Found my Grail [personal blog/rant alert]

[nihilii]

I embarked on this quest a couple years ago. At that moment, T9-based playstyle started to appeal to me a lot.

 

I'm not talking about any T9, of course. More like the heavy crashing ones. Unstoppable, Elude, Power Surge... Well, the +def ones are a lot better than the +res ones, simply because defense is a superior mechanic in general *and* those T9s tend to come with softer crashes, nuking only your end, *and* stacking more +def is almost always useful in CoH, and only becomes moreso as updates have been progressing towards Hard Mode and similar optional difficulty increases.

This particular bit is always interesting to ponder. So much have been made of the softcap in game culture, that it is seen as the be-all end-all point to shoot for. If the opposition overwhelms you regardless, it must be that you didn't stack enough resistance and healing on top; and if you've done all you could do on that front, then your defeat is simply an act of God, a force of nature, and there is nothing to do in regards to your build.

The more I've been playing Elude builds, the more I realised how profoundly misguided the above approach is. There is so much stuff with tohitbuffs out there. You've got your incarnate enemies starting at +14% tohit, of course, and your Hard Mode foes. But beyond these base stats, many mobs out there got some fashion of tohit buffing. This goes all the way down to unassuming enemies like security guards, who are fond of activating Tactics for their brethren. Well, 45% doesn't quite floor defense anymore then, and a mere +5% tohit chance on the other side significantly changes your ability to dodge. That's the easy scenario; sometimes your opposition has Build Up or the like.

 

Then there are defense debuffs, everywhere in the game. SR specifically gets to ignore most of that, but maybe you don't want to play SR specifically - outside of Sentinels, it gives you no endurance and no healing which makes for other constraints on your build. That is to say, on anything that isn't SR, "overkill" defense acts as successful defense buffing.

 

Not to mention some defense debuffs cannot be resisted...

 

The list of benefits go on beyond defense. Elude powers give you ample recovery. This lets characters run procbombed high DPS attack chains without having to rely on Ageless for sustainability. Not only that, exemplar rules today mean the Elude power you pick at lvl 30 is available by level 25. This makes alts playable at a high performance level on a much wider range than Ageless builds.

 

Stepping away from the Ageless path also gives room to grab Barrier, which makes for excellent T9 crash management, and somewhat fills the gap between Elude cycles. An endgame build will typically have Elude on a <5 minutes recharge. That's 3 minutes of Elude and 2 minutes of Barrier.

 

Granted, I say "somewhat" because past the first 30 seconds, Barrier is giving you nowhere near the same benefit. I'm not shy about plugging the gap with inspirations and getting flexible with it. In fact, I'd say the aspect of these builds I like most is flexibility. Sometimes the opposition is *truly* overwhelming and I will use Elude AND Barrier together for absolutely absurd levels of defenses and resistances.

 

In general, I like the idea of spike survivability moreso than even performance. It's rare you face the exact same level of challenge on a flat curve from start to finish. Even the simplest of encounters starts hard as you take the hits of 2 bosses + lieuts + minions, then becomes easier as you clear these mobs out. Being able to pop a combo of Elude+Barrier for a rough total of 4 to 5 minutes is a good window to clear most archvillains 1 on 1, or to take on the 3 layered open lab room where mob groups overlap each other, or to do... whatever it is you want to do, really, with that level of survivability.

So, my favorite ATs these days are Scrappers, Tankers and Sentinels. I like power and these are the overpowered ATs (for solo play). OK, that opinion is likely controversial for the third choice. Let's sidestep the debate and focus on our meleers exclusively.

Endgame Scrappers deal so much damage with their reliable ATO-fueled crits. While Tankers can be built to be bricks with ease (partly thanks to excellent ATOs too), and enjoy ridiculous AoE radius and target caps, which is not only convenient but translates into very real damage.

The modern state of these 2 ATs is too good I have shunned Brutes entirely. They are, in my mind, straight up inferior. You can pinpoint certain areas where a Brute will be better than either a Scrapper or a Tanker, but when every aspect of a character is considered, the overall balance is not kind. Note that I am a solo player, or at least I am mostly only interested in soloing, given that I find teams so overkill the nitty gritty of individual performance ceases to matter; so that colors my perception.

