Night Widow build
So...the build seems to perform well enough in-game, does a lot more damage a lot quicker than my fortunata. Seems slightly more, squishy but that may be that it's always in melee range.
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1. Every Widow should have Incarnate-level soft-capped positional defenses. There's absolutely no reason to cower in the back with the squishies - you've got the defenses of a Super Reflexes Scrapper/Stalker.
2. Every Widow's melee is far better than their ranged. The single target ranged attacks are almost universally horrible (for damage purposes) and you shouldn't even be taking them.
3. The basic Widow rotation of FU/Swipe/Lunge/Swipe is 96% of the maximum possible rotation anyway. What this means in practical terms is that Slash is only useful if you get your jollies pretending to be a Stalker who doesn't do enough damage to alpha strike anything but minions.
4. Night Widows get two significant powers that Fortunatas don't: Eviscerate and Mental Training. Fortunatas get Aim and a ridiculous pile of control options. So unless you're a narrow angle melee cone fanatic, Fortunatas tend to be better in melee than Night Widows.
I only slotted my fortunata for ranged because I liked the utilitary/support feel of it while still having scrapper defenses...
I'm not even really sure how to slot a melee character, let alone a melee fort. (I always thought they were bad because of redraw).
I wouldn't even really know where to start
edit: are ranged forts BAD if max damage wasn't what you intended their build for?
Magisterum- 50+3 Fortunata--Virtue
Lukerion- 33 Emp/Rad Defender--Virtue
Noah Heartily- 34 SS/SD brute- Virtue
Mika Heartily- 50+1 Fire/MM blaster-Virtue
Check out the AAAAAAAGH forts thread in the VEAT forum for a recent discussion of melee versus ranged forts. I make a case for going ranged, but melee has its defenders as well. It really depends what you want. Widows in melee are going to do more damage than forts at range, but ranged forts absolutely do not have to do bad damage. I've never actually run the numbers on a widow build but it seems to me that one of the main advantages is that you'd be able to effectively leverage spin and eviscerate for fantastic close range aoe.
Honestly overall, looking at it now, it seems like widows are the best option if you're on a limited budget and forts are something to consider if inf is no object. Especially on the defensive side the only bone widows really get compared to forts is that their mind link is much easier to perma. If you can perma it on a fort that is suddenly no longer an issue. Beauregard's chain, which looks mighty sexy, works equally well on a fort as it does on a widow and if you've already got more recharge for mind link you need less for lunge and follow up.
Check out the AAAAAAAGH forts thread in the VEAT forum for a recent discussion of melee versus ranged forts. I make a case for going ranged, but melee has its defenders as well. It really depends what you want. Widows in melee are going to do more damage than forts at range, but ranged forts absolutely do not have to do bad damage.
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Follow Up/Swipe/Lunge/Swipe = 149 dps to 220 dps
Strike/Swipe/Lunge/Swipe = 149 dps to 298 dps
Gloom/Dominate/Subdue = 104 dps to 208 dps
Gloom/Dominate/Strike/Lunge = 157 dps to 314 dps
These all require recharge that's a bit less than perma-Hasten but a bit more than perma-Mind Link.
This discrepancy between melee and purely ranged is about the same as the discrepancy between Defenders and Blasters using the same power set.
Also Rintera already posted in that thread! Sometimes I need to pay attention a bit better...
I don't really consider that level of damage deficit to be a deal breaker when the ranged fort gets so much more than just damage. It's an essentially unique role: something akin to a mind/psi dom but with better damage, huge buffs and better status protection in exchange for slightly worse control. Melee forts and widows remind me more of a quite good claws/sr scrapper. Sure there isn't anything wrong with it and overall they're probably a bit better than that, but what's their milieu? It seems the main differences are that you can't customize their claws but you get an additional costume at level 10.
That melee fort chain looks especially bothersome to me because it redraws constantly. Maybe some people are into that but I'd deem that odd. At least it does take advantage of the fact that you have access to an amazing controlling attack in dominate as well as gloom.
Melee forts and widows remind me more of a quite good claws/sr scrapper.
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Question. FU/Swipe/Lunge/Swipe is the optimal melee chain for widows? Because I'm running FU/Lunge/Strike/Swipe without any trouble. Or is that because Lunge is getting triple stacks of Follow Up?
