Psi Armor Thoughts

[Renatos1023]

Honestly, just wanted share my experience and to hear the thoughts of others on Psi Armor on a Scrapper. I just hit 31 on mine - started with DFB, hit the Hollows for some Frostfire, then did Posi, Synapse, and Yin so far. 

 

Scrappers are not my main AT -- I love me my Defenders. But I wanted to try Psi Armor and I didn't want to be a Tank. Generally, when I want a Scrapper, I go with a Defense-based set. I'm always cautious about using predominantly Resistance based sets on Scrappers because the 75% res cap is such a huge hit compared to a Tank's 90% res cap. But here we go:

 

Renato: Energy Melee/Psi Armor Scrapper - Lv.31

 

• Lv.1-15
  • These levels were relatively normal for a Scrapper. The basic shields do what they do, there is really nothing special in the first 4 secondary powers that you can take through level 10. I struggled with endurance and had to decide which shields I wanted to use. I think that is typical for this level of Scrapper.
  • I read that Psi Armor has a hole to lethal res, which clocks in at 15% un-enhanced (which I thought was relatively low, IMO). This is also the same value for Fire and Cold res. Not sure that counts as a hole, but it can definitely be felt before you get Devour Psyche.
  • The first 15 levels flew by due to DFB + Frostfire, but they were endurance intensive. Attack-wise I rotated through Barrage, Energy Punch, and Power Crash. Gotta say I love Energy Melee so far. Hits hard, and the cone was a nice add (I haven't played energy melee since live when it struggled)
  • You'll likely have to juggle your toggle defenses until you hit 16 and get Devour Psyche. The first 15 levels go by quick, which is nice, because you don't get the first two set-defining powers until 16 and 20.
• Lv. 16-25
  • This is when you start to feel super, and you get those first set defining powers. I have to say I thought I'd hate the Devour Psyche cone on a Scrapper...but nay. It has such a long range and wide area that I always hit a good number of mobs with it. Its lovely once you get the stacks maxed out so that you only have to hit one target to maintain those stacks. This power, once slotted, greatly helps with your endurance issues. The regen also helps with the (IMO) relatively lower resist numbers. DP was a game changer for me at 16. I felt meh, then...boom...felt strong. And that is just with basic IOs.
  • Psychokinetic Barrier at Lv.20 is the cherry on top of your Devour Psyche Sundae. The two powers together allow you to do stupid things at low levels - granted I had good teams behind me in all my TFs. But I did main "tank" and absorb the alpha multiple times. PB fills that "self-healing" hole that you've been looking for. A nice boost to MaxHP plus an Absorb shield, along with some other resistances. Take it and slot it well.
  • Precognition is a no-brainer. Free auto-defense with some +perception...yes please.
  • I also got Total Focus which really made me start to appreciate Energy melee. Hits hard and opens some avenues on other powers for more effects.
• Lv. 26-31
  • I finally got some slots into my EM attacks and picked up Energy Transfer. Total game changer for your damage game. I now understand why EM is the king of single target damage. Is AoE lacking, sure. But I only took the cone and haven't yet taken the PBAoE.
  • Picked up Aura of Insanity and Memento Mori. I can't say I've yet to notice any big changes or mez effects with AoI. Granted mine is only slotted with an Acc so far. So, I'm guessing that once I can get some of those Hami Acc/Mez enhances in it, that will make a difference. 
  • I've yet to use Memento Mori, but I just slotted it with 2 recharge and a Heal so far at Lv.31. I'll have to check back in once I've tried it out in combat.

 

Overall Thoughts:

• At Lv.31 I've really liked both sets. The stuns from EM hit often enough that I think they help with survivability. And as I said, once you get Devour Psyche and Psychokinetic Barrier, you really start to feel like the Scrapper you want to be. DP and PB will likely lead you to some scrapperlock deaths....but isn't that the point of being a Scrapper.

[bAss_ackwards]

I'd say Devour Psyche and Momento Mori are the set defining abilities. I am not seeing the Lethal hole and my Mids might be out of date, but I don't have acces to my PC right now to verify in-game. It is severely lacking in the Toxic mitigation department however. For end game build, you can achieve overall decent levels of resists.

 

With the stealth and autopowers giving positional defense you can suppliment your resists with softcapped defense to get a bit of that multilayered survivability goodness.

 

A fun set for sure. I have made quite a few Scrappers with Psi Armor now and have enjoyed them all so far.

