Stone Armor Combos

[Ironscarlet]

 

What’s everyone playing?

 

Was board trying to find the next combo to try out and I  came up with a Ice theme character using  Stone armor in crystal form colored like Ice. I already have a Spine/Ice scrapper I farm with but wanted another scarpper and the look was spot one. 

 

I ended up trying out multiple combo's  and this is how I would rate them briefly.

 

Brimstone Interactions

 

Spoiler

Brimstone damage proc seem pretty balanced damage on cast time. So picking a slower or faster cast did not make a major damage change. Proc damage scaled off of cast time. Slower or faster it avrg out close to the same. Damage scales off cast 1s-3s

 

 

A. Rad/Stone two damage aura seemed to pull head this combo played stronger than all others and it was noticeable.

 

B. Ice/Stone, Spine/Stone Both played smooth with spine pulling ahead in damage and Ice pulling ahead with mitigation and single target.

 

C. TW/Stone, DB/Stone, Claws/Stone In one way or another they fell short in feeling or damage.

 

This is Just a brief example of what I felt when trying out these combos on test server. I did not try all fully set up and a argument could be made for most combos fully done. 

 

I did end up going with a Ice/Stone set up for theme and fun. Had all the tools and good damage. Having Hibernate and Geode together is a real blast and with the new content I am sure would be a plus.  Right now I am running Greater Ice Sword crit proc into Proc out Frozen touch Mag 6 hold into proc out Frozen touch, repeat or sword filler.  Still only a few days play already thinking of switching out Frost breath for waterspout but its a good start and real fun to play. 

 

Below is a pic of the build because mids is not updated yet or does anyone know of a update?

 

 

 

Last and only gripe with Stone is Geode breaks to early and it needs to be more like Hibernate and Invulnerable. Its just two under powered for a T9. If its going to stay weaker maybe add longer Brimstone bonus then I dont know but its just not upto par for a T9 imo.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 7, 2021 by Ironscarlet

[InvaderStych]

15 minutes ago, Ironscarlet said:

What’s everyone playing?

 

Haven't rolled one for the main servers, but some notes from various combos I tried during beta:

 

Rad/Stone - Brimstone does not trigger on auras.  Despite this, if one can get past the animations this is quite a combo.  DS and AS get big bumps from Brimstone.  It takes some substantial investment in endurance management, but it can be made to work.  /Stone can fit 2 P-shifters, +1 more in Stamina.

 

Dark/Stone - Endurance problems disappear after DC.  DC/SD because of their large radius and quick activation get very low Brimstone dmg, but spread it nicely.  Extremely durable combo with Siphon Life and Earth's Embrace.

 

Savage/Stone - VS gets a big bump from Brimstone; "On-Demand" CritStrikes with Savage leap leads to lots of Brimstone Criticals with Rending Flurry.  However, Savage Leap does not, at the time of this writing, trigger Brimstone dmg on Leap's AoE targets.  The teleport target only takes Brimstone dmg.  Lightning Rod is a little worse off, as there is no teleport target, so nothing takes Brimstone dmg from LR.

 

Mace/Stone - Big Crunchy numbers with a Fire dmg proc.  Good stuff; endurance issues that can probably be managed similarly to Rad/Stone, save no place for a Theft of Essence. This might need Body pool, missing out on a snipe/AoE or snipe/Defense combo.

 

Kat/Stone - Didn't spend much time with this one.  Kat is great, Stone is great. Save for the lack of synergy with DA (just drop it maybe?) due to typed defense nothing wrong with this one.

 

Spines/Stone - Good synergy here, but because Impale is ranged and Throw Spines is RangedAoE, the brimstone dmg on those power suffers somewhat.  Quills+Mudpots should make for some nice slows, but I was testing against Praetorian Demons quite a bit, which don't seem to be affected by slow?

 

Main reasons I haven't been able to choose are: 1: Theme and 2: It's kind of good with everything.

[Ironscarlet]

10 minutes ago, InvaderStych said:

 

Rad/Stone - Brimstone does not trigger on auras. 

 

Ya learned this too thx for posting it. Also your right about the end drain. Stone feels almost like dark armor in end drain maybe not as bad but close.

Edited December 7, 2021 by Ironscarlet

[InvaderStych]

20 minutes ago, Ironscarlet said:

Also your right about the end drain. Stone feels almost like dark armor in end drain maybe not as bad but close.

