Is Proton Sweep Worth It?

[Rylas]

My in-game experience with Proton Sweep has felt lackluster. Even with improvements to Tanker AoE, I don't feel like it lands a lot when mobs are clustered around me. Compared to something like Shadow Maul, it seems to underperform. I was hoping to have a bit more AoE with my build, but maybe I should just find a more functional power instead.

 

How do most people feel about Proton Sweep?

 

Additionally, what performs better? Capped resistance to most types with moderate defense to all, or soft-cap S/L slightly less resistance? Pics for refernce:

Edited 23 hours ago by Rylas

[Warshades]

I am not a big fan of Proton Sweep. If you don't plan to exemplar down very often, I would suggest Cross Punch more as you can also slot a FF +recharge proc.

 

With res vs def, I would say that if you have any DDR (defense down resistance), you should be better off with the soft cap s/l and slightly less resists. Based on the resist numbers you have, this looks more like a pure resist set (electric armor maybe?) in which case I would probably focus on resists alone.

 

You could make an argument that having the soft cap s/l def will help with the initial alpha strike as you'd get hit less often at the very start, but in fights against anything that does heavy -def spams (like in ITF) that def will get destroyed within seconds. Anything that doesn't do -def, the ~18% you have in the first build should help carry you and you can always pop a purple insp as needed.

[Warshades]

I would also add that you're well over the resist cap in the first build, so worth taking a second look and seeing if you can improve anywhere as you don't need so much resistance. Mid's doesn't factor in SMoT +resist proc so you really only need to reach ~77% resist before a double stacked SMoT gets you to 90%, or 83% if you want to get there with 1 stack. If you plan on running Barrier destiny, you'd be getting another permanent 5% as well.

[Erratic1]

1 hour ago, Warshades said:

Based on the resist numbers you have, this looks more like a pure resist set (electric armor maybe?) in which case I would probably focus on resists alone.

 

Definitely Electrical Armor judging by the Negative, Toxic, and Psionic numbers.

 

While Electrical Armor does not have any DDR, I would probably still go for the second build because not everything you fight has Defense Debuff (or at least that is what I am doing with my recently 50 Energy Melee/Electrical Brute and I have no complaints so far, though instead of capping S/L Defense I capped Melee Defense).

 

Edited 11 hours ago by Erratic1

[ZemX]

56 minutes ago, Warshades said:

Mid's doesn't factor in SMoT +resist proc so you really only need to reach ~77% resist before a double stacked SMoT gets you to 90%,

 

Mid's does include SMoT, same way it does any proc.  If the yellow proc dot is selected on the power, it includes the effects.  Though it only includes ONE stack, so keep that in mind.

 

11 hours ago, Rylas said:

How do most people feel about Proton Sweep?

 

I take it early and then drop it later.  It is good damage if you can hit at least two enemies but not much else.

 

11 hours ago, Rylas said:

Additionally, what performs better? Capped resistance to most types with moderate defense to all, or soft-cap S/L slightly less resistance?

 

In general gameplay? The latter.  Think about it this way... that defense is gone entirely against defense debuffing enemies because you have no DDR.  If you can survive them, you can survive the ones that DON'T have defense debuffing.  But that doesn't necessarily mean building more resistance.  Maybe more recharge or slow debuff resistance?  Whatever it is, I like to build things up that I'll always have available to me.  Getting my defense zeroed after I spent slots building it up just doesn't feel good.

[Erratic1]

7 minutes ago, ZemX said:

In general gameplay? The latter.  Think about it this way... that defense is gone entirely against defense debuffing enemies because you have no DDR.  If you can survive them, you can survive the ones that DON'T have defense debuffing.  But that doesn't necessarily mean building more resistance.  Maybe more recharge or slow debuff resistance?  Whatever it is, I like to build things up that I'll always have available to me.  Getting my defense zeroed after I spent slots building it up just doesn't feel good.

