KingSnakes Overview of the Fire/Thermal Corruptor


KingSnake

 

Posted

I’ve diced to put my thoughts into writing about my Corruptor, Moltron. Perhaps it might actually help someone who decides to go the fire/thermal route. *Shrug* this is my first guide type post, so be gentle. =)

I’m going to list each power, and give my personal first hand experience with them. If I don’t have experience with them, I’ll tell you what the power does at least, and give my option of said power, and hope some kind souls will correct me if I’m way off base.

Ok, lets get started.

Primary FIRE.

1. Flares. Single Target Damage. Fast recharge, cheap end. I’d rate it a 7/10. A lot of people complain it’s low damage, and it is, I won’t lie about that. BUT, it, IMO, makes a nice, cheap, finishing attack. And with the scourge bonus we get, it can be nice damage for the end of an attack cycle. I use it regularly to finish people off. I have it 4 slotted, 1acc/3dmg. And I have no complaints, nor any plans to respec it out. If I find room, I might add one more ACC, simply because I find myself fighting reds and purples a lot in team, and extra ACC is very helpful in them situations.

2. Fire Blast. Single Target Damage. Fairly quick recharge, good damage, good end usage, good range. All in All, one of our single best, most well rounded attacks. 9/10 if you ask me. Its use is real simple, slot for ACC/DMG, and shot stuff. It’s that simple. Mine’s 1acc/3dmg right now, but I’ll be adding one more acc, and maybe an end reducer. I’m sure many will recommend the slotting of 1acc/1end/1rechareg/3dmg. And it’s a good way to slot, no doubt, but I find in my case, I fight a lot of higher conning stuff, and I’d rather have more accurate shots then faster recharging ones… and I’d rather have blue in bar left over to heal when I need to, then to run my blue bar dry attacking and miss the heal that keeps my brute alive… but again, that’s me, YMMV.


3. Fireball is next, and again, it’s a very nice power. AoE Damage. NICE AoE damage if you ask me. Little bit of an end hog, but all AoE attacks will be. Its base recharge is OK IMO, if a little slow, but all AoE’s will be. By itself, I’d rate it 8/10. BUT, later in life, when you can pull this chain off, AIM+Melt Armor+FireBall+FireBreath… it’s easily a 10/10 power. Or even better is Aim+MA+Fball+INFERNO. Everything dies. 11/10. Mines slotted with 1 acc 1 end 3 dmg. It will eventually be 2 acc 1 end 3 dmg.

4. Rain of Fire. I don’t have it, so I won’t rate it. I’m not sure if I’m going to get it either, it’ll depend on what our patron power selections are. But, it basically an AoE Dot attack. It has a fear effect to it, so mobs hit with it will run for cover. In a fire/thermal build, you have no way of keeping them in the rain, so it’s of limited use to me… but if you have some way of keeping them in the fire, I hear it’s nice damage overall. I’ve heard some impressive reports of this power mixed with tar patch. But again, since I don’t have it, nor tar patch, this is all hearsay. But from my point of view, this power won’t help this build much at all.


5. Fire Breath. Very similar to fire ball. AoE, in the form of a wide cone. Takes a little getting used to, but once you have it down, it makes a wonderful one two aoe punch with fireball. 7/10 IMO. Early in the game, an Aim+Fball+Fbreath will generate some nice AoE damage. Then, once you get Melt Armor, add that puppy in at the beginning, and you have SICK AoE damage. (Its longer animation doesn’t allow it to be chained into the big Alpha strike combo, or I’d rate it higher.) I have mine Slotted with 1 acc 3 dmg 1 end reducer. I’ll prolly add an ACC for a total of 2 acc 1 end 3 dmg.

6. Aim. A simple power. You get a massive ACC boost, and a minor DMG boost. 7/10 if you ask me. I have mine 1 slotted right now, and pretty much only use it with my massive alpha strike chain. (Aim+MA+Fball+Inferno.) It pretty much insures that all my attacks land, and adds a little kick to them as well. It’s going to be 3 slotted once I hit 40. (1 level away.) Then I can use it for other attack chains as well. I highly recommend it.


7. Blaze. Our heavy damage short-range attack. This puppy has nice damage. Ok base recharge, and ok end usage. IMO a 10/10 power. Mines slotted right now with 1 acc 3 dmg 1 end. I’ll be adding one more ACC later. I normally lead off with this attack, or use it to follow Fire Blast. Blaze, Fire blast, and Flares make up my single target damage attack chain. It’s passable. Sure, it’s not maximized for uberness, but it gets the job done nicely, and leaves me with plenty of end to heal when I need to. Take blaze and slot it. You’ll eventually come to love it like I do.

8. Blazing Bolt. Our Snipe. I don’t have it. I may get it, depending on Patron Powers, I may not. I can see it being a nice opener to my single target attack chain, or maybe a good pulling attack, but that fact it’s interruptible would mean you can’t really use it in combat if your taking damage. If your not, I guess you can use it, but I’d think I’d be able to use fire blast and blaze in the amount of time it’d take me to cast Bolt. But again, I don’t know for sure, because I don’t have it.


