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Pulsewave's Power Armor Rundown (revised)
Archived Post
Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
Please note: I ran out of room in my old thread, so I needed to start over again with a new one. Too much stuff to document!
**** Power Armor Overview ****
The Power Armor framework in Champions Online is a little confusing. The powers sound cool, but they mention slots and toggles that dont seem to exist anywhere else. Power Armor also recommends an odd combination of abilities for you with Strength and Intelligence. Should you take the Mechanized talent to build these stats, or are there better combinations? What powers make sense together? Here are some answers for you.
First off, it should be explained that Power Armor is non-standard. Its not necessarily more difficult than the elemental sets like Electricity or Fire, but it is less intuitive. With those sets you build up energy with your basic energy builder attack. When you have enough energy you use your better damage dealing powers. Almost all the higher tier powers can be charged up for 2-3 seconds to significantly increase their damage and effects. This is the staple for most frameworks.
Power Armor doesnt really work that way. There are only two attacks in the framework that can be charged up at all. All other attacks are toggles. That means you tap the attack, which will then execute automatically for its default time. One good thing about toggles is that you dont have to wait for 2-3 seconds of charge-up to deal damage. You deal damage immediately. The downside is that you dont have the option to increase the attacks effects and you lose the burst ability of having one massive attack stacked with other effects.
Another point to note is the slot concept that is unique to Power Armor. All attacks beside the un-enhanced energy builder have a slot designated as either hand or shoulder or chest. This limits you conceptually since you cant change the emanation point of most attacks. But its done because Power Armor attacks can be run at the same time as long as they are in different slots. That means you can toggle on Concussion Beam, Micro Munitions, and Shoulder Launcher simultaneously and get the damage from all three attacks at once. Thats awesome. You can even select different targets for attacks at the same time. Power Armor attacks work well with each other as long as you understand how the slots work.
Theres also a downside to this though. Every toggle you add increases the endurance cost of all the others. So youre going to burn a lot of endurance to deal high DPS. You also really need to keep most of your attacks in the framework. When you toggle on any Power Armor attack you are unable to use any other powers. Once your toggles are off it will take a second or two for everything else to recharge. And since your toggles are all DPS attacks and not burst damage, you cant easily split attacks between power frameworks. You dont need to worry about this, because Power Armor attacks are pretty effective. But choosing Power Armor means you are going to limit yourself conceptually. That might bother some players.
****Energy Unlock Notes:****
Almost every build should have an 'energy unlock' power at some point. This is a power that generates energy without making you resort to your energy builder attack. The amount of free energy you get scales up based on a specific stats. This differentiates the frameworks a bit, while making the 'energy unlock' stat a staple for it's associated framework.
Overdrive is the default Power Armor choice. It gives you free energy when you use any power armor maintain or toggle for at least half the max duration. The affect scales with your Intelligence or Endurance, whichever is higher. And Recovery scales the effect up as well. It is an easy energy unlock to use.
Oddly enough, Recovery scales this power up more than normal. If your build uses Intelligence but Recovery you'll actually have better results using Molecular Self Assembly. In that case you'll need to add a power or two that recharges frequently. Whether the extra energy is worth the hassle is up to you.
Another effect unlock is Molecular Self Assembly. It's a power from the Gadgeteering tree. It provides free energy whenever a power recharges from cooldown. You get immediate energy, which recurs twice over the next 6 seconds. If another power recharges in the meantime, the energy over time keeps going.
MSA scales up based mostly on Intelligence and also on Recovery. It will always generate 10 energy and it can go above 30 energy per tick. It's a good power choice on many Power Armor build and it makes high Intelligence a no-brainer.
An alternative unlock for builds using Concussor Beam or Energy Wave is Wind Reverberation. That generates energy every time you knock or push an enemy. With high Endurance you'll generate a lot of energy. You'll also want to take the Wind Shield if you go this route. The shield also pushes enemies back, which triggers Wind Reverberation in any stance. So you can easily generate lots of free energy while either blocking or attacking. It's a good alternative to MSA.
****Superstat Notes:****
Since the 'On Alert' update, builds have 3 super stats. One is a primary superstat, and the other 2 are secondary. The superstat choices add points to the selected stats every level. By level 40 you'll have added 80 points for the primary and 40 points for each secondary. You get bonuses from each stat, so you want each superstat to be as high as possible. Stat bonuses get applied based on your role, but the higher your stats, the bigger the bonus.
Also added with 'On Alert' are specializations. These are choices that individually add small bonuses to your build. One specialization tree will come from your primary superstat. So you want to make sure that your primary stat is not only useful for it's in-game effects, but also gives you a specialization tree that's useful. Dr Sage has a great rundown on the specialization trees HERE. Just note that Dr Sage's advice doesnt always apply well to Power Armor.
My experience with the spec trees suggests that Intelligence remains a very good primary superstat. It's particularly good if you want to run an Aura of Majesty build. That gives you lots of energy and criticals, and you can enhance your non-superstat bonuses in the Intelligence tree. But even without Aura of Majesty there are plenty of good choices. Expertise is great. Detect Vulnerability is great. Just about every choice is useful. And high INT is so useful for Power Armor that it's a good default selection.
Endurance is a tempting choice as well. With 'On Alert,' items can now enhance cost discount. That's a critical bonus for Power Armor. So you can get away with less INT while sustaining two or three toggles. And a high END is needed anyway. However, I don't like the Endurance specialization tree much. It's not terrible, but Intelligence is more of an 'offense' set and Endurance is more 'generic.' Some players like to take Kickback from the Endurance tree along with Wrist Bolters. That's a mistake though. You're better off with Super-Recovery instead (see below). That much said, you'll probably want Endurance as a secondary super stat. It's still a great stat to have as high as possible. You used to have to choose either INT or END, because gear was divided up in a way that you couldn't maximize both at the same time. Now you can. Winning!
Ego is another stat you need to look into. It adds ranged damage and ranged knockback. Most Power Armor builds are based around ranged damage, so you are gimping your build if you don't have some ego. Making it a superstat lets you maximize the free ranged damage bonus and the superstat damage bonus at the same time. You don't need super Ego if you're building a tank, but otherwise it is a tough stat to skip. The specialization tree is better than Endurance but worse than Intelligence for most builds. Power Armor builds can get better crits and some cost reduction. In my tests this allowed Pulsewave to crit significantly better with primary Ego than with primary Intelligence, but overall dealt reduced DPS. That's probably due to increased energy use and longer active offense recharge time, plus the penetrating damage from the INT tree.
Dexterity is a tempting tree to choose. Dexterity is a very cool specialization tree and I like it overall. It has the best mastery choice out of any of the ability trees above. You could drop either INT or END and do a DEX / EGO / INT or END build. This is fun, as you can pretty easily have over 35% crit chance and over 100 critical severity. However, you will lose out on either recharge time, max endurance, or energy costs. My testing suggests that it's not a worthwhile tradeoff. My builds did better overall maximizing consistent damage with lower costs and more max energy. You still get crit rates in the 20-30% range, and crit sev around 75% without Dexterity. And you increase crit chances with various items, specializations, and offensive passives. My tests aren't comprehensive, so feel free to experiment. But if you want to save yourself half a days work testing for the best option, just go with INT, END, EGO.
Constitution is an option for builds that aren't optimizing damage. The only reason I would take CON is if I was building a dedicated tank. If you want a well-rounded hero, stick with Ego and use either Aura of Majesty or Invulnerability. You don't need Constitution as a superstat for general gameplay. Every team needs more damage, which means more of the stats above.
