Beam/Poison help

Hi guys,

I know there's a thread about this great combo but I need some newbish help.

I hate MMs so I never played poison past level 6 or something, hence I'm not familiar with the set. And I'm having some trouble deciding which powers to pick on both. He's 16 and so far what I have is:

1) Tier 2 attack + Alkaloid
2) Cone Shot
4) Envenom
6) Disintegrate
8) Aim
10) Hasten
12) Lancer Shot
14) Weaken
16) ??? (didn't choose yet)

So my questions are, since I have another build and a ton of vet respecs:

- Is this a good selection? On Corrs I usually skip the tier 1 but I read somewhere the tier 1 is better than the 2, and well with Piercing Beam I think my ST chain will be good enough. Or do you usually pick both? I can always postpone Aim. Plus, not too happy with the tier 2 attack since it looks like it takes forever to animate.

- Is Neurotoxic Breath worth it? I loved Shiver on my Ice Dom but... Shiver has a 135 degrees cone and Neurotoxic has only 30.

- How's Poison Trap nowadays? Did they turn it into something really good or just meh?

- Is Alkaloid worth enhancing at all? Mine's unslotted but it looks like a really weak heal, not to mention the stupid travel time. Comparing MM numbers it's a base 17.5% heal versus 22.9% from Soothe. Is it more or less like O2 Boost without the extra perks (and again, damn travel time)?

- Since both Envenom and Weaken recharge faster than their duration (30 seconds), do their effect stack? I mean, should I use both every time they're up against an AV/EB? If so, does the -special also stack?

Thanks in advance and sorry for so many Q's, I'm a Poison noob and just bought the Beam set, and I know some of you guys played it in Beta. It looks very fun although I can see what people mean when they say 'only use all your setup (weaken, envenom, disintegrate) on REALLY HARD targets since well, even at this level a team kills a pink boss quite fast.

I'm playing a Beam/Traps, and also a Pistols/Poison (which I ran in beta level bumped for a little while), so while my experience isn't pairing the two, I have run both.

I took both tier 1 & 2 beam attacks, if only while I get a feel for the set, and so far (level 28) I don't regret it - I've not got any set bonuses going, and only a little frankenslotted +rech (~20-30%), but that still leaves the occasional small gap in my attack chain. Also it can be useful for general endurance efficiency to have the weaker cheaper attack (and it doesn't feel that weak to me, with disintegrate), especially to finish something off with scourge. But I'm sure a case could be made - and quite possibly a more convincing one - for skipping the tier 1.

Neurotoxic Breath is, although not *amazing*, still worth taking. It's that bit more aoe mitigation for you and your team, and you'll probably want stuff clumped to get the splash on Weaken & Envenom anyway.

I tried Poison Trap in the beta and it was still very very meh. The -endurance did basically nothing (kept some even con minions in the gas for its full duration and they still had endurance left at the end). The damage DoT is very weak (maybe 10% off the minion's health by the end). The hold didn't seem to trigger very often (group of 4 minions, I only saw one hold go off - subsequent tests didn't fare much better). Still miles behind the Traps version. I'm definitely skipping this one - making use of the lower unlock for APP/PPPs instead.

Alkaloid got a bit of a buff with i21 (at least on Corruptors) - it's now sitting with a higher base heal than O2, but not quite as high as Soothe/Cauterize. Looking at in-game numbers, I'm getting it as being about 88% of the heal that Soothe provides (O2 gives 67%). I'd say it's worth at least a basic 3 heal enhancements - sometimes being able to heal a badly hurt teammate is just the most valuable thing you can do right now, so if you have to take it either way, may as well enhance it.

Don't know about Envenom/Weaken stacking, sorry. I saw talk that the single target full strength debuff stacked with the half strength splash debuff, so you could stack it that way as long as you had 2 targets, but I dunno about it stacking with itself on one target.

And on the power selection, personally I put off Hasten and Aim til a bit later on, as I prefer to have more toys to play with than buffs to those toys (esp. Hasten with its long recharge at that level), but that's probably just personal preference.

The only thing that stacks is Weaken's -Regen.

Thanks Bio. I've been using the nem staff as part of my attack chain (just got it yesterday, yay), but I think I'll try the tier 1 attack (I had made a Beam/EM Blaster before, deleted at level 4 because I don't like blasters, especially a ST focused one) - the tier 1 fires quite fast compared to the second one imo, and I'm sure I read somewhere it has better dpa than the tier 2.

Envenom and Weaken don't stack except for -Regen but then again if they did they'd be OP'ed - with good recharge you could stack a buttload of -everything on a target, just saw CoD (these are MM numbers). But it seems that the fact -Regen stacks can be great for AVs since it's the same value as Lingering Radiation's.