Question. FU/Swipe/Lunge/Swipe is the optimal melee chain for widows? Because I'm running FU/Lunge/Strike/Swipe without any trouble. Or is that because Lunge is getting triple stacks of Follow Up?
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Follow Up/Swipe/Lunge/Swipe will deal 50.72 + (44.49 + 3 * 4.45) * 2 + (101.43 + 4 * 5.56) = 290.07 damage in 4.224 sec (68.67 dps). Your +30% from Follow Up will apply to 5 Swipe, 3 Follow Up and 2 Lunge. That's 191.39 additional damage, so ~114 dps.
Follow Up/Lunge/Strike/Swipe will deal 50.72 + (101.43 + 4* 5.56) + (79.93 + 4 * 3.89) + (44.49 + 3 * 4.45) = 327.72 damage in 4.488 sec (73.02 dps). Your +30% damage will apply to 2 Swipe, 2 Strike, 2 Lunge and 2 Follow Up. That's 196.63 additional damage, so ~117 dps.
The first chain would burn 5.59 end/sec while the second would burn 6.44 end/sec (both before any endurance reduction). So unless I got the math above wrong (entirely possible), your attack chain will generate slightly more damage than the one I mentioned above.
I don't really consider that level of damage deficit to be a deal breaker when the ranged fort gets so much more than just damage.
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If you're instead talking about a taking a purely ranged single target rotation, then I think you're really cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Given that virtually any reasonable Fortunata build is going to soft-cap all positionals as a matter of course (and then have extra melee defense on top of that), staying at range offers you no significant defensive benefit. Indeed, in most teams you join you're probably within the top 3 players that the team most wants targeted by the enemy. It's far better if enemies are beating on you than trying to kill your Empathy Defender.
Nor are you ranged attacks particularly inspiring. Aside from their low damage, their secondary effects just aren't all that useful. TK Blast is actively counterproductive, Subdue just means that your opponent can concentrate on attacking rather than moving, Electrical Blast isn't going to do much without any other end drain powers, Gloom is superfluous with the massive amounts of +def you have and Mental Blast is pretty much just a (bad) straight nuke.
So the only single target ranged power you'd actually want in your rotation would be Dominate. You can do FU/Lunge/Strike/Dominate just fine as a single target rotation. You don't really lose any effects you care about and you do a ton more damage than you would trying to operate purely at range.
That melee fort chain looks especially bothersome to me because it redraws constantly. Maybe some people are into that but I'd deem that odd. At least it does take advantage of the fact that you have access to an amazing controlling attack in dominate as well as gloom. |
Fortunatas have fantastic defensive numbers and status protection... for squishies. Squishy is what they are and what they will always be until we discover that the Genesis slot gives you a reconstruction-like slottable heal. Rebirth is fantastic, I love it on my fort, but if you say forts don't get into enough trouble to need more healing than that I say you don't push your fort hard enough. Keep in mind, this is a ranged fort. A ranged, incarnate softcapped fort that happily takes alphas on DDs.
The only way to say that dominate-gloom-subdue is inferior DPS is to compare it to scrappers, stalkers and VEAT melee attacks. Next to anything else it looks great. Would you invite a blaster to a trial? Presumably you would also invite a character that does basically the same damage as the average one-o'-them, is never going to die and brings massive team defense, psi resist, damage, and tohit buffs to anyone within a large radius. That can be the meleers, as if they require your protection you can hang with them in melee, but it can also be the other squishies who are hanging back and blasting. You can wail on hard targets as much as you want and they'll frequently be unable to even try to hit you if you take a flight power. I value all of this far beyond simply being yet another melee-dependent source of moderately-better DPS.
Fortunatas have fantastic defensive numbers and status protection... for squishies.
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The only way to say that dominate-gloom-subdue is inferior DPS is to compare it to scrappers, stalkers and VEAT melee attacks. Next to anything else it looks great. |
Brutes do similar damage to Scrappers.
Pet archetypes (Controllers and Masterminds) can normally muster the highest single target dps of any archetype if they can keep the pets alive and active.
So our ranged Widow is only competitive with Tankers and Defenders for dps.
