Is DP THAT bad? My Findings Thus Far...


Adeon Hawkwood

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by bAss_ackwards View Post
HNNNNGGGGGG.

With the Spiritual Core Paragon in her build, Infinite Ammo can just use Executioner's Shot ad nauseum. From what I see of the numbers, it's the best possible single target attack chain she could use.

Hail of Bullets every 31.84s!
I think it looks like a really fun build. It makes me wonder what mine would look like if I took my 'Musculature' build and took Spiritual instead.

Without Spiritual, I have HoB up every 33.46 seconds (just over a second quicker than yours). I only have one set of purples....

I really only use Executioner's shot for a finishing move when an LT is close to biting it or something. If it's something in your continual attack chain, I think you've done what you can to bring it around as often as you can.

You do have me thinking I may try my build with Spiritual.... so many options! I think the alpha slotting is driving me CRAZY.

If I were going your direction, I would consider conserve power. Especially with Spiritual. I think it's one power I couldn't drop from EM.

Anyway... I'm off to try spiritual now. I don't know how to calculate the effects of spiritual on my build, but... I LOVE HoB.... and HoB LOVES recharge!


Nekron: Beam Rifle / Poison Corruptor and Slayer of Evil!! (Exalted)
Intergalaktic: Fire / Time Corruptor (Exalted)

 

Posted

I want to have Conserve Power in my build, but it is a no-go because I'd have to give something up for it.

... actually you just gave me an idea. I could try this build out and if I am indeed having Endurance issues, I could switch out Energy Punch for Conserve Power. No slots would be added to Conserve Power though, just a single Recharge Reduction and the slots from Energy Punch would go to Brawl to transfer the Kinetic Combats.


Playstation 3 - XBox 360 - Wii - PSP

Remember kids, crack is whack!

Samuel_Tow: Your avatar is... I think I like it

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by bAss_ackwards View Post
HNNNNGGGGGG.
Looks like the difference is actually ~2 seconds with that 3rd slot in Hasten.

Powers do not start recharging until the animation ends, as far as I know, so you'll need to throw in some attacks between your Executioner's Shot.

DW-ES-DW-PR

Of course, EP is your best DPA and BS is your 2nd best. Though I am not sure how well that would work once you add redraw concerns.


Why Blasters? Empathy Sucks.
So, you want to be Mental?
What the hell? Let's buff defenders.
Tactics are for those who do not have a big enough hammer. Wisdom is knowing how big your hammer is.

 

Posted

I've read several pages of this thread and I just thought I'd put my $0.02 in.

The complaints against Dual Pistols seem to stem from the fact that people think it doesn't do anything particularly well. And so it's written off as a bad set.

In the case of Fire Blast comparisons, for instance, I saw people dismiss Executioner's Shot because Blaze is so much faster to animate.

One thing that people may need to keep in mind is that the developers will probably never design future sets in the same way that sets from the original Issue 1 game were created.

Castle had posted in the past that those single target attacks that people love to abuse so much(Blaze, Bitter Ice Blast etc.) really should not exist in their current form and that if the backlash wouldn't have been so great, then they would have been changed.

When the game first launched, powers weren't balanced around animation times etc. That started to come about during the FREEM 15 years when they really started to closely look at that kind of thing and make changes. Like the ever unpopular ET change.

What it comes down to is that this game will probably never see another Fire Blast set(in terms of capability) or another Spines set(which Castle had also said people would hate him if he went over it and adjusted it properly).

A lot of the old sets were simply created without any foresight or knowledge of how people would truly use them. As a consequence, people complain about new sets because they don't do the things that the old sets can...but they were never meant to.


 

Posted

Bass, why'd you go with FF procs in Bullet Rain and Empty Clips?

I have the -RES proc in Empty Clips (and in Pistols). I'm debating putting a +DMG proc in Bullet Rain (chance for smashing) but considering the FF.

What's the logic?


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Slashman View Post
One thing that people may need to keep in mind is that the developers will probably never design future sets in the same way that sets from the original Issue 1 game were created.

Castle had posted in the past that those single target attacks that people love to abuse so much(Blaze, Bitter Ice Blast etc.) really should not exist in their current form and that if the backlash wouldn't have been so great, then they would have been changed.
LOL Castle.

Hopefully the new people will come up with better combat models, that don't mandate the ridiculous penalties he felt should accrue to ranged ATs. A sensible person would have looked at the performance of fire, ice etc and done something about improving the other sets.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Granite Agent View Post
Bass, why'd you go with FF procs in Bullet Rain and Empty Clips?

