Quote:
It depends on your design and concept. If you plan on soloing alot you can use Sirens and pick the spot you want to use Drain Psyche for maximum effect. That will boost your regen.|
Originally Posted by Cosmiclad
Hey there folks!
I have a wonderful little blaster I've just gotten up to 21, and am wondering which would be better to take? I think I'll have 1 free power slot with everything I'm planning on taking, so I was thinking maybe Assault from Leadership. But then I was thinking it'd be SO nice to have a heal, so I was thinking Medicine, but I'd have to sacrifice 1 other power to get Aid Self. I'm getting the MM power....whose name I cannot remember right now, but it aids your regeneration, at 22. So...should I just wait for that, and it'll make me be even happier, and I can just take Assault, or would Aid Other & Self be very useful...? All opinions are welcome! Thanks for your help!  |
You can also put the Call of the Sandman heal proc in Sirens and it will check on every target you hit. Those 2 things will allow you to skip Aid Self if you play smart leaving you free to take Assault.
-Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein.
-I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo Galilei
-When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. - Thomas Jefferson
Pretty much agree with what was said above.
I find that in teams and solo Drain Psyche is enough to keep my green bar topped off on my Fire/MM with the added benefit of being Sonic you can probably control the pace of things much better with Sirens, giving a chance for the regen to take effect if you need it.
I'd probably go for assault over aid self on a MM blaster.
Sorry if I'm reading too much into your post, but...
Sonic Attack and Mental Manipulation are both really good sets. I have a feeling that, unless you're skipping fitness or a travel pool or an ancillary pool, if you're looking to take another power pool, you might have skipped some worthwhile primaries and secondaries.
Between Leadership and Medicine, I'd pick Medicine, but between Medicine and almost any Sonic Attack or Mental Manipulation power (except the obvious stinker at level 35), I can do without the tricorder.
Quote:
Scare is an obvious *******? I was planning on getting both Scare and Screech on my sonic/MM! |
Originally Posted by Rigel_Kent
Between Leadership and Medicine, I'd pick Medicine, but between Medicine and almost any Sonic Attack or Mental Manipulation power (except the obvious stinker at level 35), I can do without the tricorder.
|
Sure, the durations suck and they don't stack with each other, but I reckon they're perfect for taking out pesky lts.. My main justification is that Scare gives you a nice 17.6% defiance boost! I've never tried it though, so tell me if it's not worth it.While we're at it, any opinions on Shockwave, Telekinetic Thrust, and World of Confusion? Those are the three powers I'm skipping. On second thought, Shockwave does more damage than I thought, and would give me a third cone
I'm just wary of the knockback (although at least it's guaranteed, unlike energy torrent *grumbles*). Is Telekinetic Thrust worth getting/slotting? Is Subdue worth slotting?Sorry for the threadjack, but this might help the OP too
[Edit: Ha! stinker is profane? News to me!]
Thank you all for sharing your wisdom Miladys Knight, Mr Liberty, and Rigel Kent!
I think I'm going to go with Assault for the one space I have left in my projected build. I was playing last night, and I wasn't really in mortal danger, cept once or twice where I just popped a green and was good to go. And I haven't gotten to Drain Psyche yet, so hopefully that'll just make everything better!
(For a little more info, I tend to solo a LOT. But I sometimes duo with my roomie, who's currently a Scrapper.)
Specifically, especially to Rigel Kent, I have Hover/Fly, and 3 Fitness (Need that Stamina!) and am planning on 3-4 of the Ancillary powers. What I was saying in my original post was that I had 1 slot left, after my planning on Mid's and I was trying to see if Assault would be useful, or if I should take Medicine, because then I'd have to replan what I was taking to get two powers from it. (I kinda worry about not being able to heal myself!) I wasn't just looking for taking a new pool power just for the fun of it!
However, in my playing/ planning I really try to stay at range, so I took Mind Probe as a melee power for when I can't avoid it. TK thrust didn't seem neccesary. I also didn't think I needed both Amplify and Concentraion, or both Screech and Scare. Just 1 of each of those sets. And I've been on the fence about Shockwave, hearing both good and bad about it. I'm still planning on World of Confusion, despite the many poor things I've heard about it. So, I'm planing on 14 of the 18 primary and secondary sets....which I think is pretty good. If I'm passing on a sooper-dooper power, please let me know!
