Dual Pistol / Temporal Build Critique

[RoboticWizard]

Hello, 

 

I feel like this build is decent, but it also seems like it could be better. I've made an archery/ta build before, but that was purely ranged so I feel like this would be a bit different. Any tips on this build?

Spoiler

This Hero build was built using Mids Reborn 3.1.2.5
https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn

Shift Shot: Level 50 Science Blaster
Primary Power Set: Dual Pistols
Secondary Power Set: Temporal Manipulation
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Pistols

• (A) Superior Defiant Barrage - Accuracy/Damage
• (3) Superior Defiant Barrage - Damage/RechargeTime
• (3) Superior Defiant Barrage - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime
• (5) Superior Defiant Barrage - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• (5) Superior Defiant Barrage - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
• (7) Superior Defiant Barrage - RechargeTime/+Status

Level 1: Time Wall

• (A) Trap of the Hunter - Chance of Damage(Lethal)

Level 2: Empty Clips

• (A) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Accuracy/Damage
• (9) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Damage/Recharge
• (9) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (15) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• (17) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (17) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Recharge/Chance for Fire Damage

Level 4: Fly

• (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points)
• (7) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance

Level 6: Time Stop

• (A) Lockdown - Accuracy/Hold
• (31) Lockdown - Accuracy/Recharge
• (31) Lockdown - Recharge/Hold
• (31) Lockdown - Endurance/Recharge/Hold
• (34) Lockdown - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge/Hold
• (36) Lockdown - Chance for +2 Mag Hold

Level 8: Swap Ammo 

Level 10: Bullet Rain

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• (A) Ragnarok - Damage
• (11) Ragnarok - Damage/Recharge
• (11) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (13) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Recharge
• (13) Ragnarok - Damage/Endurance
• (15) Ragnarok - Chance for Knockdown

Level 12: Hasten

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 14: Chronos

• (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff
• (36) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge
• (36) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance
• (37) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Recharge/Endurance
• (37) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance
• (37) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up

Level 16: End of Time

• (A) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage
• (46) Superior Avalanche - Damage/Endurance
• (46) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• (46) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (48) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge

Level 18: Executioner's Shot

• (A) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage
• (19) Superior Winter's Bite - Damage/RechargeTime
• (19) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• (21) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (21) Superior Winter's Bite - Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime
• (23) Superior Winter's Bite - Recharge/Chance for -Speed & -Recharge

Level 20: Temporal Healing

• (A) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Endurance
• (23) Numina's Convalesence - Endurance/Recharge
• (25) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Recharge
• (25) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Endurance/Recharge
• (27) Numina's Convalesence - Heal
• (27) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery

Level 22: Maneuvers

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed

Level 24: Boxing

• (A) Empty

Level 26: Piercing Rounds

• (A) Artillery - Accuracy/Damage
• (48) Artillery - Damage/Endurance
• (48) Artillery - Damage/Recharge
• (50) Artillery - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (50) Artillery - Accuracy/Recharge/Range
• (50) Artillery - Endurance/Recharge/Range

Level 28: Future Pain

• (A) Superior Blistering Cold - Damage/Endurance
• (43) Superior Blistering Cold - Accuracy/Damage
• (43) Superior Blistering Cold - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• (45) Superior Blistering Cold - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (45) Superior Blistering Cold - Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime
• (45) Superior Blistering Cold - Recharge/Chance for Hold

Level 30: Tough

• (A) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All)
• (40) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP
• (40) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance
• (40) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance
• (42) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime

Level 32: Hail of Bullets

• (A) Armageddon - Damage
• (33) Armageddon - Damage/Recharge
• (33) Armageddon - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (33) Armageddon - Accuracy/Recharge
• (34) Armageddon - Damage/Endurance
• (34) Armageddon - Chance for Fire Damage

Level 35: Tactics

• (A) Endurance Reduction IO

Level 38: Weave

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• (39) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All)
• (39) Kismet - Accuracy +6%
• (39) Luck of the Gambler - Defense

Level 41: Charged Armor

• (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance
• (42) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance
• (42) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime
• (43) Unbreakable Guard - RechargeTime/Resistance

Level 44: Hover

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed

Level 47: Assault

• (A) Endurance Reduction IO

Level 49: Time Lord

• (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%

Level 1: Defiance 

Level 1: Brawl

• (A) Empty

 

Edited January 18, 2022 by RoboticWizard

[RoboticWizard]

Sorry for the oddly formatted build.. It wouldn't let me post it without the weird formatting.

