SS/FIRE or FIRE/FIRE - Pure Farming Toon

Hi guys

I have been farming for years now and have a few farm toons.. first was the Fire/Kin troller, second the Spines/Dark scrapper and thirdly the Elec/SD scrapper.

They have been fun and efficient to play (apart from Spines/Dark who has end issues but cba to invest inf into). But now its time for a brute farmer!

So obviously there is the SS.Fire brute which mostly everyone plays and for obvious reasons and i have no issues being the cliché.

But i was also thinking about fire.fire and how it would compare to rage what with the fiery embrace.

Im not a fan of SS due to the rage crash.. but i hear most people get ticket capped before the crash kicks in so that's not a problem i suppose.

Now fire.fire has more single target damage compared to SS and a higher base damage AoE with fire sword circle and fire also has breath of fire.

Does rage really put SS far ahead of Fire? Or does the bonus damage from having a fire primary with the effects of fiery embrace level it out?

Fiery embrace doesnt buff fire dmg any more than it buffs other types of dmg any more.
But ive been wondering myself, FSC really does look epic and since you can likely dmg cap with reds it might just end up pulling out ahead.
Breath of fire wouldnt be usefull at all because you can already maintain a full attack chain though.
I think the lost of FF+rech proc would REALLY suck.

What do you plan to farm? Just AE for tickets, AE to pl, a mission for purples or a mission for pl'ing?

The reason I ask is that if your just going to farm tickets for $$$ then either FM/FA and SS/FA are easily able to cap tickets in 60 seconds plus the time it takes to pop insp, load up, reset the mission and roll tickets when full.

Once you get to a certain point your earning tickets so fast that the biggest drain on your inf/min isn't your power set it is time spent rolling tickets, popping insp before the mish and load times.

It takes on average 30 seconds of out of mission crap for me per run. Some are more due to rolling tickets on that run. Others might be faster if I'm still damage capped and my tray has a large number of reds that I hadn't used yet where I can just jump right back into the fray.

Lastly Rage crashing is never an issue for me. I don't recall the last time I bothered to use it in a AE farm. I'm already capped to damage and I have plenty of tohit in my build as it is.

SS/Fire beats Fire/Fire hands down.

I have a few SS/FA across different servers and a Fire/FA. All are IO'd to the teeth and incarnated for at least Reactive tier 3, Ageless tier 3, Pyronic and Spiritual Tier 3.

The Fire/FA looks good on paper but it just can't generate and sustain as much +DMG as the SS can.

For PLing and ticket farming I prefer SS but for ticket farming Fire/FA is more comparable. When running Crey's Fire/FA doesn't come close to SS.

You can easily get under 5 minutes with a Fire/FA on Crey's so if you really like the set, then go for it. If you are trying to optimize then no, go for SS/FA.

Edit: Also, Rage crash is a perfect time for using Pyronic, popping insps once the ones you have wear off, using melt armor (if you haven't switched to //Elec) using Veng, or you can just keep smacking Footstomp for the +rech proc to hit and to keep the enemies on their backs for more survivability.

I'm becoming more and more convinced it is the FF +rech proc in footstomp doing all the heavy lifting to make SS such a good pairing with /fire.

When I am solo farming I only use rage as a timer. I'm usually watching tv and only half-way paying attention and the rage crash tells me that I hit ticket cap a long time ago.

You could also take a look at DM/FA. This is what i use but my build is not cheap by any means. I have perma hasten and soul drain. With DM/FA you have 2 heals and 2 end rec powers and no rage crash. Just give it a look it might be what your looking for.

I have heard a lot of people mention DM for farming. I have never understood that.
DM is a set infamous for it's lack of AOE, so why would it be useful for farming?
I imagine Soul Drain will be fun to watch with a capped number of mobs around you at all times but considering those reds you have been popping already have you at the damage cap, it gets somewhat less impressive.
So what is it about DM that makes it good for farming? That is a legitimate question btw - I am not being sarcastic. With enough recharge can a combination of Soul Drain and Dark Consumption be used as replacement attacks for the AOE you are missing in your chain?

I use elec fences,ball lightning,burn, and sometimes siphon life as my attack chain. You can also slot Dark Consumption for damage if you like. I have both SS/FA and DM/FA builds and for some reason it seems like my DM does a better job farming. Without takeing a bunch of reds my SS does have a 25% more damage than my DM. I've farmed with a lot of other SS/FA builds and they were very impressed on how well DM works. I'm not a number cruncher so i can't go in the very fine details on the numbers. I'm sure someone will chime in and explain better on DM.

Dark has Shadow Maul so it does have at least one AoE. I think adding in Mu covers any sets lack of AoE. The thing to point out is even if Dark/fire isn't equal to SS/fire, it does farm fast enough that it's good enough for other people. Some people like the idea of having a farmer and it not being SS/fire.

I have a SS/FA brute for farming. It's a BEAST. I can't really think of a flaw in it. Foot Stomp> Burn just plain rocks. With both recharging by the time i hit KO blow, then back to the 2 AoEs. Not to mention Pyronic.

I joined a farming buddy yesterday for some tickets. He has a DM/FA Incarnated, just like my SS/Fire. He did an awesome job, just not as fast. Shadow Maul is no where near in the same arena as Foot Stomp or Burn in it's AoE uberness.

Though, i do want FSC so i'm rolling a FM/Inv. Maybe not for farming but at 46% def and 70% resist, it should be pretty darn tough.

SM/Fire is kinda fun too. I dont think its as good, but I actually enjoy playing him, so I use him for everything now. For me, he is more versatile. If you are just farming tickets, not sure I would even bother with anything besides a lowbie Claws/Fire.