First lvl 50 - where to begin with end game build?

[Myrmidon]

Just now, Meph said:

Thank you for this advice. I was curious why people were slotting Health. Someone gifted me one of each of those so I'm getting a running start.

 

I understand your second point, but I'm still a bit confused by the mechanic as a whole. Is a level 25 set just as good as a level 50 set at level 50?

For a set bonus, yes. For the enhancement bonus, no, because those scale with the level of the enhancement.

[Meph]

2 minutes ago, Myrmidon said:

For a set bonus, yes. For the enhancement bonus, no, because those scale with the level of the enhancement.

Thanks for making that clear.

[Demon Shell]

To be more clear, Procs count as set bonuses. They don't scale with level and will shut off if your level drops below the mod's level.

[Snakebit]

19 hours ago, Meph said:

2. Is there a simple solution to slotting bread n butter abilities? I

Figure out what you are happy with and what you'd like to improve. That will open up goals and clarify your choices. That will let you filter out all but a few sets to aim for. 

As an example, I wanted to get the downtime of my T9 armor from 60s to as close to perma as I could get. I've dropped it to like 19 seconds without using Incarnate recharge buffs. I covered the gap with Incarnates, and I'm a happy camper because it let me look at improving defense, which I ended up doing back asswards and got over the resist cap. 

19 hours ago, gameboy1234 said:

5. I saw someone post a build with Combat Jumping AND Hover. Why would you do that? Is it worth it for the defense bonuses?

The most obvious answer here is for LotG Global Recharge. 

 

14 hours ago, DSorrow said:

Am I crazy not taking a travel power?

Absolutely not. With prestige flight powers like Carpet and Void Skiff, totally optional. I find it harder and harder to make builds with a travel power.  

 

19 hours ago, Meph said:

3. Should I plan a fresh lvl 50 build that's budget oriented

 

If I were you with 60 million inf and a build to fund, I would buy 6 Hero Packs and use merits/inf to get enough converters to change every ATO you get to scrapper. Then slot them and catalyse to Superior, then unslot and sell them. Even if you only get 6 total ATO's, if you do this you'll get minimum of 15 million for each one. You could likely get as high as 22 for each. You should end up with somewhere around 90 million inf, and you can keep rolling this over by seeding with 60m and spending 30 on your sets. While I'm waiting, I'd run farms at a fast pace. 1 or 2 levels below what my max is. I'd post 20-30 of bids for level 30 uncommon recipes that don't require rare salvage, craft/convert them to defense/heal and sell them. I make 10 million an hour doing this when I need a break from farming (which is often, it's my least favorite activity). 

I'd hit a few hami runs, and definelty some MSR (I like MSR better than Hami, even if the merits are slower). I'd fund my purples/PVP sets (they aren't just for PVP). You'll have 500 merits in a few days and you'll be sitting on 300 million inf pretty fast. Run the TF of the week, run some Freakshow Wars and other fast merit content. 

 

I got out of my budget build one weekend and was mostly kitted out by the following Sunday, playing about 2 hours a night on weeknights and all day on the weekend. You'll unlock incarnates as you go, so you can increase your farming efficiency without having to rely on sets. 

[Llewellyn Blackwell]

Dark armor eh, tough thing to have as your first 50, Ill be honest, I pretend DA doesnt exist because while cool in concept it pairs poorly with almost every single option. The soul exception in my book is electric. This is because of electrics transfer end aspect. It still barely makes DA viable by my standard.

 

Every special from IO sets that grants an end proc are musts for DA, others have touched upon this but I cant stress it enough. for DA the set bonuses I focus on are recovery and end cost discounts. many are low hanging fruit as 2 or 3 part bonuses so one can often get quite a lot if they get creative in their slotting.

 

On the subject of attacks, most go 5 slot because most do 5 parts of the purple sets for the 10% global recharge. the 6th slot is usually either for a special or used on other powers to optimize.

 

Hasten at end game with a focus on global recharge set bonuses will mean you only need 2 lvl 50 common recharge IOs in hasten to reach perma hasten.

 

If one is going for soft defense then yes they will run hover and CJ at the same time. many blasters will as well as both help make things like knockdown less an issue. Most build for 5 defense powers for 5 lotg 7.5% global recharge specials.

 

Hover with its speed bosted by swift and a few set bonuses is great in combat speed that doesnt surpress. For scrappers it can be something of a must if you want to fight flying foes effectively.

 

Finaly note recovery serum from P2W. Straight up max a stack of it, and refill it as needed. its your new must have dope.

[Justaris]

I'll just chime in here as someone with multiple Dark Armor characters to say that while you do need to factor the high endurance costs (particularly if running Cloak of Fear) into your build, Dark Armor is not only viable but extremely durable with good Invention slotting.  It's a bit expensive to get everything you'll want, in terms of Sets, but well worthwhile.   

[Meph]

16 hours ago, Bentley Berkeley said:

Dark armor eh, tough thing to have as your first 50, Ill be honest, I pretend DA doesnt exist because while cool in concept it pairs poorly with almost every single option.

I hear ya. This character was originally BS/DA in the pre-ED days, and was a reaction to playing MA/SR as my first character. So I sort of know what to expect. Now it's time to see if I can curb those endurance demand issues to the point where I enjoy playing it at a high level. 

[Meph]

2 hours ago, Justaris said:

Dark Armor is not only viable but extremely durable with good Invention slotting.  It's a bit expensive to get everything you'll want, in terms of Sets, but well worthwhile.   

