Arsenal/Arsenal Questions

[Adeon Hawkwood]

I'm thinking of making an Arsenal/Arsenal and was wondering how this plays? My only previous Dom was Earth/Fire who was very much a ranged Dom but I get the feeling that /Arsenal really wants to be in close to maximize damage from melee attacks and trip mine?

 

Is it worth doing some proc-bombing with LN₂, Smoke Canister and/or Tear Gas? I haven't played in some years and I'm not sure how well procs work with pseudo pets (I recall they used to be somewhat erratic depending on how bugged the code was that day). But since /Arsenal seems a bit light in terms of AoE I could see adding some extra AoE damage to the pairing that way.

 

Any thoughts on Epic pool options? Thematically I'm leaning towards Energy or Mace but I'm not thrilled about either from a mechanical viewpoint so may see if I can justify something else.

[lemming]

First Dom that I have continued playing past 50.   I like it though I'm thinking of swapping Buttstroke out since it's the only reason to be close in.  Just have to check my set bonuses probably.

 

Cyro Freeze Ray is the only item I wound up proccing.   iirc, Sleep Grenade was procc'd in the build I used, but I decided to try out the Cupid Set.  Seems to synergize decently with the Smoke Cannister though all the AOE control just stops most of the spawns from ever responding.

 

domaa.txt

[Psyonico]

My Arse/Arse is 46 I think.  Super fun to play.  My only “melee” attacks are buttstroke and trip mine.  If the AoE stun is on CD, I fire off smoke canister followed immediately by buckshot, which does a great job confusing all enemies.  Toe bombing with Trip Mine is great, but for the most part I play at range.  I use Tranquilizer slotted for damage as an attack, it doesn’t quite do as much DPS as the T1 blast, but the sleep is mag 3.5 and auto-hit so it gives a little bit extra mitigation.

 

I’ve heard good things about proccing the AoE sleep, but I generally don’t run proc builds, so I don’t have any experience with it myself.

 

@lemming I like the idea of the Cupid set in the sleep, I may steal that for my build.

[Adeon Hawkwood]

Thank you both.

[BZRKR]

Seems like you already are, but you should definitely make and play one!

 

I put Coercive Persuasion in Smoke Canister, and Cupid's Crush in Buckshot, so I get plenty of confusion stacked up. I also took Buttstroke and Elbow Strike. After firing off a salvo of Sleep Grenade+Smoke Canister and (Tear Gas if it's up), I'll Cryo Freeze a boss or other problematic target and then get close to plant a Trip Mine, Buttstroke any survivors, and if there is still an enemy staggering around, I'll give them the ol' Elbow.

 

The knockback on Elbow Strike is hilarious, and the 1-2 combo of Buttstroke+Elbow Strike is satisfyingly violent.

[Adeon Hawkwood]

I'll admit the idea of stacking lots of Confuse from powers and procs does amuse me, gives it a very Batman vibe.

 

EDIT: Also looking at the numbers more I hadn't realized how much AoE damage Arsenal Control has. As I said my prior experience was with Earth Control where the AoE controls with damage do minimal damage but looking at the stats both Sleep Grenade and LN₂ are dealing a decent amount of damage. Sure the recharge is long but it's still a decent hit.

Edited Thursday at 10:07 PM by Adeon Hawkwood

[Psyonico]

2 hours ago, BZRKR said:

Cupid's Crush in Buckshot

That’s a good idea too… now the question is sleep grenade or buckshot?

 

buckshot has the added bonus on potentially instantly confusing bosses, but if what I’ve read is true, sleep grenade procs really well…

[Maelwys]

6 hours ago, Psyonico said:

 but if what I’ve read is true, sleep grenade procs really well…

 

It does indeed.

 

 

[Psyonico]

I remembered late last night that buckshot has a chance for knockback, so with a Sudden Acceleration in buckshot that leaves Cupid’s Crush going into Sleep Grenade if I want the recharge bonus.

[Adeon Hawkwood]

As a note I did roll up my character last night and got them to level 13. I'm liking it so far, although figuring out the powers has been interesting. Liquid Nitrogen in particular has been a bit disappointing, I was expecting something more like Earthquake but it's not as good, looking at City of Data I see if has a 4.5s cooldown for how often it can knockdown and particular enemy so that would explain why. It's still useful for keeping people in the area of other powers but doesn't provide a ton of soft control on it's own.

[arcane]

The only AoE powers you want to potentially proc in Arse Control are Sleep Grenade and Flash Bang. I can’t remember if I bothered with proc bombing those on my Arse/Arse Dom, but I definitely did on my Arse/Marine Troller.

 

And yeah you probably have to be in melee a little more than Earth/Fire. If only because /Fire has three good ranged attacks where /Arse has two - so I wound up using Elbow Strike. The mines aren’t great or terrible. Better than Combustion at least, I’d reckon.

Edited yesterday at 05:17 PM by arcane

[BZRKR]

I have skipped Liquid Nitrogen on the past two Arsenal Control characters I've made.

On my Arsenal/ Arsenal Dominator, I went with Cupid's Crush in Buckshot, Ragnarok in Sleep Grenade, and Coercive Persuasion in Smoke Cannister. I'm mostly building for recharge because it's a Dominator, but the knockdown/back on Ragnarok doesn't seem to interfere with the sleep effects, and because I've pushed +recharge so hard in my build, Sleep Grenade and Smoke Canister are almost always the 1-2 opening salvo on a group.

I haven't had too much issue with Buckshot's knockback. Cryo Freeze Ray protects a held target from knockback, and since the gas clouds persist, either I'm knocking mobs back into the cloud after they charge me, or they wander back in on their own. Or I chuck them into walls etc.

 

And on the Arsenal/ Arsenal Dominator, I haven't proc bombed any power. Oh, and if you decide you like Arsenal Control, you should make an Arsenal/ Marine Controller at some point.