I'm sorry, but you're just wrong. Yes, a fire/ corr would do more damage if it had buffs that you aren't considering for the fort. Or perhaps you're giving it full scourge? Those numbers do not match in-game values in any other way. The fort chain is shorter than the fire chain and hits harder in reality. So, thank you for pointing out that a ranged fort is actually more damaging, and more capable of self buffing in the general case, than the absolute most damaging corruptor primary. Would you turn down a fire corr for any team? I wouldn't, most of the speed TFs I run contain several of them. The fact that my fort can keep up with them and then some is actually to be expected by one who plays the game rather than crafting bizarre, unbalanced hypotheticals.
I'm sorry, but you're just wrong. Yes, a fire/ corr would do more damage if it had buffs that you aren't considering for the fort.
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Indeed, let's review the factors I didn't bring into play:
1. Fortunatas have +15% damage over Corruptors from Assault. The weakest Corruptor secondary for increasing personal damage is Thermal Radiation, which debuffs resistance by 22.5%.
2. Fortunatas can't both increase damage and get a high damage rotation via epic pools. Fire Corruptors use their primary entirely for their damage rotation and then can get buffs like perma +40% damage (against a single target) from epic pools.
3. Corruptors have a 20% higher +damage cap than Fortunatas.
4. I didn't even use the highest damage Fire Corruptor rotation (Flares/Fire Blast/Blaze), but I did use the highest damage Fortunata rotation.
5. Corruptors have a +107 damage ATO proc. Fortunatas have a control-oriented proc. That's about a 30 dps advantage to the Fire Corruptor.
6. Fire Corruptors generally gain more from both IO procs and Interface because their attacks cycle faster.
7. I lowballed Scourge by averaging it over the entire life of an enemy when Corruptors tend to abnormally weight their attacks towards the low end of the hit point bar in the actual game.
Go borrow a friend's Fire Corruptor who has equivalent slotting/Incarnate to your Fortunata some time. You'll immediately notice the huge gulf in damage output.
I'd also immediately notice a huge gulf in being alive when Mother Malaise cast a pbaoe that would shred anyone else in a single hit. I'd also notice that soloing malta kind of sucks, and PPD, and carnies, and IDF, and ... ... ... and freakshow if a lot of super stunners spawn! Pretend I said every other villain group in there.
As you know, the top fire attack chain requires radically more recharge than the top fort attack chain. Doesn't matter, eh? Plan on sharing how you intend to incarnate softcap this corr to all positions while achieving that? I'll give you a minute. Don't even bother trying to explain every other corruptor primary, that wouldn't look very good for you. Nothing you assume can change the fact that you're considering DPS in a vacuum and I'm considering what the character can actually do. Get back to me when a fire corruptor can solo weakened hamidon.
I'd also immediately notice a huge gulf in being alive when Mother Malaise cast a pbaoe that would shred anyone else in a single hit.
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As you know, the top fire attack chain requires radically more recharge than the top fort attack chain. |
For the Fire Corruptor, we need to reduce the 10 sec recharge on Blaze to the sum of the activation times of Flares (1.19) and Fire Blast (1.45). So 10 / (1.19 + 1.45) = 3.79, or +279% recharge.
Don't even bother trying to explain every other corruptor primary, that wouldn't look very good for you. |
Nothing you assume can change the fact that you're considering DPS in a vacuum and I'm considering what the character can actually do. Get back to me when a fire corruptor can solo weakened hamidon. |
I just borrowed the various attack chain analyses from a thread covering them. But we might as well run some quick numbers. For those two specific attack chains:
Follow Up/Swipe/Lunge/Swipe will deal 50.72 + (44.49 + 3 * 4.45) * 2 + (101.43 + 4 * 5.56) = 290.07 damage in 4.224 sec (68.67 dps). Your +30% from Follow Up will apply to 5 Swipe, 3 Follow Up and 2 Lunge. That's 191.39 additional damage, so ~114 dps. Follow Up/Lunge/Strike/Swipe will deal 50.72 + (101.43 + 4* 5.56) + (79.93 + 4 * 3.89) + (44.49 + 3 * 4.45) = 327.72 damage in 4.488 sec (73.02 dps). Your +30% damage will apply to 2 Swipe, 2 Strike, 2 Lunge and 2 Follow Up. That's 196.63 additional damage, so ~117 dps. The first chain would burn 5.59 end/sec while the second would burn 6.44 end/sec (both before any endurance reduction). So unless I got the math above wrong (entirely possible), your attack chain will generate slightly more damage than the one I mentioned above. |
No one is making any statements whatsoever about the survivability of our Fire Corruptor, because we're not discussing the secondaries. You made the claim that a purely ranged Fortunata did competitive damage with all but a few archetypes. I just pointed out that you were wildly overestimating the actual damage that could be done with a ranged Fortunata.
