Top Debuffers

[smnolimits41]

Right now i'm playing a character named Mega Debuffer, a Rad/Rad defender. I was thinking, i saw a post before, that someone mentioned the top debuffers.  Maybe i'm blind, i don't see the post anymore.  Anyways, what are the top debuffers ??

[MoonSheep]

poison would be one at the top, poison/fire is a great debuffer - a good solo defender capable of meaningful damage too

[SeraphimKensai]

There's a lot of fun ways to debuff mobs.

 

Poison, Dark, Storm, Cold, and Rad are probably my favorite primaries for debuffing in that order.

 

I typically pair with sonic, rad, or elec for debuffing secondaries on a defender.

 

 

[Bopper]

Cold, Dark and Trick Arrow are all very strong.

[The_Warpact]

Traps...double or triple acid mortar.

 

Rad ftw

Cold, thermal, dark all strong.

Time, elec, son are ok. Psn and TA I think are overrated. 

[roleki]

8 minutes ago, The_Warpact said:

[...] Psn and TA I think are overrated. 

Curious, what gives you that impression?  In my experience, Poison and TA absolutely neuter hard targets, and in the case of TA, removes everything BUT the hard targets from the encounter.  

[Astralock]

Cold Domination, Poison, Radiation Emission, Traps, and Trick Arrow are the top debuffers.   Can’t go wrong with any of them, solo at least.  Traps can be slow on teams, however.

[The_Warpact]

21 minutes ago, roleki said:

Curious, what gives you that impression?  In my experience, Poison and TA absolutely neuter hard targets, and in the case of TA, removes everything BUT the hard targets from the encounter.  

The only time I've seen poison be great is in pvp as a fast moving debuff set.

In pve I've really had no luck with them compared to other sets that buff, heal, etc in addition to the debuffs.

[Uun]

23 minutes ago, The_Warpact said:

The only time I've seen poison be great is in pvp as a fast moving debuff set.

In pve I've really had no luck with them compared to other sets that buff, heal, etc in addition to the debuffs.

Poison's two main debuffs are primarily single target, with a half-strength debuff applied in an 8-foot radius. It can completely neuter several hard targets, but it's not well suited to debuffing an entire spawn in one shot. On the flip side, it can stack 65% -res, 56% -dmg and 49% -tohit with no cool-down. If you're playing Poison on a defender, you can skip the heal. I'm currently leveling a Poison/Sonic, which is pretty sick. 

[The_Warpact]

2 minutes ago, Uun said:

Poison's two main debuffs are primarily single target, with a half-strength debuff applied in an 8-foot radius. It can completely neuter several hard targets, but it's not well suited to debuffing an entire spawn in one shot. On the flip side, it can stack 65% -res, 56% -dmg and 49% -tohit with no cool-down. If you're playing Poison on a defender, you can skip the heal. I'm currently leveling a Poison/Sonic, which is pretty sick. 

Yeah I should have made note that single hard targets its ok on. I still like traps better for that kind of fight.

[Mezmera]

3 hours ago, The_Warpact said:

TA I think are overrated

 

Go home you're drunk! 

[The_Warpact]

4 hours ago, Mezmera said:

 

Go home you're drunk! 

Well I did play on Pinnacle for awhile...

[SeraphimKensai]

1 hour ago, The_Warpact said:

Well I did play on Pinnacle for awhile...

Pinnacle did have a lot of drunk heroes on it. I had villains on that server and anytime I entered Bloody Bay, Siren's Call, Warburg, or RV heroes just magically kept passing out in front of me.

[Mezmera]

38 minutes ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Pinnacle did have a lot of drunk heroes on it. I had villains on that server and anytime I entered Bloody Bay, Siren's Call, Warburg, or RV heroes just magically kept passing out in front of me.

 

Hmm meet up with these heroes in some co-op zone incognito during happy hour and buy them some drinks then when they stumble into a pvp zone its easy pickins.  Pretty solid plan.  

Edited August 20, 2022 by Mezmera

[Psyonico]

23 hours ago, The_Warpact said:

(...) and TA I think are overrated. 

[Ankhammon]

On 8/20/2022 at 9:07 AM, Psyonico said:

Next thing you know someone will say...

[MistressOhm]

So necro-ing this to chime in.

 

Storm + Elec is THE Debuff Queen.  

 

Properly slotted Hurricane (I'm using Dark Watcher's Despair set) not only floors Acc for anything in the radius, but also enforces positioning with Repel and occasional KB procs.  Snow Storm applies an excellent Slow and -Rech to not only the target but also anything nearby.  Thunderstorm and Freezing Rain throw in KD/KB and Fear (the "Run Away!" kind), FR also applies a slow and a -rech debuff from the Cold damage ticks.     

 

Then we get to the Electric Assault side of the secondary.  Because this is a Defender set, the -End on every attack is made more effective than from the Blasters, they do more damage but less status.  Short Circuit, properly slotted, will nearly wipe a mob's blue meter all the way down, and a couple of shots of Electric Bolt, or a Ball Lightning, will completely empty the tank after that.   The End refund (which isn't much, so do slot for End Reduction -everywhere-) makes the high toggle usage of Storm a bit more bearable.

 

I've BROKEN trick or treat EB's on a L38 Stormfender, to the point where the "have I attacked in 60 seconds?" timer runs out and they despawn.  Not because there's nothing to attack, there's nothing to attack WITH.  Think about that, an EB completely locked out of attacking at all, for a full minute.  All because a solo Defender has drained the End, debuffed the Recharge, and put them into a Fear state trying to get away from a T-Storm pet.  

 

So! if you want your high-risk targets to become punching bags in short order, take along a Stormfender with lightning powers.  🙂

Edited October 13, 2022 by MistressOhm

[Doomguide2005]

     Short Circuit 

Step One:  3 Slot Armageddon putting damage well into the red

Step Two:  3 slot an Endmod set, endmod and recharge aspects now in the red.