Finally, one last stat to look into is Recovery. This is a largely undervalued stat that is pretty nifty as a Power Armor superstat. It has a good specialization tree as your primary superstat too, and a decent mastery skill. But the main thing to know about Recovery is that it scales up Overdrive like crazy. If you take Super REC with secondary END or INT, then you will have Overdrive giving you over 20 energy per tick at level 40. And that can stack three times. You can increase that another 15% with Efficient from the Recovery spec tree. This can give you as much energy as you need for almost any build. Primary Recovery is a much better way to build your hero than trying to use Wrist Bolters + Kickback from the Endurance spec tree. With Super-Recovery you can use all your weapons at once from all three power armor 'slots,' and you can do it at any range you want. That's going to be at least a 33% increase in DPS. And you don't have the hassle of dealing with Wrist Bolters messing up your other recharging powers.
The other stats shouldn't help you out too much for a Power Armor build. I like to have some Presence, but making it a superstat is crazy for Power Armor. You can't really do a hybrid support/damage build because your attacks will disable your heals and shields. That delays their use for a second or two every time you attack. It makes a support hybrid too frustrating to bother with. Strength can be great when combined with Aura of Majesty and Enrage. But with the new role system it seems that the 'Ranged Damage' stance is more useful that it used to be. And the Endurance Intelligence combo is really nice for using 3 toggles at once.
**** Power Armor Overview ****
The Power Armor framework in Champions Online is a little confusing. The powers sound cool, but they mention slots and toggles that dont seem to exist anywhere else. Power Armor also recommends an odd combination of abilities for you with Strength and Intelligence. Should you take the Mechanized talent to build these stats, or are there better combinations? What powers make sense together? Here are some answers for you.
First off, it should be explained that Power Armor is non-standard. Its not necessarily more difficult than the elemental sets like Electricity or Fire, but it is less intuitive. With those sets you build up energy with your basic energy builder attack. When you have enough energy you use your better damage dealing powers. Almost all the higher tier powers can be charged up for 2-3 seconds to significantly increase their damage and effects. This is the staple for most frameworks.
Power Armor doesnt really work that way. There are only two attacks in the framework that can be charged up at all. All other attacks are toggles. That means you tap the attack, which will then execute automatically for its default time. One good thing about toggles is that you dont have to wait for 2-3 seconds of charge-up to deal damage. You deal damage immediately. The downside is that you dont have the option to increase the attacks effects and you lose the burst ability of having one massive attack stacked with other effects.
Another point to note is the slot concept that is unique to Power Armor. All attacks beside the un-enhanced energy builder have a slot designated as either hand or shoulder or chest. This limits you conceptually since you cant change the emanation point of most attacks. But its done because Power Armor attacks can be run at the same time as long as they are in different slots. That means you can toggle on Concussion Beam, Micro Munitions, and Shoulder Launcher simultaneously and get the damage from all three attacks at once. Thats awesome. You can even select different targets for attacks at the same time. Power Armor attacks work well with each other as long as you understand how the slots work.
Theres also a downside to this though. Every toggle you add increases the endurance cost of all the others. So youre going to burn a lot of endurance to deal high DPS. You also really need to keep most of your attacks in the framework. When you toggle on any Power Armor attack you are unable to use any other powers. Once your toggles are off it will take a second or two for everything else to recharge. And since your toggles are all DPS attacks and not burst damage, you cant easily split attacks between power frameworks. You dont need to worry about this, because Power Armor attacks are pretty effective. But choosing Power Armor means you are going to limit yourself conceptually. That might bother some players.
****Energy Unlock Notes:****
Almost every build should have an 'energy unlock' power at some point. This is a power that generates energy without making you resort to your energy builder attack. The amount of free energy you get scales up based on a specific stats. This differentiates the frameworks a bit, while making the 'energy unlock' stat a staple for it's associated framework.
Overdrive is the default Power Armor choice. It gives you free energy when you use any power armor maintain or toggle for at least half the max duration. The affect scales with your Intelligence or Endurance, whichever is higher. And Recovery scales the effect up as well. It is an easy energy unlock to use.
Oddly enough, Recovery scales this power up more than normal. If your build uses Intelligence but Recovery you'll actually have better results using Molecular Self Assembly. In that case you'll need to add a power or two that recharges frequently. Whether the extra energy is worth the hassle is up to you.
Another effect unlock is Molecular Self Assembly. It's a power from the Gadgeteering tree. It provides free energy whenever a power recharges from cooldown. You get immediate energy, which recurs twice over the next 6 seconds. If another power recharges in the meantime, the energy over time keeps going.
MSA scales up based mostly on Intelligence and also on Recovery. It will always generate 10 energy and it can go above 30 energy per tick. It's a good power choice on many Power Armor build and it makes high Intelligence a no-brainer.
An alternative unlock for builds using Concussor Beam or Energy Wave is Wind Reverberation. That generates energy every time you knock or push an enemy. With high Endurance you'll generate a lot of energy. You'll also want to take the Wind Shield if you go this route. The shield also pushes enemies back, which triggers Wind Reverberation in any stance. So you can easily generate lots of free energy while either blocking or attacking. It's a good alternative to MSA.
****Superstat Notes:****
Since the 'On Alert' update, builds have 3 super stats. One is a primary superstat, and the other 2 are secondary. The superstat choices add points to the selected stats every level. By level 40 you'll have added 80 points for the primary and 40 points for each secondary. You get bonuses from each stat, so you want each superstat to be as high as possible. Stat bonuses get applied based on your role, but the higher your stats, the bigger the bonus.
Also added with 'On Alert' are specializations. These are choices that individually add small bonuses to your build. One specialization tree will come from your primary superstat. So you want to make sure that your primary stat is not only useful for it's in-game effects, but also gives you a specialization tree that's useful. Dr Sage has a great rundown on the specialization trees HERE. Just note that Dr Sage's advice doesnt always apply well to Power Armor.
My experience with the spec trees suggests that Intelligence remains a very good primary superstat. It's particularly good if you want to run an Aura of Majesty build. That gives you lots of energy and criticals, and you can enhance your non-superstat bonuses in the Intelligence tree. But even without Aura of Majesty there are plenty of good choices. Expertise is great. Detect Vulnerability is great. Just about every choice is useful. And high INT is so useful for Power Armor that it's a good default selection.
Endurance is a tempting choice as well. With 'On Alert,' items can now enhance cost discount. That's a critical bonus for Power Armor. So you can get away with less INT while sustaining two or three toggles. And a high END is needed anyway. However, I don't like the Endurance specialization tree much. It's not terrible, but Intelligence is more of an 'offense' set and Endurance is more 'generic.' Some players like to take Kickback from the Endurance tree along with Wrist Bolters. That's a mistake though. You're better off with Super-Recovery instead (see below). That much said, you'll probably want Endurance as a secondary super stat. It's still a great stat to have as high as possible. You used to have to choose either INT or END, because gear was divided up in a way that you couldn't maximize both at the same time. Now you can. Winning!
