JuliusSeizure
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Posts
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Quote:I'm going to say that a soft-capped (Smashing/Lethal with one target in Invincibility) DM/Invuln/Soul is the most survivable Brute. There are builds that are effectively softcapped to all types but psi with the aid of Darkest Night. Dull Pain, Touch of Fear, and Siphon Life more than handle the few dangerous psi dealers out there.Originally Posted by Gospel_NA
So, what does the forums community think? What is the most survivable brute combination ignoring granite armor for these purposes? -
Quote:I recall this well-- it was Spells of Power and Alien Tech, which many SGs had no use for but held thousands in storage. These were given for completing PvP zone missions, and for a long time there was a significant XP bonus attached to these missions which resulted in them being produced quite rapidly. SGs accrued a boat load of these useless salvage items, and had no use for them because they only crafted low tier base defenses.Originally Posted by _Mojo_
Just wondering, I know back when the market first came out that people had a specific piece of salvage dedicated to getting the power seller badge. Is there anything like this today?
When lots of people were farming this badge, you could flip this salvage in stacks of 10 across every auction slot you possessed once every few seconds. It was crazy.
In all honesty, it's not hard at all to get the badge by working the salvage market. I wouldn't be surprised if my main toon has exceeded 100,000 legitimate market transactions by now. I wish there was an epic tier badge for this... -
Quote:If you can hit 32.5% Smashing/Lethal defense, one small purple will bring you to the soft cap. This is an ideal value to hit for sets like ELA and Fire that want to create "Tank" builds.Originally Posted by Rodion
I'd recommend maxing out S/L rather than melee. Also, I'm not sure that it's worth the effort to just get to 32 or 35% defense. There are so many things that debuff defense that if you get hit just a couple of times it's like you don't have any defense at all.
So, sadly, I think you have to go all the way to the softcap to make it worthwhile, but as you noted you have to make a lot of sacrifices in slotting, or accuracy, or giving up other types of bonuses. Which makes the character less fun in other ways.
While DDR is indeed crucial, making sets like SR capable of becoming utterly potent, the ability to monitor your defense actively and observe when cascade failure starts to occur allows you to swallow pills to return your toon the the soft cap. Purples are easy to come by, particularly with the combine feature. You can even create a bind that does this for you.
And OP: Smashing/Lethal is better to stack for melee toons than any single position. Your second highest defense will usually be Melee regardless of whether you want it or not. -
I was just looking at your build and decided to make a toon that achieves 125 max endurance and 2000+ max hp (with accolades).
If you take anything from this build, I would recommend these changes:
- Power Sink should be slotted only for End Mod and Recharge. I personally like this slotting if given 4 slots.
- Lightning Field should have End Mod, Accuracy, Endurance Reduction and Damage. This is my personal favorite setup for the skill.
- Darkest Night is much better for a Brute than Stealth. It grants -15% ToHit in this build, more than doubling your combat defense values. A nice perk is that -damage is a form of resistance that stacks with your armors as well.
- If you don't like this version of Siphon Life, I would recommend 3 parts of Mako's Bite and 3 parts of Numina's. You can get great Acc/dam/rech/end/heal with those sets and solid +hp. My toon's setup is 3 acc/dam HOs and 3 parts of Numinas, which works great as well.
ELA really needs to employ endurance drain to be effective, so be sure that Lightning Field and Power Sink are ready to do their part. Debuffing opponent's endurance is the key to playing ELA.
I generally don't reorder player's skills or change their power selection drastically. Dark Consumption isn't absolutely necessary, but it will provide a nice AoE contribution. Having 125 max endurance, Power Sink, 50%+ recovery, and Dark Consumption will make you a never-tiring freak of nature. Just run every darn toggle and throw Darkest Night out whenever possible-- you will never have to worry about endurance.
EDIT: And yes, DM/ELA is an extremely fun build to play.
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Quote:I agree, which is why I wrote this: "You might make a marginally superior Rikti hunter with Fire, but DM/ELA simply shines everywhere in the game."Originally Posted by Schismatrix
Fighting Rikti is one area where ELA is definitely not squishy. Rikti damage is mostly energy, against which ELA normally has capped resistances. Against almost every other enemy ELA might be a bit squishy, but definitely not against Rikti
ELA still needs to be augmented beyond adding Tough for a great many enemy groups other than Rikti. DM fills that gap, and then some, for the rest of the game's content. -
Soul Drain might still provide DM with superior ST DPS despite the resistance disparity, and with several targets or saturated it will have superior burst damage as well, quickly outpacing Build Up. Fire will always offer superior AoE damage to DM.
