Psychic/TA advice

[Agorazium]

Hello! I recently rerolled one of my old toons to Psy/TA. I haven't played either set since their reworks so I'm a little confused about how to slot them now, and could use some help! 

 

The L22 power slot is empty because I'm not sure what the optimal ST attack chain for Psy/ is these days. I'm assuming the snipe is the best option? but I could also fit Ice Arrow in there and have another proc bomb and hold to stack with Dominate. My second main question is whether I should be slotting so many procs, or if I'm better off slotting for damage considering how much -res TA puts out now.

 

The ranged defense is lower than I'd like, but between Flash Arrow's -tohit and Psy/'s long range I'm really not getting hit much. 

 

My apologies, I don't know how to share builds the old-fashioned way with the new Mids.
View This Build In MRB

Edited July 4, 2023 by Agorazium

[Agorazium]

I realize after scouring the internet for builds that this is a pretty rare combo! It's a lot of fun so far, currently L46 and mostly IOd. Here is an updated build that drops Fighting; losing the S/L resistance hurts, but this build's endurance economy is horrible. Trick Arrow is a fantastic set, but a downside of half the powers being 1-slot wonders is high endurance costs. I think it would be doable if I went Cardiac for my alpha but I am really wanting Musculature since Psy's damage isn't quite top-tier.

 

For anyone wanting to min-max this combo, I think the optimal attack chain would probably include the Snipe. With a less end-heavy secondary I would've left Mental Blast with 1 slot and gone that route, but I just couldn't afford to spam it. I experimented with the reworked Scramble Minds but it's still pretty terrible, with a slow travel time and significantly reduced splash damage making it a poor choice in both ST and AOE situations.

 

[/img]
View This Build In MRB

 

 

[Psyonico]

For some reason, I can't open your build... I'm just getting an "about:blank" page.  Can you throw the file itself into a post so I can look at it? I don't know much about Psi blast, but TA is one of my all time favorite sets, so I can certainly try to help on that end.

 

As for TA, there's a pretty darn good guide by @KaizenSoze located here 

 

 

[KaizenSoze]

14 hours ago, Psyonico said:

For some reason, I can't open your build... I'm just getting an "about:blank" page.  Can you throw the file itself into a post so I can look at it? I don't know much about Psi blast, but TA is one of my all time favorite sets, so I can certainly try to help on that end.

 

As for TA, there's a pretty darn good guide by @KaizenSoze located here 

 

Ah sucks thank you.

[KaizenSoze]

19 hours ago, Agorazium said:

I realize after scouring the internet for builds that this is a pretty rare combo! It's a lot of fun so far, currently L46 and mostly IOd. Here is an updated build that drops Fighting; losing the S/L resistance hurts, but this build's endurance economy is horrible. Trick Arrow is a fantastic set, but a downside of half the powers being 1-slot wonders is high endurance costs. I think it would be doable if I went Cardiac for my alpha but I am really wanting Musculature since Psy's damage isn't quite top-tier.

 

For anyone wanting to min-max this combo, I think the optimal attack chain would probably include the Snipe. With a less end-heavy secondary I would've left Mental Blast with 1 slot and gone that route, but I just couldn't afford to spam it. I experimented with the reworked Scramble Minds but it's still pretty terrible, with a slow travel time and significantly reduced splash damage making it a poor choice in both ST and AOE situations.

 

[/img]
View This Build In MRB

 

 

Here is my take on TA/psi. I looked over your build and here is my obsessive option of how I would build it.

• More defense, this is a complicated point. Yes, Flash arrow is amazing, but due to all the patches TA lays down you will be taking fire from non-debuffed mobs often. Especially, in any chaotic pulling environment.
• You will need Ageless at 50 to handle the end drain. Unless you slot a lot of end redx and take Cardiac
  • Since, you're trying to proc a lot. You are definitely going to need Ageless.
• I think Psychic Scream is a horrible power. Cast time is too long, damage is too low. Swap it out for Psionic Lance.
• Scrambled Minds is a really odd power. IMO it takes to long to take effect, but if the mobs are clumped up it's really nice. Take this over Psychic Scream.

