Beam Rifle and Ice Shields... What to skip & Why

[Etched]

I recently made a Beam Rifle and Ice Shields (Both are a first for me).

I have a build sketched out and im  comfortable with it but I'd like a few more slots to be moved around and since the game don't give out slots after 50 (would be a good vet lvl reward). Give me a good reason to skip certain powers within the two sets. Not lookin for builds just (FRIENDLY) opinions.

 

Educate me.

 

@Etched

[Captain Fabulous]

Charged Shot and Lancer Shot in BR, Snow Storm and Frostwork in CD. Aim is also skippable if you need a fifth slot.

Edited March 14, 2023 by Captain Fabulous

[Zect]

Powers that can be skipped without losing core functionality:

 

From BR:

• Either charged or single shot. Usually skipping charged (the T2) is recommended, because single shot has a small bit of -regen when used on a disintegrating target.
• Arguably, lancer shot. It's not terrible, but non-sentinel BR has too many ST attacks and lancer is the one least necessary.
  • The snipe is the highest-DPA attack.
  • Piercing beam has -res.
  • Disintegrate is necessary for the disintegrate mechanic.
  • Lancer ends up without something to really guarantee it a spot, despite being a T3 blast that mezzes.

From cold:

• Infrigidate: -def and -rech are valuable, but you already get a good amount of them from better, aoe powers that stack with themselves, like sleet. The -dmg is fire damage only and quite niche. Still has potential as a procbombing blast on some AT's and powersets, e.g. controllers who do not get a blast from their primary.
• Snow storm: -rech, see above. Not amazing for toggle pulling since it slows movement speed. It gives -fly, but flying critters are rare and you can just, you know, shoot them dead. However, for a solo fender the combo of snow storm + sleet helps keep enemies in the sleet more effectively.
• Arguably, frostwork. +maxhp is not bad, serving the same function as resistance in increasing ehp. It's also a health/resist unique mule. However, 1) the amount is small (it's based on your HP, not the target's), 2) some AT's and powersets benefit less - accoladed blasters, for example, are often less than 300 hp from their HP cap, while sets such as invuln self-cap hp - and 3) it's ST so some people find it a hassle to keep it up on multiple targets. Coh players can barely output more than 1 fortitude at once; I doubt they will really use frostworks even if they take it. Fenders on power heavy builds (fighting + dark epic for example) may skip it.

Depending on 2ndary layout, some coldfenders cannot skip both infrigidate and snowstorm. In that case, choose which you think is better for your playstyle and target content.

[Etched]

Thanks for the help. I'll take that into consideration. I have both of those powers within my build... 

Seems like a respec is in order.

 

@Etched

[Uun]

I've got a Cold/Beam defender and agree that Snow Storm and Frostwork are skippable. (I do have Frostwork in my build, but it's the lvl 49 power and has only the base slot. The only time I use it is to buff the tank in HM content.) Infrigidate works well as a proc bomb, and also accepts the Achilles' Heel -res proc.

[Camel]

They pretty much hit the nail on the head, so basically just repeating here... Infrigidate on a Corrupter is pretty meh. If you do have the room for it, it's only real niche is the -defense debuff and to put the Achille's -res proc in it since your Corrupter blast attacks are far superior than a procced Infrigidate. I will always skip Snow Storm, I take Frostwork if I can, being able to use it as a mule for any of the Heal/Resist unique IOs is nice. 

I have a Beam/Storm Corrupter and took Lancer Shot, but they are correct in that it can be awkward within your rotation. I personally would take it if I could. It helps round out your attack chain at lower levels and can be used in rotation effectively if you view Disintegrate as more of a "debuff" than an actual attack. The damage isn't front loaded like your other powers and oftentimes I find the DoT damage being wasted on some mobs. I like to hit hard targets with Disintegrate and then use Lancer Shot in my rotation afterwards, alongside the snipe and Piercing Beam.

