Good attack combinations?

VKhaun · 08-03-2009 06:47 AM

When I left we still had the defiance thing, where as we took damage we got more damage to send back. Now I see each power has a small damage increase associated with it. Playing my new lowbie blaster (LOVE LOVE LOVE the mental subset list.) I find any given power's bonus is short and that I usually can only stack up two such bonuses at a time. Controlling and utility powers seem to have much larger bonuses then standard attacks.

So, just out of curiosity, does anyone actually CARE about their attack order? Are there any combos that shine as being a good loop for constant high +% on damage? I love doing subdual on a runaway, then catching up for a telekinetic thrust to put them airborne for a nice skeet shoot with slug on the high +% damage from the two control-ish powers.

Ad Astra · 08-03-2009 09:56 AM

Well, as a players of many various blasters, I think you have already hit on the main thing I consider about attack chain order - Is there a controllerish power I want to start off with (like Ice Patch or a good KB)?

The other thing that changed with the newer Defiance 2.0 is that I *always* take my Tier One Primary Blast, as it is quick-firing and will build Defiance for a long fight - especially good for longer AV fights when sprinkled among the higher damage blasts.

Altoholic - but a Blaster at Heart!

Originally Posted by SpyralPegacyon

"You gave us a world where we could fly. I can't thank you enough for that."

PeterAlmighty · 08-03-2009 11:26 AM

I pay a good bit of attention to attack order on my ice/energy. As a general rule, controllerish and single target attacks give the best defiance bonuses, whereas AoEs have much lower %s. Also, quick animating attacks can take the best advantage of defiance, since you can fire them off in rapid succession and stack up a nice bonus. As such, I try to chain my quicker single target attacks (iceBolt/iceBlast/energyPunch/freezeRay) to get my defiance nice and high, and then "cash in" with a high damage finisher or AoE (frostBreath/bitterBlast/boneSmasher/totalFocus).

Btw, another reason to *always* take your tier one primary blast is that you can use it while mezzed

Umbral · 08-03-2009 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VKhaun

I find any given power's bonus is short and that I usually can only stack up two such bonuses at a time.

The defiance buff lasts 7.5 seconds after the end of the power's animation. This means that you've got 7.5 seconds to stack it up. It's not too hard if you've got a constant attack string.

Quote:

Controlling and utility powers seem to have much larger bonuses then standard attacks.

You're completely wrong here. Defiance is based entirely off of 2 things: animation time and target capability. Single target attacks have a higher defiance value than AoE attacks and attacks with longer animations have a larger buff. This means that virtually all single target attack strings can maintain roughly the same defiance buff simply because all the values are standardized and the number of attacks you can fit into the 7.5 seconds after any attack is generally rather easy. If you're not managing at least 40% +dam with defiance using single target attacks, you're doing something wrong.

Quote:

So, just out of curiosity, does anyone actually CARE about their attack order? Are there any combos that shine as being a good loop for constant high +% on damage? I love doing subdual on a runaway, then catching up for a telekinetic thrust to put them airborne for a nice skeet shoot with slug on the high +% damage from the two control-ish powers.

Something that's important to remember is that a single target attack string without gaps is going to generate roughly the same +dam as any other single target attack string thanks to the normalization of defiance buffs. Your best bet to maximize damage is to simply generate a solid attack string with as few gaps as possible that uses as many high DPA attacks as possible.