Thanks again very much everyone!
No problem Peter Almighty!
All your questions are various things I've wondered from time to time as well!
(And really, '*******' was censored????)
That's just goofey!
Quote:
UH OH SPAGHETTIOS|
Originally Posted by Cosmiclad
I also didn't think I needed both Amplify and Concentration
|
Sorry, it, uh, just sort of popped into my head. Anyway, having both BU+Aim is a good idea for almost any blaster playstyle and any team speed. Either you can pop them together to get an extremely damage+tohit buffed alpha strike, handy if you're going to nuke, spam a bunch of AoEs, or need to assassinate a single target quickly. Or you can pop them sequentially to get an extended period of damage+tohit buff, handy if your team is high on defense but low on DPS, and you need the extra accuracy for some reason (such as vs purples). Or you can pop them separately to get damage+tohit buffs more frequently, handy if your team is mowing through a new spawn every 30 seconds.
The thing Ive found problematic about my Sonic/MM blaster is that there are TO many good powers that I could take that Ive had trouble having enough slots on my build.
And for that reason I took Assault from leadership (at lvl 30) because I could just get away adding one extra slot to it and be happy.
For my damage mitigation I have taken Shockwave, World of Confusion, Mind Probe and Siren's which work quite well.
Drain Psyche is very good in groups and helps with reducing down time when solo.
My build is very cone heavy - Howl, Psychic Scream, Shockwave, Siren's and the eletric epic cone as well. Plus the PBAoE power MM power (the name escapes me!) and my nuke. So I have a lot of AoE damage going on.
I decided to go Hasten/SS route and took both Amplify and Concentration (for both the amazing damage boost to your alpha and they dont require much slotting)
Member of GGRRR, a SG on Defiant - check out our website - GGRRR
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Zwillinger
Quote:
|
Quote:
I have to echo the Oh oh SpaghettiOs post.|
Originally Posted by Cosmiclad
Thank you all for sharing your wisdom Miladys Knight, Mr Liberty, and Rigel Kent!
I think I'm going to go with Assault for the one space I have left in my projected build. I was playing last night, and I wasn't really in mortal danger, cept once or twice where I just popped a green and was good to go. And I haven't gotten to Drain Psyche yet, so hopefully that'll just make everything better! (For a little more info, I tend to solo a LOT. But I sometimes duo with my roomie, who's currently a Scrapper.) Specifically, especially to Rigel Kent, I have Hover/Fly, and 3 Fitness (Need that Stamina!) and am planning on 3-4 of the Ancillary powers. What I was saying in my original post was that I had 1 slot left, after my planning on Mid's and I was trying to see if Assault would be useful, or if I should take Medicine, because then I'd have to replan what I was taking to get two powers from it. (I kinda worry about not being able to heal myself!) I wasn't just looking for taking a new pool power just for the fun of it! However, in my playing/ planning I really try to stay at range, so I took Mind Probe as a melee power for when I can't avoid it. TK thrust didn't seem neccesary. I also didn't think I needed both Amplify and Concentraion, or both Screech and Scare. Just 1 of each of those sets. And I've been on the fence about Shockwave, hearing both good and bad about it. I'm still planning on World of Confusion, despite the many poor things I've heard about it. So, I'm planing on 14 of the 18 primary and secondary sets....which I think is pretty good. If I'm passing on a sooper-dooper power, please let me know! Thanks again very much everyone! |
A little more info and a little more input for you.
First off is that with /Mental you don't need Stamina. You don't need the fitness pool at all actually. (You really don't!) Hitting 1 target with unslotted Drain Psyche gives you more endurance recovery than Stamina 3 slotted with level 50 End Mod IOs. The only problem, of course, is that DP has a recharge of 120 seconds and a duration of only 30 seconds.