Step Three:  very high global recharge build

Step Four:  Power Boost or Power Build Up.

 

     Profit for upwards of -70 end and -200% recovery debuff with a recharge under 10 seconds in SC

 

     Now I used that in an old Emp/Elec/Power build but I'd love to update it with 1) new endmod sets 2) Shock mechanic.

[Ankhammon]

8 minutes ago, MistressOhm said:

 

Then we get to the Electric Assault side of the secondary.  Because this is a Defender set, the -End on every attack is made more effective than from the Blasters, they do more damage but less status.  Short Circuit, properly slotted, will nearly wipe a mob's blue meter all the way down, and a couple of shots of Electric Bolt, or a Ball Lightning, will completely empty the tank after that.   The End refund (which isn't much, so do slot for End Reduction -everywhere-) makes the high toggle usage of Storm a bit more bearable.

 

Seconding that Storm/Elec is a fantastic combo for debuffing. Just remember that any of these debuffing combo's can be put into overdrive if you are able to see their strengths and weaknesses and take a few steps to improve/correct them. 

 

For example: Tip/Tricks for your Storm/Elec build.

• Toss in a Perfomance Shifter: chance for +End into your Short Circuit and it's end cost plummets. Seems to go off with every use for me. Consider it for LS and even VS to gets lots of proc chances. 
• Throw in a kb to kdown into Hurricane along with Dark Watcher's Dispair: Chance for recharge slow and you will be pulling lots of aggro along with the 10 second -range debuff leaves you pretty well covered on regular mobs. Mobs come in but they don't come out. 🙂 Bad news is the range blasts for enemy is down to like 32 ft so you will have to move a bit to keep em covered. 
• kb to kdown procs can be good or bad in other stuff depending on how you want to build. I use em in LS and the 'Nado to chew stuff up quicker. 
• Tossing in a couple stun procs into your aoe powers will help make you a stun bot in addition to your drains and debuffs. Don't forget Thunder Clap. It's worth it even with the crappy acc. 

[MistressOhm]

28 minutes ago, Ankhammon said:

Perfomance Shifter: chance for +End

Was using Perf Shifter set and didn't see the benefit of that proc that often.   I've switched to Power Transfer, which pops an occasional heal, only 5% but it's useful.

 

30 minutes ago, Ankhammon said:

kb to kdown into Hurricane

Hurricane doesn't proc KB all that often, most of the heavy lifting is Repel and mobs still get pushed away by that.  LOVE the -ToHit it applies though, especially to bosses, EB's, and AV's/giant monsters.  As long as you've End to keep it going, it truly does turn you into a Tankfender.  Don't know why anyone would NOT use a -ToHit set for this.

 

A KB/KD would be useful in Gale, however, as an added, targeted KD cone (Gale is kind of a useless but cheap power as it is.)

 

I tend to slot LS for straight Damage, a Recharge, and an End reduction, because it doesn't miss and you can perma the things with one Recharge SO.  Even then it doesn't hit THAT hard, but it's useful for keeping things off their feet.  A KB/KD proc conversion there would be good to keep from throwing things away rather than down.

 

31 minutes ago, Ankhammon said:

Don't forget Thunder Clap

 

Uff.  I'd have to quintuple-slot it for Acc to make it reliable.   Right now it's just a placeholder in the power tray.  I'll have to push a Disorient set into it, and see if it gets better.

 

My go-to boss debuffer is Snow Storm.  -fly, -rech, and Slow, as a mob-centered AOE.  It burns Endurance like trucks in a mud bog burn gas, though, so have to slot for End reduction along with the Slow, and a Recharge or two to get it back when it drops.

 

And so far I've skipped Tornado.  I may have to revisit, to see what it can do, but at first glance it seems rather chaotic, even more so than Hurricane or TS.

[Doomguide2005]

Tornado is an auto hitting DoT I'd be reluctant to skip even for Hurricane.  With high enough recharge 2 are perma and periods of 3 can be had.  Thunderclap is a power I'd take if I can combine with a second stun power.  I don't find the accuracy an issue but often pair with Earth and use Tactics (i can hear the end usage groans from here 😉)

 

Edit:  Most of my Stormies are Controllers and therefore have that second AoE stun to pair with Thunderclap (Stalagmites in Earth) and most of them add Fissure into the mix.  What little survives that is probably going enjoy 2× Seismic Smash while standing Immobilized in Freezing Rain.  They’re built to be what The Mighty Storm called "Diso-Queens" and is all about getting the whole mob perma  stunned until defeated.

Edited October 13, 2022 by Doomguide2005

[SeraphimKensai]

Tornado is a set defining must have, that when slotted with say an overwhelming force proc keeps mobs knocked down in it's path to better apply it's DPS. It's literally par for the course for a stormer, and to skip the power is not advisable.

[Psyonico]

4 hours ago, Doomguide2005 said:

Tornado is an auto hitting DoT I'd be reluctant to skip even for Hurricane.  With high enough recharge 2 are perma and periods of 3 can be had.  .

I could have sworn tornado is limited to 1 at a time.  I know you can have multiple Lightning Storms out 

[TaxibotJoe]

On 10/13/2022 at 1:17 PM, Psyonico said:

I could have sworn tornado is limited to 1 at a time.  I know you can have multiple Lightning Storms out 

multiple tornadoes are completely doable

 

I have four pieces of Expedient Reinforcement for the recharge and +rech in mine. I’m wondering if the enhancement recharge is interfering with the Force Feedback +recharge proc. 

Edited October 15, 2022 by TaxibotJoe

[ElDubs]

Anyone have a good cold/rad defender build they would like to share with me?  Thanks