swap ammo questions

seems like everyone takes it, but at lower levels, it doesn't appear to be all that useful. especially when solo, the default ammo looks to be the most useful.

I took it at level 6 on my dp/kin but giving serious thought to switching builds at level 10 and removing it, at least until a higher level. would appreciate input from some higher level pistol users about when / if you should take swap ammo and your experiences with it. is it just an interesting and fun new shiny toy or are you seeing real benefit to flipping between the secondary effects

- solo / teaming - one use I can see for swap ammo is to avoid KB when teaming. with others drawing off aggro, switching to fire for more damage makes sense. on the flip side, when going solo, the KB seems to be better mitigation than the other options.

- before / after reaching SO level - with training enhancements, few slots and lower damage attacks, just not seeing much difference between the various effects on total damage done.

Despite being the whole "trick" to DP, swap ammo isn't quite the immediate must-have power it should be. That said since it requires zero slotting investment it can be a good power to take early on, and so you don't have to worry about spreading your slots too thin.

Edit: That said, the DoTs from incendiary really do add up.

It's basically the tactical element of DP. Getting good with DP comes down to knowing when to turn it off.

Mostly, you'll want it off. Knockback is your main mitigation, and the three attacks that have knockback lose it when you turn it on, plus Piercing loses the -res effect with it on. You want Incendiary when the enemy is unlikely to kill you, because it's in a hold or the like, and for the hold instead of the stun. Those are the mainstay of the power. Toxic or Ice might be useful against enemies that can hurt you and that arent subject to your mitigation, like mez-protected bosses, butthen I generally just use Incendiary and try to kil it first

Solo: no ammo selected so you get k/b

Teams: Fire for the damage unless there's specific resistance weaknesses

I don't really rate the extra effects very highly. Your buff/debuff trumps it.

I must say I wasn't especially impressed by this on my /DP defender.

There's really no tactics involved with DP. Oh it's painted to be some super-dynamic powerset but it really isn't:

Soloing? Regular bullets if you need the mitigation, otherwise Incendiary.

Teaming? Incendiary (and according to Umbral's calculations, you are ALWAYS better off using Incendiary for the DoTs than swapping to anything else to exploit the enemy's weakness), and maybe toxic if your team is struggling against an AV.

There are some other quirks but it's just a matter of remembering to turn off/on the speciall bullets for Suppressive Fire and Piercing Round. Ice bullets are a redundant bullet type when normal rounds offer better regular mitigation and toxic for anything else.

On the plus side, the ability to have multiple secondary effects to choose from means you can slot multiple types of procs and they'll still have a chance to fire even if you're not using that particular ammo type (so load up on slow and def debuff procs and actually deal decent damage).

I think much of the "timing" on when you take Swap Ammo is really going to be dependent on your secondary and when "necessary" or desirable powers in that secondary unlock. I'd have to agree that you really don't need to take it when it immediately unlocks, or necessarily before you get to level 10 (critters just don't have *that* much resistance to lethal below that level). Once you get into the tweens/teens...you may wish to go ahead and think about sliding it in (although that is a busy area for utility powers, e.g. Fitness, Travel), and the zero slotting will probably help fill things out in that awkward period.

When I was choosing picks for my storm/dp defender, I know I delayed Swap Ammo until after Stamina. But in that case I was mostly soloing and knew my AT was not going to be expected to bring a lot of damage to the table. My Corr took it somewhere in the 10-14 range, because I knew I was going to be expected to bring some reasonable ranged damaged with me.

I have found that the freezing bullets are good solo also. Keeps the mobs snared some to kite them. Also I believe for Corrs it does slow attack rate does it not?

I am mostly on teams... I swap between with what I think team needs the most of. Usually the toxic for debuffs. Your tanks or brutes will love you. Lethal is pain for some teams if you have a good tank.. nothing sucks more than your herd being spread out on you.

The only case when I've specifically used cryo rounds are on critters that are specifically weak to cold and strong against fire (most commonly CoT Demons), just simply haven't seen the slows cause significant mitigation - but I do see a LOT corrs on teams keep cryo rounds up.

EDIT: cause I'm dumb and screwed up my own argument.