War Mace - What do I need to know?

[Grizlee]

Hello, I'm interested in War Mace, I've not settled on an armor AT but I'm leaning Electric as I've not done that on a Brute and it looks interesting to me. 

 

I look at War Mace and am reminded of Stone Melee, a little. So I feel like I'd enjoy it. The early picks though... I'm admittedly suffering from paralysis from analysis. 

 

Any gurus feel like sharing experience? 

 

Much appreciated! 

[twozerofoxtrot]

Simplest version:

 

Everthing but Bash and Taunt. Unless you want to taunt.

 

4 single target, all with fairly long cooldowns. I'm assuming based off your post that you don't build for bleeding edge performance, so you'll need all 4 to keep attacks consistent.  Clobber is the best of the bunch.

 

Two AoE, but once you have Crowd Control you may find yourself ignoring Whirling Mace since it isn't very good. Crowd Control does more damage, faster, and although it's a cone its 180 degrees so it'll hit everything forward of your hips. 

[Grizlee]

1 hour ago, twozerofoxtrot said:

Simplest version:

 

Everthing but Bash and Taunt. Unless you want to taunt.

 

4 single target, all with fairly long cooldowns. I'm assuming based off your post that you don't build for bleeding edge performance, so you'll need all 4 to keep attacks consistent.  Clobber is the best of the bunch.

 

Two AoE, but once you have Crowd Control you may find yourself ignoring Whirling Mace since it isn't very good. Crowd Control does more damage, faster, and although it's a cone its 180 degrees so it'll hit everything forward of your hips. 

 

 

Thank you kindly! 

[Grizlee]

@twozerofoxtrot  Would something like this serve we well? Given the info about whirling mace, I turned it into a damage mitigatory power instead of straight on damage.  

 

Thunderstruck - Brute (War Mace - Electric Armor).mbd

 

 

[Wavicle]

Maybe it's just me, but I think if you aren't going to slot it as an attack, you should pick something else. Tactics, for example.

Edited December 30, 2024 by Wavicle

[twozerofoxtrot]

1 hour ago, Grizlee said:

Given the info about whirling mace, I turned it into a damage mitigatory power instead of straight on damage.

 

No, don't do this. 

 

Never prioritize mitigation over damage on an attack power, period. Dead enemies do no damage. And this is going to be your only AoE for lower level content.

 

My recommendation would be to drop the KD/Recharge IO from Lightning Field, put Pulverize's Slotting in Whirling Mace, put Jawbreaker's Slotting in Pulverize, and put a 5pc Hecatomb in Jawbreaker. You should have 4+1 slots for Jawbreaker after pulling that KB/Recharge IO from Lightning Field. Use generic IOs in Jawbreaker until 50.

 

Now you'll do more damage, and have better set bonuses.

 

45 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

Tactics, for example.

 

Already has Focused Accuracy in the build.

[Grizlee]

1 hour ago, twozerofoxtrot said:

 

No, don't do this. 

 

Never prioritize mitigation over damage on an attack power, period. Dead enemies do no damage. And this is going to be your only AoE for lower level content.

 

My recommendation would be to drop the KD/Recharge IO from Lightning Field, put Pulverize's Slotting in Whirling Mace, put Jawbreaker's Slotting in Pulverize, and put a 5pc Hecatomb in Jawbreaker. You should have 4+1 slots for Jawbreaker after pulling that KB/Recharge IO from Lightning Field. Use generic IOs in Jawbreaker until 50.

 

Now you'll do more damage, and have better set bonuses.

 

 

Already has Focused Accuracy in the build.

 

I appreciate the advice. I've made a few changes along with your suggested changes. 

 

Thunderstruck - Brute (War Mace - Electric Armor).mbd

 

 

[Wavicle]

1 hour ago, twozerofoxtrot said:

Already has Focused Accuracy in the build.

 

Ok, something else then. Or just slot Whirling Mace properly lol.

[Uun]

• Normally it's not productive to go 6 deep on the purple sets, however, Electric Armor has no toxic resistance and the 6-piece bonus for many of the sets is 6% P/T resist. Consider adding the 6th piece to Jawbreaker and Crowd Control. You've currently very low on toxic resist.
• You seem to be chasing melee defense. This isn't worthwhile, as Electric has no defense debuff resistance and your defense will be stripped away quickly.
• Drop the Cytos and LOTG:def from Combat Jumping and Maneuvers and redeploy those slots. Maneuvers can just be a mule and you don't need to run it. Slot Weave with 4x Shield Wall for the E/N resist bonus (you're capped to En but weak to Ne).
• Drop a slot from Tough or Grounded and move it to Static Shield to increase your psi resist.
• Don't slot the Performance Shifter %end proc in Power Sink. The proc provides a chance of 10 endurance, whereas slotting an endmod IO gives you a guaranteed 10 endurance. 

