Its been a long while since I left my NW/Fortunata abandoned but your build looks pretty good to me.
The main things for a ranged fortunata are attack chains, perma mind link, and softcaps. Attack chains because in addition to your single target dominate-subdue-gloom, you can make a gappy sorta-chain out of psy scream and psi tornado. The ST chain is easily achieved while the aoe chain is the main area where you stand to gain from high global recharge.
Perma mind link, despite being much harder for forts than for widows, is actually pretty easy to get. You only need recharge just shy of perma-hasten; my fort has 86.25% global recharge before hasten and that makes mind link permanent despite the eight second or so gap in hasten. Here's where I'll note that my fort doesn't have any purples apart from superior dominion and coercive persuasion.
The soft caps are what lead me to believe that purples may not be incredibly optimal for a fort. There isn't just one softcap, there are two. Ideally you should be softcapped without ever using mind link at all and incarnate softcapped with mind link. In addition to being a huge boon in incarnate content, the effect of this is that you then have no need to worry about hitting mind link except in reaction to severe debuffs or danger to teammates. That's great since mind link's ungodly slow animation is the last thing you want to be casting in combat unless you need to.
In spite of all of that, I can see a couple places where purples would be nice: ragnarok instead of a posi's blast set for example, trading the damage proc for better enhancement values. Apocalypse is another great option but I'd put it in either dominate or gloom rather than subdue. Dominate is good because this is the attack that you use when there is a danger so great that you care more about stacking two holds on it as fast as possible than you do about completing an attack chain. Gloom is good because it's your most efficient attack and it also stands to benefit the most from recharge and endurance slotting. The AT set is fantastic in psi tornado and coercive persuasion is a very natural fit for aura of confusion, as the proc explosion ensures that it locks down everything around you for something like eight seconds in addition to the great values and bonuses it provides.
Oh, I also recommend trying to fit in confuse. With just a single slot it gives you utility that's hard to match. Need a ton of control in a pinch? Alternate confuse and dominate on problem targets. Fighting a villain group that contains a powerful minion or lieutenant? Spend those two seconds on impromptu recruitment and breeze through a fight that frankly probably would have been easy anyway because you're a freaking fortunata. It's nice to have to stack with aura as well, though: on a certain Dark Astoria mission you go up against giant blobs of bosses. A tactic that served me well was to drop confuse on four or five bosses before diving in and hitting aura. Bam, four or five confused bosses right out of the gate, and it helps them bunch up as well.
You don't actually have to get perma-mind link to have an effective fortunata - its not that hard to build for the standard softcap without mind link, which leaves ML available to push you up to the incarnate softcap when you need it.
Here is my fortuanta build - it is slightly over the softcap to ranged and AoE and well over the melee softcap. It only has 77.5% global recharge - but you could stick a ragnarok set in dark obliteration for another 10%, replace the decimation set in either TK blast or dominate with a apocalypse for another 3.75% and replace mailase's illusions in confuse with a full coercive persuasion set for yet another 3.75% to bring the global recharge up to 95%. At the current 77.5% global recharge it has an almost solid single target attack chain of dominate -> subdue -> gloom, with the occasional TK blast to fill a gap and the AoE chain is almost solid as well, you can chain dart burst -> psychic scream -> dark obliteration ->dart burst -> psychic scream fairly easily.