Ego is another stat you need to look into. It adds ranged damage and ranged knockback. Most Power Armor builds are based around ranged damage, so you are gimping your build if you don't have some ego. Making it a superstat lets you maximize the free ranged damage bonus and the superstat damage bonus at the same time. You don't need super Ego if you're building a tank, but otherwise it is a tough stat to skip. The specialization tree is better than Endurance but worse than Intelligence for most builds. Power Armor builds can get better crits and some cost reduction. In my tests this allowed Pulsewave to crit significantly better with primary Ego than with primary Intelligence, but overall dealt reduced DPS. That's probably due to increased energy use and longer active offense recharge time, plus the penetrating damage from the INT tree.
Dexterity is a tempting tree to choose. Dexterity is a very cool specialization tree and I like it overall. It has the best mastery choice out of any of the ability trees above. You could drop either INT or END and do a DEX / EGO / INT or END build. This is fun, as you can pretty easily have over 35% crit chance and over 100 critical severity. However, you will lose out on either recharge time, max endurance, or energy costs. My testing suggests that it's not a worthwhile tradeoff. My builds did better overall maximizing consistent damage with lower costs and more max energy. You still get crit rates in the 20-30% range, and crit sev around 75% without Dexterity. And you increase crit chances with various items, specializations, and offensive passives. My tests aren't comprehensive, so feel free to experiment. But if you want to save yourself half a days work testing for the best option, just go with INT, END, EGO.
Constitution is an option for builds that aren't optimizing damage. The only reason I would take CON is if I was building a dedicated tank. If you want a well-rounded hero, stick with Ego and use either Aura of Majesty or Invulnerability. You don't need Constitution as a superstat for general gameplay. Every team needs more damage, which means more of the stats above.
Finally, one last stat to look into is Recovery. This is a largely undervalued stat that is pretty nifty as a Power Armor superstat. It has a good specialization tree as your primary superstat too, and a decent mastery skill. But the main thing to know about Recovery is that it scales up Overdrive like crazy. If you take Super REC with secondary END or INT, then you will have Overdrive giving you over 20 energy per tick at level 40. And that can stack three times. You can increase that another 15% with Efficient from the Recovery spec tree. This can give you as much energy as you need for almost any build. Primary Recovery is a much better way to build your hero than trying to use Wrist Bolters + Kickback from the Endurance spec tree. With Super-Recovery you can use all your weapons at once from all three power armor 'slots,' and you can do it at any range you want. That's going to be at least a 33% increase in DPS. And you don't have the hassle of dealing with Wrist Bolters messing up your other recharging powers.
The other stats shouldn't help you out too much for a Power Armor build. I like to have some Presence, but making it a superstat is crazy for Power Armor. You can't really do a hybrid support/damage build because your attacks will disable your heals and shields. That delays their use for a second or two every time you attack. It makes a support hybrid too frustrating to bother with. Strength can be great when combined with Aura of Majesty and Enrage. But with the new role system it seems that the 'Ranged Damage' stance is more useful that it used to be. And the Endurance Intelligence combo is really nice for using 3 toggles at once.
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updated June 2012
Energy Builders
Wrist Bolter
Power Bolt
Laser Edge
Ranged Attacks
Power Gauntlet
This is a good attack, but it shares a slot with Concussion Beam and Tactical Missiles. Power Gauntlet has double the range and can interrupt. The interrupt used to be ineffective, but was boosted for 'On Alert' and is now pretty handy. Crippling Challenge used to be the main reason to take this power, but it's become a pretty good attack overall. Power Gauntlet is a more versatile attack than Concussor, plus it doesnt shove your target back. This makes it a better power in some ways than Concussor Beams, especially on teams. If you want to be the tank you'll take this power. You can taunt, disable shields, and most importantly stay in one place without moving enemies out of nice, tight groups. Don't bother with Downrange Disaster, you're better off just taking another rank for a flat 20% damage bonus.
This is actually a great DPS power if you take Avenger Mastery. If you get enough criticals from your other toggles you can almost double the DPS from Power Gauntlet. That makes it a higher damage power than Concussor Beams for an Avenger Master build. And the more frequent, high power shots will interrupt your target.
Tactical Missiles
This is another good attack shares a slot with Concussion Beam and Power Gauntlet. Tactical Missiles is the best raw damage dealer in several ways. At rank 3 and combined with Avenger Mastery it's just nasty. Alternatively you can take Blast Radius and tap the power for silly AoE damage. Either choice works well, which makes this a very useful power.
Concussor Beams
This power has a great damage to endurance cost ratio, as long as you sustain this attack for a few seconds. The consistent damage is awesome and its easier to manage than the bursty Power Gauntlet. The repel works great, and it doesn't push targets out of range any more because the repel effect is a bit shorter than the max range.
Concussor Beams combines well with the shield from Wind Mastery, super Endurance, and Wind Reverberation. You will generate a ton of free energy either attacking or defending with that combo.
Eye Beams
I am not a fan of waiting for the penetration effect to kick in. It takes several seconds to work, and by that time enemies are running all over the place with agro. The penetrating damage is also bugged for Targeting Computer and doesn't trigger 'Lock On' mode. Look at this power as a single-target attack with an added bonus when you evaluate it. The raw damage is fine now, and the energy costs is still rather low, so this is a decent attack if you want to use only particle damage. But overall I'd still rather take Mini Gun with U-238 Rounds just for the great defense debuff.
Ranged Area Attacks
Mini Gun
This might be the best attack in the framework due to the combo of long ranged AoE, debuff, and low endurance cost. Great animation too. Its hard to imagine passing this one up. You can quickly debuff defense up to 21% with this power alone. That's awesome. Note that this power is only a 2 foot radius AoE cone by default. You can increase the radius to 5 feet with the Infrared Guidance advantage for 1 advantage point.
The only annoying thing is that the power doesnt like to turn itself off. Even after your target is destroyed, Mini Gun will continue to unload whoopass on the corpse for its full 6 second sustain. Mini Gun operates like Mac in the scene from Predator, where he loses his cool and shoots up the whole jungle. Except that Mini Gun does this every time you use it. Get used to turning Mini Gun off manually because the thing is in constant overdrive. You can use this to your advantage by strafing into loose MOBs, so it does have an upside.
Micro Munitions
The Alpha Strike advantage is about a 40% damage bonus against the primary target. That's compared to taking another rank of damage, which would be 20% extra damage overall. The other notable advantage is Challenging Strikes, which is important if you want to tank and draw agro.
Chest beam
The Point Blank Shot advantage can deal up to 50% extra damage at close range. Generally this isn't a good choice, because ranking up the power increases the debuff. And the debuff is as good as the raw damage overall.
Overall, Chest Beam is a nice defense debuff that also deals good damage. It's not a toggle, so you can use it pretty often even if you take Micro Munitions. While leveling up I'd pick either Micro Munitions or Chest Beam but eventually you can take both powers. Since this is an AoE again, it is really hard to pass this power up.
Shoulder Launcher
You used to be able to use this attack at the same time as Mini Gun. That bug has been fixed, so now it's a choice of which attack you prefer. Shoulder Launcher looks and sounds awesome. The slow activation is still a problem, but the damage is really good now. And the knockback can be a useful form of defense against some enemies.
Energy Wave
Energy Wave has some interesting advantages. Reverse Polarity changes the knock-back to knock-toward. This is useful for melee builds, such as Laser Sword specialists. Ranged builds should prefer the default knock-back and repel.
The other advantage is Hardened Particle Matrix, which gives you a weak force field defense for a short time. At level 40 the shield is increased 150 points per enemy hit, but it has a limit of just 900 points total. The shield looks awesome, but it's generally not worth the 3 advantage points.
