Fire DPS - End or Rec?

blumoon8 · November 2016

Hullo there!

I need to rebuild my fire DPS toon a little bit. I currently have her with End as a secondary super stat, and while she certainly has a large pool of energy, her equilibrium is just crap. In missions like Cybermind where you can't get energy with your energy builder by attacking the firewall, she is at a clear disadvantage. Truthfully, I've wanted to put her as Rec instead for a little while, but I'm a little nervous to do it.

She has the pretty mainstay fire build with Thermal Reverb and flashfire/Fire snake to help with energy.

Do you guys think End or Rec would be better?

Thanks!

Unknown · November 2016

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aesica · November 2016

Here's a few ways I get around having a tiny equilibrium with a large pool:

1) With Int PSS, one of the specializations allows your equilibrium to scale significantly higher based on your End.

2) Energy-boosting powers, such as Circle of Arcane Power or Dark Transfusion, make great "mana potions."

3) You said fire, so I'm assuming Thermal Reverb. Set. Everything. On. Fire. I can't recall if the cybermind walls can be affected by clinging flames, but if so, get clinging flames on them whether or not they're lit up. (It doesn't cause them to regenerate--educate anyone who claims otherwise that regeneration only happens if nobody is attacking the active wall) Abilities with 100% clinging flames apply are ideal, obviously.

4) When selecting talents, I like to make sure recovery gets representation whether or not it's a superstat. I usually pick the +5/+5 talents that cover both superstats, then pick the +5/+5 talents that one of my superstats + recovery. Example:

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

Talents
Level 1: The Glacier (Con: 10, End: 10, Dex: 8, Int: 10)
Level 6: Acrobat (Dex: 5, Con: 5)
Level 9: Coordinated (Dex: 5, Int: 5)
Level 12: Healthy Mind (Con: 5, Int: 5)
Level 15: Impresario (Dex: 5, Rec: 5)
Level 18: Negotiator (Int: 5, Rec: 5)
Level 21: Quick Recovery (Con: 5, Rec: 5)

Notice the recovery mixed in

avianos · November 2016

I run FF Fire DPS with EGO/END/CON and I get energy for days

100% Endurance for Thermal Reverb, it's awesome
I even use it for my Flame Swordman and my Steam Punk builds

flowcyto · November 2016

Note that if you have Thermal Reverb and Conc or Chilled Form, you can proc both the toggle and TR out of combat at anytime w/ fully charged Pyres, since they leave a flashfire patch beneath you. HW can also do this w/ Brimstone w/ adv. Can also talent for some Rec and/or get a peice of 2ndary gear w/ Rec on it to help w/ equilibrium.

End SS builds w/o Rec SS may look like they have low equilibrium, but in reality ur view of it is a bit distorted because you actually just have a higher energy cap and the right side of the bar gets stretched out. Doesn't mean you should skip on improving equilibrium w/ End SS builds, just that visually the equilibrium energy will look smaller than it really is.

pwestolemyname · November 2016

I've run a Fire build for years and never used either End or Rec SSS. EGO/CON/DEX. Take the EGO spec that reduces Energy cost and a couple of Gambler's Gems and you should be good. I rarely have energy problems. Every now and then I have to stop and pop a couple of Energy Builders, but I actually run without it on a lot of the time.

flowcyto · November 2016

*shurg* I find that even w/ End SS'd, I still get a Dex mod or so. Effectively that Rec/End stat, even if one is SS'd, tends to be quite the lesser of the 3 SS for me. Flipping around a minor Dex non-SS and minor End SS to Dex SS + End non-SS wouldn't change my crit much, but would have me still get some End on the side for lower gear levels.

blumoon8 · November 2016

Alrighty, SO, thank you all for your feedback! I've played around with the build on PTS and I rather like having End as an SS after all. My SS are currently Dex/Ego/End. My character has existed since before FFA and all that jazz, and I'm noticing some things in odd things in her build now that I'm really starting to poke at it. So... I have additional questions!

