Help finishing my Might build...

raighn

With the double XP buff active again I'm pushing to finish my Might character finally... and well I've kinda run into a brick wall as to where to go from here with her build...

Nekomi - Freeform

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

Talents
Level 1: The Predator (Str: 8, Con: 10, Dex: 10, Rec: 10)
Level 6: Martial Focus (Str: 5, Dex: 5)
Level 9: Relentless (Str: 5, Rec: 5)
Level 12: Impresario (Dex: 5, Rec: 5)
Level 15: Covert Ops Training (Str: 3, Dex: 3, Con: 3, Int: 3)
Level 18: Martial Training (Str: 3, Dex: 3, Ego: 3, Rec: 3)
Level 21: Paramilitary Training (Str: 3, Con: 3, Rec: 3, End: 3)

Powers
Level 1: Clobber
Level 1: Beatdown (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 6: Unstoppable (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 8: Mighty Leap (Bull Rush)
Level 11: Enrage (Endorphin Rush)
Level 14: Havoc Stomp (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 17: Retaliation (Punitive Pummeling)
Level 20: Aggressor (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 23: Rising Knee (Rank 2, Flowing Strikes)
Level 26: Pounce (Furious Rush)
Level 29: Conviction (Rank 2, Reverence)
Level 32:
Level 35:
Level 38:
Adv. Points: 32/36

Travel Powers
Level 6: Acrobatics
Level 35:

Specializations
Strength: Swole (3/3)
Strength: Physical Peak (3/3)
Strength: Brutality (2/2)
Strength: Overpower (2/3)
Brawler: The Glory of Battle (3/3)
Brawler: Penetrating Strikes (2/2)
Brawler: Ruthless (2/2)
Brawler: Setup (2/2)
Brawler: Offensive Expertise (1/2)
Arbiter: Enforcer (3/3)
Arbiter: Ruthless (2/2)
Arbiter: Arbiter Aura (3/3)
Arbiter: Rend (2/2)
Mastery: Arbiter Mastery (1/1)

I am well aware that she's going to be fairly squishy without Con, and I'm perfectly fine with that. I have no intention of changing anything with her existing build. Initially I wanted her to have a very knock heavy build, but the changes to Enraged earlier this year sorta killed that build entirely since I would end up losing stacks by chasing down enemies that I knocked 300ft away... Her current build is still fairly knock centric but a bit more restrained utilizing Knock Up and Knock Downs more than Knock Backs...

Stat and Spec wise, I decided that if I'm not going to build her for over-the-top knock backs, I'd build her for raw damage and consistent supercharged crits. I considered Brawler/Vindicator for her spec, but decided to go with Brawler/Arbiter for Arbiter Mastery and further debuffing defenses on crits... Also figured Arbiter Mastery would help with her squishiness from lack of Con.

So... that out of the way... I've got 3 empty power slots and 4 unspent advantage points... not quite sure what powers to pick up to finish her build up...

flowcyto

Well, Haymaker is still good vs. knock immune targets. You also have 2 lunges, and I'm not sure what ur planned rotation is. Also, I prob wouldn't bother w/ Conviction's Rev adv on a build w/ low bonus healing. Keep in mind that Demolish can KD and debuff too.

raighn

I took 2 lunges for a little extra mobility, I've been dealing with a lot of lag lately and keep finding myself lunging nowhere and my lunge goes on CD making me have to walk over... having a second lunge makes that less of a hassle, additionally lunging into a pack only for someone to AoE everything instantly dead the moment I get there or getting knocked right after lunging... purely for the added mobility...

As for Conviction's Rev advantage... just comparing the tooltip bonuses I'm actually getting more healing from R2+Rev than from R3...

flowcyto

Reverence on Conviction only heals allies, unless you are counting total (self + ally) healing?

raighn

hm... I could have sworn that I was getting self healing ticks from Reverence before...

aesica

If you've really got everything you want already, here's what I'd probably fill in with:

• Rebirth - It's really hard to go wrong with this power as a QoL improvement.
• MSA - Maybe. You don't have any EUs, and you also lack the Int to get very much from MSA, however it would still work nicely with your lunges, rising knee (your single target is rising knee + beatdown spam, right?), and conviction. Something is better than nothing, even if it won't be a ton due to base-level Int. Try it out and see if it adds anything of value.
• Haymaker - As already stated, it's great vs knock-immune targets since it won't send them flying out of range. Plus, it's also fun for putting mooks and random duel spammers in orbit.

flowcyto

MSA can be good for builds w/ no other good fit for an EU, even w/o Int. Esp if using Conviction- at lvl 40 gearing standards, MSA helps pay Conviction's cost back over 6 sec- even at 10 Int (10-11 /tick x3, and Conviction would likely cost 34-40 energy w/o Int). Ofc, the actual cost in this case is opportunity cost, since it still takes a power slot.

aesica

True, although with rising knee as part of her single target rotation, MSA should be rolling almost 100% of the time.

raighn

yea, Rising Knee + Beatdown is my single target rotation... I guess I could toss in MSA just for that extra bit of energy return... I have been having some minor energy issues here and there and MSA would help prevent having to use my EB as much when that does happen, even with it's minuscule return without Int... though I doubt it would hurt too much for me to toss an Int mod on a piece of gear just to bump the return up a little... regarding 10 Int MSA and Conviction however, you might want to recheck your numbers on that one I remember running the numbers for it before and without at least some Int it's actually about a 10-15 energy loss to roll MSA from Conviction, MSA's main attraction is that Int reduces energy costs and CDs so the energy return from it is usually comparatively larger than it really is, when you build MSA without Int it's return is usually rather poor... however with most of my energy return being from Enrage and Unstoppable, the little bit of energy from MSA would be beneficial still... Ideally i'd like to bump my Int up enough to get enough energy back from MSA for a Rising Knee, which I could then use to generate a larger burst from Unstoppable + Enrage...

