What are currently the best scrapper secondaries?
Now that we are caught up, let's change chains. Let's see what it would look like if we didn't use SC, and go RC-HB-SB-CU-SB. I am changing SB. Before, it had crushing impact and the -res proc. Now I am adding 2 regular procs, switching the purple proc to it, and the +dam percentage after musculature is 125.31%. Heavy blow also is changed, adding a regular proc. This brings total proc damage to 231.89, which translates to 27.44 dam/sec. Our total damages before anything change to
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This requires CU to recharge before RC-SB-HB-RC finishes activating, or in a total of 6.072, which would require 311% recharge, which this build has (if SD can calculate with max targets in AAO, EA can do the same with max in Entropic Aura). This is unreasonable for non-EAs unless we add in 30% for time lord and base buffs, so this chain probably isn't going to used by everyone (and the end drain wouldn't be sustainable with energize constant and energy drain for rare equations). However, this is still nearly 300 DPS on a set that isn't made for it, which almost certainly would be over 300 with CR. If nothing else, this build would activate CR every 24 seconds and gain a +dam bonus of 27.08%, which would give 316.92 DPS. |
That said, I just wanted to comment on a couple of things here:
First, scaling +recharge is qualitatively and fundamentally different from +damage. A Shield Scrapper who herds 10 foes up to get full benefit out of Against All Odds can treat that extra +damage as pure bonus. An EA Scrapper certainly can craft his attack chain around the +recharge from a fully saturated Entropic Aura -- and happily, Street Justice is forgiving enough that he wouldn't be totally screwed otherwise -- but for what it's worth, I'd find it deathlessly annoying to have to modify my attack chain not just to account for normal situational quirks, but also based on the magnitude of my Entropic Aura buff.
Second, I think maybe you're underselling EA as an offensive-slanted Scrapper Secondary. It ain't as obviously offensive as Fiery Aura or Shield, but you made a very compelling case earlier in the thread that EA is unusually well-suited to allow the player to pursue supplemental offensive bonuses (native endurance management, native +recharge, easy to soft-cap, native healing/regen bonuses). The build we've been discussing, for example -- the one with Assault and Musculature Core and more procs of various shapes and sizes than you can shake a stick at -- seems to me to be about as offensive a Scrapper build as you're gonna find short of rolling */FA.
Nevermind that that such a build has to invest more powers and slots in attacks than is probably typical for high-end Scrapper builds. That's the genius, and the frustration, of Street Justice: (almost) all of its attacks serve a useful purpose, apart from, and sometimes even in defiance of, their DPA.
because at the end of the day the game really isn't about soloing Pylons.
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Second, I think maybe you're underselling EA as an offensive-slanted Scrapper Secondary. It ain't as obviously offensive as Fiery Aura or Shield, but you made a very compelling case earlier in the thread that EA is unusually well-suited to allow the player to pursue supplemental offensive bonuses (native endurance management, native +recharge, easy to soft-cap, native healing/regen bonuses). The build we've been discussing, for example -- the one with Assault and Musculature Core and more procs of various shapes and sizes than you can shake a stick at -- seems to me to be about as offensive a Scrapper build as you're gonna find short of rolling */FA.
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Ela can also do this, along with better Rech to build off of as well as a damage aura which will be a DPS improvement that will often outdo straight +damage slotting.
WP can also run Musc if you can build for enough rech & SR can also squeeze in a sizeable chunk of +Damage bonuses from IOs (Iggy posted a build with over +40% global damage bonuses).
I like EA's overall package though.
Won't you be embarrased when the coming storm turns out to be endless waves of Pylons teleporting in from space!
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I agree on the ways that EA allows you to build for Musculature & Assault, but its not the only set that can do this. Ela can also do this, along with better Rech to build off of as well as a damage aura which will be a DPS improvement that will often outdo straight +damage slotting. WP can also run Musc if you can build for enough rech & SR can also squeeze in a sizeable chunk of +Damage bonuses from IOs (Iggy posted a build with over +40% global damage bonuses). I like EA's overall package though. |
EA is in kind of an odd space in that sense. On paper, soft-capped EA is less survivable than a high-DEF Will or Elec Armor Scrapper, so arguably it's not an advantage that EA soft caps easier. After all, DEF is basically EA's schtick. But since defensive IO bonuses are so one-dimensional, there isn't much point in pursuing anything besides DEF, and so EA has a ... shall we say clearer conscience about putting a relatively small investment into defensive bonuses.
