Eye of the Storm mechanics? Also, various unorthodox HoTs.

williamkony

Alright, I've got a number of questions regarding Eye of the Storm, and a basic "how do you feel about X" question for a few Heal-Over-Time powers.


For Eye of the Storm...

How does the shielding apply? Does it gives the maximum amount on the tooltip by the end, or does it work up to that and give the amount per tick? In other words, if it says it shields against up to 2000 damage, will you block a maximum of 2000 damage total over the entire maintain? Or will the shielding refresh with every hit of the power, allowing you to block much more than 2000 overall?

If it's the latter, does the shield merely refresh, or does it stack up to create a much more potent shield into the tens of thousands of hit points?

Is it like Protection Field and Mindful Reinforcement in that the shield HP does not take your resistance values into account?

Any other general input/opinions on Eye of the Storm is appreciated. Knowledge is power.



Now, the HoTs. I'm going to be using Holdout Shot with Stim Pack, Fissure with Reconstruct, and Enrage with Endorphin Rush. How potent are each of these? Does anyone have decent experience with them, who can say whether or not they notice much of a difference?

EDIT: Augh, and one more question unrelated to either of those. Is Thermal Reverberation still desirable? From my searches, it seems it was once very, very potent alongside Flashfire. Is that still the case? I won't be getting much energy from Enrage, sadly, so that and my Aura-of-Primal-Majesty'd energy builder are the main things I'd have available. With that in mind, I'm torn between Recovery and Endurance as a secondary Superstat. Or maybe Intelligence, though I don't think that'd have a huge effect on energy costs being that I won't be putting any mods towards it.

jimhsua

Well, I can answer the last one. Thermal Rev is very potent even without putting anything into END, as it's one of the few energy unlocks that can stack. Flashfire (or Brimstone w/ adv) = full energy bar.

Endorphin rush provides something like 100-150 HPS, depending on CON (I get 150 HPS or over on a Justice/5xCON bestial tank). No scaling with defiance anymore. Fissure also gives 100-150 HPS or so? This is without healing bonuses / PRE / compassion / forms. Here's a build from flow that uses Fissure. One thing that I'd like to try on that build would be to take Thunderclap (thematic) and switch it to Sentinel Mastery ... should be fun.

Of course, if someone provides the data, I'll be more than happy to fit it...

williamkony

jimhsua wrote: »

Well, I can answer the last one. Thermal Rev is very potent even without putting anything into END, as it's one of the few energy unlocks that can stack. Flashfire (or Brimstone w/ adv) = full energy bar.

Endorphin rush provides something like 100-150 HPS, depending on CON (I get 150 HPS or over on a Justice/5xCON bestial tank). No scaling with defiance anymore. Fissure also gives 100-150 HPS or so? This is without healing bonuses / PRE / compassion / forms. Here's a build from flow that uses Fissure. One thing that I'd like to try on that build would be to take Thunderclap (thematic) and switch it to Sentinel Mastery ... should be fun.

Of course, if someone provides the data, I'll be more than happy to fit it...

Hm... According to that thread, Reconstruct was only healing 300 per second with Presence primary and fully-stacked Compassion. That's a little disappointing. I may end up having to take a more "mainstream" heal for my build in that case. Thanks for the answers.

flowcyto

300 hps for a HoT isn't that bad actually, compared to most of the other HoTs in the game- main issue I come across w/ reconstruct is that it seems to be lower on priority than other heals- things like sentinel aura seem to be more likely to register healing first. The HoT is doubled for you if ya take stone shroud, though. Main draw of Fissure w/ reconstruct, imo, is that it combos an efficient area DoT power w/ an area HoT (and ofc works w/ MSA).