[Grizlee]

11 minutes ago, Uun said:

• Normally it's not productive to go 6 deep on the purple sets, however, Electric Armor has no toxic resistance and the 6-piece bonus for many of the sets is 6% P/T resist. Consider adding the 6th piece to Jawbreaker and Crowd Control. You've currently very low on toxic resist.
• You seem to be chasing melee defense. This isn't worthwhile, as Electric has no defense debuff resistance and your defense will be stripped away quickly.
• Drop the Cytos and LOTG:def from Combat Jumping and Maneuvers and redeploy those slots. Maneuvers can just be a mule and you don't need to run it. Slot Weave with 4x Shield Wall for the E/N resist bonus (you're capped to En but weak to Ne).
• Drop a slot from Tough or Grounded and move it to Static Shield to increase your psi resist.
• Don't slot the Performance Shifter %end proc in Power Sink. The proc provides a chance of 10 endurance, whereas slotting an endmod IO gives you a guaranteed 10 endurance. 

 

Thank for this. It made me dive deep into the defense AT's. I was unaware of the way DDR and Res worked in relation to each other, especially so during potential debuffing (sic) fights. Cascading failure was something I didn't know about. I haven't played much at max level or see nearly all the types of foes yet. 

 

 You were correct in the surmising I was chasing melee, I was, in the hopes of off-setting DEF shortcomings. 

[Grizlee]

7 hours ago, Wavicle said:

 

Ok, something else then. Or just slot Whirling Mace properly lol.

 

Perhaps take the "incorrectly" slotted whirling mace for a test in the test server. It works as intended. Whether it's more useful to have "one more" attack power vs one more aoe utility is personal preference and play style. I'm not ignorant to games, game play and theory crafting, I'm just ignorant to the mechanics of CoH. Doing something different is how you find the new meta, if you will, instead of being a lemming and following the crowd. 

 

I searched for builds you have submitted to get a feel for your "style" of building but all I find are suggestions to change ... a lot. 

 

I'd be interested in your building. Again, as a learning exercise. 

[tidge]

The one thing about War Mace that bothered *me* while leveling up was this: with little Recharge, the set felt *really* clumsy. It doesn't take huge amounts of global Recharge, along with set-slotting the attacks to make it perform smoothly... but it is something I think should be kept in mind depending on how you level up.

 

I wouldn't necessarily try to use Hasten while leveling, but you may want to have some temp attack powers,

[Yomo Kimyata]

43 minutes ago, tidge said:

The one thing about War Mace that bothered *me* while leveling up was this: with little Recharge, the set felt *really* clumsy. It doesn't take huge amounts of global Recharge, along with set-slotting the attacks to make it perform smoothly... but it is something I think should be kept in mind depending on how you level up.

 

I wouldn't necessarily try to use Hasten while leveling, but you may want to have some temp attack powers,

This tracks for me.  Take as many attacks as you want while leveling but don’t be afraid to respec out.  On my scrappers I use Shatter, Crowd Control, and Whirling Mace for AOE (and put at least one Force Feedback in there) and Bash, Clobber, snipe, and Shatter for ST.  Use Pulverize when it’s useful, but I don’t keep it at end game.

[Grizlee]

1 hour ago, tidge said:

The one thing about War Mace that bothered *me* while leveling up was this: with little Recharge, the set felt *really* clumsy. It doesn't take huge amounts of global Recharge, along with set-slotting the attacks to make it perform smoothly... but it is something I think should be kept in mind depending on how you level up.

 

I wouldn't necessarily try to use Hasten while leveling, but you may want to have some temp attack powers,

 

57 minutes ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

This tracks for me.  Take as many attacks as you want while leveling but don’t be afraid to respec out.  On my scrappers I use Shatter, Crowd Control, and Whirling Mace for AOE (and put at least one Force Feedback in there) and Bash, Clobber, snipe, and Shatter for ST.  Use Pulverize when it’s useful, but I don’t keep it at end game.

 

 

Yep, my experience as well. When I first started I had initially taken Bsh --> Pulv --> Jawbreaker, and that was decent. When I streamlined, unsurprisingly the slower Pul sorta made me much more reliant on the Black Wand and the Nemesis Staff, which as an old live player ... rankles a tad 🙂 It feels cheaty. I know I can choose not to use them, and I'm a hypocrite in that regard because I'm just not getting rid of them. 🙂

Edited December 30, 2024 by Grizlee

[Grizlee]

Ok, one more respec is in the books. After excellent advice ( again, thank you kindly ) I've taken what I could and did what I could. I did a complete overhaul so as to make it a viable leveling build as well. 