Overall I like Energy Wave. It's a useful defensive power even without Particle Matrix. This is a power you have to try out for yourself, as it could go in just about any build.
Ranged Area Attacks (continued)
Plasma Beam
Other than the elevation issues, Plasma Beam is a cool attack. The damage is good, and being maintain has its advantages. This is the only power armor attack that can consistently trigger Relentless Assault from the Avenger tree. Since you don't have to target an enemy, you can boost your offense with this combo whenever you want. And if you do manage to hit your target you'll deal good AoE damage. Your best bet is to take the Melta Cannon advantage, since that adds Plasma Burn damage over time. That lets you off the hook a bit with having to target with Plasma Beam directly. Overall I wouldn't bother with Plasma Beam though. Hopefully the targeting gets fixed in the long run.
Fire All Weapons
Fire All Weapons is a tough call. It does deal great damage over a huge area, and 10 targets is a lot. And since it is a long maintain it can clear a whole area effectively. It's a better power if you take Revitalize from the Intelligence specialization tree. That will cut the recharge time down and can use Fire All Weapons more than once every minute or so. But in most cases I would pass on Fire All Weapons though.
Melee Attacks
Laser Sword
Ahem... This is the primary melee attack in the set. Particle Acceleration only debuffs DR to energy damage, so only your particle attacks will benefit.
If you want to use Laser Sword as your main attack then take it to rank 3. It's a good attack on its own. The Particle Acceleration's debuff makes attacking prohibitively expensive. In this case you should just leave Laser Sword at rank 1. Avoid using it except for a single attack to apply a debuff. The last time I checked, Particle Acceleration would auto-stack itself to level 3 even on a single hit. Only the single hit should necessary to max out the debuff. So be sure to test this out if you want to do a Gundam thing.
Plasma Cutter
Lightspeed Dash
Energy Unlock
Overdrive
Overdrive gives you free energy when you use any power armor maintain or toggle for at least half the max duration. The affect scales with your Intelligence or Endurance, whichever is higher. And Recovery scales the effect up as well. It is an easy energy unlock to use.
Oddly enough, Recovery scales this power up more than normal. If your build uses Intelligence but Recovery you'll actually have better results using Molecular Self Assembly. In that case you'll need to add a power or two that recharges frequently. Whether the extra energy is worth the hassle is up to you.
Healing
Reconstruction Circuits
The fact that Reconstruction Circuits is a power armor toggle makes it un-arguably the most restrictive heal in the game. Power armor toggles 'grey out' all powers that aren't power armor attacks. Since Reconstruction Cicuits is a toggle, any power that isn't labelled as a 'power armor slot' becomes disabled while it is activated.
Normally that's just a little annoying for power armor attacks. But with Mini Gun or any other long-running toggle you could just hit 'block' to cancel all your toggles at once. Reconstruction Circuits runs for 8 seconds and is not cancelled with block. So it's much more annoying to disable if you want to use any other power.
Reconstruction Circuits prevents you from using any other buff or heal on yourself while it's active. Most other heals and defensive powers can easily be stacked together. But you have to manually de-toggle Reconstruction Circuits, activate your self-buff or heal, and then toggle Reconstruction Circuits back on. That will be the difference between getting defeated or surviving in some cases. This is especially troublesome if you use an offensive passive. Offensive builds need to execute heals very quickly and stack them with active defenses. Reconstruction Circuits prevents that from happening.
Reconstruction Circuits also has hidden energy costs limitations. Don't forget that activating a toggle also increases the energy costs ALL your active power armor attacks by 10% each. So using this heal will run your energy down much faster than normal, since you don't just pay the actual energy cost of Reconstruction Circuits. You also have to pay the 'power armor' tax on Reconstruction Circuit AND all other attacks while you have Recon Circuits active. And since is a 'chest slot' attack it disables your energy builder. So you don't just spend more energy on all your power armor attacks while Recon Circuits is active. You also can't recover energy very easily until you manually disable this heal.
And don't forget that you can't use using Micro Munitions, Chest Beam, and Fire All Weapons with Reconstruction Circuits. Fortunately using a 'chest slot' attack will just cancel Reconstruction Circuits for you.
Whew! That's a lot of limitations for a heal power. So this heal must be phenomenal, right? Unfortunately, this isn't the case. All you get for your trouble is a very basic heal over time. The healing rate of Reconstruction Circuits is nothing special. It's just a bit less than Bionic Shielding, which has the advantage of being a targetted heal that you can use on your allies too. And Reconstruction Circuit cannot even crit-heal. That further reduces it's usefulness. A heal like Conviction will critical hit. That can more than make up for a lower default heal rate.
In the end I do not see why any build should ever choose to take Reconstruction Circuits over an existing heal. Tank-style builds are already well served by Bionic Shielding. The only limitation there was that you had to take damage to get healed. Tanks want the agro anyway. Recon Circuits does heal for more over time than Bionic, but Bionic heals more damage immediately, doesnt reduce your damage output, costs less energy, and allows you to use other powers while its active. That's an epic-level win for Bionic Shielding over Recon Circuits.
Builds with any significant recharge reduction and critical chance could just take Conviction. You'll heal more damage faster with crits, and you won't get in the way of other powers. Plus you can trigger MSA as a side benefit. Builds with any dodge chance can take Bountiful Chi Resurgence with Resurgent Reiki. That heal reduces damage dealt directly, but it costs you almost no energy and does not increase your existing power armor energy costs. Plus it doesnt disable your energy builder and chest slot. So you shouldnt actually lose any damage potential. Even if you DONT have any dodge items, combining Reiki with Masterful Dodge makes for a 15-second "can't kill me" button every minute or so. That's still a good combo for any build. Any build with high Constitution should prefer Resurgence. A quick, no-cost heal with no restrictions. And so on, etc... There are other heals out there too. For any example that I've seen from anyone arguing that Reconstruction Circuits is useful I've always found that another existing heal is a better option. This is a power of such limited value that it shouldn't have gotten off the Test Server in the form it did.
So the bottom line is this power is of extremely little value to almost any build in the game. Only power armor ranged builds would want to even try using Reconstruction Circuits. And even then, most builds should find better results from other heals. It's too bad, because it is a very cool looking power and players wanted to like it.
Self Buffs
Concentration
Taking a form is pretty much a given. Concentration is the way to go unless you are doing the Laser Sword thing.
Energy Shield
Blocks are distinguished by their advantages, and Energy Shield has two really good ones. Melee users can choose Laser Knight for 3 points. That grants a substantial damage reduction when you make melee attacks, with a smaller but still significant penalty to your damage.
The other great advantage is Phalanx Defense System. This grants defense when you activate any Ppower armor slot. It's only about 10% defense, but there's no penalty to offense. Overall it's a great choice for ranged power armor users.
It is worth noting that another good option is Force Shield with Force Sheath. That shield generates energy even without blocking and is more generally useful. Alternatively, the shield from the Wind powerset is very useful with Concussor Beams. And the Electric Shield is very useful for Aura of Majesty builds, since you deal damage while blocking. But the Phalanx Defense advantage is good enough that I'd stick with Energy Shield for most power armor builds now.
Unbreakable
Unbreakable is a lot like Field Surge from the Force tree. Unbreakable is phenomenal against regular enemies as long as you don't attack. It keeps you totally protected unless you take more than 3000 damage or so in one shot. Field Surge can be better if you do attack, since it gives better initial protection that doesnt refresh. Both powers are good. Unbreakable is better overall, but also has more limited value against the raid-type bosses that can defeat Unbreakable's damage reduction in one shot.
