Early impressions -- best AT/experiences with Psionic Armor?

[lightpunch]

I've been waiting for a psi armor set for years. It's mechanics are a little different than I would have wanted, but I'm into the regen, high-risk high-reward, multiple layers of protection thing it seems to have going for it. I also don't mind clickyness in a defensive set, so that helps.

 

But I'm having trouble figuring out what AT makes the best use of the set. I know it's very early days, but does anyone have thoughts on what AT Psionic Armor will shine the best on?

Looking at it on paper, I thought brute would be the best fit. The regen and +hp abilities favor the beefier ATs, and the essentialness of consume/devour psyche to the playstyle seems well-suited towards the go-go-go of brutes and fury. With the changes to tanks, and only one long-shelved level 50 Bbrute in my roster, it seemed like a good opportunity to bring a new brute into my rotation

 

But am I undervaluing what the set can do for scrappers, or sentinels? How are you playing your first Psionic Armor character?

[Championess]

I tested out the armor on tank, stalker and scrapper. 

 

The tank did quite well with lots of adds but if I got hit with some cascading debuff it could be too hard to recover from solo.  Ran the scrapper through the same arc, once I learned the armor well it did real well with the offensive clearing I was able to do on a scrapper.  If I got hit with the same debuffs I'd likely have cleared much more adds by then so I could manage through. 

 

For solo or offensive dps play I'd go with scrapper paired with some good aoe assaults.  If you're looking to tank for a team then psi will do well.  Aura of Insanity is real neat.

 

I decided to go stalker since they're coolest plus I'd get another high ST attack and placate in that assault and I have a feel for the armor I can manage.  

Edited June 18 by Championess

[Warshades]

My first psi armor char will be a psi/ice tank. I wanted to try out the idea of having Aura of Insanity while also laying down Ice Patch. If they're not CC'd by AoI, they'll be falling down on the ice and provide more time for the regen to work. This is more for the fun than any theme or OP combo. I could also see this working out nicely for scrappers and stalkers since you can lay down the Ice Patch, back out to use the cone version of Devour Psyche, and then get back into the middle of the action with the mobs not scattering or moving much. 

 

The only version of psi armor that I tried on beta was a psi/ma tank. Unfortunately without any DDR, the soft capped defense with Storm Kick would get destroyed to easily and quickly to really be a factor beyond reducing the impact of the alpha strikes by mobs. 

[Erratic1]

I have been pleasantly surprised at lower levels (20s) just how survivable a Brute using Psionic Armor is while leaping into large groups, though some portion of that has come from Katana/Divine Avalanche. While the aforementioned lack of DDR means defense will not contribute much against certain foes, I am hoping the -Recharge from Impose Presence combined with Aura of Insanity and Psychokinetic Barrier will still provide adequate safety.

[lightpunch]

14 hours ago, Warshades said:

The only version of psi armor that I tried on beta was a psi/ma tank. Unfortunately without any DDR, the soft capped defense with Storm Kick would get destroyed to easily and quickly to really be a factor beyond reducing the impact of the alpha strikes by mobs. 

 

6 hours ago, Erratic1 said:

While the aforementioned lack of DDR means defense will not contribute much against certain foes, I am hoping the -Recharge from Impose Presence combined with Aura of Insanity and Psychokinetic Barrier will still provide adequate safety.

 

I was under the impression that Precognition had some DDR, or at least that's what the in-game description on my brute suggests. Is it just the case that it's not enough to make a difference?

MA/Psi is actually what I'm running with my Brute right now. I've yet to team so I haven't faced mobs bigger than +1 level/+3 mob, but in the mid-20s she's feeling pretty sturdy.

[Psyonico]

There is some, but it’s pretty low.

[Erratic1]

49 minutes ago, lightpunch said:

I was under the impression that Precognition had some DDR, or at least that's what the in-game description on my brute suggests. Is it just the case that it's not enough to make a difference?

 

It is a small amount which isnt going to stand up too well in the face of serious debuffs. I'm fine with that as the set has other tools.