I was including Heatwave+Engulfing Flames as part of my rotation. It gives 60% fire debuff on its target (I'm guessing after a full maintain, because it stacks), but I can't help feeling like it might be partly unnecessary. My current rotation is Fire Snake>Flashfire>tap Fireball+Unstable Accelerant>Heatwave+Engulfing Flames> tap FB > Conflag

Am I the only one that feels that's a little long? Would my DPS and overall damage potential be improved taking out Heatwave? Does Engulfing Flames make any difference when taking on Cosmics?

Also, I've had Flashfire rank 3 in the past... but that also feels unnecessary. Would it be best to leave it as rank 1 and just use it as energy?

Finally, I'm having some small problems deciding on the heals I should nab for my DPS toon. I'm often a solo'er when I go into instances so I need heals to make life a little easier. I currently have BCR and Empathic Healing. BCR is great to use for emergencies and keeps me alive long enough for Empathic Healing. I've thought about replacing Absorb Heat in there instead of one of them, but I'm not sure which, or if I should at all. Absorb Heat seems great after a fight is in progress (I've yet to use it for any characters), but my current heals work great as I'm going into danger. I hope that makes sense. If anything, I'm leaning more toward replacing BCR because I get some decent heals off with Empathic because of my crits.

Anywho, thank you so much for your help so far!

morigosa · November 2016

Absorb Heat: This works amazingly on a heavy weapons character; it's much less amazing for fire due to the very short range (I think it's 25 yards, versus 50 for your regular attacks). That said, if it's mostly there for soloing, and you expect that when soloing stuff will be coming up to melee you, it could work out.

Flashfire: The damage from the fire patch is actually quite strong, relative to the amount of time spent activating the power... if things are actually living long enough for it to expire. Were it my character, I'd prefer to keep it at r3 - but it'd be one of the first places I'd strip advantage points from if I needed them elsewhere. (Ditto for Fire Snake, actually, though with the debuff no longer scaling with rank I tend to go r2 + Trail Blazer for that.)

Heatwave: I very much like this power; it actually does decent damage on top of applying its debuff. Having a CC power is quite nice when soloing, and the debuff is very useful against cosmics... if you're not the only person there that's doing fire damage. I'd probably leave it out of single target rotations when there aren't other fire (or heavy weapons) users around, though.

flowcyto · November 2016

I can't easily parse it atm, but Heatwave w/ adv isn't necessary for a good Fire dps toon and will take an extra power slot. I am unsure if its really worthwhile, esp since stacks of it don't refresh upon re-application (if so then it'd def be worthwhile in the long run cause you could just tap it after getting it to 6 stacks to keep those rolling- but that'd prob also be overpowered from a debuff standpoint).

As far as heals.. Absorb Heat is good, but the biggest drawbacks to it w/ a Fire build are that it requires a target to have CF neabry, and that you must be w/in 25ft of it to full trigger the heal (and there's a bit of a delay to it). Its an easier sell to a melee set like Heavy Weapons, but harder for a ranged set like Fire. Otherwise, Conviction is the safe & easy pick, and you can throw a threat wipe and/or something like Resurgence in there too.

p4nj4kr3jn · November 2016

I go REC with most of my characters for those very reasons, and I'm quite happy.

pwestolemyname · November 2016

I use that exact same routine on my Fire build, but only in long fights against tough foes, like Cosmics and Legendaries. Against trash mobs, I pretty much only use Conflag. Against mid mobs, like in an Alert, I'll use Flashfire + Fireball + Conflag.

I parsed it once and, for long fights, I do get about a 7% increase in DPS when using Heatwave/Engulfing Flames in the mix. A couple things to note about that, EF has a long timer, I think it is at least 45 seconds, so you don't need to reapply that often. Also, it does not take a full maintain to refresh it all the way back up to 6 stacks. So, if you keep an eye on that and don't over-use it, you can have more time with Conflag up.

As far as Heat Wave goes, I play a high HP build that stands in the middle of combat (I like to stand in my fire patches), so it works well for me. If you have CF going, it does heal more than BCR. You can also cycle it so it is nearly non-stop healing. Plus, you get the bonus of damage and a bit of AOE heal. With your attack routine, keeping CF up should not be a problem at all. However, if you play more ranged, it's going to be tough to use. So, it really depends on your playstyle whether you want to use it, or not.

Fire DPS - End or Rec?

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