New player needing help in building a themed freeform character.

ares

If you've decided to help out, thank you. I really need it.

I'm trying to make a mage-theme build that is able to do support, utility and damage at an above average level due to the synergies caused between these three aspects, but never quite as well as any of the focused characters. The problems I've run into are that I can't find significant enough synergies in different powers to make this happen.

What I have so far:

Intelligence Primary. The tought here was to take the specialization that increases the value of your secondary super stats by 20%, and in doing so allow myself to keep up in various fields.

Ego, Presence secondary. Damage, healing and hold strength. Damage, support and utility.

For damage abilities, I've primarily gone with toxic damage based ones, such as Infernal Blast(Rank 2, 3), Defile (Rank 2, 3) and Condemn (Paralyze+Stun).

I've taken Personal Force Field and Protection Field for personal survivability and support, planning to also Supplement with Vala's Light once I reach level 38. The idea was to maybe switch out Personal Force Field for Aura of Arcane Clarity, thus solving my energy economy issues, increasing DPS via decreasing charge time and providing sizable buffs of the same nature to my team-mates.

Currently, I'm forced to rely on Circle of Arcane Power to keep my energy generation active, but I was planning to change it to Circle of Ebon Wrath at 40, because of Arcane Clarity.

I've taken Molecular Self-Assembly, but I think that perhaps it's simply not worth it, as my only two cooldowns are the lightning sigils and Soul Vortex. Soul Vortex having a short cooldown would benefit me, but it's not worth using during a boss fight at all while the Sigils have a very long cooldown and aren't reliable for sustaining energy.

I've decided that Overseer specialization fits my intended playstyle most, but the problem is that nothing in my single-target dps rotation actually ever triggers the ability that brings 9% more damage to the table from attempting to hold the boss, which seems like a waste to me, since 9% extra damage to the team would be far more effective than myself doing a little more damage. It seems like the only ability that would regularly proc this effect aside from deliberately wasting time casting an ineffective hold on the boss would be Eldritch Blast, which has no additional synergy with any other DPS abilities in the game.

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Bottom line is that I'd like a build that does effective DPS while being able to increase the effectiveness of both myself and my team through support buffs, while also being able to keep my fellow team-mates alive if the situation calls for it.

How do I make this happen?

morigosa

For what you're describing, I'd suggest using Aura of Primal Magesty; the stats will help your dps (and survival thanks to con!), and stat boosts for your allies will similarly help them with both offense and defense. Unsurprisingly, it works well with int primary, though I'd suggest changing super stats to int/presence/constitution rather than int/presence/ego - the damage buffs from ego go into diminishing returns very quickly, and at level 40 you'll want the extra hit points.

Swapping to AoPM might solve your energy issues right there; the extra boost to recovery and endurance is pretty noticeable. If it doesn't, consider using Supernatural Power instead of Molecular Self-Assembly, or finding a good attack on a short cooldown - Force Geyser, for example, can be used as an MSA trigger, and I'm sure there are others I'm not remembering offhand.

...I'll come back to this later, when I can actually get into game and look up a build or two that I've put together with similar goals.

bshue1

Some passives to note:

• Aura of Ebon Destruction
  

Boost damage of both you and your teammates, excellent support/dps. Scales off of PRE, which you are already using, and works best in support role with PRE primary, but still an excellent choice. Leaves you somewhat squishy though.

• Seraphim
  

Less useful than AoED, since it boosts only your damage and healing, and also locks you into using paranormal damage (Ego, Dark, Magic). The heal-over-time is unimpressive, but does proc the advantage in sentinel if you want to use it. Leaves you squishy like AoED

• Aura of Primal Majesty
  

Very good with primary INT since INT has two advantages that work off of your non primary stats. More of a Jack-of-All-Trades passive, this is great for a well rounded support, but gives much less damage than AoED and Seraphim. Much tankier though.

I may post more if you want.

ares

Noted!

Any recommendations for the actual abilities I should use for damage, or should I stick to Infernal?

I've thought of taking Hex of Suffering with the advantage that causes it to become an AoE root and thus Triggering the trapped effect from the Overseer Specialization, causing my team to do 9% more damage and due to the ability having a cooldown, it would also trigger Molecular Self-Assembly. Would this be good?

flowcyto

It depends if ur putting the theme before the gameplay, or the other way around. Do you want Infernal SN powers cause those are the attacks you'd like to see/use the most for that hero, or was that just the first magic-like powerset you picked for dps?

