I play an Unarmed Martial Artist and use Night Warrior as my passive.
I like it because I can 1-shot most Elites. The problem is that it isn't effective when fighting large groups.
I've noticed that many MA abilities gain their effectiveness around dodging.
Is LR really useful? Does it defend well?
Yes it useful. Done moderately well it is on par with the other defensive passives in the game and with significant investment it can be built around to be blatantly superior to the others.
LR is better than fine, imo it is at least as good as Defiance. If you're also into high Defense (70-80% resist all from Defense is not too hard to obtain for freeforms) and especially if you mix in more esoteric forms of defense like ebon and/or radiant sigils or circle of primal dominion or IDF, you can keep up with Defiance vs anything that is important to tank. If you're using Form of the Master/advantage then the cooldowns for your self heals (BCR, conviction, resurgence) are essentially cut in half, IN ADDITION TO any other form of cooldown reduction you have.
I have a tank with just the baseline dodge/avoid provided by LR (50 dodge/78.5 avoid) and she's one of the toughest tanks I've put together. And I didn't even try that hard!
even without elusive monk and evasive maneuvers I find Lightning Reflexes very survivable most of the time, though I do use dodge gear and take other abilities that increase my chance to dodge(just not those two)
There is a FreeForm user who TANKS GRAVITAR with LR (and Two Gun Mojo, since she is Range FF Build)
From Personal Experience I think LR Is REALLY Great, My specialist can hardly die in alerts! :biggrin:
if I ever remake my Specialist into FF, I'm gonna keep the LR :biggrin:
POWERFRAME REVAMPS, NEW POWERS and BUG FIXES > Recycled Content and Events and even costumes at this point Introvert guy who use CO to make his characters playable and get experimental with Viable FF Theme builds! Running out of Unique FF builds due to the lack of updates and synergies! Playing since 1 February 2011 128 + Characters (21 ATs, 107 FFs) ALTitis for Life!
As someone who has a lot of builds with Lightning Reflexes...
After the nerf, LR is NOT as survivable. Not even close at base. How could it be. 50% vs. 60% plus at base before nerf. But with that said, yes, if you throw the kitchen sink into dodge powers and gear you can be pretty tough. Just understand that you will have less attack powers, utility and advantage points to use than you might of built into your build than before.
At least that's the case with me. Want more dodge? Get rid of power x. Add power z. Rinse repeat, until you get your dodge back to or close to where it was before nerf. Sigh...
Anyway, yes... you can make it work.
It will take some sacrifice to be as survivable as before (Well maybe not as survivable)
Still worth taking for the most part.
To answer the op's question... look to my last post.
But to add to the question. NO ONE person can tell you what you will experience when you build. That goes for any set. I was telling my side of the story as far as LR goes. Others have their own views. But, really it comes down to you playing the build yourself. Go and test it like i did. Try different powers and such. Different combinations. Go into the powerhouse and get a feel for the LR build YOU put together.
That's the only way you will know if it's survivable to your standards. Getting advice is fine.
But to get proper feedback without bias, you need to find out on your own.
People for the nerf will tell you one thing... people against it, the same. Until you go there and compare, you will never know.
Uh, whatever your opinions about the dodge nerf, Lightning Reflexes is now clearly the best and most useful source of Dodge/Avoid. It's not that LR was a bad power before the overhaul, just that you could get sufficient Dodge/Avoid from other passives and gear (or even just gear) so LR was overkill. Now it's more valuable, overall. I have been there, I have many tanks between LR and Defiance, and as of today LR is still great.
Try it for yourself. NO ONE PERSON can tell you what is or isn't the best of anything.
You will decide that after testing out different sets, LR included.
Your thoughts may vary. But that's OK. I have friends tell me Defiance is best for defense.
Others say Invulnerability is!
See what I'm getting at. It's an opinion. It's a feel. And for the first time ever, just yesterday someone told me LR was the best defensive passive. So, yeah... try it for yourself. You will make up your own mind.
