Primary set questions. Separately, anything pair particularly well with /Bio?

[Seroster01]

The second part of the title seems pretty self explanatory.  Ad to the first part, I have a few questions that are primarily "Real Performance" questions.  I've read the spreadsheet post & it left me with the distinct impression that several of the set's listed #s in the sheet weren't very indicative of true in-game performance due to buffs & Debuffs that were ignored for the tests).

 

Question 1 is a general "How good is War Mace?"  I always had a moderate interest in making a WM -something- back on live, but I never really around to it because I didn't feel keen to play it on a Tanker or Brute & I don't even remember it being a set available to Scrappers when I quit playing (doesn't mean it didn't happen, I just don't remember it...).  The spreadsheet made it look pretty solid for ST, though it has the obvious downside of being a purely Smashing set.  Are there any slotting shenanigans for WM?  A more important question for me is how good is it at AOE?  Crowd Control seems nice in terms of numerical tuning, but is it easy to get a decent # of mobs in the cone?

 

Fire/Bio is one of the combos I'm most interested in & seemslike it'd probably end up a solid pairing, but my 2 questions for it: 1.) are there  any pitfalls I'm not aware of that would make this a poor combo? 2.) how common is high fire resistance on mobs?

 

Radiation & Psi melee are sets I find interesting but know basically nothing about.  How does Psi melee perform, & how much impact does the "a relatively small # of things are resistant to Psi, but those things HEAVILY resist it" issue affect the set?  Rad was apparently hard to model in ST for the spreadsheet, does anyone  have knowledge or experience of how it performs in the AOE department?

 

The last set I'm curious about is Staff.  The power descriptions sound interesting to me. I'm a bit hazy on my recollection for staff on the spreadsheet but my vague impression is it didn't perform very well for the given scenario.  Was this due to something that wasn't accounted for or difficult to model?  & does it at least have decent AOE?

 

Remembered 1 last line of questioning, Claws was towards the bottom of the lmlist of performers I think, but I've heard it's one of the better performing sets in-game.  Did they leave Follow up out of the equation? What's Claws performance like in-game? And is does anyone  know if it ends up better or worse than Widow claws?

 

Thanks for any insight you folks can provide.

[Gulbasaur]

Rad was apparently hard to model in ST for the spreadsheet, does anyone  have knowledge or experience of how it performs in the AOE department?

Radiation melee has a secondary effect where enemies have a chance to be hit with the Contaminated debuff. If you hit a Contaminated enemy with a single-target rad melee attack, it does splash damage to enemies around it.

 

This is probably why it's hard to model - it does conditional and slightly unpredictable damage in a very small AoE - it usually hits about 2 or 3 enemies for low double-digit damage. It also has one big AoE smash and a crappy cone attack that almost everyone respecs out.

 

Pros: Extra splash damage. Melee attack with a (conditional) heal on short cooldown. Damage aura (technically a summon). Fusion + Atom Smasher = everything is Contaminated so can heal you and do extra damage. Synergises well with Fighting pool for Tough and Weave later on.

 

Cons: Splash damage is unreliable, has a tiny AoE and is more a bonus feature than a core one. Heal is reliant on Contaminated target. Has a couple of 'meh' attacks early on. Strongest single-target attack has world's longest animation - genuinely has got me killed at lower levels. Slightly clunky rotation without Kick from Fighting pool (or whatever).

 

I'd say the splash damage and Irradiated Ground AoE mean that it might suit a tanker or brute more than a scrapper or stalker as it really benefits from having enemies tightly packed around you and works best if you stay in the same spot. I enjoy it on my brute, but I think it does lend itself better to a centre-of-attention playstyle.

[Hopeling]

War Mace is quite good. It's good at both ST and AoE. Crowd Control is the easiest melee cone you'll ever use; a 180-degree arc is simply ridiculous. Also, Shatter is a Headsplitter clone, except with a 45-degree arc instead of 19 degrees, so it's an honest area attack instead of "sometimes you can hit two guys instead of one". Smashing damage isn't a huge downside; it's less resisted than lethal. Robots in particular tend to have high lethal resistance and NEGATIVE smashing resistance!

[Heraclea]

The -damage effects of Kinetic Melee would appear to recommend itself as stacking with Bio's resistance.  High endurance attack sets like Spines will be helped by Bo's endurance friendly features.

