Tanky Venom Blaster

vonqball

Been having fun with my rocket-punchy, enraged combo-blaster... but I've been thinking about switching things up a bit. I recently got bothe the invis melee weapons and the rock claw bracers... so I thought I would switch him over to a Claws and Infernal combo-blaster.

Here is a tentative build...
PowerHouse   (Link to this build)

Name:

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Strength (Primary)
Level 10: Constitution (Secondary)
Level 15: Recovery (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Scourge
Level 6: Quick Recovery
Level 9: Paramilitary Training
Level 12: Ascetic
Level 15: Wordly
Level 18: Boundless Reserves
Level 21: Enduring

Powers:
Level 1: Infernal Bolts
Level 1: Viper's Fangs (Rank 2, Spitting Cobra)
Level 6: Infernal Blast (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 8: Invulnerability (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Supernatural Power
Level 14: Aspect of the Infernal
Level 17: Conviction
Level 20: Defile (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 23: Ego Surge (Nimble Mind)
Level 26: Resurgence
Level 29: Unbreakable
Level 32: Mighty Leap (Crippling Challenge, Nailed to the Ground)
Level 35: Devour Essence (Phlebotomist)
Level 38: Venomous Breath (Locust Breath)

Travel Powers:
Level 6: R.A.D. Sphere
Level 35: Jet Boots

Specializations:
Strength: Physical Peak (1/3)
Strength: Quick Recovery (2/2)
Strength: Aggression (2/2)
Strength: Brutality (2/2)
Strength: Juggernaut (3/3)
Warden: Fortified Gear (2/3)
Warden: Slaughter (3/3)
Warden: Ruthless (2/2)
Warden: The Best Defense (3/3)
Avenger: Ruthless (2/2)
Avenger: Round 'em Up (3/3)
Avenger: Relentless Assault (2/3)
Avenger: Preemptive Strike (3/3)
Mastery: Avenger Mastery (1/1)

vonqball

The plan is to Spam Viper's fangs to get the crits for a quick-charged infernal blast, followed by Defile. Venomous Breath could be switched out for epidemic (although the fartcloud is kinda annoying). Be nice to have a PBAoE, and maintains and aoe are both nice with the avenger tree.

Need to grab and hold all the aggros! A fair few of these powers can get crip c, so I don't see a massive issue there... but, some advice on optimising threat would be appreciated.

Haven't used the supernatural set much.. so I'm not too sure how much energy Supernatural Power will provide. I went with ego to scale up Aspect of the Infernal, but I could stat for intelligence instead.

flowcyto

For threat gen, CripC would be best on the combo, as its has the most number of hits vs. bosses than the other attacks will register (ideally, at least). If this was a DE-spamming build then you'd put CripC on that instead. Instead of the combo-blaster approach, a DE-focused version would prob use Avenger + Vind, w/ RA, AvMastery, Aggressive Stance, and Focused Strikes- that is if ya still wanted to weave the blast in there, and assuming ya didn't want ye olde Ward/Guardicator and a simpler rotation.

Regen could also work as the passive thematically and practically here (and then so could Compassion as the toggle- which can also scale w/ Rec), and you'll want to rank up Conviction and get some ranks in any non-MD ADs if ur using them.

If ya wanted a diff AoE than Breath or Epidemic, then Vicious Cyclone w/ Vortex and CS works well. Its not high dps, but a large pbAoE that also corrals mobs and does its job in tagging targets rapidly w/ CS.

SS could be CON/Int_Ego/Rec here, if ya wanna take adv of Resilient and Adren Rush. STR/Con/Int could still work better, though, if ya geared a bit of Rec and/or End on the side. You'll prob want to test how energy fares in the gear you want. Also, Quick Recovery isn't worth it, imo; I'd prob get Swole or Physical Peak over that.

vonqball

Well, the theme here is Bio-Armor based on Qularr tech. That is why I went with Invuln instead of defiance initially.. to represent the chitinous armored shell. I don't mind the idea of regen though... kinda works the buggly alien tech angle.

