Anyone soloing Dr Aeon SF?

[StriderIV]

1 hour ago, Linea said:

Stalker and Scrapper both.  (StJ, EnM, etc) / EnA.  Running overlapping chained T9s as needed.   Didn't really need them until I hit Vicious.

 

For Villainous (1/5), I'd say just about anything can pull it off.  Probably 80% of my builds.

Malicious (2/5)  cuts that down to about 40%.

Vicious (3/5) cuts that down to less than 4, due to the AV DPS Checks, primarily on Ripplesurge, secondarily on Zoe/Rodney #2, and last on Midas #4.

 

Vicious

(3/5), */EnA Stalker and Scrapper both.   You really need 350+ dps, I'd say 400 dps, while maintaining def/res/ddr/rdr/regen/healing, as well as confuse/perception/to-hit.  Durable enough is probably 20% of my builds, but durable enough AND packing 400+ dps, yeah that's about 4 tops.  I have a sentinel that can survive it, but drops 150-200 dps over the scrapper.  The brute with a full durabilty build drops 100 dps over the scrapper, but IS nearly twice as durable.   A Tank that is fully durable drops 150 dps.   Either a Brute or Tank that pushes dps higher, doesn't take long till it drops durability too low.  I'm certain there IS a balance point in there where both Brute and Tank can do this, but that's a much more subtle balance than I usually aim for.  I tend to build toward extremes of either durability or damage or taunt potential, and the point you'll be looking for will be hiding somewhere in-between.  I do think that point exists, I just don't know how long it would take me to find it.

 

 

 

I took my RDR Capped Rad/Kat Tank into a solo Relentless ASF, survived nicely.  Finger-fumbled and died, but that's normal.  Mind you that build has crap dps, I wasn't actually trying to solo it or pass the DPS Checks, I just wanted to test durability of a resist set vs ASF.  Overall I'd say SLE Resist/RDR Capped Brute/Tank is viable for the ASF.  The question then becomes how to you keep RDR capped while pushing 400 dps at the same time.  That's not a question I can answer, as it's not my build style.

 

 

 

Assuming Vicious (3/5) or above, regen will matter at least for Ripplesurge and Midas.  I would say you can potentially ignore it elsewhere, but it is still useful if can get it, but not required.  Fubar Midas pool 3 or 4 and you'll have a much nastier fight on your hands than you potentially bargained for.

 

 

 

Definitely worth looking into.   I've yet to get to test my SD/ vs Relentless Goldbrickers.  She runs a native 69/54/54 defense, with good but not perfect resists.  I suspect that would need to be reconfigured some for Relentless.   It's a very tough question.

 

 

Thanks for all this Linea! I’ve felt like /Eng Armor could be a good contender here.

 

Follow up on this: do you prefer the Scrapper or Stalker? And which primary do you feel would go best with them? You listed EM and StJ, would you say those are the premiere ones? I could see Claws/Dual Blades being nice as well.

[Linea]

Both.   The stalker is a little more durable since it can shed aggro, while the scrapper has a mild taunt and really doesn't shed much if any aggro.  Otherwise they balanced out different but roughly equal.

 

Any top tier dps set, if you drop below the top tier you may start running into dps check issues.  I'm running 350 to 400 dps on the full 801 armor builds, and that's just barely by the skin of my teeth enough dps for Vicious.  DPS Checks, Blech!  If we could downgrade the AVs to EBs, I'd probably be soloing on Relentless 😜

 

I rather suspect I could have run the full dps builds on both Villainous and Malicious as I barely touched my armors on those runs.  But I have my doubts about running the full dps build on Vicious, as I did frequently need to use my full armor.  But If you can figure out how to balance that out, it would definitely be helpful, and potentially open it up to most primaries.  There is a lot of room between the two extremes of double armor vs double damage, the trick being how to find it and build it.

Edited January 20, 2022 by Linea

[StriderIV]

1 hour ago, Linea said:

Both.   The stalker is a little more durable since it can shed aggro, while the scrapper has a mild taunt and really doesn't shed much if any aggro.  Otherwise they balanced out different but roughly equal.

 

Any top tier dps set, if you drop below the top tier you may start running into dps check issues.  I'm running 350 to 400 dps on the full 801 armor builds, and that's just barely by the skin of my teeth enough dps for Vicious.  DPS Checks, Blech!  If we could downgrade the AVs to EBs, I'd probably be soloing on Relentless 😜

 

I rather suspect I could have run the full dps builds on both Villainous and Malicious as I barely touched my armors on those runs.  But I have my doubts about running the full dps build on Vicious, as I did frequently need to use my full armor.  But If you can figure out how to balance that out, it would definitely be helpful, and potentially open it up to most primaries.  There is a lot of room between the two extremes of double armor vs double damage, the trick being how to find it and build it.

