Granite armor and Alpha Incarnate choices
By
Call Me Awesome,
Posted on: 2011-01-18 16:18 in Tankers
Quote:
Here's the thing with the Alpha boost. It basically adds one SO of enhancement to every power that can slot that type of enhancement. If your attacks are all slotted to ED cap damage then adding the Musculature will pretty much add another SO of damage... subjected to ED. Yes, a small part of the enhancement ignores ED but don't expect much bonus out of it.|
Originally Posted by cohRock
My very first character is a stone/stone tank. He has earned his incarnate alpha slot, but it is not yet slotted. I'm not sure which direction to go. I would like to reduce the penalties of Granite armor, which reduces both attack rate and damage.
Attack rate is reduced to an extent such that the Hasten power needs to be up to pretty-much counter the Granite armor recharge penalty. Hasten is a 70% recharge boost, so I would expect the Alpha Spiritual buff, at 33% recharge, would reduce the penalty by about half. Is this correct? Damage is reduced to an extent such that it is like losing a damage SO in each attack, normally about 33%. I would expect the Alpha Musculature buff, at 33% damage, would completely eliminate this particular penalty. It might even be better than that, due to a reduced ED penalty. He has Hasten, and he typically only starts up Granite when he needs to. He has the full set of Stone armors at his disposal. When he starts up Granite, he also starts Hasten, which is not set to auto-run. He also has the Physical Perfection Ancillary power, as well as Assault and Tactics. So his regen, recovery, damage, and accuracy are already receiving some buffage. Given this backdrop, which do you-all feel would be the better Alpha choice, Spiritual or Musculature? |
The same applies to Hasten, assuming it's at ED cap recharge you'll shave a few seconds with Spiritual but nothing major. It WILL however work to full effect on any of your powers that aren't already heavily slotted for recharge.
Given the choice between the Musculature and Spiritual you're almost certainly getting more out of the Spiritual. However, what's your endurance usage like? I'll bet very few if any of your powers are anywhere near ED cap for endurance reduction in which case Cardiac may be your best choice.
COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
Except for Stone Fist, his attacks are 3-slotted with damage. The only power which has 3 recharges in it is Hasten itself. And endurance had been a problem, outside of Granite, until he picked up Physical Perfection, granting a significant boost to both recovery and regen. (End. was not a problem within Granite armor, because with the -0.70 recharge penalty, he didn't use end very fast.)
If I understand what you are saying, the Musculature damage boost will not overcome the Granite armor damage penalty. I.e., even though Granite effectively removes one SO of damage, the Alpha slot damage boost would not replace the "missing" SO. Right?
In that event, the Spiritual recharge boost definately sounds the way to go.
-- Rich
* Thresholds CoH: What to do When
* My Comics Collection
Alpha boosts are NOT locked in and do not require a respec to change them. They take relatively little time to create a 2nd tier boost. Do two or three task forces and you should be able to craft any one you want. Instead of asking us what would help you, try them out for yourself and decide. You seem to know what you want out of the Alpha slot, but you also seem to be overestimating what they will do. Until we see the 4th tier boosts in Issue 20, the Alpha slot will be adding only a small bonus to ED-capped powers.
Quote:
Granite doesn't "remove" any enhancement, it applies a debuff to your powers after all enhancement (and ED) are taken into account. Look over your build and think on what would help you the most. Think of how many powers would benefit from another SO of _____ to get closer to the ED cap in your build. Since your attacks are already ED capped for damage the Musculature won't do much... basically it would be like adding a 4th SO subject to ED. Expect to get roughly 10% more damage including the small portion that ignores ED (I'm no math wiz but my recollection of the numbers is that it's approximately that). |
Originally Posted by cohRock
Except for Stone Fist, his attacks are 3-slotted with damage. The only power which has 3 recharges in it is Hasten itself. And endurance had been a problem, outside of Granite, until he picked up Physical Perfection, granting a significant boost to both recovery and regen. (End. was not a problem within Granite armor, because with the -0.70 recharge penalty, he didn't use end very fast.)
