Quote:
The lack of Psi guides should be your first clue. Psi is rather underpowered for PvE at least partly because of the fears of the PvP community at the time of release.|
Originally Posted by DragonTiger
Seems to be a lack of Psi guides out there.
Background: 1. I play mostly villians and will probably take this blaster over to the dark/red side when GR goes live. I want to destroy peoples minds from a distance (as much as possible). 2. Not a pvp build. 3. Not going to pimp out with a bunch of expensive IOs (no miracle, numia's, but maybe a performance shifter for example) but will be using more than generic IOs. For style reasons I want Psi and probably /mental but I am some what flexible on the secondary. I have a mental/energy Dom so I don't to go down that road. So: 1. what's a good secondary? 2. what are some pitfalls of a psi/ build? Not looking for a build per se, but more the ideas behind a build and some basic "how to" on playing one. |
It is heavy in single target damage.
It has 2 single target controls. One is a fast activating sleep that doesn't do enough damage for a mid tier power especially in light of it's excessive recharge time. On teams the secondary effect is usually wasted. Soloing it can be useful.
The other single target control is a stun. It's excessive 3 second cast time makes it difficult to use as well.
There aren't many mobs in the game that resist psy damage but those that do have resistances to it (such as robots) have very high levels of resistance. This can make late game missions against some mob types quite painful.
Psi has a single AoE damage power that comes late in the power set.
Psi's secondary effect is -rech. You can easily keep one or 2 targets at the -rech cap and you can keep the spawn at -30% rech.
As a comparison -
Ice does virtually all the same things that Psi does and does it better.
Ice can keep an entire spawn at -30% rech and can keep 1 or 2 targets at the -rech cap but it can also keep the entire spawn at the -runspeed cap while doing so.
Ice has 2 hard controls (as opposed to 1 soft and 1 hard) both of which are holds so they can be stacked on a boss. The low tier one recharges fast and has a quick 1 second cast time. The high tier one has a 2.5 second cast time both controls activate faster than the equivalents from Psi.
The low tier hold in Ice recharges in half the time as the sleep in Psi, and has a lower duration, but is stackable. The high tier control in Ice and Psi have identical recharges but Ice's control has a longer base duration.
Ice is a superior set in most categories.
As far as a secondary to go with Psi?
/Energy is probably the best as it works with the strengths that Psi has though pairing it with Mental does make up for some of Psi's shortcomings. Most other pairings are IMO unsatisfactory.
All in all, for the concept you have for your toon and the uses that you wish to put it to, you would probably be better off with a Mind/Psi Dominator which is what I would reccomend for you.
-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
That makes me a sad panda.
Thanks for the warning and advice. Will probably do this anyway and go psi/mental. Robots will be a pain, but will have to use vetern powers and maybe temporary electro powers.
I have a mental/energy (and fire/mental) dominator and while it's good, it doesn't feel like I want this one to be.
In my favor, I also play an elec/kin corruptor and mostly solo him. That is 38 levels of pain. This can't be anywhere as bad as that!
Last question, is psy dart worth it in a pve build? It's nice in a dom build because it helps build domination, I am thinking I won't need it long enough to be worth respecing out of later.
For a Blaster, your Tier 1 & 2 primary & Tier 2 secondary are *always* worth it. Remember under the new Defiance, you can continue to fire those attacks while mezzed. Maybe not slotted up very much, but definitely worth taking.
And it can be used to build the damage scaling of Defiance as well, much like you are used to using it to build Domination.
I really miss Defiance when I switch back to my Fire/Therm Corr....
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."
I don't have all the stat info like Miladys_Knight so excellently put forth. I can only speak to personal experience, but would like to say that /fire makes a fine match to psi/.
I've recolored fire to thematically appear as an outgrowth of my characters psi abilities. I'm in the mid 20s currently on mine and have beefed up my psi tornado and fire sword circle. I find these tend to compensate for the one-on-one attack limitations of psi. And the knockdown on the tornado, as opposed to knockback, is a blessing so I can use it often without getting yelled at by the melee fighters. Usually, I find I can tear through mobs about as fast as I can with my energy/energy blaster.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by DragonTiger
That makes me a sad panda.
In my favor, I also play an elec/kin corruptor and mostly solo him. That is 38 levels of pain. This can't be anywhere as bad as that! |
It can.
