ITF - Benumb target

My Cold/Psi is going to be running an ITF soon, which will be her first.

I know that benumb is especially useful in the final fight.

I think that I would hit Rommy with it, as the -heal affects heals on him, or should I hit the healing nictus with it ?

Thanks

Either works.

When I run on the ITF with my cold characters, if the team gets Rommy well positioned (on the roof edge or with the healing nictus taunted away) I hit Rommy. If the team is trying to out DPS the heals then the nictus gets it.

-heal on rommy wouldn't have the same affect as at the healnictus
take tha healnictus and you will be suprised how good it works
or what Chyll said (didnt think about these 2 options)

There is a third option as well - the mire nictus. Since its attack is autohit, the -damage from benumb can often be very useful. This is especially true with you being a cold, since you already give the team good defense. So the only real danger is the autohit attack.

Basically, if I don't think people will die I benumb the Healing Nictus. If I think people will die I benumb the Mire Nictus.

Nice thought, Kahlan, I never thought about taking advantage of the -dmg on the Mire. And frequently when things have gone wrong on an ITF for me before its due to that nasty auto-hit too. Nice thought.

-Heal affects the caster's healing power (not the target), so you should use it on the healing nictus. As mentioned, the autohit Mire one is also a good option.

The healing Nictus is the one on Rommie's right (your left) and the autohit nictus is directly behind him.

Here's a question: how important is Power Build Up in these scenarios?

My primary target is the healing nictus. It drops it from ~270 per heal to ~80 per heal.
Secondary target, depending on the team, is the auto-hit nictus.
Tertiary target is rom himself.

It really depends on the team makeup which is most useful. Also, it depends on how hectic battle is and if I can pick out and keep my targets aquired while still fighting effectively offensively. With all three nicti named the same, on bolder teams the chaos makes it such that I may often only get one benumb off on the proper nictus before just defaulting to Rom. Of course, by then, we've likely already killed Rom once, the biggest threat eliminated, and the game already won whether Rom knows it yet or not.

So for a Speed ITF I should be targetting the Healing Nictus as we're simply trying to out-DPS Rommy? Sorry hehe, just clearing things over.

right but if they get split (wanted or unwanted) get it to romy

I don't have a high level Cold toon, but here's my thoughts:

Rommy won't last over 15secs per spawn on a decent speed team. Assuming you got 3rech IO's on benumb and no +rech bonuses, hasten or external recharge buffs, Benumb will have a 60 secs recharge. This means you'd be able to use it on Rommy once, maybe twice (the second time would be in his last 'life').

The healing nictus, on the other hand, it doesn't respawn and lasts ~35 secs (it fades after Rommy's 2nd death, iirc). If Linea_Alba is correct and the heal nerf is that significant, then I'd say Benumb healing nictus right at start and then, if you get it up again while rommy is still alive, use it on him.

As for the other debuffs, I'd throw them all on Rom. Heat Loss should be used on summoning nictus or when first ambush comes.

Again, I don't have a decent cold toon so I could be completely mistaken