You can proc Wither, Trapped, etc by using Condemn w/ adv already, so ya dun necc need another power that holds. You'll have to get used to using that every so often between blasts, though. Also, CoEW's dmg boost is in the earliest layer so it isn't very good, and it gives you a healing penalty. I'd pass on it.

For a potential build, I'll stick w/ mostly Infernal SN powers for dps, at least for now:

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Intelligence (Primary)
Level 10: Constitution (Secondary)
Level 15: Presence (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Hero
Level 6: Shrug It Off
Level 9: Healthy Mind
Level 12: Diplomatic
Level 15: Acrobat
Level 18: Coordinated
Level 21: Finesse

Powers:
Level 1: Eldritch Bolts
Level 1: Infernal Blast (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 6: Aura of Primal Majesty (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 8: Compassion
Level 11: Condemn (Rank 2, Redemption Denied)
Level 14: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 17: Molecular Self-Assembly
Level 20: Arcane Vitality (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 23: Fire Snake (Trail Blazer)
Level 26: Vile Lariat (Kyoketsu Shoge)
Level 29: Defile (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 32: Redemption (Rank 2, Salvation)
Level 35: Masterful Dodge
Level 38: Ego Surge (Nimble Mind)

Travel Powers:
Level 6:
Level 35:

Specializations:
Intelligence: Enlightened (3/3)
Intelligence: Battle of Wits (2/3)
Intelligence: Detect Vulnerability (3/3)
Intelligence: Expertise (2/2)
Sentinel: Caregiver (2/3)
Sentinel: Sentinel Aura (3/3)
Sentinel: Moment of Need (3/3)
Sentinel: Wither (2/2)
Overseer: Administer (3/3)
Overseer: Ruthless (2/2)
Overseer: Impact (2/2)
Overseer: Trapped (3/3)
Mastery: Sentinel Mastery (1/1)

Lariat's just in there for a non-heal MSA trigger that's cheap and easy (and still in Infernal SN). Main stats to focus on here are the 3 SS's.

ares

Infernal certainly isn't a requirement at all, but I would certainly like that whatever I'm using is magic-y in some way. Which means things like energy based attacks, aka force cascade and whatnot, are totally fine.

Is Compassion a requirement, by the way? Would I be able to effectively heal tanks without it, with just presence as a superstat?

P.S. From what I understand, Wither isn't a good investment because the actual hold effects on bosses disappear near-instantly, thus the 10% damage boost isn't really noticeable and doesn't last beyond the hold effect, like Trapped does. This is the primary reason why I was hesitant to pick Sentinel.

Would replacing Lariat with Hex of Suffering be acceptable? You can use an advantage on it to make it cause a hold effect on everything in an aoe, which with sufficient cooldown reduction, means I can keep the 9% damage bonus from Trapped up 100% of the time, and trigger Molecular Self-Assembly to boot.

flowcyto

Wither's debuff is bugged and doesn't show up on targets, but still takes effect. It lasts about the same time as the other debuffs.

Compassion isn't a requirement at all- more the choice to take if you want a heavier support focus. Ur heals will be weaker w/o it, but it may still be passable depending on ur priorities. Ya could try using either Celestial Conduit or Iniquity if you want a decent hps heal w/o needing high healing bonuses. They both have downsides, though (Conduit's high energy cost, Iniquity hurts you to heal others).

If ur gonna include Hex ya may want to go full Sorcery and use Eld Blast and Skarn's. The latter will be nice w/ AoPM since its pretty costly anyways, but is good dps for an AoE maintain, and then ya have attacks that can all benefit from Hex's Magic debuff. Ofc, if ya just want to sub Hex into the prev Infernal SN build then go ahead.

One of many other possibilities, if ur leaving the door wide open to 'magic-like' attacks.