But anyway, Brutes s00cks.

Which makes it all the more ironic my Holy Grail, after years of rerolls... is a Brute.

There is a simple and rational explanation here. If Brutes are bad, then why play a Brute? The only reason can be because of options not present elsewhere.

What's a strong powerset missing from Scrappers? Super Strength.
What's a strong powerset missing from Tankers? Energy Aura.

Not only either of these choices are strong in their own right. They're particularly strong given my desired playstyle. *Then* they take on a further layer of synergy together.

 

Consider this: Energy Aura is the gold standard of Elude builds, tied with Ninjitsu. You get a +def T9. You also get an endurance recovery power in Energy Drain, which if you can time well will actually trigger as you crash and leave your toggles up (in all honesty, I screw this up more often than not, and prefer to let my T9 crash and eat a blue then drain, rather than mess up ED then be left with low recovery for too long). Finally, you get a strong heal which also does +regen. You even get a fair bit of resistances on top. EA has all required bases covered.

Overload also boosts your maxHP. This aspect is often overlooked, yet the increase is significant. The boost starts at +600 HP. When you consider a standard Brute build hits about 2k HP once accolades and IOs are slotted, and the Brute HP cap of 3k2, the pieces fit neatly together. Enhancing Overload for health can bring you to the HP cap, a significant increase over the baseline. Scrappers have a much lower HP cap so would not get as much out of enhancing that aspect. A win for Brutes!

 

That first win is quickly followed by a second one. Given that I plan for Barrier anyway, this is one area where the higher resistance cap of Brutes matters. On a "normal" build, an EA Scrapper vs an EA Brute will look like ~1800hp vs ~2000hp, same resistances. Hardly a difference. On this kind of build where we look for temporary power spikes, the Scrapper will be at ~2400hp and 75% res vs ~3200hp and 90% res for the Brute. Not so similar anymore.

 

It gets better when we move to Super Strength. SS is an excellent powerset in its own right. Rage is so good it will never ever come to Scrappers in its current form. The damage is universally praised, but I think the tohit gets too little attention. Getting to operate with permanent +60% tohit (once doublestacked) removes ANY accuracy requirements for your build. You can, quite conceivably, slot 0 accuracy in your attacks and still hit 95% effective tohitchance against +4s, *before the alpha level shift* (if barely). So much more room for procs. Better yet, any accuracy you do get goes towards making your character chew through +def enemies or their own tohit debuffs. CoT ghosts, beware.

Right, but the downside of Rage is the crash. And doublestacked Rage means twice as much crashing, once per minute. Who wants to deal with -20% defense, a debuff you can't resist, on a defense build?

Elude to the rescue. When you're sporting 118% rather than 45%, it suddenly becomes a lot more palatable. Crashes are just a time to use Energy Drain, Energize, reposition, eventually throw a few attacks with procs or those veteran powers with fixed damage.

Overwhelming defense on a Rage build is honestly a gamechanger. I sometimes see opinions the crash hurts less on a resistance build, because they don't have defense to start with. However, even no defense doesn't mean enemies have 95% chance to hit you. The Rage crash still improves their chances (unless you were already under a flurry of defense debuffs).

Anyway, that is to say I've played many things with Rage, and when it comes down to handling crashes I found nothing comfier than this SS/EA. I'm not the most perceptive player either, and I sometimes will go through a couple attacks before noticing I'm actually dealing no damage. Which is a strong tell! On just about any other alt, the Rage crash would bring in so much incoming damage I would feel the pain, whereas here I can fail to notice anything is happening until I see my damage sucks.

Many other details have come together to make the build click for me.

 

Attack chain -> running a smooth Gloom/Haymaker/KO/Gloom/Haymaker/FS takes no dexterity, no effort. I can turn my brain off and deal decent DPS with AoE baked in. While I know swapping Foot Stomp for Cross Punch would do wonders, using FS (and proccing it out) gives me much greater AoE output as a passive secondary effect of my ST chain - also opens up slots and a power pick for a fully procced Dark Obliteration. This packs a punch.