The one downside to Fire is its total lack of mitigation given the still-squishy nature of ELA. Energize did wonders, but the set is still at the bottom of the pack for raw survivability. You might make a marginally superior Rikti hunter with Fire, but DM/ELA simply shines everywhere in the game. -
Quote:It's not only your Mez protection, but also a sizable chunk of the set's defense debuff resistance, which can double stack to potentially bring certain builds to the 95% cap. You want that skill stacked as often as possible, or at the very least up 100% of the time. The green circle goes here.Originally Posted by dougnukem
Mez protection is the highest priority out of those three, easily.
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Drop Super Jump and get Ninja Run. You don't even need the ranged defense from the BotZ set. Your other option is to get rid of Darkest Night.
Perhaps more importantly, Siphon Life has no accuracy or damage. That slotting should be reworked. -
Thanks for the info Red!
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Anyone know if server transfers are still free? If so, do you just click the "Purchase Server Transfer" button?
Many thanks. -
Quote:One thing to note, is that the values on Grounded and Static Shield increase with level. At level 50, Static Shield has a high enough value to cap you. If you exemplar, however, Grounded would layer with Static to keep you capped.Originally Posted by NeonPower
It also has about 64% end redux resist in it which is very useful but does bring you up to about 170% resist which is way more than you'll need as far as i can guess.
Also good to note, Resistance to Recovery Rate is different from resistance to AttrEndurance. Grounded only adds the latter. -
Quote:LOL. That's what happens on late-night posting.Originally Posted by Roderick
Ninja Run starts with zero slots, and gives a "FULL!" message if you try to add more. How are you adding slots to it?
Here's what I meant. The combination of [NR+Swift(1 level 50 speed IO)+Sprint(1 level 50 speed IO)] is still slower than, but comparable to, Super Speed with no enhancements, no swift, and no sprint. There's no additional socketing involved.
I'd definitely go the hurdle route for speed, as others have pointed out. I have a toon that uses short jumping flips to move around like Beast or other acrobatic characters. -
Quote:Procs scale as normal per the purple code, debuffs included.Originally Posted by Brynstar
I was wondering if when procs go off do they work based on your lvl? Suppose I have the Achilles Heel proc go off against an enemy +2 to me. Does it debuff his resistance by 20% or is it scaled down because he is +2 to me?
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I can't give you the numbers, but having Swift + Ninja Run both being socketed is comparable to Super Speed unsocketed and by itself. It's more than viable as a movement power.
That said, a single-socketed SS + Sprint + Swift is markedly faster is a straight line. -
Quote:If you farm at +1/8, or even at +2/8, the reason that ELA might have higher survivability is -Endurance. Lightning Field + Powersink is still pretty effective against +2s, and even against +3s. ELA's second layer of mitigation, aside from resistance, is still its -endurance, which makes it the only set that relies* so heavily on a debuff for protection. You last forever when most of your opponents are using their lowest tiered attacks or doing nothing at all.Originally Posted by Gospel_NA
I'm just wonder how ELA manages to survive as well as Fire without a very quick recharging heal. 30 seconds is a far cry from 12. Even though an extra 200% regen and a massive endurance discount is pretty nice trade.
The heal and +regeneration are arguably just tertiary effects that let you last long enough for -endurance to take full effect. The total amount of mitigation that -endurance provides for ELA is much higher.
*(Sets like Ice, Dark, and Shields use debuffs too, but they are far from their respective second layer of mitigation, and offer values much lower than the combination of Power Sink and Lightning Field.) -
Quote:I made a perfectly viable observation. There's a specific reason that the 3% defense to all IO is selling for 3-5 billion off market, and that every other PvP IO is generally priced within reason. It has little to do with drop rate when you think about it, it's more about hugely inflated demand as seen in the relative price of other PvP IOs.Originally Posted by Catharctic
Okay...so you want to nerfherd?
That's not nerf herding. That's just a fact. And having 3 of these IOs myself, I certainly have little incentive to have them nerfed.
I'm just saying that you guys are concentrating on the issue of supply, but the bigger picture is that demand will always significantly outstrip supply for this IO given the way defense works in this game. It's worth every penny in many builds even at 3 Billion. -
Is it PvP drop rate WAI? Or is it defense bonuses, IOs, and ubiquitous soft-capping WAI?