Combining compassion and regen never crossed my mind. I've seen builds with PFF and Compassion.... but, yeah never made that connection... seems so obvious now that you point it out tho. Didn't realize it scaled off Rec either... thought it was Pre-based. How would a build like this stack compassion though? Don't you need to heal other players to stack it up?

What other stuff does compassion buff? Heals from Devour Essence? Life Drain? Siphoning strikes on EW? The shield from Energy Wave? Those mini-shields from the OV tanking gloves?

I wanted to switch to infernal blast and defile because I thought they looked a bit like bio-energy blasts. But, I was also having trouble holding aggro in Rampages with my Defensive Combo->Rocket Punch Rotations. Thought having a big damage spike like defile thrown in would help a bit. Plus, energy has been an issue for the build, and was hoping to get a bit of extra juice out of supernatural power.

Kinda just tossed devour essence in there... it doesn't really fit the theme that well, but its just so damn good that I threw it in. If I continue on the combo-blaster route, I'll probably leave it out. Maybe throw in toxic nanites or something.

Don't know about dropping Strength PSS for Con. Fuel my fire would be really nice, but the crit sev and defence from the strength tree are very nice indeed.

flowcyto

Regen can stack Compassion alone, as long as ur taking dmg in combat, as it procs off either self or ally healing- same deal w/ 1 point in Quick Recovery in Str PSS if ur using something like Invuln instead. Ofc, keep in mind that Compassion doesn't offer as high of a dmg boost as other toggles, so it'll kinda depend on what you value more.

If ya took Regen, though, then ya dun necc need Conviction or DE, though having one as extra backup could be nice (would prob make it DE if using the SP EU). Ya also can't as easily test out ur energy situation in the PH if using Compassion- you'd have to go to the battle station and see how it all fares and make conjecture based on short fights.

I'd prob work in Int SS and see how ur energy is faring, since you want Int in there anyways for AotI. Can always try the Rec + Compassion route if that's not working out.

vonqball

Well, currently... my issue is holding threat. Some of the folks in rampages throw out some pretty intense damage numbers. Does the self-healing from regen generate threat? If so, I wonder how that threat amount would compare to the increased damage from a more aggressive toggle. I suppose it depends on how much damage you are taking & healing vs how much damage you deal (since the toggles are %-age boosts).

Being silver is reaaally annoying at times. The zen price for a retcon token is 12 or 13 bucks, and there are no freebies. That, coupled with the lack of access to the PTR, means I need to do all my testing in the PH.

flowcyto

If Regen's healing does gen threat, its prob not too much overall, and requires mobs to pay attention to you for a bit to dmg you anyways. If ur talking AoE threat, then ya know the easy way out for that (Epidemic), or try Vicious Cyclone w/ CS, Vortex, and R3. You may not always hold threat on all mobs in AoE w/ it, but ya will hold the ones a geared dps isn't burning down (who are going to die soon anyways), and ur CC'ing the mobs a bit to boot.

If ya mean single-target threat, then yeah the best bet there is getting CripC on VFang's, as I think I mentioned before. The flat threat is better on instants w/ short activation times than on attacks w/ a cd or on charged attacks. If ya still can't hold threat w/ that, then ya could consider a dps toggle and more dps gearing. Some players are just gonna be running w/ really geared and optimized toons, though, so to an extent ya can't always help it. I'd be worried if it happens all the time vs. only sometimes.

Ya could try going back to AotI, taking STR/Con/Int, and gearing some Rec or End on the side, I suppose. Better to leave the more questionable parts of build (powers and advs) to be trained last, so retraining those aspects manually isn't as costly. Even then, if you go w/ that and still don't hold aggro sometimes, at least ur still contributing dps and don't necc need to be getting hit to function.

vonqball

I've been toying around with various builds... went kinda off-track at one point and came up with this...