If ya really want strong hps, ya prob need to use a direct healing spell or a shield- ie. ya gotta work for that burst healing

Can't test anything atm, so no input on ER or EotS yet. But here's some base hps and total base healing values for various HoTs (or HoT-like heals) that I already had some data for:

BCR (no RR) - 58.36 hps / 963 total
Reconstruction Circuits - 171.29 hps / 1448 total
Support Drones - 82.5 hps (for 2x drones) / till they die total
Nanobot Swarm's adv - 96.4 hps / 1591 total
Holdout Shot stim pack - 95.14 hps / 666 (!) total

again, all base values- all scale w/ Pres (ER w/ Con). Stim Pack, Nanobots, and support drones can crit. Rest of 'em (including ER and reconstruct) cannot crit.

jimhsua wrote:

Here's a build from flow that uses Fissure. One thing that I'd like to try on that build would be to take Thunderclap (thematic) and switch it to Sentinel Mastery ... should be fun.

Its a fun build, and pretty effective from running it a few times in Rampages. Main issue I have w/ it is not related to its healing/support at all- but that Fault Line hits like a wet noodle, even w/ 3x Stagger. I'd prob switch that for Cave In charges, which should proc Sent Mastery on targets hit w/ Gust's Stagger (and proc Manip, if using that toggle.. though for my healers I prefer Compassion) and be a bit more single-target dps (also, obscures the target entirely.. hurray! -not).

toooldforthis

williamkony wrote:

Is it like Protection Field and Mindful Reinforcement in that the shield HP does not take your resistance values into account?

EotS is actually on the same layer as Unbreakable, underneath most stuff besides HP and PFF. It's a rather potent shield as a result, although the damage is mediocre at best.

williamkony wrote:

Fissure with Reconstruct

300 is low. Reconstruct actually does about 400 a tick on a properly built presence/compassion/support build. It's actually quite a nice 12th or 13th power as a melee support tool on a healer, but if you're a tank it's close to useless thanks to the relatively long charge, low healing, recharge, and limited 15' range.

williamkony

flowcyto wrote: »

300 hps for a HoT isn't that bad actually, compared to most of the other HoTs in the game- main issue I come across w/ reconstruct is that it seems to be lower on priority than other heals- things like sentinel aura seem to be more likely to register healing first. The HoT is doubled for you if ya take stone shroud, though. Main draw of Fissure w/ reconstruct, imo, is that it combos an efficient area DoT power w/ an area HoT (and ofc works w/ MSA).

If ya really want strong hps, ya prob need to use a direct healing spell or a shield- ie. ya gotta work for that burst healing

Can't test anything atm, so no input on ER or EotS yet. But here's some base hps and total base healing values for various HoTs (or HoT-like heals) that I already had some data for:

BCR (no RR) - 58.36 hps / 963 total
Reconstruction Circuits - 171.29 hps / 1448 total
Support Drones - 82.5 hps (for 2x drones) / till they die total
Nanobot Swarm's adv - 96.4 hps / 1591 total
Holdout Shot stim pack - 95.14 hps / 666 (!) total

again, all base values- all scale w/ Pres (ER w/ Con). Stim Pack, Nanobots, and support drones can crit. Rest of 'em (including ER and reconstruct) cannot crit.



Its a fun build, and pretty effective from running it a few times in Rampages. Main issue I have w/ it is not related to its healing/support at all- but that Fault Line hits like a wet noodle, even w/ 3x Stagger. I'd prob switch that for Cave In charges, which should proc Sent Mastery on targets hit w/ Gust's Stagger (and proc Manip, if using that toggle.. though for my healers I prefer Compassion) and be a bit more single-target dps (also, obscures the target entirely.. hurray! -not).

Can't take Stone Shroud, I'm afraid, as my Block slot is going towards Guard. X)

Hopefully, Eye of the Storm is enough to give my HoTs time to work. It's working out decently-ish in Alerts so far, except when my allies all decide to hang back and let me handle every blasted enemy in the group we initially pulled as well as the group they decided should be dragged over to play as well.

If the HoTs aren't enough, I do have one last power slot available that I can put towards Conviction or some other heal.



For information's sake, I'll post the build below. It's pretty massively driven by a few themes and novelty aspects.

