Ok, a few thought in no particular order:
1. Try and put some recharge reduction in your attacks in your attacks, especially Blazing Arrow
2. You don't need 4 Damage IOs in Blazing Arrow
3. I can't check this for sure since I don't have Mids available at the moment but IIRC for several powers (notably Disruption Arrow and Rain of Arrows) the reduction in recharge time between 3 common rech IOs and 2 common rech IOs is pretty minimal so you may find that worth switching
4. Consider dropping the 2nd Endurance Reduction in the Leadership toggles. This one is somewhat subjective but my experience is that the value of the second one is pretty minimal so you may want to put and extra end Redux in one of your click powers instead.
5. For Acid Arrow I'm not sure if it's that useful to have 2 defense debuffs since you're running Tactics and Archery is pretty accurate anyway, an End reduc there will help with spamming it. My advice would be to run a few missions with just one and monitor your to hit chance.
6. Consider dropping Tactics and taking Maneuvers instead. IMHO Tactics is the least useful of the Leadership Toggles for PvE (unless you play on a static team or spend most of your time fighting against NPCs with To Hit debuffs) since most people will slot their chars to give themselves 95% chance to hit anyway. More defense on the other hand is almost always appreciated. If you yourself need the To Hit increase I'd recommend bending your no IO sets rule and getting a Kismet proc. They're normally pretty cheap and slotted in Hover or Maneuvers will give you 6% To Hit as long as you're running the toggle.
7. Replacing one of the Immobs in entangling Arrow with a Slow would be useful solo against bosses and EBs
I don't get elec mastery but you could have a nice concept that needs it. TA/A, being end friendly but for EMP can do with Powersink after EMP but only for some endurance. It is likely that whatever you have end drained is held anyway and by the time they're free from holds they'd have their endurance back. Or by the time they would of been free from the hold they're dead. I would swap the hold in EMP for an Endred. From experience that's basically what I needed more. Improving what I could do from an end bar but then again you got Powersink.
Poison Gas and Flash Arrow are sweet stackers to other peoples builds. Rain of Arrows was a nice tier 9 but groups disappeared too fast for me to get any real use from it. Either the fight was spent entirely defending the team or a team that didnt need defending defeated everything before the arrows landed despite it being my opener XD. The 4s cast time is such a long time. Explosive Arrow was a power that I never entertained. Slightly less AoE DPS than Fistful iirc with KB...KB can lower other peoples efficiency if your not careful. A time and place for RoA and Explosive would be too rare for me. So I would swap those attacks to complete the primary.
Slotwise, I balanced my build around a 20 second fight duration and travel time between groups. I ordered my powers in a way that means I basically almost use them all in a set order (does change in some instances) but it prevents me from overusing a power. Just because a power is recharged, doesn't mean you should use it straight away. So I set my tray so that I don't pointlessly stack the unstackable or stack powers needlessly. Waste not want not. Also if I was going to 3 IO anything, ie 3 Res IO I would consider looking at 3 Res SOs just to be tight on inf and not spend it. Gaining a percentage extra res I'd never notice, same with short rechargers. I might say 1 IO recharge and 2 SOs such is my tightness.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
Quote:
You won't need the two Immobilization IOs.|
Originally Posted by Electro_Cute
Level 1: Entangling Arrow -- Acc-I(A), Immob-I(3), Immob-I(19)
|
Quote:
| Level 1: Snap Shot -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(3) |
Quote:
| Level 10: Blazing Arrow -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(11), Dmg-I(11), Dmg-I(29), Dmg-I(37) |
Quote:
| Level 12: Hover -- DefBuff-I(A) |
Quote:
| Level 14: Fly -- Flight-I(A), Flight-I(33), Flight-I(43) |
Quote:
| Level 38: Rain of Arrows -- Dmg-I(A), Dmg-I(39), Dmg-I(39), RechRdx-I(39), RechRdx-I(40), RechRdx-I(40) |
These are, of course, just suggestions. It's your character and your $15/month, and if you feel that ~5% extra damage in Blazing Arrow or ~3mph faster flight speed are worth it, then by all means, go for it.
