Silas

It's not a question of too much effort. It's not difficult at all the position yourself to KB usefully or minimize the KB.

The point is that regardless of how little effort it is, you have to take measures to mitigate/minimize your secondary effect, or cause havoc. You're saying KB is fine, but then advocate how to minimize it?

The other secondary effects may be of questionable utility depending on the situation/build, (-def from Rad, -tohit from Dark, slows and -rech in Ice), but at least you don't have to take measures to manage them.

IMO all the Energy Blast stuff should be changed to KD. That way if someone loves their KB, they can slot a single KB IO or KB set IO and have it, but people who don't want it can enjoy the set.

I don't think changing the KB to KD would be overpowered, since stuff being KDd takes them off their feet for less time than KB, (knocked on butt + get up time vs fly through air + knocked on butt + get up time).

If you can, fitting in both Tough/Weave and a ranged/ranged AoE from a patron would be best.

I see you've got the Black Scorpion pool in your first build, how tied are you to those powers? Like for concept or whatever? Because Gloom from Soul mastery is a fantastic ranged blast and either Dark Obliteration from Soul or Ball Lightning from Mu would be a solid addition to your AoE smashing.

Hurl does pretty good damage, the problem with it is that it's got a slowish animation. It's not as bad as it was, but Gloom/Mu Lightning are much faster. For me personally, I either work the patron blast into my attack chain or use it for tagging runners, so having a faster-animating blast is much better. Plus Hurl has a chance for KB, which can be annoying since you want stuff right next to you for Invincibility.

Yeah, I'm really not a fan of the TAoE set selection. Hopefully they'll add a few more like with the PBAoE sets.

Cool, thanks for the update MB. I'll probably be giving this a go this weekend since some friends want it, should be a laugh if nothing else

Ugh, yeah. Especially if Supernumiphone is right about this giving about 60% of what it "should" give.

This.

I usually 5 slot the Posi set, all but the dam/range. I only use the dam/range if it's in a cone. Unless I'm using the power mostly as a set mule, I'll generally put in a 6th slot with a generic recharge or end rdx, depending on the power.

That said, I have a love/hate relationship with the Posi Blast set. I love the set bonuses, (mainly the recovery, accuracy and recharge), but hate that it gives such poor values for recharge/end rdx but is a little overkill on the damage.

More TAoE sets, plz.

I do agree that passive aggressive tagging, (and repping), is pathetic.

That said, given that irony and I have been romantically involved for quite some time now, I do have to note that your post is classic passive aggressive :3

You can always try to get me killed with AoE damage, <3

I already said I will. I've also provided more than anecdotal evidence. I've said why the numbers for EF as a damage dealing power are misleading as well as explained why, numerically (radius, -KD, DoT nature), I think it's not a good power for farming.

No, I do think Soul can perform better than Mu mastery. You seem to be incapable of grasping subtlety.

Fun Fact: I've not actually neg-repped you. I think neg-repping people because you disagree with them to be, if I may borrow a word, tacky.

I'm not deflating anything. As I said, I do think Soul can perform better than Mu mastery. My statement was just to say that I've never boasted significantly better numbers, only that they would be better.

If my numbers come up better, but only barely then I will be happy to acquiesce that I'm wrong about Soul performing better.

I've already said I'll post the numbers when I'm able to. You say you can do all kinds of things, but so far all you've done is thump your chest while standing behind Smurphy.

If you can pick apart every hole in my logic and presumptions, please do. It would be very enlightening and I am more than happy to be proved wrong.

Actually, several people in this thread have agreed they prefer Soul over Mu.

Once I get home I will post some Herostats logs. For the record, I've not once boasted "significantly larger numbers". I have simply said that I think Soul is more effective than Mu for farming and said why.

I'm interested myself to see how the numbers compare.

No, you're not being trolled. Yes, I'm saying it has a small radius. Yes, I also think Thunderstrike has a small radius. Blazing Aura has a slightly bigger radius (8) but it also does its full damage to everything in that radius, unlike Thunderstrike and it does it up front unlike Elec Fences which is all DoT.


Don't be fatuous. You're completely disregarding the fact that half of BLs damage is done over several seconds, so any damage that is done before it finishes ticking (3 seconds) is wasted damage. In my experience, Footstomp + the initial hit of BL or Dark Obliteration will kill almost all the minions and lts in a spawn.

That means the extra BL damage is only hitting the boss(es) or an lt or two.

Secondly, all of EFs damage is over time. If you only look at the base damage numbers, then yes, Dark Obliteration doesn't do much more damage. Except EF does it's damage over 7 seconds. The only thing that lives that long is a boss, in which case you'd be getting more damage out of Gloom.

Do you have the numbers you got running Mu Mastery to compare to?

