AotM for Pure Melee

maatmons

spinnytop said:

At 3 stacks Machine only gives ~14% less damage than 8 stacks of another form …

This interested me, so I tried to get some hard numbers.

Going by the tooltips, this is what I get for Form of the Tempest:

• 187 Dexterity
  • +8.8% damage per stack of FotT
    
  • +70.4% total damage at 8 stacks
    
• 296 Dexterity
  • +12% damage per stack of FotT
    
  • +96% total damage at 8 stacks
    
• 406 Dexterity
  • +16% damage per stack of FotT
    
  • +128% total damage at 8 stacks
    
• 517 Dexterity
  • +19% damage per stack of FotT
    
  • +152% total damage at 8 stacks
    

Again going by tooltips, this is what I get for Aspect of the Machine:

• 171 Strength
  • +28% melee damage
    
  • +12% damage per stack of AotM
    
  • +64% total damage at 3 stacks
    
• 278 Strength
  • +36% melee damage
    
  • +15% damage per stack of AotM
    
  • +81% total damage at 3 stacks
    
• 384 Strength
  • +44% melee damage
    
  • +19% damage per stack of AotM
    
  • +101% total damage at 3 stacks
    
• 495 Strength
  • +52% melee damage
    
  • +22% damage per stack of AotM
    
  • +118% total damage at 3 stacks
    

I'm figuring here that I'll only have one good score between Strength and Dexterity, and that it'll be in the stat that boosts my form. I've read that the critical chance I get with just gear isn't that much lower than the critical chance I'd get by also investing in Dexterity, so I'm not going to attempt to factor that in.

So at around 300 in the stat, his figure looks pretty accurate. I might actually try AotM on the Defensive Combo/Defiance tank I'm leveling. I'll have energy from Defiance, and maybe from Fuel My Fire, so I think I don't need the energy. With the pure threat from Defensive Combo (and Crippling Challenge), will I be able to hold aggro all right with the lessened damage? It looks like I'd wind up exchanging some damage for a lot of knock resistance. Is it a decent trade?

maatmons

Well, I decided to try it.

I started leveling up a Reawakened Automaton to unlock the power. That got old fast. Fortunately, I remembered that I could Re-Train an existing 40 instead. I even had one I didn't care about losing.

Now I've tried this idea out, I don't like it. The deal breaker for me is being completely reliant on enemy attacks for energy. I thought it would be fine, but even solo I sometimes run empty just because the enemy decided to start a long charge-up at an inopportune time.

So that's it. It turns out I can't tolerate the loss of damage and energy. I'm going back to Form of the Tempest. I guess it's the old standby for a reason.

flowcyto

AotM can be alright for solo builds, but yeah you have to secure ur energy situation first by some other means. Still couldn't recommend it for most builds, esp since for FF's the extra bonus dmg is on a harsh DR anyways, but getting 3 stacks at r3 is fine enough. Turns out, many builds still rely primarily on the toggle for energy gen.