But you really should slot at least one Accuracy in RoA.
First of all, thaks to everybody.
Your suggestions are very useful, since I never tried TA or Archery before and I didn't know, for example, that RoA had a 4 sec activation time.
The 4th Damage in Blazing Arrow is clearly a mistake of mine, that was meant to be a Rech Reduction.
Quote:
There's actually no particular concept behind this, I choose Elec mainly for Powersink, but you are probably right about it.|
Originally Posted by New Dawn
I don't get elec mastery but you could have a nice concept that needs it. TA/A, being end friendly but for EMP can do with Powersink after EMP but only for some endurance. It is likely that whatever you have end drained is held anyway and by the time they're free from holds they'd have their endurance back. Or by the time they would of been free from the hold they're dead. I would swap the hold in EMP for an Endred. From experience that's basically what I needed more. Improving what I could do from an end bar but then again you got Powersink.
|
What epic pool and powers would you suggest instead?
Quote:
| Also if I was going to 3 IO anything, ie 3 Res IO I would consider looking at 3 Res SOs just to be tight on inf and not spend it. Gaining a percentage extra res I'd never notice, same with short rechargers. I might say 1 IO recharge and 2 SOs such is my tightness. |
Same for Hover, I put a DefBuff in it but I'm probably going to use that slot for a KB Protection or even a Kismet, as suggested by Adeon.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Luminara
You won't need the two Immobilization IOs.
Either drop the Damage IO or slot Snap Shot more. Leaving it with two slots just eats up a slot which could be more useful anywhere else. |
@Electro-cute
Electro-Cute lvl 50 Elec/Elec Blaster | Dr. Sun lvl 50 Inv/Nrg Tanker | StarLightning lvl 50 Peacebringer | Emerald Bolt lvl 21 TA/Arch Defender |
Grim Agony lvl 50 Bot/Dark Mastermind | EC-17 lvl 11 Widow |
Quote:
Power Mastery for Power Boost and Conserve Power, or Psi Mastery for additional control (and Dominate doubles as a decent attack, too).|
Originally Posted by Electro_Cute
There's actually no particular concept behind this, I choose Elec mainly for Powersink, but you are probably right about it.
What epic pool and powers would you suggest instead? |
I prefer Dark Mastery, but I also don't use Hover on any of my TA defenders (so i tend to get a lot of minions trying to hit me with melee attacks).
Quote:
| Yep, I didn't actually differentiate between IOs and SOs in writing down the build, but I'm going to use SOs when 3 of a kind are slotted. |
For reference, three-slotting with level 25 IOs results in only a ~2.7% difference from three-slotting +0 SOs.
Quote:
| Where would you move the slots I'd gain from Entangling and Snap Shot? |
Quote:
I will tell you my reasons for Power Mastery.|
Originally Posted by Electro_Cute
There's actually no particular concept behind this, I choose Elec mainly for Powersink, but you are probably right about it.
What epic pool and powers would you suggest instead? |
1) Staying ranged is safest. You could only end up compromising yourself or your ability to help the team by getting within melee range of enemies; trying to return endurance from Powersink. I like the option to be anywhere safe and keep going. I would conserve, EMP, pop a blue if needed and stay ranged.
2) Power Build practically doubles the effects of EMP as well as boosting other assets. It recharges quicker than EMP and doubles the end drain and duration of hold. You can stay ranged and do all the end drain powersink and EMP would of given you anyway. Movement from range to melee is not needed making your character more on time with the effects.