There's a certain freedom to being a Brute specifically, even moreso a SS Brute, in that you know Musculature fails to be worth it. +45% damage enhancement, when you're running +160 from 2xRage, +160 from Fury, and some level of damage slotting? It just doesn't register as much as for a character who's sitting on just +95 from damage enhancements and the occasional Build Up.

 

Without the burden of Musculature, we're free to explore all other options. Cardiac and Vigor are always great choices to help reign in endurance consumption of procced out builds. For my build Vigor is particularly helpful to crank up +maxHP in Overload, and +regen and healing in Energize. Also great to have more "superfluous" accuracy, lets me punch through enemies trying to tease *their* version of Elude - not on my watch, pal.

Hardly exclusive to SS+EA specifically, would work with just about any SS Brute, but I think of temp powers more and more too. SS Brutes get an excellent deal here: Fury boosts the damage of these temps, ditto with 2xRage, and 2xRage also provides the tohit we need to use these temps without missing. Envenomed Dagger is praised for its -regen. It's also a 160 base damage attack that animates in 1.2s and recharges in 6s. That's KO blow level! So, yeah: throw in the aforementioned self damage boosts, you're looking at >600 DPA and you can carry 300 of the things.

Gabriel's Hammer is no slouch either. At 207 base damage, this is a ~870 hit when all is said and done. Its slower animation makes it roughly comparable in DPA to normal attacks, and the absence of endurance slotting + KB effect less desirable, but it can serve as a good filler in some unusual situations.

As a solo player, Hand Grenade and Plasmatic Taser can also carry your AoE damage when exemplared before Foot Stomp is available.

So, yeah. That's about it for my rant. Thanks for reading my blog. Been having a lot of fun with this one character, and it seems amusing as a notorious poo-pooer of Brutes I've been forced to admit my Brute is my favorite alt ever. 🥰

[Snarky]

Back on live, in the mists of time, before incarnates...   I ran a Dark Melee/Invulnerability Brute based on concepts of a smart community board writer.  This was a very high recharge build that used T9 Unstoppable.  And it worked.  To mitigate the crash there are inspirations and/or Dull Pain and Dark Consumption.  It works, and it works well. 

 

I remember a Barracuda Strike Force vividly.  Two team wipes on the Reichsman fight at the end.  Except my Brute.  Who held the room and kept fighting, Reichsman and all.  Cycling through Unstoppable when it was up, building inspirations during that 3 minutes, then weathering the crash and fighting for a couple minutes without Unstoppable.  Then back into Unstoppable.  It was a significant chunk of time for them all to come back from the hospital.  Twice.

 

 

[Bionic_Flea]

4 hours ago, nihilii said:

SS Brutes get an excellent deal here: Fury boosts the damage of these temps, ditto with 2xRage, and 2xRage also provides the tohit we need to use these temps without missing

 

Wait . . . fury and rage boosts the damage of temp powers?  I thought they were all set to ignore +dam?  Is it all temps or certain ones?

 

I've only played one SS tank and one EA scrapper.  I think I might have to take a drink from your grail.

[Glacier Peak]

This is a topic I similarly approached with Night Widows. Love using Elude after rezzing if the +4 AV gets their lucky 5% window. 

 

 

Edit: Oh that was you @nihilii I had a discussion with about Elude lol

Edited September 3, 2023 by Glacier Peak

[nihilii]

11 minutes ago, Bionic_Flea said:

 

Wait . . . fury and rage boosts the damage of temp powers?  I thought they were all set to ignore +dam?  Is it all temps or certain ones?

 

I've only played one SS tank and one EA scrapper.  I think I might have to take a drink from your grail.

In my understanding, Veteran Powers like Blackwand, Nemesis Staff, Sands of Mu... ignore +dam (and -dam, so they're great during Rage crash), but temp powers like Envenomed Dagger, Gabriel's Hammer, or the consumables you get here and there, benefit in full from +dam.

I *could* be offbase, especially in my numbers, which are theorycraft. This seems right anecdotally, eyeballing it, but I have never tested it precisely to be sure this checks out.