3 Slotting Drain Psyche with level 50 Rech IOs takes it to up 30 seconds and down 30 seconds. With decent end red slotting in your powers (even cheap uncommon sets like Ruin provide this), 2 targets and DP is all you need to ride the Endurance Roller Coaster to success. If that's not enough for you slap a Miracle+ and Numina's +/+ in DP. You don't even need targets then, just pop DP, and you get the same recovery as unslotted stamina and that lasts for 120 seconds. 1 target gets you more recovery than you can use while its up and more than enough to carry you over the down time.
Mind Probe is fine, but not a have to have, you'll be better off using your primary for the stacking resistance debuffs and between Sirens, Shockwave, Subdual, and Screech very very few mobs will ever reach melee range.
One of the most fun AoE chains for Sonic/MM is the following and all you need to pull it off is enough extra global +rech to drop the recharge of Sirens to 7 seconds (Hasten is good enough if you ED cap the rech slotting of Sirens).
Aim for a corner or a wall. Shockwave (damages and knocks all the mobs back into the wall), Howl (cone damage and resistance debuff), Psi Scream (damage), Sirens (puts all the mobs to sleep).
By the time you complete that chain Shockwave is ready to go again. The fun part is the mobs don't get to do anything to you. Shockwave sends them flying and by the time they stand up and take a couple steps toward you, they will be in sleepy land. On the second iteration any thing you miss with Shockwave will still be sleeping and you can take a step to the left or right to miss it with the other cones or you can Screech or Subdue it to make sure it doesn't become a problem.
The other really really cool thing with this combo is Drain Psyche with Sirens. Sleeps are broken by anything that changes a Mobs hit points or it's position. (So damage, a heal, and Repel, KB, KD, or KU). Drain Psyche does none of these things to the mobs. You can stroll casually through the sleeping spawn looking for the perfect spot to maximize your targets for DP, suck them dry, and not wake them up.
Since you have Screech and Sirens you won't need Scare. Scare is a low duration soft control of dubious value. Screech is a hard control and has a longer duration than Scare. You can put the spawn to sleep with Sirens, Screech one of the mobs (which wakes it up and stuns it at the same time). If you moved into melee range while it was asleep long enough for it to switch to melee AI and then jump back out to range just before Screeching it won't do any damage to you since it will have a melee attack queued up, but it will wander drunkenly toward you at full speed. I always find that little attack sequence highly amusing.
You will want both Amplify and Concentration. The to hit bonuses are too good to pass up and the extra damage works well with the resistance debuffs from Sonic.
You won't need World of Confusion either. It's minion only, the confuse ticks every 4 seconds and ED capped WoC confuse only has a duration of 3 seconds. With all the tools you have, the chances of a minion getting into melee range to get confused is extremely slim, and confusing sleeping mobs does nothing to help you since it won't wake them up.
-Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein.
-I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo Galilei
-When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. - Thomas Jefferson
I have one of these and just did Sister Psyche TF with really limited slotting in Siren's Song and Drain Psyche and it worked just fine so I am certain you don't need Medicine and I don't expect to ever need Fitness, but we'll see.
Usually, I attack with Howl, Psychic Scream, and Shockwave, then decide if I need to sleep and drain the mob before they get back up. Something like that.
It is a fun combination that somehow fits thematically.
Quixotik
"I did not say this. I am not here." -Guild Navigator
Quote:
I would tend to agree and disagree with this statement.|
Originally Posted by Miladys_Knight
I have to echo the Oh oh SpaghettiOs post.
