Melee Fort & Gloom Questions - Advice/Philosophy Needed

Been doing some tinkering in Mid's thinking about pulling out my Widow again for the Incarnate patch., and have some questions regarding attack chains and Widow Philosophy.


1. Does Gloom cause redraw like the Psy powers?



2. If not, how/where would it fit in the top single target DPS Chain for a Melee Fort build assuming you had plenty of recharge to accomodate any chain?

I'm assuming something similar to:

Aim > FU > Lunge > Strike > Gloom > FU > Lunge > Strike > Gloom ?



2.5. If so, whats my optimal chain still using glooms massive damage? Just using it at the end of a stacked FU chain, i. e.:

Aim > FU > Lunge > Strike> FU > Lunge > Strike > Gloom ?


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Aim and gloom really seem to be the key components to making this a severely damaging attacking chain.

Im looking at this build and really liking the ability to fire off Psi Tornado, Run in --> Psychic Wail, use Spin to activate weapons, then go to town via single target attack chain on the boss, or just finish off the last few LT's with another Psy Nado.

Its certainly more flexible then a Claws/SR, and it benefits the team more without a doubt, but I'm wondering how far ahead in damage a Claws Scrapper is in front of this AT/Melee Fort build. Is it substantial, or just a bit ahead after the Fort stacks assaults and has a nice global dmg bonus from sets?

I would think one thats in love with the melee chain portion here here would just go Claws/SR if they want to wreak havoc with a fast punching melee attack chain....any thoughts on this or answers to the above?

I don't use melee attacks on my Fort but I am pretty sure Gloom will cause redraw.

I find Dominate (with mix of damage and hold), Subdue and Gloom good enough attack for me but if you are going for mix, Gloom is definitely the top range attack available.

I think you'll have to leave gloom out of your melee attack chain and add in swipe if you want optimal DPS. Using any attack that's not part of the Widow Training/Night Widow Training powersets will cause claw redraw. Although, the redraw time might not hinder the DPS too much in this case; you'll have to check your build and do the DPS calculations.

Gloom will cause redraw on a melee fort, but again so will dominate and the other fort ranged attacks. On my alternate melee fort I've adopted the chain of FU/strike/lunge/dominate, and on a permahasten build this is gapless (will prob be gapless without permahasten, there a brief moment where FU isn't double stacked).

I think dominate is probably equal to gloom in some regards: less damage, but it's also a hold and tagged as a psi-only attack rather than ranged. Which is why I skipped gloom and took black scorpion's pool for the -fly immob (good for bringing down flying runners) and shatter armor (great for robot enemies, who resist both psi and lethal attack which is a melee fort's primary method of damage; on top of this, shatter armor does -bonus- damage to robots so it fills a hole nicely).

Gloom is still a killer attack, just throwing in my 2 cents.

EDIT: BTW, dominate is prob > than gloom due to the fact it can take both the purple ranged and hold procs... which means 350+ damage on occasion. Frankenslot 3 hold/damage hamis, an accuracy and the 2 purple procs to get the most out of its capabilities.

If both cause redraw Im still better off using Gloom (although I still have Dominate 6 slotted).



Right now before any FU, AIM, or Build Up Proc + DMG bonuses apply, Gloom is sitting at 277 dmg vs. 192 for a fully damage-slotted Dominate. I think I'll stick with Gloom in the attack chain.

With Aim and FU applied, its 356 damage. Yeah...definitely keeping Gloom somewhere in the attack chain. Right now I just need to see if that dramatic damage difference compared to Swipe is enough to deal with redraw issues. I think it just might be.