Edited September 3, 2023 by nihilii

[Bionic_Flea]

Confirmed.  My double stacked rage Envenomed Dagger did almost 800 damage on a level 50 Succubus!  About 235 plain, without any rage.  I never knew!

[Captain Fabulous]

30 minutes ago, nihilii said:

In my understanding, Veteran Powers like Blackwand, Nemesis Staff, Sands of Mu... ignore +dam (and -dam, so they're great during Rage crash), but temp powers like Envenomed Dagger, Gabriel's Hammer, or the consumables you get here and there, benefit in full from +dam.

I *could* be offbase, especially in my numbers, which are theorycraft. This seems right anecdotally, eyeballing it, but I have never tested it precisely to be sure this checks out.

This is correct. Most temp powers are affected by damage modifiers. The 4 vet powers are the exception.

[Without_Pause]

On the flip side, I have three EA characters with two at 50 and one at 45, and I have yet to take the T9. I just got off a team with an absolute piece of work of a lead running level 45 Malta  missions at +4. The lead is calling people who leave due to the pace or being killed derogatory terms. They say they want to be the one who goes in first since they area tank. Challenge accepted. Eventually all hell breaks loose and people are dying left and right. I think the lead gets saved by leveling, but eventually falls. Literally the team wipes outside of myself. I'm holding down multiple bosses, and eventually through sheer will we get through the mob. I was out after the mission, and all I wanted to do was get out of there clean. I fell due to the layout and a Sapper getting enough of a clean shot. Man, that pissed me off more than it should have, but when the complete a-hole of a lead is ranting about how I was in error, well, yeah. Still, standing toe-to-toe with all of the Malta bosses waiting for the tank to come back from the hospital and holding the fort down with not much movement on my end all things considered was glorious. 

[Sovera]

*whispers* Fire Armor4life.

[Bionic_Flea]

This is what I came up with in the new and improved Mids.  Any pointers oh Grail-Master?

Spoiler

Entropic Flea - Hero Brute

Build plan made with Mids' Reborn v3.6.5 rev. 5
──────────────────────────────

• Primary powerset: Super Strength
• Secondary powerset: Energy Aura
• Pool powerset (#1): Leaping
• Pool powerset (#2): Fighting
• Pool powerset (#3): Speed
• Pool powerset (#4): Leadership
• Epic powerset: Soul Mastery
  

──────────────────────────────

Powers taken:

Level 1: Punch

• A: Superior Brute's Fury: Accuracy/Damage
• 11: Superior Brute's Fury: Damage/Recharge
• 11: Superior Brute's Fury: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• 13: Superior Brute's Fury: Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
• 15: Superior Brute's Fury: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• 25: Superior Brute's Fury: Recharge/Fury Bonus
  

Level 1: Dampening Field

• A: Steadfast Protection: Resistance/+Def 3%
• 3: Gladiator's Armor: TP Protection +3% Def (All)
• 3: Gladiator's Armor: Resistance
  

Level 2: Haymaker

• A: Superior Unrelenting Fury: Accuracy/Damage
• 15: Superior Unrelenting Fury: Damage/RechargeTime
• 17: Superior Unrelenting Fury: Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime
• 17: Superior Unrelenting Fury: Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
• 19: Superior Unrelenting Fury: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
• 19: Superior Unrelenting Fury: RechargeTime/+Regen/+End
  

Level 4: Kinetic Shield

• A: Shield Wall: Defense/Endurance
• 5: Shield Wall: Defense
• 5: Shield Wall: +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All)
• 9: Shield Wall: Defense/Endurance/Recharge
• 46: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
  

Level 6: Power Shield

• A: Reactive Defenses: Defense/Endurance
• 7: Reactive Defenses: Defense
• 7: Reactive Defenses: Scaling Resist Damage
• 9: Reactive Defenses: Defense/Endurance/RechargeTime
• 45: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
  

Level 8: Knockout Blow

• A: Nucleolus Exposure
• 21: Touch of Death: Chance of Damage(Negative)
• 21: Ghost Widow's Embrace: Chance of Damage(Psionic)
• 23: Gladiator's Net: Chance of Damage(Lethal)
• 23: Unbreakable Constraint: Chance for Smashing Damage
• 25: Hecatomb: Chance of Damage(Negative)
  

