Bio Armor/Staff Fighting Tanker!

[StriderIV]

This is a Bio/Staff I was working up. Seems like it should be pretty tough/adaptable 😛 Thanks for @Xandyr and @Onlyasandwich for giving me some ideas and letting me stand on their shoulders.

Some thoughts:
 

• Wondering if I should drop an attack (Maybe Innoc Strikes?) to pick up an epic pool power, maybe Gloom or something like that.
• Could also just drop Focused Accuracy, not sure if is needed.
• If I drop FA, it can open up another epic pool (or maybe Combat Teleport?).

 

Would love to hear your thoughts/any changes you might make! I’ve been messing around with what primary to pair with Staff. Bio seems to have a lot of synergy. 

Ricad Taranis - Tanker (Bio Armor - Staff Fighting).mbd

[Maelwys]

It's certainly powerful combo; lots of AoE and -Res and Guarded Spin makes up for Bio's few shortcomings.

 

Using too many click powers outside of Staff's combo mechanic can actually slow you down though. Comboed Eye of the Storm spam (with Force Feedback and -Res Procs) is what keeps you ticking whenever you're mindlessly AOEing... and if you're fighting something tough then you'll want to keep a comboed Sky Splitter (and 1-2 stacks of Guarded Spin) going. The optimal chain can just about cope with about one extra power activation (e.g. a single Epic blast) but personally I did without.

 

I'd aim for 45% to F/C/E/N typed defense and within one SMoT Proc of the S/L Resistance Hardcap. Getting your baseline melee positional defense up high enough that one copy of Guarded Spin softcaps it should be pretty straightforward too. Bear in mind that Bio has no DDR, but being able to stack a second copy of Guarded Spin on demand will compensate for that in most everything short of 4* content.

 

Also... swap Precise Strike for Mercurial Blow (that's where the Achilles Heel Proc goes!) 😉

 

Edited Saturday at 12:55 AM by Maelwys

[StriderIV]

7 minutes ago, Maelwys said:

It's certainly powerful combo; lots of AoE and -Res and Guarded Spin makes up for Bio's few shortcomings.

 

Using too many click powers outside of Staff's combo mechanic can actually slow you down though. Comboed Eye of the Storm spam (with Force Feedback and -Res Procs) is what keeps you ticking whenever you're mindlessly AOEing... and if you're fighting something tough then you'll want to keep a comboed Sky Splitter (and 1-2 stacks of Guarded Spin) going. The optimal chain can just about cope with about one extra power activation (e.g. a single Epic blast) but personally I did without.

 

I'd aim for 45% to F/C/E/N typed defense and within one SMoT Proc of the S/L Resistance Hardcap. Getting your baseline melee positional defense up high enough that one copy of Guarded Spin softcaps it should be pretty straightforward too. Bear in mind that Bio has no DDR, but being able to stack a second copy of Guarded Spin on demand will compensate for that in most everything short of 4* content.

 

Thanks for this Maelwys! I do like how Serpent's reach kind of works as a quasi ranged attack. In your opinion, would you keep Innoc Strikes and have enough AOE with Guarded Spin and EOTS? Maybe grab an epic blast? Or do you feel Innoc adds enough value?

[Xandyr]

I personally like Innocuous Strikes....it procs fairly well. 

 

 FA is nice to have,especially since you're not running Tactics. Doesn't matter how many (or few) attacks you have or how strong they are, if you miss.

 

 IMHO, the only other Epic power to go for would be for Darkest Night. That to hit/damage debuff is yummy.

 

 

[Maelwys]

9 minutes ago, StriderIV said:

would you keep Innoc Strikes and have enough AOE with Guarded Spin and EOTS?

 

Yeah. Because on a Tanker Innocuous Strikes gets double buffed by Gauntlet (90ft cone/5 targets --> 135ft Cone/10 Targets!) and more importantly it helps generate Form of the Body stacks for Eye of the Storm.

 

With sufficient Recharge (from Force Feedback!) you can just about chain GS > IS > GS > EoTS... but trading a GS for Serpent's Reach makes it a bit easier to juggle and can trigger Decimation procs:

Spoiler

 

Edited Saturday at 01:05 AM by Maelwys

[StriderIV]

57 minutes ago, Maelwys said:

 

Yeah. Because on a Tanker Innocuous Strikes gets double buffed by Gauntlet (90ft cone/5 targets --> 135ft Cone/10 Targets!) and more importantly it helps generate Form of the Body stacks for Eye of the Storm.