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.957
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Crimson Mystique: Level 50 Natural Arachnos Widow
Primary Power Set: Fortunata Training
Secondary Power Set: Fortunata Teamwork
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Telekinetic Blast -- Decim-Acc/Dmg(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(3), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5)
Level 1: Combat Training: Defensive -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 2: Subdue -- DoArach-Dmg/Rchg(A), DoArach-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(7), DoArach-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7), DoArach-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(9), DoArach-Rchg/-DmgFear(9), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(11)
Level 4: Tactical Training: Maneuvers -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(11), LkGmblr-Rchg+(13)
Level 6: Aim -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 8: Dart Burst -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(13), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(15), Posi-Dmg/Rng(15), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(17), Range-I(17)
Level 10: Indomitable Will -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 12: Dominate -- Decim-Acc/Dmg(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(19), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(19), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(21), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(21), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(23)
Level 14: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff-I(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(23)
Level 16: Fly -- Frbd-Stlth(A)
Level 18: Psychic Scream -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(25), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(25), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(27), Posi-Dam%(27), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(29)
Level 20: Tactical Training: Leadership -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(29), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(31), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(31), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(31), GSFC-Build%(33)
Level 22: Foresight -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(33), LkGmblr-Rchg+(33), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(34)
Level 24: Mind Link -- AdjTgt-Rchg(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(34), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(34)
Level 26: Mask Presence -- EndRdx-I(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(36)
Level 28: Maneuvers -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(36), EndRdx-I(36)
Level 30: Confuse -- Mlais-Acc/Rchg(A), Mlais-EndRdx/Conf(37), Mlais-Acc/EndRdx(37), Mlais-Conf/Rng(37), Mlais-Acc/Conf/Rchg(39), CoPers-Conf%(39)
Level 32: Psychic Wail -- Sciroc-Acc/Dmg(A), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx(39), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(40), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg(40), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(40), RechRdx-I(42)
Level 35: Gloom -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(42), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(42), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(43), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43)
Level 38: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 41: Dark Obliteration -- Det'tn-Acc/Dmg(A), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx(45), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg(45), AirB'st-Acc/Dmg(45), EndRdx-I(46), RechRdx-I(46)
Level 44: Tough -- ResDam-I(A), ResDam-I(46)
Level 47: Weave -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(48), EndRdx-I(48)
Level 49: Tactical Training: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Mrcl-Rcvry+(48), Heal-I(50)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(50), P'Shift-End%(50)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Conditioning
Level 4: Ninja Run
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Code:
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Globals: @Midnight Mystique/@Magik13
Another build for the pile.
Needs cleaning up and tweaking for my ever-changing playstyle.
v1.95 of Mids (June 4th)
Code:
With Agility T4, M/R/A is 63/53/52 accounting for the residual effect only of Mask Presence.| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1589;736;1472;HEX;| |78DA6594DF53125114C7EFC2128A8B4822A848026A2A2A825A3D956302662366A36| |9D354B4833BB213B10EAC633DF6D07B3F2CB07AECB9976A6AFA9FB2DEADE8B8E79B| |30C3CE309FB3DF73EF39DF7BF75EB28F53CAC7A5A7F342F22D16D54A25B75056F38| |59251C96DE9DBC6BE735535F7CA6AD12E84F0ACEAF982562C6AE194AE9AA6EA242D| |628DCA6D9455BDA49776E219A36CEE9554533D95821B9AFA68DF283F6CCE41F22E9| |70A5A592B99F1FF816BCD308AF1F55D4DDB765B6156DBD6F37A4953ACB7154DDDA5| |9A9CCAE83B0593DEFCE95D3D1FDF4C2F6CE4D68DBD622EAB564CADFCA497ECC5E9F| |75C1178EA423CB3099194C5A28B5E254B93844FB2345B0FF3858294A83BA42A6194| |72EF986D35F090E97A0B26B96E9AEADAB9AECDDEC5F564D43F83FA51DA37077A3B2| |604E7C010E59CF0EA1C662D4335DB31BE3D40414816CA8CDDCA1D90D70E78ED5866| |0F0ABC769E78A7B19DF0E883E7FE1AEB2F69AE1B75DDE83F04BEA29C07753D9F58E| |BFA0C7E61FABE317BBF322397B8FF079AEBC55CEF21FB3C7B00D698FD6F98912A78| |99E72ED15ABBD993E88E70DD65D27AB0A73D6D92B506BF0C624FFDB46901AC25006| |D38C8B50729D7C77E6C7DEB9C0B6799D3B79855F21CE4317230C55E06D2608639BA| |045E635E215F21AC33E4E23AE73A400FE8660E75A29FC29CA7B983ECD73EE8E0B58| |43137EC658E631DAFC95B147DA233DC7BE8227378169C638E5F60C670CEAF529F11| |AC6BE42E6BE7EF81F7C11CD6F580794CDB36C6DE1C63384BE3B807319CFF18CED22| |4CE56F23DB3465E27E075A2CEF526FF82C7CCA9DFE01FE6F491CD3A8F9293EFEBC9| |B78F87F8DBDB494BE0DB27E6783F920930C91C909BEE779D1EB1D2A2ACC9A7775A4| |89672433EFD07A8B777D1ADE56CFDA6CB9A65C55B4DF1EDA6F84E531C6BE9956851| |922DCA6C8B32D7A2FCA02E92D4ECF9674391A44DFCBB5CE7D373D43C7A8C77EF574| |3B34961DC5670AA8AAFED27601FAC27156808DFA38DF85337C558F43F4D1D078E| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|
182.5% recharge with two KB +rech procs for more chances to get Psychic Wail up asap
Still haven't settled on Rebirth or Barrier now that I have Hybrid:Melee Core. Leaning toward Barrier for those rare cases of uber -regen being slapped on me.
