An Opportunity to Talk Opportunity... Strikes.

[oldskool]

Disclaimer:  I have not tested the following on every Sentinel Primary, and I am probably going to make some inferences based on current observation.  I'll update as I find out more things but this thread is to encourage discussion.  

 

I'll edit this later, but I just wanted toss out some initial weird as hell findings.  

Hail of Bullets in Dual Pistols will generate 1 Opportunity per activation.  1.  With the Opportunity Strikes ATO proc, Hail of Bullets generates 94.5.  

Actually, every power I put the ATO in for the Dual Pistols generated 94.5 Opportunity.  It's weird.  -- Edit 1: On live, Bullet Rain also granted 37.5 despite hitting multiple targets.  

 

Dark Blast's Antumbral Beam generated 64.5 Opportunity... why? 

 

Water Blast's Whirlpool generates 37.5 Opportunity but will attempt to proc on any targets in its AoE.  It's cooldown aligns with the duration of Opportunity and dramatically improves uptime.  It's not guaranteed everytime, and especially not on single targets, but it is neat. 

 

Edit 1: So far, Opportunity Strikes seems to have a range of effect.  It can cause what appears to be double the standard Opportunity build-up (this happened with Pistols and Dual Wield live server vs test server), it can grant 1/3rd a bar, it can grant 2/3rds a bar, or it can fill it (90% is the minimum necessary so 94.5 = full).  The effect does not seem standardized like the Brute +Fury ATO and then adds another layer of randomness due to its very low PPM value.  This ATO can provide some offensive increase due to better uptime on the 20% resistance debuff but it is so dependent on specific powers as to be nearly useless in the general sense.  I still need to experiment more, but my gut feeling is this ATO is in serious need of a revamp as it current stinks for a lot of Primaries. 

 

I'll eventually go into more detail about the actual Opportunity values per set, but that will be a project.  Right now I'm sharing the above weird findings as Opportunity generation doesn't seems to have a real rhyme or reason but has trends within its own set.  

 

Edit 1: 

Specific details on Dual Pistols Opportunity Generation per attack: 

 

Pistols = 8

Dual Wield = 13

Suppressive Fire = 13

Executioner's Shot = 13

Empty Clips = 13

Bullet Rain = 13

Piercing Rounds = 18

Hail of Bullets = 1

 

I only recorded a few of Dark Blast: 

 

Dark Blast (the Tier 1 power shares the set name) = 8

Gloom = 13

Abyssal Gaze = 13

Antumbral Beam = 14

Umbral Torrent = 21

Dark Obliteration = 13

 

Life Drain/Blackstar not bothered with yet.  

 

Water Blast: 

Aqua Bolt = 8

Hydro Blast = 13

Dehydrate = 13

Water Jet = 13

Stopped as I started to see a trend.  I'll revisit with more time.  

 

The reason I was looking at this is for ways to improve up time.  Some sets really do make good use of the Opportunity Strikes proc, and some don't.  Dual Pistols has a hard time proccing it in my tests, but when it does go off it is enough opportunity to activate a mode.  What's absolutely silly here is that Dual Pistols can build 90 Opportunity (the threshold to activate) every 13-14 seconds like clockwork.  So the ATO adds clunkyness and too much randomness to the rotations.  It also didn't improve overall up time as much as I would have hoped.  

 

 

Edited August 17, 2019 by oldskool

[Sovera]

I've noticed Rad's Irradiate procs more than once, but nowhere to the crazyness of Sonic's Shockwave and Howl. I don't have hard numbers though, and not close to the game to give them just yet.

[oldskool]

20 hours ago, Sovera said:

I've noticed Rad's Irradiate procs more than once, but nowhere to the crazyness of Sonic's Shockwave and Howl. I don't have hard numbers though, and not close to the game to give them just yet.

Does the combat log actually have that?  I'll keep a look out when I get to those sets.  

First edit to express some observed variance in powers with proc.  Current thought, most of us knew it wasn't exactly great, but it REALLY sucks when you take a deep dive on it.  It can be ridiculous though in Tier 9's if your best choice is Ragnarok.  So there could be some salvaging its use with creative placement.  

 

I haven't talked about the Ward proc.  I think most of us know it too, sucks.  The ablative shield it generates is so small as to not really exist.  It will absorb about 1 hit from an enemy.  Its PPM value is the highest of our ATO's but for a defensive utility that is conflicted with the i25 interactions of recharge enhancement.... this too really sucks when you take a deep dive on it.

[Sovera]

I can't see Opportunity gains on the combat log, but after testing either it was a fluke or me misremembering with the chaos of combat. Irradiate seems to be a constant 8 Opportunity no matter the targets hit and Neutron Bomb 13 Opportunity.

[oldskool]

PSA: The Opportunity Strikes ATO absolutely reports what it grants in the combat log and it state the precise amount of meter generated.  The individual attacks are pains in the ass to gauge where you have to click the bar and see where the meter is.  