 

This is confusing. You say soft-cap S/L with slightly resistance is better but end by suggesting it doesn't feel good to be DDR debuffed, which is a counterpoint to the latter being better.

 

 

[Sovera]

I've tried taking it and using it but it was so bad I preferred to take Contaminated Strike and ST the mobs until my actual AoE opened up.

[Rylas]

6 hours ago, Warshades said:

I am not a big fan of Proton Sweep. If you don't plan to exemplar down very often, I would suggest Cross Punch more as you can also slot a FF +recharge proc.

 

With res vs def, I would say that if you have any DDR (defense down resistance), you should be better off with the soft cap s/l and slightly less resists. Based on the resist numbers you have, this looks more like a pure resist set (electric armor maybe?) in which case I would probably focus on resists alone.

 

I would also add that you're well over the resist cap in the first build, so worth taking a second look and seeing if you can improve anywhere as you don't need so much resistance.

 

Sounds like the overall consensus that Proton Sweep is just "meh". I'll consider Cross Punch since I'll already have the Fighting pool. And yes, this is Electric Armor. I should have mentioned that, my bad.

 

The only reason I'm that far over the resist caps is that I was trying to plug up Neg/Psi/Tox as best I could and there's a lot of overlap I wasn't able to avoid (and a 6th wasted bonus at one point) to get there. But these were first passes for 2 different approaches, so I'll revisit that to see if I can't tweak those better.

 

5 hours ago, Erratic1 said:

 

Definitely Electrical Armor judging by the Negative, Toxic, and Psionic numbers.

 

While Electrical Armor does not have any DDR, I would probably still go for the second build because not everything you fight has Defense Debuff (or at least that is what I am doing with my recently 50 Energy Melee/Electrical Brute and I have no complaints so far, though instead of capping S/L Defense I capped Melee Defense).

 

 

The ol' Type vs Positional debate. 🙂 I base it on AT. Blasters? Go ranged and stay out of range. Most powers have a positional attribute, so in that instance, you're pretty safe going for Positional. Melee ATs? I go typed, because 1) range still hits you and 2) a majority of attacks are tied to a smash or lethal. Shields and SR being a separate issue.

 

5 hours ago, ZemX said:

In general gameplay? The latter.  Think about it this way... that defense is gone entirely against defense debuffing enemies because you have no DDR.  If you can survive them, you can survive the ones that DON'T have defense debuffing.  But that doesn't necessarily mean building more resistance.  Maybe more recharge or slow debuff resistance?  Whatever it is, I like to build things up that I'll always have available to me.  Getting my defense zeroed after I spent slots building it up just doesn't feel good.

Based of this, and everyone else comments on DDR and end game, I think I'll be going for both builds. I enjoy tanking for lowbie teams and TFs, where DDR isn't quite as prevalent. I can leave the capped res build for higher levels and end game.

Thank you all for the input and advice!

Edited 5 hours ago by Rylas

[Erratic1]

8 minutes ago, Rylas said:

The ol' Type vs Positional debate. 🙂 I base it on AT. Blasters? Go ranged and stay out of range. Most powers have a positional attribute, so in that instance, you're pretty safe going for Positional. Melee ATs? I go typed, because 1) range still hits you and 2) a majority of attacks are tied to a smash or lethal. Shields and SR being a separate issue.

 

I think your information may be a bit out of date about the majority of attacks having smash/lethal components. That got changed.

 

As for positional vs typed, I wanted to minimize things in melee hitting me regardless of type. Yeah, there is ranged S/L damage, but I am not generally worried about that as it is not hard to get things to come to you and I am at capped S/L resistance (E resistance too, which made the screenfuls of Mu I fought recently with the character on a Scirocco arc laughably easy). 

 

What I would like to pull off someday is something like capped resistances and soft-capped Range. Then I'd be set.

 

 

[Rylas]

2 hours ago, Erratic1 said:

 

I think your information may be a bit out of date about the majority of attacks having smash/lethal components. That got changed.

 

I've been away for a couple of years, so I'm sure you're right 🙂. Duly noted