Experimentation and Adrenal Booster

[Ukase]

I recently "finished" getting a water/natty corruptor to 50+3. I still need to fill out the judgement and interface slots, but those will come with time as I play. The important stuff, lore, destiny and hybrid are t-3, and I'll get them to t-4 soon enough. 

And that left me wondering what my next project would be. 

I opened up mids, and took a look, comparing the defender nature/ice with the corruptor ice/nature. Fun fact: I learned that the defender loses only 10% of the 30% buff when in a duo, and loses 20% of the buff in a trio, and if on a team of 4, loses all of it. Still, nice to see it keeps some of it for the smaller teams. 

And then, for whatever reason, Mids had the Experimentation pool showing, so I looked at it. 

I have a vague recollection of taking speed of sound, and then realized it was basically super speed in a different power pool. And then I saw Adrenal Booster. A strong buff, yeah. But 10 minutes? Even with perma-hasten, I figure that's at least every 5 minutes. 

Corrosive Vial looks nice. I like a good debuff, but this is just a defense debuff. I'd prefer a resist debuff. I generally go with the kismet and tactics, plus a few purple sets, so accuracy isn't often a concern. 

Does anyone use Adrenal Boost? It seems situational, like I'd use it for the fight with Ukon Gr'ai in an msr, and then maybe against the Minotaur, and later, Achylus....but after that...just avs as I go through MJ's arc, but even then it would be every other AV because of the slow recharge time. 

And..I generally take hasten, so I think I'll save this for a character that doesn't take the speed pool for hasten. Who uses this, and is it used in the manner I described, or is there some other utility I haven't figured out? It seems very situational, and with a horrible recharge time like that, I can't imagine why anyone would take it. 

I can use 5 inspirations that will last the same amount of time and provide the same or better returns. (aside from the recharge buff, but I'm forgoing the speed pool to grab this pool, so it's really a net loss) 

Is this worth making a suggestion to reduce the recharge time to 450 seconds instead of 600, to make this pool more attractive? 

[Glacier Peak]

Any time I see a comparison between Defenders and Corruptors, Scourge should be mentioned. 

[Ukase]

14 minutes ago, Glacier Peak said:

Any time I see a comparison between Defenders and Corruptors, Scourge should be mentioned. 

No question, I was remiss in saying more, but I didn't want to write a wall of text. The bit about the defender buff - I knew about the 30%, but I didn't realize the defender kept some of it on teams of 2 and 3. I will almost always choose the corruptor because of scourge. 

[MTeague]

I rarely take Hasten. Generally, only my Dominators have Hasten, though I have also taken it on a non-Dominator character where, For Reasons, I just want Whirlwind for the funsies. Cause no way in heck am I taking the week-old-roadkill that is Flurry. 

 

Adrenal Boost will always have a long cooldown. Doesn't matter what kind of recharge you have, doesn't matter if you have a pocket kin Speed Boosting your left and right. I defy anyone to get Adrenal Boost perma. I have taken it on a SS Tank as something for a little extra kick for big fights.  And it can be made to serve in that manner. 

 

But I respec'd out of Adrenal Boost shortly after.  

 

I don't really care about the +Hit from Adrenal Boost. IO's have generally take care of my accuracy, and there's yellows when I need something short term.

I don't realy care about the +Recharge from Adrenal Boost (I know, I'm a Heretic...), and I defintely wouldn't care about it if I were already taking Hasten.

 

Which leaves just the +Damage aspect of it. And for that, why not just take Leadership/Assault, and provide a constant-on +Damage buff to me, and every teammate in range, instead. Oh, and Assault gives +Res(Taunt,Placate). Especially on a Defender, Corruptor, or Widow,  Assault wins by a lot in my book.  Although Assault does cost a certain amount of End, so plan your End Management accordingly. 

[Yomo Kimyata]

46 minutes ago, Ukase said:

Corrosive Vial looks nice. I like a good debuff, but this is just a defense debuff. I'd prefer a resist debuff. I generally go with the kismet and tactics, plus a few purple sets, so accuracy isn't often a concern. 

 

Throw in Achilles Heel and Annihilation procs.  It's frankly overpowered.

 

47 minutes ago, Ukase said:

Does anyone use Adrenal Boost?

 

If you've got a free power slot, sure.  I originally thought it helped your resistance to confuse or terrorize, which would make it more useful in certain situations, but it looks like it just adds duration to your confuse and terrorize powers, which is niche to the point of absurdity.

 

for Experimentation builds, I'll go with Experimental Injection (base slot, Preventative proc), Speed of Sound (base slot, Universal travel slow protection proc) and Corrosive vial with 2 to 5 total slots.  Adrenal Boost is fine if you have room for it, but it's hardly necessary.

[roleki]

I throw Speed of Sound on almost all of my characters, but have only been able to fit Adrenal Booster into a handful of builds.  On most of the characters that took it, I used it as a super-inspiration for an EB/AV/GM fight.  That said, my SS/Elec Brute (Twerkules) uses it whenever it is up, so as to 'make up' for the complete drop in DPS during Rage crashes.  The 10m recharge isn't that bad, I think I have it down to 4m or something on Twerkules and I don't even sell out for recharge.  

I really like Corrosive Vial.  It's a small radius, 5-target max debuff that is autohit with a longish-recharge (60s) so if you pop a proc in there, it's more likely to fire off than not.  It can take either -Rees proc (Achilles or Annihilation) and that's not a bad thing to put into an autohit.

Toxic Dart isn't really exciting but it's better than Experimental Injection and since you have to take one of these if you want to get into the deeper end of the pool, Toxic Dart is proper.  It's also a funny way to kill off a straggler or pull the occasional badfellow away from their group.  

[tidge]

IMO: Corrosive Vial is the only "numbers" reason to take Experimentation. I hate that Speed of Sound doesn't boost jump... so it is always (for me) "run fast, get stopped by a hedge, or run other toggles". I don't mind Experimental Injection, but it is like a ST ally buff that I choose to saddle myself with. I think I've always respecced out of Adrenal Booster.

[Captain Fabulous]

Like far too many pool powers the super long recharge kills it for me. Situational at best. Not really worth it IMO unless you have nothing better to take.

[MTeague]

3 hours ago, roleki said:

Toxic Dart isn't really exciting but it's better than Experimental Injection and since you have to take one of these if you want to get into the deeper end of the pool, Toxic Dart is proper.  It's also a funny way to kill off a straggler or pull the occasional badfellow away from their group.  

 

Toxic Dart also works quite well on Controllers / with Containment. No, it's not Arcane Bolt, but it's ... pretty nice.