Icarnates, Dual Builds....and me?

Hi,


I thought about posting this question over on the brute forum, but the question is a little less about my particular build and more about dual build usage in general.

I have developed quite the farming TW/Fire Brute.

Problem is: she is so geared toward fire def / res, that I can barely survive the other game content. Forget about pulling Nightstar or Seige in a BAF.

So my question is....how do people (who may be in my position) genenerally use there second and third builds? My thought was to take build #2 and try to slot the powers with crafted common lev 50 IO's across the board......and take build #3 and try to slot for lower level content so I can go back and run Ourobus missions and TF's I've missed.

*Im not really into PvP so, thats not a concern for me.

Also, when making a 2nd & 3rd build, do your incarnater powers always stay the same?

Thanks!

I generally use my 2nd build as a group build and my first build as a solo build. I play around alot with different power choices/slotting for my 3rd build. It's kinda like my playground. Your incarnate abilities are not tied to any of the builds and any abilities you have crafted stay across all of them.

Creating a build to exemp down for TFs can be fun, although I do agree that strictly speaking it isn't *necessary*. A couple of design principles to think about:

1.) Doing a build with generic level 50 IOs is okay (especially if you haven't earned the crafting badges for all the level 50 recipes . . . you get bonus recipe slots as a reward for each badge) but for many powers you'd be better off frankenslotting over generic IOs. My assumption is that this would be a build for non-fire farm level 50 content, which would include incarnate trials, so why not kick it up a notch? If you are farming AE missions for tickets and rolling for recipes, you've likely been generating a lot of stuff that doesn't sell like hotcakes but would be perfectly fine for frankenslotting.

Take Focused Smite, its got an Acc/Dam/Rech and an Acc/End/Rech. Replace an acc and a rech with those and you get +19% Dam and +19% End thrown in for free (you lose 3.8% from acc and rech over the 50 IO, but its a net gain of 15.5%). What's the 2 slot set bonus for Focused Smite? Who cares? If you treat them like mini-HOs, you can get a build that's quite a bit more effective than just using generics.

2.) Next level would be using cheap sets that give decent bonuses. Take Crushing Impact or Multistrike. Would those be the go-to sets if you were planning your dream build out in Mids? Maybe not, but they give good enhancement value *and* have solid set bonuses. And again, if you are rolling tickets for recipes, you probably see a lot of these anyway.

3.) This isn't in any order, but here's a little trick that might help you out: Fury of the Gladiator gives you +3 points of KB protection when its 3 slotted. Its a PVP recipe, but its not insanely expensive, and you get that bonus no matter what level you are. Because I assume that as a /FA you want some KB protection.

4.) Anyway, back to my original train of thought. There are some single IOs that you are going to want to get for any build if you can afford them (and as a farming brute, you can afford them). KB protection (unless you use point 3 above), a stealth IO in sprint, the miracle and numina uniques in health, and probably the performance shifter proc in stamina. My guess is you'll want the Steadfast Protection +3% def, and some LOTG +7.5%s too. A-Merits are your friends for these. In terms of exemping, for many of them the level is near irrelevant for performance, so max level might not be a big deal (indeed, it might be undesirable). Here is a link to help you figure that out:

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Table_of_Special_IOs

5.) You could use "real" IO sets (the expensive, desirable ones) but just not worry too much about losing the set bonuses when you exemp. The bonuses would be handy for Incarnate content, and lower-level content isn't *that* difficult. I mean, your main build is a farm build, if you like playing the character enough to want to take it through other content, why not do the 2nd build right?

6.) If you are using Kinetic Combat, Reactive Armor, Eradication, or other sets with a max level below 40, there are plenty of bonuses you would keep anyway while exemped (at certain levels) without making a special exemp build.

7.) You could choose to use level 42s where it would matter for set bonuses, and keep them down to level 39. This wouldn't gimp you at all for incarnate content (the difference between level 42 and level 50 set IOs is not huge when it comes to enhancement value) and you wouldn't have to worry about losing something while exemped for a fair amount of content. Blueside it would cover you for Numina, Eden, Sutter, Dr. Q, 2nd Respec, and the Abandoned Sewers Trial. Redside it would cover 2nd respec, Kal, and Ice Mistral. Since the Weekly TF/SFs started, these have been very common selections. You'd also be squared away for many of the flashbacks and SSAs. If you used 41s, you'd keep your set bonuses in Warburg.

Obviously this would take a bit more patience and dedication than just using 50s (especially since as a farmer you can generate a lot of level 50 recipes yourself whereas to get 42s you'd need to use the market) so you'd have to decide for yourself whether this was worth it in terms of time and effort. But ignoring time and effort, I do think the gains of keeping your set bonuses down to level 39 outweigh the small amount of enhancement value you lose by not using 50s if you plan on exemping at all.

8.) Here's where I get crazy: if you have a 2nd build that can do level 50 content with good enhancement value and exemp down to the high 30s with set bonuses intact, and is probably good enough to do lower level stuff even without the bonuses . . . what do you do with your third build? Make a *crazy* good lower level exemp build!

The way set bonuses work, if you are within 3 levels of the IO, you get the bonus no matter whether you have access to it. You only have access to powers that are no more than 5 levels higher than when you selected them. So if you have a build that you never plan on playing above level 29, your choice of APP/PPP is only relevent in terms of the set bonuses you can get from muling IOs in those powers. And the enhancement value you get out of those powers doesn't matter. So while (for example) you might never ordinarily take a pet from a PPP, if you put 4 level 18 Call to Arms in there you would have some +rech, +HP, and +recovery. Level 20 Positron's Blast in a weak AOE? No problem, its greyed out anyway.

For the powers you *do* plan on using, frankenslotting might be the way to go if there weren't any decent sets that would give you reasonable enhancement value. You might want to *overslot* and break the ED rule of 3, since enhancement value scales down when you are exemped. You might want to use more procs (not sure if the GR dam/rech plus proc special IOs work while exemped, but if you can exemp down and get the proc then they would be fantastic).

Again, that might not at all be worth the time and trouble to implement.