One thing to mention is that when I farm with my Brute, I run the Liberate map, set to +1 or +2x8. That means I've got anywhere from 1-3 bosses in a spawn, so Gloom is very worthwhile to me.

If you're only fighting minions/lts in an environment where you can herd them (like the Search Nemesis Base map) then Fences will be of significantly more benefit, since you're only using AoEs in that kind of scenario.

Running Liberate I unload Footstomp and Dark Oblit first, then beat on the bosses while they're recharging.

Edit: IamLink, fighting bosses is worth it for a Brute because Brutes, especially SS Brutes, have the ST power to kill bosses fast enough to be worthwhile. Add into that the fact that Fakes give stupidly large amounts of inf.

If you're purely going for most recipes/hour generated, yes, you'd be better off running x8 with no bosses. I prefer the extra inf and higher drop rates/chance for a Pool C recipe given I can kill bosses fast.

Edit 2: the negative rep was extraordinarily petty of you, Smurphy. Well done.

I only have Fakes bubble when I'm not paying attention because I'm watching tv or chatting or whatever. Spare me the "doing it wrong" attitude.

Gloom also helps when you're fighting +3s, (what I run if I run with a Kin), since KO at 1/3 health won't kill a +3 Fake.
Fences does about the same damage as Gloom if you hit 2 targets but it also cancels all KB/KD.

I thought you were referring to Static Discharge, aka the cone moderate energy damage power in Mu Mastery. I didn't think you would seriously use Fences for damage.

No, if you're using a tiny radius immobilize DoT as a damage AoE you're farming inefficiently. Footstomp and Dark Oblit is all the AoE you need for the minions/lts. That means the bosses are your bottleneck for moving to the next spawn. Fences sucks for killing bosses, Gloom is fantastic for killing bosses.

Two AoEs yes, but one is a Cone which is counterproductive to a SS/FA, (because you want to be in the middle of the spawn stomping with BA ticking away), and one is mostly DoT. I forget what the exact split is, but iirc about half of BLs damage is DoT. Given how hard FS hits, it means a lot of the damage from BL is wasted on anything other than bosses.

Dark Obliteration does less damage, but it does it all up front so you're getting its full benefit. BL doing more damage is moot when half of it never gets a chance to land.

Gloom is great for farming because aside from its fantastic damage and DPE/DPS, it being DoT is great for killing Fakes before they bubble. Fake just under half hp -> Gloom, KO Blow him into the air, then Gloom/Haymaker = dead Fake.

Since I respecced into Soul I have drastically fewer Fakes bubbling. And if they do, most of the time Gloom will still kill them due to the DoT.

It's a combination of several things. Most importantly, the debuff and DoT on Irradiate. The DoT makes mobs go insane when they're at low health.

Taking a lot of damage + debuffed + taking DoT = FFFFFUUUUU runrunrunrun

It's manageable on my Rad/Kin because with FS his AoEs hit stupid hard, but I also lead with Irradiate then Neutron Bomb which has a Rag proc in it so a fair few of the stuff it hits gets KDed. Irradiate Scourging helps a lot too.

For a Rad/MM Blaster...*shrug* you don't have any AoE slows or immobs. What you could do is use Irradiate later or last in your chain, so it's at least ticking away on them when they run off. The only problem with that is if you've got an Achilles -res proc in it, (which you should ), you won't have its benefit for your chain.

I think your best option is to lead with N.Bomb and PSW, then use Irradiate when they're already damaged so if/when they run it'll be still be hurting them. Doesn't matter if they scarper if they keel a few feet away

Edit: or take Provoke, ahahaha

You don't need PvP IOs to pvp. You will want IOs for pvp to get enough +hp that you're not everyone's favourite target, enough KB protection and procs for your attacks.

The only pvp IOs I've seen to be commonly desireable in pvp builds are the procs so you can have several procs in your attacks.

Also while IOs will help, making a pvp build would help too, since pvp and pve builds are pretty dissimilar. Phase and Hibernate are of fairly limited use in pve, but they're a godsend in pvp.

Edit:
So very this. God, Gloom is good. Dark Oblit is also > BL for farming but man, mostly just Gloom being sex.

Fire_Minded, you can farm perfectly fine on SOs.

People either aim for IOs or build with IOs on farm characters because as with almost any character, IOs make them more effective.

For example, a Fire/Kin Controller can farm perfectly well on SOs, but an IOd one could farm more and faster.

Depending on what settings you want to farm at, the Spines/Invuln will farm well. The Fire/Em you might find a little squishy, until you can finetune the level/pace at which you can obliterate spawns without getting smooshed.

Haha, there is that. Damn Defender buff/debuff values.

At least we still have Fire Blast to ourselves for the time being