Are you talking about a build to use while leveling or a level 50 build that's exemplar friendly? For a level 50 build I'd just drop some Membrane Exposures in Farsight to get both Defense and To Hit and then add a Kismet.
For a build to use while leveling it's pretty tricky. Personally on Time/Energy I'd probably skip my snipe and respec into it at level 50 once I have PBU and the ability to slot Membranes. Energy has a pretty decent attack chain even without FastSnipe so it's easier to wait.
Alternatively, have you considered Frankenslotting? If you slot a mix of To Hit and Defense Sets you can probably cap the core attributes without having to wait for level 47 and Membranes.
On the general subject of Leadership versus Aim for Defenders I always used to come down on the side of Leadership but with the I24 PPM changes I'm not so sure. Aim slotted with the proc from Gaussian's is a pretty potent damage buff, especially when combined with a crashless nuke. On a Defender I would say that currently Aim out-damages Assault. In I24 though, I'm not so sure.
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Yes, it will. Burst damage is questionable on a defender, and aim isn't very beefy in the +damage department. Even while solo, the kill speeds will be reasonably similar, and on a team there's no contest.
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Originally Posted by Chromium_Man
That's the background, my question is: If I pick up Assault to get to Tactics, will the added constant 18.75% Damage make up for the loss of the extra burst damage I would be getting from Aim every 30 seconds or so?
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The toon is now 44 and change. I can respec in a few levels to add most of the IOs and whatnot that I'd like. I think I had seen another post recommending Membranes and I thought the person making the recommendation had confused Membranes with Cytoskeletons (I haven't used HOs in probably 5 years). When I checked the Wiki and saw what Membranes did, I was extremely excited. When I checked my personal SG storage and saw that I had 6 Membranes, I was ecstatic.
Looks like it'll be 3 Membranes, an LotG and two slots for other powers now 
That means I should be able to get by without Tactics, have Aim AND Assault, and I might be able to squeeze in Manuevers for some extra defense and another LotG mule.
Thanks for the tips, guys. I can honestly say that in 8 years, this is the first time I've been in love with a Defender and things are still looking up for these last 6 levels.
Related follow up question: is it worth it to try to get those Membranes to 50++ or does ED make that a waste of inf?
Chromium Man Model Designations
I - Fire/Fire/Fire Blaster, II - Fire/Energy/Fire Tank, III - Elec/Elec/Elec Blaster,
IV - Elec/Elec/Mu Brute, V - Elec/Elec/Mu Stalker, VI -Elec/Elec/Energy Tank, VII - Elec/Elec/Body Scrapper, VIII - Elec/Elec/Mu Dominator
Co-founder of Riders of Apocalypse - Triumph Server
With tactics you should easily be able to attain a 22% to hit bonus allowing you to instant cast your snipes. So my vote is obvious.
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For Solo work:|
Originally Posted by Garent
Yes, it will. Burst damage is questionable on a defender, and aim isn't very beefy in the +damage department. Even while solo, the kill speeds will be reasonably similar, and on a team there's no contest.
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If your recharge speed is sufficient, you will get faster kill speeds with assault. Defs get 18.75% +Dam continuously, while Aim only provides 50 +Dam for 10 seconds on a 90 sec recharge.
Most higher end IO builds can get the recharge of Aim down to approx 30 seconds. This gives you approx 16.67% +Dam when evened out over time. However, if you were to be able to attain uber recharge levels (nearing cap) then aim becomes more potent than assault. If you get recharge down to 25 seconds, then Aim is worth 20% +Dam and more valuable for damage than assault. Rech cap for Aim is 18 sec (at 400% rech) giving 27.78% +Dam.
The reason I'm writing this is that with this set, you can actually approach those uber rechage levels if you want. Just season all those kb powers with Force Feedback procs added to your hasten and Chrono Shift and you will be getting close.
FYI, you will need to keep blasting to keep your rech going and you WILL have end issues needing to be addressed with the uber rech build but better than my Rad/Nrg.
For team work:
Assault/Tactics hands down. Your team gets the buffs.