Invulnerability
Many other writeups exist for all the passives. The bottom line is that its a good option but you arent limited to it just because its in the framework. To understand this you really need to compare it to Regeneration, Defiance, Personal Force Field, and Super Reflexes. Do a forum search to really understand the defenses. If you don't want to worry too much about all the intricacies of making a good build, just choose Invulnerability. If you are willing to play the game on hard mode in order to deal more damage than you can look into the offensive passives below.
Targeting Computer
Targeting Computer is pretty effective as the default offensive passive for ranged Power Armor builds. You could also take Quarry from the Archery framework instead. That will increase your damage too, but more with physical attacks than energy. There are enough attacks in power armor that you can get the full damage bonus from Quarry now, plus Quarry also raises your INT and EGO, and Quarry gives a much better defensive bonus. But offensively the passives are both pretty decent.
The main issue with Targeting Computer is that it bizzarely affects only attacks in the Technology tree labelled as 'ranged'. So it won't affect Laser Sword, or Mini Mines, or Sonic Device, or Orbital Cannon, and so on. It's a limitation that you can work with, but it's a significant one. By comparison, Quarry just boosts all damage. If it's physical damage Quarry gives the full damage bonus, if it's non-physical damage Quarry gives a half damage bonus.
Electric Form from Electricity can work well too especially if you concentrate on Power Armor's particle attacks. And Kinetic Manipulation from Force works at the same damage level as Electric Form if you take all physical attacks instead of particle damage. Kinetic Manipulation has decent defensive passive benefits, compared to Electric form which is all offensive. Both are legitimate options. The main limitation with either one is that Electric Form has a very distinct look to it that may not be appropriate for many power armor themes.
So here is the summary your best choices for offensive roles:
Pulsewave Mark XIII:: 'Gyrojet'
Here is an updated build for the Power Armor update of 2012. This is a heavy damage-dealing build with a good amount of sustainable defense.
This build takes advantage of the excellent ballistic attacks available for Power Armor. Skipping out on all the particle energy attacks makes Quarry a great choice for offensive passive. And that allows you to build much more consistent defenses while maximizing your offensive damage. Note that this is why I have chosen Force Bolts again as the energy builder. It gets a larger bonus from Quarry, although it's not a really big deal in the long run.
The key attacks are now Tactical Missile for you hand slot, Mini Gun for your shoulder, and Micro Munitions for the chest. All three attacks get the full damage bonus from Quarry. I stick with rank 3 for Tactical Missiles, although you can take Blast Radius to become a ridiculous AoE machine. If you go this route you can offset the single target damage loss by swapping rank 3 Micro Munitions for Alpha Stike. These three attacks are very solid and all have a nice 100 foot range. With Overdrive and Concentration running you can use all three powers.
You support these basic attacks with a rotation of offensive and defensive click powers. With super Intelligence you can basically run one or two actives at a time. Lock and Load is the best, as it increases damage while also reducing costs. But Ego Surge does a good job as well.
A final power that's worth taking is Sonic Device. Not only is it a useful power, but it looks fantastic as a big explosion with this Gyrojet build. Sonic Device even deals decent damage, but the best part of it is the stun. That's the reason to take it to rank 3 instead of using Deafening Dissolution. But the nice thing with Quarry is that you actually get to enhance the damage dealt. Targeting Computer wouldnt affect this power at all.
Quarry has the great bonus of increasing your dodge and avoidance ratings. You need to supplement this with your defensive gear. Look for items and mods that increase your Avoidance rating first, and Dodge chance second. You want both to be around the same level, but Avoidance is harder to increase through gear. So when you see it, make sure you keep it. Dodge chance it easier to find. Guardian Mastery also helps by increasing your dodge chance when you fire Tactical Missiles. Guardian Mastery will also reduce the charge time of Tactical Missiles a bit. You can expect over 60% Dodge Chance and Avoidance at level 40 with good gear and Quarry active. That's a lot of defensive for an offensive build.
Your high dodge chance and super Intelligence makes Bountiful Chi Resurgence a very effective heal. It can stack on itself with the shortened recharge time. Taking Resurgent Reiki gives you health every time you dodge, which is more often than not with this build. That can stack heals on you in a tough situation. You do pay a penalty to offense for each active stack of BCR though, so it's not usually something you want to keep running.
Vindicator, Guardian, and Intelligence trees are used to increase your base offense and defense. You want both relatively high since they stack off each other. Aggressive Stance uses some of your offense to raise your defense, and The Best Defense adds 100% of your defense to your offense. Max that out with Locus, which is very easy to build and adds 50 to both stats. You will see your offense and defense bounce around with this combo as the stacking bonuses build off one another.
At level 40 this gives me about 322.1 default offense (37% bonus damage) and more significantly 179.3 default defense (42% damage resist). When Locus is active this goes up to 455.7 offense (+42%) and 255.1 defense (60%). That's some pretty nifty defense for an offensive build. This is with mostly blue and green gear, so you should be able to achieve it pretty easily. And Vindicator also gives you free healing when you defeat an enemy.
For gear, you need to slot Avoidance and Dodge items for defense. I recommend a critical enhancement for offense, and cost discount for utility. Keep your Int very high and don't leave out your End and Ego. I use Recovery as the 4th stat through talents and any incidental other bonuses. With UNITY gear I'm over 30% critical chance, 65% critical severity, and around 60% dodge chance and avoidance.
Overall this makes for a very solid build that packs one heck of a nice punch.
Name: Pulsewave Mark XIII: 'Gyrojet'
Super Stats:
Level 6: Intelligence (Primary)
Level 10: Ego (Secondary)
Level 15: Endurance (Secondary)
Talents:
Level 1: The Impulse
Level 6: Academics
Level 9: Daredevil
Level 12: Investigator
Level 15: Negotiator
Level 18: Wordly
Level 21: Amazing Stamina
Powers:
Level 1: Force Bolts
Level 1: Tactical Missiles (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 6: Energy Shield (Phalanx Defense System)
Level 8: Mini Gun (Rank 2, U-238 Rounds, Accelerated Metabolism)
Level 11: Quarry (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 14: Overdrive
Level 17: Bountiful Chi Resurgence (Resurgent Reiki)
Level 20: Micro Munitions (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 23: Concentration
Level 26: Lock N Load (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 29: Masterful Dodge
Level 32: Sonic Device (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Ego Surge (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 38: Unbreakable
Travel Powers:
Level 6: Jet Pack (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Teleportation
Specializations:
Intelligence: Preparation (2/2)
Intelligence: Enlightened (1/3)
Intelligence: Tactician (2/2)
Intelligence: Detect Vulnerability (3/3)
Intelligence: Tinkering (2/2)
Guardian: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Guardian: Locus (2/2)
Guardian: Ruthless (2/2)
Guardian: The Best Defense (3/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: The Rush of Battle (3/3)
Vindicator: Modified Gear (2/2)
Mastery: Intelligence Mastery (1/1)
Pulsewave Mark XII:
Updated 4/24/2012 for the 'On Alert' update. Still relevant for Power Armor review.
Avenger build vs 5-man hard Power House: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiTSQg9v5Mw&feature=youtu.be
Updated the Mark XII for the Power Armor update. You don't want to skip Concentration, and Phalanx Defense System is a bit more useful than Protection Field. I leave Molecular Self Assembly since it is actually better energy than Overdrive unless you take Recovery as a superstat. And this build has plenty of powers that recharge.
