Pylon Damage Thread

[ScarySai]

I'm still doing some fine tuning on this character, but that run was very much an outlier, which kinda makes me mad shadowplay broke. Pretty much every bonesmasher in the meltdown window gave the proc, but weirdly enough, none of the TFs crit and it still got a good time. I'm kind of wondering if I wasn't paying attention and did something different rotationally, but hybrid was not on.

 

General idea, meltdown + ageless on approach, go full burst god mode and fish for crits between every heavy hitter. It also allows you to get double ETs per rotation more frequently in my experience, and when that happens, you can do something dumb like Bs>tf>et>bs>zapp>et, which is a lot of burst if you get chain procs. I'm still playing around with it and adapting it to double ET when needed, but so far I find it gets close to the tf>et>Bs>snipe rotation while being better when you get lucky.

 

I can post my build in the morning, you caught me getting ready for bed.  

Edited February 6, 2022 by ScarySai

[brasilgringo]

6 hours ago, ScarySai said:

I'm still doing some fine tuning on this character, but that run was very much an outlier, which kinda makes me mad shadowplay broke. Pretty much every bonesmasher in the meltdown window gave the proc, but weirdly enough, none of the TFs crit and it still got a good time. I'm kind of wondering if I wasn't paying attention and did something different rotationally, but hybrid was not on.

 

General idea, meltdown + ageless on approach, go full burst god mode and fish for crits between every heavy hitter. It also allows you to get double ETs per rotation more frequently in my experience, and when that happens, you can do something dumb like Bs>tf>et>bs>zapp>et, which is a lot of burst if you get chain procs. I'm still playing around with it and adapting it to double ET when needed, but so far I find it gets close to the tf>et>Bs>snipe rotation while being better when you get lucky.

 

I can post my build in the morning, you caught me getting ready for bed.  

i'd really like to finally see your pylon and Trapdoor builds especially for Rad/SS/Soul tank and Rad/EM scrap

[ScarySai]

I'll post the tank when it's done, there's still a few slots I'm trying to optimize a bit, and I'm weighing the benefit of having kick+boxing for Xpunch over having Darkest Night for tanking things that are an actual threat.

 

My EM/Rad is here, though I'm thinking of changing the weave slotting if I find myself not needing the accuracy anymore. An earlier build whiffed a lot.

 

Fatal Fusion.mxd

Edited February 6, 2022 by ScarySai

[StriderIV]

1 hour ago, ScarySai said:

I'll post the tank when it's done, there's still a few slots I'm trying to optimize a bit, and I'm weighing the benefit of having kick+boxing for Xpunch over having Darkest Night for tanking things that are an actual threat.

 

My EM/Rad is here, though I'm thinking of changing the weave slotting if I find myself not needing the accuracy anymore. An earlier build whiffed a lot.

 

Fatal Fusion.mxd 4.79 kB · 0 downloads

Awesome man! Wow, seems like a ton of love for Rad Armor is coming out of this thread. Is there a archetype you feel Rad Armor really thrives on? I could see Brute for the extra damage, tanker has a nice AOE increase.

 

I also hear that Meltdown is really good on scrappers, with it’s larger damage buff.

Edited February 6, 2022 by StriderIV

[ScarySai]

I think rad/ss tank is one of the best builds and broken things you could possibly make in the game if you abuse procs, since it essentially gets rid of all the downsides of doing so and takes full advantage of the tank buffs.

 

Rad/Rad scrapper is pretty scary in terms of clearing, and I'd put it up there with claws/bio in terms of clear speeds. I think scrapper is best because unlike tank/brute, it has notable single target on top of it's horrific(in a good way) aoe damage.

 

Energy/rad is quickly becoming my second favorite scrapper next to the claw/bio, though. It allows energy to make use of achilles+fotg without disrupting it's rotation as much as it would otherwise have to in order to fit them into a chain. Plus, you get some pretty good aoe to make up for how bad power crash is. Whirling hands is actually above average for a scrapper Pbaoe, so that + ball with a crit proc will wipe out groups whenever rad therapy/GZ aren't up. I definitely use meltdown more as an offensive cooldown than for defense.