I have the -RES proc in Empty Clips (and in Pistols). I'm debating putting a +DMG proc in Bullet Rain (chance for smashing) but considering the FF.

What's the logic?
Little known secret, those can proc off of each target hit, for some crazy temporary recharge. Can't recall if that's WAI, or just something they haven't gotten around to fixing yet.

Me, I'm using the -res proc and prefer that myself. Once my build is done, I don't feel like I'm going to need a lot more recharge, personally. Doing more damage on hard targets is more appealing to me.


Guide: Tanking, Wall of Fire Style (Updated for I19!), and the Four Rules of Tanking
Story Arc:
Belated Justice, #88003
Synopsis: Explore the fine line between justice and vengeance as you help a hero of Talos Island bring his friend's murderer to justice.
Grey Pilgrim: Fire/Fire Tanker (50), Victory

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Another_Fan View Post
LOL Castle.
How mature of you....

Quote:
Hopefully the new people will come up with better combat models, that don't mandate the ridiculous penalties he felt should accrue to ranged ATs. A sensible person would have looked at the performance of fire, ice etc and done something about improving the other sets.
Ah yes...another person who thinks they can do the jobs of the developers better than the actual developers.

I never got the impression that Castle wasn't sensible. I never agreed with him across the board on every detail, but he was never shy about implementing buffs where they were needed. Especially considering that he buffed the entire blaster set as a whole in addition to the new Defiance changes. He also was responsible for the much needed buffs to Dominators. He was also behind the buffs to elec armor and energy aura.

The point you happily choose to miss is that balance works both ways. If a couple of sets are performing at insanely good levels...it doesn't automatically mean that every other set needs to move up.

What the devs seem to be doing(and I suspect this will continue even with Castle gone), is creating a solid baseline for performance that each set needs to reach and making new sets to match those criteria.

This is why the new sets don't automatically equate to a min/maxer's wet dream. Elec control, Dual pistols and Demon Summoning are all decent sets...but not overpowered sets. None of them are particularly gimped, but they also don't have some single, overwhelming aspect that people can cling to and tower over all other sets.

You're living in a dream world if you think the devs will ever create another Energy Melee equivalent(hence the ET nerf). New people or not, I think there are some established guidelines for powerset creation now that will govern any new set to be introduced to the game.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by StratoNexus View Post
Looks like the difference is actually ~2 seconds with that 3rd slot in Hasten.

Powers do not start recharging until the animation ends, as far as I know, so you'll need to throw in some attacks between your Executioner's Shot.

DW-ES-DW-PR

Of course, EP is your best DPA and BS is your 2nd best. Though I am not sure how well that would work once you add redraw concerns.
I'll only be using either a ranged DPS attack chain or a Melee one. No mixing it up so I needn't worry about redraw. I completely forgot that attacks don't begin Recharging until after they finish animating. Durrrr. Thanks for reminding me! So, it wouldn't be able to do DW>ES for an attack chain? Oh well, still very satisfied with this build!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Granite Agent View Post
Bass, why'd you go with FF procs in Bullet Rain and Empty Clips?

I have the -RES proc in Empty Clips (and in Pistols). I'm debating putting a +DMG proc in Bullet Rain (chance for smashing) but considering the FF.

What's the logic?
Those aren't actually procs. They're Endurance/Recharge IOs because those are two Enhancement values I wanted to raise for both attacks. Most of all it's the Recharge I wanted to enhance better for EC/BR.


Playstation 3 - XBox 360 - Wii - PSP

Remember kids, crack is whack!

Samuel_Tow: Your avatar is... I think I like it

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Slashman View Post
The point you happily choose to miss is that balance works both ways. If a couple of sets are performing at insanely good levels...it doesn't automatically mean that every other set needs to move up.
And even then, it depends on what you mean by insanely good. I enjoy almost all the fire sets, but there are pros and cons to all of them. I'm sure he's looking at the good offense numbers for Fire as well, which are there for a reason. I'll take the extra mitigation most other sets have over that, usually. I actually ending up rolling a Fire/Fire Dom instead of a Blaster, more because of the extra mitigation than anything. I like a little mitigation for my Blasters.

For the rest of your post, I would agree. Sets need to perform well enough, but they don't have to be a top set, either. I could almost see the devs thinking they don't want to make any new sets clearly the best, as there would be just as many, if not more complaints, about that.

