General Build Philosophy?

[DecreeOfJustice]

Hey PvP Community,

 

I'm looking to better understand the building philosophy behind a PvP build.  For example, in PvE, builds tend to aim for enough recharge for perma-hasten and capped Defenses.  What does a PvP build prioritize?

 

I know HP and To-Hit is pretty valuable, but I want to be sure I'm heading in the right direction.

 

Thank you.

[KelvinKole]

I'll give the age old answer of "it depends". It depends on archetype, powersets, pool powers, etc.. From a set bonus perspective, I tend to focus on recharge, hit points, and damage. Aside from slotting the +tohit kismet IO, you generally don't need to build specifically for accuracy; it's a plentifully available set bonus and will come easily.

 

From a power pool perspective, leaping and superspeed give the combined best movement ability. Leadership is a strong choice for the assault and tactics. Medicine is good if you don't have a self heal. Lastly I usually try to build in an escape/reset power like phase shift or hibernate.

[Dan Petro]

+HP is generally your first priority on a vast majority of builds.  The few exceptions are those with dull pain powers you can keep up almost perma with the DR on recharge.  You generally want to cap your HP on all 1606 HP cap characters.

 

From there, you generally want mag 41 - 46 KB protection if you are playing a set that lacks a KB resistance toggle (most melee sets have this and don't require KB protection).

 

After that you are looking for +recharge but usually somewhere in the 60-95% recharge because DR is a thing and after a certain point more recharge just doesn't matter (unlike PvE).

 

With your attacks you want at least 60-70% accuracy and as close to ED cap as possible with damage.  For attacks with recharges longer than 10-12 seconds you want as many damage procs as you can fit. (4 ideally) With attacks having a recharge time of 8 seconds or lower, you can still use them [late] in your chain, but they are better served as set bonus mules since you won't get many bonuses out of attacks with 4 damage procs slotted. In order to have ED capped damage in these attacks, you will generally want an alpha slot that boosts damage (musculature / intuition)

 

After that it depends on the build.  Building + damage can be valuable on stalkers and blasters that generally have the build freedom to chase it.  Having 40-50% passively from bonuses / assault/ hybrid passive is something I generally aim for.

 

For support characters (emps and pains) where you will be focusing on healing others you want to stack +healing bonuses.

 

+Range is pretty useful on characters not using boost range, or those without a snipe giving them the 50% range boost for 10 seconds. But it is usually something you just get from PvP IO bonuses rather than focusing on it.  The only thing you'll generally be slotting for range are emp and pain single target heals.

 

Pool powers are generally super jump / super speed / leadership (for tactics) and then some kind of "phase" power phase shift or hibernate.  Travel power slotting is important as you want to be as fast as possible.  2 Slotting hurdle on blasting sets is never a bad idea if you don't want to plant everywhere.

 

*edit* as  rule of thumb if you have a regular self heal go phase shift, if you don't have a way to refill your HP bar regularly and if you plan on playing without support or dueling on builds with no self sustain, hibernate is the go to option. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DecreeOfJustice]

Thank you for the detailed response, Dan.  It was your post about the PvP Emp build, and examining it that got me thinking about this topic.  I appreciate the input.

[Solok]

Hey everyone. Not really much of a PVP'er here but I need your help.

I'm trying to slot some sets in my Sentinel Radiation Blast/Willpower and I made a primary build just by throwing random sets in it but need some real direction as to what goes best to make me totally OP not just in PVP but all around.

Attaching my preliminary build in Pines for you to look at (not really worried about travel powers or anything else they will come later just worried about Rad Blast and Willpower for now.

Paragonman - Sentinel (Radiation Blast).mxd

[barrier]

11 hours ago, Solok said:

Hey everyone. Not really much of a PVP'er here but I need your help.

I'm trying to slot some sets in my Sentinel Radiation Blast/Willpower and I made a primary build just by throwing random sets in it but need some real direction as to what goes best to make me totally OP not just in PVP but all around.

Attaching my preliminary build in Pines for you to look at (not really worried about travel powers or anything else they will come later just worried about Rad Blast and Willpower for now.

Paragonman - Sentinel (Radiation Blast).mxd 5.09 kB · 1 download

Hey dude, you were given a couple of pointers on the Homecoming Discord. I suggest you rework the build around those comments and then repost.

 

Power choices need to be looked at again. Drop every AOE from Rad to begin with. Then get SS, SJ, Tactics and Phase. Netherworld Grasp is basically mandatory on Sents right now.

