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No, SS is still the general best farmer. TW can eclipse SS, and does more damage at the damage cap, because Whirling Smash does almost as much damage as FS with a 14 second recharge (FS is 20).|
Originally Posted by Crysys
I took an extended holiday and just came back after about a month off. I see a TON of TW/FA Brutes either being PL'd in AE or doing the PL'ing in AE.
Has SS/FA lost the title as best farmer to TW/FA now? |
However, whirling smash can only be used in momentum, which must be micromanaged, and needs more +damage to be able to compete. Because a TW character wouldn't have Rage double-stacked, they will need to be able to use enough reds to make up the difference (and rage improves your other AoEs too).
So SS is generally better, and easier to manage. However, quite a few people want something different than SS, and so far TW is the only comparable primary. Given that TW is both new, shiny, and possibly able to match SS, I can see why you've seen a lot of them pop up.
TW/Elec Optimization
Even with single-stacked Rage, with SS you're basically in perma build up mode. And in a dedicated (and decent since I've seen horrible ones) farming build you'll have footstomp down to 5-6 seconds (making WSs lower recharge not a big deal) and usually three other AoEs (Ball Lightning, Elec Fences, Burn). Add that Rage benefits all these and your damage aura and that all the attacks are fast activating with no need to use a slower one without momentum, SS is still ahead since in a recharge focused build you'll have your AoEs up more often than you can click them unless you farm paying lots of attention (which is boring for me). So even thoough when farming I only use FS and Rage from SS (no need for KO blow even for 54 bosses), SS also benefits from no redraw and no momentum gimmick so you can use your patron AoEs more effectively.
TW/Fa surely is a great farmer, maybe even second place now since a claws/fire still benefits from using a ST attack (follow up) to boost dmg and tohit but those two are probably very close (despite the need to use FU, it lasts a long time and can be double stacked so it will boost burn and blazing aura way more than Build Momentum).
I was curious about this myself. Since I have both TW/FA and a SS/FA who are similarly IO'ed and incarnated, I put them to the Pepsi Challenge and timed them in clearing out the first floor of a popular fire farm. My SS toon was consistently able to clear it about two minutes faster.
I preached Claw/FA in-game a lot before I saw the trend where people actually listened and starting making them. Yet, just as Claw/FA brutes were really on the rise, new powersets got thrown at us from every direction. I've seen KM/FA and StJ/FA and TW/FA all try to farm, but only TW actually has potential out of all these shiny new sets. What really matters is that you pick a set with something better than Build Up, because as stated before much of your AoE damage is coming from Burn and epic AoEs, and boosting your damage buff is what really matters in conventional farming. If we are talking about some kind of crazy Dual farming where you have a Kin giving you maxed damage all the time then a set like TW or Claws will totally eclipse SS, but who dual farms these days?
"Look, personally I just want a new issue to feature changes that don't cause a mass exodus of players..."
Issue 17: We Didn't Break Anything!
How to suck at CoX
Literally the Best Build Ever: Years in the Making
I find I'm struggling with my TW/FA brute. I can barely even handle +0/x2 missions currently... I hope it gets better when IO'ed out, but currently either I suck a lot at this combination, or it doesn't work very well for my playstyle.
Sadly, I'm thinking it's the former...
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Ouch. What level are you? With FA and resilience, you can boost the **** out of your resist, and with softcap range and 30-35% melee, that caps your melee def. You will need ~5% def from I dunno where to softcap range, or you can just really slot for range and suffer with 25-30% melee, which will just barely softcap your melee range with defsweep.|
Originally Posted by Teh_Valcarde
I find I'm struggling with my TW/FA brute. I can barely even handle +0/x2 missions currently... I hope it gets better when IO'ed out, but currently either I suck a lot at this combination, or it doesn't work very well for my playstyle.
Sadly, I'm thinking it's the former... |
However, as FA, you have pretty decent resists to various things, and resilience should boost that largely, giving you a lot of functionality.
I really think its probably lack of IOs, and maybe a question of how you are slotting. A brute ATO set would REALLY help offset your lack of a defensive aura, and make up for that 5% you can't pick up elsewhere.
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Hew in drag baby
I have a 43 TW/FA Brute. It can farm, although not at +2x8 yet (I want to wait until I IO out before doing that), but it IS a little AoE wrecking ball since it has 3 cone AoEs and a PBAoE. Tack on FAs Burn, Blazing Aura and Firey Embrace and that can really stack on the damage. It also benifits from Defensive Sweep adding to your Smashing and Melee defense. As FA has no inherent defense, ANY defense is good defense. And since fire farms use a lot of melee attacks (Along with one ranged) that helps mitigate damage further.
As noted it doesn't have Rage, or double stacked Rage but my TW/FA is for general content. Farming is a side hobby.
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24 currently, with mostly IO's and SO's. No sets other then two spots filled with 2-piece Steadfast Protection (Temp protection has the -KB and resist/def global, Fire Shield has a KB and the red/endurance as well as two more slots). I have Tough, and I try to use Defensive Sweep quite a bit, but I find I'm having trouble regardless.|
Originally Posted by OneFrigidWitch
Ouch. What level are you? With FA and resilience, you can boost the **** out of your resist, and with softcap range and 30-35% melee, that caps your melee def. You will need ~5% def from I dunno where to softcap range, or you can just really slot for range and suffer with 25-30% melee, which will just barely softcap your melee range with defsweep.
However, as FA, you have pretty decent resists to various things, and resilience should boost that largely, giving you a lot of functionality. I really think its probably lack of IOs, and maybe a question of how you are slotting. A brute ATO set would REALLY help offset your lack of a defensive aura, and make up for that 5% you can't pick up elsewhere. |
I don't have access to Mids, so can't post my exact build right now; looking forward to trying to use Burn along with FA taunt. Maybe I'll just try some -1/x2 missions and see if I have the same problem x.x
I took an extended holiday and just came back after about a month off. I see a TON of TW/FA Brutes either being PL'd in AE or doing the PL'ing in AE.
Has SS/FA lost the title as best farmer to TW/FA now?