When you are sure about your power choices you can truly focus on the slotting as the slotting should be related to the entire build.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
Quote:
This is the first mention I've seen that a toggle might not reliably maintain a constant effect. Any reference for that?
|
Originally Posted by Luminara
No, Tactics isn't sufficient. You have no way to determine when Tactics pulses and therefore cannot time your use of RoA to coincide with a fresh pulse in order to ensure that it will have the ToHit buff.
|
Quote:
Tactics: Buff duration - 0.75s, activation - 0.50s. This means that every 0.50s, it applies a buff which lasts for 0.75s. You can check it at City of Data for yourself, all of the Leadership toggles use the same duration and activation time.|
Originally Posted by SkeetSkeet
This is the first mention I've seen that a toggle might not reliably maintain a constant effect. Any reference for that?
|
I haven't checked every toggle and auto power in the game, but all of them that I have looked at work this way. Stamina, for example, is a 10.25s duration, 10s activation. Durations and activation times vary, of course, but that's the basic mechanic for toggles and auto powers. None of them are constant, they're just automated clicks with a brief window of overlap to ensure that they appear to be constant.
Quote:
If the duration is longer than the period between applications, where does the part where you actually have to worry about it not being applied come into play? Sounds like it is constant as long as you have it running or are in range of it.
|
Originally Posted by Luminara
Tactics: Buff duration - 0.75s, activation - 0.50s. This means that every 0.50s, it applies a buff which lasts for 0.75s. You can check it at City of Data for yourself, all of the Leadership toggles use the same duration and activation time.
I haven't checked every toggle and auto power in the game, but all of them that I have looked at work this way. Stamina, for example, is a 10.25s duration, 10s activation. Durations and activation times vary, of course, but that's the basic mechanic for toggles and auto powers. None of them are constant, they're just automated clicks with a brief window of overlap to ensure that they appear to be constant. |
Quote:
Pets inherit buffs on the caster at the time of summoning. They don't inherit buffs which are applied after the pet is summoned, so the most one can expect to gain from Tactics is the full 0.75s from a single pulse.|
Originally Posted by SkeetSkeet
If the duration is longer than the period between applications, where does the part where you actually have to worry about it not being applied come into play? Sounds like it is constant as long as you have it running or are in range of it.
|
You can pretty much throw the third RoA tick (0.80s) to the wind because it's outside of the 0.75s Tactics pulse duration. And since you can't time the Tactics pulses, either, you have absolutely no way to ensure that you're activating RoA at the "right" moment for it to inherit the buff long enough for it to be applied to the second tick (0.40s).
Ah, wasn't taking the pet aspect of it into account, I see what you're saying now.
Taking the pet aspect into account I would expect the placement to matter with Tactics. If you are not within 60ft of a pet then the pet wouldn't be buffed. Rain of Arrows has a range of 90ft and so the placement could be easily outside of Tactics range.
Edit: Using Assault to test as its Activation Interval and Duration of buff doesn't differ to Tactics and because the effects are more notice able I found what I say to be true in the case of summoning Oil Slick but not true in the case of Rain of Arrows. Rain of Arrows with the TA buffed with Assault consistently showed increased damage on targets 90ft away. This means I can't quite see how Tactics fails. Tactics is more than +To Hit however and so should be also looked at for more than its +To Hit.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
I found Thunderstrike to be underwhelming on my Storm/Electrical defender. It's slow to activate and doesn't do all that much damage.
I've got Power Build Up on my TA/A defender, and use it every time I use EMP Arrow. In addition to increasing the duration of effects, it gives an 80% damage buff. It lasts longer and has 30% more damage buff than Aim. It's really pretty fabulous.
So I'd second the motion to use Power Mastery. Conserve Power is probably all you'd need; my character isn't really end-heavy, though I don't have the Leadership toggles. TA/A isn't a really fast set so you tend not to burn a lot of end.
You might also consider slotting uncommon IOs that are available cheaply. You really get a much better character when you use sets, because they pack two or three bonuses into each enhancement, and when you add them all up you can get more than 7 slots worth of enhancement in 5 slots. They're also cheaper in the long run and more convenient because they never run out. Slot them at level 30-35 and you'll never need to buy another enhancement for that power. For example, a level 35 Ruin set (which is really cheap) gives 59% acc, 85% damage, 41% end, 59% recharge.