I always appreciate your insight Linea! I guess I’m just always looking for optimizing 😂 all 4 of the sets I mentioned could probably work with /EA.

 

I already have a EM/EA Stalker, which is probably my strongest hero overall. Might try a scrapper. Just curious, I always like StJ, but have trouble figuring out optimal attack chains. What attack chain do you use, for melee and AOE?

[Linea]

I don't have a set chain for StJ.   I just adapt and follow the damage intuitively.   I'd have to go solo a few pylons to get back into the rhythm.   But as I recall it settled into two different fairly predictable chains based on First-Half of Ageless Radial vs Last-Half of Ageless Radial.  But if anything messes up the rhythm, I just adapt and go with the flow.

 

Dig around the forums, I'll bet it's out there somewhere.

 

It's something like Bu -> Optional MB -> AS -> CU -> Optional_Filler_As_Needed ( SB or (HB, SB), or (HB, SB, HB)).  You dont' have to wait on anything, and as soon as you engage this is gonna go all to hell in a handbasket.  Don't wait on the combos, use what you've got.  But if you can get 1 other Stj in before AS->CU then you will spike hard.

 

[StriderIV]

17 minutes ago, Linea said:

I don't have a set chain for StJ.   I just adapt and follow the damage intuitively.   I'd have to go solo a few pylons to get back into the rhythm.   But as I recall it settled into two different fairly predictable chains based on First-Half of Ageless Radial vs Last-Half of Ageless Radial.  But if anything messes up the rhythm, I just adapt and go with the flow.

 

Dig around the forums, I'll bet it's out there somewhere.

 

It's something like Bu -> Optional MB -> AS -> CU -> Optional_Filler_As_Needed ( SB or (HB, SB), or (HB, SB, HB)).  You dont' have to wait on anything, and as soon as you engage this is gonna go all to hell in a handbasket.  Don't wait on the combos, use what you've got.  But if you can get 1 other Stj in before AS->CU then you will spike hard.

 

Nice. I guess, if I went the scrapper route, it'd be a bit simpler since I won't have to work around AS and the Stalker procs. Just find the chain that works for me and go from there.

[Microcosm]

Statements like "Resistance sets are bad" are just not right. Electric has the +rech and Energize that EnA has, higher resistance (obviously), solid psi resist which is helpful here, and is completely immune to end drain. You just have to build it differently. Get S/L defense up to softcap, then use whatever other tools you want to push past it for debuffs, like Shadow Meld, Barrier, Unleash potential, Support Core Hybrid or insp combining. Resist sets are better on a tank where they can push to higher percentages, but tanks don't get Shadow Meld or do as much damage.

 

I took a db/elec scrapper I've been tossing at a pylon on test, swapped assault out for tactics to give some confuse/perception protection and went at this thing on Vicious. I hadn't tried the ASF before. I slogged through, but part way in to mission 3 I decided I had better things to do with my time than play dark souls in coh... Maybe I will do it on Villainous later. It's definitely doable on electric up to that point I can at least say though. I would definitely prefer to take a stalker in this, to nuke the more dangerous targets first.

[DarknessEternal]

Got it down to ~90 mins.  Could cut some more time since I had 4 defeats. 

 

One defeat is actually faster though.  On the third intermission of Dr Zeon and Midas, if you move Zeon way out from the circle, then die, when you come back, he'll still be there but Midas will have moved back to his spawn and will be too far away to aggro.

 

There's so many D-Syncs that the chances of getting the good one is too low.  I'll probably call this experiment over.

[StriderIV]

1 hour ago, DarknessEternal said:

Got it down to ~90 mins.  Could cut some more time since I had 4 defeats. 

 

One defeat is actually faster though.  On the third intermission of Dr Zeon and Midas, if you move Zeon way out from the circle, then die, when you come back, he'll still be there but Midas will have moved back to his spawn and will be too far away to aggro.

 

There's so many D-Syncs that the chances of getting the good one is too low.  I'll probably call this experiment over.

Nice man! What powersets were you using?

[DarknessEternal]

Electric/Energy Stalker.

[DarknessEternal]

I didn't realize Aid Self was interruptible, since nothing mentions it.  Back to the drawing board on Shield Defense.

 

Unleash Potential is the only option I guess.  It's hard to work in.

Edited January 21, 2022 by DarknessEternal

[Linea]

A single int+5 in Aid Self will let you use it while standing in 1 set of caltrops.  I call that good enough.

