/Traps or /Time?

Hello Everyone.

Been sitting at work and going back and forth to the hospital so I've been unable to do any testing. I was wondering if anyone may be able to help me figure out what would work best in terms of soloing, but still provide some good team effort. I've been really considering Beams/Time, but Beams/Traps just seems like it would be more efficient. I can see how Time would be more useful team-wise, and Traps might be better soloing. I'm just hoping someone may be able to kick me in the *** and explain how Time may be benificial in soloing, especially with potentially min/maxing against AV's/GM's.

Thank you!

From what small amount of testing I did with Rad/Time I'd say go with Beam/Traps. Not that /Time is bad at all, it's actually pretty damn stable, but it's very clicky. A clicky secondary going with trying to spread Disintegrate seems counter productive. With Traps, you can lay everything down, and the attack without interrupting the attack chain as much. Take this with a grain of salt with only a couple hours logged in with /Time only, haven't tested Beam myself.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Murdok Your mom's real name is Castle.

Soloing: I think it comes down to status protection and -regeneration. ( Traps FFG with PGT ) or ( Time + Clarion and no -regen 8-/ )

Teaming: I think I'm favoring Time for PB+Far Sight along with large radius debuffs and nice Team buffs. For General gameplay you'll be more capable and doing more, but not as capable vs very hard single targets like AVs.

Time: Neuter entire mobs while buffing entire teams in large radii, or Traps: take out hard targets while buffing and debuffing smaller radii, and with built-in status protection.

So I'm guessing the best route to go would be Traps. I'll have to do some solid testing on both to see how they play out together. I know what you mean about Time being very click, Swansu. It wouldn't be too different than playing a Regen Scrapper though. There is a lot of clicky involved with that as well.

With Traps, you at least have the opportunity to really kick up your defense. I'll have to do some extensive testing tomorrow on my day off.

Time is incredibly strong at staying alive but I feel severely lacking on good debuffs to make things die.

Well, in terms of debuffing, that's why I figure it would work with Beams. Each one of Beam's attacks has a debuff. Or most of them at least. The only thing I may see as an issue with Time is the potential inability to soft cap defense. I figure, if I take Mace Mastery, I could take Scorpion Shield to help work toward hitting the soft cap.

It's absurdly easy to hit soft cap with Time.

Best question. Considering the same Attack set, who woule win in a race against +4 X8 Malta?

I agree with Shubbie's answer! Lol. It's funny that with all these new things they release, Malta still prove to be the biggest pain in the *** in this game. Hell, AV's and GM's are easier than a group of Malta.

However, if you're able to hit the soft cap with Time, then I may look in to that further. I imagine, with Scorpion Shield from Mace, + Farsight, CJ and Weave- I should be pretty well off. Still working on some testing.

Time seems to be better Debuff, if you going for a them then go with traps, it does fit well with beam Rifle. You can slow down time Time and it does some sweet buffs and Debuff.

Well, if I go with a resist shield, I could add to the debuffs or get some more reliability. I was thinking between;

• Phsychic Mastery: Dominate and Mind Over Body (would work better Solo with an extra hold)
• Soul Mastery: Soul Drain, Dark Embrace, and Soul Storm. (A nice DMG boost, decent shield, and another Hold)
• Power Mastery: Power Build Up, Temp Invul

Don't forget Charged Armor for SL and E can be great for Incarnate content where E is pretty heavy, or (Force of Nature with Vengeance) for a T9.

If you do decide to go TIME, then please consider taking the SOUL MASTERY pool w/Ghost Widow. You get a nice res shield, power boost (recharges in 120s as opposed to PBU 240), Opressive Gloom (you'll likely be in melee range anyway) and yes, SOUL DRAIN. It might be the best of any Epic avail to TIME IMHO.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

In terms of long term strategy at the incarnate levels, Time with Power Boost or Build Up is way more survivable than anything else available to a support character. The mezz issue is handled with Clarion Destiny if you go that high. Alpha: Spiritual, Conserve Power from the APP pool, and you are unstoppable due to huge recharge buffs. Time has a few features that are very hard to get elsewhere, like +Perception, so Arachnos shouldn't roll you just because you run out of yellows.

