Revamping my old Traps/Beam for the latest updates

[Onlyasandwich]

Hi folks!

 

I've been slowly revisiting a few builds impacted by the last page update as I find inspiration, and this guy is the latest round.

 

I'd love some input on final tweaks, as well as your perspective on the current state of epic power pools in general. Previously this guy ran Electric Mastery mostly for the superior damage types in the armor, with power sink as a backup for end. However, Temporal Bomb takes some end pressure off, and I feel like the current build gets by just fine without additional end support, so would like more utility out of my epic.

 

What I've gone for:

• Softcap Melee and Ranged
• Proc optimized attacks where there's an interesting baseline to leverage.
• Slow resist.
• Max hit chance against +3's.
• Stack as much recharge and S/L resist as I can find without sacrificing the above.

 

Slotting questions:

• I have a couple clear flex slots (2nd in triage, 5th in maneuvers). They both feel pretty solid, but perhaps you see a better place where they could add great value?
• Of special note would be the potential of swapping one or both to a 4th Shield wall and/or a 6th Ragnarok for the exotic resists. However, they're mostly for resists that have low baseline totals, so relatively low impact.
• @Psyonico mentioned trying the overwhelming kd proc in acid mortar for the flat 20% kd chance. Has anyone tested this? Sounds like it could be meaningful secondary mitigation.

 

Power questions:

• Do you see other epic opportunities with great benefit? I like that I get very clear utility out of every Dark Mastery power here, and nothing is purely a mule. Stun stacking with Lancer and Overcharge is hard to pass up, especially with no extra animation time.
• I tried Psi mastery initially, hoping that the new TK would be fun. However, I found the epic version to be super trashy garbage. I don't understand why they had to hit it so hard! Double the recharge, half the targets, and half the radius of the Mind Control power. I know it shouldn't be full power, but it's just too much. What is your experience with this power? Have you found good uses?
• I have grown to greatly dislike cutting beam over the years. Just unsatisfying dpa even procced, and a narrow cone. Do you feel this is misguided?
• Am I alone in thinking Defender epics in general are pretty lacking outside of the armors these days, unless you really want a melee attack? I understand they may be doing further epic passes later on now that they've normalized some things - looking forward to it!

 

Note that procs are disabled in charged shot to avoid ffback skewing.

 

Build:

Defender (Traps - Beam Rifle).mbd

 

Chunk:

Spoiler

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Edited May 19 by Onlyasandwich

[Onlyasandwich]

I went ahead and finalized things for now, and thought I'd share my update.

 

I did try the Overwhelming KD proc in Acid Mortar, and decided it was pretty decent value. Not a game changer, but enough passive mitigation to be worth a slot - at least moreso than the remaining sets available to me. Probably the closest second place was capping out my slow resist with a brawl mule, but the expense tipped it in favor of the proc this time. : )

 

Here it is for posterity. If anyone digs in and has feedback, still appreciated of course!

Defender (Traps - Beam Rifle).mbd

 

I put it through its paces on a +4X8 S/L farm, and it has zero issues as long as I pay a little attention. This is a little surprising, as defense based builds without DDR tend to fare poorly in this environment. However, the baseline resists and extra -tohit from Seekers, along with a trickle from Triage beacon goes a surprisingly long way.