And just to make it obvious, will dom is a damaging sleep so its impossible to stack, giving you only scatter thoughts as a possible stacking control. (3 seconds to cast, it looks and feels like you are throwing a big pink dandelion)
Really for PVE go ice.
Fire and Ment work well with PSI but thats just because they are great and work well with just about anything. You would be much better off pairing either one with a better set.
If you'd like to destroy minds from a distance, by all means make a psy blaster. You'll get more range out of psy than any other blaster primary and if you'd like to destroy things from a distance with your mind, well, there's psy blast or there's ... psy blast.
Instead of allowing others to get you to focus solely on what ice does better than psy (and you didn't get a balanced answer, so bear that in mind), focus on whether what psy does is good enough to have fun. And, if you're not looking for AOE damage (psy isn't good at that), then it can be a fun set that offers excellent single target damage and a nifty grab-bag of secondary effects that mesh surprisingly well, in-game.
Advantages to will domination, sometimes dismissed or treated as "throwaway" issues, are that it has an 80% chance of sleeping mobs at mag 3, a short cast time, and reasonable damage. Instead of only viewing will domination as the "half full glass", which some do, bear in mind that with will domination you get a good DPA power that offers a strong probability of mezzing a single foe of lieutenant strength or lower, whenever you cast it.
Simply put, there's no need to be a sad panda. Make a psy blast character and decide for yourself if you enjoy him or her, or not.
As for a secondary, I have /devices on one of my two currently played psy blasters and /ice on the other. They're both fun to play, and very good at taking down single hard targets; they both solo very easily, as well.
Quote:
This... I'm a huge fan of play how you like, while you may not do as much damage as fire/fire or whatever top damage builds are out there all that matters is that you're having fun. |
Originally Posted by ShoeTattoo
Simply put, there's no need to be a sad panda. Make a psy blast character and decide for yourself if you enjoy him or her, or not. |
I don't play psi at all because I just don't care for it but while the damage isn't great I can't imagine that it's so bad that you won't be able to contribute to a team.
Global @radubadu
Usually playing one of the following toons blueside on Virtue:
Cadler 50 WP/SS tanker
Radubadu 46 Fire/Fire blaster
Hell Runner 35 Fire/Fire brute
In case anyone cares, started a Psy/Devices. Kinda fits the whole super-genius style I am going for. [Of course one day his experiments will end up horribly scarring him both physically and mentally, starting his descent into evil!]
This addresses the issue of dealing non-psy damage for robots. However I am curious if Stam will be enough without drain psyche. Also wondering what travel (if any, ninja run is so nice!) to get. Leaning toward hover, fly to blast from on high.
Thanks for everyone's input (even the anti-psi posters since they help point out holes I will have to address/work around).
Quote:
Devices doesn't use much end at all..... if you skip the toggles and gun drone (you can replicate many of the effects from devices [notably; Targetting Drone, Cloaking Device, and Smoke] with set bonuses and IOs) this is mainly due to the long recharge and interrupt times on many of device's powers.|
Originally Posted by DragonTiger
In case anyone cares, started a Psy/Devices. Kinda fits the whole super-genius style I am going for. [Of course one day his experiments will end up horribly scarring him both physically and mentally, starting his descent into evil!]
This addresses the issue of dealing non-psy damage for robots. However I am curious if Stam will be enough without drain psyche. Also wondering what travel (if any, ninja run is so nice!) to get. Leaning toward hover, fly to blast from on high. Thanks for everyone's input (even the anti-psi posters since they help point out holes I will have to address/work around). |
The psi/dev blaster won't be a damage monster, it will be a slow, safe, and steady soloer. Not everyone's cup of tea, but if you enjoy it that's all that matters. That's the nice thing about CoH. The power set diversity (and IO sets) support lots of play styles.
-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
Seems to be a lack of Psi guides out there.
Background:
1. I play mostly villians and will probably take this blaster over to the dark/red side when GR goes live. I want to destroy peoples minds from a distance (as much as possible).
2. Not a pvp build.
3. Not going to pimp out with a bunch of expensive IOs (no miracle, numia's, but maybe a performance shifter for example) but will be using more than generic IOs.
For style reasons I want Psi and probably /mental but I am some what flexible on the secondary. I have a mental/energy Dom so I don't to go down that road.
So:
1. what's a good secondary?
2. what are some pitfalls of a psi/ build? Not looking for a build per se, but more the ideas behind a build and some basic "how to" on playing one.