Willpower is especially ornery; whenever I pull up a Willpower build I always find myself urged to stack just a little more DEF here or there. The defensive possibilities are just too attractive to pass up in favor of more offense.
That's how I look at it, anyway. SR has a lot of freedom for the same reason, but it's got a serious disadvantage with respect to endurance management. I suspect Combat would've had, at the very least, a harder time squeezing all of those procs into a Will or Electric Armor build. Anyway, my point was less about EA as a set and more about the slant of the overall build. You can make a case that EA isn't an explicitly "offensive" secondary, but you'll have a hard time arguing that that particular EA build doesn't have an unusually high slant towards offense.
My brain hurts now.
This thread contains WAY more math than I wanted to read this morning. I'm sure if I read all of it I would understand most of it, but I don't really want to think that hard about the damage output of a power set in a video game. My build planning consists of: Build for survival, then hit things until they die. |
(Which, for the record, I'd been considering Sweeping Cross > Heavy Blow > Shin Breaker > Heavy Blow > Crushing Uppercut. Never bothered with any DPS calculations on that, though. I've the spread sheet too, but too lazy :3)
Originally Posted by Arcanaville
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I'm still waiting for them to tell me what the optimal Street Justice attack chain is.
(Which, for the record, I'd been considering Sweeping Cross > Heavy Blow > Shin Breaker > Heavy Blow > Crushing Uppercut. Never bothered with any DPS calculations on that, though. I've the spread sheet too, but too lazy :3) |
CU if Combo Level = 3 > SC if Combo Level = 3 > Attack A > Attack B > Attack C
I'm not using real numbers since I'm not at my home PC with mid's, so treat this is a hypothetical.
Basically, you'd just use CU if combo level = 3. If CU is on CD, you'd use SC. If you're not at combo level 3, you'd use your highest DPA attack, then the next highest, and the next highest. It would require constant surveillance of the hotbar, but us old-time hunters from WoW lived by the priority system!
You could always just use a priority system. Something along the lines of:
CU if Combo Level = 3 > SC if Combo Level = 3 > Attack A > Attack B > Attack C I'm not using real numbers since I'm not at my home PC with mid's, so treat this is a hypothetical. Basically, you'd just use CU if combo level = 3. If CU is on CD, you'd use SC. If you're not at combo level 3, you'd use your highest DPA attack, then the next highest, and the next highest. It would require constant surveillance of the hotbar, but us old-time hunters from WoW lived by the priority system! |
Edit: As an aside to all that: Combat Readiness popped at the top of the chain to give +3 into Sweeping Cross +62.5% Dam that will trickle down through to Crushing Uppercut (which will also hit Combo +3)
Originally Posted by Arcanaville
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One good thing about street justice is that it doesn't rely too much on a specific chain. Rib cracker, shin breaker, heavy blow and sweeping cross are all roughly the same DPA, and initial strike is only a little below that. Just make sure use crushing uppercut as often as possible.
From my explorations in a different thread, the base DPA is in a fairly narrow range. Here are 6 examples:
1) RC>SB>HB>IS>CU>RC>SB>HB>IS>SC - 64 DPS
2) HB>SB>RC>HB>CU>RC>HB>SB>RC>HB>SC>RC 62
3) RC>SB>HB>CU>RC>SB>HB>SC - 66.78
4) RC>SB>HB>CU>RC>SB>SC - 67.07
5) RC>HB>SB>CU>HB>SB - 69.77
6) SB>HB>RC>SB>CU - 72
As you can see, the difference between the top and bottom is only 10 DPS, despite a much larger gap in +recharge. However, that tiny difference becomes magnified when +dam and -res come into play, but they all will be decent. So just go out and fling out attacks, and it will pretty much be close a chain. For those interested, I'm getting 68.4 base DPS for the dark melee chain Smite-SL-Smite-MG, though Dark Melee is more about soul drain and the heal from siphon life than the amazing DPA of the attacks.