[Nemu]

There's room for improvement. Turn the green and yellow dots off in hail of bullets, and turn on maneuvers/weave and hover to see your actual defense numbers.

 

What was your build goal when you started building in mids? How do you want to play this build and what do you expect it to do?

[RoboticWizard]

I'm just wanting a good, well-rounded build for task forces, missions, etc. Not specializing in any particular situation or farming. Damage is probably number one, but I'd like to be able to withstand some hits without worrying too much.

[Nemu]

Ok, let's start with the basics:

 

There are a number of different things that contribute to damage - damage enhancements, damage bonuses, damage procs and finally, recharge.

 

You can enhance a power up to around 95% damage before diminishing returns kick in. You can choose IO sets that offer damage bonuses, The first is a no-brainer. Damage bonuses, however, is not worth building for on a blaster. Blasters build up damage bonuses just by attacking, and the practical outcome of someone investing slots/IO sets into damage bonuses is that they often miss out on other important bonuses that they could be building for.

 

If you really want to increase your damage, then procs are the way to go. If you want to learn more about procs here's some recommended reading:

Basically procs fire more reliably in powers that have longer recharge times, and procs in Area attacks have less chance to proc but proc chance is calculated against each target hit.

 

So this means it's not worthwhile to load up pistols which has a base recharge of 4 seconds with damage procs, but it might be worth while to put a bunch of procs into suppressive fire, which out of the box does no damage but has a 20 second recharge, and turn this no damage power into something that does good damage.

 

Why is recharge bonuses important? Because slotting recharge into powers with procs reduces proc chances, but global recharge bonuses are not factored into that calculation, so that means you can use global recharge to make those powers recharge faster but still retain their proc chances.

 

On to survival. There are a number of things that contribute to survival, the least of which is hard numbers on resist/defense. I've written posts in the past on how playstyle and mastery of game fundamentals along with the tools you are given (soft control, hard control, debuffs, etc... from your powersets) contributes to staying alive and you are welcome to dig through my posts for those insights. For now I'll just focus on defense/resists.

 

Building for defense offers more bang for the buck than resists. The softcap is 45% which means most mobs have a 5% chance of hitting you. If you build for the appropriate type of defense that also means corresponding mez attacks have a 5% chance of landing. Building for resists can not achieve this. If you are not laser focused on survival but would like some cushion then 32.5% defense is a good alternative, you only need a small luck inspiration to softcap and that's enough for general game play.

 

The type of defense you choose to build for is important and depends on player skill, again, going back to those elements outside of the build that helps your survival. If you are pure ranged then range defense makes sense, if you are going to mix it up with melee attacks, the path of least resistance is to ADD/not replace with, smashing/lethal defense. S/L defense covers the attacks in melee range, and range defense will still cover you for the stuff outside melee range that's still shooting at you. You could just rely on ranged defense as an alternative, but that requires a higher skill level of play.

 

Next, every slot counts. Slotting efficiency is the second most important thing when it comes to optimizing builds. The first is goal setting - if you don't know what you want to build for you won't have an optimized build. Here are some examples of poor slotting efficiency in your build:

 

That 6th slot in these powers does very little. A combined 12% toxic/psi resist is inconsequential on a blaster. If your focus is the 10% recharge, STOP when you get to 5 slots. If you are dead set on 6 slotting them, throw a damage proc in as the 6th IO, you want to increase damage? There you go. (Not how I would slot these powers, but this is an example of how you can make some easy swaps in order to align with  your goals)

 

Setting goals is the first step - so here are some goals you should aim for:

 

1 - find opportunities to proc some of the longer recharge attacks

2 - stuff a fair bit of recharge bonuses to help you offensively

3 - try to aim for around 32.5% (doesn't need to be exact) range and S/L defense (S/L is very easy if you take scorpion shield)

 

If you need examples of attacks to proc look here:

Take a crack at it and we can follow up. If you just want a build I can do that too, but I'd rather teach a man how to fish.

[brasilgringo]

<<but global recharge bonuses are not factored into that calculation, so that means you can use global recharge to make those powers recharge faster but still retain their proc chances.>>

 

I had heard that Agility alpha nerfs proc chances - is that an exception to the global-recharge issue?

[Nemu]

Agility is not global recharge, it doesn't affect domination for example. Incarnate alphas are essentially another multi-enhancement IO that gets slotted into powers. That's why most proc builds avoid agility or spiritual and opt for Musculature.