Crazy Staff/Bio Idea

[Lusiphur Malache]

I have a lvl 40ish staff/bio scrapper that through my own fault and lack of a plan has led to some awful slotting.  I looked at my kin/regen scrapper for a clue that has me back on track.  Before that though, I had an idea to not take staff mastery and/or adaptation.  Stupid, I know, but I turned one or the other off in a couple pugs and there wasn't much difference and not taking those 2 powers would let you add a couple powers that are enhance able and not have to remember to turn back on after a defeat.  has anyone done this and how did it work out? 

[Oysterhead]

 That seems like an... interesting and ill-advised choice? 

Skipping Adaptation on bio means giving up the damage proc and +% damage buff from offensive stance alone, ignoring the flexibility the other two stances offer even. That's a very large increase to your effectiveness on its own, more than you'll get from any single other power, especially since it requires zero slots. Adaptation makes everything else you do, better, its very efficient. 

 

Staff Mastery is the same. Requires no slots, makes all your other attacks/powers better. Stalker version of Staff does not have Staff Mastery, and is far worse off for it. 

 

You may not have noticed the impacts, but Mids lets you see them pretty quick. Just looking at Mercurial Blow, 6 slotted with Mako's just to get some basic stats. Base damage is 125.4 (113.7 from the atttack, 11.74 average from the Mako proc), turn on Offensive Adaptation and it does 157.6, the rest coming from the toxic proc. And the proc scales! Skysplitter goes from 532 damage to 622.  And all that is before the +30% damage buff you get for being in offensive adaptation that gets added to Hardened Carapace. That moves Mercurial up to 177.4, and Skysplitter up to 697! That's a 42% increase in Mercurial Blow damage and 31% increase to Skysplitter. That's a full damage IO.

 

Think of both of those as being able to add 1enhancement slots to all your other powers, each, above the 6 limit, and the ability to change them all out at the click of a button between damage procs, endurance reducers, recharge times, resists, end mod, etc. That's a lot of power for 1 pick.

It certainly could be done! Just like petless MMs are a thing, and Hide-less stalkers are a thing now. Its an idea, but, not a good idea 😃

Edited December 5, 2022 by Oysterhead

[nihilii]

Going to second the above opinion.

 

/bio adaptation is a massive boost, and staff's form thingy is a nice plus. Those two powers are the best bang for your buck picks for your entire character.

On top of that, we're never starved for powers. Slots tend to be a bigger issue. So trading no-slot global boosts for individual powers that need extra slots would be a bad trade in general.

[Lusiphur Malache]

18 hours ago, Oysterhead said:

Its an idea, but, not a good idea 😃

I agree, since i got my slotting corrected I breeze through things.  Have increased difficulty to +3/+5

[Yomo Kimyata]

If you are forgetting to activate your stances after defeats, try putting your default next to your armor toggles.  Makes it easier to not overlook, especially if you tend to be in Body/Offensive.  I mean, you don't forget to activate Hardened Carapace or Tough before battle, do you?

[Linea]

I bind them (bio and staff) both to attack keys, and use macros to switch the bindings in order to switch stances.  That way they always automatically turn on when I start fighting, if I've forgotten them.  I do the same for Dual Pistols.

[UltraAlt]

23 hours ago, Lusiphur Malache said:

I have a lvl 40ish staff/bio scrapper that through my own fault and lack of a plan has led to some awful slotting.  I looked at my kin/regen scrapper for a clue that has me back on track.  Before that though, I had an idea to not take staff mastery and/or adaptation.  Stupid, I know, but I turned one or the other off in a couple pugs and there wasn't much difference and not taking those 2 powers would let you add a couple powers that are enhance able and not have to remember to turn back on after a defeat.  has anyone done this and how did it work out? 

 

I take the easy route with this.

I'm not switching my modes about all that often.

 

When you are on a team, you generally can tell the mode you should be in for bio armor.

Basically,

Defense Adaptation is to be more tankery

Offensive Adaption is to increase damage dealing

Efficient Adaptation is for between battles and/or you are getting low on end or hp (or getting ready to use DNA Siphon and/or whenever it is more important to increase regen and recovery.

Most of my staff characters (I probably should say all) are scrappers or stalkers. I use Offense when fighting, and Efficient between battle or when my character low on end and/or need to use regeneration powers.

 

 

For the Staff, what kind of damage is your enemy weak against and/or what kind of secondary effect will help you in that situation?

