Your thoughts about SS vs. SM

Is it really only Rage why PPL preferr SS? Is SS even without Rage stronger than SM?

Anyone who has Experience with both Sets in the Endgame can tell me something about it?

Both sets are good, but in the end it really comes down to how much AoE you can do. SS is just much better with Footstomp then SM with Tremor. Rage on top of that just makes it that much better.

SM is also very good, but I normally pick it if I need a lot of mitigation. SS doesn't do nearly as good of a job there.

After taking 8 brutes, 2 tanks, and a stalker to 50 though, it really comes down to how much AoE you can do in most cases and SS is just better at it then SM.

Is Footstomp really that better than Tremor? Has the 3,3sec Animation that strong Gimp-Effect or is it only Rage that makes the difference?

FS does a little bit more dmg than tremor does but has a slower rech. In the end (after sets and stuff) FS comes out of top as far as DPS even before rage. And then after rage FS can have almost twice, if not more, DPS than tremor.
Not to metion tremor has a slower activation time.

Ok, rolled some Numbers to see the Difference btw. the 2 Powers:
Unenhanced wo Rage/Bu:
FS all 22,1sec 59,2DMG=2,68 DPS
Tremor all 17,3sec 41,7DMG=2,41DPS

Enhanced(99,08% Damage and Rechargebonus):
FS all 12,1sec 117,9DMG=9,74 DPS
Tremor all 10,3sec 83DMG=8,06DPS

Enhanced w. 65% Fury
FS all 12,1sec 194,9DMG=16,11 DPS
Tremor all 10,3sec 137,3DMG=13,33DPS

No big difference in the Basenumbers but with higher Recharge, Fury and Enhancements the Difference increases to more than 20%, without taking BU and Rage into calculation. From what i see if i don't use Rage i would have better Damage with Tremor/SM + BU than with Footstomp/SS.

Think that answers my Question. Cause i can't live with the Ragecrash i think about stop playing my lvl39 SS/WP-Brute for a while and don't invest more Inf and time into him and roll a Stone/WP instead. If there are Changes to Rage sometimes i can revive the Toon.

THX Dudes

Plus Rage improves your PPP/APP powers too, giving it another lead in this area...

Well, basically what makes SS better in AoE is Footstomp, plus rage. Tremor only does 70% of the base damage of Footstomp. So ignoring rage, assuming equal enhancements, FS is going to be doing 30% more damage then Tremor, plus it's about 2/3rds the activtion time. Adding in Rage, it gets even better. So that is why SS puts out better AoE then SM. Yes, Tremor recharges more quickly then FS, but once you get a good amount of recharge, the difference is smaller. So with my current planned build for my SS/fire, FS will recharge in 6.1 seconds. With similar recharge, Tremor would recharge in 4.3 seconds. When you add in the fact that recharge doesn't start until the power finishes activating, then you have a cycle time of 8.2 for FS, and 7.6 for Tremor. Pretty close there, and FS is doing 30% more base damage, ignoring rage.


Now, SM doesn't have to deal with rage crash. Plus with Fault it's got a lot of mitigation. So SM has it's good points, but it's not going to do as much AE damage as SS.

I think FS is the overall better power than Tremor and then Rage just pushes it over the edge. Now, if we take a step back and consider the possibilities of what you can do with Fault as well, it may make you pause a moment.

I have been fooling around with a build on my Stoner that uses the Explosive Volley +Smash PROC and Zinger +Psi PROC. With both in there, it's a rare thing for all foes to escape damage from that and occasinally you see a bunch of orange numbers pop, with a lot of mixed results with 3-4 foes hit by one of them. It's not a ton of damage, but I think it makes a difference in some longer fights where I am getting 3-4 applications of Fault off.

It also makes me just so gleeful on those rare occasions where almost all foes are hit with one of them - I can't tell with certainty that both PROC can hit a foe but it seems like that does happen once in a while. When that happens you will cry happy man tears too on a power that isn't supposed to do damage.

Doing that followed by Tremor and the wonderful thing that is Seismic Smash (under Build up) makes me love Stone even if it is slightly worse overall as a set. With my team of regulars, most everything is dead by that time and have been bouncing around on their backsides the as it happens to them. Stone doesn't feel worse than SS overall IMO but the numbers show that it is over time.

Cheers

Especially considering that you can drastically change Stone's end problems with slotting, but can't do anything to mitigate that sudden chunk of end at a rage crash. If you're stacking rage and running hasten it's even more noticable

Super Strength has superior AoE damage.

Stone Melee has superior single target damage, and AoE mitigation/mez.