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Intelligence (Primary)
Level 10: Constitution (Secondary)
Level 15: Dexterity (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Glacier
Level 6: Covert Ops Training
Level 9: Healthy Mind
Level 12: Acrobat
Level 15: Coordinated
Level 18: Boundless Reserves
Level 21: Investigator

Powers:
Level 1: Eldritch Bolts
Level 1: Eldritch Blast (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 6: Aura of Primal Majesty (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 8: Concentration
Level 11: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 14: Molecular Self-Assembly
Level 17: Arcane Vitality (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 20: Hex of Suffering (Rank 2, Rune of Lethargy)
Level 23: Skarn's Bane (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 26: Ego Surge (Nimble Mind)
Level 29: Masterful Dodge
Level 32: Redemption (Rank 2, Salvation)
Level 35: Circle of Arcane Power (Rank 2)
Level 38: Eldritch Shield (Rank 2)

Travel Powers:
Level 6:
Level 35:

Specializations:
Intelligence: Preparation (2/2)
Intelligence: Enlightened (3/3)
Intelligence: Detect Vulnerability (3/3)
Intelligence: Expertise (2/2)
Avenger: Ruthless (2/2)
Avenger: Round 'em Up (3/3)
Avenger: Relentless Assault (3/3)
Avenger: Offensive Expertise (2/2)
Overseer: Administer (3/3)
Overseer: Ruthless (2/2)
Overseer: Trapped (3/3)
Overseer: Conservation (2/2)
Mastery: Avenger Mastery (1/1)

Similar to the Grimoire AT, which is a good one for its more limited power selection. Its more dps oriented than the last one- more of a Sorcery dps w/ a side of ally support. Fully maintain Skarn's and use Avenger Mastery procs on fast Eld Blast casts - using Hex for the debuff + MSA. Latter power slots are more like wildcards that could vary w/ ur priorities.

ares

I honestly thought that magic damage abilities in general were less about dps and more about utility. I'm guessing that this exact setup would do more damage if I used it with the previous scourge abilities, right?

I think I like this idea, but would this also work with presence secondary instead of dexterity, or is dexterity a requirement for this setup to work?

I'll admit, I very much like the idea of wither+trapped synergy, though and would prefer to keep it if possible. Mostly because the amount by which damage is increased works for all players, not just me, right? On the other hand, I have nothing to trigger the effect with, I suppose.

morigosa

If you're going for a wither+trapped synergy, there are two paralyze powers I know of (again, offhand, there may be others!) that can be used to boost your own DPS. They are Heat Wave (with the Engulfing Flames advantage and r2 for more damage), and Electrocute (with the Superconductor advantage but probably not r2 since it deals no damage). Unfortunately, these powers are also very set specific, working with Fire and Electricity, respectively.

Also, the advantages on these two work by reducing enemy resistances, and I'm not sure how that stacks with Detect Vulnerability from Int primary spec; they might combine very well, or they might just about fail to stack at all (but probably nothing inbetween). If you do go with a support character using fire or lightning, it might be better to go presence primary, with con/end as secondary stats, and use Compassion with Sentinel Aura from Sentinel Specialization to make sure Compassion will stack during combat even if you're not actively healing people.

flowcyto

Well, the initial Infernal SN build I posted makes use of the debuffs via Condemn w/ adv, and Hex w/ adv also in AoE for Trapped. A more dps focus for it would use Concentration (w/ an Int-focus) as the toggle; a CC focus would use Manip instead.

So to an extent, it'll just depend on what attacks ya wanna use, as ya can design hold debuffs to work w/ attacks from many powersets.

ares

Sorry! Woke up, timezones and all.

I think I'll go with initial SN build, though I don't have enough experience to say wether removing compassion for concentration would make the heals from the character a waste of space or not.

I guess the rotation would be something like Condemn every 8 seconds, throw out vile lariat on cooldown and spam defile after 5 infernal blasts until low on energy.

I was also wondering if switching out Arcane Vitality for Vala's Light with the hot advantage and conviction for protection field would be alright?

flowcyto

No need to apologize for ur personal schedule- this isn't a workplace

I usually wouldn't advise dropping Conviction; its a good self-heal (will be strong w/ healing bonuses) and an easy MSA trigger. Vala's Light is okay, given its a smaller radius heal. A PF + Vala's Light repertoire can still work fine, though, if ya really like those heals over the others, and can trigger MSA in other ways.

ares

What if I replace MSA with Circle of Arcane Power? Given that aura of primal majesty shores up some holes in my energy management, would it work fine?

flowcyto

MSA (or any other EU) is prob easier since it gives ya extra energy w/o tying ya down to a circle. But yeah, CoAP can replace an EU if ur okay w/ its handling.

ares

Well, my only concern is that because MSA scales with intellect and intellect gives cooldown reduction, that I might be missing out on value I'd otherwise have in the character. Since, generally I want to maximize the effectiveness of my character while keeping to the theme, I suppose.

