City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

DM/SD - Uneven performance, seeking informed tips =)

Deus_Otiosus

By Deus_Otiosus,
Posted on: 2011-01-06 07:41 in Brutes

 

Posted

Good Morning,

I do not have a build included here, because, frankly, I am need a little "out of the gate" overall assistance.

I am returning from a COH break, and am intrigued to play my DM/SD. It seems like the mix of ST damage from DM, AoE from Shield Charge, and the AoE buffage from both sets would be a great mix.

At 31, I am finding the art of the DM/SD to elude me a bit, and my results have been very uneven; it seems like apparently identical packs of mobs either are trivial or kick my butt.

I have some questions:

1) Does this combo make sense? How do DM/SD compare to other builds as far as the standard metrics: getting "softcapped", survivability, groupability, dps, etc.


2) I have been following the below approach to fights, and as mentioned, my results are very uneven from pack to pack, sometimes its trivial, then next pack I eat my hat.

Aggro a pack of mobs
Soul Drain to buff +DMG%
Siphon Life on Pack
Smite on biggest bad
Shadow Maul on biggest bad
(if low on end, Dark Consumption)
Repeat

I seem to have a long time between abilities, and my attack chain (such as it is) can derail and I have to use brawl or vet power to fill. I currently have my attacks 5 slotted as 3 damage, 2 accuracy SO's, except for SL, which is I think is 3 damage, 1 accuracy, 1 heal, so I wonder if some recharge is in order.


3) As I go to make a build (I will post it eventually), are there any ideas for power selection that are key pillars of success with this combo?

I think that Soul Mastery seems like a good choice for PP, but I have 10 levels to slog through first. Right now, I am focused on getting to 40's so I can even think about those kind of attack chains, etc.

Also, since I am 31, 32's power choice would be Midnight's Grasp, should I take this?


4) How do you deal with having to auto-fire SD's status protection *and* have hasten?

I really wish they would make all status protection toggles; this seems like a big quality life difference between powersets unless I am missing something.

As I mention above with my attack chain breaking down, I am thinking about hasten, but don't know how to square the autofiring issue.


Thanks for any and all assistance, I appreciate it!

 

Posted

On my brutes i generally have no more than 1 slot for dmg with SOs, rech and end redux are more useful and rech will actually yield a higher DPS for most attacks. So I would replace those dmg SOs with 2 rech and 1 end redux. (For SL i would add another slot and put either dmg or healing in that)

I don’t find having a click status protection to be too big a problem. In fact on SD its better this way because AD offers DDR, and now you can get twice as much DDR from that. But keep AD on auto then just keep an eye on hasten; or just don’t get it its up to you.

Edit: Yes, Midnight's Grasp is sweet

"I have ridden the mighty moon worm!"
-Al Gore
Fiery Aura is only good for farming, I'm cereal

@Caucasiafro

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Inno View Post


I am returning from a COH break, and am intrigued to play my DM/SD. It seems like the mix of ST damage from DM, AoE from Shield Charge, and the AoE buffage from both sets would be a great mix.

At 31, I am finding the art of the DM/SD to elude me a bit, and my results have been very uneven; it seems like apparently identical packs of mobs either are trivial or kick my butt.

I have some questions:

1) Does this combo make sense? How do DM/SD compare to other builds as far as the standard metrics: getting "softcapped", survivability, groupability, dps, etc.


Speaking top end builds what DM/SD will give you vs. any other */SD combination is added survivability through siphon life & an added recovery tool through Dark Consumption.
 Soul Drain, while an excellent power – simply does not improve a Brute’s ST output in the same way that it does for scrappers.
To date, I have built one of each of the following SS/SD, FM/SD, DM/SD – all are very high end builds seeking the max performance and they are all within range of each other in terms of ST DPS, and that’s with a fully maximized and saturated Soul Drain for the entirety of the fight.
With that being said, those are all very high ST DPS capable builds for a Brute.

 Survivability for DM/SD is excellent once softcapped, softcapping will require some expense how much that expense means to you is pretty relative to the kind of cash you generate as a player.
Now, with alignment merits and any intent to seriously IO a build you should consider LoTG 7.5s, Numi Proc & Miracle Proc a given
 The true expense only comes into play if you aim for a really high end build which includes purple sets and PvP IOs.



Quote:
Originally Posted by Inno View Post
2) I have been following the below approach to fights, and as mentioned, my results are very uneven from pack to pack, sometimes its trivial, then next pack I eat my hat.

Aggro a pack of mobs
Quote:
Originally Posted by Inno View Post

Soul Drain to buff +DMG%
Siphon Life on Pack
Smite on biggest bad
Shadow Maul on biggest bad
(if low on end, Dark Consumption)
Repeat


At your level I think it should be:

 1) Pop a luck
 2) Soul drain to buff DMG
 3) Take out hard/difficult target (siphon life is your hardest hitting attack at this level)*
 4) Bunch up minions for Shadow Maul as best you can*
 Keep in mind 3 & 4 are swappable, sometimes the trouble is not a single hard target but rather the size of the pack you’re dealing with.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Inno View Post
I seem to have a long time between abilities, and my attack chain (such as it is) can derail and I have to use brawl or vet power to fill. I currently have my attacks 5 slotted as 3 damage, 2 accuracy SO's, except for SL, which is I think is 3 damage, 1 accuracy, 1 heal, so I wonder if some recharge is in order.


It’s fairly normal to have rech issues at this level in your ST attack chain.
 I slot my brutes for
  • 1 ACC,
  • 1~2 End Rdx
  • 2~3 Rech Rdx

 Let fury be your damage until higher levels, and I would skip on slotting Siphon Life for healing at this point unless you are going to frankenslot cheap sets to improve your overall enhancement bonuses
Quote:
Originally Posted by Inno View Post
3) As I go to make a build (I will post it eventually), are there any ideas for power selection that are key pillars of success with this combo?

I think that Soul Mastery seems like a good choice for PP, but I have 10 levels to slog through first. Right now, I am focused on getting to 40's so I can even think about those kind of attack chains, etc.


It will heavily depend on your end build, I went Soul for Gloom, Darkest Night and Dark Obliteration but the build required the 3% Glad unique to softcap.

Don’t worry about it for now, you can pick up an APP for free at 40 and ride that to L50, then do ANY patron arc which will unlock ALL the patron pools as well as grant a free respec.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Inno View Post
Also, since I am 31, 32's power choice would be Midnight's Grasp, should I take this?


Yes, it is the hardest hitting single target attack in Dark Melee, followed by Siphon Life.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Inno View Post

4) How do you deal with having to auto-fire SD's status protection *and* have hasten?


Hasten won’t be even near perma for a very long time, and Active defense is much more crucial to survivability.

 So active defense on auto-fire, hasten use it when you need it as it will have a significant downtime at your level on SOs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Inno View Post
I really wish they would make all status protection toggles; this seems like a big quality life difference between powersets unless I am missing something.


An often overlooked benefit is that once you activate a status protection click power like active defense is that it can never be detoggled should you run out of endurance for example.

In SDs case, it can also be double stacked to increase your DDR.