Tough Lightning

daslaya2012

Recently made my lightning freeform and its been electrifying. He is pretty durable and holds up against a lot of mobs. I wanted to see if its possible to make this toon able to solo lairs, but I have had no luck so far, I am only level 36 currently. I have tried the bloodmoon lairs solo and can beat everything except the last super villain, I just do not hold up long enough. Well, here is my build see if you guys can tweak anything or offer any advice, or maybe this will help you out. I have been a little unsure about the last 2 powers (Circle of Primal and Skarn's bane). I have never used skarns bane yet, I am hoping it acts as a good debuff. The circle seems to do ok, saves me from getting knocked back and has a small heal to add to my other small heals. Really, what this toon is missing is a good debuff to lower the enemies defense and/or resistance but I am not well versed of debuffs in this game, and can never find any when I look for them. Other than that, its been really fun to play and kicks a lot of ****!

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name: DaLightningSlaya

Archetype: Freeform

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

Talents:
Level 1: Absolute Zero
Level 6: Agile
Level 9: Tireless
Level 12: Quick Recovery
Level 15: Enduring
Level 18: Acrobat
Level 21: Impresario

Powers:
Level 1: Electric Bolt (Lightning Overload)
Level 1: Electric Shield (Rank 2)
Level 6: Lightning Arc (Rank 2, Never Strikes Twice)
Level 8: Quarry (Rank 2, Fair Game)
Level 11: Ionic Reverberation
Level 14: Concentration
Level 17: Masterful Dodge (Rank 2)
Level 20: Lightning Storm (Rank 2, Stolen Thunder, Accelerated Metabolism)
Level 23: Bountiful Chi Resurgence (Resurgent Reiki)
Level 26: Electrocute (Rank 2, Superconductor)
Level 29: Lock N Load (Rank 2)
Level 32: Gigabolt (Rank 2, Death Arc)
Level 35: Circle of Primal Dominion (Rank 2)
Level 38: Skarn's Bane (Rank 2, Rank 3)

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Lightning Flash
Level 35: Athletics

Specializations:
Dexterity: Gear Utilization (3/3)
Dexterity: Brush It Off (2/2)
Dexterity: Evasion (2/2)
Dexterity: Quick Reflexes (3/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: The Rush of Battle (3/3)
Vindicator: Modified Gear (2/2)
Vindicator: Mass Destruction (3/3)
Sentry: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Sentry: Twist Fate (2/2)
Sentry: Sentry Aura (3/3)
Sentry: Fortify (2/2)
Mastery: Dexterity Mastery (1/1)

gruff2

I would suggest something like this:

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name: DaLightningSlaya

Archetype: Freeform

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

Talents:
Level 1: The Glacier
Level 6: Shooter
Level 9: Ascetic
Level 12: Academics
Level 15: Healthy Mind
Level 18: Acrobat
Level 21: Coordinated

Powers:
Level 1: Electric Bolt
Level 1: Lightning Arc (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 6: Electric Sheath
Level 8: Concentration
Level 11: Force Shield (Rank 2, Rank 3, Force Sheathe)
Level 14: Quarry (Rank 2, Fair Game)
Level 17: Masterful Dodge (Rank 2)
Level 20: Ball Lightning (Triplicity)
Level 23: Bountiful Chi Resurgence (Resurgent Reiki)
Level 26: Bionic Shielding (Rank 2)
Level 29: Overdrive
Level 32: Conviction (Rank 2)
Level 35: Invocation of Storm Calling (Rank 2, Electrical Storm)
Level 38: Lightning Storm (Rank 2, Rank 3)

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Lightning Flash
Level 35: Athletics

Specializations:
Dexterity: Combat Training (3/3)
Dexterity: Gear Utilization (2/3)
Dexterity: Deadly Aim (3/3)
Dexterity: Expose Weakness (2/2)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: The Rush of Battle (3/3)
Vindicator: Modified Gear (2/2)
Vindicator: Mass Destruction (3/3)
Avenger: Ruthless (2/2)
Avenger: Round 'em Up (3/3)
Avenger: Relentless Assault (3/3)
Avenger: Offensive Expertise (2/2)
Mastery: Dexterity Mastery (1/1)



As a DPS's the theme is more damage, and that means changing some of your talents and adding layers to increase damage. Because more damage = kill faster and kill faster = survive. You have quarry which increases Int and Ego as it ranks up during a fight. Ego help you do more ranged damage, killing faster. More Int means more damage [as it is now a SS] and lowers power cost, which means you maintain your attacks which means more damage.