Seamless chain of Gloom->Subdue->Dominate
Aid Self for giggles
Might swap Confuse in for Total Dom, but alternating AoC and Total Dom spawn-by-spawn is pretty nice.
The ATO fear proc in Spin is just gravy. I will eventually get Hybrid: Control Radial for the 100% stun...again for giggles.
(Travel with Ninja, Sprint and Hurdle...and jet pack when needed.)
Repeat Offenders
Oh yeah, I had intended to mention total dom but completely forgot. Normally I never use that power and only have it for the recharge bonus via basilisk's gaze. When I ran a Dr. Q yesterday I was mighty glad I had it. Not only can you alternate it with aura, enemies resistant to confuse are not the rarest things around. Take eyeballs: immune to confuse, 200% tohit and they inflict massive -def. I hope nobody is going to run a Dr. Q every day for their own sake but when you do silly things like that it's very nice to have the aoe hold available.
Quote:
First of all, thanks a lot for your big write-up, it's exactly what i missed in most posts that ask for advice.|
Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
The main things for a ranged fortunata are attack chains, perma mind link, and softcaps. Attack chains because in addition to your single target dominate-subdue-gloom, you can make a gappy sorta-chain out of psy scream and psi tornado. The ST chain is easily achieved while the aoe chain is the main area where you stand to gain from high global recharge.
Perma mind link, despite being much harder for forts than for widows, is actually pretty easy to get. You only need recharge just shy of perma-hasten; my fort has 86.25% global recharge before hasten and that makes mind link permanent despite the eight second or so gap in hasten. Here's where I'll note that my fort doesn't have any purples apart from superior dominion and coercive persuasion. The soft caps are what lead me to believe that purples may not be incredibly optimal for a fort. There isn't just one softcap, there are two. Ideally you should be softcapped without ever using mind link at all and incarnate softcapped with mind link. In addition to being a huge boon in incarnate content, the effect of this is that you then have no need to worry about hitting mind link except in reaction to severe debuffs or danger to teammates. That's great since mind link's ungodly slow animation is the last thing you want to be casting in combat unless you need to. In spite of all of that, I can see a couple places where purples would be nice: ragnarok instead of a posi's blast set for example, trading the damage proc for better enhancement values. Apocalypse is another great option but I'd put it in either dominate or gloom rather than subdue. Dominate is good because this is the attack that you use when there is a danger so great that you care more about stacking two holds on it as fast as possible than you do about completing an attack chain. Gloom is good because it's your most efficient attack and it also stands to benefit the most from recharge and endurance slotting. The AT set is fantastic in psi tornado and coercive persuasion is a very natural fit for aura of confusion, as the proc explosion ensures that it locks down everything around you for something like eight seconds in addition to the great values and bonuses it provides. Oh, I also recommend trying to fit in confuse. With just a single slot it gives you utility that's hard to match. Need a ton of control in a pinch? Alternate confuse and dominate on problem targets. Fighting a villain group that contains a powerful minion or lieutenant? Spend those two seconds on impromptu recruitment and breeze through a fight that frankly probably would have been easy anyway because you're a freaking fortunata. It's nice to have to stack with aura as well, though: on a certain Dark Astoria mission you go up against giant blobs of bosses. A tactic that served me well was to drop confuse on four or five bosses before diving in and hitting aura. Bam, four or five confused bosses right out of the gate, and it helps them bunch up as well. |
Now, for a more in depth answer.
Chains: I know nothing about what makes a good fortunata attack, and which ones i should just skip. Having played a widow from 1-50, i know what constitutes a good melee attack, but the ranged attacks are new to me.