Quote:
Originally Posted by bAss_ackwards View Post
Those aren't actually procs. They're Endurance/Recharge IOs because those are two Enhancement values I wanted to raise for both attacks. Most of all it's the Recharge I wanted to enhance better for EC/BR.
Whoops, I remember thinking they were procs. Never mind, then.


Guide: Tanking, Wall of Fire Style (Updated for I19!), and the Four Rules of Tanking
Story Arc:
Belated Justice, #88003
Synopsis: Explore the fine line between justice and vengeance as you help a hero of Talos Island bring his friend's murderer to justice.
Grey Pilgrim: Fire/Fire Tanker (50), Victory

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Grey Pilgrim View Post
Once my build is done, I don't feel like I'm going to need a lot more recharge, personally. Doing more damage on hard targets is more appealing to me.
I was thinking this way as well. Then I started thinking about how Defiance works. I started monitoring my damage numbers at all times.

What I found was that our inherent power, stacking with build up, stacking with Assault (in my case at least) leads to some very impressive damage numbers. Numbers that, in my opinion, are hardly going to show improvement with Musculature Alpha.

I am not saying it won't help, not at all. I have Musculature Alpha slotted right up until last night.

So far in my testing I'm finding I don't miss the Musculature, and still watch as the numbers bounce quite high from the stacking of attacks... with Spiritual, I am missing the additional 33 percent? (which is partially ED'd off the map), but I am seeing HoB up seconds faster.

Just food for thought.


Nekron: Beam Rifle / Poison Corruptor and Slayer of Evil!! (Exalted)
Intergalaktic: Fire / Time Corruptor (Exalted)

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Grey Pilgrim View Post
Little known secret, those can proc off of each target hit, for some crazy temporary recharge. Can't recall if that's WAI, or just something they haven't gotten around to fixing yet.
.
I thought it has a chance to proc off each target, but that once it proc's it supresses itself for 10 seconds ... meaning even if it procs off say 5 targets hit by the same AOE you only get teh benefit of the proc firing one time.


 

Posted

Okay so here's my latest findings swapping BUILDS and ALPHA slots.

HoB is my lifeline. It gives me 10% boost to def for just a touch longer than the animation. If I can start off on every mob with that? I'm rockin'.

I just respecc'd and although I did not go red side for Scorp shield, (this ultimately means I am below the cap for def) I do have very respectable resists for S/L with Tough and Invuln.

Now that I have Alpha Slotted Spiritual, I wish I had kept my Medicine Pool because now the heal would be up even faster, hitting me for 450 hit points every few seconds. With an interrupt reducer in there, I have to confess I never feel the need for maxed out defense, and actually prefer resists when you have a heal.

Why? Well even with pumped defense, you end up getting debuffed, or a mob gets an alpha off on you that is just stupidly lucky. Now you're looking at taking nearly full damage.

When I had my previous build rocking, I still benefited from HoB, and moderate defense, but lucky Alpha's almost never killed me.

I almost always had enough resist to stay alive, hop back, hit my medicine heal, and get right back in the fight.

To add to this thought, the Spiritual would add to the heal properties.

My current build does not NEED Spiritual to work, but IMHO Musculature is a non factor, even as a final alpha slot. Just my opinion of course, but after playing both, I now believe I would have been better off with the heal, modest defense, and modest resist, along with Spiritual.


Nekron: Beam Rifle / Poison Corruptor and Slayer of Evil!! (Exalted)
Intergalaktic: Fire / Time Corruptor (Exalted)

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by _Elektro_ View Post
I was thinking this way as well. Then I started thinking about how Defiance works. I started monitoring my damage numbers at all times.

What I found was that our inherent power, stacking with build up, stacking with Assault (in my case at least) leads to some very impressive damage numbers. Numbers that, in my opinion, are hardly going to show improvement with Musculature Alpha.

I am not saying it won't help, not at all. I have Musculature Alpha slotted right up until last night.

So far in my testing I'm finding I don't miss the Musculature, and still watch as the numbers bounce quite high from the stacking of attacks... with Spiritual, I am missing the additional 33 percent? (which is partially ED'd off the map), but I am seeing HoB up seconds faster.

Just food for thought.
Looking at the Very Rare boost level for Musculature in Mid's, I beg to differ. My En/En Blaster is not going to be nice to the mobs with that buff going. We're talking about 100 more damage from Nova, 80 more from Total Focus, and 40 from Power Burst. That adds up, and I will take it.