Your main source of Damage for mobs is Lightning Storm for general mobs, now ranked to 3 instead of taking the knock down. Why waste precious time knocking down when you could just fry them ? You main attack for tough single target's is lightning Arc. This is beast and does plenty of damage to single targets. Before you hit them with LA, use your fire and forget Negative Ion applier, Ball lightning. This adds a damage layer plus adds negative ions which increases the damage output of LA. More damage = Kill faster.

You now have overdrive which scales off Int, your Int increases as you do damage, thus more energy, thus more power for your maintains, thus MOAR DAMAGE. You had no Ego in your previous build but you are ranged? Ego boosts range damage so that is why I changed your talents. You could use some Ego slotted into your gear, with the increase it receives from Quarry as you add Audacity stacks you will do more damage.

Invocation of storm calling is there to decrease the energy damage resistance of your foe. Which means more damage. Force shield with advantage means that all you need to do is tap it so that it keeps protecting you for a bit while you attack and gives you energy while you are being hit This means more protection and more damage.

Bountiful Chi is really good. You will stack Audacity as you attack which increases Dodge and Avoidance, then with some Dodge and Avoidance gear you will get good protection and better healing from this power. Next is conviction which is a heal you can pop every 5 seconds, and bionic shielding which heals you as you are hit. That is 3 layers of healing for some extra survival goodness.

You will notice that your main attacks are maintains, so I swapped out sentry master which you were not getting a good bang for your buck from to Avenger. Avenger is only really good for one thing Relentless Assault. It buffs your offense to ridiculous levels and means more damage. I changed some of your Dex specs to greater damage dealing than survivability, but I think you will see greater use out of doing more damage with your crits than the dodge bonuses. There is even a point left over to put into your travel powers if you wish.

I think you will find this build will do more damage, protect you better, debuff's the enemy, and has greater healing capabilities.

Add the appropriate dodge, avoidance, crit, and severity gear, and you will do well against the end bosses of the blood moon lairs.

Hope this helps.

daslaya2012

I appreciate you taking the time to help refine my build. I will definitely give this a try and see how it goes, it seems to have great potential. My only question is, is electric sheath there as just another power to take in elec to get access to other powersets, or is it used? I see that it counts as an energy form, as does concentration, I have never used 2 energy forms before, so I am a little confused about it. This build looks like a lot of fun, so thank you!

gruff2

You're welcome and I'm glad I could be of help.

To answer you question about electric sheath. Yes, it is there to get access to powers BUT it is an active offense. What it does is it helps you break out of holds [like when you are paralyzed, stunned, rooted, and so on] as well as gives you extra damage.

Concentration is a toggle, that means you turn it on and it stays on. ES just boosts you for a little while. That is why I picked Offensive Expertise in the second tier of your Avenger spec. OE helps to reduce the cooldown time on your ES. That plus int as superstat will ensure you can use it more often, and thus more damage.

Use it just before you strike using your Lightning Arc and get boost of damage and energy generation.

Cheers

daslaya2012

Respec'd my toon tonight to check out the new build and i really like it. The damage output is exponentially different, so its great. I am using 3 pieces of primary legion gear and 3 armadillo for secondary. me and a sg mate did a whiteout today and we rolled through it with no issues, and he was only lvl 25 and i was 40. My only gripe so far is my recovery dropped quite a bit, but i just have to play with the numbers and figure out whats a good amount of each SS that i need, then can get it all fixed. So, thanks for the inputs its a lot of fun and different, i dig it!

flamingbunnyman

daslaya2012 wrote: »

I see that it counts as an energy form, as does concentration

Concentration is a Form, which is a special type of toggle. All Forms are exclusive with one another; turning one on disables the rest.

Electric Sheath is an Energy Form, which is a specific category of buff. You may have as many Energy Forms active at once as you like (provided they don't exclude each other for other reasons, like the various Active Offense Energy Forms).

While similarly named, the two types of buffs are totally different, and have nothing to do with each other.

beldin

Without INT or EGO as Superstat and DEX as primary i would always prefer Form of the Tempest over Concentration. The damage should be the same or even better, and you can just build up stacks so much better with FoTT.

Also .. yes Overdrive scales with INT, but not as much as with REC, so REC is much better for Overdrive.

daslaya2012

flamingbunnyman wrote: »

Concentration is a Form, which is a special type of toggle. All Forms are exclusive with one another; turning one on disables the rest.

Electric Sheath is an Energy Form, which is a specific category of buff. You may have as many Energy Forms active at once as you like (provided they don't exclude each other for other reasons, like the various Active Offense Energy Forms).

While similarly named, the two types of buffs are totally different, and have nothing to do with each other.

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh that makes sense, ahh see I feel like i learn something new about this game every day, thank you!