Traps will have an easier time with AVs and do a few other things Time won't. Sort of faster at kill speed but this isn't for sure because Time has an enormous Recharge buff that depending on your primary could mean having your big hitting powers available more often, and makes the Recharge values on Time's powers more like "suggestions" than actual values. Traps will probably have less redraw than Time. Traps also gets its powers earlier and exemplars better.

Traps is a very powerful set. However, it's a time (no pun intended) consuming power to play. Point in case, rolling with a full team of incarnates through an ITF, by the time you set your mines, gas, motars, the baddies have been cleared.
I would agree with the opinions that time probably has more survivable incentive. I played time on the beta and had a great deal of fun with it.
If you're a max/min player, I would go with time.

As Trip pointed out, if given enough time /Traps can fight elite bosses, and AV's, but the problem is it takes time, positioning, and planning.

I wonder who would win in a race:

Time Vs Traps against Malta.

People who say playing traps takes Time, Positioning, and Planning are NOT playing the set correctly. Its a bloody fact.

Deploy seekers, drop PGT, Optionally drop Acid mortor/Caltorps, eliminate the spawn. Move on.

Yes I have positional tools, and I only get more potent if in a stationary fight but I in no way need to stack them.

I will accept Time is practically idiot proof, Traps requires a good player (which there seems to be few of remaining).

EDIT: I would say Traps, and Storm are the two sets that in then hands of newbs are less than impressive, but in the hands of expert players can outperform all the other sets.

I tried beam time figuring I would try both new powers and from reading you can obtain defense cap with time I figured it would be a win win. After 20 levels I just was not feeling it. I deleted and went trap beam. As was mentioned traps gets some good stuff early on. Even caltrops ( and I don't mean that in a bad way ) is very helpful. I feel it gives me a bit more room to play around with beam and getting disintegrate going.

Again probably more of a personal thing
Ore then anything else. I just wasn't feeling time with beam.

Well, I ended up going Beams/Traps and so far, I'm enjoying it. I've always enjoyed /Traps, so no complaint there. However, I'm left with a sore spot. I REALLY enjoy /Time. I have a theme-based character that I wrote an extensive backstory for which is very tech-based. Now, in the story I've displayed him using /Time on numerous occassions, so I can't really cut that out. However, I've barely made any mention of the primary power which at the time was Beams. However, due to slots and power choices, it is definitely difficult to really narrow things down to what's most needed. At least, I won't be able to do so until Mid i21 is released. I figure, to get the most out of it, I'd want one that doesn't cause redraw, so no weapons. However, I'm still looking to stick with the "power-suit" theme that he has. I know Elec/ isn't that great of a primary, or at least it wasn't last I checked. Le sigh...

I've considered Elec/, not too keen on it. Mainly because it's just not that good in terms of performance. I like Sonic, but I'm not entirely sure how I'd be able to fit that in with his story. Sonic/Time would probably be great, but still. Dark/ focuses far too much on ST, which i'm very used to, and Beams isn't too different, but still. Radiation is potentially an option as I can always color it and explain it as something different...which I'm not against. Just not sure how useful Rad/ is and how slotting would be. Energy, as explainable and nice as it would be, there is far too much knockback. Fire & Ice...not really a fan of either, though they are both powerful. Just not with /Time, in this concept. I've considered Psy/ but I'm really hesitant as I have not seen anyone use Psy as a primary in a while... So, here are the options I'm considering;

Elec/Time
Sonic/Time
Rad/Time
Psy/Time

I know I've been asking left and right for opinions, but I've hardly had any time to do anything lately. Any help with seriously be appreciated.