9. Inferno. I LOVE inferno. 10/10 IMO. I have mine slotted with 3dmg/3recharge. And I use it as part of an alpha strike opener. (Aim+MA+Fball+Inferno.) This attack chain will kill almost everything it hits. There is normally only one or 2 guys left alive when I fire this puppy off in a big group. (A boss, and a guy I missed. But they’re almost dead and the group can handle them EASILY.) In smaller groups, like when I’m solo, NOTHING survives. Be warned though, you will be totally drained of end after you fire this off, and if something’s left alive, you’ll have no way to defend yourself. I normally make sure I have at least 3 blues on me, pop one if a mob survives, and fry him. If no one survives, I go into rest mode, recover fully and move on. With the new rest timer, this is much easier to do now then it was before.

Now, lets move on to my secondary, THERMAL. I picked thermal for one reason… and that reason WASN’T to be a healer. I picked it because it was the perfect complement to the fire primary. (From a conceptual point of view of course.) But, I’ve really grown to like Thermal. Ok, lets get started.

1. Warmth. A PBAoE heal. A weak one. You might be disappointed with this power at first. This power, out of the box, won’t heal for beans. This is one of them powers that NEEDS slots and SO’s before it’ll really shin. You NEED 3 Heals in it. You’ll WANT a recharge in it, and I RECOMMEND an end reducer. Maybe two when all is said and done. Mine so far is 3 heal/1end/1recharge. This setup works really really well right now. I might leave it this way. But if I do find an extra slot for it, I’ll be an end reducer. You won’t do anyone any good if you run out of end. This power rates, when it’s fully slotted up, about 7/10. It’ll help you solo, and it’ll heal your teammates, but it won’t save many lives on it’s own. It’s going to need help. Thankful, this set have plenty of help to offer.

2. Fire Shield. And here’s the help I was talking about. You NEED this power if you want to play support. NEED it. You won’t be able to keep a team alive with heals alone. Our heals just aren’t that strong. (Especially post 20. I did OK in the early game with just my heals, but if I had it to do again, I’d take my shields earlier. I took my shields at 22 and 24. Live and Learn) this is a 10/10 power. It’s a staple of the Thermal Set. But ironically, it only needs 3 slots. Put in 3 dmg resists and your good. No end reduction needed. I regularly keep full 8 man teams fully shields and I normally never have any end issues.


3. Cauterize. Our single target heal. This heal is ok out of the box, unlike Warmth. It only gets better with slots. 3 heal is a must, and from there, a recharge is NICE, and an end reducer is good too. Mines 5 slotted with 3 heal/ 1 end /1 recharge. I see no reason for more slots to be added. It’s almost perfect this way. 9/10 IMO.

4. Plasma Shield. See my review of Fire Shield. It’s the Same. You need this power. You need it 3 slotted. It’s a 10/10 power.


5. Power of the Phoenix. It’s a rez. A nice Rez. I plan on getting it when they add the post 40 game. The only reason I don’t have it right now is, well, I felt the other powers I chose would help me keep my teammates alive, which, IMO, I better then having to rez them. Of course, no matter what, people will die from time to time, which is why; my LvL 41 power will be PoP. I’ll prolly just leave it with one recharge reducer, and hope I'm a good enough corrupter to not need up more often then that.

6. Thaw. This is basically clear mind. It’s nice to have. It’ll break people out of holds. 6/10 power. Since I find most of my teammates have a form of mez protection, this is less useful to me then I though it would be. (Stalker, Brutes and MM’s don’t get mezed very often. And they are the bulk of who I play with.) I keep it one slotted, with a recharge… just because I cast it each time I cast my shields, and the recharge saves me some time on my buff cycle. Buffing them with thaw when I buff my shields normally allows everyone to have mez protection through the alpha strike of a mob. Maybe that’s the reason I don’t find many of my teammates getting mezed… cause I use it preemptively… *shrug* don’t really know. But I still recommend taking it.


7. Forge. A single target +acc+dmg buff. Sort of like fortitude but without the defense buff. Personally, I like this power, but it’s NOT as awesome as I though it would be. I can keep it one 3 people all the time. (If I’m on the ball) I’ll normally always buff the lead brute, then the lowest NON MM player on the team. Them are two I focus on, then for the third one, I pick people at random. (All but MM’s. I don’t really think it helps them at all. And as a rule, unless I’m group with only MM’s, I don’t buff pets. But that’s just me. I’m sure MM pet’s benefit greatly from our buff, and if you want to spend the time to buff them, go for it. ) This power is a 6/10 power. Nice, but not necessary.

