Stone Armor: How Important Is Brimstone?

[Timeshadow]

This is a bit in the weeds but I recently rolled an Ice/Stone that feels great to play and I can tell has the potential to be a very hardy DPS machine with IOs. However, I didn't think about the fact that the DoT from Brimstone Armor instantly breaks the sleep from Frozen Aura. 

 

Obviously, I'm not gonna drop either power but I'm wondering if I should turn Brimstone off when I'm not up against significant amounts of Fire/Cold damage to preserve FA's CC. I don't think the extra DoT makes a big difference in terms of overall DPS but I'm not sure. Could somebody please enlighten me? 

[Grimm2]

You might choose to turn it off if your build is squish, for some reason. 

 

But, Stone Armor should be easy enough to stack def with that a small purple gets you to softcap. The Brimstone proc can crit, and is basically another 20-30 dps, someone calculated it. It's really good. The sleep will de-toggle ghosts with Darkest Night (for example) even if broken instantly. 

 

TLDR: ❤️ Brimstone

[Timeshadow]

@Grimm2Yeah. After some more time playing, I'm finding that the DoT is more valuable. Freezing a bunch of enemies in ice certainly looks cool but Brimstone's extra damage really adds up, especially with the buffs you get from Geode (Which I didn't even realize existed until I activated it for the first time and started getting a bunch of "unknown" buffs on my bar 😅).

Now I'm wondering about sleep set procs in FA. Specifically, Call of the Sandman vs. Fortunata's Hypnosis. I know CotS's chance for self-heal will only kick in once per activation regardless of the number of target's FA actually hits so FH's chance to placate seems like the better option. Then again, Stone is a set that relies on Regen as it's primary method of healing so having that little 15% heal every once in a while might be worth. What do y'all think?

[Grimm2]

I'm personally inclined towards the heal proc, as I agree that an occasional real heal is very valuable for Stone armor. You can test out both though. I've never used the placate proc, I wonder how long the effect lasts, and how easy it breaks on damage. 

[InvaderStych]

On 1/31/2023 at 5:34 AM, Timeshadow said:

I don't think the extra DoT makes a big difference in terms of overall DPS but I'm not sure. Could somebody please enlighten me?

 

Just for context as to how I feel on this: If I was going to bother turning off Brimstone, I'd have just skipped Stone Armor completely. YMMV, but for me, Brimstone is a key component of the armor - especially for a Stalker or a Scrapper.

 

Because it can critical, and when it does - it does so for the full damage of all 3 tics of Brimstone, even if only 1 tic is successful and the second misses which cancels the third.  Brimstone's Proc is the only Cancel on Miss DoT in the entire game included in the calculation of critical hit damage.

 

Further, on a Stalker it gets an enhanced chance to Critical from Hidden.  I thought I saw somewhere on CoD that it was the same 50% granted to most AoEs, but now I cannot find it again.  The point is, coming from Hide at 50 on an even-level target the Critical from Brimstone looked to be adding 100-120pts to an AS, with the proc itself adding either 33%, 66%, or 100% of that number.

 

Besides, it is HI-Larious to fire off a Judgement and see the word CRITICAL! over most of the targets when Brimstone crits.  Yes, each tick of Brimstone via Judgement does 1-2 pts of dmg because of Area Factor, and the Crits are only with 6pts, but it is @#%ing hilarious.

 

I wouldn't toggle it off based on incoming damage though. In your case I'd toggle it off ONLY if I really wanted the sleep effect for some reason.  IMO Brimstone's damage is of much greater value than the sleep in FA.

 

Personally, I'd just ignore the sleep completely.  In sustained DPS over time, Brimstone is better than Firey Embrace, but does less than the combined power of Bio's debuff and damage auras. (which I don't think a stalker gets one of those) The point is that it is good damage. Rolling Stone Armor and not using Brimstone is like rolling one of those other two armors and not using their +dmg or -res powers.

 

YMMV based on playstyle and goals - before someone comes along and tries to "teach" me how powerful it can be to mez with a Stalker, or whatever.  Spare me, I know. 😉

Edited February 1, 2023 by InvaderStych

[schrodingercat]

On 1/31/2023 at 11:13 PM, Timeshadow said:

@Grimm2Yeah. After some more time playing, I'm finding that the DoT is more valuable. Freezing a bunch of enemies in ice certainly looks cool but Brimstone's extra damage really adds up, especially with the buffs you get from Geode (Which I didn't even realize existed until I activated it for the first time and started getting a bunch of "unknown" buffs on my bar 😅).