Weaken

• DMG(All Types) -22.5% for 30s [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
  Effect does not stack from same caster

• ToHit -11.25% for 30s
  Effect does not stack from same caster

• Stun, Sleep, Confused, Terrorized, Immobilize, Held, Knockback, Knockup, Repel -74.5% for 30s
  Effect does not stack from same caster

• RunSpeed, FlySpeed, ToHit, Endurance -74.5% for 30s
  Effect does not stack from same caster

• DEF(All Types, Defense, Melee, Ranged, AOE) -74.5% for 30s
  Effect does not stack from same caster

• Heal -74.5% for 30s [Non-resistable]
  Effect does not stack from same caster

• Defense -0.225 for 30s
  Effect does not stack from same caster

• RES(All Types) -30% for 30s [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
  Effect does not stack from same caster

• RES(Heal) +15% for 30s
  Effect does not stack from same caster

• Regeneration -0.5 for 30s PvE only

Remember that Envenom and Weaken's effects are halved on surrounding targets - they are meant to be spammed with their short recharge.

I am going in a completely different direction - I respecced out of Cutting Beam and I am going to go with really hard hitting single target + Overcharge.

I am 6 slotting Alkaloid, Weaken, and Envenom for sure. I am skipping Antidote and Penetrating Ray (snipe.) I picked up Assault and if I can get my end use under control I may grab Hasten later.

Poison Trap - sigh - I think it could still use some love. Maybe some forumite can tell us more about the glories of this after the revamp, such as if it is worth it if you slot it with procs or something. I love that it has no interrupt anymore, and that it takes Hold instead of Sleep, but I still don't 'get' this power.

The rez is similar to the one in Radiation and is quite useful. What better way to make your teammates puke, anyway?

I gotta say, took him to 22 and I'm very happy with the new respec.

I decided to skip Antidote, the set is busy as it is, after all BOTH powersets require some setup, it's not fire that you debuff and then go blast. I'm loving the Disintegration thing, it makes me feel like a Blaster. I'm not kidding, it really does, I killed bosses more easili than I thought. And on the Posi 1+2 I did today, there was another Beamer with me, it was great since I didn't have to use Disintegrate sometimes, his Dis. would make my shots do more damage and spread. I loved it!

I skipped Antidote in favor of Tactics, I like having it for the team. This and Assault I can run only when needed anyway. (Plus the toon is my namesake in Exalted and I wanted him to be a leader, I always lead TFs and stuff anyway - and I have very few toons with the Leadership pool)

JayBoH, I think you can slot Alkaloid with 5 doctored wounds. I have 3 SOs on it now and it recharges fast enough. I'm finding it a good heal, I still dislike the travel time.

Biowraith, thanks for telling me about Neurotoxic Breath. I REALLY like it, although a bigger 'clue' when you hit the foes would be nicer since in a big team it can get a bit confusing. Ok it's not Shiver but it's good enough for me.

What I am reconsidering is picking Hasten later or not. I have no recharge enhancements on my t1, t2 and t3 and I have a complete ST chain with those and Disintegrate - later I may respec out of the t2, it's less dps or dpa or whatnot than the t1, well it's plain worse accoring to the game's numbers, and I still have one more attack to get at 26. I'm keeping the cone for sure, I like it a lot.

Anyway, I only have one recharge on the cone, no rech on the others and my attack chain is good already, plus envenom and weaken already recharge fast, Neurotoxic is satisfactory for now even with 1 acc, will get better later as I add slots, so I'm wondering if I really need hasten. Once I am properly slotted, even with SOs, it will only really help Overcharge and.. yeah that's it. For leveling I'm not seeing much benefit on picking Hasten. It may be replaced by Vengeance, freeing me more slots.

Well I hope others can chime in about Poison Trap - I trust Biowraith's feedback but I just wanna see if someone else finds it useful. Since my first build is already 'dumped' for now I'm gonna try it there anyway when I get to 35. Probably won't be long since I'm enjoying this toon so much. Since I'm on the few people who like Stalkers... Beam Rifle really seems like the ranged guy for the hard targets, while still helping with debuffs for minions and etc.

hey guys/gals 35 BR/Poison here...im starting to think about epics....any thoughts on what would work best for this combo??

The trouble I'm having is getting a bit ganked on solo missions.

My Time guy can absolutely thump the same groups that my BR/Poison Cor will usually have serious difficultly with.

I did take the snipe. I just thought... forget it, I need something to really wack an LT before the fight starts (I MAY drop it once I get the Nuke).

The rifle shots take a while to 'happen'.... so I found Hasten a Must.

