Help getting def caps on Fire/Pain/Dark

[BazookaTooth]

Like it says in the title, I have a Fire/Pain/Dark I'm trying to get capped for at least S/L and I'm having a helluva time getting there. 

 

Why this combo? I run a Beasts/Pain/Dark with Oppressive Gloom and Crosspunch and I like it. I want to leverage Oppressive Gloom on this build but I just dont have the Def numbers to handle taking alpha strike. 

 

An alternative to this is Fire/Pain/Ice which seems easier to cap and gives me something to throw Painbringer at. 

 

Any advice welcome.

[Zect]

57 minutes ago, BazookaTooth said:

I have a Fire/Pain/Dark I'm trying to get capped for at least S/L and I'm having a helluva time getting there. 

 

Take barrier destiny for the last 5%.

 

 

Corruptor (Fire Blast - Pain Domination).mbd

Edited November 11 by Zect

[BazookaTwo]

Just tried this... I can only get 39.1% with the exact slotting you showed, plus some more...and now I see why. I don't take Spirit Drain.

 

Edited November 11 by BazookaTwo

[Teklord]

One of the nice things about everyone building for the soft cap of def is that a LOT of people are running maneuvers. Maneuvers has a 60ft radius and so that extra 2-6% or so from one teammate will often be enough to cap you on a team.

 

Unfortunately pain dom doesn't have any -tohit debuffs to get you over the hill solo but on a team you should be fine as long as you have a teammate with maneuvers. And if you have a teammate with steamy mist or something you are also golden. Additionally I also run with a stealth proc in sprint and have that toggled on most of the time. This helps a ton for initial aggro and can mean you don't take the alpha which in what is often the killer on teams.

 

HTHs and I know it isn't exactly what was asked for.

 

PS. Support Hybrid can also get you those last few percents.

[Nemu]

I talked to Bazzoka in game, the reason for Oppressive Gloom is because he wanted melee protection for inferno and anguishing cry. At this time I would like to address two common fallacies I see across a lot of these posts concerning builds for non-melee ATs:

1 - Keeping at range almost always amounts to "I want to be as far away from mobs at possible" This is usually also paired with the build priority for hover blasting and building for range defense softcap

2 - just because a power has a melee or PBAOE tag, that means the build needs to build for melee protection as if the build needs to be designed to be a statue and stay in melee all the time.

 

I'll address point 2 first, the reason I tossed in the first point will be clear later on in this post.

 

Most click powers that have melee/pbaoe tags do not require you to STAY in melee. Jousting is a game mechanic that allows you to minimize your exposure to melee retaliation even if a power has a 3 second cast time like inferno. If you are willing to adopt that playstyle, then there is little need to overcompensate your build for melee protection.

 

When you are able to minimize melee exposure via jousting melee attacks/pbaoes, range defense and to a lesser extent AoE defense become much more important because they act as "catch all" vs all other attacks. By forcing enemies to switch AI to range mode, you can focus your IO bonuses and power selection to favor/synergize with range defense. Which brings me to point 1

 

Range defense works whether you are 200 ft away from mobs or 8 feet away from mobs. As long as you keep moving between attacks enemies are always playing catch up. These movements do not have to be dramatic like teleporting max distance back or hovering 40-50 feet up in the air, they can be as subtle as moving a few steps away from a mob while/after you execute a power.

 

If you don't mind a bit of jousting when the situation calls for it then I would recommend you build for range defense softcap and then supplement it with a resist shield backed epic/patron. Sets like thunderstrike and artillery makes it pretty easy to softcap range defense if you are going for a budget option.

[BazookaTwo]

Hello all,

Thanks for your feedback and advice. I will be at 43% when I  finish my melee def bonuses. I will supplement purples and keep Barrier rolling when it's up.  I think the choice to only take purple and red insps is not a bad idea. 

 

Yes on a team, with maneuvers,  it's often no problem. nullify is pretty decent as a combat heal. Overall I didn't take much in the way of team support though. 

Edited November 15 by BazookaTwo

[WuTang]

4 hours ago, BazookaTwo said:

Hello all,

Thanks for your feedback and advice. I will be at 43% when I  finish my melee def bonuses. I will supplement purples and keep Barrier rolling when it's up.  I think the choice to only take purple and red insps is not a bad idea. 

 

Yes on a team, with maneuvers,  it's often no problem. nullify is pretty decent as a combat heal. Overall I didn't take much in the way of team support though. 

Originally, when you said the build only got to 39.1% def, was that with Barrier's perma 5% included? If not, then you were at the soft cap, or near enough not to matter. And if you are at 43% now then with Barrier you'll be at the hard cap of 48% (these numbers are for general content). I can tell you from my builds that 45% is good enough, but the problem you'll have is with mez.

 

I have a Dual Pistols / Time / Mu and if I could figure out how to get the endurance just a little better so I could run Clarion then he'd be bullet proof, but as it is I have to keep Emerge insp on hand at all times because he lives in melee and he gets mez'd alot. Mez will cause you to drop some of your protections and with such a shallow HP pool we're just a few hits eating floor.

[Darkir]

On 11/11/2024 at 4:33 AM, Zect said:

Take barrier destiny for the last 5%.

ew, no. Do something like this and take clarion.

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Edited yesterday at 09:46 AM by Darkir

[Zect]

On 11/11/2024 at 9:20 PM, BazookaTwo said:

Just tried this... I can only get 39.1% with the exact slotting you showed, plus some more...and now I see why. I don't take Spirit Drain.

 

 

In that case, you have to be willing to change your power choices, take an SL def shield, or make other sacrifices. Slot-efficient S/L def comes primarily from ST melee attacks and melee AT's ATIOs, with small amounts present in a select number of other sets. You have too few of the power types required (see how the melee def in my example is higher than S/L -- it's literally easier to put melee def on this build than it is to get S/L). This should alert you to the potential of going for a different mitigation strategy instead such as R/aoe or even tri-vector def.