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or +279% recharge. |
I was comparing the best one archetype could do against the best another could do. What would be the point of comparing the best possible performance from one archetype against a gimped performance from another? If you want to do it that way, you could demonstrate that Tankers outdamage all other archetypes. |
Fire/Rad Corruptors are often considered the best hard target solo build in the game. |
Correction, you're not discussing secondaries. My point this whole time is that the fortunata is a complete package that brings competitive DPS and a slew of other things that the melee focused build can't take full advantage of while the ranged build can.
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Second of all, if you're talking about ranged-only vs. melee on a Fortunata, you're not bringing 'competitive dps'. You're bringing a third less dps. Nor have you managed to come up with any of the 'slew of other things' you're talking about. The only difference between ranged-only and melee Fortunata in terms of 'other things' is that you've decided to use an array of fairly weak ranged attacks with poor secondary effects instead of much higher damage melee attacks.
Everything else is the same.
Again you assume that DPS is the only thing any archetype can do. Not so, dude! By the way, non-fire corr primaries aren't gimped, and non-cold corr secondaries aren't either. They don't bring the best DPS, but for the umpteenth time that isn't all that matters. |
Weakened hami isn't a hard target, it's a diverse target. Fire/rad will die horribly because it lacks the range and the control to kill the greens safely. |
You don't appear to know what weakened hamidon is. Suffice to say that if you're hitting it with blaze, it's hitting you with three mitos worth of untyped damage, and I'd like to see the fire/rad build that can stack mag 16 control in the first place.
I haven't listed every single thing a ranged fort can do because I feel that much of it is obvious. Apparently not. I'm still not going to make a comprehensive list, you can figure it out for yourself, or not. If you don't see the value of having a complete ranged chain in high level content, I don't know what to tell you. Maybe you only play characters up to 50 and then stop? A melee fort that wants to be able to operate at range is taking and slotting at least three more attacks than a ranged fort. In actuality you're probably taking more than that because it would be foolish not to take spin. That's a huge dent in a character with as many great power options as forts have available to them. If we're talking about night widows I guess you may as well take whatever you want since they don't get any fantastic control powers, they're pretty much just scrappers.
Fifty percent more damage? I dispute that as in practice there are many* factors that will keep you from dealing your ideal damage at melee range that can be completely ignored from blasting range. Even were I to grant you a damage bonus that large, though, it wouldn't be worth it compared to the versatility that you sacrifice.
*Since I know you're not going to leave well enough alone, here are just a few of them: blue patches, pink patches, suffer in silence, essence duty, arrest mode et al, nova fist, almost anything Antimatter can do, mito damage and debuffs, famine debuffs for most secondaries, mag 30 stuns, overwhelming damage or debuffs in general (incarnate level cimerorans, et cetera). Need I go on? I could do this all day. All of those things neuter a melee fort while a ranged fort keeps on truckin', and all of those things are commonplace and becoming even more prevalent in high level content.
You don't appear to know what weakened hamidon is. Suffice to say that if you're hitting it with blaze, it's hitting you with three mitos worth of untyped damage, and I'd like to see the fire/rad build that can stack mag 16 control in the first place.
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Let's review:
1. The Fire Corruptor can stack mag 16 control even better than the Widow can because he's got access to the same ability (Dominate) and better recharge.
2. The Widow's defenses are ignored by the mitos. In contrast, the Fire Corruptor can still debuff them to reduce the likelihood of being hit and amount of damage.
3. The Fire Corruptor can self-heal. The Widow can't.
4. The Fire Corruptor can do more damage even without Blaze than the Widow due to the combination of buffs/debuffs.
5. If range is a concern, the Fire Corruptor also out-ranges the Widow due to the ATO and snipe.
I haven't listed every single thing a ranged fort can do because I feel that much of it is obvious. Apparently not. I'm still not going to make a comprehensive list, you can figure it out for yourself, or not. |
1. A poor single target nuke that also has -recharge.
2. A poor single target nuke that also has knockback.
3. A poor single target nuke that also has immobilize.
That's it. That's the complete list of everything that goes into your attack chain that you'd be skipping. A set of powers that players generally skip unless forced to take.