[GS4-Shield]

Followup question on this (and thanks to the OP for asking on this combo)

 

Is charged shot supposed to spread disintegrate?  The power text says it does, but I do not see the effect of spreading disintegration in either Mids or ingame power.  In Mids, I see it for single shot.  I am not sure how to view power details ingame when I dont have that power.

 

I respecced a 40ish beam/ice corruptor last week for the level changes for power selection, which was new to me.  I switched from single shot to charged shot as part of this and noticed a lot less DISINTEGRATE SPREAD messages afterward.  I dug into the power details to ensure charged shot is supposed to spread.  The text says yes, but I dont see any power effects listed to spread it.

I guess I could roll a new character and compare both powers ingame, but interested in thoughts from power/mechanics gurus.

 

 

[Zect]

11 minutes ago, GS4-Shield said:

Is charged shot supposed to spread disintegrate?  The power text says it does, but I do not see the effect of spreading disintegration in either Mids or ingame power.  In Mids, I see it for single shot.  I am not sure how to view power details ingame when I dont have that power.

 

The most authoritative source for power data is City of Data. Mids is hilariously inaccurate and should not be trusted for anything other than calculating enhancement values and set bonuses. In-game real numbers does not display many power details (which are sometimes displayed as "special" or just hidden altogether).

 

So you go to City of Data, and select corruptor's Charged Shot, and it displays everything the power can do, in pvp and pve, whether it is autohit, whether the caster or target needs to be near ground, etc. Looking at the list of power effects, at the bottom we can see:

 

 

This means charged shot has a 39% chance to cause a disintegrate spread, if the target it is shooting (it says "all affected targets", but charged shot is ST) has the "disintegrating" debuff (Temporary_Powers.Temporary_Powers.Beam_Rifle_Debuff).

 

The "any" means it applies in pvp and pve, and the icons on the right describe how the power stacks, whether it inherits boosts (enhancements and buffs) from the caster, etc.

 

Following the link to Pets.DisintegrateSpread.Disintegrate_Spread, we see it has the following effect:

 

 

So 1) it applies a 5.5s dot, 2) applies the "disintegrating" debuff to the targets so that they themselves can now be shot at to spread disintegrate, and 3) displays a visible effect to notify players of the debuff (because coh does not have any UI element that allows you to see enemy statuses, unlike some MMO's, so this information must be conveyed by visual effects on the target itself). The panel on the left displays more useful info:

 

 

The disintegrate spread is a 15ft sphere, so enemies can be out of range.

 

 

It is not autohit. It is a 1.8 accuracy power (most powers are 1.0, or normal accuracy) so missing is unlikely, but disintegrate spreads can miss.

 

 

A successful disintegrate spread only spreads to 3 enemies. In a  big horde the "Disintegrate spread!" text can be obscured, even though they were successfully hit.

 

Of note is the red target icon next to the chance, which shows that the main target itself is not affected. That is, if you use charged shot on a mob that is disintegrating, and it triggers a disintegrate spread, only surrounding enemies get the dot, not the one you shot with charged shot.

 

In short, cod is great. Per the site description, "Data on this site is extracted using automated tools which pull the data from files provided with the game client. Much of the data, stored in so-called "bin" files (packaged in "pigg" archive files), is shared by both the client and the game servers. While the client uses the data to display power data for players, the servers use that same data to actually run the game. Thus, what CoD displays is the actual powers data used when playing the game."

 

It displays a lot of power data that is not shown even in real numbers, such as which powers are autohit (and which parts, because many "autohit" powers have one component that is autohit and others that are not), the precise pseudopet used for many power effects, and the powers behind IO procs and uniques (all your enhancements and set bonuses are all powers in the game engine).

 

Homework assignment: does slotting the performance shifter: chance for +end proc in Storm Summoning's lightning storm give you end? Explain your answer, with reference to cod, and confirm the results with in-game testing.

 

[GS4-Shield]

Thank you for the detailed response, Zect.  I know of CoD, but usually don’t delve into the mechanics that far. I thought Mids pulled its data from CoD, but maybe I was mistaken, or the info is pulled manually on an as-needed basis.