Typically, though I am finding you need to keep hitting with the rifle... Brrrzzzzp, Brrraaap, Brzzzzzt... like non-stop. So going back to toss more Weaken/Envenom on doesn't work so well because of the redraw and by then they're all over you....

I respecced with vetspec last night. I dropped the Poison cone, and ended up taking it later. It feels like... lethargic control, but until the single target hold, it's really all we've got.

I personally think Cutting Beam is a must. In a very single target set, cutting beam is a savior. If you're lucky enough to get:
-Disintegrate (on a hard target, that BETTER not DIE before he can 'spread'!)
-I follow up with Lancer Shot... if I get lucky enough to get that rolling...
-Then Cutting Beam.

I go back to the first two shots to mop up the LT/boss, etc. And repeat the process.

The set up of the set up is what bothers me about this combo. I feel like I use my secondary (poison) to set up with 2-3 potential 'set up' powers. Then I have to 'set up' Beam Rifle with a power that doesn't do much damage.... Disintegrate... ok, now I'm ready to actually do damage.

In big teams I have found I do one or the other, but not both. Either I'm largely de-buffing, or damage dealing a boss. But if I actually try my 'full process' above, the groups are largely dead by the time I'm ready to do something of my own.

On the heal, I'm not a big fan of it in this particular set. My old Ninja master mind loved it, but it's end heavy, and single target... and doesn't help you specifically... and in a set that is very 'busy' I just find it is a -so-so- power. I left it with one slot in case I'm in a small team and no 'real' healer is there.

Crop_of_shaolin: A lot of people us Soul/Dark Mastery as their go-to set because of Soul Drain. Don't get me wrong... the extra damage will be nice but... because this set lack group mitigation... I'll be looking for something to fill that gap.

Right now I'm looking at:
Mace Mastery (for web immob AoE, shield, and st hold, although I know this will add more redraw)
Psychic Mastery (for the st hold, aoe sleep, and Telekinesis)
Power Mastery (for the endurance discount, +special, and crazy ST damage in Total Focus)

Power Mastery is the oddball here... because I think the end support will really help... and the +special, if I'm not mistaken, will help with the debuffs... maybe even the slows on poisons cone.

_Elektro_: Both sets are very single target focused and not great for solo'ing groups. Any other AoE-like effects from br/poison should be considered bonuses for the team. Unfortunately this means teaming is critical in the lower levels. It doesn't have to be a big team, however. All you really need is a meatshield to keep the attention off you while you lay down glorious destruction.

It would probably be good to find other means of mitigation... like temp powers or, as I mentioned above, in an Epic. Heck, just an immob AoE would do wonders as an opener. Set'm up and knock'm down.

my top choice so far is gonna look like Soul Mastery for


Soul Drain @ lvl 41 (even though i dont wanna spend anytime in melee)
Soul Storm as my ST hold (since im 90% single target damage)
Power boost (to boost most of my debuffs)

even though mace does look nice. Poisontrap/web envelope/toxic breath/cutting beam/and the tier 9 aoe.. but im stickin mostly St damage

Oh I see what you mean, I have hit Disintegrate sometimes when it wasn't up, but since I have it slotted with acc+dmg SOs (maybe 1 rech, I'm not playing every day) I'll have to look how much I like the uptime when it has more slots to spare (I hate not having mids for BR!)

Haven't soloed him more than 3 missions so I can't say much, he's 26 but almost always teamed.

I also love the set but I don't see it being a new Willpower, more like a DB (meaning, they were released together and you'd see a db/wp every corner, now you still see a lot of Willpowers and only a few DBs). Which is a bit bad because BRs together stack well, even blasters.

I'd change poison so that:

1) The debuffs' splash radius were 15' like footstomp and not 8'

2) A minor quibble - Animations were less subtle, I don't think the team knows wth I'm doing, even I don't know who is debuffed or not sometimes in the middle of a big team with so many effects, the heal is quite good now that I slotted but it could have an O2 boost effect or a splash.

Jus in case you guys didn't know Poison Trap Takes procs but they do not fire...I don't know what to do know to be honest...I wonder should i just respec and drop the power altogether. I would go Mace Mastery for your poison toon due to lack of mitigation.

Maybe it's bugged like Venomous Gas? Jayboh said somewhere that the tier 9 is not being affected by enhancements now and he has telling the devs since Beta but they did nothing.

They acknowledged it but due to the 'lock' (I assume is from marketing) is not due to have the fixes roll in until 21.5.

I get it though - can you imagine the stress of doing a huuuuge issue like 21 and then deal with the store and the support and the reactivation of accounts and then hit the switch for the game to go free? We just need to be patient for about a month I am guessing.

...but yeah, I can see how this could be rough when it comes to soloing, but it's not really designed for that kind of play.