 

It's pretty hefty. It has an advantage over /DA in the endurance department in that Crystal and Geode can be slotted for endmod.  Crystal's +recovery is 20% iirc, so less return on slotting than Stamina's 25%, but it's hard to argue with 3 Perf-Shifter procs.

 

The Rad/Stone I tested did run Body pool, but might have been able to drop it for Moonbeam/Meld if I tweaked it more.  Dark/Stone/Mu was totally sustainable, I likely over-built it for endurance management.

 

Edited December 7, 2021 by InvaderStych

[Sovera]

I was messing with Spines/Stone Brute after having altered Mids to have the new defensive values (didn't bother adding the extras like recharge, less endurance costs and added recovery) and realized it can be made pretty darn tough. There is always an E/N weakness, but E/N defense is softcapped and there's a decent DDR (and always Granite to fall back on).

 

One thing I realized is that without Granite it's pretty hard to cap all resistances. Even on a Brute I couldn't get past an average of 50% ish across the board.

 

On the other hand I had softcapped defenses across the board, even psi. So the.. uh.. set about being a big rock is all about deflecting damage, I guess? But it's on Shield's level pretty much. Lots of defense and fat resistances and a damage aid like Shield has. Shield has more DDR though and some people like the teleport attack, but it's definitely one of the better sets atm with the high defenses, strong resists, a heal, built in recovery, and a damage boost which are things Shield lacks.

 

Tankers with the numbers and the ATO might turn graniteless into a beasts with DDR, softcapped defense AND 90% to most.

 

Edited December 7, 2021 by Sovera

[Meknomancer]

Running a seismic/stone or whatever the sets are called, no mids so random'ish build. Geode proved great solo when i got seriously debuffed and was up long enough for full blue+green bars and seems to recharge just in time whenever i needed it. No envenmoned and it got through the new aeon av's up to hero 1 and incandescent ( he walloped me so hard) so i know its putting out enough damage and i only have some s/l def and not much res. Waiting on mids updates to really see what i can come up with.

[InvaderStych]

59 minutes ago, Meknomancer said:

Geode proved great solo when i got seriously debuffed and was up long enough for full blue+green bars and seems to recharge just in time whenever i needed it.

 

Geode a.k.a. Combat Rest

[Erratic1]

I've started an Electric Melee/Stone Armor Brute, primarily because I had the name in mind and the powersets fit. Fun so far but low level always is.

 

[brasilgringo]

8 hours ago, Sovera said:

and a damage boost which are things Shield lacks.

 

AAO?

[Erratic1]

40 minutes ago, brasilgringo said:

AAO?

 

May have meant damage aura.

[Meknomancer]

Brimstone i think it is that offers some extra oomph.

[Sovera]

I keep looking at Stone Armor for Scrappers but unless I'm blind (possible) it has no agro aura and that turns me off something fierce. If I am to play a Stalker then I'll play a Stalker.

[Erratic1]

5 minutes ago, Sovera said:

I keep looking at Stone Armor for Scrappers but unless I'm blind (possible) it has no agro aura and that turns me off something fierce. If I am to play a Stalker then I'll play a Stalker.

 

The Scrapper version of Mud Pots doesn't taunt?

[BrandX]

Just now, Erratic1 said:

 

The Scrapper version of Mud Pots doesn't taunt?

 

No, it just slows and chance for immobilize.

[Sovera]

1 minute ago, Erratic1 said:

 

The Scrapper version of Mud Pots doesn't taunt?

 

The devs stated they don't want Scrappers with taunt auras so that makes sense. The character creator shows the numbers and Mud Pots has no taunt unlike the Brute and Tanker when we look at the numbers.

[Onlyasandwich]

17 minutes ago, Sovera said:

agro aura

I feel you on that! I was all hyped for my claws/fire scrapper, but it is just super annoying to solo with everything running upon alpha.

 

That said, only a handful of armors fit the criteria.

[subbacultchas]

Boo on that. I get the rationale, can't blame them. But would be nice if it had taunt, and I didn't see it in the power description either.

[Obsinious]

2 hours ago, Onlyasandwich said:

That said, only a handful of armors fit the criteria.

6 out of 14, that's almost half.  It's mostly the best armors that have it as well.  So from my point of view it feels less like "scrappers only have 6 armors with taunt auras" and more like "scrappers only have 6 armors worth using".

[Ironscarlet]

1 hour ago, Obsinious said:

6 out of 14, that's almost half.  It's mostly the best armors that have it as well.  So from my point of view it feels less like "scrappers only have 6 armors with taunt auras" and more like "scrappers only have 6 armors worth using".