Now I'm wondering about sleep set procs in FA. Specifically, Call of the Sandman vs. Fortunata's Hypnosis. I know CotS's chance for self-heal will only kick in once per activation regardless of the number of target's FA actually hits so FH's chance to placate seems like the better option. Then again, Stone is a set that relies on Regen as it's primary method of healing so having that little 15% heal every once in a while might be worth. What do y'all think?

 

FWIW you can put the "chance to heal" proc in any power that takes endurance modifications, including the stone armor that provides energy/negative energy/recovery. As a tank (so ymmv) I have one in stamina, that armor that i forget the name of, and body mastery. I get a lot of healspam from it and im generally topping off my health before it even needs to regen, should something manage to actually hit me (non-granite).

 

Try it - it should fire off enough in stamina and that armor to be a pretty steady supply of green. Since its a % of your hitpoints, perma-ing earths embrace gives even beefier returns.

[BrandX]

7 hours ago, schrodingercat said:

 

FWIW you can put the "chance to heal" proc in any power that takes endurance modifications, including the stone armor that provides energy/negative energy/recovery. As a tank (so ymmv) I have one in stamina, that armor that i forget the name of, and body mastery. I get a lot of healspam from it and im generally topping off my health before it even needs to regen, should something manage to actually hit me (non-granite).

 

Try it - it should fire off enough in stamina and that armor to be a pretty steady supply of green. Since its a % of your hitpoints, perma-ing earths embrace gives even beefier returns.

 

So glad they fixed the proc to work like that too 🙂

[Timeshadow]

On 2/7/2023 at 5:51 PM, schrodingercat said:

 

FWIW you can put the "chance to heal" proc in any power that takes endurance modifications, including the stone armor that provides energy/negative energy/recovery. As a tank (so ymmv) I have one in stamina, that armor that i forget the name of, and body mastery. I get a lot of healspam from it and im generally topping off my health before it even needs to regen, should something manage to actually hit me (non-granite).

 

Try it - it should fire off enough in stamina and that armor to be a pretty steady supply of green. Since its a % of your hitpoints, perma-ing earths embrace gives even beefier returns.

 

Interesting. I hadn't thought of using Stamina and Crystal Armor for the proc. I've got Performance Shifter procs in both right now but I'll try the self-heal to see how it goes. 

 

So far, this is my most durable Stalker so I'm looking to keep that up. 

[InvaderStych]

On 2/7/2023 at 2:51 PM, schrodingercat said:

Try it - it should fire off enough in stamina and that armor to be a pretty steady supply of green. Since its a % of your hitpoints, perma-ing earths embrace gives even beefier returns.

 

Just for clarity; Panacea and Power Transfer are calculated on base HP, not max.  Panacea is ~65hp and PT is ~60hp each on a Stalker at 50.  Max HP does impact +regen though.  The way my Fire/Stone/Blaze is currently setup he gets about 11.x hp/s from Rooted outside of EE and 14.x hp/s from it at the HP cap inside of EE.

I've been running for a while with only one of my two PT procs slotted as a test to see if I can move that slot elsewhere.  When all three (PTx2, Panacea) trigger the 185hp bump is significant, but after a few runs of 4x8 Pantheon, Malta, etc I'm not sure the 60pts from the second proc is more valuable than using that slot elsewhere might be. (like putting Ragnarok %KD into fireball, or adding a 6th slot to a winter set for more f/c def) It is still tempting to keep it; after all I know I can drop the Numina's from the build and it runs fine, so there's one of the two slots I want back, at least. Heh.

 

It is definitely worth running multiples of them if the slots are available.

[schrodingercat]

On 2/10/2023 at 9:43 AM, InvaderStych said:

 

Just for clarity; Panacea and Power Transfer are calculated on base HP, not max.  Panacea is ~65hp and PT is ~60hp each on a Stalker at 50.  Max HP does impact +regen though.  The way my Fire/Stone/Blaze is currently setup he gets about 11.x hp/s from Rooted outside of EE and 14.x hp/s from it at the HP cap inside of EE.

I've been running for a while with only one of my two PT procs slotted as a test to see if I can move that slot elsewhere.  When all three (PTx2, Panacea) trigger the 185hp bump is significant, but after a few runs of 4x8 Pantheon, Malta, etc I'm not sure the 60pts from the second proc is more valuable than using that slot elsewhere might be. (like putting Ragnarok %KD into fireball, or adding a 6th slot to a winter set for more f/c def) It is still tempting to keep it; after all I know I can drop the Numina's from the build and it runs fine, so there's one of the two slots I want back, at least. Heh.

 

It is definitely worth running multiples of them if the slots are available.

I should clarify that my perspective is that of a HP capped non-granite tank. The heal bursts are pretty nice, but I agree once your build gels and has defenses in place they may be better used elsewhere.