[HelenCarnate]

If you can manage the end issues and the painfully slow animation times every few seconds TW/Bio is a killing machine.

[Kaeladin]

The second part of the title seems pretty self explanatory.  Ad to the first part, I have a few questions that are primarily "Real Performance" questions.  I've read the spreadsheet post & it left me with the distinct impression that several of the set's listed #s in the sheet weren't very indicative of true in-game performance due to buffs & Debuffs that were ignored for the tests).

 

Question 1 is a general "How good is War Mace?"  I always had a moderate interest in making a WM -something- back on live, but I never really around to it because I didn't feel keen to play it on a Tanker or Brute & I don't even remember it being a set available to Scrappers when I quit playing (doesn't mean it didn't happen, I just don't remember it...).  The spreadsheet made it look pretty solid for ST, though it has the obvious downside of being a purely Smashing set.  Are there any slotting shenanigans for WM?  A more important question for me is how good is it at AOE?  Crowd Control seems nice in terms of numerical tuning, but is it easy to get a decent # of mobs in the cone?

 

Fire/Bio is one of the combos I'm most interested in & seemslike it'd probably end up a solid pairing, but my 2 questions for it: 1.) are there  any pitfalls I'm not aware of that would make this a poor combo? 2.) how common is high fire resistance on mobs?

 

Radiation & Psi melee are sets I find interesting but know basically nothing about.  How does Psi melee perform, & how much impact does the "a relatively small # of things are resistant to Psi, but those things HEAVILY resist it" issue affect the set?  Rad was apparently hard to model in ST for the spreadsheet, does anyone  have knowledge or experience of how it performs in the AOE department?

 

The last set I'm curious about is Staff.  The power descriptions sound interesting to me. I'm a bit hazy on my recollection for staff on the spreadsheet but my vague impression is it didn't perform very well for the given scenario.  Was this due to something that wasn't accounted for or difficult to model?  & does it at least have decent AOE?

 

Remembered 1 last line of questioning, Claws was towards the bottom of the lmlist of performers I think, but I've heard it's one of the better performing sets in-game.  Did they leave Follow up out of the equation? What's Claws performance like in-game? And is does anyone  know if it ends up better or worse than Widow claws?

 

Thanks for any insight you folks can provide.

 

First, regarding the Claws question (about my spreadsheet), please read the Special Cases (highlighted in blue) section. I did model follow-up in that (along with Blinding Feint for dual blades), and it does reasonable mid-level ST damage but has excellent AOE.

 

War Mace is one of my all-around favorites; it has excellent ST and AOE damage, and it's quite strong. It's one of the most underrated sets of this time, IMO.

 

Also, what buffs/debuffs are you referring to that the sheet didn't model? The self-damage buffs from the sets (outside of build up) were modeled, in the Special Cases section. As for debuffs, -resistance wasn't calculated either from procs or from StJ/TW's -res attack (but it's easy to just calculate yourself depending on the level of the mob you're fighting). Assume that any sets that have -res built into its set will do a bit more damage on any sustained target than the numbers assume, but there aren't many situations where you're hammering a target for more than 20+ seconds.

 

Finally, Psi Melee is just not in good shape. Both numerically, but especially from a "real gameplay" mechanics standpoint, insight is awful in its current implementation and the set ends up playing more from its "mediocore DPA powerset" than its "great (during insight) powerset" due to that factor of insight uptime.

 

[Seroster01]

If you can manage the end issues and the painfully slow animation times every few seconds TW/Bio is a killing machine.

 

I'd gathered this was the case from other threads & the combination of how OP it's supposed to be & the general character aesthetics involved seem right up my normal alley... but for some reason I'm just not very interested in playing it.  More inclined to play Fire/Bio or WM/Bio.  I think if I make a TW/ it'll probably be /WP.

 

I've got a very low-level TW/Elec scrapper & I didn't dig it quite like I thought I would, at least up to the level I played him.  May try again later...

[Seroster01]

First, regarding the Claws question (about my spreadsheet), please read the Special Cases (highlighted in blue) section.

