DFB support AT?

Since returning I've had a lot of fun running DFB. For my main characters it's a nice stepping stone to SO territory, but not only is it fun to do it's also always in demand even in the early AM when I'm often online. I'd like to make a character to always be ready to run DFB groups even after my main characters are beyond that point.

Please discuss the best builds to make sure a DFB goes smoothly.

If I remember correctly...
Hellions = lv6 (2 starter powers + 3 picks)
First four powers from your primary set, and the top three in your secondary set.

Vahzilok and Lost = Lv8 (+1 pick)
Opens up the fifth power in your primary set.

Hydra = Lv10 (+1 pick)
Opens up the fourth power in your secondary set.



So far my DFB groups usually bottleneck at a lack of sufficient heals/rez (mostly an issue red side where 5 or 6 of your team will be lowbie widows and spiders :P) Surprisingly I also often see a lack of DPS. With the limited power selection many people end up with most of their attacks greyed out. High and low level players alike tend to pick their key stuff early over attacks so that they can start putting slots in them. I've run quite a few groups now where we have had a real issue with kill speed through the Vahzilok section where low DPS was compounded by the -recharge attacks.

To me that says Corruptor. More attack choices, lots of options to get basic healing.

Archery/Pain Corruptor

Aimed Shot
Nullify Pain
Fistfull of Arrows
Soothe
Blazing Arrow

+Share Pain for Vahz/Lost
+Rez for Hydra Boss




What do you think?
Maybe change Share Pain for Hasten if my endurance is doing okay and I don't use the emergency heal too often.

I've only been on one of these that failed, and that was because some irritating kinetics player was running around with repel and ended up repelling one of the bad guys right through the geometry.

But, I think that a fire/dark corr would work well thanks to the early aoe available as well as the mitigation from dark miasma and tar patch for more damage.

It's so easy to steamroll that I don't see any sense in playing or making a character specifically to do it. I have never seen one of these fail.

I didn't say fail, I said go smoothly and make sure we had the dps to go quickly. I haven't seen one 'fail' but I have seen lots of them take way longer than they needed to.

Nevermind I guess.



P.S.
Rez was more about people than about DFB. Two or three members always die on the Hydra Heads and then don't go to the hospital. They just lay there spamming for an awaken or rez, or they just wait until it's dead. I like being able to pick people up.

Seems like setting up a bind/macro to say, "guys, just go to the hospital, it's right here inside the trial" would be easier (and more effective since it wouldn't need to recharge) than taking up a power choice with a rez. Especially since you have so few powers to work with at that level.

My first thought as far as a DFB-specific character was a brute with a damage aura. A corrupter certainly wouldn't be bad either (Rain of Fire + close quarters + scourge = steamrolled DFB), I just question the need for a rez specifically.

The most common strategy I've seen in the DFB Trial is players saying, "AFK phone", or "AFK door", or "gf/wife aggro brb" as soon as they enter the trial, and then they just sit back and collect all that sweet xp while everyone else does the work. I guess a lot of players know by now that it's not easy to kick a slacker in the DFB, so many just use that fact to their advantage.

I have noticed that aoe holds come in very handy especially Stone Cages.

A key question: do you envision leveling the character up to 50, or level locking it at 20 such that it could benefit from the GR starter enhancements as well as the bonuses from DFB? I could see pros and cons to each. If you went whole hog with purples and/or PVP sets, you could keep the bonuses, but that might be a little more than you wanted to do.

I'd choose Magic origin for the minor -res debuff effect.

As far as IOs go, you won't get any set bonuses since you'll be capped at level 5, but you can benefit from enhancement value from IOs as well as procs. You could slot -KB IOs, Miracle Recovery, Performance Shifter +End, Kismet +to-hit, as well as chance for damage procs.

When it comes to support, I would go with Dark Miasma (Dark Affinity for Controllers). At level 1, you get Twilight Grasp . . . a powerful heal that also does -regeneration. You get Tar Patch at level 2, a location slow and -res debuff. I'd skip Darkest Night (you'll be moving too fast for it to really matter) but you could take it if you wanted. Your level 10 power, Howling Twilight, is a fantastic combo stun/group rez/-regeneration power. The massive amount of -regeneration in Dark Miasma is what puts it over the top. You can spam Twilight Grasp on AV fights and take them down that much faster. Howling Twilight will always be useful. I'd overslot Tar Patch and Howling Twilight if possible since at that level you won't be in ED territory with just 3 slots.

I'd consider Ice Control. Hellions are vulnerable to ice damage, they resist fire. Vhaz zombies resist smashing. Sample powers would be:

1: Block of Ice
1: Twilight Grasp
2: Frostbite
4: Tar Patch
6: Combat Jumping (-KB, Kismet +to-hit)
8: Chilblain (or maybe something else)
10: Howling Twilight

Here are links to the GR enhancements and the bonuses for the DFB trial.