TW/Elec Optimization
Fair enough. Ordinarily I wouldn't have paid his post any mind, but I could swear that's like the third post I've seen from Claws in a similar vein in the last coupla days.
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On the original topic of the thread:
I would be very surprised if the re-worked Energy Aura were not a top contender now.
Shield is still very good, as are Willpower and Invulnerability.
All scrapper secondaries are viable, but those 4 are probably the top of the heap performance-wise.
Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
I've been having a crappy week. I'm trying to stay light-hearted, but my bad mood occasionally comes through in my word choice. The post in question was intended to be good natured ribbing, but upon rereading it I can see how it could be taken differently.
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On a different note:
I made up a Street Justice attack chain spreadsheet last night; I'm certainly not a math or spreadsheet expert but I'll post it up soonish for anyone who might be interested. Still a little uncertain about how to handle Reactive's DoT, though. As of right now, it seems like the DoT is stackable to eight, with a chance for each tick to fail.
If that's true (and if the chance of tick failure isn't huge), then Reactive favors -RES even more.
I made up a Street Justice attack chain spreadsheet last night; I'm certainly not a math or spreadsheet expert but I'll post it up soonish for anyone who might be interested. Still a little uncertain about how to handle Reactive's DoT, though. As of right now, it seems like the DoT is stackable to eight, with a chance for each tick to fail.
If that's true (and if the chance of tick failure isn't huge), then Reactive favors -RES even more. |
Anyway, I've uploaded the file here if anyone's interested. Input fields are highlighted in yellow, or they're drop downs. There should be little notes in various fields to explain how to use them, if there's any doubt.
I handled Reactive by giving the user a choice between the 8-stackable, 75%-chance-for-each-tick-to-fail model, and the flat ~14 DPS model we've been using for a good portion of this thread. Combat Readiness' contribution, for the sake of simplicity, is just the 62.5% damage buff averaged over the length of the cooldown timer (and with the small penalty of having to spend 1.32 seconds of dead time every cycle). Not surprisingly, CR doesn't contribute a whole hell of a lot under those (simplified) conditions, but I have a hard time thinking of a fairer way to handle the power in a long-term DPS context.
(Misses are ignored, so the ability to pop CR to maintain combo-level 3 in the event of a builder miss is irrelevant.)
Really? We wanna do this? Ok, let's do this. I took the liberty of clicking on your name and checking back on your post history. I mean, it's possible that you are, indeed, a fount of knowledge, who posts deep, insightful replies to people's questions, full of gentle wisdom much more erudite then my own. So I read back through your post history, hoping to learn from you. (This is easy to do, I just had to click on your name.) To my surprise, considering your criticism, I did NOT find you frequently answering questions, or posting builds, or being much in the way of constructive in ANY WAY. (I was shocked.) Instead, I find a sparse history of one-line posts (much like this one), many full of negativity. To my regret, I must conclude that you are a forum leech, pulling useful content and contributing nothing. So, shove off, jerk. Is that better? (ahem) Sorry you guys had to see that. |
Any particular reason why Dark Armour always seems to get the cold shoulder?
Any particular reason why Dark Armour always seems to get the cold shoulder?
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Dark Armor comes up more when people ask for suggestions on sets to try that are off the beaten path, or when knowledgeable people toss ideas around within the context of people with a lot of experience playing melee. Dark Armor tankers, for example, are monsters when built and played right. But just managing the endurance burn of Dark Regeneration is something that takes some getting used to, and is a kind of skill most powersets don't demand.
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Any particular reason why Dark Armour always seems to get the cold shoulder?
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Honestly? I think its because while Dark Armor can be a very strong secondary, that strength comes with a lot of caveats in terms of both build and playstyle. And there is a lot of debate about the effectiveness of the toggle auras. And the bottom line is anyone actually asking about strong scrapper secondaries without a strong working knowledge of how they all work is probably better off being steered away from Dark Armor.
