Beam/Poison REALLY bad, or just bad for hardcore players?

Hi. First time poster on the Corruptor board, haven't really played corrs before.

I've made a heroic Beam/Poison corr and thematically, Beam/Poison is great. I thought I'd check out this forum for some ideas of how to choose powers/use her etc, and I've seen lots of 'Poison is crap' comments.

/Traps might fit the theme, amd she's only lvl 2 as yet so I could reroll her np, but I like the look of Poison.

I'm nit a great player by any stretch. I solo or duo mostly on lowest dufficulty settings. I don't need to kill AVs or PvP. I've got a few 50s with loads of inf so I can afford to pimp her out if necessary.

Is it just players who know the ins and outs of numbers etc who notice Poison's shortcomings? If I'm bimbling along just slowly playing for story, will I be ok?

Eco

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

You are probably referring to the negativity in my thread a few posts down on 'fixing' Poison.

Let me give you an objective summary:

- The basic, entry level powers (aside from the heals) are 'good'. Debuffing is something that not only helps you solo but in teams.

- The powers that are supposed to reward you for sticking with your character in the late 30's/40's etc, are junk.

- Beam works best if you are working disintegration like a fiend. Now even though people complain about poison's animation times, and it's labour intensive nature, I really don't think there are 'seemless' sets that fit with beam. I just don't think it exists. They ALL interrupt your ability to work on Disintegrate. That is the bottom line.

As a side note, I've tried to be objective about poison and I still prefer it to some other choices. I mean Time is a -great- power... but with beam? That's crazy stuff. I have time characters and there's no way I would put it with beam.

A lot of it is going to depend on how you play the character. Regardless, with poison, be prepared to only choose one of the last 5 powers of the set (the hold). That's the sad part.

You could say, 'well it's a hardcore player thing' but you're on the forum asking the question. So yes, even an every day player will find some frustration with the set. It's incomplete.

That's fine. And I think it's great you like traps. At the same time you just confess to a 'set up' period. That's my point... EVERY single set that isn't directly assisting your ability to 'blast' is going to take time away from the Beam Rifle aspect of your character.

Every single set, I don't care how good the animations are...or the powers are, they will in fact interrupt, or delay your killing of things.

My point is, regardless of your choice, those power make killing stuff... easier, better, funner, etc.

That's why people who really rag on Poison for animation... well I'm not so sure they are going to be happy with anything, and I'd recommend to those people: Go blaster. You'll be able to just blast away.

Traps is good... I had it on my MM. I also took my Ninja/Poison MM to 45 before just getting tired of babysitting Ninjas. But there I learned how potent debuffing is. It's all good stuff if it fits your playstyle.

I just got my DP/Poison to 50, and there is a lot of synergy between the sets. I think it is mostly due to both the T9's being up close and personal though: lead off with weaken, waltz in and have venomous gas further debuff the mob's tohit and damage. Envenom, soul drain and HoB, move onto the next spawn.

So for DP anyway, poison works fine. I think in order for the set to be at its maximum potential venomous gas needs to be used offensively, which may not be something folks consider doing with BR's ranged T9.

Overall, I'm liking /poison but again it probably meshes a lot more with the primary I picked over BR: if you are not wading into melee range to put the T9 debuff to use then half the set is wasted I think.

Well there you go captainman... you have a level 50 who is happy with it.

Venemous gas doesn't apparently use enhancements.... so I'm reluctant to take it. It COULD be handy even for a beamer.... if you end up in a cave, or perhaps against flyer npc types.

It is a massive end hog though but it's something to ponder (if it worked with enhancements)

Poison trap is kind of 'fun' but... it's quirky. Aside from the lethargic dot, it's hard to tell if it's doing anything.... at all.

Still I stand by the meat of the set being: Envenom - Weaken - Paralytic. After that it's playstyle. And those powers do indeed have a potent effect.

I'd say skipping Venomous Gas is akin to skipping foot stomp in Super Strength, or skipping Rise to the Challenge in willpower. It isn't just the best power in /Poison, I'd go so far as to call it among the best debuffs in the game.

You have close to the effect of both much-loved /Rad toggles at once, at a third of the base endurance cost, and with none of the anchor hassles. The fact that you have even more -resistance/damage/tohit/defense to stack it with is icing on the proverbial cake.

The only problem is that you have to be somewhat close to the foe - but 15ft is plenty long for safety, the only real issue is lining up your cones.

I was leveling both a Beam/Traps and Beam/Poison at the same time (level pacted...maybe the last pair I'll be playing). I'd swap off between each build (they are Twins...same look, almost same powers, but slightly diff names) about every other level.

From about 35 onwards, I stuck with the Beam/Traps character and only pull out the Beam/Poison for special arcs and TFs to get the badges/accolades. I just find it an inferior set to /Traps in almost every way short of the heal. And on /Traps, I never take Triage anyways instead opting for the Medicine pool.

The nice thing about /Traps is you don't have to take the time for setup via toe-bombing unless you WANT to. On teams, there's seldom time to do this anyways unless I'm being a jerk and running ahead to every spawn in advance of the rest of the team. I do Toebomb during AV fights when someone else has aggro, or create chokepoint traps during the Tips missions that include wave after wave of ambushers. But throwing out Acid Mortar and Poison Gas takes just a few seconds. Seeker drones are a great power...send them to distract the mob, follow in behind them and drop acid mortar and poison gas, then jump back and start Bzzzzzzting.