[Warshades]

7 hours ago, lightpunch said:

I was under the impression that Precognition had some DDR, or at least that's what the in-game description on my brute suggests. Is it just the case that it's not enough to make a difference?

 

I should add that psionic did go through some fine tuning. I had tested the set initially before the DDR was added to it. 

[Shadowstormprime]

Anyone else have some pairings with Psi Armor they’re particularly jazzed about?

[Thraxen]

I'm liking it much more on a brute than scrapper.  The cone on consume psyche was annoying.  And imposing presence just seems WAAAAAAAY better than mask presence.  

[Shadowstormprime]

2 hours ago, Thraxen said:

I'm liking it much more on a brute than scrapper.  The cone on consume psyche was annoying.  And imposing presence just seems WAAAAAAAY better than mask presence.  

What primaries do you think go well with it?

[Thraxen]

Got me. I did MA but mostly just cause I like MA and don’t have it on a brute. Dark stacking fear might be ok but the t9 power isn’t up that often. Guess any stun/hold/etc stacks with tha aura randomly.
 

Ice melee might be pretty good to stack -recharge 

[electric_emu]

On 6/26/2025 at 9:13 PM, Shadowstormprime said:

What primaries do you think go well with it?

 

I'm currently leveling up a Katana/Psi Brute and it is (unsurprisingly) a fantastic pairing, much the same way Katana/Broadsword pairs well with Willpower and Bio Armor.

[Hedgefund2]

I've been playing a Stalker, Kinetic Melee.

 

I grinded from 1-50 using SOs (with an odd special IO thrown in along the way like Panacea or Shield Wall uniques).  I like for my first playthrough to use SOs to give me a more focused assessment of the set itself and not the X% additional defense (for example).  The grind was fine, I played with bosses on, +2 for the most part, 

 

Once 50 I made my IO set build,  I had low expectations because the resistance numbers out of the box are unimpressive and the defense is negligible.  But, Psycho Barrier is very very nice and liberal use of Devour Psyche gets regen numbers to a pretty impressive level.  I've been on teams since 50 where things started not going well, teammates dying, taking lots of damage, but my guy was at very little risk.  So yeah, I have to say this armor set does provide the tools to keep you upright.

 

However... I find the need to spam two powers (DS and PB) for damage mitigation to be more than I'd rather have to click.  I'd rather be clicking a freshly recharged BU+AS.  Both of those secondary powers recharge quickly so it's a LOT of clicking.  

 

Other thoughts - I've been pleasantly surprised with Aura of Madness.  I was basically expecting it to be a random Oppressive Gloom but it seems to work differently and I get bosses mezzed frequently.  Their being confused isn't all great, they tend to wander out of melee to attack nearby foes.

 

At one point I wanted to see the result of using Power Transfer heal proc in DS and good lord no, don't do that.  I thought spamming against multiple targets might take advantage of the 1-((1-p)^n) effect that works so well for the FF proc but the adaptive recharge just guts the proc rate.

 

Back to Aura of Madness I'm curious what people's experiences are with various slotting.  I'm not talking about slotting as mules for set bonuses.  I've got 2 level 53 Hami acc/mez and that's enough to make me content.  I'm guessing procs follow standard toggle rules, checking every 10 seconds.  Y/N or is there some surprise within, due to child effects and whatnot?  As a Stalker I'm intrigued with the placate proc but that seems too far down the Bayes tree to really be effective.

 

I've used Momenti Mori as a rez only, the recharge is long enough that I'd rather keep it available as a rez as opposed to a minor +maxHP buff.  Am I "doing it wrong"? 

 

All told, I'm pleasantly surprised at the survivability this offers.  For how I like to play though, I don't think I'll be going back to it, maybe for a tank eventually.

Edited July 4 by Hedgefund2

[KaizenSoze]

On 6/26/2025 at 5:54 PM, Shadowstormprime said:

Anyone else have some pairings with Psi Armor they’re particularly jazzed about?

It's awesome with Electrical Blast on Sentinel. 