Dark Armor comes up more when people ask for suggestions on sets to try that are off the beaten path, or when knowledgeable people toss ideas around within the context of people with a lot of experience playing melee. Dark Armor tankers, for example, are monsters when built and played right. But just managing the endurance burn of Dark Regeneration is something that takes some getting used to, and is a kind of skill most powersets don't demand. |
I LOVE Dark Armor, it's one of my favorite secondaries. But, I am also aware that I love it because I spent over a year hating it until I figured out all of it's ins and outs. My BS/DA scrapper, who is one of my strongest characters now, was almost deleted countless times before I figured out how DA works best for me.
It's not that Dark Armor is getting the cold shoulder, it's just that it requires a little more effort and knowledge of how things work to be as effective as some other sets. Willpower and Shield Defense are very straightforward sets. As are SR and Invuln. They're very simple: Soft cap it, toggle up, and go to town.
DA requires a bit more forethought while playing. Timing it to get the most benefit out of Dark Regeneration is one of the tricky parts. There will be a lot of faceplanting while you're trying to get that down (wait until you're almost dead to fire it). Deciding which control aura you want is another decision other sets don't have to make.
I believe, out of all available scrapper secondaries, that Dark Armor gets the most benefit from slotting it to the gills with IOs. Once you have a soft-capped DA scrapper who shuts minions down just by his presence, you are a force to be reckoned with, and are very much approaching completely immortal (and they have to kill you twice to boot!)
Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
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Anyone has any numbers handy* showing how much dps a soft-capped Dark Amour scrapper can absorb, so that they're left with 1 hp after 10 sec, at which time they hit DR and go back to full health to start over again? I think these is how DA's top performance should be compared to other sets.
*Or at least show me how I can calculate it myself >_>. It's not the math I'm having problem with, but how defense and res work exactly.
Anyone has any numbers handy* showing how much dps a soft-capped Dark Amour scrapper can absorb, so that they're left with 1 hp after 10 sec, at which time they hit DR and go back to full health to start over again? I think these is how DA's top performance should be compared to other sets.
*Or at least show me how I can calculate it myself >_>. It's not the math I'm having problem with, but how defense and res work exactly. |
To calculate the best case damage mitigation you divide the heal / (1 - resistance) / (1 - defensive mitigation). Or alternatively, Heal / (1 - Resistance) / ((0.5 - Defense)*2). Note that the value will be different for different damage types, because Dark Armor will have different resistances for different damage types. For softcap, Defense is 0.45 (45%) so that becomes Heal / (1 - Resistance) / 0.1 = Heal * 10 / (1 - Resistance).
Keep in mind that real world performance is bursty and variable, and the averages mask that. You would be looking at just about the most extreme case of averages not matching reality, because there's no way to consistently get down to 1 point of health and fire the heal, and there's no way 90% defense ends up consistently being equal to exactly 90% damage mitigation second by second: it will only average to that over long periods of time. A teeny tiny burst of damage will kill you under these attempted circumstances.
But if the calculation is just for estimation purposes, and you are aware they represent the upper bound of the best you could do, not what you will always do, then that's the way to calculate that.
You can also click on the link in my sig for "Scrapper Secondaries Comparison" which has out of date numbers (from Issue 7) but is there primarily to explain exactly how defense, resistance, +health, heals, and regeneration work mathematically, and how you can account for them numerically. The advantage of that is that you'll see how all the effects work and can be calculated for, not just defense and resistance. The disadvantage of that is that your eyes will bleed for a week to ten days.
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The disadvantage of that is that your eyes will bleed for a week to ten days.
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Anyone has any numbers handy* showing how much dps a soft-capped Dark Amour scrapper can absorb, so that they're left with 1 hp after 10 sec, at which time they hit DR and go back to full health to start over again? I think these is how DA's top performance should be compared to other sets.
*Or at least show me how I can calculate it myself >_>. It's not the math I'm having problem with, but how defense and res work exactly. |
John Printemps tried to turn my personal spreadsheet into something usable (less eye-bleedy). Here is what I HOPE is the correct version.
Edit: Here's the original.
"That's because Werner can't do maths." - BunnyAnomaly
"Four hours in, and I was no longer making mistakes, no longer detoggling. I was a machine." - Werner
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On paper, my Katana/Dark can absorb 8381 DPS of enemy damage output at 50% to hit. I suspect I could get that over 10,000 with an I21 respec (it's an I19 build with incarnate powers thrown on top rather than designed in). Either way, the reality is FAR short of that due to the spikes and waves that characterize real world damage.
