I20 - Still going Cardiac?

I know that the Cardiac alpha is very popular among the SoA crowd because of it's heavy endurance use. Personally, with all the IO and accolade bonuses I've accumulated I find that I can run pretty well without it so I opted for Musculature instead. I realize that I'm in the minority here but now with word of Judgement and Lore slots being affected only by Alpha, has anyone began reconsidering their choice of Cardiac?

I've found that the extra 30ish% (after ED) damage I get from Musculature does provide a decent punch to my attacks and to my 6 pets as well. With Judgement being a high dmg attack, the +45% dmg from T4 musculature will only make it that much better as well as the additional 2 pets I'll be spawning with Lore. Cardiac will seems like it'll be wasteful for boosting those two slots.

I do, however, recognize the benefit of Cardiac for builds who aren't fully IO'd and such, but I get the feeling that most SoA automatically go with Cardiac because it's the 'safe' Alpha to guarantee that you'll never drop below 95% END, but is it really worth it?

On a side note, does anyone else find it insane that Interface will also apply to pets as well? Myself, 6 spiders, 2 lore pets, all with secondary effects tacked on. Yeesh.

On my Fortunata, my base damage in my attacks aren't that high (but fast!). I carry so many toggles (double assault, double maneuver, tough, hover, mez shield, tactics and darkest night on AVs) so I can survive well while providing constant dps. Endurance issue is more important for dps in the long run.

However, I can see both Bane and Night Widow using Musculature as they have attacks that may benefit more.


I am going to try Interface with Fort first. The only thing I really need is more ST damage.

I was able to eke out another ~0.2 endurance per second with the radial musculature branch, since it also enhances endurance modification. Food for thought.

I went muscular core paragon on my widow and love it. I've slotted all my toggles and heavy attacks (spin, slash) for endurance and have the end accolades, both +end uniques and PS proc.

I still have a bit of an end issue when going all out, but can maintain that pace for about 40 seconds. If I begin to run dry I have elude (now that I've figured out a way around the crash) or blues. Muscular is just simply too frickin awesome to have IMO.

The primary reason I took Muscles was because my pets would benefit from it as well. I'm finding it easy to stack tons of recharge bonuses on my Crab Spider, and along with those comes enough recovery to hopefully not need cardiac once I finish slotting out.

I took cardiac for the ranged boost so this doesn't affect me.

Radial Musculature, damage +end mod is the perfect combo.

I ended up doing Musculature (have the +45% rare) on my widow, because she had nothing else she could benefit from. Recharge/heal? No, she has only Health and she has perma ML with a full attack chain. End/range? No, she's melee, has no RES, and already has perfect end control even if she's attacking constantly. ACC/DEF? 101% ToHit, +52% acc, and soft-cap. So I did damage. The fact that it's going to make her Judgement and Lore pets that much stronger is icing on the cake.

I would enjoy having the bonus damage on my Dom (who went Cardiac), but the benefits it gives to my basic build are better than a damage bonus on one attack.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.

I took Cardiac on my Crab and I'll be keeping it. While I could probably have gone without it previously (with the use of blue inspirations), once we got inherent fitness I picked up an extra toggle or two and that was enough to tip the scales such that he now burns through endurance faster than I can regain it through any means besides teammate buffs. Picked up Cardiac and all of that went away, he can run full tilt and almost ignore his endurance bar.

So while he will be missing out on some extra damage on future incarnate powers, I don't regret my choice or plan to change it - I'm very happy with his current performance (including damage output) so it's a worthwhile trade for me.


My Widow on the other hand (and probably my Bane, unsure about Fort) is going Musculature as even after the extra powers inherent fitness freed up she's no worse than my Crab was pre-inherent. She can run low if in prolonged intense fighting, but not often enough that blue insps won't tide her over. So sure, more damage please!

I still went with Cardiac. It lets me run all 8 of my toggles (dual leadership) at under 1end/sec, and lets me attack constantly without fear of Hasten's end crash bottoming me out.

(I'm somewhat proud of the fact that I can still bottom out the end on my wp/ice tanker, even with QR, Stamina and PP each 3slotted with endmod.)

@Oathbound & @Oathbound Too

I'll keep cardiac.

Besides, with reactive interface, I wouldn't need extra damage because I would be shooting enemy resists down.

Then again, I also opted for Mu mastery for extra AoE, and with judgement that will increase it even moreso.

Went Nerve with mine, but I am only slotted with 3 acc under the SoA Training Thingy all of the actual powers are set for damage, recharge, and End Reduction. Works pretty well, have problems hitting +4 sometimes but with the Nerve Thingy it's hits regularly now. (also the DEF bonus and Hold work well with Def training, Armor and Coccoon (respecitvely).

I think I am still keeping my Cardiac because trials have long battles that require endurance. I run 8 toggles and one expensive Darkest Night sometimes.

There's a good amount of -end attacks on trial enemies that I've found myself switching to Cardiac for now. When I get the +2 level shifts I'll give musculature another go.