A little more info and a little more input for you. First off is that with /Mental you don't need Stamina. You don't need the fitness pool at all actually. (You really don't!) Hitting 1 target with unslotted Drain Psyche gives you more endurance recovery than Stamina 3 slotted with level 50 End Mod IOs. The only problem, of course, is that DP has a recharge of 120 seconds and a duration of only 30 seconds. 3 Slotting Drain Psyche with level 50 Rech IOs takes it to up 30 seconds and down 30 seconds. With decent end red slotting in your powers (even cheap uncommon sets like Ruin provide this), 2 targets and DP is all you need to ride the Endurance Roller Coaster to success. If that's not enough for you slap a Miracle+ and Numina's +/+ in DP. You don't even need targets then, just pop DP, and you get the same recovery as unslotted stamina and that lasts for 120 seconds. 1 target gets you more recovery than you can use while its up and more than enough to carry you over the down time. Mind Probe is fine, but not a have to have, you'll be better off using your primary for the stacking resistance debuffs and between Sirens, Shockwave, Subdual, and Screech very very few mobs will ever reach melee range. One of the most fun AoE chains for Sonic/MM is the following and all you need to pull it off is enough extra global +rech to drop the recharge of Sirens to 7 seconds (Hasten is good enough if you ED cap the rech slotting of Sirens). Aim for a corner or a wall. Shockwave (damages and knocks all the mobs back into the wall), Howl (cone damage and resistance debuff), Psi Scream (damage), Sirens (puts all the mobs to sleep). By the time you complete that chain Shockwave is ready to go again. The fun part is the mobs don't get to do anything to you. Shockwave sends them flying and by the time they stand up and take a couple steps toward you, they will be in sleepy land. On the second iteration any thing you miss with Shockwave will still be sleeping and you can take a step to the left or right to miss it with the other cones or you can Screech or Subdue it to make sure it doesn't become a problem. The other really really cool thing with this combo is Drain Psyche with Sirens. Sleeps are broken by anything that changes a Mobs hit points or it's position. (So damage, a heal, and Repel, KB, KD, or KU). Drain Psyche does none of these things to the mobs. You can stroll casually through the sleeping spawn looking for the perfect spot to maximize your targets for DP, suck them dry, and not wake them up. Since you have Screech and Sirens you won't need Scare. Scare is a low duration soft control of dubious value. Screech is a hard control and has a longer duration than Scare. You can put the spawn to sleep with Sirens, Screech one of the mobs (which wakes it up and stuns it at the same time). If you moved into melee range while it was asleep long enough for it to switch to melee AI and then jump back out to range just before Screeching it won't do any damage to you since it will have a melee attack queued up, but it will wander drunkenly toward you at full speed. I always find that little attack sequence highly amusing. You will want both Amplify and Concentration. The to hit bonuses are too good to pass up and the extra damage works well with the resistance debuffs from Sonic. You won't need World of Confusion either. It's minion only, the confuse ticks every 4 seconds and ED capped WoC confuse only has a duration of 3 seconds. With all the tools you have, the chances of a minion getting into melee range to get confused is extremely slim, and confusing sleeping mobs does nothing to help you since it won't wake them up. |
First off to the OP, GET both amplify and build up. You will use them alternating for your aoes, and both when you nuke. There is no way IMO a sonic/mental can have room for a power like assault. Check out the link in my sig for some advice on the matter and a build to look at.
As to skipping fitness. For starters, i wouldn't skip hurdle. It plus combat jumping is very vital for combat mobility to jump in and out of melee and to position yourself quickly for your cone attacks. Health and a couple bonuses are also nice so your not HAVING to always go in and use drain psyche, letting you leave it for when you really need it. Likewise with stamina.
My sonic/mental has actually been going on red enhancments in stamina for a while now. But there are times i can see having enhancments in it a bonus. Then there is also the bonuses between health/stamina, two 1.88% max hp bonuses for 3.76% max hp without really sacrificing anything is a big help, making your drain psyche more effective as well. As if for example when fighting an AV, the regen will stack with your health and bonuses to heal you should you get hit by it when in melee.
And i'd still get WoC for sure, if nothing but for the super cheap purple bonuses. Plus it looks so darn cool! I've actually had it confuse guardians from the rikti to give me AM and Bubbles before :P. If another player has it as well, it will stack to confuse even bosses. I will agree that its main usability is low, but i would also always pick it up for just the cheap purple set bonuses. I actually almost never use sirens song, tbh can't even remember the last time i did since i picked up static discharge to complete my aoe attack chain, but it can have a use, but i will always keep it for the cheap purple set bonuses.
