Mythical Creature]

I liked my seismic/cold corrupter but now I really do want to try the seismic blast set on a defender. Of the recommendations so far, I am leaning towards; time/seismic, dark/seismic, and rad/seismic anyone care to help me decide between these three?

 

Dark Miasma seems to be an obvious fit, but it is one of the sets that feels stronger on a corrupter, so I try to avoid those type of sets on defenders. The set does seem synergistic with seismic blast, since the -to hit, knockdown, and tar patch combo and the lack of -def in dark meshes well with the ample -def in seismic blast. It also plays well up close, which should benefit from seismic force.

 

Radiation seems to be another great fit, though it already has two sources of -def, I feel like that would be overkill with all my -def from seismic blast. Is too much -def worth it, or does it start to experience diminishing returns? 

 

Time Manipulation is the other one that seems like a good fit. Time Manipulation seems to want to be up close for the time juncture debuff. Seismic blast (particularly with seismic force) seems to handle being up close to the combat. The +recharge from Chrono Shift seems supreme, paired with seismic pressure, my blasts will have a very fast recharge. Time Manipulation is also the only one with an endurance regen which will help a lot if I am spamming super fast seismic blasts.

 

Please help me and future players decide between these, or let me know of any other ideas that would compliment seismic blast well, specifically utilizing the abilities -def and seismic pressure.

 

Thanks in advance. 

 

 

[Psyonico]

I'm going to start off by saying I haven't tried any of these combos yet, but here are my thoughts on the primaries as a whole.

1 hour ago, 723wolf said:

Dark Miasma seems to be an obvious fit, but it is one of the sets that feels stronger on a corrupter, so I try to avoid those type of sets on defenders. The set does seem synergistic with seismic blast, since the -to hit, knockdown, and tar patch combo and the lack of -def in dark meshes well with the ample -def in seismic blast. It also plays well up close, which should benefit from seismic force.

I'm pretty sure that (numerically) the only (de)buff set that is better on a corr than a defender is Storm, and that is primarily because Storm deals with extra damage nicely.  The extra strength from the debuffs on a defender make Dark Miasma a very powerful contender.  Between Darkest Night and Fearsome Stare you can get even level mobs on the to-hit floor.  Throw in Dark Servant and you've got a lot to help with higher level enemies as well.

 

 

1 hour ago, 723wolf said:

Radiation seems to be another great fit, though it already has two sources of -def, I feel like that would be overkill with all my -def from seismic blast. Is too much -def worth it, or does it start to experience diminishing returns? 

Although you can't ever "have too much defense debuffs" there is a limit in most of the game.  the cap for to-hit is 95%, regardless of how much defense debuffs you have stacked or how much to-hit you have added to it, you always have a 5% chance to miss.  The extra defense debuffs are still going to be nice on enemies that have some base defense.  Rad also has Accelerate Metabolism (available very early) which will help your endurance recovery.  Rad was probably the best (de)buffing set early in the game's history, but sets like Time and the change to buffs making ST buffs AoE make it a more even playing field.  It's still a very strong set though.

 

 

1 hour ago, 723wolf said:

Time Manipulation is the other one that seems like a good fit. Time Manipulation seems to want to be up close for the time juncture debuff. Seismic blast (particularly with seismic force) seems to handle being up close to the combat. The +recharge from Chrono Shift seems supreme, paired with seismic pressure, my blasts will have a very fast recharge. Time Manipulation is also the only one with an endurance regen which will help a lot if I am spamming super fast seismic blasts.

Time is such a good set... I really agree with the concept of stacking the PBAoE Debuff with the seismic tremors (or whatever they're called).  Time has the advantage over the other sets in that it has a very good self +defense skill, meaning it is easier to cap defenses.

[Mythical Creature]

I think that Time Manipulation/Seismic Blast is the winner, thanks for everyone's input, I will report back once I have gained some levels to let you know how it worked out. I will roll this one on Excelsior.

 

Now I just need to come up with a theme to match this powerset, I am thinking maybe a sasquatch. Traveling through time throwing boulders at people seems like a very bigfoot thing to do. I also already have a costume picked out from my character creation binge on Torchbearer (shown below).

 

Feel free to provide any tips for my power sets or any flaws I didn't consider and need to work around. Also folks are always looking for ideas for powersets, so feel free to continue providing ideas about complimentary sets for Seismic Blast for defenders. 

Thanks all.

 

 

Edited January 5, 2022 by 723wolf

[Bionic_Flea]

I think you should call him TIME TO ROCK!

 

And look more like this:

 

[chadius]

I rolled a Traps/Seismic this week. Still a lowbie, but I expect the knockdown to help stall for time so I can lay more Trap Mines.

 

Also, after all these years I finally understand caltrops. Usually my blasters fry everything or I'm permaheld so I never bothered.  I could have used it on my Illusion/Traps controller but I have so much control nothing bothers me anyway. But on this defender I get enough free time to blast more.

[Ankhammon]

On 11/26/2021 at 5:26 PM, The_Warpact said:

I did a Nature/Seismic got her to 6, that seismic shockwave power is pretty cool how it auto and keeps enemies away.

 

Did you ever level that up to get the pbaoe hold? Sounds like it would be a hoot with the shockwave. Knock em down and by the time they stand back up they are held. 

[The_Warpact]

3 minutes ago, Ankhammon said:

Did you ever level that up to get the pbaoe hold? Sounds like it would be a hoot with the shockwave. Knock em down and by the time they stand back up they are held. 

Unfortunately because of work I haven't had that much time to play. 

[Darkir]

On 1/4/2022 at 4:52 PM, Psyonico said:

I'm pretty sure that (numerically) the only (de)buff set that is better on a corr than a defender is Storm, and that is primarily because Storm deals with extra damage nicely. 

Cold domination's sleet gets the same debuff -res values on a corruptor and a defender. That's why they were saying cold is better on a corruptor.

[Without_Pause]

Kin should get a mention as being good with it. I think anything with a PBAoE toggle would as well.