Spiritual is going to be great for my Dual Pistols Blaster, though. He has Aid Self, and as you noted in your later post, the alpha slot can help his healing and recharge, so it helps him to recover and do damage more often with his best powers. I may or may not go to the very rare level with him, though, as the recharge bonus isn't that noticeable (two seconds faster for Build up and HoB).

Quote:
Originally Posted by Granite Agent View Post
I thought it has a chance to proc off each target, but that once it proc's it supresses itself for 10 seconds ... meaning even if it procs off say 5 targets hit by the same AOE you only get teh benefit of the proc firing one time.
You may be right... I don't know the proc well. It does have a chance to fire with each target for sure, which means that it's likely going to go off when used on a mob... near guaranteed recharge can be nice in that situation.


Guide: Tanking, Wall of Fire Style (Updated for I19!), and the Four Rules of Tanking
Story Arc:
Belated Justice, #88003
Synopsis: Explore the fine line between justice and vengeance as you help a hero of Talos Island bring his friend's murderer to justice.
Grey Pilgrim: Fire/Fire Tanker (50), Victory

 

Posted

As I understand it the main drawback of the recharge proc is that once it fires, any future applications are suppressed for 10 seconds. However, it will still fire during that 10 seconds, you just don't get a recharge boost... but you do get a new 10 second suppression timer. So if you put it in an AoE and fire it more often than once per 10 seconds you'll keep resetting the timer and therefore you can't get a second recharge boost until it fails to proc (and therefore doesn't reset the suppression) or you wait more than 10 seconds. Basically it has two effects: the recharge boost, which is flagged "only apply if not suppressed", and the suppression itself, which is not flagged "only apply if not suppressed".

As far as proccing 2+ times off one group, it may be like Vengeance used to be where multiple simultaneous buffs get around the normal one buff limit.


Cascade, level 50 Blaster (NRG/NRG since before it was cool)
Mechmeister, level 50 Bots / Traps MM
FAR too many non-50 alts to name

[u]Arcs[u]
The Scavenger Hunt: 187076
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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Grey Pilgrim View Post
Looking at the Very Rare boost level for Musculature in Mid's, I beg to differ. My En/En Blaster is not going to be nice to the mobs with that buff going. We're talking about 100 more damage from Nova, 80 more from Total Focus, and 40 from Power Burst. That adds up, and I will take it.

Spiritual is going to be great for my Dual Pistols Blaster, though. He has Aid Self, and as you noted in your later post, the alpha slot can help his healing and recharge, so it helps him to recover and do damage more often with his best powers. I may or may not go to the very rare level with him, though, as the recharge bonus isn't that noticeable (two seconds faster for Build up and HoB).
But before you make that decision Mr.Pilgrim, just do me one favour.... (if you haven't already). With the assistance of Defiance, watch your damage meter ramp up.... as your attacks start stacking, watch how much 'bonus' damage you can do on your own.

Now to mimic the Musculature alpha, pop a damage inspiration (the size and amount to mimic the Alpha is dependent on the Alpha you are considering... I'm sure you can figure that part out).

Now watch your orange numbers fly.... is this worth it to you?

I actually had Musculature slotted on my DP. Granted it was not Rare, BUT even the uncommon recharge/heal of Spiritual did seem to make a difference. Like I said earlier, it's the one Alpha you can't replace with an inspiration.

I'm not trying to convince you. I just want you to make the best decision for your character.

I do agree different characters will have different needs.... and my DP benefits immensely from cycling HoB about every 30 seconds. It's probably the number one benefit to my build. (There are others, but HoB cycle is probably number one. )


Nekron: Beam Rifle / Poison Corruptor and Slayer of Evil!! (Exalted)
Intergalaktic: Fire / Time Corruptor (Exalted)

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by _Elektro_ View Post
But before you make that decision Mr.Pilgrim, just do me one favour.... (if you haven't already). With the assistance of Defiance, watch your damage meter ramp up.... as your attacks start stacking, watch how much 'bonus' damage you can do on your own.
I've done that. Rarely more than 35%, and even then for only a few seconds at at a time before it goes back down to 10-20% for the next while (if not to 0% because I'm busy trying to find a suitable target rather than just the nearest minion). Defiance's damage boost isn't reliable and isn't really much of a factor, especially in groups, except maybe in the longest fights (ie, EBs, AVs. and GMs).