And oh yeah, pick up static discharge
Plasmic's Guide to Sonic/Mental
Plasmic's Guide to Regeneration
Plasmic Fire - 50 Fire/Rad Victory Server
Quote:
It's a play style choice more than anything. The OP said he solos alot or Duos with a Scrapper. Those are the situations where sleeps are excellent and Sirens can be the corner stone of your play style. On a team of 8 with AoEs flying around not so much though.|
Originally Posted by Windenergy21
I would tend to agree and disagree with this statement.
First off to the OP, GET both amplify and build up. You will use them alternating for your aoes, and both when you nuke. There is no way IMO a sonic/mental can have room for a power like assault. Check out the link in my sig for some advice on the matter and a build to look at. As to skipping fitness. For starters, i wouldn't skip hurdle. It plus combat jumping is very vital for combat mobility to jump in and out of melee and to position yourself quickly for your cone attacks. Health and a couple bonuses are also nice so your not HAVING to always go in and use drain psyche, letting you leave it for when you really need it. Likewise with stamina. My sonic/mental has actually been going on red enhancments in stamina for a while now. But there are times i can see having enhancments in it a bonus. Then there is also the bonuses between health/stamina, two 1.88% max hp bonuses for 3.76% max hp without really sacrificing anything is a big help, making your drain psyche more effective as well. As if for example when fighting an AV, the regen will stack with your health and bonuses to heal you should you get hit by it when in melee. And i'd still get WoC for sure, if nothing but for the super cheap purple bonuses. Plus it looks so darn cool! I've actually had it confuse guardians from the rikti to give me AM and Bubbles before :P. If another player has it as well, it will stack to confuse even bosses. I will agree that its main usability is low, but i would also always pick it up for just the cheap purple set bonuses. I actually almost never use sirens song, tbh can't even remember the last time i did since i picked up static discharge to complete my aoe attack chain, but it can have a use, but i will always keep it for the cheap purple set bonuses. And oh yeah, pick up static discharge |
If you go the Sirens route another cone in Static Discharge may sit in your tray if you have Hasten or a decent amount of +rech. All the AoEs and Cones in Sonic/Mental take 2+ seconds to cast. Sirens has the longest recharge at base 20 seconds. With 4 cones at or under 8 seconds recharge your damage output will be limited by animation time rather than recharge.
My builds rarely feature powers used solely as set mules. If I have a power I want to be able to use it effectively not just have a power icon I removed from my tray.
That's one of the reasons I explored Sonic/Mental. Most of my other blasters are only comfortable with Fitness, Medicine, Speed, and alternate Travel power if Super Speed isn't the concept.
Drain Psyche freed me from the shackles of Fitness.
On the build that uses leaping, extra slotting in Combat Jumping meant that I didn't notice the absence of Hurdle.
Slotting Sirens with Call of the Sandman's set, including the heal proc, and the single target blasts with Entropic Chaos, including the heal proc, freed me from the shackles of Medicine which gave me many more options and flexibility on the character.
Sonic/Mental is limited by animation time rather than recharge so I was able to skip Hasten. That opened up a world of possibilities in my Sonic/Mental that I had never been able to explore before with my other blasters which is why I liked it. I also found Purple sets to be less valuable for this reason. With slower animation times I used less endurance and didn't need the extra recovery or recharge in Purples and I was able to get extra accuracy from other sources. I was able to try some odd slotting combinations that work out quite well and I ended up with a very unique blaster that still functions extremely well both solo and teamed and I didn't have to spend much inf to get it there.
-Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein.
-I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo Galilei
-When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. - Thomas Jefferson
Hey there folks!
I have a wonderful little blaster I've just gotten up to 21, and am wondering which would be better to take?
I think I'll have 1 free power slot with everything I'm planning on taking, so I was thinking maybe Assault from Leadership. But then I was thinking it'd be SO nice to have a heal, so I was thinking Medicine, but I'd have to sacrifice 1 other power to get Aid Self.
I'm getting the MM power....whose name I cannot remember right now, but it aids your regeneration, at 22.
So...should I just wait for that, and it'll make me be even happier, and I can just take Assault, or would Aid Other & Self be very useful...?
All opinions are welcome!
Thanks for your help!