I'm not trying to sell you anything. I don't benefit anything by telling you something as silly as LR is the best without knowing how you build or what content you're going up against.
But you can trust yourself, right? Test. Best advice i can give you. Again, IMHO for surviving... LR isn't half bad. Not as great as it once was. But you could do worse. (Just my opinion)
Uh, whatever your opinions about the dodge nerf, Lightning Reflexes is now clearly the best and most useful source of Dodge/Avoid.
Very good way to put it, especially for Avoidance. IMHO, LR is now the best passive IF...
1) You go Warden/Vindicator to add damage resistance, and;
2) Obtain a good heal(s)
Then, once again you achieve the trinity of good defenses. And surprisingly, a Legion BP of Elusiveness with 2x Luck is quite useful in this setup. (I'd also like to opine that I consider Laser Knight as the 4th good defense.)
Sentry is a very good alternative too, it has Twist Fate for up to 9% dodge chance and up to 22% resist all from other perks, as well as +30% defense from items.
Also you forgot the fourth leg, sticking -%damage on enemies:
- Protector/Exhausting Strikes -10%
- Arbiter/Concussion for up to -15% on stun
- various sources of Fear for -9.1%
- Ebon sigils where practical for a really immense amount of -%damage
etc.
Okay you've said it three times now I think he can read.
OK. First off, i wasn't talking to you. As your useless remark so nicely stated. I am aware that this is an open forum, however, if you can read... i was answering the OP. Trying to help.
Do you have anything useful to say or any help, advice for OP that's not an insult or snide remark? If you have nothing useful to say to help the OP out maybe you should just Shut the BLEEP up! Just saying.
Thank you all for your replies.
I was definitely planning to try and experiment with LR, but I wanted some comments first.
I've played MMOs for many years, and on many occasions have read comments that "XXX power isn't very useful."
I just wanted to see if it was good or overly nerfed.
I wasn't going to ask if LR was better than NW since they are both totally different.
NW is excellent against small groups, especially if they have one elite. It isn't so good against larger groups.
I just wanted to see if LR was worth trying.
I'm going to experiment with LR builds.
Thanks for your comments.
Thank you all for your replies.
I was definitely planning to try and experiment with LR, but I wanted some comments first.
I've played MMOs for many years, and on many occasions have read comments that "XXX power isn't very useful."
I just wanted to see if it was good or overly nerfed.
I wasn't going to ask if LR was better than NW since they are both totally different.
NW is excellent against small groups, especially if they have one elite. It isn't so good against larger groups.
I just wanted to see if LR was worth trying.
I'm going to experiment with LR builds.
Thanks for your comments.
I'm glad you got something useful out of this thread.
Check back. I for one would like to know how you like Lightning Reflexes. (My favorite passive, even after the nerf)
Comments
Yes it useful. Done moderately well it is on par with the other defensive passives in the game and with significant investment it can be built around to be blatantly superior to the others.
My Amazon author page
How to build a freeform character...the Kenpo way
Demon Keypo's Building Guide
Freeform Builds Directory (Last updated: 04/23/2016)
Serving since September, 2009 / 65 Characters, 63 Level 40's
I have a tank with just the baseline dodge/avoid provided by LR (50 dodge/78.5 avoid) and she's one of the toughest tanks I've put together. And I didn't even try that hard!
From Personal Experience I think LR Is REALLY Great, My specialist can hardly die in alerts! :biggrin:
if I ever remake my Specialist into FF, I'm gonna keep the LR :biggrin:
e: please note we went from "is LR survivable" to "if it can't tank gravitar it's crap" wow
After the nerf, LR is NOT as survivable. Not even close at base. How could it be. 50% vs. 60% plus at base before nerf. But with that said, yes, if you throw the kitchen sink into dodge powers and gear you can be pretty tough. Just understand that you will have less attack powers, utility and advantage points to use than you might of built into your build than before.