For Vala's Light, my reasoning was that I'd apply the HoT on my team and that would keep them alive well enough without further immediate involvement for the time being, while I attempt to Condemn the mobs or if it's the boss, simply use an Eldritch Blast to reapply my dots and see what needs to be done from there. I'm not quite sure if that's how it will work out, though.

I'll stick to the MSA option you provided, I think. Thank you for investing the time to help! Cleared things up about general build philosophy for me.

flowcyto

Well, generally the HoT from Vala's Light's adv won't be substantial. Its more like background healing that helps w/ maintenance, but like Sentinel Aura isn't gonna be the thing saving people. If ya do wanna cut on uptime healing, then ya can either opt for one of the two high base hps heals mentioned before, which pops allies up quickly, or go defensive and take AoRP as ur passive, as the more dmgRes ur allies have the less you'll have to heal them. AoRP, ofc, doesn't boost ur dps or hps directly, though, so its all about picking what sort of strengths and weakness ya can live with.

ares

I tried the build today. One problem I see is that it's hard to go into actual DPS mode, because the debuff doesn't last long on bosses and I pretty much have to condemn every two infernal blasts to keep it going all the time time. Any recommendations?

flowcyto

That's the way most debuffs work in CO- the trade-off to being able to boost team dps like that is that it takes high upkeep. No real way around most of them, save for Trapped and Hex w/ adv cause that's the rare case of one application re-applying multiple times automatically. Its just a part of the debuff playstyle you have t get used to, or drop for more personal performance options.

ares

The rotation I've defaulted to is Condemn + Vile Lariat -> Infernal Blast - Condemn until 5 stacks of poison and then alternating between Defile and Condemn while spamming Vile Lariat until either low energy or stacks require refreshing. I don't mind that my numbers have gotten lower with the use of Compassion as much because of the effective 20% damage bonus the entire party recieves. I switched out Fire Snake for a block enhancer, though, because the power didn't actually provide me with any personal benefit and the 3% elemental resistance decrease was probably pretty negligable.

I'm considering going into heavier DPS with concentration instead of compassion and changing the heals to the heavier ones, though. Since I'm guessing with a pure support in the group or simply some tanks being self sufficient my extra healing would simply be out of place and largely unnecesarry for the majority of the time.

ares

So, I've played around with the build for a few days and generally adjusted my understanding of how things worked. After looking around to see if what I was using was indeed the best option and whatnot, I eventually rebuilt the character with slightly different goals in mind, more suited to what I actually wanted. I could see some potential downfalls in this, but I'm not quite sure how much of a "downfall" they really are.

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name:

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Presence (Primary)
Level 10: Constitution (Secondary)
Level 15: Dexterity (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Hero
Level 6: Amazing Stamina
Level 9: Lasting Impression
Level 12: Prodigy
Level 15: Impresario
Level 18: Accurate
Level 21: Survival Training

Powers:
Level 1: Eldritch Bolts
Level 1: Ice Blast (Rank 2, Hard Frost, Accelerated Metabolism)
Level 6: Compassion
Level 8: Aura of Ebon Destruction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Icy Embrace
Level 14: Ice Burst (Rank 2, Freeze, Dirtbag)
Level 17: Arcane Vitality (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 20: Icicle Spear (Rank 2, Rank 3, Accelerated Metabolism)
Level 23: Circle of Arcane Power (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 26: Redemption (Salvation)
Level 29: Eldritch Shield (Imbue With Power)
Level 32: Empathic Healing (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Ego Surge (Nimble Mind)
Level 38: Masterful Dodge

Travel Powers:
Level 6:
Level 35:

Specializations:
Presence: Repurpose (2/3)
Presence: Grandeur (3/3)
Presence: Moment of Glory (3/3)
Presence: Vulnerability (2/2)
Sentinel: Caregiver (3/3)
Sentinel: Sentinel Aura (3/3)
Sentinel: Moment of Need (2/3)
Sentinel: Wither (2/2)
Overseer: Administer (3/3)
Overseer: Ruthless (2/2)
Overseer: Trapped (3/3)
Overseer: Conservation (2/2)
Mastery: Sentinel Mastery (1/1)

The idea here was to drop intelligence, molecular self-assembly and dependancy on inefficiant cooldown abilities to generate energy and go back to CoAP for that, while also having the advantage of Compassion + Sentinel Aura keep up my energy even further.