Form of Body - Executing Sky Splitter with three levels of Perfection of Body will deal additional smashing damage and grant the user a moderate resistance buff for a short time.

Form of Mind - Executing Sky Splitter with three levels of Perfection of Mind will deal additional psychic damage and grant the user a moderate to hit buff for a short time.

Form of Soul - Executing Sky Splitter with three levels of Perfection of Soul will deal additional energy damage and grant the user a moderate regeneration and recovery buff for a short time.

I generally stay in Form of Mind because most enemies are weak against psychic damage and I like getting a to hit buff.

 

I don't set-up my trays like most people do.

I put my toggles all in one tray away from the main 3 stack.

Tray one (which I usually keep as the active tray) is set with toggle to tray 2 (which has toggle to tray 1. I put tray 2 on the top of the stack. Tray 1 is hidden when not in use. These are my main click power trays. Both trays also have a macro to trigger healing inspirations.

I have tray 3 in the middle of the 3 stack, and this is where I put powers that I have to click on the map or might want to activate sometimes but not all that often. It is in that 3rd tray that I put both bio armor and the staff stances (I put Domination in that tray as well).

I put them in an order that I'm most likely to use them/makes sense to me mid-battle.

 

I do a huge amount of alt-ing and positioning of powers in a way that all characters are set-up the same as much as possible is very important to keep track of/access powers in the same manner regardless of power set.

[ninja surprise]

On 12/6/2022 at 7:41 AM, Yomo Kimyata said:

If you are forgetting to activate your stances after defeats, try putting your default next to your armor toggles.  Makes it easier to not overlook, especially if you tend to be in Body/Offensive.  I mean, you don't forget to activate Hardened Carapace or Tough before battle, do you?

 

I use a toggle-on bind, so pressing F1 over and over turns on every armor power + the defensive stance. F2 does Efficient. F3 does Offensive.  Way easier than trying to click the armors one at a time to turn them on.

[BrandX]

I did a Pylon run without Bio's Adaption on and there was a big difference.

 

What you may want to do, which I sometimes do, sometimes don't, is not use Offense Adaption when normal teaming, but on tough single targets, while using the Defense or Efficient Stances while normal mission clearing, as you're right, you may not see that difference so much (ITF with the EBs could be exception).

 

Now, Staff's Offensive Stance may be different in terms of using while running normal missions on a team, but I know you'd at least want the DMG stance for Staff.

[BrandX]

55 minutes ago, Krimson said:

Because of this, my Bio/Savage Tanker can solo Giant Monsters. My other Tankers... cannot.

 

My next Hunter is going to be an Energy/Bio Scrapper, and I plan to tune it to take on Goliath War Walker and the Kronos Titan. A well tuned Staff/Bio Scrapper should be able to run radios solo at +4/x8 and clear fast enough to make farmers envious. 

 

I had my Kinetic/Bio Scrapper soloing pylons at 1m40s  Sadly, I didn't like it for the concept, so switched to Kinetic/Electric Scrapper.

 

Bio just turns it's user into a killing machine 🙂  I haven't tested out my newest Elec/Bio Brute for DPS yet.

[Zepp]

I have a Bio/WP scrapper and the Form of the Body bonuses are so good that I don't use Sky Splitter or Eye of the Storm in order to maintain a constant damage boost.

[StriderIV]

13 hours ago, BrandX said:

 

I had my Kinetic/Bio Scrapper soloing pylons at 1m40s  Sadly, I didn't like it for the concept, so switched to Kinetic/Electric Scrapper.

 

Bio just turns it's user into a killing machine 🙂  I haven't tested out my newest Elec/Bio Brute for DPS yet.

Brand! Mind sharing your Kin/Elec build? I'm one of the weirdos that really like Kinetic Melee and it's animations/range moves. I ran a Kin/Ice Scrapper, and I think a Kin/Elec would be pretty cool. Very Thematic.

[BrandX]

1 hour ago, StriderIV said:

Brand! Mind sharing your Kin/Elec build? I'm one of the weirdos that really like Kinetic Melee and it's animations/range moves. I ran a Kin/Ice Scrapper, and I think a Kin/Elec would be pretty cool. Very Thematic.