 

[twozerofoxtrot]

I'm with Kaizen I've found it really strong on Sents. Especially flying Sents. The cone devour works exceptionally well with flight.

 

After that? I'm toying around with a brute and a scrapper. Early days but so far so good.

 

I did do some tests with Tankers in open beta and overall it's good but nothing I felt over the moon about.

[Hjarki]

Elec/Psi/Elec Sentinel works for me. Devour Psyche is a clunky recovery/regen power. But it's a great -regen/-recovery power against single tough targets. Since Elec Blast doesn't really need recovery bonuses anyway, it works out well. The set as a whole has a fairly comprehensive set of status/debuff protections even if the resist/defense aren't particularly great - fine for a build that can operate well outside of melee and can cripple enemies with end drain.

 

In terms of the Aura, I think triple HO Acc/Control, Unbreakable Constraint proc, Call of the Sandman proc, Coercive Persuasion proc probably works well but I haven't really looked too deeply into how effective those procs are.

[KaizenSoze]

19 hours ago, Hjarki said:

Elec/Psi/Elec Sentinel works for me. Devour Psyche is a clunky recovery/regen power. But it's a great -regen/-recovery power against single tough targets. Since Elec Blast doesn't really need recovery bonuses anyway, it works out well. The set as a whole has a fairly comprehensive set of status/debuff protections even if the resist/defense aren't particularly great - fine for a build that can operate well outside of melee and can cripple enemies with end drain.

 

In terms of the Aura, I think triple HO Acc/Control, Unbreakable Constraint proc, Call of the Sandman proc, Coercive Persuasion proc probably works well but I haven't really looked too deeply into how effective those procs are.

My Sentinel lives in melee range to maximize Aura of Madness. There is no reason is shouldn't work well on melee toons.

 

Devour Psyche is great against groups that cone when buffed with Clarion Radial hits a lot of targets. The resists can quite good, except Toxic, plus the quick recharging large absorb backed by those resists makes for a durable build. An absorb which is also buffed by Clarion Radial.

 

The defense is the only weak part, no enough DDR, which means is useless to build for defense. Build for resists and absorb and it works well. 

[Championess]

On 7/4/2025 at 5:01 AM, Hedgefund2 said:

Back to Aura of Madness I'm curious what people's experiences are with various slotting.  I'm not talking about slotting as mules for set bonuses.  I've got 2 level 53 Hami acc/mez and that's enough to make me content.  I'm guessing procs follow standard toggle rules, checking every 10 seconds.  Y/N or is there some surprise within, due to child effects and whatnot?  As a Stalker I'm intrigued with the placate proc but that seems too far down the Bayes tree to really be effective.

 

I slotted mine with the 2 acc/mez HO's and 4 Basilisks.  I also went with Vigor Radial alpha.  Every random control it pulses will be 8 mag except for the stun at 7. 

 

Love the power such good mitigation and paired with Ice Melee's Frozen Aura's pbaoe sleep I'm getting some nice -res around me.

Edited July 9 by Championess

[Hedgefund2]

5 hours ago, Championess said:

 

I slotted mine with the 2 acc/mez HO's and 4 Basilisks.  I also went with Vigor Radial alpha.  Every random control it pulses will be 8 mag except for the stun at 7. 

 

Love the power such good mitigation and paired with Ice Melee's Frozen Aura's pbaoe sleep I'm getting some nice -res around me.

 

 

I'm pretty far into Musc at this point but Vigor Radial is a clever choice. 

 

I was wondering how you got to mag 8 but then I saw the "note".  I think I'm going to scrap Musc and follow your path.  

 

[Championess]

55 minutes ago, Hedgefund2 said:

 

 

I'm pretty far into Musc at this point but Vigor Radial is a clever choice. 

 

I was wondering how you got to mag 8 but then I saw the "note".  I think I'm going to scrap Musc and follow your path.  

 

 

Pulsing 8 mag around you every second will keep the area around you well covered even if its a low duration.  Its a symbiotic power with actual control ATs.  Aura clears the mag bars for them quick and they bring the duration in their controls.