1: The character is an elementalist-sorta fighter.
2: The character has a shapeshifting weapon.
3: I love the TBD/AS gimmick and wanted to make the absolute most of it just to see the huge Offense/Defense values no matter how ultimately inefficient it was. XD
4: I hate hate hate superfluous powers that'll end up never being used because there's a better option in the build. Multiple damage powers, for example.


PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name:

Archetype: Freeform

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

Talents:
Level 1: Superhuman
Level 6: Enduring
Level 9: Physical Conditioning
Level 12: Acrobat
Level 15: Healthy Mind
Level 18: Quick Recovery
Level 21: Boundless Reserves

Powers:
Level 1: Strafe
Level 1: Evasive Maneuvers (Sleight of Mind)
Level 6: Viper's Fangs (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 8: Aura of Primal Majesty (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Ice Cage (Sub-Zero Cellblock)
Level 14: Eye of the Storm (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 17: Enrage (Endorphin Rush)
Level 20: Flashfire
Level 23: Thermal Reverberation
Level 26: Dust Devil (Triple Threat)
Level 29: Fissure (Reconstruct)
Level 32: Holdout Shot (Stim Pack)
Level 35: Guard (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 38: Unleashed Rage (Rank 2, Rank 3)

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Athletics
Level 35: Jet Pack (Rank 2, Rank 3)

Specializations:
Strength: Physical Peak (3/3)
Strength: Aggression (2/2)
Strength: Brutality (2/2)
Strength: Juggernaut (3/3)
Guardian: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Guardian: Locus (2/2)
Guardian: Tenacious (2/2)
Guardian: The Best Defense (3/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: The Rush of Battle (3/3)
Vindicator: Modified Gear (2/2)
Vindicator: Mass Destruction (3/3)
Mastery: Strength Mastery (1/1)

(I'm not following the order of powers, I just put it all in however it fit and didn't bother organizing it.)

My intention is to stack up on Constitution to power Juggernaut. Every elemental power is "fire and forget" style with a bit of added utility on each (except Dust Devil, being a simple damage power, which makes me sad).

Molecular Self-Assembly is also a consideration given the huge helping of cooldown abilities, but I'm thinking/hoping that Thermal Reverberation will be superior or at least more thematic.

Also considering Defiance over AoPM, but that'd mean less Constitution for the Guardicator loop, and less damage bonus granted from Superstats for Offense to work off of. :P

It's fun so far at level 26, but the main problem I'm having is just surviving when I get a bunch of enemies on me. Eye of the Storm has been helping dramatically with that, but it's not always enough. I'm in Nemesis gear right now, so Endorphin Rush and my HP aren't as good as they will be later, but I don't expect Endorphin Rush to make as large a difference as I'm needing it to. And unfortunately, survivability is coming into play pretty often; I somehow always end up playing tank for all of these Alert groups despite having no explicit threat generation. XD

Anyway, I'll be able to retcon Unleashed Rage into Evasive Maneuver's spot after I hit 35, and that'll allow me to choose a more reliable healing ability if I do end up needing it.

flowcyto

follow-up:

ER = 2 ticks per proc
@ 5 Con = 1 hp per tick (lol), 3 /tick at 8 Enrage stacks
@ 107 Con = 22 /tick (1 enrage) 56 /tick (8 enrage)
@ 230 Con = 48 /tick (1 enrage) 120 /tick (8 enrage)
@ 361 Con = 95 /tick (1 enrage) 238 /tick (8 enrage)

(the proc at 8 stacks is 2x the proc at 2 stacks, btw)

Also, apparently ER scales w/ bonus healing% as well, since SS-ing Pres increased the ticks at each point.


EotS is weird (as you'd expect). The total shield amount is based on how many ticks its maintained for, and the total absorption is split up between inc hits (so ya can't get one huge shield amount to absorb all of one big hit- ex. the tooltip's min range says ~280, the first shielded hit will be upto 77, ones after that will be lower, etc). If ya maintain and stop, the shield on the first inc hit will be the largest, then it scales down per inc hit.