8. Heat exhaustion. Meh. This power… Is the only power I regret taking. Don’t get me wrong, this power HAS saved my life on at least 2 occasions, but that’s ALL it’s done for me. Is a single target debuff. It lowers a lot of stuff, damage, regeneration rate, endurance regain… and I think that’s it. It drains some end to, but not very much. This power is WONDERFUL, when your fighting the Low Bow elite bosses. Oh I forget the name, but them monsters with the force-field powers. Cast this on them, and after a few attacks. They’ll be totally drained of end and totally helpless for about 20 seconds or so, give or take. THAT’S COOL. But that’s the only real use I’ve found for it, draining the endurance out of an elite boss, and acting as a ghetto hold. This IS a good application mind you, but, well, I was hopping for more from my LvL 35 power. Against normal mobs, the debuff takes so long to drain a mob of endurance, you’ll kill them before they tank. (although there are some, like death mages, that use A LOT of end. So, if you find an end hog of a boss, casting this on it will act as a hold of sorts, but I haven’t found many mobs where this is terribly effective. Again, YMMV.) The damage debuff would be the only reason to cast it against a non elite, or AV. (although, I don’t think the end debuff effects AV’s. At least in my experience, I’ve never caused an AV to tank there blue bar yet…) I hear it’s NASTY in PvP. But I don’t PvP, so I can’t really comment on that. So you have to ask yourself, is it worth it to get this power knowing that it’ll MAINLY be used as a single target damage debuffer 90% of the time? Personally, I’d have prolly taken PoP had I known how this power preformed ahead of time. I doubt I’ll respec it out but I’d defiantly put it off if I had it to do over again. (Depending, of course, on Patron Powers.) This power is a 5/10. Totally middle of the road if you ask me.

9. Melt Armor. This power, I like. A LOT. It’s an AoE -res -diff. It’s an attack, well, it targets a mod and has a to hit roll anyway, so you need to slot ACC in it. Mines slotted right now with 2 acc 2 recharge. At 40, I’ll slot it with another recharge and call it. I don’t know number, but what I do know is this, when I cast this puppy on a mob, they die quickly afterwards. I use this is combination with Aim, Fireball, and Inferno for my Alpha Strike. It’s nasty. And now that MA is recharging faster, I’m using it more often, in-between Alphas, and it’s really adding to my team’s offence. This is a GREAT power. 10/10 for sure IMO.


And that is my take on the fire/thermal corruptor. I guess I could go into detail about power pools and such, but really, they’ve been review to death. If you have questions about them, I’m sure your find your answers else ware rather easily. I will say this though, you going to want Stamina. Your blue bar is your life, and your team’s life. If you run out, people can and will die. So take it, 3 slot it, and watch that blue bar.

Ok, there you go. My first guide/overview. So what do you guys think? I know I know, bad grammar and horrid spelling, but aside from that? Oh, and if you have any information to add, or advice, please do. Let’s get the next generation of Fire/Thermals off on the right foot!

Hmm. I guess I can post my current build too, just incase people want to see it. Ok, here he is, Moltron, Dastardly Doer of Evil Deeds!

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Exported from Ver: 1.7.5.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder - (http://home.comcast.net/~SherkSilver/index.html)
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Name: Moltron
Level: 41
Archetype: Corruptor
Primary: Fire Blast
Secondary: Thermal Radiation
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01) --> Flares==> Acc(1) Dmg(3) Dmg(7) Dmg(13)
01) --> Warmth==> Heal(1) Heal(15) Heal(15) Rechg(31) EndRdx(31)
02) --> Fire Blast==> Acc(2) Dmg(3) Dmg(5) Dmg(11)
04) --> Fire Ball==> Acc(4) Dmg(5) Dmg(7) Dmg(13) EndRdx(40)
06) --> Cauterize==> Heal(6) Heal(17) Heal(17) Rechg(31) EndRdx(34)
08) --> Fire Breath==> Acc(8) Dmg(9) Dmg(9) Dmg(11) EndRdx(40)
10) --> Swift==> Run(10)
12) --> Hover==> Fly(12)
14) --> Fly==> Fly(14)
16) --> Health==> Heal(16)
18) --> Blaze==> Acc(18) Dmg(19) Dmg(19) Dmg(21) EndRdx(25)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20) EndMod(21) EndMod(23)
22) --> Fire Shield==> DmgRes(22) DmgRes(23) DmgRes(27)
24) --> Plasma Shield==> DmgRes(24) DmgRes(25) DmgRes(27)
26) --> Aim==> Rechg(26) Rechg(37) Rechg(37)
28) --> Forge==> Rechg(28) Rechg(29) Rechg(29)
30) --> Thaw==> Rechg(30)
32) --> Inferno==> Dmg(32) Dmg(33) Dmg(33) Rechg(33) Rechg(34) Rechg(34)
35) --> Heat Exhaustion==> Acc(35) Acc(36) Rechg(36) Rechg(36) Rechg(37)
38) --> Melt Armor==> Acc(38) Acc(39) Rechg(39) Rechg(39) Rechg(40)
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01) --> Sprint==> Run(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Acc(1)
01) --> Scourge==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Rechg(2)
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