Sands of Mu

Awhile ago when I hit my 12 month vet badge, I picked up Sands of Mu for a few of my toons and added it to any new toons as a bonus power until they established more potent powers in the later levels. I would have gone the Ghost Slaying Axe route but based on what people said, the Sands of Mu was much more versatile in fighting different kinds of foes. I don't use Sands of Mu for much for my ranged toons, only on occasions. For my level 45 fire/fire Scrapper though, I try to make Sands of Mu a little part of each battle in missions.

The thing that I am noticing or maybe just imagining is, it seems that Sands of Mu has a lot of punches that will miss their mark, meaning, you just plain miss your target altogether. Not sure what the hit ratio numbers are for Sands of Mu? It's a power you cannot slot. So other than popping some yellows or maybe getting the best IO power sets for accuracy, is there anything else that I need to do to land better hits with this or do I just need to accept this power "as is" and know it will miss more so than your average melee attack?

Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do to make Sands of Mu more effective. It hasn't been referred to as "Sands of Whiff" for nothing. Perhaps Global Accuracy enhancements (such as from IO sets and the like) might help but its pretty much and "as is" power.

Yup, you can't slot it for accuracy, but if you pop some yellows, have any +ToHit buffs on you, or any +Acc set bonuses, then they will improve the power's accuracy.

I use the power a lot in the lower levels, when beginner's luck helps you out, but little once I've gotten a full attack chain going without it.

The answer I use on my toons is Global Accuracy ftw.

Sands of Mu is arguably OP on a toon < L10, helpful through the L20's and
pretty marginal, or even useless after that.

But, I find that by the higher levels, my toons typically have a Kisment 6%,
a few Damage Sets with 7 to 9% Acc Bonuses, Adj Targeting and other
sets that give Global Acc.

At that point, Sands of Mu is at (or near) the 95% ToH cap for most stuff
I fight. Its damage is pretty meager by then, but of course, by that point,
I also have other (better slotted) attacks.

That said, I will still use it occasionally as a filler attack even at L50, but
it's long since removed from the normal combat chain.

So, it's free, use it early, add Global Acc, and leave it as filler later... nbd.


Regards,
4

Now, having pointed out it's downside it does have a few small bonuses.

1. it's a FREE extra attack at lower levels. Sure it's not too accurate but at that level, what is?

2. It is a cone attack. A very narrow cone granted, but you still have the chance of damaging multiple opponents.

3. If i'm right (someone feel free to check me on this) it does have a slightly better damage than brawl starts with. Until you can slot brawl or get something better, this is a small advantage.

I'll take what I can get at low levels.

its basically the same as an unslotted DM Shadow Maul (with slightly higher base dmg iirc?)

Sands has a much longer lifespan in terms of usefulness when you have a power set with -defense like Broadsword. When you open with a defense lowering series of attacks Sands of Mu can be a good attack to follow up with while everything else is recharging.

However if you dont' have set that debuffs defense or you are using fast set like Katanas then I'm afraid it is just a nice assist through the lower levels when you don't have your tray filled up yet.

Sands of Mu is an effective attack for many low-damage controllers all the way to 50. Of course, many controllers have a -Defense power from their primary or secondary to help it hit more often. My Ice, Earth and now Electric controllers use it often. Most of them have a power like Freezing Rain or Radiation Infection to make it easy to hit the foe.

Of course, Controllers don't have to worry about the long animation since the foe is usually held when it is used.

Something worth mentioning about Sands of Mu as well is that it still does full damage during a Rage crash, making it a great filler to keep your Fury level up during the crash and still dealing a little damage. Its animation time is not quite long enough to fill the entire crash period (10 secs I believe), but its better than nothing, hehe.

So if you have a Super Strength toon, I'd highly recommend that you take Sands of Mu for just that reason, even if you don't ever use it aside from during a Rage crash.

Hmmmm, after reading some of these posts on the Sands of Mu, maybe they should change the name to the Sands of Poo....lol.

After thinking about it further, on those whiffs, that darn animation is soooo long (seems like it lasts 5 seconds, which is a lifetime in a MMO game), that you become somewhat vulnerable during those many whiffs that Sands of Poo will give you. I guess the only real benefit for me is getting this in the early stages of my toons life and never having to rely on Brawl again, which should be burned, crushed and crumpled out of existence forever as the most useless power!..lol.

OK silly vet question. How do I claim vet rewards?

I got the 18th month badge this month and according to wikia I should have gotten sands/axe and the sprints by now?

Badges -> Veteran

The "badges" that let you claim rewards only show there.

Thanks I may be able to stand soloing that Illusion controller now

Pfft. You have problems soloing an Illusion Controller? With Superior Invisibility, Deceive, Blind and Spectral Wounds you should be able to kick back, turn the mobs against one another, wound them till they drop and blind any that make a run at you. And this is all before you get Phantom Army.

What's your secondary?

Sands of Mu is, as has been mentioned, a free vet benefit.

Let's break this down:

1) Free. If you don't like it, play like you did last week.
2) Vet benefit. There comes a point in game balance where "Vet benefits" make the vet experience TOTALLY different from the new kid experience. I start up a new character, I'm dual wielding the nemesis staff and blackwand, I've got Sands of mu, I've got three major hitters [by level 1 standards]. I'm ninjarunning, I can go to pocket D, I've got a mini-jump pack, so I don't really need travel powers. I've got two little pets if I want them, one of which even does something minor. (Oh, and I haven't paid for a costume change or done a respec mission for the respec since about 2006.)

The challenge for vet benefits, and I think Sands is possibly TOO good, is to make them useful enough that people are happy about getting them, but not so useful that people without them are gimped.

Is this an attack that every one of your characters will rely on, level 1-50, while you mock the 11-month peasants with your obviously superior skillz? No. And if it was, that would be kind of a bad game design, don't you think?

Yeah, I'm amazed that anyone would dis the Vet Sands of Mu. Amazing power at the low levels.

I've seen this "debate" about whether or not the Sands of Mu vet power is worthwhile rage for years. I think it's interesting that so many people can have so many different perceptions about one specific power.

Clearly there are times where it's useful and other times where it's basically pointless. Some ATs/Powersets can get good use out of it at different levels for different reasons. I think as a general vet power that's all it can hope to be. It's not ever going to be perfect for everyone all the time. Use it if it's useful to you and don't if it isn't. I just think it's a mistake for people to try to label it as absolutely good or bad in all situations. *shrugs*

I was idly asking in one of my channels a few days ago if anybody ever took Sands of Mu anymore as one of their 3 free powers. I was thinking the two ranged were clearly better choices, and the Ghost Slaying Axe is useful in specific situations all the way through. Even if the Axe is limited, it helps relieve frustration when faced with ghosts.

So, or course, the very next character I create picks Sands instead of Nemesis Staff for RP reasons. Go figure.