Level 10: Entropic Aura

• A: Perfect Zinger: Chance for Psi Damage
• 29: Invention: Endurance Reduction
  

Level 12: Combat Jumping

• A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• 13: Kismet: Accuracy +6%
  

Level 14: Boxing

• A: Crushing Impact: Accuracy/Damage
  

Level 16: Energy Protection

• A: Aegis: Resistance
• 31: Aegis: Resistance/Recharge
• 31: Aegis: Psionic/Status Resistance
• 31: Aegis: Resistance/Endurance
  

Level 18: Rage

• A: Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control: Chance for Build Up
• 33: D-Sync Deceleration
  

Level 20: Energy Cloak

• A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• 33: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Endurance
• 33: Luck of the Gambler: Defense
  

Level 22: Tough

• A: Unbreakable Guard: Resistance
• 34: Unbreakable Guard: Resistance/Endurance
• 34: Unbreakable Guard: Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime
• 34: Unbreakable Guard: +Max HP
  

Level 24: Energy Drain

• A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• 36: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Endurance/Recharge
• 36: Luck of the Gambler: Defense
  

Level 26: Foot Stomp

• A: Nucleolus Exposure
• 36: Perfect Zinger: Chance for Psi Damage
• 37: Eradication: Chance for Energy Damage
• 37: Explosive Strike: Chance for Smashing Damage
• 37: Force Feedback: Chance for +Recharge
• 39: Armageddon: Chance for Fire Damage
  

Level 28: Energize

• A: Preventive Medicine: Heal
• 39: Preventive Medicine: Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance
• 39: Preventive Medicine: Chance for +Absorb
• 40: Preventive Medicine: Heal/RechargeTime
  

Level 30: Overload

• A: Red Fortune: Endurance/Recharge
• 40: Red Fortune: Defense/Recharge
• 40: Red Fortune: Defense/Endurance/Recharge
  

Level 32: Weave

• A: Red Fortune: Defense/Endurance
• 42: Red Fortune: Defense
• 42: Red Fortune: Defense/Endurance/Recharge
  

Level 35: Gloom

• A: Superior Winter's Bite: Accuracy/Damage
• 42: Superior Winter's Bite: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• 43: Superior Winter's Bite: Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime
• 43: Cloud Senses: Chance for Negative Energy Damage
• 43: Gladiator's Javelin: Chance of Damage(Toxic)
• 45: Apocalypse: Chance of Damage(Negative)
  

Level 38: Super Speed

• A: Celerity: +Stealth
  

Level 41: Hasten

• A: Invention: Recharge Reduction
• 45: Invention: Recharge Reduction
  

Level 44: Darkest Night

• A: Enzyme Exposure
  

Level 47: Dark Obliteration

• A: Superior Frozen Blast: Accuracy/Damage
• 48: Superior Frozen Blast: Damage/Endurance
• 48: Superior Frozen Blast: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• 48: Positron's Blast: Chance of Damage(Energy)
• 50: Javelin Volley: Chance of Damage(Lethal)
• 50: Bombardment: Chance for Fire Damage
  

Level 49: Summon Widow

• A: Expedient Reinforcement: Accuracy/Damage
• A: Expedient Reinforcement: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• A: Expedient Reinforcement: Endurance/Damage/Recharge
• 50: Expedient Reinforcement: Damage/Endurance
  

──────────────────────────────

Inherents:

Level 1: Brawl

• (Empty)
  

Level 1: Fury

Level 1: Sprint

• (Empty)
  

Level 2: Rest

• (Empty)
  

Level 1: Swift

• A: Invention: Run Speed
  

Level 1: Health

• A: Panacea: +Hit Points/Endurance
• 27: Numina's Convalesence: +Regeneration/+Recovery
  

Level 1: Hurdle

• A: Invention: Jumping
  

Level 1: Stamina

• A: Performance Shifter: Chance for +End
• 27: Power Transfer: EndMod
• 29: Power Transfer: Chance to Heal Self
  

Level 38: Speed Phase

 

 

 

Edited September 3, 2023 by Bionic_Flea

[nihilii]

My Mids 3.5.5 is a bit buggy and crashes when I try to forum export or update, but your build is very close to mine! (love the Gloom slotting, almost 1:1 with mine)

Tomorrow, I'll give 3.6.5 a go on a separate install so it doesn't brick my (otherwise) working Mids and export it. Along with another humongous wall of text about slotting choices and tradeoffs considered, maybe...

