Fiery Melee & Procs

[WuTang]

Question about proc'ing out Fiery Melee...

 

I was putting a build together and according to MIDs most of Fiery Melee's attacks proc out very nicely. BUT then I got to thinking, fire damage is the least resisted in game, so would it make more sense to just boost the inherent damage of the power and then also reap the benefits of all the set bonuses?

 

I was putting together a Brute build, but assume it's the same across all the melee ATs.

 

Thanks!

-WT

[Warshades]

4 hours ago, WuTang said:

so would it make more sense to just boost the inherent damage of the power and then also reap the benefits of all the set bonuses?

 

Short answer is no. Here's an example with and without procs and how close using a full damage set is compared to average damage slotting of a proc'd out power:

 

With some exceptions like SS due to rage or else stacking FA + Tactics, normally you'd partially proc out a power along with some acc/dmg slotting. This is FSC slotted with Superior Avalanche acc/dmg, acc/dmg/end, and a acc/dmg HO.

 

This is FSC slotted with a 5 piece Obliteration set (excluding the proc).

 

Now let's look at the addition of procs. This is the same slotting as the first example but with the addition of the Eradication, Obliteration, and Scirocco procs.

 

This is a full 6 set Obliteration.

 

The point of these examples is that you can still 3-4 proc a power and get near identical base damage enhancement (131.6 vs. 138) as what you would get from using an IO set. This gap would be further closed if you used musculature alpha. Having 3 additional procs, even if damage ends up partially resisted from them, would still heavily out damage not using procs or having only 1.

 

 

 

[Maelwys]

Warshades covered the damage-per-activation numbers above... however another thing to consider is how complete your attack chain is.
This is particularly true whenever it comes to AoE attacks.

If you have so many good attacks that you can chain them all back to back constantly without any gaps... then by all means just procbomb each of them out as above. However if you only have 1 or 2 good attacks; then it can sometimes make more sense to slot them for local recharge aspect; despite the fact that doing so reduces your proc activation rate... because if you can activate a good attack more often then that attack will end up contributing more damage over the same amount of time; and there is only so much global recharge you can get from set bonuses.

As a simple example: In Fiery Melee's case; Fire Sword Circle is an excellent AoE.
On Tankers you can pick up Combustion plus Electrifying Fences and Ball Lightning from the Mu Patron Pool; so there is no need to slot any local recharge aspect.
On Brutes you can pick up Electrifying Fences and Ball Lightning from the Mu Patron Pool; so there is probably no need to slot any local recharge aspect.
But Scrappers and Stalkers can only get one other good AoE from epic/patron pools (such as Ball Lightning or Fireball) so it may make sense to slot local recharge aspect.

To a lesser extent it can sometimes also make sense to slot a little local recharge aspect into a few of your single target powers (in order to optimize your Single Target attack chain) and there are lots of examples of builds where I have intentionally slotted set enhancements at an unusual level or refrained from boosting them all the way to +5; in order to *just* get my single target attack chain to the point where no gaps occur.

You can go down a real mathematical rabbit hole here and try to get the damage dealt by your AoE attack chain to *just* one-shot or two-shot an average +3 minion or LT (so that there is minimal "overkill" damage!) ...but for most players that's getting well beyond the scope of what constitutes "fun"... 🧮 📝 🤯 🤓 
 

Edited Thursday at 11:19 AM by Maelwys