Rebirth could probably work for her... thematically she wouldn't actually such an ability, but it's really not too hard to rationalize it as her not actually being defeated but knocked out momentarily...

I guess if I take Haymaker then my 4 remaining advantage points would go into ranking it up... that would also mean her single target rotation would likely go from a 2 power rotation to a 3 power rotation... That could be a good option and it would bring her back in line with her originally planned build... however I think I might possibly need a more reliable AoE than just Havoc Stomp... I usually try to full charge 1x then 50%-80% charge until enemies are down or just 1 remains... but the 50%-80% charge spam tends to burn through my energy fast since it doesn't reliably knock, and it seems that unless it's full charged for the guaranteed knockback it won't trigger Unstoppable's energy return once enemies become knock immune...

flowcyto

Keep in mind that MSA ticks 3 times total (unless ur refreshing it, ofc). The tooltip makes it seem like it only ticks 2 times, but its actually 3 due to a proc happening at the beginning and end of the timer. So I think that was about 33 energy total w/ 10 Int per proc.

And yea, Stomp isn't a great AoE, but mostly cause its reach is kinda poor and its dps isn't too great for what it does. Perhaps a Might review (that also looks at stuff like Beatdown and having to use passives to 'replace' an EU, etc) can buff it somehow. It can chain KU enemies if it procs, though, and that's pretty fun. I had a toon that paired it w/ EWave w/ Rev Polarity for the initial pull in and it was alright vs. trash (would prob just condense that to using Iron Cyclone w/ Vortex, though, if anything).

raighn

flowcyto said:

Keep in mind that MSA ticks 3 times total (unless ur refreshing it, ofc). The tooltip makes it seem like it only ticks 2 times, but its actually 3 due to a proc happening at the beginning and end of the timer. So I think that was about 33 energy total w/ 10 Int per proc.

O.o when did it get a tick at the start? I'm certain that hasn't always been there... has it?

Finding a good AoE that isn't out of theme for her is probably an impossible task... She doesn't use any any kind of weapons, just her strength... I suppose I could use a Bestial Melee AoE if necessary... It's not entirely out of theme for her.

aesica

raighn said:

flowcyto said:

Keep in mind that MSA ticks 3 times total (unless ur refreshing it, ofc). The tooltip makes it seem like it only ticks 2 times, but its actually 3 due to a proc happening at the beginning and end of the timer. So I think that was about 33 energy total w/ 10 Int per proc.

O.o when did it get a tick at the start? I'm certain that hasn't always been there... has it?

Finding a good AoE that isn't out of theme for her is probably an impossible task... She doesn't use any any kind of weapons, just her strength... I suppose I could use a Bestial Melee AoE if necessary... It's not entirely out of theme for her.

Several of the "every 3 seconds over 6 seconds" energy unlocks work like that.

As for AoEs, remember you can use the hidden weapon skin to give the appearance of an unarmed attack. My might character does that to make use of Thermal Reverb via Eruption+Magma Burst.

raighn

aesica said:

raighn said:

flowcyto said:

Keep in mind that MSA ticks 3 times total (unless ur refreshing it, ofc). The tooltip makes it seem like it only ticks 2 times, but its actually 3 due to a proc happening at the beginning and end of the timer. So I think that was about 33 energy total w/ 10 Int per proc.

O.o when did it get a tick at the start? I'm certain that hasn't always been there... has it?

Finding a good AoE that isn't out of theme for her is probably an impossible task... She doesn't use any any kind of weapons, just her strength... I suppose I could use a Bestial Melee AoE if necessary... It's not entirely out of theme for her.

Several of the "every 3 seconds over 6 seconds" energy unlocks work like that.

As for AoEs, remember you can use the hidden weapon skin to give the appearance of an unarmed attack. My might character does that to make use of Thermal Reverb via Eruption+Magma Burst.

I'm aware, but the visual effects of many of the weapon-based AoEs are kinda hard to ignore... I've got Sword Cyclone as my AoE on one of my other unarmed characters and it only really works for her because the sword trail lines up with her cape when spinning... and the more grandiose style weapon based attacks that would be more fitting for this character honestly look a bit awkward with invisible weapons... I like her attacks to be big and look like they have a real impact, Rising Knee is sorta her only small attack and it's really a bit of an underhanded attack too (her height results in it looking like she knee's most enemies in the groin :* ).

pwestolemyname

Since you are a squishy melee DPS, I would suggest 2 more AOs and a threat wipe. That way you can have an AO up for a major percentage of the time. I do this with my HW DPS and like it quite a bit. The other alternative would be to add in a couple on-next-hit damage boosters. A threat wipe for when you pull a bit more aggro than your squishy self can handle.

raighn

pwestolemyname said:

Since you are a squishy melee DPS, I would suggest 2 more AOs and a threat wipe. That way you can have an AO up for a major percentage of the time. I do this with my HW DPS and like it quite a bit. The other alternative would be to add in a couple on-next-hit damage boosters. A threat wipe for when you pull a bit more aggro than your squishy self can handle.

I have never liked AO or AD cycling... so I won't be doing that... as for threat wipes, while yes that could be a good power for her, it's really not necessary... she's also remarkably durable despite her low HP, while getting her from 29 to 40 this week I found myself as the defacto "tank" in so many alerts... her damage output caused her to hold more threat than other DPS (and sadly than some actual tanks even)... and she held her own against most enemies... it was kinda funny tanking alert bosses with only 15% of my HP left... Though in some alerts I had to actually stop and wait for someone else to attack because the enemies we were fighting would just rip right through me if I had to tank (Qliphothic Horrors >.>)...