It depends on what you follow it with and the general conditions.
You can do epic damage on a tightly grouped with aim+buildup+RoF+FBall. That's definitely worth it and better than any ST anything you can do.
For ST [like w Marauder], if the 160ish % damage boost you get for 10* seconds can get you more damage than the sum of the other attacks w/o the boost, then yeah. But you already know that.
You could get out the calculator and watch the combat window and figure it out. Just find some robust enemy that won't die in 10 seconds and test it.
*Not really 10 as both can't be fired at the same time, animation, blah blah.
It sounds like it is probably worth it in ST combat as long as I hit Cosmic Burst right afterward then (Close, extreme), and I will definitely try to pop it before launching a AoE blitz against tough mobs. Thanks.
For sustained fire, I think you'd get more out of them by alternating them rather than simul-popping them. In a case like an AV beatdown, or anything that is going to survive long enough that Build Up and AIM become part of your "chain", the up front "DIE NOW" power that having them stacked becomes far less signifigant, and the wasted buff time of animating both of them before you start firing becomes slightly more signifigant. So pop one, chain for 10 seconds, pop the other, chain for 10 seconds.
These powers are amazing. Even with "ED capped" damage, AIM consistutes (roughly) a 30% increase in your damage, and Build Up 50%. Nothing to scoff at, never mind the signifigant to-hit buffs ensuring that you hit defense users and +Level foes with reliability. Even if you have other damage buffs on you in a larger-team setting, unless you get to the cap, each activation of these powers STILL adds the same number of "damage points". I don't think there's any amount of damage buffing that would make the one shot you deal in the time you'd have "wasted" on Aim deal more damage than Aim would add to your chain for 10 seconds, especially with the kinds of attack chains a Rad/EM blaster could toss together.
Against normal spawns, they should be activated during "free" time, in between spawns, just before you engage, so you're not taking "time out of" your other activities to use them. And in these cases, stacking them and launching the Haze, the Ate and the Bomb (Finish on the bomb for ease of use) will cut down many things, leaving smouldering bosses ripe for the cooking/punching as the case may be.
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OK...First off Build Up is a 100% Damage buff, Aim is 62.5% Damage buff. That is quite a significant damage buff. I will have to agree with this post using it as a 1-2 boost before starting an attack on a group/individual.|
Originally Posted by Teeto_K
For sustained fire, I think you'd get more out of them by alternating them rather than simul-popping them. In a case like an AV beatdown, or anything that is going to survive long enough that Build Up and AIM become part of your "chain", the up front "DIE NOW" power that having them stacked becomes far less signifigant, and the wasted buff time of animating both of them before you start firing becomes slightly more signifigant. So pop one, chain for 10 seconds, pop the other, chain for 10 seconds.
These powers are amazing. Even with "ED capped" damage, AIM consistutes (roughly) a 30% increase in your damage, and Build Up 50%. Nothing to scoff at, never mind the signifigant to-hit buffs ensuring that you hit defense users and +Level foes with reliability. Even if you have other damage buffs on you in a larger-team setting, unless you get to the cap, each activation of these powers STILL adds the same number of "damage points". I don't think there's any amount of damage buffing that would make the one shot you deal in the time you'd have "wasted" on Aim deal more damage than Aim would add to your chain for 10 seconds, especially with the kinds of attack chains a Rad/EM blaster could toss together. Against normal spawns, they should be activated during "free" time, in between spawns, just before you engage, so you're not taking "time out of" your other activities to use them. And in these cases, stacking them and launching the Haze, the Ate and the Bomb (Finish on the bomb for ease of use) will cut down many things, leaving smouldering bosses ripe for the cooking/punching as the case may be. |
As far as rotating it in, I will usually fire one at a time during a protracted fight to add the damage buff as well as the ToHit increase each power adds. For example, BU, Aim intiate attack chain...BU and/or Aim recharges, hit one or the other, continue to fight, first one wears off, click second. This way you can maintain the damage buff from your Defiance as well as adding the damage and ToHit from the BU or Aim. I found I lost 1 or 2 Defiance buffs from adding both in a row as well as over all DPS drop, so I started using this method.