If ya keep channeling while getting hit, it effectively refreshes the shield buff back to its max per inc hit (since the time on it has been re-started), but obv that max shield tick scales up per time channeled as well, by an amount rel proportional to that in the tooltip.

Damage resist seems to increase the shield multiplicatively (which is nice- basically means it accounts for defenses). So if ya have 25% from defense, a 77 initial shield turns into 96, etc. This is how it effectively accounts for DR, since the shield amount subtracts from the inc hit's base dmg, not its final dmg.

Also, the damage of EotS ramps down by about 8% each tick; I suspect the shield ramps up by the same amount (so the max tick is 12x the min tick, at least that's how it is in the tooltip).

flowcyto

williamkony wrote: »

For information's sake, I'll post the build below. It's pretty massively driven by a few themes and novelty aspects.

1: The character is an elementalist-sorta fighter.
2: The character has a shapeshifting weapon.
3: I love the TBD/AS gimmick and wanted to make the absolute most of it just to see the huge Offense/Defense values no matter how ultimately inefficient it was. XD
4: I hate hate hate superfluous powers that'll end up never being used because there's a better option in the build. Multiple damage powers, for example.


PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name:

Archetype: Freeform

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

Talents:
Level 1: Superhuman
Level 6: Enduring
Level 9: Physical Conditioning
Level 12: Acrobat
Level 15: Healthy Mind
Level 18: Quick Recovery
Level 21: Boundless Reserves

Powers:
Level 1: Strafe
Level 1: Evasive Maneuvers (Sleight of Mind)
Level 6: Viper's Fangs (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 8: Aura of Primal Majesty (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Ice Cage (Sub-Zero Cellblock)
Level 14: Eye of the Storm (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 17: Enrage (Endorphin Rush)
Level 20: Flashfire
Level 23: Thermal Reverberation
Level 26: Dust Devil (Triple Threat)
Level 29: Fissure (Reconstruct)
Level 32: Holdout Shot (Stim Pack)
Level 35: Guard (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 38: Unleashed Rage (Rank 2, Rank 3)

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Athletics
Level 35: Jet Pack (Rank 2, Rank 3)

Specializations:
Strength: Physical Peak (3/3)
Strength: Aggression (2/2)
Strength: Brutality (2/2)
Strength: Juggernaut (3/3)
Guardian: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Guardian: Locus (2/2)
Guardian: Tenacious (2/2)
Guardian: The Best Defense (3/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: The Rush of Battle (3/3)
Vindicator: Modified Gear (2/2)
Vindicator: Mass Destruction (3/3)
Mastery: Strength Mastery (1/1)

Well, only Fissure is building Enrage here, afaik. Ya could make use of Dust Devil's ability to Disorient and use Eruption (triggers Enrage, dmg scales up w/ disorient). That also gives ya another useful attack+CC to throw in. It could replace Ice Cage's interrupt, as a knock can also interrupt on CC-able mobs.

Also, Thermal Reverb scales better w/ End than Rec, but w/ AoPM ya may not need to SS either Rec or End and can SS Dex for some more dps (and from heals that crit, like stim pack), or SS Int for shorter cds.

Being crit-based would be better for dps overall, most likely.. but ya said ya wanted to try max offense/defense regardless, so the spec choices are fine for that.

williamkony

flowcyto wrote: »

Well, only Fissure is building Enrage here, afaik. Ya could make use of Dust Devil's ability to Disorient and use Eruption (triggers Enrage, dmg scales up w/ disorient). That also gives ya another useful attack+CC to throw in. It could replace Ice Cage's interrupt, as a knock can also interrupt on CC-able mobs.

Also, Thermal Reverb scales better w/ End than Rec, but w/ AoPM ya may not need to SS either Rec or End and can SS Dex for some more dps (and from heals that crit, like stim pack), or SS Int for shorter cds.

Being crit-based would be better for dps overall, most likely.. but ya said ya wanted to try max offense/defense regardless, so the spec choices are fine for that.

