Ultimate MSR toon

[On-Fire Dude]

I'm trying to put together the ultimate MSR toon. One with all the most useful abilities associated with this particular raid.
I'm looking at Electrical Affinity primary for [Faraday Cage]. Has an okay array of buffs including [Amp Up] a minor heal and a rez.
I'd probably go with Electrical Blast if just for theming (unless someone has a better suggestion).
Teleport pool for [Teleport Target] to get people to PDH/onto the ship and [Fold Space] for bringing the Rikti to us.

Probably Electrical Mastery, again for theming.

And finally [Clarion] to help those working outside the Faraday Cage with Mez Resistance.

 

Any ideas for other really useful for MSR powers and ways to get them without giving up anything that's already listed?

Edited July 8, 2022 by On-Fire Dude

[Appolaris]

The "ultimate" Rikti mothership raid character isn't a Defender.  It's a Controller.  Specifically, a Gravity Control/Electrical Affinity Controller.  Electrical Affinity is the best support set, bar none, for mothership raids between Energizing Circuit, Faraday Cage, Empowering Circuit, and Amp Up.  Gravity Control for Wormhole and Singularity, both of which will help pull Rikti to the mothership's bowl.  You can take Fold Space on top of that if you'd like for even more bringing Rikti to the bowl goodness, (but it's not necessary).

 

That said, if you want to go Defender, Electrical Affinity/Electrical Blast is definitely a good way to go.  Water Blast would be another.  IMO, Water Blast is the best ranged damage set for mothership raids, between all of the ranged AoE and knockdowns.  I like to lead Rikti mothership raids on a Water Blast/Force Field Corruptor.  Force Field for all of the defense buffs and very good AoE mez protection.  Corruptor because Dispersion Bubble actually gives better AoE mez protection on Corruptor than it does on Defender, and I personally find playing a Defender pretty boring.  YMMV.  Water Blast because I have to sit in the middle of the bowl for both Dispersion Bubble to be effective and to see what everyone is up to while I lead the raid, and Water Blast does a lot of ranged AoE damage.

 

IMO, if you're going Electrical Affinity, then I'd go for Incandescence Destiny personally, as Faraday Cage is large enough to cover the entire mothership's bowl.  Incandescence will allow you to teleport the league around... especially helpful when people start to stray to the wrong pylons.

[On-Fire Dude]

Haven't done a Gravity 'troller yet, I'll have to give one a go...

[Hyperstrike]

As an MSR leader of long years, the most useful toon is a */Forcefield/* toon of any AT.
You can anchor the raid and protect it.
You can do damage, buff, debuff, heal, whatever.

As for "best toon" for a ship raid?
As always, the answer is, invariably, what's FUN for you?

I'd rather have 20 people who're having FUN at the raid than 48 people who are miserable or just going through the motions.

 

[Hyperstrike]

50 minutes ago, On-Fire Dude said:

Haven't done a Gravity 'troller yet, I'll have to give one a go...

Grav is fun.  It's just the set doesn't REALLY perform until Singularity.
At that point, your effectiveness TRIPLES.

[Appolaris]

12 minutes ago, Hyperstrike said:

As an MSR leader of long years, the most useful toon is a */Forcefield/* toon of any AT.
You can anchor the raid and protect it.
You can do damage, buff, debuff, heal, whatever.

As for "best toon" for a ship raid?
As always, the answer is, invariably, what's FUN for you?

I'd rather have 20 people who're having FUN at the raid than 48 people who are miserable or just going through the motions.

 

 

 

As another leader of mothership raids for years on both live and Homecoming, Electrical Affinity definitely beats out Force Field.  Faraday Cage offers the same magnitude AoE mez protection as Dispersion Bubble on Controllers and Corruptors, and higher magnitude AoE mez protection on Defenders.  In addition, Faraday Cage offers AoE sleep and knockback/knockup protection, both of which Dispersion Bubble lacks.  It lets you anchor and protect the raid to a greater degree than Dispersion Bubble.  It also offers resistance buffs, which is more rare than defense buffs.  You can also do damage, buff, heal, or whatever with Electrical Affinity, and Electrical Affinity has better buffs which offer +recharge, +to-hit, and +damage, which will help increase Vanguard merit intake.

 

Force Field is very good for what it does.  As I said, I use a Water Blast/Force Field Corruptor to lead mothership raids.  But I'd rate Force Field as the third best support set for mothership raids, behind Electrical Affinity and Sonic Resonance.  You can't go wrong with any of the three though.

[Hyperstrike]

18 minutes ago, Appolaris said:

 

 

As another leader of mothership raids for years on both live and Homecoming, Electrical Affinity definitely beats out Force Field.  Faraday Cage offers the same magnitude AoE mez protection as Dispersion Bubble on Controllers and Corruptors, and higher magnitude AoE mez protection on Defenders.  In addition, Faraday Cage offers AoE sleep and knockback/knockup protection, both of which Dispersion Bubble lacks.  It lets you anchor and protect the raid to a greater degree than Dispersion Bubble.  It also offers resistance buffs, which is more rare than defense buffs.  You can also do damage, buff, heal, or whatever with Electrical Affinity, and Electrical Affinity has better buffs which offer +recharge, +to-hit, and +damage, which will help increase Vanguard merit intake.

