MA: Low single target DPS, Stun secondary in many attacks. Smashing damage, good against hard enemies (robots, DE), many enemies have resists to it
DM: One of the attacks takes 6 seconds to animate. Variety of powers with different utilities. Accuracy debuff inheirant. No direct Build Up Skill.
...I think, that's what was up the last time I played.
Made an AR/Dev blaster, had fun. Then ED came. AR/Dev sucked. Quit for two years. Came back for a while. AR/Dev still sucks. Quit after getting bored again. Came back. AR/Dev still sucks.
Claws Pros: Good control through Focus/Shockwave. Good AOE through Spin/Shockwave/Eviscerate (good luck fitting all 3 in!). Good single target chains.
Cons: Hmmm. Lethal damage? No extreme heavy hitter like Headsplitter or Midnight Grasp?
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DM: One of the attacks takes 6 seconds to animate. Variety of powers with different utilities. Accuracy debuff inheirant. No direct Build Up Skill.
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That's... wrong.
The attack you're talking about is Shadow Maul and it only takes 3.432 seconds, though it is still really long, in the grand scheme of things. At high recharges, it's got the best single target damage available, plus some excellent utility in the form of a direct control/debuff power (Touch of Fear), a self healing attack (Siphon Life, though it does enough damage that you probably want to slot for damage before the heal), and an endurance recovery tool that can actually give more end/sec than Stamina or Quick Recovery (Dark Consumption).
It does indeed have a Build Up type power (Soul Drain) that can be used without any enemies near, it just gets stronger for each additional enemy you hit. Soul Drain is oftentimes considered to be the best of the Build Up type powers (Blinding Feint and Follow Up from Dual Blade and Claws, respectively, are the other contenders for the crown) because it has a much better up time : downtime ratio than the traditional build up powers, making it significantly better over time.
As for damage, it's got a very strong focus on single target damage, though it does that very well (as indicated by the plethora of min/maxed DM/SR and DM/SD builds out there). The only AoE potential is in Shadow Maul, which is a small, max 5 target cone that is balanced with single target damage numbers. This means that, if you actually manage to get good with it and routinely hit 3-5 targets with it, you're going to be doing reasonably competitive AoE DPS with it, though you'll still fall far behind sets like Spines and Claws that can routinely hit 10 targets without using any time for enemy placement.
I'm pretty sure soul drain doesn't work with zero enemies around... I have damage bonus on my combat monitor on my DM/shield and sometimes when I miss an entire mob, I don't see any increase in damage bonus.
My DM scrapper can solo lieutenant farms set for 8. What he does is SM, MG, SM, SL over and over again, jumping backwards a little forcing the mobs to realign into one chunk. It tears mobs apart, and I don't think it requires much more than 30% global recharge, if that.
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I'm pretty sure soul drain doesn't work with zero enemies around... I have damage bonus on my combat monitor on my DM/shield and sometimes when I miss an entire mob, I don't see any increase in damage bonus.
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It does. I know this for a fact. There is a 50% +dam 10% +tohit that you get no matter if you hit a target or not. Each target that you hit grants you an additional 10% +dam and 2% +tohit. If you miss everyone, you'll get a smaller benefit, but you'll still get some.
The big reason this was done to address the uselessness of the old Soul Drain in PvP (when you didn't have targets to saturate it) and when fighting a small number of targets (re: solo or fighting an AV). In both of those situations it was largely useless, so Castle gave it a baseline buff so that, even if you used it with no one around, you'd still get something.
I just checked it in-game. It does not give a bonus with no enemies around. I did it in the consignment house and saw no change in damage bonus or ToHit bonus, and the soul drain buff icon did not appear. The baseline buff, I believe, is similar to invulnerability's buff. It's better with one enemy around than it was before, but it does not activate unless there actually is another enemy around.
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I just checked it in-game. It does not give a bonus with no enemies around. I did it in the consignment house and saw no change in damage bonus or ToHit bonus, and the soul drain buff icon did not appear. The baseline buff, I believe, is similar to invulnerability's buff. It's better with one enemy around than it was before, but it does not activate unless there actually is another enemy around.
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That's funky. I specifically remember testing that out in the I13 beta and making sure it was still like that whenever I14 released.
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I just checked it in-game. It does not give a bonus with no enemies around. I did it in the consignment house and saw no change in damage bonus or ToHit bonus, and the soul drain buff icon did not appear. The baseline buff, I believe, is similar to invulnerability's buff. It's better with one enemy around than it was before, but it does not activate unless there actually is another enemy around.
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That's funky. I specifically remember testing that out in the I13 beta and making sure it was still like that whenever I14 released.
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Or maybe it's the long-awaited Power Suppression in the consignment house?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nah.
If we are to die, let us die like men. -- Patrick Cleburne
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The rule is that they must be loved. --Jayne Fynes-Clinton, Death of an Abandoned Dog
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I just checked it in-game. It does not give a bonus with no enemies around. I did it in the consignment house and saw no change in damage bonus or ToHit bonus, and the soul drain buff icon did not appear. The baseline buff, I believe, is similar to invulnerability's buff. It's better with one enemy around than it was before, but it does not activate unless there actually is another enemy around.
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That's funky. I specifically remember testing that out in the I13 beta and making sure it was still like that whenever I14 released.
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Or maybe it's the long-awaited Power Suppression in the consignment house?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nah.
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I'm guessing it was a stealth change of some kind during one of the post-I14 bug fix patches. I kinda want it back actually, even though it won't really affect me in PvE. It was nice to know that, even if I misclicked, I'd still get some benefit.
Yeah, it always felt like 6 seconds, though.
Seriously annoying to use it and root yourself for that long.
Made an AR/Dev blaster, had fun. Then ED came. AR/Dev sucked. Quit for two years. Came back for a while. AR/Dev still sucks. Quit after getting bored again. Came back. AR/Dev still sucks.
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Yeah, it always felt like 6 seconds, though.
Seriously annoying to use it and root yourself for that long.
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Eh, I've gotten quite good with it. Thanks to the range extension and the Soul Drain buff, I can now plow through large mobs with a lot more speed than I used to. It's still no Spines/* or Claws/* but you can use it to close the gap a bit (re: every use kills 5 minions).
What are the pros and cons of each one