[Without_Pause]

I have already grabbed the new version of Mids with no real issue once it is installed.

[nihilii]

3.6.5 is broken on my machine and won't even load. Oh well. 😪

[Hyperstrike]

Than's for alerting to the update


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[Hyperstrike]

Exporting the data chunk works.

Exporting to InfoGraphic or Mobile doesn't.

[nihilii]

I don't get the option to do either, it gives me a blank window on "Share Build".

In general the newer versions of Mids seem to have some problems on non-US computers (looking at github issues).

[Frosticus]

I've never taken too close of a look at /ea, but I really like what you are doing. 

The huge hp spike and psi def of overload is reason enough to utilize it imo.

 

As for Ninjitsu (scrapper/sentinel) version specifically, I've always assumed people that suggest retsu is a skip are just parroting misinformation picked up here/discord. 

 

I mean the set gives you three tools that you are taking anyway to make the end crash a small speed bump, rather than a significant obstacle.

 

1. Click mez protection- no chance of randomly getting mezzed when your end crashes. 

2. Auto power with kb protection. Similar to #1, no risk of being knocked down during the crash and being killed.

3. This one is pretty major. Ryoyo (+end power) costs 0 endurance to activate and needs no targets. 

 

The set puts you in a position to get thru the crash with no inspirations and continues to give some important protections during it.

 

Hopping back, hitting kyoyo and retoggling takes like 7 seconds. There are workable strategies to never even disengage too, like barrier tanking, which you mention.

 

I dont personally use barrier on my em/nin scrap, but that's only because Clarion radial + retsu is one of the silliest things you can do.

 

Edit: ET also costs 0 end, which just begs you to keep going through the crash. 

 

 

Edited September 5, 2023 by Frosticus

[nihilii]

1 hour ago, Frosticus said:

Edit: ET also costs 0 end, which just begs you to keep going through the crash. 

For real. There is nothing sweeter than landing that killing blow right as you crash. My own fav /nin (meleer) is also EM/nin, you laid out why exactly.

 

The balance is interesting between /EA and /nin in that /EA gives you more straight power and of the same kind, so it can feel like a "waste" to go /nin - but then, /nin affords a level of convenience that is simply unparalleled and translates into real performance.

I never thought about Clarion Radial, that's a cool tip! I assume the main idea here is it boosts Retsu's running speed and defense for the whole duration?

 

[Frosticus]

9 minutes ago, nihilii said:

I never thought about Clarion Radial, that's a cool tip! I assume the main idea here is it boosts Retsu's running speed and defense for the whole duration?

 

Yes exactly. Retsu is like crack, but clarion boosted Retsu is some kind of crack that the gods would use.

Clarion works with most of the /nin set pretty well and boosts my stuns too.

 

Mine is a speedster concept, so I just kind of went all in on that idea (which means my proc damage is almost nil)

Retsu's unsuppressed speed is already great, but w/ clarion it puts you right up near the speed cap. 

I actually laugh when AV's start running away (which they definitely do!). I feel like the Flash catching up to them. 

[Without_Pause]

I forgot I have a Sent with EA, Scrapper version has been posted in its forum, but I need to do some tweaks on it after having my Brute get nearly to 50. Here's the current Brute version which is slightly different than what I have in game, but I'll likely wait until 50 to switch. In terms of grail Brutes, it is this or my Ice/stone, but I don't have that build on this PC, and no, I don't use the T9 there either. 😄

 

PS. No Accolades or Incarnates. Energy Drain is factored in. 

 

Without Remorse - Brute (Claws - Energy Aura).mbd

[ashenlost]

Geez talk about feeding my altaholism

[BossBriquet]

On 9/18/2023 at 2:20 AM, ashenlost said:

Geez talk about feeding my altaholism

Totally agree.

