Bio Armor Question

[drgantz]

I've been told that Offensive Adaptation is the best in most situations.  I've noticed that some Bio powers don't give bonuses when using Offensive.  Should I skip those powers?

[JediDave]

Absolutely not. Off the top of my head, inexhaustible and ablative carapace are the only powers that don't get an offensive bonus, and both are great. Bio is kind of a "take everything" set regardless of build goals or play styles.

[Uun]

I assume you're referring to Inexhaustible, Ablative Carapace, Genetic Contamination and Parasitic Aura. These are very good powers even without receiving any specific bonuses while using Offensive Adaptation. Bio really doesn't have any skippable powers. 

[Championess]

No I wouldn't skip any power in the set and especially not Ablative.  The only one people sometimes skip is DNA Siphon for some unknown reason although you can dump tons of procs into it and it doubles as a heal.  I run purely Offensive Adaptation and take every power and usually slot them well.

Edited Tuesday at 05:59 PM by Championess

[JediDave]

22 minutes ago, Championess said:

No I wouldn't skip any power in the set and especially not Ablative.  The only one people sometimes skip is DNA Siphon for some unknown reason although you can dump tons of procs into it and it doubles as a heal.  I run purely Offensive Adaptation and take every power and usually slot them well.

 

I will say, inexhaustible is fine getting just a +end proc and calling it a day. It definitely can benefit from more slotting, but if your build is tight on slots, this one is perfectly fine as a one slot wonder.

[Uun]

1 hour ago, JediDave said:

I will say, inexhaustible is fine getting just a +end proc and calling it a day. It definitely can benefit from more slotting, but if your build is tight on slots, this one is perfectly fine as a one slot wonder.

In addition to the +end proc, I recommend two 50+5 heal IOs for the +hp/+regen buffs.

[drgantz]

Thanks everyone.  I thought that those powers would have no effects.  From your responses, it appears that they do have effects, just no bonuses.

[Uun]

1 hour ago, drgantz said:

Thanks everyone.  I thought that those powers would have no effects.  From your responses, it appears that they do have effects, just no bonuses.

Every power in Bio has base effects when no adaptation is in use. Using any adaptation adds a bonus (or penalty) to the base effects.

[Neiska]

9 hours ago, drgantz said:

I've been told that Offensive Adaptation is the best in most situations.  I've noticed that some Bio powers don't give bonuses when using Offensive.  Should I skip those powers?

 

Here is a Bio-Armor post of mine with a lot of helpful info that I have copy/pasted for you.  -

 

Bio Armor is my favorite Armorsets, so hopefully I can help you out or give some guidance.

 

They say it "takes skill" because the set is kind of unique in playstyle, in that it doesn't focus DEF or RES like the other sets, it gives a "bit" of both. Not much mind you, but enough to build on. No, where Bio Armor shines is it is kind of a swiss army knife, with many powers doing multiple things, some like DNA siphon has both offensive and defensive uses. It also has stances - an offensive, defensive, and efficient stance, each of which boosts one feature like damage or defense, but at the expense of something else. Later on when you have all the purples, you might find yourself using offensive stance 90% of the time.

 

To put it simply, think of Bio Armor as a set with mediocre defenses, but with multiple ways to heal yourself.

 

But the survivability of Bio comes from 3 key powers - 

1. Ablative Carapace - this is an absorb. Your first reactive/pre-emptive power. This will be your main clickable at lower levels, but it becomes overshadowed later on, and is best used as a pre-pull tool to help absorb the alpha strikes, as well as act as a "bridge" when Parasite Aura or DNA Siphon is down.

 

2. DNA Siphon - a PBOAE that does minor lethal and toxic damage. This power affects BOTH living and defeated enemies. For living targets, it applies a -regen debuff to your targets, but it also gives you a bit of health and end for each living enemy hit. Against defeated enemies, they give less of a heal, but will give you both a regen and recovery buff for a short while. Which means you can use this power in many ways - as an emergency heal, as a -regen debuff, or use it as a stacking regen + recovery buff that stacks per target affected. Personally, I like to slot DNA for Endurance rather than healing so I am not relying on Ageless or Blue Inspirations to play at peak performance, regardless of secondary set.