This is a retcon-build, not a leveling build. I leave the passive choice as the last power taken so that you can try out both Aura of Majesty and Targeting Computer. You can deal more damage with Targeting Computer. Aura of Majesty is still good damage though, and is much more well-rounded.
The basic principle with this build is to maximize your energy and reduce endurance costs while boosting base damage. You also need a respectable level of critical chance. I tested out using all combinations of Endurance, Intelligence, Ego, and Dexterity for this. The best combo seems to be super INT, with END and EGO next. Dex is nice to have, but it helps overall damage the least while running multiple toggles. This is because you can gear for criticals without specifically slotting DEX gear. Additionally, some specializations will increase your crit rates to adequate levels.
Avenger Mastery is actually quite good with Power Armor. It makes sense; you can run Mini Gun and Micro Munitions together, which will accumulate critical hits very rapidly. That triggers Avenger Mastery while those attacks continue to deal damage. And at the same time, you can fire off a fully charged Power Gauntlet in under a second, doubling the DPS of Power Gauntlet. And this doesn't stop Mini Gun and Micro Munitions, which continue to accumulate more charges of Avenger Mastery.
Avenger Mastery stacks, so you can rapid-fire multiple bolts of Power Gauntlet as long as you have enough energy, which is probably why my tests did best with super INT and enhanced END. However, you should actually use less energy than normal like this. That's because each charged shot of Power Gauntlet lasts only half as long. That's great, because when you charge up Power Gauntlet you increase the costs of your other toggles by 20%. So the shortened charge time means you reduce the impact of that attack on the costs of Micro Munitions and Mini Gun. That's sweet.
Overall it's a neat combo. It works at 100 feet and it doesnt push back your target all over the place. That's a plus in a lot of ways. One other odd thing I've noticed is that Avenger Mastery seems to double the flight speed of the projectile. If it does increase projectile speed, that's even better for DPS at long range. I still need to confirm if this is the case though.
The nice thing about this is that both Targeting Computer and Aura of Majesty increase your critical rate against the kind of targets you care about. Avenger Mastery doesnt do anything to basic enemies; it's the lieutenants and bosses that matter. Against these enemies you will get enhanced Power Gauntlet bursts, and the effect is very noticeable. You really tear bosses a new one like this.
All the specializations work to accumulate criticals and boost overall damage. This supports Avenger Mastery and damage overall. Round 'em Up is a nice 10% boost for most of your damage. Find the Mark increases your critical chance dramatically, which helps trigger Avenger Mastery. Lock and Load and Ego Surge with Nimble Mind also boost critical chance significantly. Most of the other choices are self-explanatory.
This build relies on multiple active offenses that decrease energy costs and increase damage. I like having three powers to cycle through. They recharge rapidly, so you can just toggle one as soon it's available. Multiple defensive passives are handy since the build is relatively fragile.
You can compare this build to the newer 'Gyrojet' Mark XIII and they are fairly even. I expect that this build with Targeting Computer will deal a little better DPS. But overall the Mark XIII is still comparable damage, while being a lot more durable.
Pulsewave Mark XII: Level 40 Champion
Superstats:
Level 6: Super Intelligence
Level 13: Enhanced Endurance
Level 13: Enhanced Ego
Powers:
Level 1: Power Bolt
Level 1: Power Gauntlet -- Rank 3, Rank 2
Level 6: Energy Shield -- Phalanx Defense System
Level 6: Jet Boots or Jet Pack -- Rank 2
Level 8: Mini Gun -- Rank 2, U-238 Rounds
Level 11: Molecular Self-Assembly
Level 14: Micro Munitions -- Rank 2, Rank 3
Level 17: Conviction
Level 20: Lock N Load -- Rank 3, Rank 2
Level 23: Concentration
Level 26: Electric SheathMatter Energy Union, Rank 2
Level 29: Chest Beam -- Rank 3, Rank 2
Level 32: Ego Surge-- Nimble Mind, Rank 2
Level 35: Unbreakable
Level 35: Teleport
Level 38: Targeting Computer or Aura of Majesty -- Rank 3, Rank 2
Talents:
Level 1: The Marksman
...Take the remaining 5 talents that increase INT, END, EGO, and DEX by 5 points each...
Specializations:
Intelligence:
* Enlightened 1 point only(Non-Super Stats give more of a bonus)
* Preparation(Endurance grants equilibrium)
* Tactician (Secondary Super Stats now grant Offense)
* Detect Vulnerability (Intelligence now grants Defense Penetration)
* Expertise (Secondary Super Stats give more of a bonus to their base effects)
Guardian:
* Fortified Gear, one point only (Increased Defense from Items)
* Locus (AoEs grant a stack of Locus, upon reaching 30 stacks they are consumed and the Locus Explosion buff is applied granting increased Offense and Defense for 15 seconds, prevents stacks of Locus from being earned.)
* Ruthless (Increased Crit Severity)
* Find The Mark (Ranged attacks have a chance to place an Exposed Debuff causing them to be 3% easier to Crit with Range attacks for 10 seconds, stacks to 3)
* The Best Defense (Gain a portion of Offense from your Defense)
Avenger:
* Round 'Em Up (AoEs cause further AoEs to do more damage for 10 seconds, stacks to 3)
* Anguish (Ranged Crits cause a Penetrating DoT hitting every 2 seconds for 6 seconds.)
* Ruthless (Increased Crit Severity)
* Find The Mark (Ranged attacks have a chance to place an Exposed Debuff causing them to be 3% easier to Crit with Range attacks for 10 seconds, stacks to 3)
* Offensive Expertise (Active Offensives recharge faster)
* Preemptive Strike, one point only (Ranged Blast attacks increase damage for the next non-Blast Ranged attack)
Avenger Mastery: If you Crit 2 times in 5 seconds, Blast powers Charge time is reduced by 50% (This will nearly double the DPS of Power Gauntlet)
...Future builds pending...
...Future builds pending more updates...
...Space Reserved...
...Space Reserved...
...Space Reserved...
So this build is not re-done for the new power set then? The reason I ask is I tried MSA with a similar build and I had energy issues
I'm using Overdrive with INT/EGO/END and it's doing ok. With REC as my 4th stat in the talent selections Overdrive all maxed out is about 11% less efficient than MSA. Overdrive hangs around longer, while MSA gives more initial and overall energy. Slight edge to MSA, but not worth rearranging your stats for IMO.
I wouldnt take CON as a stat unless you want to tank. It's a fine stat, but it's just not necessary. I'll have a pretty durable offensive build up soon if you can wait a few hours. It's INT/EGO/END with Quarry.
Awesome thanks Pulsewave!
/subscribed so I can read it, in detail, later.
Thanks in advance!
Is this build still feasible? What would you change now that there is theconcentration form?
Many thanks!
Micro Munition is 15'ft radius.
Minigun currently has a more annoying bug. Due to being a cylinder power, it can destory any object at irrelavant direction. So the minigun user may have a lot of chance to aggro many other foes which they don't expect to aggro.
And there is one more melee laser sword power, Lightwave Slash. It is a melee Cone attack. 100% apply Plasma Burn to primary target. Full Charged will 100% apply Plasma Burn to all targets. However, the Plasma Burn applied by this power will not stack with others. If your targets are already affected by Plasma Burn, Lightwave Sladh will just be a featureless melee cone.
