Degenerative or Reactive?

For hard targets, what's better? The -MaxHP Degenerative or the +Fire Reactive?

Also, Cimerorans still the best damage dealing pets?

Thanks, yall. If you'd like to show your work, you know I'll read it.

Ergh. So, the succinct answer is, make both; you're likely to end up teaming with other people with Reactive as it's excellent against not-so-hard targets. In general I find myself using Reactive in solo play (I usually don't fight AVs solo) and Degenerative or Diamagnetic while teaming.

Reactive is incredibly common, so you're very unlikely to find a team it's relevant for where they can't keep up the max 4 stacks of it.

The better answer is, of course, "for whom versus what?"

Cimerorans are still the best dps pets on Live. I don't know which are on Test.

For whom versus what? Solo against hard targets like AVs and Pylons. Guess I need to start runnin I-Trials on Pinn before doomsday. I would like to see BZB fully T4ed out.

That's a pretty general answer. I mean, what kind of Scrapper (what primary, particularly) and against which AVs? Unless you're stacking more -Res with Reactive, Degenerative is a clear winner up to uh... 40k hp? After that I'd have to do actual math but I'd think at (playing conservatively here) 80k+ Reactive is probably going to be consistently ahead.

You may want to get a verification on this:

The Reactive Debuff (assuming max stack) is only 10%; if you can keep it stacked... and then its subject to AV (and purple patch?) resistances. So you're only getting a very minor buff to your damage delivery (solo).


The Degenerative Debuff may give you better net results (solo); as far as I know... the HP debuff isn't resisted. If you can keep it stacked, you're effectively dropping the HP you have to work against by 4,000 (vs. AVs); 14% (vs. EB and lower). If I'm understanding the max HP mechanic correctly; this means you're also diminishing the Regen [you have to work against] and healing.

AV resistances don't apply to -res. Interface debuffs aren't specifically flagged to ignore the purple patch, but since they technically grant the target a power which makes the target debuff itself, the level difference is always zero.

But yeah, assuming you can keep 4 stacks up at all times, Degenerative's -hp is better than Reactive's -res for targets with <44k health, which covers pylons and pretty much all AVs. Comparing Degenerative Core to Reactive Radial is trickier; with the 75% proc chance, the Reactive DoT is worth ~30 damage per attack, so whether that's better than Degenerative will depend on the attack chain and how much DPS you already deal. With a t4 Interface, there's also the 25% chance of the other effect to account for.

What are you two disagreeing on, exactly? I'm puzzled by this exchange. You're both asserting the same thing. Yogi said that Reactive is mitigated by AV debuff resistance, which it isn't (because it is mitigated by normal damage resistance), so Garent said that, and Jack said that it is (possibly losing track of what "it's not" was referring to?), then explained how -res is mitigated by normal damage resistance.



Also, the original question wasn't even asking about Reactive's -res, it was asking about Reactive's DoT. So there.

Garent is asserting several things, one of which is that Reactive's -res is unresistable. In this particular case, we're talking about the entire resistance package of any given archvillain, not merely AV mez and debuff resistances. I disregarded the purple patch bit out of hand since it was phrased as a question and I didn't understand how it was relevant, although I suppose I can understand now.

I may have misphrased but end result (as I understood Hopeling's? angle) is that -res can be resisted by Resistance (as stated by Jack) which just happens to be fairly high on AVs (which is typically associated with the purple patch (and lower damage; possibly even a debuff to the effect itself (assuming lack of level shifting))).

(I think the convo came up while discussing the mechanics of -dmg and how it synced with -res).



If I did misread the intent of the OP in comparing Reactive's damage component vs the HP debuff of Degenerative; I'm not sure how that would pan out (except to say that the damage portion might still be resisted by resistance; verify please?).

It would help if we knew what Scrapper set(s) you were considering this for. (If you can get the -res and/or proccing from other sources then I would suggest Degenerative)

I'm going the easy route by testing tonight. Hopefully I'll get the rare drop I need to craft my T3 Reactive.

If I do, I'll be comparing these two against 4 pylons, 2 pylons per test and taking the average.
Degenerative T3 75% Chance for Max HP debuff (10sec)
Reactive T3 75% Chance for moderate fire damage-over-time

I ran a BAF and a Lambda last night and plan to bite the bullet and keep running i-trials until I get BZB fully T4ed. Happily, my first drop lasts night was a very rare.

I'm trying to figure out (and my apologies for not stating this up front) which of the two T4s will be better for effective DPS against pylons and lvl 54 AVs (in general on the AVs.)

Reactive Radial Flawless Interface for the 75% Fire / 25% DRD
vs
Degenerative Core Flawless Interface for the 75% -MaxHP / 25% Toxic

And the marginal -res from the Reactive should stack with the -res in the Achilles' Heel proc. That's the route I took on BZB v1. Just wanted to make sure there wasn't something I was missing about the nature of -MaxHP that would provide more benefit overall.

Another consideration is whether or not you normally have enough DPS to overcome the targets HPS (regen rate + healing).

You'll also have to weigh how much the consistent additional DPS of Reactive adds to the the speed of your specific build's kill time vs. how much the consistent suppression of the target's HPS affects the same.

I guess what you're ultimately trying to math is comparative [speed of] median DPS vs. HPS:

Does Reactive's median Fire damage (?*.75)+(3.90% buff) median Reactive debuff percentage allow you to match the 13% faster kill speed of Degenerative (sans its Toxic damage component)?




I would also suggest Ageless Core (assuming you have enough mitigation from other sources) and Assault Radial (assuming you're near your damage cap).

Claws/?

I was just infomed that you can get emp merits on beta...

So, here we go:

T4 degenerative 75% -MaxHP / 25% Toxic
Pylon 1: 296 sec
Pylon 2: 272 sec
Average: 284 sec

T4 Reactive 75% Fire / 25% DRD
Pylon 1: 315 sec
Pylon 2: 257 sec
Average: 286 sec

Interesting. Appears to be a wash.

Claws/SR Brute, nowhere near the damage cap.
Attack chain is Followup, Focus, Slash, Swipe, repeat. Yes, it would be better with Strike on the end, but I always hated that animation.

I'll add Assault Hybrid after dinner and test again.

Isn't there a cap to the maximum absolute value of the hp debuff on degenerative? Or am I mixing up my vivid dreams and reality again?