Musculature sounds like a very good idea. The fewer damage buffs you already have the more difference it makes - you'll be packing +30% if you solo and +50% from Aim, so that isn't a whole lot.
And with the Partrial Radial Revamp you get bonus Endurance Drain to all your electrical attacks.
Spiritual isn't that useful for you - no long recharge powers and no heals.
Cardiac is only good if you need extra endurance, and the effective extra slot in Stamina from the Tier 3 Musculature radial covers that.
You forgot Nerve which is arguably the best choice considering it boosts the power of your force-fields.
My single forcefields are worth 23% each, plus my dispersion bubble, and manouvres means I can hit about 40% to all the major incoming damage types. Which means she can already practically softcap people.
I don't struggle with end at all. And, she has a bundle of recharge.
Which means I leaned toward musculature. As long as my teammates stick close to me, they are literally almost untouchable in normal content. It may help the incarnate content though.
Nerve would definitely help purple content. Getting both musculature, for non-incarnate content, and nerve for the big bad iTrials is feasible. You wouldn't have to go to tier 4 in both, and you can switch out which incarnate ability you are using. Musculature for soloing would be very nice.
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HelinCarnate:OMG it is so terrible. I have the option to take 3 more powers but no additional slots. Boo F'ing hoo.
Musculature is the clear winner, and I'd say that would even be the case for in iTrials.
Your +def powers sound like they are pretty heavily slotted already, which most likely means you're at or near the ED cap already. Nerve gives a +20% to def. At anything short of t4, only 1/2 or less the bonus ignore ED. 20% of the ally shields, then halved for over ED is 1.5%, Dispersion bubble is at 1%, and Manuvers is .35. That means, even is you get the Cardiac to t3, the most you'll likely improve your allies defense is by almost 3%. Granted, 3% is a fair sized bonus, but the only people getting anything out of that are people that are running the iTrials with base def of less than 19%, and on trials with nobody popping off Barrier. I guess that will happen on occasion, but I don't think it'll be often enough to warrant the effort of getting to t3. Under t3 and the benefit shrinks even further.
If you have nothing better to do with your shards after t4ing Musculature, sure, may as well work on Nerve, but I'd be my clear 2nd choice.
I'm very unimpressed by Nerve.
The first character I looked at incarnating was my FF/Sonic Defender, thinking that the +Def slotting would drastically improve my team protection abilities. Once I'd figured out that it would add a few percent (maybe 5% or 6% ?) at Tier 4, I promptly dropped the idea and started working on new characters instead.
The chances of doing incarnate content without another buffer of some kind on the league (even a Shield user or Storm Defender), plus the kind of self-defence that most Incarnated characters are likely to have, make me think that this 6% will rarely make any noticeable difference.
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Me too, in truth. I actually tried it to see if it was more impressive than it sounded, but it was never worth the time investment. Now I can't seem to justify to myself ever taking it.|
Originally Posted by Dr Harmony
I'm very unimpressed by Nerve.
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The first character I looked at incarnating was my FF/Sonic Defender, thinking that the +Def slotting would drastically improve my team protection abilities. Once I'd figured out that it would add a few percent (maybe 5% or 6% ?) at Tier 4, I promptly dropped the idea and started working on new characters instead. The chances of doing incarnate content without another buffer of some kind on the league (even a Shield user or Storm Defender), plus the kind of self-defence that most Incarnated characters are likely to have, make me think that this 6% will rarely make any noticeable difference. |
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I don't regret taking it on my mind dominator. If I pumped more money into the character I could use purple sets to give myself enough accuracy to where I don't need it, but as it stands I focused all my sets on +recharge and nerve takes care of the accuracy problem I had against +4 enemies and boosts the duration of my controls.|
Originally Posted by Madadh
Me too, in truth. I actually tried it to see if it was more impressive than it sounded, but it was never worth the time investment. Now I can't seem to justify to myself ever taking it.
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I wouldn't suggest it for 99% of the characters out there though.
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You have a very valid point. If you actually want nerve for it's primary bonus, of accuracy, that it can be totally worth it, especially if the secondary bonuses are also of interest to you.. Myself, I can stand missing, so I almost always make sure ACC is a non-issue before I ever hit lvl 50. I think most people are like me in that regard, especially since usually it's fairly easy to do, based on most sets picking up +acc incidentally. But, if you don't, Nerve will be wonderful. But, in those cases, it's the +acc that is the biggest reason to get nerve. Not the +def or other secondary bonuses.. |
Originally Posted by Garent
I don't regret taking it on my mind dominator. If I pumped more money into the character I could use purple sets to give myself enough accuracy to where I don't need it, but as it stands I focused all my sets on +recharge and nerve takes care of the accuracy problem I had against +4 enemies and boosts the duration of my controls.
I wouldn't suggest it for 99% of the characters out there though. |
I guess I'd say, if you want to hit more often, and feel you miss more than most, Nerve might be awesome for ya, especially if you also have def based powers which will benefit on the side. If you want more def, take musculature (or anything other than nerve) , and respec more slots from attacks to def based powers, or pick some different sets to get +def bonuses. Or chill and get barrier as soon as you can..
In my usual experience, I usually only have acc issues on melee alts when I'm running tons of Kin Combats and Imperviouses, which offer no acc bonuses, and Kin Combat has pretty pathetic Acc on it's own. But, on those alts, I often end up with Focused Acc or sometimes even tactics, so I don't find nerve worthwhile. If I didn't have those powers available, I'd probably take Nerve a LOT more..
I went Cardiac Core with my Force Field Defender. Between the two bubbles, Disperson Bubble, Maneuvers, and Power Buildup, I'm able to get my entire team's defenses to 59.6% on my own, so I saw no point in Nerve. Between IO set bonuses and Hasten, my global recharge is 135%, which is plenty for a bubbler, and I don't have any heals, so I saw no point in Spiritual. Musculature seemed a bit of a waste, as Defenders have the lowest base damage in the game. That left Cardiac. Cardiac is helpful, as Force Field tends to be an endurance hog, especially if you have Force Bubble running, and the extra damage resistance and range is nice.
@Celestial Lord and @Celestial Lord Too
Yeah but Musculature grants end recovery if you are looking at Cardiac. The thing is with Nerve vs Musculature, you can't argue about ED limits since most people slot for max damage in their attacks anyway - so it just depends which way you want to go - do you want the little bit of defense from nerve or the little bit of damage from musculature... No doubt they are both at ED limits already on most builds for FF toons.
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Hi guys, got my forcefield / Electric Blast Defender to level 50 and alpha unlocked. Question is, what do I want as an alpha?
I was thinking musculature. Any suggestions, she's my first level 50 Defender.