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Elaborating on this: |
Originally Posted by Most_Amazing
With tactics you should easily be able to attain a 22% to hit bonus allowing you to instant cast your snipes. So my vote is obvious.
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Defenders get a much greater benefit from Tactics than say, a Blaster, due to the way their arch-type modifiers favor buff effects. For a defender, tactics at a 60.2% enhancement value (3 slots) has a To-Hit bonus of about 20.02%, about 2% shy of what you need for fast-snipe goodness. That last 2% should be fairly easy to achieve with something like Combat Jumping + Kismet +6% To-Hit. (Protip: Buy kismet now)
*EDIT: I should like to note that Corruptors can do this as well. Defenders end up with a bit of To-Hit left over, but Corruptors juuuuust get the 22% they need for fast-snipe with Tactics + Combat Jumping: Kistmet +6%.
Blasters, unfortunately, need to be slightly more creative.
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or take targetting drone. |
Originally Posted by Warkupo
Blasters, unfortunately, need to be slightly more creative.
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Devices is the most obvious and easy way, yes, but not everyone wants to be devices secondary. |
Originally Posted by Shadey_NA
or take targetting drone.
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Let's see... Aside from Devices:
Darkness Manipulation can get there with Tactics + Kismet + Perma Soul-Drain (300% recharge)
Energy Manipulation can get there with Tactics + Kismet + Perma Power Boost (300% recharge), OR it can cycle between some combination of Aim, Build Up, and Power Boost for less recharge (depending on your primary/secondary)
Other than that, everyone else is going to depend on cycling Aim/Build up, unless there's something obvious I am completely missing to finish off the last 5% To-Hit you would need. I guess you could always just strap a defender to your back as well.
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There are a couple +tohit procs that can help out as well, as long as you aren't obsessed with it being perma. Decimation chance for build up goes in ranged attacks & Analyze Weakness (could be wrong on name, it's been a while) goes in things that take accurate defense debuff.
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Originally Posted by Warkupo
Devices is the most obvious and easy way, yes, but not everyone wants to be devices secondary.
Let's see... Aside from Devices: Darkness Manipulation can get there with Tactics + Kismet + Perma Soul-Drain (300% recharge) Energy Manipulation can get there with Tactics + Kismet + Perma Power Boost (300% recharge), OR it can cycle between some combination of Aim, Build Up, and Power Boost for less recharge (depending on your primary/secondary) Other than that, everyone else is going to depend on cycling Aim/Build up, unless there's something obvious I am completely missing to finish off the last 5% To-Hit you would need. I guess you could always just strap a defender to your back as well. |
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I recently rolled up a Time/Energy Defender with the specific intent of taking advantage of the i24 snipe and nuke changes. Well, as with too many of my builds, it ended up getting very tight and I'm left with the hard choice between Aim (and a few other powers) and Leadership.
At level 50 this toon will have Perma-Farsight. I have Farsight slotted for Defense, not To-Hit, but PBU'd Farsight will get me to the threshold of Perma-Insta Snipe. Unfortunately, I don't get PBU until lvl 35. If I can get Tactics and slot it up for To-Hit, I think that a full set of GSFC plus a Kismet Unique will get me to 22% To-Hit much lower than 35 which means I might even be able to drop Power Blast and make a complete ST attack chain of Power Bolt, Power Burst, and Sniper Blast. That would require me to drop Aim and Power Blast to pick up Assault and Tactics.
That's the background, my question is: If I pick up Assault to get to Tactics, will the added constant 18.75% Damage make up for the loss of the extra burst damage I would be getting from Aim every 30 seconds or so?
Chromium Man Model Designations
I - Fire/Fire/Fire Blaster, II - Fire/Energy/Fire Tank, III - Elec/Elec/Elec Blaster,
IV - Elec/Elec/Mu Brute, V - Elec/Elec/Mu Stalker, VI -Elec/Elec/Energy Tank, VII - Elec/Elec/Body Scrapper, VIII - Elec/Elec/Mu Dominator
Co-founder of Riders of Apocalypse - Triumph Server