Perma-granite alpha slot

So i soon can finaly get my alpha slot, only a few more mats to go and i have to make the choice. As damage aint my primairy reason, Musculature is not really an option.

Im rolling a perma-granite with IO'ed 61.25% recharge bonus. Solo/small party i run the 3 armors (SL, E/NE, Psi ones), that work pretty well. Although i would still need 2 more steps untill a level shift, i want to make the right choice from the start and not wasting mats to recreate to another Alpha set.

So my thoughts:

Cardiac
Gives initialy a nice endurance reduction, since not all sets give ED-capped EndRed, it will give 'best bang for the bucks'. However, i hardly have end issues (3 toggles) and the later range increase is kinda useless (apart from taunt). The resist might nearly cap out my non-SL granite resistance. The final part (fear, imm, sleep) is pretty much useless.

Nerve
Accuracy is always good. Although most my powers have 60-80% enh-bonus already, hitting +4 still can be tricky (taunt doesnt need hit anyway). The 2nd bonus is my primairy goal, extra defence. As my Granite toggle has no maxed defense, this would boost my defense considerable. Hold then again is kinda useless, final 3 only taunt is nice (fly, confuse).

Spiritual
Primairy reason, recharge. I already have 61.25% from IO's, pushing the recharge even further per power would give nice effect, additional the healing for regen (rooted, health, EE). Disorient is less usefull as i dont have handclap, while the last 3 dont give much either (slow, tohit, jump - i cant even jump).

What would be the best choice? I personaly tend to go Cardiac, but extra defense from Nerve is nice to have too. Spiritual gives 2 nice bonus, recharge and heal.

I am able to share some good experience on this.

Perma-granite Stone Fire Pyre. 4 toggles Granite-Weave-Manuevers-Mud Pots (3% over soft-capped with Spiritual Core Paragon) and Rooted as needed. I run Manuevers in normal content as a fire and forget Defense De-Buff buffer and to buff my team mates esp. my brother Melee types.

My first choice was Spiritual Core Paragon for 45% recharge 2/3rd's ignoring ED. I was pleased with the added recharge, it really smoothed attack chains and the added healing was nice. I did notice that in any long fight or during rapid farming the increased tempo of attacks meant I was no longer endurance neutral. If the one performance shifter I have hit a blank fire period, I would have to slow attacks till I built back up.

Next I made a Musculature Core Paragon 45% etc. I thought this would be better for farming as it would speed up AoE and hard single target elimination without the need for extra attack activations, thus solving the endurance problem. That plan pretty much worked for SOLO. I still used the Spiritual for Teams as I wanted the extra AoE attacks and boosted taunt availability for aggro management.

Then, this week, I-20 came. After being B-slapped all launch day I used what shards and stuff I had left to craft a tier three Nerve Partial Radial Revamp (accy and hold 33%, DEFENSE 20%, Taunt 33% 1/2 ignores ED. Level shift) This took S/L to 51.6%, F/C to 54.1%, and most important E/N to 53.5% a net of 3.6% across the board. It seems to have made a really big difference in survivability in the incarnate trials I have done since equipping it. On teams where you have good buffs it is invisible, but on others it has Really helped. I plan to go ahead and make this my third Tier 4 goal. That will only add another .7% Defense but as always with defense, as you approach the Incarnate content soft cap of 59% every little bit helps. I am working on a build to take advantage the Accy buff and also plan to add Purple sets (none at present) to recover some recharge (lost because of no Spiritual) and to also boost damage. I see the Nerve Radial Paragon becoming my main Alpha slot.

Also note. Since my Rock, Crystal, and Minerals are all just mules for LotG and GotA 7.5's they get the full 20%! With the Nerve I am at 45% out of Granite to S-L-E-N. Highly useful in the Shard (Minerals-psionic 52% ) or other places where I need to fly, or if fighting where Granite not needed.

Hope that helps you with your decision.
Jak

PS: Let me be a little more emphatic. Knowing what I now know, I sure wish I had a Tier 4 Nerve and no Musculature and was instead working on a Tier 4 Cardiac. I still really like the Tier 4 Spiritual for nornal content. If I could only have One Tier 4 at this point I would go Nerve.

Nice one there Jak My idea goes exactly for that defense, you got some lovely numbers (i also have the armors and hover for the LotG slots - outside teleport i want to fly :P ).

my dark/stone brute went with nerve for the defense and because a few of my attacks had very light acc slotting (some had none)

my rech though was already good, in granite with hasten up i have around 92% global rech and heal in siphon life was my primary heal and earth embrace was my backup heal

I went for Cardiac so I can cap my non-S/L resistances. It makes a huge difference when you take half the damage from Lord Recluse's energy attacks.

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