Or there's always DM or RadM.

[KaizenSoze]

11 hours ago, DarknessEternal said:

Got it down to ~90 mins.  Could cut some more time since I had 4 defeats. 

 

One defeat is actually faster though.  On the third intermission of Dr Zeon and Midas, if you move Zeon way out from the circle, then die, when you come back, he'll still be there but Midas will have moved back to his spawn and will be too far away to aggro.

 

There's so many D-Syncs that the chances of getting the good one is too low.  I'll probably call this experiment over.

What difficultly did you solo in 90 mins at?

[DarknessEternal]

Whatever one that starts the extra reward.

[StriderIV]

On 1/20/2022 at 9:08 AM, Linea said:

Stalker and Scrapper both.  (StJ, EnM, etc) / EnA.  Running overlapping chained T9s as needed.   Didn't really need them until I hit Vicious.

 

For Villainous (1/5), I'd say just about anything can pull it off.  Probably 80% of my builds.

Malicious (2/5)  cuts that down to about 40%.

Vicious (3/5) cuts that down to less than 4, due to the AV DPS Checks, primarily on Ripplesurge, secondarily on Zoe/Rodney #2, and last on Midas #4.

 

Vicious

(3/5), */EnA Stalker and Scrapper both.   You really need 350+ dps, I'd say 400 dps, while maintaining def/res/ddr/rdr/regen/healing, as well as confuse/perception/to-hit.  Durable enough is probably 20% of my builds, but durable enough AND packing 400+ dps, yeah that's about 4 tops.  I have a sentinel that can survive it, but drops 150-200 dps over the scrapper.  The brute with a full durabilty build drops 100 dps over the scrapper, but IS nearly twice as durable.   A Tank that is fully durable drops 150 dps.   Either a Brute or Tank that pushes dps higher, doesn't take long till it drops durability too low.  I'm certain there IS a balance point in there where both Brute and Tank can do this, but that's a much more subtle balance than I usually aim for.  I tend to build toward extremes of either durability or damage or taunt potential, and the point you'll be looking for will be hiding somewhere in-between.  I do think that point exists, I just don't know how long it would take me to find it.

 

 

 

I took my RDR Capped Rad/Kat Tank into a solo Relentless ASF, survived nicely.  Finger-fumbled and died, but that's normal.  Mind you that build has crap dps, I wasn't actually trying to solo it or pass the DPS Checks, I just wanted to test durability of a resist set vs ASF.  Overall I'd say SLE Resist/RDR Capped Brute/Tank is viable for the ASF.  The question then becomes how to you keep RDR capped while pushing 400 dps at the same time.  That's not a question I can answer, as it's not my build style.

 

 

 

Assuming Vicious (3/5) or above, regen will matter at least for Ripplesurge and Midas.  I would say you can potentially ignore it elsewhere, but it is still useful if can get it, but not required.  Fubar Midas pool 3 or 4 and you'll have a much nastier fight on your hands than you potentially bargained for.

 

 

 

Definitely worth looking into.   I've yet to get to test my SD/ vs Relentless Goldbrickers.  She runs a native 69/54/54 defense, with good but not perfect resists.  I suspect that would need to be reconfigured some for Relentless.   It's a very tough question.

 

 

@Linea how do you feel about Psi Melee on a stalker or scrapper and how it pairs with /EA? I know it gets some hate for it’s insight usage, but I feel like it could do some serious damage.

 

Psi/Stone for that matter could be great, with Stone bringing some extra AOE damage that psi lacks as well as a heal.

Edited January 22, 2022 by StriderIV

[Linea]

I'd say ask @Croax.  I've never found any significant faults in his logic.

I don't have anything objective on psi melee.   Subjectively and Anecdotally, Everyone I know that has tried Psi melee with the intent of clobbering AVs and other hard targets has in the end been disappointed in some way or another.  It really seems like it should be a good plan, bypass those T9 armors and resists, but it doesn't appear to pan out as well as expected.  But this is not an objective measure, it's purely subjective and anecdotal. ymmv.

[Croax]

I can say a few things about Psi Melee. 

 

The damage type feels very binary in usual gameplay. If it is resisted it is heavily resisted and if the enemy is vulnerable they are very vulnerable. For Stalkers and Scrappers it is even more relevant than for brutes and tanks, because the crit part of the damage is pure psi damage while the attack powers normaly are part psi part smashing. The damage type will even out and be in the middle.