Perma Mind-Link and softcaps: For the build i made, I just wanted to get at the normal softcap, with or without ML, but without needing to resort to set bonusses. And seeing that ML alone gives more than 15% def, I went the perma ML route. I already use (perma)ML on my widow, and i know how irritating the long animation time can be, but i can live with that, especially since it only fires once every 90s. (And i've got it on auto-fire)
As for your points on Total Dom and Confuse, i can swap out either TT:assault or summon widow for confuse, and swap some slots around to get some more procs going.
At the rest, offcourse thanks for replying also, though i'm more interested in why you chose a specific power, than in a total build
@Treibhireas on Defiant, Exalted and Freedom
Quick reply as I need to be on my way in a moment. The best single target attacks for a ranged fort are ones that you picked up: gloom, dominate and subdue. It isn't hard to chain these gaplessly if you're already going for perma mind link and are willing to use purples. TK blast isn't bad to leave slotted for set bonuses either since it's handy when you exemplar lower than 30. The great thing about this chain, though, is that dominate's prominence in it means you're a natural at locking things down. I have my dominate five slotted with dominion of arachnos and the sixth slot is reserved for a +5 unbreakable constraint: hold. This lets me stack something like 24 mag on a hard target, or possibly more, haven't worked it out lately. That's really nice on a LGTF for obvious reasons, but is handy in all sorts of other content as well.
I'd be surprised if you end up feeling like you need summon widow. You're probably going to like this character enough to get lore pets and those really do the job most of the time, for me anyway. TT:Assault is a pretty key power, I'd prioritize that over a lot of other things. Actually my fort runs all of the TT toggles as well as pool maneuvers and assault, with cardiac making the build sustainable. I'm glad I brought that up because here's another cool thing about cardiac: between cardiac core paragon and a little bit of range slotting from sets, you can get dominate, gloom, subdue, psy scream, and psi tornado's range out to 96 feet. Combine that with some form of flight and you can essentially bombard single targets or groups from orbit with no chance of reprisal, and even if they could shoot back it wouldn't do much for 'em.
One note about slotting Dominate on a Fort. A slotting I personally like is 4 basilisks gaze, and 2 level 50 damage IOs. Just two level 50 damage IOs gets 83% damage enhancement after ED. If you up them to 50+5s with boosters it's even better.
roll a melee fort
Quote:
... if you want an inferior version of a widow or a claws scrapper or brute. If you want all the best stuff (apart from drain psyche) from a mind dom and a psi defender with better-than-blaster damage, you're doing fine with your ranged fort.
|
Originally Posted by Dz131
roll a melee fort
|
Quote:
Sure, i've got a 3rd slot lying around, so why not. But before I do that, please tell me, what constitutes a "melee fort". Because from your (and PleaseRecycle's reply to your) post, i read no additional information. If i were to guess, a melee fort takes the melee attacks from the blood widow pool, and interlaces those with some extra attacks from the fortunata path?|
Originally Posted by Dz131
roll a melee fort
|
Please, elaborate, and explain why i should roll a melee fort.
@Treibhireas on Defiant, Exalted and Freedom
Quote:
Lol wut? inferior? The thing you lose is Slash and mental training, which is not even that bad considering you gain so many more skills that can leverage 6.25% bonuses or 7.5 bonuses. Things you gain include all the hard controls, pbaoes and aim from the fort lines
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Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
... if you want an inferior version of a widow or a claws scrapper or brute. If you want all the best stuff (apart from drain psyche) from a mind dom and a psi defender with better-than-blaster damage, you're doing fine with your ranged fort.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Thoran_EU
Sure, i've got a 3rd slot lying around, so why not. But before I do that, please tell me, what constitutes a "melee fort". Because from your (and PleaseRecycle's reply to your) post, i read no additional information. If i were to guess, a melee fort takes the melee attacks from the blood widow pool, and interlaces those with some extra attacks from the fortunata path?
Please, elaborate, and explain why i should roll a melee fort. |
Better ST chain of follow up > gloom > strike > lunge.
The reason to go melee fort instead of ranged fort is slightly higher ST damage. The reason to go night widow instead of melee fort is slightly higher ST damage. If you're willing to lose a little ST damage to gain all those other fortunata perks you shouldn't find it difficult to accept that one might want to go ranged fort at the cost of a bit more ST damage to gain even more perks. By going melee you lose the gigantic survivability advantage that range offers for fortunatas as well as the massive hard control built into their single target chain. You could take and slot dominate and subdue on a melee fort as well, but what else are you going to sacrifice for those extra three melee attacks that require full slotting to be effective? How important is eking out single target damage to you? How important do you think it is to your contribution to a team?