 

Your theories about not seeing the disintegrate spread messaging due to a busy screen are probably spot-on, too.  I was watching closely for this after the prior respec, and a good time to watch this seemed to be during an ITF 🙂: there are big mobs with lots of health that I can keep plinking away at to check for disintegrate spread messaging.  It seemed like a good idea at a time.

 

Regarding your homework assignment, I am going to say: No, players won’t receive the end boost.  The proc power is flagged for players to receive the buff, and this power is created by a pet.  (I’m on an iPad, so I’m not going to try and include the nice screen shots that you did).

 

Even if the proc wasn’t flagged for players only, I still wouldn’t expect a player to receive the buff.  Maaaaybe the pet would, but pet mechanics have always been a bit wonky.  Way back on live, I dug into Controller —> Storm Summoning —> Pet stuff (Tornado?) when I had Force Feedback IO slotted and hoped the recharge would come to me.  I think the pet received at at that time… but later they updated pets to ignore any recharge bonuses so they would use the proper power order.

 

Did I pass?  Did I get any grade at all for effort?  🙂

[GS4-Shield]

For the OP and thoughts on skippable powers:

 

I agree with all the comments Zect made on March 13 (and others feedback).

 

• Obviously, either the T1 or T2 blast power is skippable.  I originally had the T1 through level 41ish, chose the T2 at the respec that prompted this post, and I’m now back to the T1.  It fits into my attack chain a bit better and has equal DPA of the T2.
• Prior to finding this post, I was considering taking the snipe and giving up Lancer shot.  It’s a fine power, but as Zect said: it’s left without a place if you take the snipe.  I think this is the first snipe on any character that I can recall.

 

From /cold, I gave up infrigidate (yay for power selection changes), kept frostworks at minimum level 16, and took Snow Storm as a single slot power at 47ish.

 

However, my first mission after my respec was the Trapdoor/Unlock Alpha arc, which I ran solo and I remembered how valuable -slow can be when solo.  Yes, I was rusty on this character and squishy characters overall, but the EBs and Rikti were a challenge.  I also wasn’t fully slotted from the respec… but my other characters would barely break a sweat at a few EBs.  

 

I don’t know how much solo time this character will have, but I will pick up snow storm again at an earlier level at the next respec.

 

I kept Frostworks at level 16 and get good use from it.  It also pairs well with Spirit Ward from the sorcery pool.  While a few ATs may be HP capped already, it adds 800+HP (level 50 numbers), which is nothing to sneeze it.  It’s not convenient, but I can toss it on someone when I see it’s up.  

 

I also have power boost on this character for power boosted shields (MORE DEF!), so when I see power boost is available I”ll hit that and refresh shields on whoever is nearby, followed by frostworks.  Maybe it would be unnoticed at cap, but frostworks and spirit ward were both very noticeable in an Ice Mistral TF I joined last night.

 

Final question for the mechanics gurus (Zect? 🙂😞

Are there any worthwhile procs for Sleet, Heat Exhaustion, and Snow Storm that I should add?  I know toggles are generally a suboptimal choice, and pseudopets are weird.  I don’t know if Sleet behaves like the /time distortion field, but my /time MM has some hold and damage procs in that and I visually see the effects often enough to be satisfying.

 

Thank you,

 

Shield

[Uun]

44 minutes ago, GS4-Shield said:

I also have power boost on this character for power boosted shields (MORE DEF!),

Cold shields can't be power boosted. They are flagged to ignore external strength boosts. 

[GS4-Shield]

19 minutes ago, Uun said:

Cold shields can't be power boosted. They are flagged to ignore external strength boosts. 

Well, darn it...  I use Power Boost with my /time MM on Farsight, and I'm pretty sure that still works.  I assumed it worked on ice shields.

 

Thanks for letting me know.

[Uun]

It does work on Farsight. The difference is that cold shields provide damage resistance in addition to defense. Anything with damage resistance is flagged to ignore boosts.