Thanks, I'm committed to making this work! This character will definitely be my "flagship" character. I've always felt DA, while ugly as hell, was the worth the trade-off of never seeing your costume because it had so many tools in its toolkit, as well as top tier resistances. I realize some of the newer powersets probably eclipse it in terms of over all strength, but I'll just plug my fingers in my ears when people start talking about that. I get why powercreep occurs at the end of games' life cycles. Already got my water/bio sentinel planned.

[Meph]

I want to first say thanks to everyone who has provided some input here. I have already gotten a much better grasp as to how to draft a level 50 build and I wanted to summarize some of what I've learned.

 

A few things I'm starting to realize:

1a. There really isn't a hard and fast rule/cookie cutter build/standard benchmarks to reach for. Each powerset combo is going to be different because this beautiful game allows for so much variation in playstyle. This is a testament of game design (for better or worse) in my opinion.

2a. This is an iterative process unless you start with unlimited funds. And even then, what you're trying to achieve may change (i.e. I might find I need more AoE, or that more than three single target abilities don't fit into my attack chain smoothly, let alone hunting softcaps).

3a. I didn't realize that slotting normal IOs would be useful at 50 and I've just been vendoring them! And I had no idea 2 lvl 50+5 training IOs was all you really need to cap a single stat on an ability.

PS: How do I make something 50+5?

4a. With regards to my sample build posted above, I am in no way married to taking leadership, let alone all 3 team buffs. I mainly did that because I had 3 spaces to fill and was trying to avoid taking travel powers as a way of asking the question "are they really necessary?". I think I will plan to drop leadership for hover (as a defense mule, because DA lacks knockdown resist, and to get to fliers as melee), super jump, and super speed. Or perhaps I'll figure out I need even more endurance reduction/gain and figure out two other powers that help me achieve that.

5a. The Cardiac vs. Agility debate is clearly one to be solved by maths. I'll have to make that decision when I get a mids build drafted with sets in place, so I can calculate my actual end requirement and if I can get away with using Agility>Cardiac. I plan to use Cardiac at first though.

6a. I'm starting to grasp the 5 slots vs 6 slot conundrum. Especially now that I've learned certain sets give 10% global recharge in the 5 slot bonus. This makes sense why I see 5 so often in people's builds.

7a. With regards to Dark Armor specifically I'm going to need to look for, and tailor my build around sets that grant endurance/theft of essence procs if I want to be able to fight for more than 30 seconds. 

8a. Gotta have my serum pops!

Edited August 20, 2019 by Meph

[Rathulfr]

24 minutes ago, Meph said:

I want to first say thanks to everyone who has provided some input here. I have already gotten a much better grasp as to how to draft a level 50 build and I wanted to summarize some of what I've learned.

 

A few things I'm starting to realize:

1a. There really isn't a hard and fast rule/cookie cutter build/standard benchmarks to reach for. Each powerset combo is going to be different because this beautiful game allows for so much variation in playstyle. This is a testament of game design (for better or worse) in my opinion.

2a. This is an iterative process unless you start with unlimited funds. And even then, what you're trying to achieve may change (i.e. I might find I need more AoE, or that more than three single target abilities don't fit into my attack chain smoothly, let alone hunting softcaps).

3a. I didn't realize that slotting normal IOs would be useful at 50 and I've just been vendoring them! And I had no idea 2 lvl 50+5 training IOs was all you really need to cap a single stat on an ability.

PS: How do I make something 50+5?

4a. With regards to my sample build posted above, I am in no way married to taking leadership, let alone all 3 team buffs. I mainly did that because I had 3 spaces to fill and was trying to avoid taking travel powers as a way of asking the question "are they really necessary?". I think I will plan to drop leadership for hover (as a defense mule, because DA lacks knockdown resist, and to get to fliers as melee), super jump, and super speed. Or perhaps I'll figure out I need even more endurance reduction/gain and figure out two other powers that help me achieve that.

5a. The Cardiac vs. Agility debate is clearly one to be solved by maths. I'll have to make that decision when I get a mids build drafted with sets in place, so I can calculate my actual end requirement and if I can get away with using Agility>Cardiac. I plan to use Cardiac at first though.

6a. I'm starting to grasp the 5 slots vs 6 slot conundrum. Especially now that I've learned certain sets give 10% global recharge in the 5 slot bonus. This makes sense why I see 5 so often in people's builds.

7a. With regards to Dark Armor specifically I'm going to need to look for, and tailor my build around sets that grant endurance/theft of essence procs if I want to be able to fight for more than 30 seconds. 

8a. Gotta have my serum pops!

 

1. Enhancement Boosters are used to increment the value of IOs.  You may obtain them from the merit vendor machine or from the auction house, whichever you find cheaper/easier.  To boost an IO, simply equip it in the enhancement management window, and then select/click on it as if you're going to combine it like a TO/DO/SO.  When the IO drops into the first slot, a small window will appear in the upper left, displaying your Boosters (and Catalysts, if you have any*).  Simply click on the Booster, and it will appear in the second slot of the combination pane: click on the Combine button.  Lather, rinse, repeat until the selected IO is +5.  (*: Catalysts are used to attune IOs, or to increase ATOs and Event IOs to Superior quality.  The combine process is the same for those.)
2. Why take both Super Jump and Super Speed if you're going to take Hover?  Why not simply take Hover and Fly and be done with it?  Hover offers defense that isn't available in any of the travel powers: it's the equivalent of Combat Jumping or Stealth, and only a little less effective than Maneuvers.  On my squishies, I usually take Hover and Fly, plus some combination of Maneuvers, Stealth, Combat Jumping, or Weave (if I've got room for Boxing/Kick and Tough).  This allows me to significantly improve my defenses, and/or mule up to 5 Luck of the Gambler +Recharge.

 

Edited August 20, 2019 by Rathulfr