This is now more true than ever thanks to incarnate powers. A ranged fort can get plenty of bonus damage, a melee fort cannot ever do their thing without all of the drawbacks melee entails. See the many, many threads whining about how unfair incarnate trials are to meleers for more information.
Quote:
First you compare widows and claws scrappers to a melee fort. After I shot down that argument you switch to comparing ranged forts to melee forts? Ok. To answer your question, First off the st damage is much much higher, due to 3 stacks of follow up, secondly, you don't lose any contribution to a team as a melee fort. I already have a melee fort , sitting at 175% recharge, perma mind link, perma softcap/Isoftcap with ML,damage ED on all attacks in my chain as well as my PBaoes, with 0 purples used not even a glad proc. And yes I have the AOE mezzes. So no, I sacrifice nothing, aside from 2 dmg procs.|
Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
The reason to go melee fort instead of ranged fort is slightly higher ST damage. The reason to go night widow instead of melee fort is slightly higher ST damage. If you're willing to lose a little ST damage to gain all those other fortunata perks you shouldn't find it difficult to accept that one might want to go ranged fort at the cost of a bit more ST damage to gain even more perks. By going melee you lose the gigantic survivability advantage that range offers for fortunatas as well as the massive hard control built into their single target chain. You could take and slot dominate and subdue on a melee fort as well, but what else are you going to sacrifice for those extra three melee attacks that require full slotting to be effective? How important is eking out single target damage to you? How important do you think it is to your contribution to a team?
|
Quote:
| This is now more true than ever thanks to incarnate powers. A ranged fort can get plenty of bonus damage, a melee fort cannot ever do their thing without all of the drawbacks melee entails. See the many, many threads whining about how unfair incarnate trials are to meleers for more information. |
I don't recall anyone suggesting that they wanted to use this character for pylon soloing. In fact, the OP explicitly states that his widow build is already perfect for AV soloing and he's interested in adding a second build with more AOE. If we continue to read between the lines we will discover that, since we are talking about a secondary build for a widow, he may be interested in some additional versatility that his widow lacks. Say, I don't know, the ability to attack at range? That'd be a nice contrast to a widow!
By the way, you aren't triple stacking follow up on anything except perhaps follow up itself, maaaaybe gloom? That chain is somewhere between four and five seconds of arcanatime, I cannot be bothered to calculate it exactly, but what it definitely doesn't do is stack three follow ups onto strike and lunge. Scratch that, I'm almost sure it's over five seconds because of the redraw for gloom. I doubt it has triple follow up at any point.
A melee fort will have about 90% of the damage of a similarly built night widow, but gains controls vs elude. I prefer the melee fort to the Night Widow and can solo harder content with the melee fort. Others prefer the Night Widow and optional Elude.
Ranged Fort gains range and psy damage, but has only 65% of the damage of the melee fort, that can leave the ranged Fort sub par for soloing AVs. However, Lore if used correctly can take care of the AV problem. Ranged Fort AoE, while not as strong also has a larger radius. The larger radius can help compensate for it's weakness. I didn't build mine for AoE damage, so I dont' recall the AoE comparison now. I'd guess that once you adjust for radius it should be close to even.
Yes, several iTrials favor Ranged over Melee.
Overall, I prefer the melee fort, but playstyles and perferences vary. There should be some older examples of each in my archives in my sig.
My ranged fort is one of my favorite characters since launch. I may or may not be misinterpreting Thoran's goals for the build but as I said, I think it's worth noting that this is implicitly a counterpoint to a melee heavy AV soloing non-support character. I feel much the same way about my fort as compared to my scrappers, which are far more numerous: If I care about soloing an AV, great, I'll bring a scrapper (or, as you say, use lore pets). If I want to do anything other than melee, that's where an ultra durable long range Swiss Army knife is pretty attractive.