I updated the Mark XII for you. My expectation is that you'll do a bit more DPS with the Mark XII, but you're way more survivable with the Mark XIII.
I just ran the Mark XIII through some alerts and through the Serpent Lantern and it didn't even seem fair. The damage is still extremely high, but now you're also much harder to defeat. I stood up against Blackwolf (or whatever the werewolf boss is named) as the primary target in that alert for most of the fight and wasn't ever at risk of getting defeated. That's going to be handy. I notice on a lot of the alerts that I end up being the target due to high DPS.
Tap-spamming Tac MIssiles does slightly better DPS than charging it, and charge doesn't affect Blast Radius anyway -- so I did a little work with /bind and AutoHotKey to make it a psuedo-maintain. Charge it up normally for an initial strike (I won't call it an "alpha" because it's not *that* strong), then just hold down the repeater button and switch targets as you go.
Since I have AOPM and Support Drones (I missed the little guys after dropping them off several other characters) I may turn this into a semi-support pet build.
Spamming Tactical Missile also works better with Guardian Mastery. But it's also more of an energy drain.
Taking Laser Knight or Phalanx Defense System makes your shield activate when making Melee or Ranged attacks. I got that. But does ranking it up to Level 2 increase the defense of the auto-shield, or is that just for when you manually use it? I'd rather not waste Advantage Points if it won't make a difference.
Will you post more builds within the classic trinity such as a tanking oriented and an healing/support build?
Also, will you post a build that benefits from the Wrist Bolter+Automated Assault/Kickback combo, or do you have some kind of alternative?
With Quarry my level 40 has about 63% dodge chance and 60% avoidance. That from a purple primary defense avoidance item from the questionite vendor with a rank 6 lucky gem. That's pretty decent defense for an offensive passive and a whole lot better than I can do with Targeting Computer or Kinetic. You can get numbers pretty close to that with much lower rank gear too. Add in the 10% damage reduction from Phalanx Defense and the 44% to 60% damage reduction from gear and you're in good shape.
I'd rank Quarry as better overall than Kinetic Manipulation. You get a more consistent defense and you still enhance energy damage, even though the bonus is smaller for energy than for physical. This probably matters more at level 40 than it does while leveling up though. While leveling up you have fewer attacks anyway, and you don't need to take on the epic villain damage until you're high level. I actually like Electric Manipulation a little more than Kinetic. The damage bonus is the same, but there are more energy attacks to choose from and 100% equlibrium boost is really nice. I just wish you could disable the animation.
Rank 2 did not increase the Phalanx Bonus as far as I could see. It doesnt even increase the size of your shield when it animates. Maybe that was intentional so that you know it's stuck at rank 2.
I'll put up a tank build at some point. Tanks are relatively easy compared to glass cannons, so I don't worry about documenting it much. Invulnerability makes things really easy on you. I'm actually interested in putting up a Personal Force Field build if I can get one to work at least as well as a simple Invulnerability build. That would go well with the new Hollow Hex armor.
I mentioned the Automated Assault combos in my description of Wrist Bolters. I don't care much for kickback though. Hand slots are the most consistently useful powers you get. You don't get enough back to use that combo in my tests. The only way that I could benefit from the combo was by using both Shoulder Launcher and Mini Gun at the same time, along with Micro Munitions or Chest Beam. That's really heavy energy use, and it dealt great DPS. But you can't do that now, and you can't use two powers in the same slot at all. And energy is easier than ever to come by with Concentration and Overdrive. Plus if you're leaving Automated Assault on you aren't using any active offenses, which also impacts your DPS. So overall I don't think it's a good combo.
It, uh... looks good with glowy armor.
I'm actually doing okay with my laser sword/regen character. (It was an attempted laser sword PFF tank to start with, but come on.)
Well I've tried using Defiance and Form of the Tempest with the kick that grants Rush (forgot the name) and I am seriously energy starved and also have almost no Crippling Challenges. Maybe because I use Particle Acceleration on Laser Sword...
At any rate, my issue with it is how the attacks just seem so unfinished.
As I worked on rebuilding my PA toon prior to your latest Mark XIII update, I made many of the same choices -- INT/EGO/END, Quarry, focusing on physical damage, skipping Reconstruction Circuits for a better healing option, etc. But I hadn't focused on Dodge or Avoidance; I'm looking forward to going back and giving that approach a try.
One question about a possible Mark XIII varation: What would you suggest switching out for those of us who want to include Support Drones and/or Munitions Bots in our builds? I gotta tell ya -- I love those little guys running around with me. My first thought is they might take the place of Sonic Device & Ego Surge in your build, trusting that the Muni Bots would compensate at least somewhat for the lost damage, while the Drones would exchange a bit of burst damage in favor for ongoing healing/survivability (or bursts of damage when switched over to that mode for some battles). That would also allow both the Bots and the Drones to be beefed up to Rank 3 without altering anything else in the Mark XIII build.
Whatcha think?
S
Reconstruction Circuits can be used in tandem with any channel spell, provided you first activate ReCirc, and then immediately begin channeling your desired power.. Lightning Arc, for example.
This is an incredibly effective (and equally surprising) method of Regenerating during your assault. Try it on a ranged tank wielding Gatling Gun, or perhaps a melee DPS using One Hundred Hands, or charging Haymaker.
After some trials I made some power changes for fun, but these make the build weaker overall I'm sure. I just love the Implosion Engine and then Fire All Weapons or the all three PA AoE toggles .
I know Bountiful Chi Resurgence heal is better than Field Surge but having three defenses allows me to have one of them up at all times (and I forget to click Bountiful Chi all the time)
Thanks again Pulsewave.
I'm not sure how well of a levelling build this is yet, so any criticism to make levelling with this would be appreciated.
Stinger: Armored Reactor
Super Stats:
Level 6: Constitution (Primary)
Level 10: Endurance (Secondary)
Level 15: Recovery (Secondary)
Talents:
Level 1: The Scourge
Level 6: Ascetic
Level 9: Daredevil
Level 12: Quick Recovery
Level 15: Boundless Reserves
Level 18: Wordly
Level 21: Amazing Stamina
Powers:
Level 1: Force Bolts
Level 1: Power Guantlet (Crippling Challenge)
Level 6: Energy Shield (Phalanx Defense System)
Level 8: Mini Gun (Rank 2, U-238 Rounds, Challenging Strikes)
Level 11: Defiance
Level 14: Micro Munitions (Rank 2, Rank 3, Challenging Strikes)
Level 17: Bionic Shielding (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 20: Concussor Beam (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 23: Overdrive
Level 26: Chest Beam (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 29: Unbreakable
Level 32: Lock and Load
Level 35: Resurgence (Rank 2, Evanescent Emergence)
Level 38: Inertial Dampening Field
Travel Powers:
Level 6: Jet Boots (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Teleportation
Specializations:
Constitution:
Resilient (2/2)
Unyielding (2/2)
Tough (2/3)
Armored (2/2)
Adrenaline Rush (2/2)
Guardian:
Fortified Gear (3/3)
Locus (2/2)
Find the Mark (2/3)
The Best Defense (3/3)
Warden:
Fortified Gear (3/3)
Elusive (2/2)
Tenacious (2/2)
The Best Defense (3/3)
Mastery:
Constitution (1/1)
Gear:
Any spare amounts of ego you can get will help out a bit, but you shouldn't have to bring it over the 20% threshhold. Get as much cost discount on your utility items as you can get without hurting your stats. Gear for crit chance, you shouldn't need anything much over 15-20% crit for optimal performance. Increase your SS in this order: Con, Rec, End.