I wanted to like Beam/Poison more than I have but playing them both side by side....its just not as much fun or powerful as Beam/Traps.

/Poison in general is not a good set. I was one of the ones in beta testing for /Poison Corr and I already knew the set won't do well. It is really "average" at best.

/Poison is a very busy set. The splash effect is nice addition but the area is still not large. You'll be using Envenom a lot and maybe even Weaken.

The biggest problem with /Poison is activation time. You may need to use Envenom 3-4 times (1.33s) against a large spawn and use Weaken 2-3 times (over 2s!!). And Breath takes 2.67s and poison hold takes 2s. You really spend a lot of time on /Poison.

And Beam Rifle isn't exactly a "fast activating" set to begin with. Beam Rifle gets most benefit when you keep on using beam attacks. This is one of the reason why I chose Blaster over Corr because 1. I hate redraws. 2. Beam Rifle is a lot better when you can focus on disintegration mechanism. And also, /Poison's signature power Venomous Gas is a pbaoe and Beam has no pbaoe attack or even target aoe. It serves very little purpose for you to get close to the mob.

You probably picked one of the worst secondaries for Beam Rifle. I hate to say it. Trick Arrow could be another bad one but at least TA has aoe debuffs that you don't need to use all the time.

Edit: /Poison is probably at best if you team with a Brute or MM who can take aggro for you. You don't have /Trap's defense/mez protection and alpha taker like Seekers. Oh and you can't heal yourself with /Poison too.

As primarily a soloist or duo player on a low difficulty setting I doubt you'll be bothered by playing Poison as a secondary set. I have very little experience with poison outside of the old MM version but I've been spending a lot of time on my Beam/Rad Corruptor and when I solo at low setting I don't even really need to use my secondary outside of a few of the more difficult fights. Poison will offer you plenty of help in the times your beam rifles damage just isn't enough to do the job on it's own.

As for beam rifle in general on a defender or corruptor I've pretty much decided to start running my own teams and setting the difficulty high so after I lay down my debuffs I still get my share of blasting in from spawn to spawn. One big positive of being a corruptor and blasting after the debuff stage is that mobs are usually close to or already in scourge range so half of my attacks are landing for double damage.

Leave secondary aside, Beam Rifle is at its best if you focus on the same target to trigger Disintegration.

This means if you switch between primary/secondary powers often, you may delay the chance to trigger Spread. That same target may die by the time you use your secondary powers.

/Trap seems better than /Poison for Beam Rifle because after the traps are set, you are pretty much free to focus on the target for Disintegration; whereas for /Poison, you may need to keep using Envenom/Weaken to get the best out of the set. And /Poison has a hold and Beam Rifle has a stun. They don't stack. The synergy is just not there.

Yes, /Trap does have long set-up time but once the traps are set, you can focus on firing. /Poison is too active and Venomous Gas doesn't fit well with a set that ONLY has a cone attack for aoe.

If I am looking for a debuffer, I would take /Trap and /Rad over /Poison. But if I am going for PvP, I would take /Poison because once you hit the target, he can't run outside of anchor range. The debuff stays on the target for 30s. And of course the con is that you may miss to start the fight. :P

In my eyes Poison fails mostly because of Venomous Gas. The power is just not a good fit for Corruptors, Controllers, or (eventually) Defenders. The suggestion made a few times in open beta was to have the duration of the debuff last 10 seconds instead of 1 so that sets with cones could occasionally make use of it. Or make it bigger. It works ok with a few blast and control sets and rots with most others: not good for a power of this particular type, in a "debuff" set such small radii debuffs, and little to no personal survivability.

[That power, however, would make an excellent APP power for Blasters, Dominators, or a melee AT, even at greatly reduced efficiency.]

We can go back and forth. The point about the hold vs. seekers? Really? Srsly?.... there's no way I've read, or experienced anything that makes me think Traps is any better than Poison... unless we are talking specifically about end game powers. In which case, yes, Poison is screwed there.

Rather than rehash old arguments, I can easily pump up a Beamer-Devices to mid 40's and compare him, but the truth is I look at the powers and find them too meh... or at least I perfer what I'm doing.... Again going back to when I played both sets with MM... I never could keep a devices going to 50. But again, maybe to satisfy my own curiousity I'll try it...

But I am really posting to point out the irony of the forum. In this thread poison is getting lots of negativity. I have another thread going about what, or when to fix poison... and most of the respondents think it's just great the way it is... ironic.

Traps is a shell of its former self. It is still decent now, but people are overrating it. PGT isn't as potent as it used to be, and you can't port around acid mortar anymore (I suppose with a heavy recharge build that doesn't matter). Furthermore, using hover to lay down traps as quickly as possible has been also nixed. Laying mines is nice...if you have time to kill.

Seekers have to be summoned on top of a spawn because the A.I. is absolutely dumb. If you don't put acid mortar down to "tank" damage the FFG bites the dust fairly quickly.

People complaining about redraw with BR/Poison I find strange. I don't see anyone complaining about the redraw or animation times with Mace mastery which is a popular epic for Corruptors. *shrugs*

Based on the replies here, I'd say that it is an issue with those more concerned with numbers than you are.


(Please don't read my humor as disrespect for the logical arguments based around efficiency... I could see how some people would not like this pairing of powers, but I think it is more a matter of personal preference, which is something we can't really answer for the OP one way or the other... We could ask what playsets a person does enjoy and ones they do not enjoy and maybe that would lead to a better answer to the original question)