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by JD_Gumby View Post
I've done that. Rarely more than 35%, and even then for only a few seconds at at a time before it goes back down to 10-20% for the next while (if not to 0% because I'm busy trying to find a suitable target rather than just the nearest minion). Defiance's damage boost isn't reliable and isn't really much of a factor, especially in groups, except maybe in the longest fights (ie, EBs, AVs. and GMs).
What? Really? I monitor my damage all the time and defiance IS a factor until I'm either A) on my back dirt nappin', or B ) killed the mob.

Plus what about the other work arounds for damage... Do you have Aim? Build Up? How about inspirations.... you'll never find a recharge inspiration.

I guess if you've tried monitoring your damage, and you really think Defiance isn't reliable, and isn't 'much of a factor' (which is almost a ridiculous statement IMHO) then you are probably best off with Musculature.

For Pilgrim, I just wanted him to try my recommendation, and even gulp some inspirations while he's at it to kind of have 'pretend musculature'.... just to see if it really is what he thinks it's going to be. Personally I wish I could 'trade' my Musculature Alpha to my controller or something.


Nekron: Beam Rifle / Poison Corruptor and Slayer of Evil!! (Exalted)
Intergalaktic: Fire / Time Corruptor (Exalted)

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by StrykerX View Post
As I understand it the main drawback of the recharge proc is that once it fires, any future applications are suppressed for 10 seconds. However, it will still fire during that 10 seconds, you just don't get a recharge boost... but you do get a new 10 second suppression timer. So if you put it in an AoE and fire it more often than once per 10 seconds you'll keep resetting the timer and therefore you can't get a second recharge boost until it fails to proc (and therefore doesn't reset the suppression) or you wait more than 10 seconds. Basically it has two effects: the recharge boost, which is flagged "only apply if not suppressed", and the suppression itself, which is not flagged "only apply if not suppressed".
Quote:
Originally Posted by Granite Agent View Post
I thought it has a chance to proc off each target, but that once it proc's it supresses itself for 10 seconds ... meaning even if it procs off say 5 targets hit by the same AOE you only get teh benefit of the proc firing one time.
Both wrong (well the second is mostly right, except for the suppression) and, Wow. I've been ranting about the innaccurate wiki article on this for a while now...but it looks like someone actually corrected it finally (something I probably should have done, and was just too afraid to do for fear of screwing up the formatting). So, now as opposed to telling you to ignore the Wiki article, I can just tell you to read the article here.

The proc does not stack with itself (and will be suppressed if it does fire rather than replacing the currrent buff), but otherwise there is no self suppression. What you are describing used to be true, but has not been true since i16 or so.


Draggynn on Virtue: lvl 50 Storm/Psi, 1389 badges
Draggynn's Guide to Storm Summoning(Gale-Tornado, updated 6/25/2011)
Avatar by Wassy full reference here

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Draggynn View Post
Both wrong (well the second is mostly right, except for the suppression) and, Wow. I've been ranting about the innaccurate wiki article on this for a while now...but it looks like someone actually corrected it finally (something I probably should have done, and was just too afraid to do for fear of screwing up the formatting). So, now as opposed to telling you to ignore the Wiki article, I can just tell you to read the article here.

The proc does not stack with itself (and will be suppressed if it does fire rather than replacing the currrent buff), but otherwise there is no self suppression. What you are describing used to be true, but has not been true since i16 or so.

It looks like they didn't change the article so much as move it. It is still showing it self suppressing.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Another_Fan View Post
It looks like they didn't change the article so much as move it. It is still showing it self suppressing.
The article looks accurate to me now. Although you have to read the note that says:
Quote:
This article or section contains information that no longer applies to the current version of City of Heroes/Villains. It is provided for historical purposes.
which applies to the whole section titled, "Suppression" although I suppose in the current incarnation, it may be unclear that it applies to that whole section.

It still self suppresses in that if the proc fires while you have the buff on you, nothing will happen rather than the buff refreshing. However, the buff no longer triggers a 10 second suppression after firing as is described in the redacted section.


Draggynn on Virtue: lvl 50 Storm/Psi, 1389 badges
Draggynn's Guide to Storm Summoning(Gale-Tornado, updated 6/25/2011)
Avatar by Wassy full reference here

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Draggynn View Post
It still self suppresses in that if the proc fires while you have the buff on you, nothing will happen rather than the buff refreshing. However, the buff no longer triggers a 10 second suppression after firing as is described in the redacted section.
Excellent... I may have to try using that proc now. I hadn't heard they fixed it...