John Printemps tried to turn my personal spreadsheet into something usable (less eye-bleedy). Here is what I HOPE is the correct version. |
Instruction Sheets:
Section One & Section Two
Not required extra reading, but Google Docs doesn't do pop-notes as I had intended while they are--and do come up on mouseover--not as easy to follow as a straight "here is here" guided shot.
And, just for kicks on the Dark Armor Bandwagon: My Spines/DA hits "8,438", which, to be fair, compared to Werner's Kat/DA that is literally the difference of 1% (60.5 vs. 59.29 to be exact) Resistance on ONE stat (I checked, I can literally manipulate mine down to 8,381) so I'd say its pretty fair to say Dark Armor in general is a pretty beastly powerhouse when you amp its resistances and then start giving it soft-capped numbers on defense.
Originally Posted by Arcanaville
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I've been trying different SJ combos thru beta and in live, on all 4 melee AT's. So far, SJ/Willpower seems to work best for me, though I haven't gotten past the mid 30's yet on any of the toons.
It's a super smooth leveler, and the END management of Willpower entirely offsets the ability of SJ to chew thru a lot of Endurance.
A supergroup mate is tandem leveling a SJ/SR with one of my SJ/Willpowers; we are just about to hit 30. He's having a LOT of trouble keeping up. I'm pretty much always able to just keep going and going and going even after tough fights, while he is pretty much always battered and winded. However, we're building into the IO curve already, and based on my experience w/ SR and Willpower in end game content I'm confident that in the end his toon will be as good or better. Willpower is just much kinder in the earlier half of the game than SR.
Based upon some past experience w/ high END attack sets paired with Invul, I haven't even been willing to suffer thru SJ/Invul thus far so I can't give REAL advice on that combo, but I feel comfortable saying that if you do go that route you'll want to invest in REC boosting IOs as early and as often as you can.
Hope that helps.
Thanks for the DA info! And those spreadsheets.. O.O
As for DA's on-paper max performance, I specifically asked for something like this because, every time I managed to find Secondary info and comparisons, they always seemed to calculate max survivable DPS for all resistance sets the same way, and I think that's unfair for DA.
I know it's as far from reality as you can get, but I usually very roughly compare secondaries by calculating the absolutely maximum performance of each set and halving that.
I like DA and its unique playstyle. I'm planning to roll a TW/DA scrapper. With the Parry cone and the amount of knockback coupled with DA's layered protection, I think it will be a very survivable toon, while the abundance of AoE in the primary and the dmg aura in the secondary will make fast work of the already mezzed minions. And I always love a stealth power. End will be a problem though, but I hope Body Mastery+Cardiac will help to solve that.
"My build planning consists of: Build for survival, then hit things until they die."
That's the approach most people are likely to take, even most people who spend way too much time discussing on-paper DPS comparisons, because at the end of the day the game really isn't about soloing Pylons.
And though Combat is right that there comes a point after which -RES conquers all, that point isn't necessarily easy or even desirable to achieve. Street Justice seems to be a very well-designed set with a good mix of burst damage, albeit small AoE attacks, and secondary effects, but it doesn't appear to do as much single-target damage, before you consider -RES, as the sets to which it's most likely to be compared (MA and DM for Scrappers, Super Strength for Brutes/Tankers).
Even if you do consider the -RES that's native to Street Justice (that is, Rib Cracker's debuff), the set doesn't appear to outperform its likeliest analogues by any noticeable margin. It isn't until you reach outside of the set and go to some pretty extreme lengths to boost damage that the -RES starts to pull ahead significantly.
By the same token, my INV/SS Tanker can put out similar over-time DPS numbers to my MA Scrapper by combining Rage+Bruising (Tankers' innate 20% RES debuff), and given the Tanker's other advantages, there's a case to be made that his is the better build overall, but it's hard to argue that the Tanker is exactly equivalent in terms of single-target offense.
Combat makes a good case for the extreme high-end DPS build; I just think it's a little early, and maybe even a little misleading, to proclaim Street Justice the champ.