Fire/MA

[Ukase]

Burst of Speed is one of those odd powers that needs more information with it. Even City of Data leaves me wanting more. 
While the range of going from point A to point B to use the power is 200 feet, there's no data to tell me what the radius for this attack is. And that makes it tough to know if a damage proc will fire in it consistently, or not. Anecdotally, it's not auto-hit, at least not against a pylon. Or if it is, it hits for zero damage. I know this because I did a number of tests against that pylon to see if damage procs were worth slotting. 

Somewhere in the many pages of these forums, I have a post talking about the Martial Combat secondary, praising it's distinction from other secondary sets. For years, I've told people I'm not old, I'm just older. But I've recently made a fire/ma blaster, and had zero memory of making one before. I guess that makes me officially old! I looked all through my stable of characters on all accounts - none of them are MC. Anyway, I made one. It's level 26 right now, going through the Croatoa arcs. 

This is such an odd character. Burst of speed is just fantastic. (I think) And weird in that it's so different from anything I've seen in game. It's certainly not as great as burn, but the idea that I can use this power 3x, and I can use other powers in between those 3x is over the top crazy nice to have. 

So, it seems like this would be a great proc power, given the 90 second recharge. And I slotted an eradication in it - and I look in the combat log, and the only thing I see is that Burst of speed is auto hit. I don't see any damage numbers being dished out (despite the orange numbers over the heads of the npcs) in the combat log. So, what's really going on here? Do I just put two recharge enhancements in this and call it day? No, I go on brainstorm and see if I can figure it out. 
 

Spoiler

Well, on Brainstorm, the combat log still doesn't tell me anything.  
RWZ has pylons. May as well test that. (fun fact - the burn out macro only seems to recharge the 3rd hit of this power) 

With nothing slotted: 

First hit:  31728-31681 = 47

2nd hit:  31681-31617 = 64

3rd hit:  31617-31552 = 65

 

That seems odd, maybe some rounding issue on the last two, but anyway, it is what it is with nothing slotted. 
So, I will add the Oblit: Chance of Smashing Damage. 
 

First hit:  31728-31681 = 47

2nd hit:  31681-31617 = 64

3rd hit:  31617-31497 = 120

2nd test: 

First hit:  31728-31681 = 47

2nd hit:  31681-31617 = 64

3rd hit:  31617-31552 = 65

 

3rd test: 

First hit:  31728-31681 = 47

2nd hit:  31681-31562 = 119

3rd hit:  31562-31442 = 120

 

So, I took out the oblit, and replaced it with a single damage IO. (if it matters, my character is 43, and the IO was a 45)
 

First hit:  31728-31663 = 65

2nd hit:  31663-31582 = 81

3rd hit:  31582-31499 = 83

 

Now for the fun part. I add a scirocco and an eradication proc. I want to add the pvp -res proc, but because the combat log doesn't show me anything...I'm not sure it's worth it. If I'm fighting terribly hard targets like AVs, odds are there are going to be team/league mates that have debuffs, right? I can always use envenomed daggers and apprentic charm for -regen and -res. 

 

First hit:  31728-31681 = 47

2nd hit:  31681-31507 = 174

3rd hit:  31507-31442 = 65

 

Weird numbers. Retesting. And it sucks when the pylon regens in the middle of the test. Sigh. Damn burnout macro is unreliable. Sigh again. 

First hit:  31728-31626 = 102

2nd hit:  31626-31453 = 173

3rd hit:  31453-31278 = 175

 

 

With just a recharge and 3 damage IOs:
 

First hit:  31728-31638 = 90

2nd hit:  31638-31532 = 106

3rd hit:  31532-31424 = 108

 

So, here's my take away. Use damage procs. They won't always fire. But when they do, the dps seems nice. The first hit, if the procs don't fire seem to do next to nothing. On the regular server, I have the OF Damage/kd IO in it, as well as the damage procs. At least that way, maybe they get knocked down if they don't take much damage. 

Maybe I should have put this in the feedback section? I dunno. If so, one of the powers that be can move it. I just thought it was interesting and worth sharing. 

If I use the 200 feet range as the radius in Boppers PPM formula, an individual proc has about a 22% chance to fire. I reckon slotting 4 damage procs raises the odds of getting a couple of extra procs to fire in the mix of those 3 bursts. The numbers make it seem worthwhile to me. But it's beyond me why the game doesn't list the radius for this power somewhere. It's not in detailed info tab. It's not in City of Data 2.0


Speaking of Bopper, after a number of different searches, I came up with this link Here where Bopper shares a lot of info that's just not anywhere else. Who knows why the game doesn't include this data in some fashion, but it is in the depths of the forums. 

Proc it. 

 

 

[Signalrunner]

There's two components to the power that interact with procs- and there's a hidden interaction that I'll explain further down:

 

• Damage dealing component (15ft radius pseudopet)
• Teleport self (90s base recharge, 1s cast time)

For the pseudopet, this means 3.5 PPM procs have a  21.705% chance to go off. It's close to the number you arrived at, but range has no factor for pseudopets, only radius. On Bopper's spreadsheet you'd use the Auto/Toggle/Pseudopet section to calculate the damage proc chance.

 

Now, why does the latter matter? Clicks that only affect yourself can't fire off damage procs but can fire off buff procs. Still, there's no meaningful buff procs you can slot in the power right?