 

With sufficient Recharge (from Force Feedback!) you can just about chain GS > IS > GS > EoTS... but trading a GS for Serpent's Reach makes it a bit easier to juggle and can trigger Decimation procs:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

This is beyond helpful, thanks!

[StriderIV]

1 hour ago, Xandyr said:

I personally like Innocuous Strikes....it procs fairly well. 

 

 FA is nice to have,especially since you're not running Tactics. Doesn't matter how many (or few) attacks you have or how strong they are, if you miss.

 

 IMHO, the only other Epic power to go for would be for Darkest Night. That to hit/damage debuff is yummy.

 

 

Darkest Night could be a cool option… Bio has the endurance tools to deal with if.

 

I think you’re right, might hold onto FA. As for IS, it DOES seem to proc well. I did drop a set in it, but might play around more with procs.

[Hjarki]

I play this combo, albeit in a very different fashion.

 

From Staff Mastery, I take Staff Mastery and set it to Mind. Then I do:

• Precise Strike (Superior Might of Tanker 4p; Hecatomb proc; another proc)
• Guarded Spin (Fury of the Gladiator A/D, proc; Obliteration D, proc; Armageddon proc; LotG recharge)
• Serpent's Reach (Gladiator's Javelin A/D, proc; Apocalypse D, proc; Explosive Strike proc; Perfect Zinger proc)
• Innocuous Strikes (Armageddon 5p; another proc)

I don't take any of the spenders or Mercurial Strike. In a ST fight, I can go PS->GS->PS->SR. For multi-target, I can just rotate the two Cones. Since I Hover, this generally allows me to blanket most spawns.

 

For Bio, I skip Parasitic Aura. I use 2xEradication 3p and 2xMocking Beratement 6p to get enough F/C/E/N to reach incarnate soft-cap in Defensive (and obviously well above regular soft-cap in Offensive). I hard-cap S/L and don't worry much about other resists. 6p Preventative Medicine in Ablative for some more recharge - between my two purple sets, the ATO 4p, Preventative Medicine, the two Mocking Beratement, 5xLotG and Mind, I've got enough recharge for the build.

 

For pools, I take Fighting, Leadership (Maneuvers/Assault), Leaping (Combat Jumping) and Flying (Hover/Fly). I use Psi Mastery (Dominate w/Unbreakable Constraint and Harmonic Mind).

 

While this obviously isn't the maximum possible dps out of the build, it will generally deliver a lot more dps than straight-slotting the offensive powers for damage. Since the AF of melee cones is relatively low, those procs don't perform all that much worse than they would in ST powers (and certainly better than in a PBAoE aura).

 

 

[StriderIV]

16 hours ago, Hjarki said:

I play this combo, albeit in a very different fashion.

 

From Staff Mastery, I take Staff Mastery and set it to Mind. Then I do:

• Precise Strike (Superior Might of Tanker 4p; Hecatomb proc; another proc)
• Guarded Spin (Fury of the Gladiator A/D, proc; Obliteration D, proc; Armageddon proc; LotG recharge)
• Serpent's Reach (Gladiator's Javelin A/D, proc; Apocalypse D, proc; Explosive Strike proc; Perfect Zinger proc)
• Innocuous Strikes (Armageddon 5p; another proc)

I don't take any of the spenders or Mercurial Strike. In a ST fight, I can go PS->GS->PS->SR. For multi-target, I can just rotate the two Cones. Since I Hover, this generally allows me to blanket most spawns.

 

For Bio, I skip Parasitic Aura. I use 2xEradication 3p and 2xMocking Beratement 6p to get enough F/C/E/N to reach incarnate soft-cap in Defensive (and obviously well above regular soft-cap in Offensive). I hard-cap S/L and don't worry much about other resists. 6p Preventative Medicine in Ablative for some more recharge - between my two purple sets, the ATO 4p, Preventative Medicine, the two Mocking Beratement, 5xLotG and Mind, I've got enough recharge for the build.

 

For pools, I take Fighting, Leadership (Maneuvers/Assault), Leaping (Combat Jumping) and Flying (Hover/Fly). I use Psi Mastery (Dominate w/Unbreakable Constraint and Harmonic Mind).

 

While this obviously isn't the maximum possible dps out of the build, it will generally deliver a lot more dps than straight-slotting the offensive powers for damage. Since the AF of melee cones is relatively low, those procs don't perform all that much worse than they would in ST powers (and certainly better than in a PBAoE aura).

 

 

I just wanted to say, this is one of the awesome parts about this game. Like, I would have never thought to play this combo in THAT way… and yet you did and made it effective. I just can imagine how awesome the toon must look hovering there dropping Guarded Spin on baddies haha