 

[aethereal]

I don't know why MIDS is showing you as having the same lethal and smashing resistance, that seems wrong to me.  Psychic Wall provides Scrappers, unenhanced, 22.5% resistance to Smashing and Psychic, and 15% resistance to Lethal.  Does that constitute a "hole"?  I mean, I dunno.  But unless you somehow got lethal-only resistance from some other source that exactly makes up for the difference between the Smashing and Lethal resistance in Psychic Wall, I don't think you should have the same resistance values, like MIDS reports you do.

[Hedgefund2]

I'm going to chime in despite my own experiences coming from playing a Stalker.  From the main screen all I saw was the thread title not the sub forum.  Still I think it's relevant.  

 

First off, yes there's an imbalance between smash and lethal res.  Is this the only armor set like that?  I looked at my Mids and it too has the values equal and they are not.

 

The Stalker numbers match what aethereal reponrted:

 

https://cod.uberguy.net./html/power.html?power=stalker_defense.psionic_armor.psychic_wall&at=stalker

 

Just looking at the resulting totals in Mids looks unimpressive with just SOs.  I leveled up with SOs, this is how I like to do a first run with a powerset, just to make sure to get the real flavor of the set and not wonder if it was good because of the powers or the X% defense and Y% recharge added.

 

While on SOs I found long fights, like with an EB, could really be a struggle for endurance.  I may have been underutilizing DS.  I definitely spammed psycho barrier when it was available.  As a Stalker I had an out with Placate, if fights got hairy.  

 

Now 50 and fully built with sets (working on incarnates) I find the survivability pretty good.  That's with me spamming DS and PB which are nice tools to keep you upright.

 

I put two lvl 53 acc/mez HOs in Aura of Madness and what it's doing is whatever it's doing.  I'm not convinced I would have additional debt accrued if I had skipped this power but I do see various mezzes in action.  

 

On the other hand, and this is a major minus to me, is needing to spam two secondary powers (not counting damaging powers).  It's not uncommon to have one power that needs clicks, such as Practiced Brawler or Ablative Carapace but two is just too much for my tastes.  I want most of my action points to be used on attacks.  At least both are fairly quick activating.  I certainly don't bother maximizing cone targets, which would only slow things down a little more.

 

I'll give an "incomplete" at this point because I want to put more time in, but absent some lightbulb going off in my head about how to more effectively play, I'm probably going to put this to the end of the bench of retired 50s eventually.

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 07:34 PM by Hedgefund2

[aethereal]

11 minutes ago, Hedgefund2 said:

First off, yes there's an imbalance between smash and lethal res.  Is this the only armor set like that?  I looked at my Mids and it too has the values equal and they are not.

 

Yes, I believe it's the only armor set with unbalanced lethal/smashing resistance.  Certain melee powers (the parry-lookalikes) sometimes provide unbalanced lethal/smashing defense, and other armor sets give other unbalanced pairs (like, obviously fire and ice armor give much more fire and ice resistance, respectively, than the other in their pair, similarly Energy Aura and Dark Armor), but I believe this is the only lethal/smashing resistance disparity.

 

EDIT:  Unbalanced lethal/smashing resistances are fairly common among enemy groups, just not player sets.

Edited Wednesday at 07:41 PM by aethereal

[bAss_ackwards]

Yeah I probably need to update my Mids, or the data is oncorrect. Thankfully you can throw in a good amount of S/L defense without much effort to fight off some of the lethal damage that comes your way.

[PyroBeetle]

I have found the set to be extremely well balanced so far. Unfortunately all of the tools are kind of designed to work together, Psychokinetic Barrier gives you a bit of time so  hits dont start chewing into you right away until you have thinned the herd a little bit and  also refreshes in about 20 seconds for me, and is used on recharge (bound to my w key as well as my inspiration combine macros, in addition to moving me forward) Devour Psyche I have slotted with 2 50+5 each of End Mod and Heal, which when I ha e 10 stacks provides an impressive amount of recharge and regeneration, but it wouldn't function nearly as well without barrier. Aura of Insanity I have slotted with 3 Winters and 3 mez hamidon enhancements. Any particular mob is affected about 40 percent of the time, including bosses with my slotting, which is often enough for the other two click powers to do their thing. Finally Memento Mori is a great "Oh poop" button which I have frankenslotted with 3 heal/recharge enhancements.

 

All together I have found the set to be the most versatile I have played. My regen numbers from my overall build approach 6% per second at peak and average above 5%. It is a multi layered set and no single power can really be skipped without the others falling. DP is an excellent example of adaptive recharge at its best, as after you have 10 stacks, it's better if you just hit 1 mob with it to renew all your stacks.

 

Edit: as with many other busy sets, programming in some automation is very helpful.

Edited 13 hours ago by PyroBeetle