I switched from Toxic damage to Ice damage purely because of Ice Burst being an ability you don't have to charge for as long as Condemn and it having a longer range, so allowing more room with CoAP and it still uses Paralyze effects, triggering Wither and Trapped, in addition to the new primary Presence spec that decreases resistances by 10% for everyone involved. I took Aura of Ebon Destruction because I wanted to go into Support role for the extra energy economy it provides, and this aura's purpose would be to make up what I'm losing in pure damage as well even further increase that of my team-mates.

What I'd like to know is, would this build be more effective at the general "offensive support" goal initially set at the beginning of this discussion than the toxic damage variant above?

notyuu

I should be able to help out somewhat, but instead of dropping a build or pointing out particular powers, I'm juts going to say, hit me up in-game and I'd be happy to talk this though, explain things and help you assemble the build you want, handle is @notyuu

flowcyto

The issue w/ using Ice Burst for debuffs is that its on a pretty long cd. Ya won't have high uptime on the debuffs if that's the only way to proc them in the build.

The Support role will hit ur dps pretty considerably, even using AoED over AoPM. It'll depend on how much ya like to buff allies and/or ur healing vs. ur own personal dps, though.

ares

And I guess if I take Arcane Clarity instead of AoED to lower the CD, we're right back at the low damage problem. Yeah, I see what you mean.

ares

Notyuu gave some helpful ideas about how critical severity and critical chance interacts with a hybrid build, effectively increasign both healing and damage, props for that. This is the build I ended up going with and it worked rather well, since I definitely noticed that my healing became surprisingly more effective, if a bit RNGish, than it was before even with compassion. The general concept is just to stand in the circle of arcane power and spam Skarn's Bane until stuff dies or someone needs healing, and wipe my own aggro by way of the sigils. There's one peculiar issue I noticed, however. When testing on a player that went villain and he went out of Skarn's Bane range, I decided to just stay there and Eldritch Bolt him. And my results are that a single casting of Eldritch Bolt crit for around 5.5k average, while Skarn's Bane crits started out at 800 crits and worked their way up to around 2.1-2.2k crits with the last tick. I'm not sure exactly which one actually does more DPS at this point. Should I be spamming Eldritch Bolts for single-target, or Skarn's Bane?

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name:

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Dexterity (Primary)
Level 10: Constitution (Secondary)
Level 15: Presence (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Hero
Level 6: Impresario
Level 9: Accurate
Level 12: Amazing Stamina
Level 15: Wordly
Level 18: Daredevil
Level 21: Shooter

Powers:
Level 1: Eldritch Bolts
Level 1: Eldritch Blast (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 6: Eldritch Shield (Imbue With Power)
Level 8: Chilled Form
Level 11: Arcane Vitality (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 14: Sigils of Radiant Sanctuary
Level 17: Hex of Suffering (Rank 2, Rune of Lethargy)
Level 20: Skarn's Bane (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 23: Ego Surge (Nimble Mind)
Level 26: Masterful Dodge
Level 29: Circle of Arcane Power (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 32: Aura of Ebon Destruction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 38: Redemption (Salvation)

Travel Powers:
Level 6:
Level 35:

Specializations:
Dexterity: Combat Training (3/3)
Dexterity: Gear Utilization (3/3)
Dexterity: Deadly Aim (3/3)
Dexterity: Expose Weakness (1/2)
Overseer: Administer (3/3)
Overseer: Ruthless (2/2)
Overseer: Trapped (3/3)
Overseer: Enhanced Gear (2/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: Modified Gear (2/2)
Vindicator: Mass Destruction (3/3)
Mastery: Dexterity Mastery (1/1)

flowcyto

Unfortunately, Skarn's can do more dps than Eld Blast even for single-target dps (more shows how weak standard blasts are than anything, considering Skarn's is still a high-tier power w/ a high cost and is a ramp-up).

If, however, ya wanted more dps from the blast, then I'd suggest trying an Avenger Mastery build using Relentless Assault. Hex can still be used for the debuff (and to proc MSA, if ur using it). Then ur rotation would be to fully channel Skarn's, and then full charge Eld Blast as long as AvMastery proced, and rotate in Hex when its avail. It may be the best ST dps Sorcery can get, outside of a Pet Master build using AoED. Hex w/ adv can also roll Trapped in Overseer, though taking Overseer over Vind will hurt ur personal Defense a bit (though can also boost ur heals) and lower ur crit rates (so its more of a team vs. self choice).

The only other main issue is if you have enough energy for full Skarn's channels.