 

Its a valid point to bring up scrappers having and not having taunt aura but just because a secondary armor does not have the taunt aura dosent mean it cant be combined with a primary to compensate. For example the Spine/Stone scrapper will have enough slows + multiple damage aura to nullify the runaways. From what Ive experiance with a Ice/stone its close to the same control and have had no issues.  Knowing what helps solve runaways and what works without taunt aura is better than canceling out half of scrappers armor sets to start.

Edited December 10, 2021 by Ironscarlet

[Parabola]

5 hours ago, Ironscarlet said:

Ice/stone its close to the same control and have had no issues. 

I've been thinking of trying this. If any combination of powers can get around the lack of a taunt aura it'll be mud pots and ice patch.

 

That said some of the scrapper taunt auras that do exist are pretty weak and struggle to stop a determined runner. I've been playing an energy aura scrapper recently and have still been chasing runners around. I'm assuming that for taunt to work it has to interrupt the ai decisions, mobs tend to start running and then seem to do a check to see if they are taunted. If they are they turn around and come back but for energy aura that little initial run sometimes seems enough to break the taunt and so they just keep going.

[Obsinious]

12 hours ago, Ironscarlet said:

 

From what Ive experiance with a Ice/stone its close to the same control and have had no issues.  Knowing what helps solve runaways and what works without taunt aura is better than canceling out half of scrappers armor sets to start.

I'm not saying they're unplayable, I do have stalkers after all.  I'm more saying it's an advantage that isn't worth giving up.  Especially since the other tauntless armors give you so little in return.  Stone looks like maybe it could be the first exception to that, but I'm still not sure it's worth it over the top armors with taunt.

 

What I'm really saying is Energy, Bio, Shield, and Rad are better than everything else anyway. And the absence of a taunt aura has me much more likely to play stone on the other melee.

 

Edit:  I understand there's tons of people who choose power sets purely for role play or character theme.  I'm speaking only from an optimization standpoint. 

Edited December 10, 2021 by Obsinious

[BZRKR]

I made a Stone/Stone, and am loving it!

On the Stone Armor side, there are plenty of places to put all of the defense and resistance unique IOs that I want, as well as a full brace of Luck of the Gambler +recharge IOs. In fact, my Stone/Stone Scrapper has the highest +recharge of any of my Scrappers, which means that Earth's Embrace is always there if I need it, and my attack chain is smooth and thick.

 

For Stone Melee, Superior Critical Strikes procs often in Heavy Mallet which is nice. The screen shake, sound, and little explosions of rubble are all very satisfying. Between Fold Space and Mud Pots slotted for Slow, there are very few runners, and the 80ft range on Hurl Boulder means that if anything does get away, it still gets smacked.

[ForeverLaxx]

17 minutes ago, Obsinious said:

Energy, Bio, Shield, and Rad are better than everything else anyway

Those set's auras only taunt because the player buff effects of said auras are dependent on enemy saturation. If they couldn't maintain enemy density, those powers would often provide little to no benefit. In addition to that, those auras also tend to debuff the enemies continuously which usually makes the AI run even more than a damage aura does. Auras that only contribute damage or some other effect that doesn't buff the player have no reason to taunt other than a player's desire to keep mobs clustered on the player. I can understand the desire to keep mobs clustered, and I'm a power gamer at heart myself, but this game isn't so dependent on optimization that you need to dismiss every set without a "taunt aura" regardless of what else the set does. Frankly, it's just not that hard of a game.

 

To the thread itself, I'm running a Fire/Stone Scrapper. I can finally make my "granite-less" volcano-themed character without feeling like I'm giving up the entire point of the armor set thanks to Geode being there. I do wish I could swap out the swords for weaponless versions, and the strange sound it makes when summoned always throws me off.

[BrandX]

People can always take the Melee Hybrid to give themselves a Taunt Aura 🙂

[FUBARczar]

For me I find Stone to be a strong set.  It's like a much better Ice Armor that is better than EA.  Very satisfying.

 

I made two Stone Scrappers

* Psi/Stone

*TW/Stone

 

I play the Psi/Stone as one of my top two Scrappers. The other one is TW/Bio.  

 

Other Scrappers that have taken a back seat, DM/SD, WM/SD, TW/SR, Claws/Bio, EM/Bio, Psi/Ninja, KM/Rad, 

Edited December 19, 2021 by FUBARczar