 

Force Field is very good for what it does.  As I said, I use a Water Blast/Force Field Corruptor to lead mothership raids.  But I'd rate Force Field as the third best support set for mothership raids, behind Electrical Affinity and Sonic Resonance.  You can't go wrong with any of the three though.

Still believe that total damage avoidance through overwhelming Defense is preferable to Resist-based protection.

As for Mez protection, oh no!  I'm mezzed!  But my defense is still Incarnate soft-capped!
Yes, they're not PRODUCTIVE in that situation.  But...

[roleki]

Depending on what you want to do, there are numerous ULTIMATE MSR builds.  Pushers, Pullers, Crowd Control, DPS, Health & Lifestyle coaches... there's a plethora of roles to fill in an MSR, and all of them have their own ULTIMATE build.  Myself, I've tagged along on about 32000 MSRs with about 1000 different characters, but my favorites tend to be Middlers, which is an unofficial role I just invented and classified exactly 4 seconds ago. 

 

Instead of being CRITICAL to the success of an MSR, a good Middler will bring a little heat (DPS) and a little lettuce (Buff/Debuff) to the party.  You're not the star of the show, but you're not a Sentinel, either.  You're not useless during the Pylon Phase because you're debuffing the poo out the obelisks and spitting out what ST damage you can.  You're helpful vs the GM as your AoEs (damage/support) help keep your team upright and the opponents... downright?  Then when the fur really starts flying, your AoEs are making little orange tickmarks on everything that appears onscreen, and that's how Vanguard Merits are made.

 

My favorite such characters are Fire/TA Corruptors and my EA/Dark Defender.  Here's why...

 

It's the Ranged AoEs, Stupid!  

 

But really, it is.  Beyond bringing some of the best general-purpose debuffs in the game, a full-bore Fire/TA has nukes and patches poking out of every pocket.  Sometimes, I pan around the bowl just to see the litany of orange numbers I have wrought stretching as far as the eye can see... and oh, hey Rain of Fire is up AGAIN.  Blorp!

 

On the flip side, EA/Dark isn't a TON of help during Pylons (you've got some stacking -Regen?) but once you get to the bowl... a little secret about Dark Blast, it's full of bigass cones.  Bigass cones that hit everything everywhere and recharge real fast.  Remember, that's how Vanguard Merits are made.  Then there's EA, which smart people know is an awesome support set, but still it gets kind of overlooked by many players.  You can heal one side of the bowl, and set absorb shields on the other, and by the time you're done, you can do it in reverse.  If you are the kind of person who likes the Medical Specialist Badge, that's how you get one of those.  In Faraday Cage, you have a Clarion that you can fire every 12s or so, provided you've got the recovery to back it. Think of it, gentlemen... hoof and mouth disease, a thing of the past! 

 

Plus, you can Amp (someone) Up; I usually fire off Power Build Up before I Amp (someone) Up... I don't know if it works the way I think it works, but I can tell you this, if I don't immediately put a Power-Built-Up absorb shield on that Power-Built-Upped Amped (someone) Upped person, they'll die from withering fire within seconds.  So there's something wiggling around there.  

 

But anyway, I would be remiss if I did not mention that an All-Defender MSR is happening on Indom at 9PM EST on Saturday, 16th of July; be on Indom, be a Defender, be at least level 35, and be a Member of Vanguard, and YOU can be part of something you'll tell your kids about someday, and then, they'll grow up to tell their therapist about it.

 

ETA:

59 minutes ago, Hyperstrike said:

Still believe that total damage avoidance through overwhelming Defense is preferable to Resist-based protection.

As for Mez protection, oh no!  I'm mezzed!  But my defense is still Incarnate soft-capped!
Yes, they're not PRODUCTIVE in that situation.  But...

 

@Hyperstrike  You're not wrong, but there's no such thing as overwhelming defense when the lowest chance to get hit is always 5 and there are "aggro cap to the aggro capth power" bad guys shooting at YOU.  That's why it takes a village!

Edited July 8, 2022 by roleki

[Sovera]

You'll hate this answer, but bring whatever. Even if a full league was nothing but Scrappers or Blasters they would still MSR as a breeze thanks to all the Incarnate Destinies being spammed.

[Hyperstrike]

On 7/8/2022 at 4:12 PM, Sovera said:

You'll hate this answer, but bring whatever. Even if a full league was nothing but Scrappers or Blasters they would still MSR as a breeze thanks to all the Incarnate Destinies being spammed.

#REEEEEEEEEEEE!

😁

[The_Warpact]

I made a water/FF corr for the MSR, currently leveling him.

If you see "Bubble Bath Boy" that's me!