Is Barrage The Gimped Power I've Been Told It Is?
By
BlackDecember,
Posted on: 2009-06-17 08:38 in Stalkers
A little research would seem to indicate all those I6 guides are outdated (no surprise there). Apparently somewhere around Issue 13 Barrage's damage doubled, making it an even better power than Energy Punch (despite its 2 second longer recharge time). Someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong...I'm here to learn...but Barrage doesn't seem like a "must skip" power anymore and a better choice to fill in your low-level attack chain than either Boxing or Air Superiority.
It entirely depends on what you want out of it.
It does more damage than Energy Punch, yes; it also has a lower damage per second of activation time.
If you're just looking at burst damage, then Barrage is okay but still not what I'd be wanting to use since it's outdone by Bone Smasher in every way; in an attack chain you'd want the higher DPA attack for a better overall DPS.
Not counting criticals, unenhanced values only, here are the Energy Melee attacks listed by DPA (corrected for server ticks):
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre> Act. Adj.
Power Scale Time Act Rech DS/A DPA
Energy Transfer 4.56 2.67 2.904 20 1.57 87.32
Total Focus 3.56 3.3 3.432 20 1.04 57.68
Bone Smasher 1.64 1.5 1.716 8 0.96 53.15
Energy Punch 1 0.83 1.056 4 0.95 52.66
Barrage 1.32 1.33 1.584 6 0.83 46.34
Assassin's Strike 2.5 3 3.168 15 0.79 43.88</pre><hr />
Edit: if you care, you need (global + slotting) 176% recharge in Bone Smasher, 191% in Energy Transfer, and 216% in Total Focus to seamlessly chain ET->BS->TF->BS->repeat. Less than that and you need to fill in EP somewhere, but the DPA for EP is very close to BS anyway.
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Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
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Since I have a Veteran's Reward respec waiting for me (and there's probably going to be another one coming with Issue 15) the plan right now is to take both Energy Punch AND Barrage so I have some kind of an attack chain in the early to mid levels, then ditch one or the other once I'm able to add ET and TF.
Working on my first stalker...an NRG/WP stalker...and I avoided Barrage because EVERY guide went to great pains to tell me what a terrible power it is. But according to this chart...
http://coh.redtomax.com/data/powers/...0#Pool.Fitness
It does more damage than Energy Punch (although it does have a two second longer recharge time). Are those numbers correct or am I simply misinterpreting them? I was honestly planning to put Boxing into my attack chain as I planned to take Tough later on down the line, but it appears to do even less damage than Energy Punch.
Most of the guides are Issue 6...long, LONG time ago. Is Barrage still the gimped power those old guides say it is? Thanks.