Thanks for the information so far. Fissure is indeed my only Enrage builder (Might grab some Devices for more knocks, but the only one with a non-restrictive cooldown has a small trigger chance... At least, the only one I can think of off the top of my head), but with Constitution-stacking, the duration of Enrage should help with that.

Whatever third Superstat I end up taking will only be boosted by 40 total, given that all mods will be focused on Constitution. I don't know that 40 Dexterity will go terribly far, but I'll consider it. XD

I have two more Eye of the Storm questions that I forgot to put in the original post...

Does the shielding increase if you hit multiple enemies, or is it an all-or-nothing type deal?

Does the shield fall back down to the lowest numbers when you start a new maintain, or does it keep the shield from the previous EotS maintain until it's been damaged beyond the new maintain's shield value?

I actually just realized that I completely forgot to put Ego Surge into the mix, which'd be a sin to forget with the high Constitution value. Hopefully, the resulting near-guaranteed critical can help make Stim Pack more potent.

flowcyto

williamkony wrote: »

I have two more Eye of the Storm questions that I forgot to put in the original post...

Does the shielding increase if you hit multiple enemies, or is it an all-or-nothing type deal?

As far as I can tell, its based on the amount of time you spent channeling before inc hits happen, and not on how many hits of EotS you land.

You do have to score at least one hit to get the shield buff up, though- at least from my testing ya can't just channel it out in the open (even when in combat) to get a shield.

Does the shield fall back down to the lowest numbers when you start a new maintain, or does it keep the shield from the previous EotS maintain until it's been damaged beyond the new maintain's shield value?

It resets the buff if ya channel it again, so yeah the shield amount will reset- meaning if ya want the most shielding from it ya gotta hunker down and resist the urge to restart it if the shield is still strong.

williamkony

flowcyto wrote: »

As far as I can tell, its based on the amount of time you spent channeling before inc hits happen, and not on how many hits of EotS you land.

You do have to score at least one hit to get the shield buff up, though- at least from my testing ya can't just channel it out in the open (even when in combat) to get a shield.


It resets the buff if ya channel it again, so yeah the shield amount will reset- meaning if ya want the most shielding from it ya gotta hunker down and resist the urge to restart it if the shield is still strong.

Ahaaa, good to know. Excellent, thank you for the info.

thebuckeye

Also with Eye of the Storm I find it to be useful with Regen builds...as Regen doesn't register it as an official "Block" and so keeps pumping out the higher numbers when in combat...where as if you were to use an actual block power while Regeneration is up it will tick for lesser values, so Regen + Eye of the Storm is a nice work around for needing to turtle for a bit...plus that Blade from beyond the Veil advantage is really nice too :biggrin: and I've personally gotten Eye of the Storm while maintaining function similarly to PFF in that I had blue force field hp numbers flying versus the red damage to my hp while using it...

flowcyto

thebuckeye wrote: »

Also with Eye of the Storm I find it to be useful with Regen builds...as Regen doesn't register it as an official "Block" and so keeps pumping out the higher numbers when in combat...where as if you were to use an actual block power while Regeneration is up it will tick for lesser values, so Regen + Eye of the Storm is a nice work around for needing to turtle for a bit..

Its a good tip- prob can also serve PFF build well (assuming its layered over, which I imagine EotS is).

tdits

thebuckeye wrote: »

Also with Eye of the Storm I find it to be useful with Regen builds...as Regen doesn't register it as an official "Block" and so keeps pumping out the higher numbers when in combat...where as if you were to use an actual block power while Regeneration is up it will tick for lesser values, so Regen + Eye of the Storm is a nice work around for needing to turtle for a bit...plus that Blade from beyond the Veil advantage is really nice too :biggrin: and I've personally gotten Eye of the Storm while maintaining function similarly to PFF in that I had blue force field hp numbers flying versus the red damage to my hp while using it...

Actually, misleading tooltip aside, the only reason block ever makes you regen slower is because you don't take as much damage while you block and regen scales with how hurt you are. It's not like PFF, it doesn't have any direct interaction with block powers.