 

Honestly, you could probably skip GZ, but I don't want to. 😛

Edited February 6, 2022 by ScarySai

[StriderIV]

1 hour ago, ScarySai said:

I think rad/ss tank is one of the best builds and broken things you could possibly make in the game if you abuse procs, since it essentially gets rid of all the downsides of doing so and takes full advantage of the tank buffs.

 

Rad/Rad scrapper is pretty scary in terms of clearing, and I'd put it up there with claws/bio in terms of clear speeds. I think scrapper is best because unlike tank/brute, it has notable single target on top of it's horrific(in a good way) aoe damage.

 

Energy/rad is quickly becoming my second favorite scrapper next to the claw/bio, though. It allows energy to make use of achilles+fotg without disrupting it's rotation as much as it would otherwise have to in order to fit them into a chain. Plus, you get some pretty good aoe to make up for how bad power crash is. Whirling hands is actually above average for a scrapper Pbaoe, so that + ball with a crit proc will wipe out groups whenever rad therapy/GZ aren't up. I definitely use meltdown more as an offensive cooldown than for defense.

 

Honestly, you could probably skip GZ, but I don't want to. 😛

Haha nice! People always quoted “no DDR” as a reason to stay away from Rad. However, I think they say the same about Dark Armor, and I’ve never really had TOO much of an issue with it on my DA/Staff Tanker. 
 

Any other melee sets you’d recommend going with Rad Armor? Rage Crash is the thing that worries me about SS. It also seems like you think it really shines on a Scrapper! In which case, SS is out the window =P haha

[ScarySai]

Procs ignore the rage crash, and you have plenty of resists and heals to endure it in addition to your knockdown.

 

They shine on scrappers and tanks for different reasons.

 

Of course rad doesn't have DDR, it's not a defense set. It has regen and resists to damn near everything else though.

Edited February 6, 2022 by ScarySai

[StriderIV]

1 hour ago, ScarySai said:

Procs ignore the rage crash, and you have plenty of resists and heals to endure it in addition to your knockdown.

 

They shine on scrappers and tanks for different reasons.

 

Of course rad doesn't have DDR, it's not a defense set. It has regen and resists to damn near everything else though.

That is good to know about procs ignoring rage crash. Since procs are such a big factor for the performance, I guess theoretically a Rad/Rad tanker would be even stronger than a Rad/SS due to how IG functions with procs. Unless there is some additional synergy with /SS that I could be missing (which is likely haha).

 

BTW, LOVE your avatar haha

Edited February 6, 2022 by StriderIV

[DarknessEternal]

2 hours ago, StriderIV said:

Unless there is some additional synergy with /SS that I could be missing (which is likely haha).

 

The synergies are as follows:

Rage means you need little accuracy in your attacks.

Force Feedback in every SS attack means you need no recharge in your attacks.

Those two combined means more procs in your attacks.

[DarknessEternal]

9 hours ago, ScarySai said:

My EM/Rad is here, though I'm thinking of changing the weave slotting if I find myself not needing the accuracy anymore. An earlier build whiffed a lot.

 

 

That's some pretty low accuracies against +4.

[StriderIV]

12 minutes ago, DarknessEternal said:

The synergies are as follows:

Rage means you need little accuracy in your attacks.

Force Feedback in every SS attack means you need no recharge in your attacks.

Those two combined means more procs in your attacks.

Interesting! Appreciate that man, that makes sense. Seems pretty spicy haha

[ScarySai]

11 minutes ago, DarknessEternal said:

That's some pretty low accuracies against +4.

 

54% global is more than enough for this build. It was an issue when I was running <30% and had much more procs in the AoE. I play pretty much exclusively on +4.

Edited February 7, 2022 by ScarySai

[DarknessEternal]

6 minutes ago, ScarySai said:

 

54% global is more than enough for this build. It was an issue when I was running <30% and had much more procs in the AoE. I play pretty much exclusively on +4.

Something I just thought of that might explain that.  Do +4s even exist in an Incarnate world?  Isn't the most something can be +3 now?