Cascade, level 50 Blaster (NRG/NRG since before it was cool)
Mechmeister, level 50 Bots / Traps MM
FAR too many non-50 alts to name

[u]Arcs[u]
The Scavenger Hunt: 187076
The Instant Lair Delivery Service: 206636

 

Posted

An update of my findings on my DP/MM:

He is currently 45 and I do not at all regret picking blaster instead of a DP/Dark or DP/Traps corruptor.

I have my near final IOs in all my powers so I have ~33% S/L/Ranged Def so I can cap with 1 small purple. HOB and Drain Psyche are up almost every 40 seconds and it’s glorious. I went in to help a fellow RO (with 4 others) take down Hero1 and the Captain in the Incarnate Arc. I popped a purple, and a break free, jumped into the back area with a HUGE spawn of portaled ritki and proceeded to blow em away. Prior to those 2 insps running out the rest of the team was there and we took em down fast. I never expected a blaster to play this well.

Some high points:
DP with incendiary rounds seems to be fine in the damage department.
DP with HOB, bullet rain, psy shockwave, World of confusion, and Drain Psy works well in the mosh pit with the brutes. As I have increased my def the less the melee stuns are hitting me, and the more damage I can crank out.
If I don’t want to be in the mosh pit I can stand back and rain death with my 3 cones and bullet rain. Lots of recharge is nice.
Piercing rounds is a nice power, and on ambushes it can take down all the minions in a row with build up and a red or 2.
Hoarfrost is coming soon, that should help out with more hps, and a nice big heal.

Some low points:
I have my diff set to 0/2, and no bosses. I would have no trouble going to 0/3 except for longbow nullifiers and arachnos lieutenants. Their debuffs are nasty. I team mostly and do tips solo if I can’t find a tips team. I doubt I will crank it to 0/3 for tips.
Relative to my crab, I do a bit more AOE damage because of HOB, but I sacrifice a lot of defense and survivability. I hope some of the incarnate stuff shore this up.

DP is a nice set, and a crashless nuke is awesome! I don’t think I will be able to play my Energy blaster again.


Bots/Traps Guide for I19.5
RO Network

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by _Elektro_ View Post
But before you make that decision Mr.Pilgrim, just do me one favour.... (if you haven't already). With the assistance of Defiance, watch your damage meter ramp up.... as your attacks start stacking, watch how much 'bonus' damage you can do on your own.
Elektro... you do know damage can stack, right? I mean, maybe I'm having a Friday night brain glitch, but I'm confused as to how slotting a damage alpha (which increases damage in slotted powers) is not going to stack with Leadership toggles and Defiance.

I know damage can stack from all those sources... why would you say it's not a good thing to stack even more damage on all that?

I keep saying this is on a per case basis (so the faster nuke blaster sets might prefer using Spiritual, which my Archery Blaster and eventually DP Blaster do/will), so don't make out that I'm saying it's Musculature or bust. I am saying Musculature can be pretty nice if you want to leverage it: especially for a Blaster or other higher damage mod ATs.


Guide: Tanking, Wall of Fire Style (Updated for I19!), and the Four Rules of Tanking
Story Arc:
Belated Justice, #88003
Synopsis: Explore the fine line between justice and vengeance as you help a hero of Talos Island bring his friend's murderer to justice.
Grey Pilgrim: Fire/Fire Tanker (50), Victory

 

Posted

Damage from all sources stacks, but +damage buffs (and Musculature Incarnate slots) work on the power's base damage so the more +damage you have from sources like enhancements, Build Up / Aim, or Defiance the less effective a given amount of +damage is. It's why Scrappers get a lot more out of damage buffs than Brutes even though both do similar damage without the buff... the Scrapper has higher base damage (the Brute has low base damage but a large self buff) so he gets more from, for instance, a 10% damage boost than the Brute does. Blasters aren't as bad as Brutes, but with Defiance and significant uptime on Aim and Build Up they do tend to have a decent amount of average damage buff.

That makes Musculature a bit less powerful than it otherwise would be... that 30% ED-ignoring damage buff (assuming you take the 45% total buff) from the Very Rare slot is only going to increase your average total damage by 12-15% or so (depending on recharge and whether you have Aim). That's not bad, but a 30% ED-ignoring recharge boost may well give you more total damage simply by letting you use Build Up and your heavy hitters more often... especially if you aren't ED capped on recharge, which is common since most good attack sets aren't.


Cascade, level 50 Blaster (NRG/NRG since before it was cool)
Mechmeister, level 50 Bots / Traps MM
FAR too many non-50 alts to name

[u]Arcs[u]
The Scavenger Hunt: 187076
The Instant Lair Delivery Service: 206636