Knockdown for Survivabilily?

[Flat Line]

I’ve tried Energy drain with blasters and it starts to not work around level 40. Enemies often just regain too quickly.

 

What about knockdown on scrappers?

How does it hold up late game or vs +4 x8?

 

I was thinking Battle Axe / Bio,

 

Any other Scrapper Knockdown set recommendations?

Maybe with IOs?

[SeraphimKensai]

Knockdown is a form of damage mitigation through gives you some breathing room, and fuel for more DPS if you are using FF procs.

 

When you say that energy drain started not to work? I'm curious what difficulty your facing and what slotting you have.

Edited September 22 by SeraphimKensai

[Flat Line]

The to hits weren’t an issue. 
 

I was combining Short Circuit, Power Sink, and if they had any End left: One Ball Lightning would get the last bit.

 

Powers were IO’d with End drain (except Ball Lightning for Damage).

 

All that was pretty good until about 40s

[SeraphimKensai]

2 minutes ago, Flat Line said:

The to hits weren’t an issue. 
 

I was combining Short Circuit, Power Sink, and if they had any End left: One Ball Lightning would get the last bit.

 

Powers were IO’d with End drain (except Ball Lightning for Damage).

 

All that was pretty good until about 40s

Ah I was confused thing you were talking about a character with /Energy Aura her in the scrapper subforum as there's a power called Energy Drain but I guess you were talking about a blaster.

[Flat Line]

7 minutes ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Ah I was confused thing you were talking about a character with /Energy Aura her in the scrapper subforum as there's a power called Energy Drain but I guess you were talking about a blaster.

Ah, yeah..

Sorry… blaster comment in a scrapper forum.

I wanted to see what a high end scrapper solution to damage mitigation is.

 

First thoughts is that knockdown would really help from getting overwhelmed.

 

But, at higher levels/difficulties is everything resistant to it?

[Uun]

In addition to Battle Axe, Stone Melee and War Mace are quite good for knockdown. 

 

The key to using end drain effectively is to maintain -recovery on your targets after you drain them. For Electric Blast, this means Short Circuit (100% for 10s), Tesla Cage (100% for 8s) and Thunderous Blast (100% for 20s). [The Shock mechanic gives your other attacks 40% for 5s and Power Sink has a 30% chance of 100% for 4s.]

[roleki]

21 hours ago, Flat Line said:

I’ve tried Energy drain with blasters and it starts to not work around level 40. Enemies often just regain too quickly.

 

What about knockdown on scrappers?

How does it hold up late game or vs +4 x8?

 

I was thinking Battle Axe / Bio,

 

Any other Scrapper Knockdown set recommendations?

Maybe with IOs?

There are many high level enemies that are resistant to KB/KD but minions and lieutenants are usually susceptible, even at +4.  I have a Battle Axe/Shield scrapper that gets a lot of mileage out of KD; I also get decent KD mileage out of Spines/Bio with (can't remember if it was Quills or Genetic Contamination) slotted with Superior Avalanche.  

[Without_Pause]

On 9/22/2024 at 11:55 AM, Uun said:

In addition to Battle Axe, Stone Melee and War Mace are quite good for knockdown. 

People forget Claws because it only has two powers for KB/KD. Note, Shockwave and Focus have 100% KD/KB. Compare this to other sets where it might be 80%. Also note how fast those powers recharge. Plus, Shockwave is ranged so it can do its KB/KD as an alpha strike. I leave the ATOs to be slotted in Spin, but one could if they wanted to put a +Chance for KD into Spin and likely get good use out of it. 

[Yomo Kimyata]

On 9/22/2024 at 10:58 AM, Flat Line said:

What about knockdown on scrappers?

 

I hate to give away obvious secrets, but this is, in fact, the way.

[Flat Line]

36 minutes ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

 

I hate to give away obvious secrets, but this is, in fact, the way.

Worth checking.

wasn’t sure if late game mops would have an immunity.

 

Though, it’s a good thing about this game. You need more than one trick or you’ll meet a mop that can neutralize you.

[Flat Line]

47 minutes ago, Without_Pause said:

People forget Claws because it only has two powers for KB/KD. Note, Shockwave and Focus have 100% KD/KB. Compare this to other sets where it might be 80%. Also note how fast those powers recharge. Plus, Shockwave is ranged so it can do its KB/KD as an alpha strike. I leave the ATOs to be slotted in Spin, but one could if they wanted to put a +Chance for KD into Spin and likely get good use out of it. 