 

3. Parasite Aura - another PBAOE that affects living, but gives you a stacking healing and recovery buff per enemy hit. This also does additional effects, depending which stance you are in. For example, if you are in defensive stance, it applies more damage absorb to you and a damage debuff to them. This buff can stack 10 times if you hit enough enemies, giving a massive absorb, regen, and recovery buff for each enemy hit. And make no mistake, for that 45 seconds you can heal from zero to full several times in a row quickly. It is more or less super-sayian-wolverine mode for those 45 seconds. And you can get the recharge down to 90 or so seconds, giving you nearly 50% uptime on it. During the "downtime" is when you use Siphon, Carapace, and/or other tools like Rune of Protection. Then its rinse-repeat!

 

So, Bio Armor loves recharge. Ideally, you will want as much uptime on Parasite Aura as possible, with around 50% uptime on it. During the time it is down, you will use Ablative Carapace and DNA Siphon (if you need it.) 

 

The TLDR behind bio is, instead of giving a flat persistent boost to DEF or RES, it instead relies on stacking buffs. Now the numbers might be deceiving in mids. But Bio Armor is definitely in the big boys club with the rest and can outlive most other sets, but not due to its inherent DEF or RES, but by just flat out absorbing and out healing incoming damage.

 

Playing it would go something like this - 

Pre-apply Ablative Carapace before the pull.

Run in.

When absorb from Carapace falls off, pop Parasite Aura, hitting as many targets as possible.

Enjoy 45 seconds of near immortality.

By the time Parasite Aura wears off, Ablative Carapace should be ready to use again.

Use DNA Siphon/other tools as necessary during the time Parasite Aura is waiting to recharge.

Rinse repeat.

Changing stances between offensive-defensive-efficient as needed. But at 50 fully incarnated, I am in offensive nearly all the time, only against big targets do I feel the need to swap to defensive stance for the extra absorbs and damage debuffs.

 

Another upside to Bio is that it sort of has extra layers of defenses that most other sets don't have, multiple ways of healing, absorb, regen, and recovery. Some sets like Radiation Armor has "some" Absorb, but nowhere near the amount that Bio has. So, this is an additional "layer" of survivability. Even without your regen, absorbs and such, you can still build to softcap melee defenses and get resistance capped to smashing and lethal, with respectable amounts in the others. Which in itself is pretty good. And Absorb/Regen/Healing together is effective against nearly every kind of foe you will come across, regardless of attack or damage type. There are some enemies that bypass absorb and such but those are rare.

 

But there are downsides to Bio -

1. You can't really skip any powers. Well, you "can" bbuutt its not recommended. This is because there is a domino effect, and each bio power you have, affects the others.

2. It can be a little rough starting out as Bio, relying on a single +absorb at first, then that and a heal, and finally Parasite aura. And even then its a bit skippy until you have enough recharge to begin your cycle of buffs. But once you hit that point, you are more or less wolverine in just how much damage it takes to put you down.

3. For many players they dislike the visual effects, even with minimal VFX on. This is entirely personal preferance though. Some like it, some do not. Personally I just wish there was something that went with it visually, but there really isnt. You can get close with some looks like Chitin but it still looks off.

4. Lastly, and this the BIG downside - the set more or less relies on buffstacking, which is affected by how many targets you hit with DNA Siphon and Parasite Aura. This means against fewer targets like AVs or GMs, you don't heal as much, and you cant just rely on any 1 of the buffs to keep you alive.

 

As far as what to pair with it, well, pretty much anything you like. Bio loves recharge, so it pairs very well with fast sets like Savage or Claws. But it also has offensive stance, giving a very nice damage buff, so it pairs very well with sets like Energy Melee, Super Strength, Fire Melee, Battleaxe, etc. Honestly, I don't think there is a melee set it "doesn't" pair well with. But to give you an idea of how well it pairs, my Bio Armor/Energy Melee Tanker can perform 600+ Single target damage, which is fantastic for a Tanker. Granted, credit goes to Energy Melee for that, but Bio Armor certainly plays a part.

 

But if I had to say what it pairs with the BEST, Savage, Dark Melee, Claws, Energy Melee, Fire Melee, Battleaxe, Spines, and Radiation Melee are all top choices.

 

One tool I wanted to mention that goes fantastically with Bio Armor is Rune of Protection. It pretty much fits the holes in Bio Armor like a puzzle piece, and I almost always take it. It is yet another big buff you can put onto the pile, boosting your damage resists and CC resistance, and also being another "bridge" between buff cycles if needed.

 

Anyway, know that was a lot to explain but I hope it puts you in the right direction!