Musings of an Elec/Wp/Mu brute on alpha slot ideas
By
baron_inferno,
Posted on: 2010-11-17 17:40 in Brutes
Okay, first let me say that I am ignorant of a few things here. If you doubt that i am sure my fan club will be along shortly to reassure you of the validity of this statement. I have never run an Electric anything past 5th. What i know about the Alpha slot just about begins and ends with how to spell it. But I ran a Willpower brute as a main for almost a year. (SS/Will). One thing stood out is you are slotting End Reductions, and lead off your Alpha Slot discussion with an Endurance management power. You cannot be telling me you are having End issues? Cause doesnt Electrical Melee give you at least some End back? And Willpower, sheesh, it's like the energizer bunny. I thought maybe you ain't running fitness, but that is solved with i19, and still. Do you really need End Red on the build currently? I mean, i need End help on my SS/Invul SO'd Brute, but, you know, those guys always run hot, specially pushing the fighting set.
Quote:
Normally I've only had end issues in certain situations(final room of lady grey tanking it and having to spam AoE chain to hold every group people keep bringing to the middle while sitting on AV's, Sapper heaven, masssive Carnie groups). But I opened the discussion with the end reduc option because blue bar management is important. I'd be dropping the end reduc in the power for another acc if I went that road. and yeah I can get kind of low on end because I'm running decently high rech so I'm definately sspamming attacks esp on my aoe chain.|
Originally Posted by Blue_Centurion
Okay, first let me say that I am ignorant of a few things here. If you doubt that i am sure my fan club will be along shortly to reassure you of the validity of this statement. I have never run an Electric anything past 5th. What i know about the Alpha slot just about begins and ends with how to spell it. But I ran a Willpower brute as a main for almost a year. (SS/Will). One thing stood out is you are slotting End Reductions, and lead off your Alpha Slot discussion with an Endurance management power. You cannot be telling me you are having End issues? Cause doesnt Electrical Melee give you at least some End back? And Willpower, sheesh, it's like the energizer bunny. I thought maybe you ain't running fitness, but that is solved with i19, and still. Do you really need End Red on the build currently? I mean, i need End help on my SS/Invul SO'd Brute, but, you know, those guys always run hot, specially pushing the fighting set.
|
But the main reasson I listed cardiac first is that it is the first option presented on the page, so i went down the list, presenting the best option for each type from my standpoint.
Quote:
This I would think would be the best option. I have lvl 46 Elec/WP, and I went with Epic Energy instead of full on Patron set, (Probably will change after i19); and This is the Alpha slot I will be using until I find something I like better...
|
Originally Posted by Unwilling_Hero
Alpha Slot Option 2-Musculature Radial-Moar Damage!(and more drain/rec)
If this is the path I choose to go I drop a damage to improve acc(notice a theme now?). It also improves Elec fences immob, the secondary effect of everyone of the toons offensive abilities and boosts recovery rate, and lets me charge into the next group faster. In this view I don't really give up anything current, but get an acc boost and secondary effect boosts. |
I have a 50 incarnate elec/wp brute. She's one of my favorites. You definitely wanna slot yours up with IOs (you don't really need the expensive purple ones).
In my experience, I do NOT have end issues... at all. My recharge time is fast enough that I can have a very effective attack chain without pauses. Sometimes I solo at +0/+8 and I can go through 4 or 5 full mobs (minions/lt/bosses) non-stop before my end bar even hits 75%... and then it'll recharge to full in a matter of seconds. My regeneration rate has me getting over 50hp/sec... that's WITHOUT RttC... Surrounded by a dozen bad guys just gets me healthier.
As for alpha slot... I went the Musculature route... and it's not making a noticeable difference. Especially 'cause I've got Frenzy now, a full Fury bar will always do so much... You really don't need it. After talking to some people on the forums, I've realized I should have gone the Spiritual route. Sure, I don't really need the Recharge bonus (if anything, it'll just make my big hitters come up faster)... but for the secondary Healing path. That Heal bonus will affect everything that takes Heal... so when I get that uncommon Spiritual enhancement... I'll get more Health, faster regen, MORE regen when surrounded by mobs. Survivability is the word of the day.
Not sure if you use Mid's, but here's my (planned) build... Still working on it a little (like Thunderstrike isn't IOd yet... planning what to do with or without purps, etc).