At least that's the case with me. Want more dodge? Get rid of power x. Add power z. Rinse repeat, until you get your dodge back to or close to where it was before nerf. Sigh...
Anyway, yes... you can make it work.
It will take some sacrifice to be as survivable as before (Well maybe not as survivable)
Still worth taking for the most part.
But to add to the question. NO ONE person can tell you what you will experience when you build. That goes for any set. I was telling my side of the story as far as LR goes. Others have their own views. But, really it comes down to you playing the build yourself. Go and test it like i did. Try different powers and such. Different combinations. Go into the powerhouse and get a feel for the LR build YOU put together.
That's the only way you will know if it's survivable to your standards. Getting advice is fine.
But to get proper feedback without bias, you need to find out on your own.
People for the nerf will tell you one thing... people against it, the same. Until you go there and compare, you will never know.
No, the question is about the survivability of LR vs NW...particularly combined with other MA abilities.
Yes, dodge was recently changed/nerfed. It happened, now let's move on.
Try it for yourself. NO ONE PERSON can tell you what is or isn't the best of anything.
You will decide that after testing out different sets, LR included.
Your thoughts may vary. But that's OK. I have friends tell me Defiance is best for defense.
Others say Invulnerability is!
See what I'm getting at. It's an opinion. It's a feel. And for the first time ever, just yesterday someone told me LR was the best defensive passive. So, yeah... try it for yourself. You will make up your own mind.
I'm not trying to sell you anything. I don't benefit anything by telling you something as silly as LR is the best without knowing how you build or what content you're going up against.
But you can trust yourself, right? Test. Best advice i can give you. Again, IMHO for surviving... LR isn't half bad. Not as great as it once was. But you could do worse. (Just my opinion)
Good luck.
1) You go Warden/Vindicator to add damage resistance, and;
2) Obtain a good heal(s)
Then, once again you achieve the trinity of good defenses. And surprisingly, a Legion BP of Elusiveness with 2x Luck is quite useful in this setup. (I'd also like to opine that I consider Laser Knight as the 4th good defense.)
Also you forgot the fourth leg, sticking -%damage on enemies:
- Protector/Exhausting Strikes -10%
- Arbiter/Concussion for up to -15% on stun
- various sources of Fear for -9.1%
- Ebon sigils where practical for a really immense amount of -%damage
etc.
OK. First off, i wasn't talking to you. As your useless remark so nicely stated. I am aware that this is an open forum, however, if you can read... i was answering the OP. Trying to help.
Do you have anything useful to say or any help, advice for OP that's not an insult or snide remark? If you have nothing useful to say to help the OP out maybe you should just Shut the BLEEP up! Just saying.
You should ignore everyone. Now that would be helpful.
I was definitely planning to try and experiment with LR, but I wanted some comments first.
I've played MMOs for many years, and on many occasions have read comments that "XXX power isn't very useful."
I just wanted to see if it was good or overly nerfed.
I wasn't going to ask if LR was better than NW since they are both totally different.
NW is excellent against small groups, especially if they have one elite. It isn't so good against larger groups.
I just wanted to see if LR was worth trying.
I'm going to experiment with LR builds.
Thanks for your comments.
If you need any help let me know. I'll be happy to assist.
My Amazon author page
How to build a freeform character...the Kenpo way
Demon Keypo's Building Guide
Freeform Builds Directory (Last updated: 04/23/2016)
Serving since September, 2009 / 65 Characters, 63 Level 40's
Trust him. He's a build guru.
Check back. I for one would like to know how you like Lightning Reflexes. (My favorite passive, even after the nerf)
Good luck once again
The title he prefers is Build SENSEI.
I have tried LR and I really like it. I have great surviveability, and live through almost all fights.
I've noticed that many MA powers are best when dodging. This makes for a great MA toon.
I think that LR is much better for all around surviveability than NW.