 

The Single Target Damage of Psi Melee is good. Once you ignore that insight exists and just acknowledge it every now amd then, you will be fine. On Stalkers you have Assassin Strike into Great Psi Blade which is devastating for the enemy. You then have the opportunity to slot a FF +recharge proc in telekinetic blow and the small psi blade. This is a good attack chain and needs no snipe. Unfortunately you can not include -resist procs into it and the secondary effect is negligible, except the knockdown that is usefull. I like GPB because you can have 2 purple damage procs in it. Purple procs deal a lot more damage and have higher ppm which makes it easy to get 90% proc chance and still have decend recharge speed on the power. This is one of the reason why powers like GPB, Crushing Uppercut and Freezing Touch  are well performing.

 

The AoE Damage of Psi is only a baby footstomp on Stalkers which is nice but not enough. So you lack in that department and need either a secondary with a proc bomb or a attack and some epic Ball Lightning or Fire Ball, which comes very late and is taxed by at least one power pick that you ultimately do not need (Zapp) but here you can mule another purple set or Sting of Manticore, that makes the power pick not totally wasted. At least you can slot a FF +recharge into Mass Levitate which will go off allmost allways.

 

There is also a elephant in the room called Boggle. I skip it and never miss it, since i ignore the insight mechanic. If you are really into it you can pick it and attack the boggled enemy to highly increase the chance for insight. But since it is a slow cast power that deals absolutely no damage, it is just bad. Even more in teams. But on the mid build side of things Boggle has access to the purple confusion set which has very solid bonuses.

 

On the MoG side of things, there is my personal experience that there are a lot of MoGs in the game that cover psi as a damage type or you simply miss while the MoG is active which results in the same disappointed minutes that you have to wait for the MoG to end. Sorry, but the cake is a lie.

 

To answer Striders question: On a Scrapper Psi/Stone will be meh Single Target and ok AoE Damage. On a Stalker it will be ok Single Target Damage and meh Single Target Damage. Both 'meh' can be turned into Ok with Epic Pool powers.

[StriderIV]

37 minutes ago, Croax said:

I can say a few things about Psi Melee. 

 

The damage type feels very binary in usual gameplay. If it is resisted it is heavily resisted and if the enemy is vulnerable they are very vulnerable. For Stalkers and Scrappers it is even more relevant than for brutes and tanks, because the crit part of the damage is pure psi damage while the attack powers normaly are part psi part smashing. The damage type will even out and be in the middle.

 

The Single Target Damage of Psi Melee is good. Once you ignore that insight exists and just acknowledge it every now amd then, you will be fine. On Stalkers you have Assassin Strike into Great Psi Blade which is devastating for the enemy. You then have the opportunity to slot a FF +recharge proc in telekinetic blow and the small psi blade. This is a good attack chain and needs no snipe. Unfortunately you can not include -resist procs into it and the secondary effect is negligible, except the knockdown that is usefull. I like GPB because you can have 2 purple damage procs in it. Purple procs deal a lot more damage and have higher ppm which makes it easy to get 90% proc chance and still have decend recharge speed on the power. This is one of the reason why powers like GPB, Crushing Uppercut and Freezing Touch  are well performing.

 

The AoE Damage of Psi is only a baby footstomp on Stalkers which is nice but not enough. So you lack in that department and need either a secondary with a proc bomb or a attack and some epic Ball Lightning or Fire Ball, which comes very late and is taxed by at least one power pick that you ultimately do not need (Zapp) but here you can mule another purple set or Sting of Manticore, that makes the power pick not totally wasted. At least you can slot a FF +recharge into Mass Levitate which will go off allmost allways.

 

There is also a elephant in the room called Boggle. I skip it and never miss it, since i ignore the insight mechanic. If you are really into it you can pick it and attack the boggled enemy to highly increase the chance for insight. But since it is a slow cast power that deals absolutely no damage, it is just bad. Even more in teams. But on the mid build side of things Boggle has access to the purple confusion set which has very solid bonuses.

 

On the MoG side of things, there is my personal experience that there are a lot of MoGs in the game that cover psi as a damage type or you simply miss while the MoG is active which results in the same disappointed minutes that you have to wait for the MoG to end. Sorry, but the cake is a lie.

 

To answer Striders question: On a Scrapper Psi/Stone will be meh Single Target and ok AoE Damage. On a Stalker it will be ok Single Target Damage and meh Single Target Damage. Both 'meh' can be turned into Ok with Epic Pool powers.

I appreciate how informative this was Croax. I've enjoyed Psi Melee from afar, but just haven't pulled the trigger on what archetype to run it on. Stalker seems to be calling it's name. A Psi blade assassin just seems to fit 😛 Now, just to settle on a secondary..... haha