Biggest thing (and it seems you have this) is finding the lead off attack chain that will give as much damage as possible during the 7 seconds they are both up on the the initiation of combat. (7 seconds comes from firing BU or Aim (1.17 sec cast time) then the second (another 1.17 cast time) and then cast time of your first attack. Sniper attack, though high in damage, actually uses more time from your BU/Aim combo, so it would make that initial UBER damage time even less!)
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I think we all know that. Teeto K's 30% & 50% figures were about their over time effect rather than just the boost while they were up, from the looks of it.
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Originally Posted by Energy_Aura
OK...First off Build Up is a 100% Damage buff, Aim is 62.5% Damage buff. That is quite a significant damage buff.
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Not quite, actually - given how Teeto mentions slotting, it's pretty safe to assume he's talking about the overall *boost in damage* from aim/BU, not their damage *buff* values (which aren't the same thing). Normally a power does its base damage. With slotting, you're up to about double base damage. Toss BU's 100% on top of that and you're dealing triple base damage, which is a 50% boost on top of your 'normal' enhanced value of 'double base damage'. Similarly, adding aim's 62.5% brings you up to '2.625 times base damage', which is about a 30% boost above the normal 'twice base damage'.
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Originally Posted by JD_Gumby
I think we all know that. Teeto K's 30% & 50% figures were about their over time effect rather than just the boost while they were up, from the looks of it.
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@MuonNeutrino
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BU +AIM + ST attack chain = Very High Damage
BU or AIM + ST attack chain = High damage
No BU or AIM + ST attack chain = Decent damage
The trick is to frontload the damage. AIM first, BU second (because it has the higher damage buff and we want it closest to the first attack to last longer). Then run your highest damage attack (not highest DPS, just most damage) and cycle down to the lowest. You want all the burst damage you can get because you're on a timer. Once the buffs drop, return to your DPS chain.
On my Ice/* blasters, vs Marauder, Seige and Nightstar, I find I can bit off BIG chunks of health in that ten seconds. It's most noticable during catch up mode on S and N during the BAF Trial. If I switch to BU + AIM, that bar shrinks. If I lay off BU and AIM, it moves slowly.
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This ^|
Originally Posted by Muon_Neutrino
Not quite, actually - given how Teeto mentions slotting, it's pretty safe to assume he's talking about the overall *boost in damage* from aim/BU, not their damage *buff* values (which aren't the same thing). Normally a power does its base damage. With slotting, you're up to about double base damage. Toss BU's 100% on top of that and you're dealing triple base damage, which is a 50% boost on top of your 'normal' enhanced value of 'double base damage'. Similarly, adding aim's 62.5% brings you up to '2.625 times base damage', which is about a 30% boost above the normal 'twice base damage'.
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The damage bonuses from BU and Aim are to base damage not enhanced damage so you will not get 100% increase to enhanced damage; as indicated by Neutrino it ends up being about a 50% from BU and 30% from Aim when looking at overall damage from the attack.
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Given the significant ToHit bonuses from both powers, I would activate them every single time. Your attack chain is built to generate high cumulative damage over a period of time. Missing your target severely hurts your DPS. Against +level opponents and crazy AVs like Marauder, you want all the ToHit you can get. |
Originally Posted by Blue_Centurion
Okay, i have built my Rad/Energy Blaster for Damage, damage, recharge, damage. somewhere down about 15 posts is the build if you are interested.
I am pretty new to dedicated Blasting, and here is my question. My build is pretty high recharge, and all attacks just tipping over ED cap damage. My ST attack chain has no wait, even without hitting Hasten. Just spam the 3 attacks. Pretty much the same with my AoEs, although i have to jump around to realign the cone. That means I actually need to interrupt my damage cycle to build up or aim. Does the bonus from these boosts overcome the animation time away from my attacks, especially when wailing on things like Marauder? It feels like I am doing less damage when I take time to hit the boosts constantly, but I bet the damage curve goes up when I do. Anybody got the low down on the build up? |
It burns me every time I miss with Power Burst or Golden Dragonfly. Because I know that was a significant chunk of damage missed plus the attack time I just wasted.
