Active Offense/Defense, Cognitive Dissonance, Please Explain

rajakaji

I'm just having a hard time understanding the utility of these powers. They generally have a minute and a half cool down, and a duration of around 15 seconds. I just don't see how something that only gives you 15 seconds out of every 1:30 factors so heavily into so many build necessities. Granted, you can reduce the cooldown with Int, Specs, and Gear, but I doubt it would get to the point of being constant, or even 50/50.

Admittedly, I'm still a newb, so I'm pretty sure there's probably something I'm missing or misunderstanding. So if anyone would deign to assist with my understanding I would be appreciative.

kallethen

IMO, I feel that it's worth considering grabbing an Active Defense power. They can provide a safety net when you find yourself in a pinch. I like to call them "Oh @#$%!!" buttons. Masterful Dodge, Unbreakable, Resurgence probably do this the best (and Field Surge if you have PFF as a passive).

Likewise, Active Offense powers allow you to have a burst of increased DPS. Like you say, it's a small burst with a long cooldown. However, if you are in a long lasting battle like a Cosmic or some of the end game lairs that small burst every so often can add up. They aren't worth using on trash mobs though. Personally, I don't rely on them a lot, but I have some characters that take advantage of an Active Offense.​​

rajakaji

Ok, so Active Defense for emergencies, Active Offense for big long fights. Granted, most of the time if I get hit by a heavy attack from a boss and didn't notice the tell, I'm dead, in which case an "Oh **** button" isn't going to help. But hopefully I'll get better with that. For a while I neglected blocking because I just couldn't get the timing down enough for it to be practical (I know, bad idea), but I got a lot of practice in during the Nightmare event. Hopefully knowing when to use Active Defenses will come to me in a similar manner.

vonqball

My dps has two AOs. I haven't put any real effort into cooldown-reduction... But, between the two, I get a fair amount of uptime.

pwestolemyname

What Vong said. In general, if you are DPS, it is good to take two AOs, that way you can get quite a bit of up-time. Also, remember they help you break free holds, and that can be a nice benefit sometimes.

For ADs, I think of them like Kall, as well, an "OH SHEET" button. They can help save you in Cosmic fights sometimes. For example, pop Masterful Dodge right before baby spawns at dino and block when it breaths on you. You will almost certainly survive. Or use Resurgance to bridge heals if you miss a block on spines and are taking the DoT.

But, I find ADs to particularly useful in other content when things get out of hand. Like, someone over-aggros in an Alert? Pop your AD to maintain and wipe out the extra baddies.

The other thing to consider is that what else are you going to spend power points on? Once you get a single-target attack and an AOE attack, with your passive, form, energy unlock, and self-heal, much else becomes redundant. There are a few buffs or debuffs you might take to synergize with your attack powers, but beyond that, you don't need much else. That will usually leave you with 2-4 power points. Rather than picking up redundant attacks, grabbing an AO and AD or two can end up being more useful.

I know where you are coming from. I used to feel the exact same way.

pantagruel01

rajakaji said:

Admittedly, I'm still a newb, so I'm pretty sure there's probably something I'm missing or misunderstanding. So if anyone would deign to assist with my understanding I would be appreciative.

There are plenty of fights that last less than 15 seconds, so popping an AO + AD can be the difference between faceplanting and winning (AD matters far more than AO). However, the other reason people take active offenses is because there's really quite severe diminishing returns on anything else you can take. Most power sets have a primary attack rotation of 2-3 powers. Add an energy builder, a passive, a form, an area attack, a block replacer, an energy unlock, and a self-heal, and you're up to 10 of 14 powers. There's simply nothing you can do with the remaining slots that's huge, so you might as well take an active defense, an active offense, an ultimate, and one other power for misc utility (or a second AO/AD).

flowcyto

Yea as Panta said, for an FF build once you get to that point, there's not much else to add that shouldn't already be a 'core' power to affect PvE dps considerably. I think AOs suffer a bit cause they all use passive dmg bonuses as a base, and that's the most diminished for dps vs. for tanks or healers, while tanks and healers generally are better suited using their powers slots towards other things for their core role.

However- w/ 2 AOs at r2 average, and decent cd reduction/Int on gear, you can still get pretty high uptime on having at least one up, which isn't too bad if you can keep track of it. Even one AO is still a decent burst tool overall- esp if ur in a team and you pop it when someone has used an Ult w/ the Overpower debuff.

roughbearmattach

Active Offense powers are also used to break out of holds. When you miss that block, and the next attack one-shots you, having the AO available to break free is valuable. On some toons, it is the only time I use my AO.

aesica

pantagruel01 wrote: »

Add an energy builder

I technically wouldn't count the energy builder as taking up a power slot since (if memory serves) there's one power slot specifically reserved for energy builders and nothing else. Even though you can choose to learn your EB after picking up several other powers, you can't actually eschew the EB in favor of something else, just like you can't skip a travel power in order to learn a normal power.​​