[kajmir]

On 6/13/2019 at 1:20 PM, Dan Petro said:

because DR is a thing

Diminishing Returns?

[Lucky666]

4 hours ago, kajmir said:

Diminishing Returns?

When you walk into a PvP zone almost every single one of ur stats is diminished. Some much more so then others.

[Solok]

On 8/2/2019 at 6:56 PM, barrier said:

Hey dude, you were given a couple of pointers on the Homecoming Discord. I suggest you rework the build around those comments and then repost.

 

Power choices need to be looked at again. Drop every AOE from Rad to begin with. Then get SS, SJ, Tactics and Phase. Netherworld Grasp is basically mandatory on Sents right now.

I know a lot of people prefer SS & SJ for travel powers but for me personally I prefer Fly. Does SS & SJ offer any other benefits I'm not aware of other than traveling?

(Plus if I choose Fly it gives me an extra slot for something rather than SS & SJ - just sayin)

[MJB]

 

2 hours ago, Solok said:

I know a lot of people prefer SS & SJ for travel powers but for me personally I prefer Fly. Does SS & SJ offer any other benefits I'm not aware of other than traveling?

(Plus if I choose Fly it gives me an extra slot for something rather than SS & SJ - just sayin)

fly is pretty unusable in pvp unfortunately, its really slow so you wont be able to evade/chase as well as a super speeder, though you do have the option of flying straight up... but you may still not be fast enough

 

but the real kicker is the prevalence of webnades and the like, which completely ground you/disable fly, which is obviously a bad time

[Solok]

I'm not sure i mentioned it before but I dont do PVP.

[M3z]

Super speed pool lets you access hasten which is a pretty big recharge boost. Also if you are webnaded and have superspeed you are fine. Also lets your access burnout which is nice on certain builds.

 

Super jump lets you access acrobatics which gives KB protection, crucial if you are a squishy class without a mez protect toggle.

[kajmir]

On 8/9/2019 at 7:17 AM, Solok said:

I'm not sure i mentioned it before but I dont do PVP.

You're literally in a PVP build forum.

[Iron Alex]

what is the typical slotting for ss everyone is going with these days??.. got a lot of usain bolts in rv now.. jeesh!!!

[Dan Petro]

Two winter's gift (Travel/Travel End) Two BoTZ (Travel end/KB IO), +5 the two travel ends. 

[Dan Petro]

Updated Build Philosophy -

 

HP Cap still mandatory on all 1606 classes as well as blasters.

 

After that you want to focus on acc/recharge/range, ideally you will have >200% acc (in mids) on a power outside of any buffs to hit other 1606 characters with 95% to hit rolls.  Recharge still shoot for at least 60-65% on the low end, but for many builds 80-90% is a sweet spot.   +Range is incredibly important across all characters and was neglected in the original post.  For support characters you want at least ~165-170 range on the heals.  For damage dealers, a passive 50% range bonus is a good goal to shoot for though with defenders/corrs/blasters you can go higher pretty easy now.  

 

Knock back protection - Depends on the prevalence of people running bubblers.  You either build for 49 or skip it and rely on powers like vengeance or domination to keep you from getting KB'ed.  Generally philosophy here is your opponent is just better off running hold spikes powerboosted or otherwise.  If you have the resources for a second build, I like to do one with max recharge/acc/range and then  one with mag 49 kb prots. 

 

Travel powers slotting - You want 95% Travel speed in SS/SJ (or Speed of Sound/Mighty Leap) A travel/end IO +5'ed in spirit will cap your run speed in pvp otherwise you will be at around 86 MPH. 

 

The ability to go vertical to break damage is significant.  Mystic Flight/Translocation or Speed of Sound/Jaunt are must have on 1606 chars and can be fit into pretty much any build with hiber.

 

If you take the ice pool hiber, you want to take tough otherwise you will lose out on resistances.

 

Phase Shift is fixed now and won't drop you out of phase while mezed so it is pretty strong again.  Hiber is still faster to activate if you are dealing with crazy spike damage.  

 

Pool power picks are still leadership at least two travels (SS/SJ type) and then either phase or hiber for offensive 1606 characters.  Support can make use of out medicine/aid other with field medic for more sustained healing, but requires good positioning (can't slot aid other for range, low base range) but the power has no animation root.  Sorcery/spirit ward is still strong.  Melee is a whole different story.  

 

 

[Dahkness]

Nvm

Edited April 18, 2020 by Hops
Found out what I needed