The drop rate has resulted in perfectly viable price ranges for a great many PvP IOs. The one IO that adds 3% defense to all is the anomaly-- and this speaks more about demand than supply. Demand is a byproduct of a skewed defense system in relation to IOs. -
What specifically didn't you like about the builds that you tried? My initial reply is that almost any Brute can be effective at what you listed, but it's character concept, design, and implementation that will generally keep you playing a toon.
My Main Brute is a DM/ELA. He was my main before IOs existed in issue 8, he was my main in issue 10, and is still my main. There's amazing synergy in the primary/secondary, but I play him so much because I worked extensively on his costumes and bio while refining his IOs and build. DM provides wicked single target damage with a multi-target Soul Drain, while Lightning Field boosts the set's AoE potential.
My build that receives the most *jaw drop* tells is a WM/SD toon. I went this route initially to have access to a character that could employ the many weapon and shield skins; it's a great way to vary costumes and add variety. The end result, however, is a soft-capped dervish of doom that offers some of the best AoE damage capabilities in the game without being overly FotM.
My final build is a Brute that emphasizes tanking and agro management. This is a DB/Invuln Brute that runs soft-capped smashing/lethal defense and employs Taunt regularly. His secondary theme is accuracy, through stacking ToHit in Invincibility and Blinding Feint. -
Just wait until Crowd Control is in your tray...
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Quote:Absolutely no-- this skill basically defines the set. While other sets would spam AoEs when surrounded by many foes, DM's goal is to consume their souls to feed it's single target attacks or levy very high damage to clumped foes with Shadow Maul.Originally Posted by MisterG_NA
Anyone else out there think they should change DM's Souldrain into Build-Up, like they did for Stalkers? Would more people be inclined to play that powerset if it actually happened?
Even against just one opponent, Soul Drain is 60% as effective as Build Up, but lasts for three times as long. A saturated Soul Drain is 50% more powerful that BU and Rage, but has no crash or penalty, and can even be made permanent at extreme levels of recharge. At more reasonable levels of recharge, it's running on a 36 to 40 second timer.
There's a very sound mechanical reason as to why BU is present for stalkers-- popping Soul Drain and Assassin Strike would just not work together. Tanks, Brutes, and Scrappers benefit enormously from Soul Drain. -
Quote:Any alternate animation would have the same length as the original. If they ever did this, which is doubtful, you would only see different FX and character movement.Originally Posted by Dark_Inferno
Hello folks!
I notice in the new power-customising section that some power have new alternate animations. I would like to beg for something for ther radiation set's Neutron Bomb. When I first had a character with this power years ago I was disappointed when I got to this because I was expecting something more like fireball or one of the other set's ranged AoE.
Now, a second animation would be brilliant, or even just a shortening of the existing animation OR better yet - both!
ty. -
Any Travel Power or Universal Travel Power IO will only socket in Hover, CJ, SS, SJ, Fly, Group Fly, Teleport, and Group Teleport. They can also be placed in skills like Elude and Kuji-in-Godmode.
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Illusion/Radiation can be tech. Solid holographic projections explain the Illusion side, while combat nanites explain radiation. You can color Radiation Emission a blueish gray and it looks like swarming nanites.
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Battle Axe and War Mace are basically identical*. I believe there are some legit builds posted in the "So strong, so pretty" thread. Check there perhaps.
*(They actually play differently, and WM has superior AoE potential, but their power spread is basically identical.) -
If you want to stack Smashing/Lethal defense, you need to just go for it. Your Mallet attacks will absolutely need better numbers, thus the frankenslotting.
Here are some quick adjustments I made. I'd personally reorder some of your skills and get Build Up earlier (firstly taking that instead of Tactics). Moving Sockets from Maneuvers to Kick, and taking Combat Jumping instead actually grants you more Smashing/Lethal defense through Kinetic Combat, a viable attack (you will need it because you only have 3 ST attacks), less endurance cost, and the maneuverability of CJ.
Lightning Field should always have Endmod as well as accuracy/damage. Also, avoid going for set bonuses at the detriment of slots and total enhancement value. 6 slots to make a full set of end mod in Stamins or Power Sink is NEVER worth it. The only reason to keep Health as it is is because of the bug with the uniques, which I assume you are aware of-- the 25% and 20% from Numina's and Regnerative Tissue are enhanced by socketed +health, nearly doubling in value.
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