Warburg Nukes - Just how good?

Hi everybody,

Question as thread title.

I have studied the hard figures and read the Wiki stuff, but given that these three temp powers (Chemical, Biological and Nuclear) do take a fair bit of effort to get (did the recent PvP changes make it harder), I want to maximise their use.

Any tips/tactics and methods for getting the best out of them? (Teamed and/or Solo)

Can I break an AV soloing with them?

Have changes to ingame play reduced their efficacy?

When do you use them?

Should I use them when Hami/Mothership raiding et cetera?

What are your recent practical experiences of using them?

Thanks for all responses

Cheers

They are great.

If you have to prioritize

Bio
Chem
Nuke

Is my personal preference. The bio keeps you alive and vastly increases your damage. The chem knocks out the targets resistance.

Soloing AVs ? its possible with them, its possible without them, its possible without any inspirations. It all depends on your build and tactics.

If you have some inf now and dont want to head out to warburg you might consider another option which would be presents. The damage present can easily cap your damage for a minute, the defense present caps your defense all by itself and the health and end presents do the same.

There are considerable options to mix and match. If you aren't worried about personal safety damage presents and chemical nuke is a potent combination. Need more end ? a few of the recovery presents should keep you going etc.

If you have spare slots on alt you might want to use them to bid on presents and or store them they are frequently available very cheaply throughout the year.

Either way its good to have one or more nuke on you at all times that way if you get into a difficult situation you can use it to turn it around.

Well, you can only have one of each (Biological Mutagen, Chemical Burn, Nuclear Blast), but you can have all three at the same time.

If you have all three, the order you want to drop them is:

Biological Mutagen
Chemical Burn
Nuclear Blast

This is because the Bio buffs your regen and your damage (including the Nuke), the Chemical debuffs your enemies Defense and Resistance, and the Nuke... nukes.

Unfortunately, I have no personal knowledge of how well these work. I'm only going off what I was told.

The nuke is kinda of underwhelming against a single hard target.

Though 8 of them together after 8 bios and 8 chem burns are downright nasty against the Freedom Phalanx in the LRSF.

They are very effective against Hamidon if everyone has them and uses them correctly

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

The nukes are meant for teams. By yourself they are a good buff, a good debuff, and a good AoE damage attack. That's bugger-all for an hour's work and under no circumstances should you tolerate such antics. Once you start playing with teams, you start seeing results. A whole team rendered hard to kill and with a fat damage buff is huge. The rare all-boss spawns go down well when nuked. But where you truly start to see shenanigans are when they stack. Archvillains and Heroes at the end of very hard SFs and TFs are no match for a properly-prepared team, and nor are the buff abd debuff caps. Imagine, if you will, eight Bionukes, followed by eight Chemical Burns, followed by eight Nuclear Blasts. That is a 1200% Damage buff, a 6400% regen buff, -400% resistance, -280% defense, -240% endurance, -800% recovery, and around 4800 damage before buffs and debuffs. For some teams this is unacceptably slow, and they will instead summon and Biological Mutagen eight Shivan Decimators.

If this concept fills you with a sense of almost religious terror, do not be alarmed. It proves only that you are still sane.

One nuke on one man is crap. One nuke on eight men is devastation. Eight nukes on eight men is such incalculable power as words fail to describe it. No sooner do you see a foe than they fall as though the Hand of God simply reached down and turned them off.

QR


good but not klondike bar good

And the Wolf. You can't forget the wolf either.

The three Warburg Nukes can take a mediocre team and make it effectively great (for a few minutes, which can make all the difference in the world), and can take an inferior team and make it mediocre for the same amount of time.

Since Shivans are quicker and considerably easier to get, I usually prefer those for soloing or small group activities. When the Nukes really come in handy is the higher-level TFs/SFs. For instance, the final encounter with the Freedom Phalanx in the Lord Recluse SF is made VASTLY easier for many teams (especially with less-experienced players) by doing the following:

1 - Summon all pets (i.e., MM pets, Shivans, Snow Beasts, Wolves, Amy Jonsson, etc.)
2 - Send one toon off to get killed so that Vengenace can be cast (if available)
2A - If more than one character with Vengeance is available, and another toon has Recall Friend, have the Vengeance casters "queue" the power on the deceased while out of range, then have the TPer bring the deceased into the massed group, causing all Vengeance powers to fire off simultaneously and stack
3 - Have everyone who has them drop the Bio Nukes, buffing everything ridiculously
4 - Pull Hero(es) and engage as per team preference
5 - Drop Chem Nuke(s) on tougher Heroes (particularly if a group of Heroes can be caught in a blast together)
6 - Enjoy seeing usually tough to defeat enemies fall ridiculously easily

This very general outline can be used in all sorts of situations. Nukes are a pain to get, particularly in multiples, but in my experience are very useful in getting a team "over the hump" performance-wise.

And the Gears! Can't forget the Gears!