Defense is your friend. Learn to love it.
Offense:
Thanks to abusing both the Guardian and Warden trees, focusing entirely upon defense in your items rewards you well. Right now, at 40 with blues and greens, Stinger is sitting pretty at 570 offense (247 defense). This goes up to just over 700 when Locus activates. Mini Gun will make sure it's almost always on. Want to increase this offense? Get more defense.
This is a pure tanking build, so not a whole lot of offense from the powers themselves. Most of your damage will come from a combination of Mini Gun and Concussor/Chest Beam. Power Guantlet is there solely for the CC and interrupt, and Micro Munitions is for clearing trash. It's also handy since it's the only sphere AoE in your arsenal.
Defense:
Oh boy, does this thing have defense. Defiance stacks very nicely with Energy Shield's Phalanx advantage, and IDF makes sure the very small numbers that normally would get through won't. Keep Mini gun on as often as possible. It will crit often enough to proc Adrenaline Rush and heal you for 2% of your health every second. Energy shield also makes it so when you have to turtle up, you really turtle up.
Aggro is a cinch. Mini Gun and Micro Munitions can be targeted separately or stacked on the same target. Add that extra threat generation to Tank role, and you'll get their attention. Most Alert bosses will stay on you with only Mini Gun running, so you can opt in some Chest Beam taps every now and then for the debuff.
Energy:
"Callback, you must be crazy. A PA build without Int? At all?" Yes. Both Defiance and Overdrive stack off of Recovery as well as their main stat. There's already a good amount of power cost discount going on with your utility gear that it's more lucrative in this situation to max out the potential energy gains. Currently Defiance gives about 87 energy and Overdrive gives 14 per stack. I intend to break triple digits with Defiance once I get better gear.
Variation:
Invulnerability
Invulnerability with Force Shield/Sheathe will do pretty much the same thing as Defiance/IDF. The energy returns are a lot better, but you'll need to stack some dodge and avoidance to be able to take the bigger hits. This also cuts into your offense a little. This would also allow you to take Concentration, and switch SS Rec to SS Ego. This makes for a much more balanced solo build, but you'll still need to be careful in lairs.
Interesting idea, though. I didn't know you could stack The Best Defense's. With Offense in the mid 500's you are WAY into diminishing returns. I'd be surprised if you got much more than 47-48% from that. I get 41% with only 411.
Power Bolts
Power Gauntlet
Plasma Beam
Chest Beam
Sonic Device.
Id work on the plasma burn angle on this one. Just hope you dont mind the sfx...
I'm on another trip this week, so I can't test this directly. But I think that you can just swap Quarry for Electric Form and keep the rest of the build the same. I think that with just the purple avoidance primary defense item, plus some dodge gear I've got over 50% in dodge chance and avoidance before Quarry even kicks in. Plus I've got over 40% defense that goes up to 70% or so with Locus. And since there are heavy diminishing returns, losing Quarry might not be that big of a deal. That's just going off the top of my head though.
If those numbers are off you can always just stick with Quarry. That gives you the INT and EGO and extra defense, and you can just deal with the diminished energy damage bonus. It wont be that big of a deal. The damage output is sick already. But I'd recommend keeping Mini Gun at least. The debuff is a much bigger deal in that case.
Try out Plasma Beam and try out my build as I wrote it. I would be pretty surprised if you like it better than Tact. Missiles or Power Gauntlet. If you DO like Plasma Beam you need to take the specialization from Avenger to increase your offense with maintains.
Here's my PA build:
PowerHouse (Link to this build)
Name: Centurion
Archetype: Freeform
Super Stats:
Level 6: Ego (Primary)
Level 10: Endurance (Secondary)
Level 15: Constitution (Secondary)
Talents:
Level 1: The Invincible
Level 6: Ascetic
Level 9: Boundless Reserves
Level 12: Daredevil
Level 15: Field Ops Training
Level 18: Relentless
Level 21: Body and Mind
Powers:
Level 1: Power Bolts
Level 1: Tactical Missiles (Crippling Challenge)
Level 6: Mini Gun (Rank 2, U-238 Rounds)
Level 8: Plasma Beam (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Invulnerability (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 14: Concentration
Level 17: Micro Munitions (Rank 2, Rank 3, Challenging Strikes)
Level 20: Reconstruction Circuits (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 23: Energy Shield (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 26: Overdrive
Level 29: Electric Sheath (Rank 2)
Level 32: Resurgence
Level 35: Mindful Reinforcement
Level 38: Fire All Weapons (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Travel Powers:
Level 6: Jet Boots (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Teleportation
Specializations:
Ego: Force of Will (2/2)
Ego: Insight (3/3)
Ego: Follow Through (3/3)
Ego: Exploit Opening (2/2)
Avenger: Ruthless (2/2)
Avenger: Anguish (2/2)
Avenger: Round 'em Up (1/3)
Avenger: Relentless Assault (3/3)
Avenger: Offensive Expertise (2/2)
Guardian: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Guardian: Locus (2/2)
Guardian: Ruthless (2/2)
Guardian: The Best Defense (3/3)
Mastery: Ego Mastery (1/1)
You could go with Int instead of Con as a SS, but I like the added survivability and with cost reduction gear I can get a full maintain of three toggles with juice to spare. This is a really fun and versatile build. Main reason for Ego as PSS was for the ranged cost reduction, though it has a lot going for it all around.
I did end up swapping Evasive Maneuvers in for Unbreakable (and got it earlier, late 20s early 30s) mostly because at that point my PA character was already durable enough with just BRC and Masterful Dodge and I liked the acrobatic feel it gave my Female PA character. The 12% extra dodge with the 50-60% avoidance I am running makes her pretty damned solid despite just hitting 40.
The one thing I'll comment on is just how much of a bummer level 40 itself was. All of the Mastery choices are just a horrible let down. Really took the wind out of my sails to find out the Mastery Choice boils down to "Which one do you hate the least"
The real problem is that I wouldn't even know where else to go for this. Swap Int Mastery for End? That seems like a poor move. Swapping Vindicator for Avenger seems.... meh.
I suppose it is a small price to pay for a build that works so well. I'm really glad to see Power Armor use Quarry to its full potential.
You need to steal agro with that build, because a significant amount of your energy is coming from Defiance. That's not the kind of build I'd recommend. Things work ok when you have agro. If you end up on a team with a competant tank, all that energy is gone. That build is probably pretty durable but there's no chance it is capable of dealing damage like a full-offense build is.
Thanks, I'm pretty happy with the Mark XIII as well. It's way better defensively than I expected. I've been able to survive solo against Warlord for several minutes with it.
My favorite Mastery choice so far has been Avenger Mastery for Power Armor. Guardian is nice stats-wise with the 10% boost to dodge and blasts, but Avenger Mastery makes a much more notable difference. It's really, really cool for Power Armor as long as you can get to 20% critical chance or more and you have a blast attack.
No, you're right. I have enough energy and cost reduction to do a full maintain of MM/Minigun/PB, but then I need 2-3 shots of EB to refill if I'm not being hit by stuff. But I'm happy with my damage output so long as I continue to steal aggro from my shield-icon'd allies.