/WP or /Bio? Not sure which will be better long term.

[sutasafaia]

Can anybody else with a high level bio armor chime in on this? I've been messing with bio and wp brutes and so far this is what it feels like: WP has higher base regen, recovery, zero issues with any CC, and zero clickies to deal with. Bio has -res, -regen, a damage aura, and seems like it has better regen/recovery if you get its powers going? It feels kind of paper outside of those powers though to me? Obviously I don't know how bio will play once kitted out with IO's but I remember wp being pretty insane on live.

[joyispunkrolex]

I had a 50 SS/WP Brute in the way and right now I have a 40something Staff/Bio brute on Excelsior.

 

WP has an edge in terms of survivability. It's a top-tier set, along with /Inv, /SR and /Stone. I feel like /Bio is a notch down, because it's mitigation is mostly just extra healing. It very much plays like Fire Armor, where you still take a lot of hits and you're relying at least some degree on your damage aura and your click powers to make up the difference.  Switching modes does help to some degree, but I find myself primarily using Defensive mode; Staff melee wipes out everything but bosses so quickly that the other modes don't do much to help.

 

Most of my slotting and IO purchases have been geared toward helping get better at survival, but getting 10% better healing isn't terribly meaningful compared to getting, say, 3% better defense from a set bonus. I feel like there's more potential to improve WP. I have about 22% global recharge  on my /Bio already and yes, that does help for the click powers, but even with that, there's nothing stopping a 5th Column Oberst from hitting three times and sending me to the hospital.

 

I'm not saying not to roll /Bio. It's fantastic if your team is there to buff you. I just don't think it's overpowered.

[sutasafaia]

I had a SS/WP brute in live as wlel, it was an absolute beast. I have no real idea of how Bio will work out when kitted with IO's, but it seems like maybe it has some potential? I just know I don't want to start investing in IO's until I'm sure which one I want to use. This is basically what I've worked out at this point:

 

WP:

 

1) Ease of use - Has absolutely no buttons to hit at all if you don't take Resurgence or Strength of Will, and there were plenty of builds that didn't unless you needed one for a specific IO set.

 

2: Higher regen than Bio (most of the time)

 

3: Best CC resistances in the game

 

4: Higher base health buff

 

5: Has no offensive utility at all

 

Bio:

 

1) Comes with -regen and -res for enemies

 

2) If in efficiency stance has slightly higher recovery than Willpower

 

3) Has a damage aura

 

4) When using Ablative Carapace, can get to about 2/3 Willpowers regen. In ideal situations can actually have better regen than Willpower temporarily (when surrounded by enemies, while Parasitic Aura lasts). This is assuming no Enhancements just for easy of checking numbers.

 

I'm really unsure which one to go with as far as prepping for IO setups. I've got a lot of experience with WP on live and I know it can be come practically immortal, but I have zero experience with bio beyond this server and have yet to see what numbers somebody can really push it into. The -res and -regen make Bio seem like a natural choice if you want to solo AV's, but fighting a prolonged 1v1 battle I feel like WP would sustain itself better than Bio? Really unsure here.

[Rylas]

Back during I24 Beta, I tested out a Staff/Bio brute and had a couple of /WP brutes on live.

 

Both a solid powersets, but I think /Bio ended up being more fun to play. First, the Adaptation modes can bring a lot of variability in the early levels, so you can change your game play up based on solo'ing or teaming. It reaches admirable levels of rec/reg, but provides two damaging powers as well as two debuffs.

 

On SO builds, the two will perform roughly equally, but my experience with IO'ing /Bio on Beta seemed to put /Bio at a much higher performance. Other may have a different experience, but once IOs are part of the equation, it's difficult for me not to say /Bio pulls ahead.

[joyispunkrolex]

On SO builds, the two will perform roughly equally, but my experience with IO'ing /Bio on Beta seemed to put /Bio at a much higher performance. Other may have a different experience, but once IOs are part of the equation, it's difficult for me not to say /Bio pulls ahead.