Let's talk AOE: Thoran said he wanted more. What AOE does a widow have? Why, spin and psy scream, naturally. Melee fort? Spin, psy scream, psi tornado, and psy wail. Hey, that's more aoe. Except, what's the point of using psi scream if you know you're going to be relying on spin all the time? Wail is exceptional, of course, every other spawn. The main difference is that you could add psi tornado as a crummy version of fireball with a long animation and added redraw. Wow, sounds great! Not much of a difference in AOE ability. Thing is, that's one way to look at it. Another way to see it is as the ranged power that it is. If you're not stuck in melee due to spin you can bombard spawns with scream and tornado from so far away they can't even retaliate. There isn't any redraw since you aren't using claws. Your exposure to DPS is highly reduced even if the enemy can return fire.
That's one thing that numerical power analysis is never going to be able to factor in. It doesn't really matter if you'd be doing better damage if you can't get close enough to use it for whatever reason. But for the ranged fort... Patches? Pfff. Autohit melee powers? Please. Overwhelming suppressive fire? Not bloody likely. The best part is that you can do almost anything you'd ever want to do while flying, making a total mockery of most situations in the game that were intended to be hazardous. Feel free to lay into a fresh spawn of Olympian guards on a UGT, what are they going to do about it? If you were in melee range, they'd do some comically large number of damage to you in their defense-ignoring alpha. If.
The way I see it you don't actually need to be bringing the top DPS at all times. Most of the time on a team you're surrounded by bricks of brutish beef who are happy to sit there pummeling things until their eyes glaze over. The buffs you confer to them are going to be sufficient to more than justify your presence. However, as soon as that strategy fails you will look like a clever cookie for being able to resolve the situation rather than twiddling your thumbs with the melee brigade.
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Uhh if anything a melee fort is the Swiss Army knife. Because it has all the controls of a fort and can still solo hard target. |
Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
My ranged fort is one of my favorite characters since launch. I may or may not be misinterpreting Thoran's goals for the build but as I said, I think it's worth noting that this is implicitly a counterpoint to a melee heavy AV soloing non-support character. I feel much the same way about my fort as compared to my scrappers, which are far more numerous: If I care about soloing an AV, great, I'll bring a scrapper (or, as you say, use lore pets). If I want to do anything other than melee, that's where an ultra durable long range Swiss Army knife is pretty attractive.
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Quote:
| Let's talk AOE: Thoran said he wanted more. What AOE does a widow have? Why, spin and psy scream, naturally. Melee fort? Spin, psy scream, psi tornado, and psy wail. Hey, that's more aoe. Except, what's the point of using psi scream if you know you're going to be relying on spin all the time? Wail is exceptional, of course, every other spawn. The main difference is that you could add psi tornado as a crummy version of fireball with a long animation and added redraw. Wow, sounds great! Not much of a difference in AOE ability. Thing is, that's one way to look at it. Another way to see it is as the ranged power that it is. If you're not stuck in melee due to spin you can bombard spawns with scream and tornado from so far away they can't even retaliate. There isn't any redraw since you aren't using claws. Your exposure to DPS is highly reduced even if the enemy can return fire. |
Quote:
| That's one thing that numerical power analysis is never going to be able to factor in. It doesn't really matter if you'd be doing better damage if you can't get close enough to use it for whatever reason. But for the ranged fort... Patches? Pfff. Autohit melee powers? Please. Overwhelming suppressive fire? Not bloody likely. The best part is that you can do almost anything you'd ever want to do while flying, making a total mockery of most situations in the game that were intended to be hazardous. Feel free to lay into a fresh spawn of Olympian guards on a UGT, what are they going to do about it? If you were in melee range, they'd do some comically large number of damage to you in their defense-ignoring alpha. |
Quote:
| The way I see it you don't actually need to be bringing the top DPS at all times. Most of the time on a team you're surrounded by bricks of brutish beef who are happy to sit there pummeling things until their eyes glaze over. The buffs you confer to them are going to be sufficient to more than justify your presence. However, as soon as that strategy fails you will look like a clever cookie for being able to resolve the situation rather than twiddling your thumbs with the melee brigade. |
Err yeah, if you think spin is terrible then I rest my case.
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Ok.
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Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
I have no rebuttal
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Lately I've been playing my Night Widow a lot, and i love being able to solo AV's and Pylons (haven't tried a GM yet). I even got to collecting quite a few merits and purples lying around. But when i wanted to find out wether i could slot these purples in my Widow without having to respec i found out that I have no use for purples in my current build. And that's when I decided i wanted a second build, who is a fortunata, and takes advantage of the purples i have collected.
