Fire melee question

[Thraxen]

I’ve got a cool concept for fire/shield. Question is, would I be hurting myself too much not taking any of the sword attacks?  Including fire sword circle. Planning on trying new psy master for snipe and the end power. Maybe going fire for some sweet fireball action.  Haven’t settled on ancillary yet. 
 

I would think the ST would be great but lacking in AOE of course. 
 

thoughts?

[Yomo Kimyata]

I’ve been able to make it work for Ice Melee, but not for Fire Melee.  Although I haven’t really tried for Fire Melee.  I hate the look of the element swords, but they seem integral for Fire.

[Duckbutler]

I didn't care for the look of the sword attacks either until I found a concept where they worked. And I feel like that should be easy if you're pairing it with shield! Your only AoE without Fire Sword Circle would be Breath of Fire. That attack has become my universally skipped power on all my fire attack sets because lining up the cone hasn't been worth the hassle. Feels good when it works but often ends up hitting like 1 guy.

 

Here's what I had on the set from a tanker PoV, so it's plus one AoE attack and minus one ST attack. Enhancement slotting is kinda theoretical, trying to approximate what you might get from a set. I plug real numbers in once I'm looking at a real build. The ratio of the attacks within the set should be the same, though, and the missing ST attack (Cremate) fits in between Scorch and Fire Sword. Someone pulling this out of Mids would be better, I know I had an error and a deficiency in my calc for one of the DoTs, which are the attacks you'd be leaning into.

 

 

I think you'd be cutting out your best attacks, one of which is the best by a mile. Might be okay if you're supplementing from the epic pools, I don't know.

 

Edit: Oh. This cut out the line with the global recharge, which IS in these formulas and was at 70% for that particular character.

Edited April 1 by Duckbutler

[InvaderStych]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. You'd miss out on a few slotting opportunities that the -defense from the swords give, and you'd be short on AoE other than Charge - but that's about it. You might not have the numerical optimal chain going, but the Epic Snipe will do some heavy lifting in that department anyway.

 

Concept is King, imo, and if you've got something you really enjoy you'll get better performance out of it than you will something optimal that doesn't push your gamer buttons. Roll you're concept, slot it to the gills, and enjoy yourself. This game absolutely lends itself to that.

[Duckbutler]

I personally rarely take attack powers from the epic pools specifically because they're so limited in scope and theme they're often at odds with the primary attack set. For some characters like the wizard, he's an f'ing wizard and he should have a diverse range of abilities! My timecop, she's a brawler and the only thing supernatural about her is her place on the timeline has been distorted. It doesn't make sense for her to suddenly shoot fireballs or snipe.

 

Some of the attacks are also just disappointing compared to their primary pool counterparts. Fireball is an amazing power from the blast set but from from the epic pools has twice the cooldown. Then there's stuff like Gloom and Ston leaning heavily on that for his tanker pylon tests. I get why, but it feels bad.

[Sovera]

What AoE would you be having without Fire Sword Circle? Fire Breath is utter trash. if you're okay only having Shield Charge and Fire Breath then go for it.

[biostem]

8 hours ago, Thraxen said:

I’ve got a cool concept for fire/shield

Could you tell us more what, specifically, you need or want out of fire melee?  Maybe there's another set that could be colored to be fire-like, whilst still proving effective powers without the sword attacks?

[Duckbutler]

Could the concept work as a dominator without the shield powers? Fiery assault is pretty "fire melee without the swords."

[Thraxen]

Thanks to MS went from 33-50+ real quick. Only done one tin mage at 50 but went great. Three melee are plenty. Aoe a bit light with just fireball and shield charge but it’s good enough.