 

This is the part that left me confused; I saw where you referenced the Special Cases section, but I couldn't find said section in the sheet.  I was reading it off of my cell phone & this isn't the first time I've had some trouble locating anything more than the rudimentary info in the spreadsheets I open with it (likely due to general lack of screen area if I want to read what's in them).  I hadn't really thought about that till you brought this up, so I'll probably go look at it again now that I'm back from my trip & can look on my PC.

[marcussmythe]

If you can manage the end issues and the painfully slow animation times every few seconds TW/Bio is a killing machine.

 

I'd gathered this was the case from other threads & the combination of how OP it's supposed to be & the general character aesthetics involved seem right up my normal alley... but for some reason I'm just not very interested in playing it.  More inclined to play Fire/Bio or WM/Bio.  I think if I make a TW/ it'll probably be /WP.

 

I've got a very low-level TW/Elec scrapper & I didn't dig it quite like I thought I would, at least up to the level I played him.  May try again later...

 

Ive a lvl 50 (working on sets and incarnates) TW/Bio.  Shes by far and away the most ‘powerful’ overall character Ive ever played, in terms of the combination of offensive and defensive power.

 

I also dont enjoy it that much as many onthers, though still fun when I feel like beating up the game, for whatever reason.  YMMV.

[Yomo Kimyata]

War Mace is good.  Very good.  I’m currently running it on a brute, a scrapper, and a lowbie tank.  When you get a full attack chain, things just melt.  I actually think the AoE is some of the best around.  The 1-2 of Crowd Control followed by Whirling Mace will keep everyone on their butts.  Throw a Force Feedback proc in CC and you can keep chaining those two.  Extremely satisfying.

 

I don’t like staff as much.  I think it would pair better with a more offensive secondary like fire.  I like the animations, but things seem to take significantly longer to die than they do with WM.

[Rockfall]

I had both BS/SD and BA/SD back on live and so wanting something different(ish), I made a WM/SD. Sure, he's only level 14, but it is highly satisfying. Smash quality right up there with stone melee, IMO.

[marcussmythe]

Mace is very good, numerically, very ‘smashy’ in terms of feel and sound, astheticly, and very simple to operate, in game.  No combo points/builders/lockouts, just hit things.  I dont have one right now, but I loved it on live and will be revisiting it soon.  Am considering running with a low intensity defense set (Willpower?) for a high situational awareness team play character (less time spent microing powersets means more time with eyes up and on a swivel)

 

This lack of attention demand will likely serve a Bioarmor character well, as Bio rewards your time and attention.

[Rokkeb]

Fire bio will probabaly be pretty fun. And quite potent.

 

Fires biggest drawback is it has no utility, it's all damage. Bio is a unique set in that it let's you choose of you need more endurance, more defense, or moar dps, so it's kinda got all the utility needs covered, plus it's got a heal.

 

I have a fire shield scrapper who's been shelved around 35. I really enjoy the fire part, but shield is just meh to me. I understand its strong, but it's also boring. I've never considered fire bio, but now I am. I think it will be pretty good and darn fun. You should for sure try it out if that's what you're interested in.

[FUBARczar]

If you like Clobber, you'll love Freezing Tough, try Ice Melee, the slows and Ice Patch, if you want it, will only raise your survivability, and then add water spout.

 

Take Psi over Rad, even though Rad is great the Animations might get you killed, I'd leave it for a Def set or WP.

 

IDK about Staff, I have only used it on a Stalker, and I really liked it. 

 

Elec I'd probably only use on a Brute or Stalker

 

So....consider Ice, Katana, Spines, Fire, Staff...

[MunkiLord]

Fire bio will probabaly be pretty fun. And quite potent.

 

Fires biggest drawback is it has no utility, it's all damage. Bio is a unique set in that it let's you choose of you need more endurance, more defense, or moar dps, so it's kinda got all the utility needs covered, plus it's got a heal.

 

I have a fire shield scrapper who's been shelved around 35. I really enjoy the fire part, but shield is just meh to me. I understand its strong, but it's also boring. I've never considered fire bio, but now I am. I think it will be pretty good and darn fun. You should for sure try it out if that's what you're interested in.

 

If shield isn't your thing I get that and won't try to talk you out of it, much. But you did shelve it one level before it's defining power could get any slots.

[Murcielago]

I hear titan weapons does well with bio but it requires patiences and deep-ish pockets.