Why Elude? (Widows)

[Glacier Peak]

Anyone?

 

I'm looking at my Widow build, already hitting +70% across all positional defenses, and I'm thinking "why should I pick up Elude?"

 

I'm running set bonuses and getting this build wacky over powered. I'm talking built to solo incarnate content +4/8 all day, taunting multiple +4 Heroes without concern, I'm already running through hardcore difficulties...

 

...but I see this power that skyrockets my defense to the point of absurdity. Why would I need +160% positional defenses? Enemies are always going to have at least a 5% chance to hit me no matter how high my defense gets. And sure, it lasts 3 minutes - but holy cow the recharge is like 15 minutes! 

 

So my rant aside, who picks this power and why? What am I missing? Is this for IO builds not using set bonuses? Should I pick it up for "Worthy Opponent" ???

Edited January 1, 2023 by Glacier Peak

[KaizenSoze]

I have only played with Elude on my Night Tank builds. It does provide two useful things besides defense, more DDR and recovery.

 

But even then I don't find it useful enough on AE 801 and four star hard modes.

 

It's pretty much only useful as an IO mule at best. T9 for squishier ATs should all be as useful as Ice Armor:Icy Bastion.

 

 

[nihilii]

DDR, end recovery, defense against +tohit foes. Runspeed and leveling/exemplar comfort are also nice.

There's definitely stuff out there these days that will punch through 70% defense but not 160% defense. Or even from back in the old days. Soloing large groups of Rularuu with eyeballs is an instant wipe for me with 70% defense, but 160% defense floors the eyeballs again.

The recharge is closer to 5 minutes (slotted) on an IOed out build. So you're looking at 3 minutes up, 2 minutes down.

In the past 2 years I've come to love Elude-like T9s on every AT with access to it. It allows for building extremely aggressively in damage output, while retaining strong defenses.

 

That is, to truly go all out with procs one must usually grab Ageless. But an Elude build can proc out attacks and sustain endurance use through Elude, which allows for picking Barrier or Rebirth.

 

Of course this top performance is only attainable ~60% of the time. Yet I actually find this peaks and valleys rhythm optimal - i.e., very rarely will I have to sustain absolute top end resilience for more than a couple minutes if that; so the "base build" while Elude is recharging, performing maybe at 80-90% of what a standard build would do offensively, is still good enough for me.

Big YMMV obviously. I suspect for most people who play on large teams and will find themselves with stacked Destinies whenever they tackle the hardest content, the above is largely irrelevant. So Elude just adds a crash for no good reason.

[Glacier Peak]

Appreciate the responses! I didn't know I could get the recharge that far down! And I wasn't aware of the DDR. I feel like I could mitigate the crash with by breaking contact and popping green and blue inspirations. So I'm thinking I might pick it up on my solo build that I'm making. 

[nihilii]

This is how I handle it as well, as a mostly solo player.

I generally pick Barrier rather than Rebirth to round up those max offense builds, so if the situation allows, I also keep that ready when I know Elude will soon drop (I use Barrier once during the first minute or so of the Elude cycle, so I know it will be up again right before Elude drops).

I would lie if I said I never mess it up and end up eating the pavement, but... that's also part of the fun.

[Glacier Peak]

On 1/1/2023 at 12:38 PM, nihilii said:

This is how I handle it as well, as a mostly solo player.

I generally pick Barrier rather than Rebirth to round up those max offense builds, so if the situation allows, I also keep that ready when I know Elude will soon drop (I use Barrier once during the first minute or so of the Elude cycle, so I know it will be up again right before Elude drops).

I would lie if I said I never mess it up and end up eating the pavement, but... that's also part of the fun.

I've finally completed my Widow build with Elude and I'm liking it a lot. The build has 60% positional def before hitting Mind Link, which then puts it up in the +75% positional def.

 

Elude has insane defense buffs, getting me in the 150% positional def range easily. No need for anything that high, basically playing with the 5% chance to hit from enemies before I hit Elude, but it also grants helpful recovery too and lasts an insane 3 whole minutes! I'd describe the power as over kill, but I also see it as another tool in my toolkit when soloing 'Master of' content where temps and Incarnates are disabled. 

 

Edit: Also meant to add that having Elude available gives me the option to hit a T9 after reviving, which has helped me if I go down right before defeating an AV/Hero. Nothing worse than beating down a health bar for 10 minutes and then right before you land the final blow, their 5% chance to hit kicks in and their attack takes down your entire health bar before either scaling resist bonuses or absorb proc kick in. So revive, Elude, and no need to retoggle anything! 

Edited February 11, 2023 by Glacier Peak

[nihilii]

1 hour ago, Glacier Peak said:

Edit: Also meant to add that having Elude available gives me the option to hit a T9 after reviving, which has helped me if I go down right before defeating an AV/Hero.

 

Yooo! Brought a smile to my face reading your post, this is my favorite "hidden utility" as well.

 

It's such a step up from spamming purples and oranges post resurrection and hoping to survive; not to mention it doesn't *cost* those purples and oranges. Out of insps? No big deal.

I love getting back in the action with just one flip.

[Wavicle]

It's not useless, but probably you can build to not need it.

[Glacier Peak]

2 hours ago, Wavicle said:

It's not useless, but probably you can build to not need it.

That's accurate for a majority of the content in the game. The build I made was meant for solo, 'Master of' content soloing however, so I had specific needs.