As food for thought, here are my TA/Storm and TA/Beam defenders. Both can solo 4x8 most mob groups.
 

Defender (Trick Arrow - Storm Blast).mbd Defender - Trick Arrow - Beam Rifle.mxd

[Agorazium]

On 7/7/2023 at 3:35 PM, Psyonico said:

For some reason, I can't open your build... I'm just getting an "about:blank" page.  Can you throw the file itself into a post so I can look at it? I don't know much about Psi blast, but TA is one of my all time favorite sets, so I can certainly try to help on that end.

 

As for TA, there's a pretty darn good guide by @KaizenSoze located here 

 

 

Weird! I'll try to attach it and see if that works. I did use @KaizenSoze's guide as a reference 🙂

 

7 hours ago, KaizenSoze said:

Here is my take on TA/psi. I looked over your build and here is my obsessive option of how I would build it.

• More defense, this is a complicated point. Yes, Flash arrow is amazing, but due to all the patches TA lays down you will be taking fire from non-debuffed mobs often. Especially, in any chaotic pulling environment.
• You will need Ageless at 50 to handle the end drain. Unless you slot a lot of end redx and take Cardiac
  • Since, you're trying to proc a lot. You are definitely going to need Ageless.
• I think Psychic Scream is a horrible power. Cast time is too long, damage is too low. Swap it out for Psionic Lance.
• Scrambled Minds is a really odd power. IMO it takes to long to take effect, but if the mobs are clumped up it's really nice. Take this over Psychic Scream.

As food for thought, here are my TA/Storm and TA/Beam defenders. Both can solo 4x8 most mob groups.
 

Defender (Trick Arrow - Storm Blast).mbd 43.4 kB · 0 downloads Defender - Trick Arrow - Beam Rifle.mxd 4.89 kB · 0 downloads

 

Dropping Tough/Weave and slotting for a teensy bit more recovery has actually solved the end issues! For the most part at least. I really wanted Clarion but may end up building Ageless for content that is light on mezzes. I'm hoping the Support Hybrid end discount will be the final piece of the puzzle. I also picked up Stealth in my most recent respec which has all but eliminated any accidental aggro issues.

 

Psychic Scream's animation time was reduced in the most recent patch so it's now the same as Tornado's, with similar damage but a lower end cost. On a melee/range hybrid I would drop it but since I stay in one spot at range most of the time, I'm happy with what it brings to the table. It also seems to proc better than Tornado which ends up whiffing entire groups if I select the wrong initial target.

 

That TA/BR build is beastly. I do prefer a little more recharge over pure defenses on TA though. It looked a little light on recharge at first but I see that your OSA and EMP recharges are not much higher than mine...I may have to do some retuning to squeeze out higher defense. 

 

Thank you both for the input!

Psymoth - no Fighting.mbd

Edited July 8, 2023 by Agorazium
I said rifle twice

[Psyonico]

There we go, now I can see it.

 

I personally like to build for both Ranged and AoE defense with Recharge as a secondary factor on my TAs.  That being said, I was on that Maria team with you yesterday and you were surviving a lot better than I was (I was on the Illusion/Poison) but I also was not level 50.  You've got a bunch of net recovery, so I'm kind of surprised you're still having endurance issues, though that's probably because of the high-recharge focus as well.

 

You might try copying the character over to the test server and see if Support Hybrid clears the end issue, then you don't have to worry about using salvage for something that might not fix it to begin with.

 

The big thing I see if your accuracy in Acid Arrow is nonexistent.  If you don't plan on fighting higher than +1s, that's not a problem, but at +3 you only have a  73.3% chance to hit.  Since that's your major source of -defense, it's worth investing in an accuracy slot.  I'd probably take a slot out of Stamina to do that, as 4 slotting it is pretty overkill for the benefit you get.