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I have run about 6 trials since i started this post. I had fallen into the habit of BU ST attack chain, Aim, ST attack chain, wait for build up again, usually just one chain down, maybe two. But it is really hard to read my damage effects in the mob. Maybe i should pop the Aim, BU, ST chain to ensure that big damage ST chain actually connects.
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Originally Posted by concreteshift
Given the significant ToHit bonuses from both powers, I would activate them every single time. Your attack chain is built to generate high cumulative damage over a period of time. Missing your target severely hurts your DPS. Against +level opponents and crazy AVs like Marauder, you want all the ToHit you can get.
It burns me every time I miss with Power Burst or Golden Dragonfly. Because I know that was a significant chunk of damage missed plus the attack time I just wasted. |
On AVs I tend to use Build Up, run through my single target chain a couple of times, then hit Aim and run through the chain a few times until Build Up is recharged (I don't run extreme recharge so it takes more than two). Build Up and Aim only take about 1.3 seconds each so effectively you can replace your lowest damage attack (probably your tier 1) with it.
On my Fire Blaster (my only high-ish recharge Blaster) I do around 200 points with Fire Blast (counting enhancements and Defiance) and if I have a Speed Boost or other recharge buff (fairly common in trials) I can chain Fire Blast -> Fire Sword -> Blaze nonstop. Aim boosts Blaze's damage by 119 points and Fire Sword's by 86, so Aim -> Blaze -> Fire Sword does a few points more damage than Fire Blast -> Blaze -> Fire Sword and the Aim bonus will last through an entire second cycle and probably a third Blaze... that's a lot more damage than the one Fire Blast I skipped (which takes longer to animate than Aim so no other DPS loss). Obviously, Build Up does even better. You just want to make sure you use them one at a time so you get the full 10 seconds of boost from each... a two minute fight isn't going to be shortened noticeably by stacking them and you lose an attack's worth of damage.
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Yeah, I only mentioned the numbers "In comparison to ED capped damage" because Blue did in his original post, and gave the impression that he wasn't sure if Aim and Build Up are "worth it" on top of an already significant boost in damage.
Didn't mean to derail things by being wordy and unclear, sorry.
As far as wether you stack them or not, I guess it depends more on the situation. Generally, I wouldn't waste the buff time of Aim on casting Build Up in a long fight. But, there are reasons that it might be a good idea:
1] You might not have 20 seconds to cycle both powers before he enrages or jumps away.
2] You might feel you need the extra to-hit buffing to reliably hit a +4 opponent.
There's a couple reasons right there, and potentially good ones, but it's something you're gonna have to play by ear, because the "right" answer is actually based more on your teamates than you. Is there a lot of To-hit buffing in the league? Is the team damaging him so fast that you don't have 20 seconds to use the buffs seperately?
These questions have answers that potentially could be different in every trial you run, so ultimately, it's up to you. Watch for your misses, and take note of how fast the pace is going. Good luck, and happy blasting.
Mission Arc: Metatronic Mayhem (Id 1750): A tale of robots gone wrong, rogue robots gone right, and madmen gone every which way but loose.
Okay, i have built my Rad/Energy Blaster for Damage, damage, recharge, damage. somewhere down about 15 posts is the build if you are interested.
I am pretty new to dedicated Blasting, and here is my question. My build is pretty high recharge, and all attacks just tipping over ED cap damage. My ST attack chain has no wait, even without hitting Hasten. Just spam the 3 attacks. Pretty much the same with my AoEs, although i have to jump around to realign the cone. That means I actually need to interrupt my damage cycle to build up or aim. Does the bonus from these boosts overcome the animation time away from my attacks, especially when wailing on things like Marauder? It feels like I am doing less damage when I take time to hit the boosts constantly, but I bet the damage curve goes up when I do. Anybody got the low down on the build up?