So Marine/ Water or Marine/Storm as my next alt?

[ol206]

Trying to figure which set has best synergy with Marine

[tidge]

Ultimately, I think the choice will come down to the play style and character building preferences. Water Blast will offer more instant gratification in terms of doing damage, while Storm Blast is likely to yield more damage-over-time (partially because of what Marine should be bringing to the table) for large spawns handled by solo play.

 

My opinion on which powers to skip for each secondary:

 

Water Blast

T1 Aqua Bolt, because you will take T2 Hydro Blast.

T7 Water Jet, because it is a single-target attack power that relies on too much going right to yield returns

 

Storm Blast

T1 Gust, too situational and you will take T2 Hailstones.

All the other powers work quite well as Defender attacks.

 

Personally? I would lean into Storm Blast, because of the pseudopets, the possible AoE soft controls (knockdowns) and the Damage-over-Time, and the %proc-ability of the secondary. I like Water Blast, its biggest advantage (for me) would be that I'd be focusing more on targets than geography of the battle map. Storm Blast can move critters around, which could be a disadvantage for some players.

 

[Thraxen]

I would never skip water jet. It is awesome. Can use it twice back to back. 

[tidge]

9 minutes ago, Thraxen said:

I would never skip water jet. It is awesome. Can use it twice back to back. 

 

Excellent graphics, but I found it to be a mediocre attack... and the Tidal Force (which is what allows "Enhanced Water Jet" to occur) is IMO better used on another attack.

 

For build-crafting purposes, I also don't find a late-choice non-snipe to be the best place to look for enhancement set bonuses, except to possibly swing into Winter's Bite.

[WumpusRat]

8 hours ago, tidge said:

Excellent graphics, but I found it to be a mediocre attack... and the Tidal Force (which is what allows "Enhanced Water Jet" to occur) is IMO better used on another attack.

The other powers that Tidal Force boosts are all situational.

Water Burst's boost is a guaranteed knockup, which is handy against some targets, but against some EBs and AVs, it won't work at all. Also a waste to burn a boosted attack as an aoe against a single target, typically.

Geyser has the best boosted bonus, being increased damage AND guaranteed stun, but again, against an EB/AV it might not overcome their protections, and against AVs it may just bounce off anyway with the purple triangles. Not to mention your tier-9 isn't always going to be up, and is kind of a waste against a single target unless it's the "final boss" type fight.

Dehydrate's heal portion is boosted, but not the damage portion, so using that boosted is wasted unless you desperately need to heal yourself as much as possible.

Which leaves Water Jet, which is one of your best attacks in the set for dealing with high-health targets like bosses, EBs and AVs, especially boosted as you can double-tap it rapidly.

 

Not sure why you'd want to skip that.

[tidge]

7 minutes ago, WumpusRat said:

Not sure why you'd want to skip that.

 

I tried it, and found it lacking. I also had better power options to support the playstyle I wanted, and I already had a single-target attack from the Water Blast set. The Devs did fix one problem that it used to have: consuming Tidal Power on a miss, so it is improved.... but like I wrote: it requires both the use of Tidal Power, and the first use to hit, and the second 'enhanced' use to hit in order to see benefits.... and that assumes that the player is waiting around for the stars to align for both Tidal Power and Water Jet to be ready to even consider using them... which often means trying to juggle the other attacks so as to NOT consume Tidal Power.

 

If the Enhanced Water Jet wasn't tied (tide?) to consuming Tidal Power, and was more like Arcane Bolt's "Arcane Power" effect (which is a standalone) I'd be personally less bothered by trying to juggle maximizing its potential... but without the (unreliable, and attack-chain-pacing) Enhanced effect, I felt like I was doing less DPS with Water Jet than without it. When I team with Water Blast users I keep an eye out for "ENHANCED!" and I simply have yet to see it occurring often enough for me to change my opinion.

[High_Beam]

I am running an MA/WB Defender right now at 20 but ran a WB/TIME Blaster so I know what the WB attack chain gives me.  Definitely don't take Water Jet, it always succeeded in disappointing me so I respec'd out of it.  With MA there is a whole lot of fun stuff to mesh in so you kind of have to lose a few things.  I am enjoying her play and target macros smooth out the attack chain.  I tested an MA/SB on Test but decided I wanted maximum SCOURGE fun and rolled a SB/MA Corruptor instead.

[tidge]

11 hours ago, High_Beam said:

I am running an MA/WB Defender right now at 20 but ran a WB/TIME Blaster so I know what the WB attack chain gives me.  Definitely don't take Water Jet, it always succeeded in disappointing me so I respec'd out of it. 

 

"Disappointment" is a good way to describe my experience with Water Jet. On paper, it looked like it would be a key attack for Water Blast, but in practice it always disappointed. I kept it in my build for (what turned out to be) far too long in an effort to make it work. There are a few higher-tier powers that have had similar outcome for me... sometimes using such a power a different AT can make such a power work better, but I don't think Water Jet falls into that category.

[Onlyasandwich]

35 minutes ago, tidge said:

Disappointment" is a good way to describe my experience with Water Jet

I recognize that it's strong and objectively makes my st damage better. 

 

However, I agree that it's disappointing. It just doesn't feel good to use. When it comes to it I'd rather just have the oomph of a real snipe.

[BurtHutt]

I'm running a Storm/MA and like it a lot. I took all powers for both rests except for Shoal Rush, Gust and Intensify. I am sure people think I'm nuts for not taking Intensify but I am changing up a bit and I'm starting to wonder about taking a 10s boost...

 

I have the toon softcapped for most DEF.

 

I enjoy the toon a lot but these are two busy powersets. Very clicky, great buffs and debuffs. 

 

I see some chat about Water Jet and I'll chime in. It is a let down compared to other high tier picks but I still like it and it does decent damage. Agreed, it's not awesome but it's a hard hitter.

Edited August 2 by BurtHutt