How valuable is placate?

I'm thinking that if I just want to deal double damage, I'll hit my opponent twice. Why placate them, then attack them once for the same damage as two attacks?

But I don't know how it plays out against AV's and such. Can you just keep placating an AV, then assassin strike them?

It's used for Assassin Strike and turning the big-bad away from you. It's extremely helpful. Try it in combat a few times and I think you'll get a feel for when and why it's used.

Personally, I think Placate is a must-take, key power for Stalkers.

It's not only valuable for the additional AS or crit, but it's also good for aggro
management and orchestrating a battle (ie. foe sequencing).

I know of some folks that skipped it, but I've yet to hear a reason that I think
justifies taking something else instead - all of my stalkers grab it right away.

YMMV.


Regards,
4

Placate is incredibly valuable. It's so much more than a double-damage capability. It's an auto-hit, affect-any-rank soft control power. Any spawn that has critters in it you don't like, placate lets you turn one of them off, guaranteed.*

Also, if you choose the right attack to crit with the net effect on DPS of getting double damage (or especially AS damage) is positive. You come out ahead in damage/time, which is usually a key factor in progress/time, survival, or both.

* Barring some bugs with critters you have applied some debuffs or DoTs to, which you won't be able to placate. You can avoid this by placating a mob you are not (yet) attacking.

I've put off getting placate until after i get build up, and in some stalker builds, thats mid 20s, but i would never skip it entirely.

It's the Jedi mind trick, nuff said.


Only ones it doesn't work on are folks like Mako who are immune to Placate or your Illusionists and Master of the Carnival who under phase can't be affected.


But that being said, if you need a strategic method to killing your enemies especially on a 1v2 confrontation; Placate is your best friend. Only powers Placate is iffy on are Tier 9 primaries that do PBAoEs as sometimes the critical wont score. It's initially your Goto Hide Free-Card and loses agro. The Feign Death of City of Heroes basically.

1: Sets you up for another AS.
2: Stops that big bad enemy whose kidney you just shish kebabed from turning around and spanking you into goo immediately.
3: Gives you a chance to recover a bit if their alpha DOES land.

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I wouldn't skip it even on my Elec/Regen, which is probably one of the worst combos to try to use Placate with. I'd also take it with primaries with no good attack to use following Placate besides AS, like Spines. It's not something I necessarily use every fight, but it's a useful tool I wouldn't want to be without.

Heck I even take it on my Banes, and they literally have no attack to follow it with that doesn't make it decrease DPS.

I delete every temp power recipe I find unless its the recovery serum or the kinetic dampener. I can't stand any of the temp power recipes that do damage. I also don't slot my vet powers anymore either because I make my characters with a story in mind and those powers just don't work for my Stalkers.

I'm not so much worried about slotting my attacks at lower levels, I just don't see a point in taking BU or Placate earlier than level 20 personally. Some people love taking them earlier, but for me it just doesn't work with how I play. I take powers early and focus on balancing my character then in the when I do select BU or Placate I tend to not slot them until in the late 30s or even 40s for that matter.

Placate is only 1.5 seconds cast time. Only Ninja Blade, really, has a large selection of high damage attacks that are less than 1.5 seconds cast time. So you should be able to at least maintain your DPS, at least for single target damage, by picking your highest or one of the highest damage single target attacks to follow the Placate with. (For Electric, at least you can maintain the same DPA with Havoc Punch, although Thunder Strike would probably still be best for more than two targets)

Placate's primary advantage is that it prevents the target hit by it from attacking you. That means that if you Placate ONE target, and then select another target during the animation time and Crit on IT, you will double your damage and prevent the still standing target from dealing any damage to you until you either attack it again, or the Placate wears off.

Placate can also be useful for opening up an Assassin Strike. However, this is only really useful against Bosses or AVs, as a standard attack is usually enough to one shot anything else. An AS against something you are already fighting is typically overkill.

Certainly you don't ever want to follow Placate up with something fast and low damage, like Thunder Kick. Although, I often find myself using the combo anyway, just because I'm not thinking about it.

Another thing to remember is that while Build Up lasts for ten seconds (enough to get off about 3-6 attacks, depending on their animation times) Placate is true double damage. So even if you have a +400% damage bonus, you will be doing double that +400% damage bonus, for that one attack. Build Up typically averages only about +51% damage overall for a three slotted attack, less if you have other +dmg.

Also, it doesn't work on Temp Powers, although it can be used in combo with another attack after using a temp power. Or, before Sands of Mu to keep a second foe from hitting you while it's animating.