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Pre-Order_%28Going_Rogue%29

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/DfB

I am not sure how the GR enhancements scale down when you have a natural level of 20 but are exemped down to levels 2-6. It may be that the extra slots you gain by leveling from 11-20 are eclipsed by the hit to enhancement value while exemped. Don't have time to pop on live and see how that works right now. Obviously the procs would still work, however. And the prospect of having up to 5 procs (4 damage, 1 knockdown) in an aoe immobilize is fun. To be honest, it might be almost as easy to level 2 characters and lock one at 10 and one at 20 and compare the enhancement values to see which one has better enhancement value.

The DFB bonuses will give you +12% to-hit, +12% damage, +5.25% defense, and +15% recovery. If you had a bunch of purple/pvp sets laying around, then perhaps going to 50 would be better, but that's a ton of extra work and billions of influence. Going to 20 (or 18) would open up some of the level 20/21 IOs, but that might not be worth it if the overall enhancement value of your powers gets severely diminished.

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Exemplar...n_Enhancements

Twilight Grasp and Transfusion do the same amount of -regen, 50%. Howling Twilight does -500% regen. I personally think that the -regen is very useful in AV fights. Howling Twilight is autohit, and also has a stun component (won't affect the Hydra Heads, but would affect the minions) and by the way, its a rez :-) Kinetics has Repel, which might be interesting to use for reverse herding or in conjunction with your aoe immobilize.

Ice Control vs Electric Control doesn't seem to be a huge deal to me. Hellions vulnerability to cold is nice, and the slow effect would help mitigate damage, but ultimately its all about fun. Electric brings some other tools to the table as well.

Good info. Thanks Young_Tutor.

And yeah, brain fart, I remember the DFB passive temp power rewards now...

I think I'm going to roll a dark/kinetics Corruptor and play test that. Has a cone immobilize, -to hit and -regen, Top three powers will keep me busy and doing solid single target damage. Thematically consistent with throwing out Blackwand and/or Sands of Mu if I don't need to be healing. Probably stop him at 14 or 15 to snag an advanced travel for zipping around Atlas Park.

Not sure what to take at 6. I originally was looking at Dark Pit, but the 1min recharge and max targets of only 10 is turning me off. Maybe just repel for lulz.

Transfusion +HEAL +HEAL(3) +HEAL(3)
Gloom +ACC -RECH(5) +DMG(5) +DMG(7) +DMG(7)
Siphon Power +ACC -RECH(9) -RECH(9) -RECH(11)
Assault -END -END(11)
???

+Tenebrous Tentacles +ACC +GR(13) +GR9(13) +GR(15) +GR(15)
+Siphon Speed +ACC

Another thing to consider to maximize your XP on every run is to use the trick to spawn the Hellion AV twice.

If you have not experienced this, You have everyone stay at the entrance upon zoning in and not have them attack anything. Someone with assemble the team runs to the end of the map and teleports everyone to the room behind the Hellion AV which will have magically spawned.

Defeat the Hellion AV and fight your way back to the entrance. After the last hellion mob defeat you will get the message that the Hellion AV has spawned. Backtrack back to the Hellion AV and defeat as normal. I have not seen this trick work on anything other than the first map.

The only area of the DFB that I ever see have a problem is when the team goes after the first badge. No matter how many times I see it said that someone will pull the AV to the top of the sewers some numb-skull follows the puller and immediately starts defeating the cadaver's with their AOE's.

I just sigh to my self and press on.

Good point about 10/11 targets, Doctor Roswell but I still think Tenebrous Tentacles is the better pick. I've been using various cone powers on DFB of different sizes and I don't have any difficulty hitting most or all of the enemies. Fire breath for example is a smaller cone that I can regularly hit 8-10 with and I won't need to worry about extra recharge help. If I put ACC ACC and the four damage proc GR's in it, it will probably be fast enough to use twice per fight.

I'm aware of a lot of tricks for DFB like you mention, Dragon_King. It's just like you say though... they are a waste of time if you don't have a really great group (and by REALLY GREAT I mean seven other people with the attention span of a gnat). I tend not to bother with those things vs just crushing the trial as fast as possible. If I've got a full eight that stay for two runs straight then I'll push for the double AV thing.

I decided to take Dark Blast with Gloom. I had forgotten just how slow gloom/transfusion were. Dark Blast makes it flow better. Once I have a recharge SO in gloom and three of them in Siphon Power I think I'll be good to go. Might respec out of Dark Blast later once I have Tenebrous Tentacles slotted up, so I took it late at 6. Easily replaced with any other option. Maybe Combat Jumping. Vahz bosses like me and I don't want to be an immobile kinetics.

Look at a Rad/Rad Corruptor.

It melts the AV's and makes them trivial.