But, my problem is: I've never played a fortunata before, and i have no idea what powers are must-haves and which ones can be skipped.
So now i've cobbled together this build:
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.957
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Level 50 Natural Arachnos Widow
Primary Power Set: Fortunata Training
Secondary Power Set: Fortunata Teamwork
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Telekinetic Blast -- Dev'n-Acc/Dmg:35(A), Dev'n-Dmg/EndRdx:35(45), Dev'n-Dmg/Rchg:35(45), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:35(45), FrcFbk-Rechg%:35(46)
Level 1: Combat Training: Defensive -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:35(A)
Level 2: Subdue -- Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(A), Apoc-Dmg/Rchg:50(3), Apoc-Acc/Rchg:50(3), Apoc-Dmg/EndRdx:50(5), Apoc-Dam%:50(5)
Level 4: Super Speed -- EndRdx-I:35(A)
Level 6: Tactical Training: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:35(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx:35(7), RedFtn-Def/Rchg:35(7), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg:35(9), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:35(9), RedFtn-EndRdx:35(11)
Level 8: Psychic Scream -- Posi-Acc/Dmg:35(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx:35(19), Posi-Dmg/Rchg:35(21), Posi-Dmg/Rng:35(21), Posi-Dam%:35(40)
Level 10: Indomitable Will -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(A)
Level 12: Psionic Tornado -- SDoArach-Acc/Dmg:35(A), SDoArach-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:35(13), SDoArach-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:35(13), SDoArach-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:35(17), SDoArach-Rchg/DmgFear%:35(17)
Level 14: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:35(A), RechRdx-I:35(15), RechRdx-I:35(15)
Level 16: Boxing -- Acc-I:35(A)
Level 18: Dominate -- Dev'n-Acc/Dmg:35(A), Dev'n-Dmg/EndRdx:35(40), Dev'n-Dmg/Rchg:35(40), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:35(43), G'Wdw-Dam%:35(43)
Level 20: Mask Presence -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:35(A)
Level 22: Foresight -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:35(A), LkGmblr-Def:35(23), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg:35(23)
Level 24: Mind Link -- AdjTgt-Rchg:35(A), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg:35(25), RedFtn-Def/Rchg:35(25), GftotA-Def/Rchg:35(27), LkGmblr-Def:35(27)
Level 26: Tough -- ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx:35(A), ImpArm-ResDam/Rchg:35(36), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:35(37), ImpArm-ResDam:35(37)
Level 28: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:35(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx:35(29), RedFtn-Def/Rchg:35(29), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg:35(31), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:35(31), RedFtn-EndRdx:35(31)
Level 30: Total Domination -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold:30(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg:30(34), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold:30(34), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold:30(36), Lock-%Hold:35(36)
Level 32: Psychic Wail -- Armgdn-Dmg/Rchg:50(A), Armgdn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(33), Armgdn-Acc/Rchg:50(33), Armgdn-Dmg/EndRdx:50(33), Armgdn-Dam%:50(34)
Level 35: Gloom -- Decim-Acc/Dmg:35(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx:35(37), Decim-Dmg/Rchg:35(39), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:35(39), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:35(39)
Level 38: Aura of Confusion -- Mlais-Acc/Rchg:35(A), Mlais-Acc/Conf/Rchg:35(48), Mlais-Dam%:35(50), Mlais-EndRdx/Conf:35(50), Mlais-Conf/Rng:35(50)
Level 41: Dark Obliteration -- Posi-Acc/Dmg:35(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx:35(42), Posi-Dmg/Rchg:35(42), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:35(42), Posi-Dam%:35(43)
Level 44: Summon Widow -- ExRmnt-Acc/Rchg:35(A), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg:35(46), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:35(46), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg:35(48), ExRmnt-Dmg/EndRdx:35(48)
Level 47: Tactical Training: Leadership -- EndRdx-I:35(A)
Level 49: Tactical Training: Assault -- EndRdx-I:35(A)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Conditioning
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+:35(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%:35(A), P'Shift-EndMod:35(11), EndMod-I:35(19)
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Set Bonus Totals:
- Perma ML/Hasten
- Softcapped in normal content
- More AOE than my Widow.
I'm sure there's a lot of things that can be done different, so any comment is welcome.
@Treibhireas on Defiant, Exalted and Freedom