Code:
| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1590;752;1504;HEX;| |78DAA593594F1A5114C7EFC02002C326B288808228A815256D932E0F4D5A31B191C| |625D6A66D4A885E81668264C056DFFA01EC47E8FA31DA4FD23D7DECDEF756E95906| |24E1B124FC7F3367CEB9E79EFFCC2D1E2C6A423CBA2214D735BDDC6C96AE1AFB2D6| |9BF516EED1B655DD88510310A958A52973257D0E576CBA86D97750E84F9E1A2DC95| |F5A6CC6DD574BDB1F7501AFEE57A551AB2DECA752EB4D5BD3D3DB722CB8D5ABDE2A| |69BA55AA5DA823B27DD6D34A4DCF176B276A4D1ACD61A2385466D3B57A84BA37258| |2A969B2D691CF21E23B0B5F3F03F119D5FDB26560129A1AE11B475426283908902F| |2627A96F0060B14B32A0D171961C91006B384C49A82799975C2DC26A1DD29822AE5| |8B4588B8B07C2538BF1122DF099907D464E680F00ED4CABD2CD602ADAE2E1106AE1| |38EE1918D97B5DA76A966A042F05409891A41816C3BE7A9761E6790A1C50911469A| |F11ED461F675F86800E730C1132484603117270857826AC21072730BE1CE52E803A| |8175BC3EEBCEC8A8FEDF0F130E965028EE837CDF1F314433CC5104F31719F307564| |214B1F133E422C606E32308E3762B80779F11634C809D660823A85C608D124612A4| |55060E76173E76176C50AA111D3AF112E8D7169924BA7B9742E49E92AA48F9ADFC4| |A893268CB908131A61C6CDF010E6BD844F901F370788B3CB497639C92EDB40C74C5| |FC6FED0D0E37F19C78C13C2449B901656047E6729739C147FB39F41273964990C29| |F8A14D8509D3118213ECCFF256D4EC535AEDCC33C673C60BC2FC4B8206E9B39CAEC| |CA6A9C53C23054EE4CCE6396EEE87D082F91A1678CCBC9F1160F0B431B57B1C85E0| |D7B0A276CF9A106CF5AADA3D4842E1064BA759FFF57BA57536E05873826EA06CA26| |CA1DC42B98D7207E52ECA3D94124AFB75B7DA7B01377411E512CA6594A00FE40833| |ED2E10178A86E246F1A078517C28019428CA1394B6038AAD3C74FB07ACA1989E287| |364C0CFDE101FBD5FBDA19BE4EFEFD39045E113126244190BBD2F000D11337D917C| |5FE45C5FE46C5FE4D4E37FDD5C175E| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|
my stone/wp/soul brute uses cardiac radial atm primarily for the +dmg resistance. my attack chain was alrdy full plus some extra with what rech i picked up from LotGs and a couple other sets.
for anything elec/ id almost say spiritual tree wins by default...elec melee thrives of spamming TS and LR for its aoe dmg reputation and its survival...and boosting those heal/regen values is also a very nice bonus
ive yet to come up with a toon that will ever use muscular..hehe. even my elec/kin corr get more mileage from the nerve tree so i can softcap his s/l defenses and have a tiny bit of breathing room for -def debuffs.
@Injenius~Virtue
Stonefather - 50 Stone/WP/Soul brute
Sable Affliction - Earth/Dark/Fire Dom
Wild Cipher - Beast/Time MM
Spiritual, definitely.
More recharge is good to get your AoEs back faster. Healing enhancemnt means you both have more HP and more regen.
Accuracy can be achieved with a pool power or an IO.
Damage? C'mon, you're a BRUTE, you have plenty already.
Cardiac? If your Electric/Willpower Brute with the Energy pool is having endurance issues, you have bigger problems than what Alpha to slot.
Spiritual gives you the most benefit for this particular build.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
I also went with spiritual for my ELM/ELA/Mu brute. Thunderstrike, Lightning Rod and Ball Lightning all benefited from that additional boost to recharge. Energize also benefited which helps with survival but since you're WP, I guess that's irrelevant.
Before I begin I'm just going preface this with my usual attack slotting pattern: 1 end red/1 rech/1 acc and 2-3 damage depending on how many slots get dumped in. The exceptions to this are attacks like AS's, Lightning rod, and various blaster nukes. This toon was also my first 'tank toon' as I did wind up brute tanking a lot on the grind to 50.
Not going to post any builds, just a view on the alpha slots comming from this type of brute with this kind of SO slotting. I've never been big on the IO's both common and set, but if this becomes my main end game character I might invest in common IO's and the occasional proc.
I'm torn between a few of them so I'm going to post my analysis/views on the ones I'm torn on and see if others concur.
Alpha slot Option 1-Cardiac Core-The Energizer Bunny(well not really)
I see going Cardiac Core as a either a long fight build even if I change my slots swapping the end red for another acc thanks to the effect. An eventual 45% end reduction for every power that can slot reduc plus stam and quick recovery means it will take a long time for my blue bar to move down. It also lets me pull slots from toggles if I choose but my SO build sseems to have some 'spare slots' atm and extra end red esp for tough/weave is never bad. Add in the extra 20% boost to each damage reduction and the survivability goes up again esp thanks to the layers granted by wp I don't need the softcap def when everything play's off each other like this set does.
Alpha Slot Option 2-Musculature Radial-Moar Damage!(and more drain/rec)
If this is the path I choose to go I drop a damage to improve acc(notice a theme now?). It also improves Elec fences immob, the secondary effect of everyone of the toons offensive abilities and boosts recovery rate, and lets me charge into the next group faster. In this view I don't really give up anything current, but get an acc boost and secondary effect boosts.
Alpha Slot Option 3-Nerve Radial-"My 'Yo mamma' taunts actually work!"
This gives me the extra acc I keep swapping SO's out for in the other Alpha Slot options, and boosts taunt duration which while nice isn't needed as much on an Elec cause of the aoes or ST chain.
Alpha Slot Option 4-Spiritual Core-meditation to aid in pounding people to the pavement
The recharge boost again lets me swap the rech out for acc and still maintain both my aoe and ST chains. The Healing boosts my HP and regen values(with and without RttC). Don't need the Stun but the values of the other 2 more then make up for it.
From this perspective it looks like Cardiac or Musculature will be the best for the setup, but I've been known to be wrong before, hence bringing the ideas out here for others to discuss.