 

This Hero build was built using Mids Reborn 3.4.7
https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Spoilsport: Level 50 Mutation Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Kinetic Melee
Secondary Power Set: Electric Armor
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Flight
Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Quick Strike

• (A) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage
• (48) Mako's Bite - Damage/Endurance
• (48) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (48) Mako's Bite - Chance of Damage(Lethal)
• (50) Touch of Death - Chance of Damage(Negative)
• (50) Gladiator's Strike - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
  

Level 1: Charged Armor

• (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance
• (3) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance
• (3) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime
• (5) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP
  

Level 2: Body Blow

• (A) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage
• (9) Mako's Bite - Damage/Endurance
• (11) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (11) Mako's Bite - Chance of Damage(Lethal)
• (13) Touch of Death - Chance of Damage(Negative)
• (13) Gladiator's Strike - Chance for Smashing Damage
  

Level 4: Smashing Blow

• (A) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage
• (15) Mako's Bite - Damage/Endurance
• (15) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (17) Mako's Bite - Chance of Damage(Lethal)
• (17) Touch of Death - Chance of Damage(Negative)
• (19) Gladiator's Strike - Chance for Smashing Damage
  

Level 6: Lightning Field

• (A) Superior Scrapper's Strike - Accuracy/Damage
• (19) Superior Scrapper's Strike - Damage/Recharge
• (21) Superior Scrapper's Strike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (21) Superior Scrapper's Strike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (23) Superior Scrapper's Strike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (23) Superior Scrapper's Strike - Recharge/Critical Hit Bonus
  

Level 8: Conductive Shield

• (A) Gladiator's Armor - End/Resist
• (25) Gladiator's Armor - Resistance/Rech/End
• (25) Gladiator's Armor - Resistance
• (27) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All)
  

Level 10: Static Shield

• Hamidon Origin:Ribosome Exposure
  

Level 12: Combat Jumping

• (A) Kismet - Accuracy +6%
• (27) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
  

Level 14: Maneuvers

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• (29) Shield Wall - Defense/Endurance
• (29) Shield Wall - Defense/Endurance/Recharge
• (31) Shield Wall - Defense
• (31) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All)
  

Level 16: Grounded

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

Level 18: Burst

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

Level 20: Energize

• (A) Preventive Medicine - Heal
• (34) Preventive Medicine - Heal/Endurance
• (34) Preventive Medicine - Endurance/RechargeTime
• (34) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime
• (36) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance
• (36) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb
  

Level 22: Kick

• (A) Empty
  

Level 24: Tough

• (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance
• (36) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance
• (37) Unbreakable Guard - Endurance/RechargeTime
• (37) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime
  

Level 26: Weave

• (A) Reactive Defenses - Defense
• (37) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance
• (39) Reactive Defenses - Endurance/RechargeTime
• (39) Reactive Defenses - Defense/RechargeTime
• (39) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance/RechargeTime
• (40) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage
  

Level 28: Lightning Reflexes

• (A) Run Speed IO
  

Level 30: Power Siphon

• (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up
  

Level 32: Concentrated Strike

• (A) Superior Critical Strikes - RechargeTime/+50% Crit Proc
• (40) Hecatomb - Damage
• (40) Hecatomb - Damage/Recharge/Accuracy
• (42) Hecatomb - Recharge/Accuracy
• (42) Hecatomb - Damage/Endurance
• (42) Hecatomb - Chance of Damage(Negative)
  

Level 35: Power Sink

• (A) Synapse's Shock - EndMod
• (43) Synapse's Shock - Damage/Rechage
• (43) Synapse's Shock - EndMod/Recharge
• (43) Synapse's Shock - Damage/Recharge/Accuracy
• (45) Synapse's Shock - Damage/Accuracy/Endurance
• (50) Synapse's Shock - EndMod/Increased Run Speed
  

Level 38: Assault

• (A) Endurance Reduction IO
  

Level 41: Moonbeam

• (A) Decimation - Chance of Build Up
• (45) Apocalypse - Damage/Recharge
• (45) Apocalypse - Damage/Recharge/Accuracy
• (46) Apocalypse - Recharge/Accuracy
• (46) Apocalypse - Damage/Endurance
• (46) Apocalypse - Chance of Damage(Negative)
  

Level 44: Soul Storm

• (A) Empty
  

Level 47: Hover

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

Level 49: Fly

• (A) Winter's Gift - Slow Resistance (20%)
  

Level 1: Critical Hit 

Level 1: Brawl

 

Here you go.  I've since respeced the powers to different positions w/ Page 5, but I did it before mids update.