If you don't care about set bonuses, you can "Frankenslot" (mix and match from different sets to maximize power level) using whatever recipes you find cheaply on the market.
For example, you can swap in a Maelstrom's Fury: Acc/Dam into the Ruin set above, and get 64% acc, 96% dam, 22% end red and 41% recharge. And that will cost you less than 100K per enhancement to buy and craft. Considering that you will spend 200K to replace your accuracy SOs from level 35 to 50, it's a great deal. And your enhancements will never go red in the middle of a mission.
Quote:
Seconded. I took thunderstrike a couple times on defenders and always ended up dropping it in a later respec. Large end cost and underwhelming damage combined with aoe KB that often as not was at cross purposes with whatever else it was I was trying to do at the time.
| I found Thunderstrike to be underwhelming on my Storm/Electrical defender. It's slow to activate and doesn't do all that much damage. |
Hi all.
So, I'm trying to create a PVE build for my TA/Arch Defender and this is what I've come up with so far.
Please let me know what should I change and how, according to you.
Any help is more than welcome.
At the moment I'm not planning to use IO sets, so I'd need a build that makes sense with normal enhancements only.
Thanks in advance.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1,601
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Emerald Bolt: Level 50 Natural Defender
Primary Power Set: Trick Arrow
Secondary Power Set: Archery
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Electricity Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Entangling Arrow -- Acc-I(A), Immob-I(3), Immob-I(19)
Level 1: Snap Shot -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(3)
Level 2: Aimed Shot -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(5), Dmg-I(7), Dmg-I(13)
Level 4: Glue Arrow -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(5), RechRdx-I(7), Slow-I(15), Slow-I(21)
Level 6: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(15), RechRdx-I(37)
Level 8: Ice Arrow -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(9), RechRdx-I(9), RechRdx-I(13), Hold-I(21), Hold-I(33)
Level 10: Blazing Arrow -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(11), Dmg-I(11), Dmg-I(29), Dmg-I(37)
Level 12: Hover -- DefBuff-I(A)
Level 14: Fly -- Flight-I(A), Flight-I(33), Flight-I(43)
Level 16: Acid Arrow -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(17), DefDeb-I(17), DefDeb-I(23), RechRdx-I(29), RechRdx-I(33)
Level 18: Disruption Arrow -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(19), RechRdx-I(23), EndRdx-I(36)
Level 20: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 22: Health -- Heal-I(A)
Level 24: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(25), EndMod-I(25)
Level 26: Oil Slick Arrow -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(27), RechRdx-I(27), Dmg-I(34), Dmg-I(34), Dmg-I(34)
Level 28: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(37)
Level 30: Explosive Arrow -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(31), Dmg-I(31), Dmg-I(31), EndRdx-I(36)
Level 32: Aim -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(36)
Level 35: Tactics -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(40), ToHit-I(46)
Level 38: Rain of Arrows -- Dmg-I(A), Dmg-I(39), Dmg-I(39), RechRdx-I(39), RechRdx-I(40), RechRdx-I(40)
Level 41: Thunder Strike -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(42), Dmg-I(42), Dmg-I(42), Dmg-I(43), EndRdx-I(43)
Level 44: EMP Arrow -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(45), RechRdx-I(45), RechRdx-I(45), RechRdx-I(46), Hold-I(46)
Level 47: Charged Armor -- ResDam-I(A), ResDam-I(48), ResDam-I(48), EndRdx-I(48)
Level 49: Power Sink -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(50), EndMod-I(50), EndMod-I(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Vigilance
@Electro-cute
Electro-Cute lvl 50 Elec/Elec Blaster | Dr. Sun lvl 50 Inv/Nrg Tanker | StarLightning lvl 50 Peacebringer | Emerald Bolt lvl 21 TA/Arch Defender |
Grim Agony lvl 50 Bot/Dark Mastermind | EC-17 lvl 11 Widow |