If you don't see the value of having a complete ranged chain in high level content, I don't know what to tell you. |
You like your build. We get it. But don't try deny the facts. You do poor damage and there are very few fights in the game where you wouldn't be far better served by closing into melee and dishing out 50% more damage.
*Since I know you're not going to leave well enough alone, here are just a few of them: blue patches, pink patches, suffer in silence, essence duty, arrest mode et al, nova fist, almost anything Antimatter can do, mito damage and debuffs, famine debuffs for most secondaries, mag 30 stuns, overwhelming damage or debuffs in general (incarnate level cimerorans, et cetera). Need I go on? I could do this all day. All of those things neuter a melee fort while a ranged fort keeps on truckin', and all of those things are commonplace and becoming even more prevalent in high level content. |
What makes your position particularly silly is that the bulk of high level encounters require collapsing on the AV for buffs and heals. Antimatter, Marauder, Malaise, Shalice - all these examples of the 'superiority' of a gimpy ranged rotation - they're all fought at point-blank range.
So...the build seems to perform well enough in-game, does a lot more damage a lot quicker than my fortunata. Seems slightly more, squishy but that may be that it's always in melee range.
I'm wondering, if anybody could give me tips as to what powers I can replace in order to make it more...fighter/scrapper-y, and less stalker-like. With like, tough and weave.
also, do I need hasten? as without it I think my mind link is still perma.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.954
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Level 50 Natural Arachnos Widow
Primary Power Set: Night Widow Training
Secondary Power Set: Widow Teamwork
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leadership
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Poison Dart -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(3), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7)
Level 1: Combat Training: Defensive -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(7), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(9), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(50), GftotA-Run+(50)
Level 2: Strike -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(9), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(11), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(11), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13), T'Death-Dam%(13)
Level 4: Tactical Training: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(15), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(15), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(17), RedFtn-EndRdx(48)
Level 6: Dart Burst -- DoArach-Acc/Dmg(A), DoArach-Dmg/Rchg(21), DoArach-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(23), DoArach-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(23), DoArach-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(25), Posi-Dam%(25)
Level 8: Hover -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(27), Zephyr-ResKB(27)
Level 10: Indomitable Will -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 12: Lunge -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(29), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(29), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(31), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31), T'Death-Dam%(31)
Level 14: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(48), RechRdx-I(50)
Level 16: Fly -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(33), Zephyr-ResKB(33)
Level 18: Slash -- Mako-Acc/Dmg(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(33), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(34), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Mako-Dam%(36)
Level 20: Mask Presence -- Ksmt-ToHit+(A)
Level 22: Mental Training -- Run-I(A)
Level 24: Mind Link -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(43), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(43), GftotA-Def/Rchg(45)
Level 26: Eviscerate -- Sciroc-Acc/Dmg(A), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx(36), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(36), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg(37), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(37), Sciroc-Dam%(37)
Level 28: Tactical Training: Leadership -- GSFC-Build%(A)
Level 30: Foresight -- LkGmblr-Def(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(46), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(46), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(48)
Level 32: Smoke Grenade -- DampS-Rchg(A)
Level 35: Psychic Scream -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(39), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(39), Posi-Dmg/Rng(39), Posi-Dam%(40), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg(40)
Level 38: Spin -- Sciroc-Acc/Dmg(A), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx(40), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(42), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg(42), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(42), Sciroc-Dam%(43)
Level 41: Tactical Training: Vengeance -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 44: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(45), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(45), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(46)
Level 47: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 49: Tactical Training: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 50: Cardiac Core Paragon
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Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(17), Numna-Heal(19)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%(A), P'Shift-EndMod(19), EndMod-I(21)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Conditioning
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
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Magisterum- 50+3 Fortunata--Virtue
Lukerion- 33 Emp/Rad Defender--Virtue
Noah Heartily- 34 SS/SD brute- Virtue
Mika Heartily- 50+1 Fire/MM blaster-Virtue