 

That's not been my experience at all. Even with about 60 million infamy worth of IOs on my /Bio right now, my purely frankenslotted SS/WP could comfortably handle stuff that will wipe the floor with my Staff/Bio. I'll admit I'm fine against absolute hordes of +0s and +1s (unless they're Carnies), but everything seems to collapse the minute I see +2 bosses. /Bio's mitigation just isn't as comprehensive as /WP's and is far more reliant on the +Heal/Absorb/Regen powers that don't help a lot against big single attacks. I think it's also missing some debuff resistances compared to /WP or /Inv, though I obviously don't have access to older characters to check that.

 

My plan going forward is to find as many ways to improve Defense on my /Bio as I can find. Heals just aren't cutting it no matter how much I enhance for it.

[Rylas]

My plan going forward is to find as many ways to improve Defense on my /Bio as I can find. Heals just aren't cutting it no matter how much I enhance for it.

 

Sounds like your IO build would be the main issue then. The one I had was softcapped for S/L and plenty of recharge, and was able to do way more than +1. But hey, we may just have play styles that work better for our preferred powersets. *shrug*

[marcussmythe]

On SO builds, the two will perform roughly equally, but my experience with IO'ing /Bio on Beta seemed to put /Bio at a much higher performance. Other may have a different experience, but once IOs are part of the equation, it's difficult for me not to say /Bio pulls ahead.

 

That's not been my experience at all. Even with about 60 million infamy worth of IOs on my /Bio right now, my purely frankenslotted SS/WP could comfortably handle stuff that will wipe the floor with my Staff/Bio. I'll admit I'm fine against absolute hordes of +0s and +1s (unless they're Carnies), but everything seems to collapse the minute I see +2 bosses. /Bio's mitigation just isn't as comprehensive as /WP's and is far more reliant on the +Heal/Absorb/Regen powers that don't help a lot against big single attacks. I think it's also missing some debuff resistances compared to /WP or /Inv, though I obviously don't have access to older characters to check that.

 

My plan going forward is to find as many ways to improve Defense on my /Bio as I can find. Heals just aren't cutting it no matter how much I enhance for it.

 

The correct answer to the question 'Should I focus on heals, defense, or resistance' is and will always be 'all of the above'.  - but given a set known for strong self-healing, I think that your correct to go away from 'just more healing', and I think you are -also- correct in pursuing +DEF over +RES, as RES is harder to get than DEF, and powers dont provide as much.

 

WP is very long on debuff resistance, which is one of its strengths - Invuln does not have much (any?) resistance to debuffs, due probably to its age - but for pure survival likely gives one of the best overall packages.

[SinergyX]

The base of Bio and WP are equal, resist of SL, defense for the elements (fire, ice, energy, dark).

 

However, and unless I didn't see it, Bio has no -def resist, while WP gets it from heightened senses.

So once stuff hits -def at you, it will hurt.

 

I personaly pull bio over WP because of adaptation, the defense one gives a resist/def bonus for each mob (like Inv does) and gets you SL capped quite decent and without heavy investments on IO's, leaving you quite the space to either increase resist of push defense of the elements further. Solo you can go efficient or offensive for a very energy-friendly run or bit more slapping with a tohit and dmg bonus.

 

I ran it on my brute quite a while now, some mobs serious hurt (but so do they do WP), but at the end of the day: every set has its weakness.

[FUBARczar]

I am up to lvl 46 with a Spines/Bio, it's enjoyable (yay two damage auras!) as others have mentioned about adaptation and that the differences are noticeable and allow different playstyles on the run. 

 

The keys for me have been recharge and HP.  Having Ablative carapace up for absorption to take alpha strikes and such, with Parasitic Aura as the back up for really nasty situations. and then keeping DNA Siphon as a back-up for a self-heal.

 

This method has worked great on +3 ITFs with just SOs for instance, with the only deaths coming from team wipes at the end of the first mission, with that huge Kheldian onslaught.

[FUBARczar]

Here are some differences

 

Bio gets some resistance to -End & -Recharge

 

WP gets resistance to -Perception, Repel, Fear, Confuse and minor -Def