 

With that said, I'm bumping this thread in hopes that we get to see this "Grail" (build) or  at least hear of its accolades

[nihilii]

I was still in this awkward Mids state when it comes to sharing: broken export on current install, new version won't install.

But! Fortunately your post made me check again, and it looks like 3.6.6.3 works better. At least, well enough to post a build data chunk:
 

Spoiler

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The attack chain against a single target is meant to be Gloom Haymaker KO Gloom Haymaker Footstomp. Dark Obliteration + Punch or utilities (Rage, Hasten, Energize) can replace Footstomp every 2 cycles.

As for achievements, I'm mostly enjoying "slow" play these days. So, hardly pushing the envelope.

 

The character is peak comfort, she's not alphashifted yet but I still typically play her on +4/x8 against any faction and I hardly use inspirations (whereas my usual builds tend to have a steady diet of pills in the same situation).

 

There is truly a particular dynamic in combining stacked Rage, heavy procs, and overkill defense. All the benefits and almost none of the drawbacks.

 

Well, ok, it's more like we end up having to manage a big crash every 5 minutes rather than every minute.🙂

 

But it's a tradeoff that works for me!

As you would expect this build handles all the stuff a "typical" Elude build does nicely, like Devouring Earth crystal buffs, praetorians and their innate higher base tohit + tohitbuffs, Rularuu eyeballs... With resistances and extra HP, it also takes on much more punishment than my usual Elude builds. A lucky couple of hits can't bring me down here. There's always time to react and adapt.

 

I'm thinking of Malta, for example. I find many of my builds eventually buckle under firewhen facing 2-3 groups at once, whether several Titans bringing out the pain or Malta Gunslinger bosses hitting a little bit too often. Grail Lady? She will wade in that 3-layered lab room on +4, and with some work, she will come out on top.

She also took on the Crimson Prototype in a "master of" (no incarnates) multiboxing setup, with great results (as hoped for, but not necessarily expected). Combo of high maxHP to eat those -HP debuffs, Energy Drain to sap back the end it drains, resistances to take a few hits. This AV inflicts so many effects it tends to get my tank characters one way or another, here this felt comparatively smoother.

Still in love with the build. I feed my altitis by multiboxing, playing her through arcs with a couple other accounts doorsitting. These poor guys get leveled and replaced as new ideas replace the previous ones, while the Brute stays.

[nihilii]

Grail Gal got a quick tuneup with I27p7.

With Gloom recharge increasing from 12s to 16s, the good old Gloom Haymaker KO Gloom Haymaker Footstomp is no more.

On the other hand, we get faster holds now, recharging in 24s rather than 32s. Given that KO Blow is also a 25s recharge power *and* holds as well, there are obvious synergies there.

I'm not the biggest fan of Cross Punch, but it fills the obvious gap. Haymaker CP KO Haymaker CP (epic hold) is an easy chain, and I like easy.

Now for the particular epic to choose. Given that all I needed was a standard ST hold, the new Dark epic was the most interesting choice. Tar Patch! On a melee AT!

When the public beta came, I thought no way this will go through testing unscathed. In the end it looks like we are getting it unscathed. I'm still in disbelief. Almost -20% res, almost perma, and in a 15 feet PBAoE.

I put the girl through the gauntlet of a blind 2* LGTF, and she did honorably for herself. Could work through groups at an OK pace with the T9 up.

 

Pylon testing gives better DPS numbers than before - which would be expected, with Cross Punch + Tar Patch. Nothing stellar, we're in the 350 DPS range. Enough to work through a normal lvl 54 AV at least.

All in all, as enjoyable as ever. Losing Gloom was worrisome initially. I considered tweaking everything for recharge to keep the Old Ways alive. Alas, the recharge requirements were unreasonable. So one must embrace change.

 

This new version feels right. We lose some on AoE output ( -dark oblit) and debuffing ( -darkest night), we win some on force multiplier ( +tar patch) and hold magnitude ( +petrifying gaze).

 

Spoiler

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