PowerHouse   (Link to this build)

Name:

Archetype: Freeform

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

Talents:
Level 1: The Master
Level 6: Acrobat
Level 9: Covert Ops Training
Level 12: Physical Conditioning
Level 15: Enduring
Level 18: Agile
Level 21: Martial Focus

Powers:
Level 1: Shadow Bolt
Level 1: Spirit Reverberation
Level 6: Void Shift (Emerging Nightmares)
Level 8: Shadow Embrace (Rank 2, Rank 3, Challenging Strikes)
Level 11: Form of the Tempest
Level 14: Dragon's Claws (Rank 2, Crippling Challenge)
Level 17: Invulnerability (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 20: Burning Chi Fist (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 23: Havoc Stomp (Rank 2, Cry Havoc, Challenging Strikes)
Level 26: Bountiful Chi Resurgence (Rank 2, Resurgent Reiki)
Level 29: Energy Shield (Laser Knight)
Level 32: Unbreakable (Better You Than Me)
Level 35: Ego Surge (Nimble Mind)
Level 38: Resurgence

Travel Powers:
Level 6: R.A.D. Sphere
Level 35: Jet Boots

Specializations:
Constitution: Fuel My Fire (3/3)
Constitution: Resilient (2/2)
Constitution: Deflection (3/3)
Constitution: Adrenaline Rush (2/2)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: Focused Strikes (3/3)
Vindicator: Mass Destruction (2/3)
Guardian: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Guardian: Ruthless (2/2)
Guardian: Retribution (2/2)
Guardian: The Best Defense (3/3)
Mastery: Constitution Mastery (1/1)

Bit of an oddball build I cooked up using thematic-looking powers and spirit reverb. The fact that reverb scales off Con makes it pretty tempting.

The idea is to apply the fear.. then gently apply a BCF to the target's face-ular region... followed by an invigorating series of Dragon's Claws... some charged (for le rush)... and some tapped.

AoE would be a job for Havoc Stomp or Shadow's Embrace.. depending on clump-shape.

My original idea was a more combo-blastery one. Using Shadow Blast and Enrage with Reverb.. along with Dragon Uppercut and cleave/defensive combo. That one had the advantage of being a two-stat build, with everything scaling off of Strength or Con.

flowcyto

The build looks alright, though not really related to the original post :x

I'm not sure that I'd use BCR for a setup w/o a dodge passive or dodge boosting powers, due to the dmg penalty, but as a cheap HoT its fine. Would prob also consider a STR/Dex/Con SS setup, and using Conviction or BShielding.

vonqball

^Yeah... I know... but they are related thematically (in my brain anyway). Brutish fisty/clawy melee attacks and weird alien-esque ranged attacks. However, I like that compassion+regen idea... and am planning to make a tanky hybrid in that vein as my next hero.

Strength PSS sounds good. On further reflection, I don't think I want that damage penalty from BCR anyway. I suppose I could embrace the darkness and take lifedrain as my heal... but I think conviction makes sense here. If I talent and stat-up intelligently, my crit rating and severity should both be quite high.

There is still the option of going with avenger tree... maybe avenger-vindicator and working shadow blast in. But I'm not sure what attack I'd take out to make room for it. The new dimensional debuff on SB is nice, but most of this build's damage is physical.. so I'm thinking it isn't worth

flowcyto

You could take adv of the Dimensional debuff w/ the Unarmed moves. 100Hands should trigger RA and w/ its GS adv do some Dimensional dmg. BCF and DU also offer some Dimensional dmg, ofc.

If ya wanna stick to claws, though, then I wouldn't worry too much about making the Dimensional debuff work w/ the rest of the build. Can always focus on Dimensional UA stuff for a diff character.

vonqball

Yeah was looking at 100 hands... But, this toon is really bulky... and the animation didn't quite fit the look. Too bad, cuz it woulda been a good fit for the build.

The nemesis I made for this guy is a big sumo. Maybe I'll make a hero version of him one day with Reverb, havoc stomp and 100 hands... would work perfectly for an E. Honda inspired hero.

vonqball

So, if I'm planning to stack dex fairly high (for FotT's damage bonus), should I take Parry w Elusive Monk over E-Shield w LK? I mean, parry scales off of Dex... and with Invuln, Juggernaught, and the Guardicator loop I should end up with some pretty high damage resist. Would the Dodge bonus be better?

flowcyto

Laser Knight is imo better since, iirc, its linger is a 15% final mitigation boost, though EM is still nice- and esp if it pushes ya past 100% dodge. Both come w/ dmg penalties, though.