 

Tesla Hammer is on Excelsior and progressing relatively well. I am concerned about my total HP's. Seems irresponsibly low 😄

 

Tesla Hammer - Brute (War Mace - Electric Armor).mbd

 

 

 

[PyroNugget]

i use an older version of MIDS but this is one of my favorite brute builds ,you can really lean maxing out resists and dmg! brute heaven.

use it for another pair of eyes on what sets can do. has 90% to s/l/f/c and psi without any incarnate(but lvl 50)

 

This Hero build was built using Mids Reborn 3.1.2.5
https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn

Click this DataLink to open the build!

brute war mace elec: Level 50 Science Brute
Primary Power Set: War Mace
Secondary Power Set: Electric Armor
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Pulverize -- SprUnrFur-Acc/Dmg(A), SprUnrFur-Dmg/Rchg(5), SprUnrFur-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(7), SprUnrFur-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7), SprUnrFur-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(9), SprUnrFur-Rchg/+Regen/+End(9)
Level 1: Charged Armor -- UnbGrd-Max HP%(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(11), UnbGrd-ResDam(11), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(13)
Level 2: Lightning Field -- SprBrtFur-Acc/Dmg(A), SprBrtFur-Rech/Fury%(15), SprBrtFur-Dmg/Rchg(19), SprBrtFur-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), SprBrtFur-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21), SprBrtFur-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21)
Level 4: Conductive Shield -- TtnCtn-ResDam(A), TtnCtn-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(15), TtnCtn-ResDam/EndRdx(23), TtnCtn-ResDam/Rchg(23), ImpArm-ResPsi(25)
Level 6: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(13), Ksm-ToHit+(31)
Level 8: Clobber -- Hct-Dmg(A), Hct-Dmg/Rchg(25), Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(27), Hct-Acc/Rchg(27), Hct-Dmg/EndRdx(29), Hct-Dam%(29)
Level 10: Static Shield -- Ags-Psi/Status(A), Ags-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(17), Ags-ResDam/EndRdx(17), Ags-ResDam(31), ImpArm-ResPsi(31)
Level 12: Kick -- Empty(A)
Level 14: Tough -- TtnCtn-ResDam(A), TtnCtn-ResDam/EndRdx(34), TtnCtn-ResDam/Rchg(36), TtnCtn-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(36)
Level 16: Grounded -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A)
Level 18: Whirling Mace -- SprAvl-Acc/Dmg(A), SprAvl-Dmg/EndRdx(33), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(33), SprAvl-Rchg/KDProc(33), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Erd-%Dam(34)
Level 20: Lightning Reflexes -- Run-I(A)
Level 22: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), Rct-Def(36), Rct-Def/EndRdx(37), Rct-ResDam%(37)
Level 24: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(43)
Level 26: Shatter -- FuroftheG-Acc/Dmg/End/Rech(A), FuroftheG-ResDeb%(37), ScrDrv-Acc/Dmg(39), ScrDrv-Dmg/EndRdx(39), ScrDrv-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39), ScrDrv-Dam%(40)
Level 28: Energize -- Prv-Heal(A), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(40), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg(40), Prv-Heal/Rchg(42), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(42), Prv-Absorb%(42)
Level 30: Super Jump -- WntGif-ResSlow(A), WntGif-RunSpd/Jump/Fly/Rng(46)
Level 32: Crowd Control -- Arm-Dmg(A), Arm-Dmg/Rchg(43), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43), Arm-Acc/Rchg(45), Arm-Dmg/EndRdx(45), Arm-Dam%(45)
Level 35: Power Sink -- PrfShf-EndMod/Rchg(A)
Level 38: Mu Lightning -- SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg(A), SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(46), SprWntBit-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(46), Apc-Dam%(50)
Level 41: Ball Lightning -- Rgn-Dmg(A), Rgn-Dmg/Rchg(48), Rgn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48), Rgn-Acc/Rchg(48), Rgn-Dmg/EndRdx(50), Rgn-Knock%(50)
Level 44: Build Up -- GssSynFr--Build%(A)
Level 47: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A)
Level 49: Power Surge -- ImpArm-ResPsi(A)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Fury
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Swift -- Flight-I(A)
Level 1: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(3), Mrc-Rcvry+(3)
Level 1: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 1: Stamina -- PrfShf-EndMod(A), PrfShf-End%(5)
Level 44: Double Jump
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