My testing methodology was to fire an attack, quickly check the bar, and let it decay*.  I spent about 4.5 hours yesterday, since I was stuck at home, just clicking and waiting for decay.  I didn't want to clutter the results and the individual power gains do not vary.  Out of 30 hits with Opportunity Strikes in Pistols, the ATO never fired.  Not once**.  It is worth noting, I also have historically bad luck and table top RPGs have been a constant reminder with natural 1's. 😉 

 

*Meter decay at lower amounts happens pretty quickly, but only to a certain extent.  For example, a Tier 1 will almost always generate 8 opportunity which will last several seconds before the first decay tick.  Any +13 powers will decay quicker.  At 80 meter, the decay tick delay seems a little longer and the amount isn't as severe (its about 1 per tick).  In actual game play the decay rate is slow enough that meter will last between spawns with enough generation via attacking to not really notice it.  Loose estimates though.  I'm not using a stop clock.  I'm not that invested. 

**That's all Justin testing.  I actually had the ATO slotted in Dual Wield on live purely to mule it.  I only ever use DW to trigger Defensive Opportunity so the proc is wasted.  The logs will still tell me the result.  Enhancement unslotters used to shift a damage proc from Pistols and the ATO out of DW to check proc rates.  It behaved as oddly as I express above.  I've now moved the Ward set into Dual Wield, and the Strikes set into Bullet Rain.  Ultimately the choice doesn't matter.  Empty Clip isn't great for it, and Armageddon + Fury of the Gladiator in Hail of Bullets is straight up superior in my opinion.  So I just mule the set bonuses.  Bullet Rain has a chance per 10 targets to give me some amount of opportunity or a chance to grant a tiny shield.  The Strikes set in Dual Wield was just completely wasted and now it is only slightly less pathetic. 

Edited August 17, 2019 by oldskool

[oldskool]

Solo'ed Penelope Yin's TF on DP/Nin and noticed I was gaining about double the Opportunity from Opportunity Strikes from the lowbie minions vs the usual 54's I face.  I hadn't exemplared in a while and I will probably add this in my experiments.  The test server has target dummies in the Rikti War zone which has been baseline place for viewing numbers so far.  I'll just need to go into the wild next and work on parsing the log results and cutting down on informational noise. 

And I just went into Yin's TF on a whim since no one was running it and I wanted to knock it out.  I didn't prepare for it at all and so I died once to Clamor during Phase 2.  The debuffs + adds just were too much.  Tried again, and took her out with -9% defenses (LOL).

[oldskool]

Ran around Atlas Park and AE for some test ideas...  

Opportunity Strikes was in Bullet Rain and Sentinel's Ward in Dual Wield (I've respeced ...again so that's not the case anymore).  

 

I ran around shooting Hellions to get procs then ran a farm to get procs.  

Opportunity Strikes seems to only ever proc 1 time in the log but seems to roll per target.  Confirmation on that would be nice, but I see no reason why it wouldn't behave like a normal proc.  

+203.8 Opportunity gained vs a level 4 Hellion.  +27.5 Opportunity gained vs a Comic Con $ target (lvl 49).  

The Ward proc granted me +1048 absorb when fired at a Hellion.  When fired against a level 49 Comic Con target it was double digits.  Against level 54's I think it was +19 absorb.  

Just some quick tests and an update.  Nothing definitive being stated here yet, but if the Opportunity Strikes ATO functions against the mob level like Ward... gross.  I'd rather see this be more reliable in some way.  Like a static number that is lower with a better PPM.  That could be a balance problem since +20% resistance debuff that cannot be resisted at all isn't small potatoes.  However, it could be a better solution to buffing Sentinel damage output vs messing with the AT modifier.  We'll see... 

[oldskool]

As mentioned above, I moved Opportunity Strikes around in a rebuild.  I put that set into Piercing Rounds so I've come full circle with where I had that set initially.  Napkin math says the proc chance isn't terrible in Piercing Rounds.  

Against level 50 targets it grants +38.5 opportunity.  That's in addition to the base +18 it normally grants.  That's kinda awesome.  However, Piercing Rounds isn't in my normal single target rotation so that's lame.  

[oldskool]

PSA: I'm an idiot sometimes.  In the Combat Attributes there is "inherent" in the tracker.  You see can exactly how much Opportunity is gained per attack down to the rounded decimal.  It looks like it reports after a minor delay, but it does report.  I missed it when I looked before and didn't even think about it until leveling my Brute to monitor Fury. 

 

I didn't test too hard this week.  I leveled a new Brute from 1 to 50 in a few hours then spent an hour unlocking incarnate slots up to Hybrid.  That was the bulk of my normal time to tinker and the rest has been spent farming influence and incarnate materials.