How much recharge do i need for perma Phantom Army ??

[smnolimits43]

I bet this has been answered before.  I'm thinking of running either an Illusion/Rad or Illusion/FF.  I'm guessing having AM would make the recharge easier.

[Maelwys]

8 hours ago, smnolimits43 said:

I bet this has been answered before.  I'm thinking of running either an Illusion/Rad or Illusion/FF.  I'm guessing having AM would make the recharge easier.

Phantom Army's base recharge is 240s and it has a cast time (adjusted for Arcanatime) of 3.3s
You want to get it cycling every 60s or less; so that's:
((240)/(60 - 3.3)) - 100% = 323.3% additional recharge needed (from some combination of slotting, global set bonuses, alpha slots and other buffs like Hasten etc)
 

Edited yesterday at 12:08 PM by Maelwys

[Carnifax]

On Carni (Illusion / Dark) I have 183% and not quite perma. Obviously PAs are maxxed out for recharge and I have Agility as well. That's a few seconds downtime (which I'm fine with). In fact I'm about the 3.3 second recast time off (timer shows 60 seconds when cast). 

 

I do have Ageless Radial going too which narrows it a little but it'd cost a fair chunk to actually get myself true perma on it (don't want to lose some procs etc to make up the difference). 

 

Time, Rad and Kin have an easier time getting there (along with Marine maybe, Shifting Tides be crazy but also variable) and you can look at Epics which can take Forced Feedbacks to also try and narrow the gap. 

 

 

[Maelwys]

Just checked my Ill/Time and they're sitting at ~312% total.
Like wot @Carnifax says; a few seconds downtime is hardly noticeable in practice and often teammate buffs will push you over the threshold anyway.
It's not like you have to constantly make them hold something's aggro otherwise your team all faceplant (argh, oldschool hamiraid flashbacks!)

Personally I'd rather not make extreme performance sacrifices elsewhere in my build just to hit that magic 56.7 second recharge time figure.

[Uun]

My Illusion/Poison is at 169% (ignoring the base 100%) with Hasten up and is 6s short of perma PA when using Intuition Radial. When I switch to Spiritual Core, that gap closes to less than 1s. There's also a base empowerment buff that provides 20% +rech for 90 minutes that you can use to close the gap. You should expect similar performance with /FF. 

 

It's easy for Illusion/Time to get perma PA, since Chrono Shift adds 50% +rech. Mine sits at 218% (ignoring the base 100%) and has perma PA, Chrono Shift and Hasten. Performance with /Rad would be close to this, since AM provides 30% +rech. You would need about 105% global recharge (excluding the base 100%, Hasten and AM) for perma PA, which should also give you perma Hasten and AM.

 

Also, you may want to read this: https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Recharge

Edited yesterday at 03:59 PM by Uun
added link

[Hjarki]

You consider asking if you care about perma-PA. perma-PA is primarily of concern for builds that intend on solo'ing AV/GM. They need perma-PA because they don't want gaps in taunt coverage that might expose them to attacks from those AV/GM.

 

However, for most builds, this isn't actually all that important because Phantom Army is simply a damage cooldown.

[Hedgefund]

The base empowerment buff (2 pieces common, 1 piece uncommon) gives 20% recharge and covers that gap.

 

I just dusted of an ill/traps of mine and saw the PA recharge time at 60 seconds, then used the base empowerment and that number was 57 seconds.

[Maelwys]

If we're getting into the nitty-gritty of constant taunt coverage... it might be worth pointing out that whenever you cast PA the decoys don't all appear simultaneously.

Instead they're staggered.

The first Phantom appears right away (1.067s into the animation of PA) then the second appears after another 1s has elapsed; and the final one appears after yet another 1s has elapsed. And EACH of them has a SEPERATE duration of 60s... so technically to have at least one Phantom out constantly you only need 58.7s recharge on the PA power.

 

However it takes a beat for NPC mobs to recognise that new Phantoms have appeared and start being capable of attacking them. The Phantom Army Summon's "+Threatlevel" multiplier kicks in after 0.5s ; but for them to actually properly lock down aggro by "Taunting" something they need to hit it first - and their fastest attacks also have an AnimationTimeBeforeEffect of a little over 0.5s... so best-case that means aiming for ~58.1s rather than 56.7s.
But if you can't survive a single hit from whatever you're fighting then it's probably best to err on the safe side and get more recharge from an Alpha slot or base Empowerment buff or whatever. Never mind that being hit with a stray AoE recharge debuff can ruin your day.

The first toon I had with "Perma PA" back on live was an Illusion/Empath Controller; and checking their old circa-i19 build their PA had a recharge time of 56.62s (using a Spiritual Alpha slot plus 190% global recharge and drastically overslotting PA for recharge aspect enhancement). I remember using them to "tank" on an awful lot of AV fights... and they were one of the safest support toons I ever played; but there were definitely occasions where I caught a stray hit or two.

[Uun]

16 hours ago, Hjarki said:

You consider asking if you care about perma-PA. perma-PA is primarily of concern for builds that intend on solo'ing AV/GM.

Perma PA is useful if you intend on soloing anything. They keep the aggro off you.