 

That'd be correct, however Martial Combat itself has a global proc in-set: Reach for the Limit

 

RFTL has a 0.67 PPM (https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=blaster_support.martial_manipulation.build_up_proc)

If you slam BoS to the gills with around 95.90% recharge slotting, you get 3 shots to proc RFTL at  52.418% proc rate.

If you lower the slotted recharge, your chances increase up to 90%, but realistically you'd slot it for more uptime. A 50-60% chance rate is just fine because RFTL doesn't stack but does refresh. If you notice that you procced RFTL on the first or second hit, you could delay the next cast to potentially prolong the buff.

 

Not game changing by any means, but it does bring some life to the seemingly passive build up replacement power.

 

 

 

 

[Uun]

On 6/17/2025 at 11:16 AM, Ukase said:

there's no data to tell me what the radius for this attack is.

15 feet

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=pets.martial_manipulation_burst.burst_of_speed&at=minion_pets

[Ukase]

Thanks for that info. It's just a shame that stuff isn't in the detailed info tab, but then again...sheesh, I can only imagine the follow up questions that would arise from it. Not to mention the hassle of writing that stuff out for each power. 

[Ukase]

I thought I would post a follow up. It's just my opinion about MA in particular, at least with a blaster. 

Reaction time is one of the interesting sustains. I can certainly tell my movement is suppressed, and anecdotally, it's very strange that some mobs pay me no attention at all when my stealth radius is 65 feet and Reaction Time is on. And yet, other mobs do, despite being 65 feet. And I'm not talking about Rularuu seers, or certain longbow, or AVs. And I'm not talking about mobs in the labyrinth. But the cabal witches in Croatoa - some of them see me from time to time. Maybe they have leadership or something, and I'm just blissfully unaware, but I've no memory of them ever seeing any other of my blasters. 

I am in the habit of turning it off when I'm in zones or instances where mobs are higher than my blaster. 

Burst of Speed...I initially felt this was a no-brainer to proc. But the results are so inconsistent, I decided against it, thinking Inferno and blazing bolt would be better options for procs. 

I enjoyed this combo so much, that I made a 2nd fire/ma, Apache Fire. He should hit 50 sometime today. 

I've gone about building him based on some feedback about builds in general from folks in these forums that are clearly better players than I am. But...I dunno. Everything is in context of being on a team, and for solo play, I remain unconvinced that building for dps is the proper path for me. But for teams, most teams, anyway. And most leagues, the buffs are abundant enough where only rarely does the defense I have come into play. So, I set about just not worrying about numbers, but looking to proc 2-3 powers (which is about 1-2 powers more than I usually do. I like to have one heavy hitter when solo if the build will support it. 

The problem I ran into with blazing bolt is the lack of damage procs available. 
Stink of the Manticore, chance for toxic damage. 
Apocalypse: chance for negative damage
And Glad Javelin:Chance for toxic damage. 

There aren't any other procs to slap in there that give additional damage. So, I thought about using some more stinky manticore to at least get some more ranged defense. But, instead, I used mids to determine how best to get more dps out of it. Everyone keeps mentioning diminishing returns, particularly once you try to slot more than 3 SOs. But - that's still a return. As it stands now, my blazing bolt should hit for 1013.8 if I try to keep the stats out of the red in mids, against a +3. But, if I ignore the redness, I can just go nuts and hit for 1080.9. 
Accuracy "should" be less of a concern with Combat Teleport. I'm still not convinced this power is worth anything. Positioning? Well...yeah, it has some utility, but on the whole, I've made over 300 characters without it. It doesn't make getting into position any easier or faster, although it might be more clever. And, since you need two of the tp powers to fold space, it probably does have more utility than tp target. But...maybe not. Opinions are going to vary, of course.

Eagles Claw is great for procs. The problem is - there are certain npcs where it just doesn't pay to get in melee - like Eochai. That pumpkin patch is pretty rough. So, I haven't figured out how to move in, get the attack in, and move out, without flopping on the ground and taking more damage than I'd like. I'm sure it's possible, but I just haven't been able to get the movement down properly - it's just plain more simple to stand at a distance and blast. I have a similar mindset problem in the labyrinth. I know there are periods of time when you don't get sucked into the center. And I'd like to close in to melee. But my reflexes just aren't very good when trying to use macros and such. Maybe it just takes more practice - but I'm not sure it's really fun to have to practice. 


Fold Space - I swear, the words "literacy is a pre-requisite" should be splashed on my screen before each power selection when leveling up. I'm just now realizing that Fold Space is an AoE - from my location, not the npc I'm targeting. That explains some of the frustration I've felt with this power - a user error. 

I can now see a bit more clearly the utility of this when solo, now that I know the range limit. I checked, and it would seem an acc/range is slottable, but doesn't increase the 100 foot area. Sadly, that's consistent, so I shouldn't be surprised. (or if it does increase the area, Mids doesn't reflect this change.) 


Still, I think I like Fire/MA more than Fire/Fire. My next alt is going to have to be ice/MA. And, candidly, because of burst of speed, I don't know that combat teleport is that critical, because Burst of speed has a greater range, does the same things positionally, and does damage. And I have Aim for increased toHit that dwarfs the wonky to-hit from CT. 

Anyone have thoughts that might give me something else to think about with regards to MA, Combat Teleport, powers to proc, and Fold Space?