If I understand what you are saying, the Musculature damage boost will not overcome the Granite armor damage penalty. I.e., even though Granite effectively removes one SO of damage, the Alpha slot damage boost would not replace the "missing" SO. Right? In that event, the Spiritual recharge boost definately sounds the way to go. |
If your powers generally only have one or maybe two SO's worth of recharge then Spiritual will give you good returns... of course with better recharge comes greater endurance use. Most of my Incarnates went with Cardiac simply because it was something that I'd get full benefit from. My Stone/Fire tank went with the Spiritual and the extra recharge was certainly noticeable. However, I also went from no end problems at all to fairly significant ones... I'll need to add the Miracle proc to the build to compensate. It did come as something of a surprise as I'd gotten used to having no end worries... adding the Spiritual brought them back in spades.
You may want to look at the additional boost from the uncommon alpha... the Cardiac Radial for example adds damage resistance while the Spiritual Radial adds healing, which would apply to Earth's Embrace and your regeneration. The Rare and Ultra Rare also add other bonuses, although since they aren't in the game as of yet I'd take them with a grain of salt; it's certainly possible they may change when they go live.
COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
My biggest advice to you, esp if this was your first tank, would be this: If you want to combat the Granite debuffs as much as possible, stay out of Granite. The set is called Stone Armor for a reason. I know Granite is the holy grail for most Stonies, but really, it should be treated like a panic button, not something to stay in all day.
My Stony has softcapped S/L/E/N/Psi def w/51% DDR and decent S/L/F/C resists--yes, I took *all* armors, plus Tough & Weave--and regens like 60HPs a sec w/Rooted & EE (perma w/o Granite, btw) on. I can breeze through LGTFs, ITFs & MSRs w/o ever popping Granite. I only save Granite for things like tanking LR, Reichmann, and the stupid hydra heads in Apex (which can be avoided anyway).
I will say I took Spiritual in a heartbeat w/my Stone tank, because on those rare occasions I do pop Granite, I'd much rather have my powers (Taunt, EE) recharge faster than do a tiny bit more damage. Plus you get heals out of Spirit, nice for Rooted & EE. In fact, I'd take Cardiac for the end & resist #s, and prolly even Nerve for the def #s, before taking Musculature. Or you can listen to Syntax and take them all, at least at the common lvl, and see what suits you best.
An Offensive Guide to Ice Melee
It really depends what you're looking for out of the character.
Remember also that you can mix and match incarnate slots and change them "on the fly"...
Personally, my Stone/Elec will be working towards a Radial Paragon for Soloing/"Normal" Teaming - extra Damage and Runspeed is always nice for a Stoner.
Important Buffs: 33% Damage/33% EndMod/33% RunSpeed [2/3 ignores ED]
And a "Core Paragon" build for survivability. He's got softcapped Defense already, so extra healing in "Rooted" and Earths Embrace helps more than +Def.
Important Buffs: 45% Recharge/33% Stun/33% Healing [2/3 Ignores ED]
Note that "Radial Paragon" might be good if you're slightly below softcapped Defense, and it also amplifies Taunt effects which'd be good for extra aggro-grabbing.
http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Alpha_Slot_Abilities
My very first character is a stone/stone tank. He has earned his incarnate alpha slot, but it is not yet slotted. I'm not sure which direction to go. I would like to reduce the penalties of Granite armor, which reduces both attack rate and damage.
Attack rate is reduced to an extent such that the Hasten power needs to be up to pretty-much counter the Granite armor recharge penalty. Hasten is a 70% recharge boost, so I would expect the Alpha Spiritual buff, at 33% recharge, would reduce the penalty by about half. Is this correct?
Damage is reduced to an extent such that it is like losing a damage SO in each attack, normally about 33%. I would expect the Alpha Musculature buff, at 33% damage, would completely eliminate this particular penalty. It might even be better than that, due to a reduced ED penalty.
He has Hasten, and he typically only starts up Granite when he needs to. He has the full set of Stone armors at his disposal. When he starts up Granite, he also starts Hasten, which is not set to auto-run. He also has the Physical Perfection Ancillary power, as well as Assault and Tactics. So his regen, recovery, damage, and accuracy are already receiving some buffage.
Given this backdrop, which do you-all feel would be the better Alpha choice, Spiritual or Musculature?
-- Rich
* Thresholds CoH: What to do When
* My Comics Collection