Musings on SR

For katana and how interface proc works. If they didn't changed it again proc set off at each tick rather than each attack. Katana's top chain GC-GD-GC-SD does 6 tick attacks. I remeber DB also has powers with many ticks attacks but if I am not mistaken when calculated per second base katana has a slightly better result. I dont have mids at the moment so can't really comment. Fun thing with katana is you don't need very high recharge build to keep top chain going even with 1 sec delayed perma hasten you can get top chain going on. With SR things are a little odd for katana however. You already need iterrupt your top chain for hasten and build-up (and DA for other secondry sets) With SR though you need to interrupt it for PR too.

So if you are using Kat with other sets than you are interrupting top chain for three powers. BU, DA, Hasten

If you are using Kat with SR but not with high enough melee defense than you are interrupting chain for 4 powers BU, PR, Hasten, DA

However if you have soft capped melee than you interrupt for BU, PR, Hasten.

Since first and last stiuations only difference is having DA or PR lets look at their long-terms. DA's bonus stays for 10s which means at worst you need to use it at each 8 seconds (assuming its casting time is less than 2 more than 1 second like I said i don't have mids at the moment so cant compare.) to have perma melee def soft cap. PR on the other hand have 120 second duration. For DPS only its obvious which one is better. Ffor survivalbility however it really boils down to build, how often you are intending to use insps and some luck (on SP part)

So I've been thinking about SR. In the end-game, it is one of the squishiest armor sets, but also doesn't bring much extra offensively. I believe it could use a slight buff. My suggestion:

Change quickness to an AoE affect, but hopefully lowering the costs so that the overall endurance drain is the same. Basically, it would act as an aggro aura, and provide a boost to recharge, damage, and regeneration for each enemy hit. I think this would bring some offensive ability to SR, but also make it a higher level defensive set, though still below the best sets. For those that liked the old quickness, I would leave the old option in the set, and make that power a branching choice (ie choose one or the other, like VEATs).

For everyone finding Super Reflexes to be squishy, have you left it as a one-trick pony? Yes, if you hit the soft cap while doing nothing else to improve your survivability, you won't be great. Add hit points, Tough, and a heal or massive regeneration and you should find that it's not even close to squishy.

Here's mine taking on an AV with no temps no insps while surrounded by a spawn of 15 L52 Nemesis. This particular fight was also a lesson in just how useful the passive resistances could be, even when fighting an AV. This was in I13 I believe. I'd be significantly more survivable if I rebuilt for I20. How tough does a set need to be to not be referred to as squishy?

AaO boosts DPS probably much more thanks to the aggro it generates rather than the actual damage bonus it provides.

I hear ya, Werner. I have a hard time calling my main squishy these days. And the only self heal I have is rebirth. Squishy before softcap? Yes. After softcap with tough, 1850 HP and 27hp/sec regen? Not so much.

And if you want a taunt aura for SR, play a brute.

I like to do my tip missions at +0/x6. I could probably do them at harder settings on Tibis (Katana/SR), but the one I use I'm practised with and is a reasonable compromise between speed of clearing and rewards dropped. For Nemesis and Devouring Earth missions, I take to heart that SR is a set that rewards playing smarter, not harder.

I think Katana's ability to clear larger spawns is improved greatly by reactive; running lotus - steel - dragonfly - steel chain I mow through minions and even lieutenants quickly enough to bring down the extra attacks to a manageable level to let me switch to gambler's - soaring - gambler's - dragonfly to slap down the bosses.

Obviously /SR is still a scrapper defensive set. It can be made survivable enough for most of the game like any other scrapper defense set should. However, my problems with /SR are these:

1. It does not give comparatively good survival except at a median range of investment. Basically, it is weak without set IOs (or large amounts of pool powers) to cap it, but at the high end of investment loses out to other sets with non-defense tools.

2. Other sets that have weakened defense give an increase to offense. However, /SR is outperformed by these, especially Shield, Dark and Fire (which can all be made as or more survivable than SR).

3. It cannot be made stronger at the same rate as other powersets. Even adding tough and aid self to SR, it is hard or impossible to achieve the same gains in survivability from IOs that other sets get (much harder to add resistance than defense).

4. It requires a large number of powers to be taken, which all accept the same type of IO set except Quickness. This means that SR restricts pool powers more than most other sets (though with inherent fitness this is less of an issue). More importantly, it means that SR users cannot diversify their IO usage as easily.

On second thought, I'd rather see two options for Evasion, not Quickness. One would be the power we have now, the second would be an aggro aura with boosts to recharge and regeneration. This allow those that like the current option to continue using it, but allow SR to have both another offensive perk and a defensive option other than defense and scaling resists (which work best with some level of healing anyway). It would also give another IO set option by allowing for Evasion to be slotted for healing.



That said, it is still a very viable set, especially considering that it can achieve gains for less money than any other set. Recharge and defense are the most expensive things to build for, and SR is good at both.