Cool!

I actually recently leveled a Claws/Willpower going through missions with standard IOs

Solid the whole way through, never needed set bonuses, so I hadn’t looked yet.

 

Going to see what I can do with him!

[Arcadio]

The knockdown on lightning rod is really important for breaking the alpha strike on my Elec/Regen scrapper. KD on thunderstrike helps give regen some breathing room too.

[Frosticus]

Stone melee turns most spawns into popcorn. 

[UltraAlt]

3 hours ago, Flat Line said:

mops

 

image of brooms used as an example of end-game mops content

 

Even mops use knockdown!

[KaizenSoze]

On 9/22/2024 at 10:58 AM, Flat Line said:

I’ve tried Energy drain with blasters and it starts to not work around level 40. Enemies often just regain too quickly.

 

What about knockdown on scrappers?

How does it hold up late game or vs +4 x8?

 

I was thinking Battle Axe / Bio,

 

Any other Scrapper Knockdown set recommendations?

Maybe with IOs?

End drain works fine above 40. What combo were you trying? What Interface are you using? What Muscular?

 

For example, I have no troubles drain enemies and keeping them drained with my elec/ice stalker. Using Muscular radial and Preemptive Interface.

 

As for knockdown it works really well until it doesn't. Like most of the ITF.

[Doomguide2005]

4 hours ago, Flat Line said:

Cool!

I actually recently leveled a Claws/Willpower going through missions with standard IOs

Solid the whole way through, never needed set bonuses, so I hadn’t looked yet.

 

Going to see what I can do with him!

This, with the bonus I find some mobs the level difference turns things into KD rather than KB without needed to use an IO "tax".

[Flat Line]

2 hours ago, KaizenSoze said:

End drain works fine above 40. What combo were you trying? What Interface are you using? What Muscular?

 

For example, I have no troubles drain enemies and keeping them drained with my elec/ice stalker. Using Muscular radial and Preemptive Interface.

 

As for knockdown it works really well until it doesn't. Like most of the ITF.

 It’s pre-incarnate. 

I’ve found Short Circuit and Power Sinc combo best. 
Then I hit Short Circuit whenever it comes up to keep them drained.

 

It works well a lot of the time. 
maybe it’s because of the higher difficulty? Maybe after incarnate and level shifts it will be back on track?

 

But, I also think I’m going to take the above suggestion and try knockdown mitigation with claws. Claws is already pretty great (if a little repetitive).

[BrandX]

KD can give you that breathing room you need to survive just long enough to heal up.  Some enemies may not knock down as well as others tho.

[Nemu]

On 9/22/2024 at 11:38 AM, Flat Line said:

I was combining Short Circuit, Power Sink, and if they had any End left: One Ball Lightning would get the last bit.

Have you considered adding thunder strike and force of thunder into your rotation?

 

I saw your build in the blaster forums. If you want to be survivable you have to learn to lean into your toolkit, and you skipped a great deal of what makes /elec manipulation strong.

 

We can take the rest of this conversation to your blaster build post. But that quote is how you make a tank mage out of anything /elec manipulation.

 

[Yomo Kimyata]

18 hours ago, Nemu said:

Have you considered adding thunder strike and force of thunder into your rotation?

 

I saw your build in the blaster forums. If you want to be survivable you have to learn to lean into your toolkit, and you skipped a great deal of what makes /elec manipulation strong.

 

We can take the rest of this conversation to your blaster build post. But that quote is how you make a tank mage out of anything /elec manipulation.

 

 

Nemu taught me the gospel of knockdown.

[Flat Line]

On 9/24/2024 at 9:26 PM, Nemu said:

Have you considered adding thunder strike and force of thunder into your rotation?

 

I saw your build in the blaster forums. If you want to be survivable you have to learn to lean into your toolkit, and you skipped a great deal of what makes /elec manipulation strong.

 

We can take the rest of this conversation to your blaster build post. But that quote is how you make a tank mage out of anything /elec manipulation.

 

Thanks for this!

 

I’m going to tinker with my build and see if I can make some improvements.

 

I mained a Energy/Energy blaster on live, so knockdown shouldn’t be too tough to get back into.

 

I’ll post what I come up with in the blaster forum once I figure things out.

 

As is, the build has 3 holds that are rarely used and annoying to fit into a rotation.

Would be good to keep one for Hami, and the odd content that needs it, but maybe P2W has something to cover the rare times it comes up?

Edited September 26 by Flat Line