[ScarySai]

That's a consideration a lot of people ignore, but I actually test by taking off my alpha entirely for a few hours to see how it goes when I respec.

[DarknessEternal]

Dang, I need to revisit all of my builds now.  Screw accuracy some more.

[Pzn]

10 hours ago, DarknessEternal said:

Something I just thought of that might explain that.  Do +4s even exist in an Incarnate world?  Isn't the most something can be +3 now?

That's why I always check my accuracy starting at 48 base tohit.  It's rare that I exemp down below 45 and also fight +4s.  And in those cases I can rely on team buffs/debuffs.  You can change base accuracy value in mids under options>config>exemp and base values.

Edited February 7, 2022 by Pzn

[ScarySai]

This is pretty representative of the average pylon kill for my Energy/rad. I almost got a 1:05 a little after this, but managed to whiff TF and two ETs when the thing was at 1%, and I'm still kind of mad about it. Doom laughed at me. 😞

 

1:20ish despite that mistake I made is still pretty damn good for an average, though.

 

 

I think if a Energy/bio were to run this rotation they could likely be in the running for new pylon record holder.

[Gobbledigook]

17 minutes ago, ScarySai said:

I think if a Energy/bio were to run this rotation they could likely be in the running for new pylon record holder.

I wonder 😛

[Gobbledigook]

On 1/29/2022 at 9:21 PM, Inbetweener said:

First run took 4 min 47 sec (287seconds).

Widow/Night-Widow build

FollowUp/Slash/Lunge/Strike/FollowUpClaws/FollowUp/Gloom and repeat as available.

 

So with the equation above and the new values:

((30677+(102.26*287))/287/(.8)) = 261.4 DPS

 

Oh forgot to add T4 Musculature Core and T4 Assault Core as well as T4 Ageless Core

 

No idea if this is a good output or not but there it is.

I do around 3.40 on my Fortunata Hybrid build which isn't proc heavy. I did try proc it out which improved it a bit but wasn't worth the trade off in set bonuses. I have only done a few pylon runs with it though to see how it is. The AoE is quite nice on them.

Edited February 7, 2022 by Gobbledegook

[ScarySai]

6 minutes ago, Gobbledegook said:

I wonder 😛

Oh, did I skim over a top time?

[Gobbledigook]

1 hour ago, ScarySai said:

Oh, did I skim over a top time?

I did do some Pylon times back when EM was in beta. EM/Bio low 1 min average times. I did say the buff to EM was nice but a little over the top. To get your times with /rad though is pretty nice.

Edited February 7, 2022 by Gobbledegook

[arcane]

19 hours ago, DarknessEternal said:

Something I just thought of that might explain that.  Do +4s even exist in an Incarnate world?  Isn't the most something can be +3 now?

Correct, outside of iTrial baddies that get their own level shifts over 54. I build around at least 95% chance to hit +3’s. Though a buffer for tohit debuffing or defense buffed enemies is still preferred. 

[ScarySai]

@Gobbledegook Ah, that makes sense. What rotation? I've seen people doing tf>et>bs>snipe, with the ato in TF.

 

Seems to kneecap the potential of the set by wasting the most powerful ato.

[Microcosm]

I hit a 1:12 with using meltdown before starting and some lucky procs. I'm still not sure how I feel about using meltdown: if you use while on the clock you add over 3 seconds of activation time, which lowers its overall damage value, and, more importantly, it's uptime is technically worse than hybrid at a little less than half. So do we treat it like hybrid and say it's not allowed because of its uptime or give it a pass because it's in the power set? With previous, less damaging sets, if I used meltdown I included its time in the overall and it ended up as a wash. Em definitely seems to get more than that, but again it's only half the time at best.

[ScarySai]

I see no issue with using it how I did it, especially considering how I included the activation, which I'd argue I wouldn't neccesarily have to do.

 

In missions I pop it when it's up and against AVs I do the same. In the latter case it can even really help you not get murdered.

 

Not using meltdown would be akin to not using offensive adaptation/evolving armor. If certain sets have an issue for some reason, it's worth investigating said issue. Not using it is just an unnecessary handicap.

Edited February 8, 2022 by ScarySai