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Guide to Spec Trees

Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
edited February 2014 in Power Discussion
So, I'm Sage. I'm in Wildcards. And I like playing with builds. So the new spec trees are quite intriguing.

However, not everyone else is as crazy-gleeful about an entirely new complexity layer being placed on top of the multiple levels of complexity we already have in making builds. If you're one of them, that's okay. It means you're probably sane.

The following is an attempt to map out some useful applications of the spec trees to various builds. This isn't the end-all be-all, and should be taken with a grain of salt. The way I play may not be remotely similar to the way you play, and we may see value in entirely different things. But I'm hoping this will at least be useful as a starting point for experimentation.

This is going to be a work-in-progress for like the next week. Bear with me.


Basics:

Spec trees grant buffs to specific stats or to specific aspects of character performance. Their benefits fall into a few broad categories:


Gear boosts
Gear boosts increase the performance of gear. They usually increase the offense or defense gained by gear, or sometimes both. Now, if you've played Champions before the megapatch, enough to where you had a chance to play around with old gear, you're probably wondering "so what?". Well...this aspect of the Spec system ties in with the revamp to gear.

"New" offensive gear has +offense baked into it, and every new piece of gear has some +defense baked in as well. +Offense provides a damage boost, and +Defense provides a resistance to all damage. These scale on Cryptic math, so a "+31% damage boost" from offense doesn't mean you're doing 31% more damage overall. It's still a significant damage boost though. As a general rule of thumb, these Spec choices are always useful, but they're not always the best choice at a given decision point.



Buffs to what superstats do
These talents add abilities to your character that scale off your superstats. First off, I'm going to draw a distinction here between "stats" and "superstats", and then divide "superstats" into "major superstat" and "minor superstats". Stats are your "Core" Stats that every character has. Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Ego, Intelligence, Presence, Recovery, Endurance. Hover over these to see what they do, at base. These boosts are always on.

Now, when you pick your "Superstats", you're basically saying "when I make these stats higher, I get better at what I do". Your Character Role that you select (Hybrid, Tank, Melee Damage, Ranged Damage, Support) determines how your Superstats determine "what you do", and you can change this by swapping Roles (on a Freeform. As an AT, you're stuck with whatever the devs selected as your default.) You pick one stat to be your "Major" Superstat. It increases with level (to an increase of +80 at level 40) and determines what Stat Tree you have access to in your Specializations. You then pick two "Minor" Superstats. These get a smaller boost with level (+40 to each at level 40).

In addition to doing whatever they do by virtue of existing (Con giving HP, Pre boosting healing, Dex boosting crit chance, etc), your superstats also give bonuses based on them being selected as Superstats. Your superstats give a damage bonus (along with healing bonuses and threat bonuses/reductions, depending on Role) based on how high they are compared to an unlisted "target" the devs think is an appropriate number for the level you're at. This is why, if you have some gear on, and you go from level 20 to 21, your damage (and other) bonus from superstats may drop slightly, because you're a bit off from that level's "target" value. I don't have these values for all the level range, but a general rule of thumb is that, in Hybrid role, if you're at about a 30% damage boost from your Major Superstat, you're doing well. That's about 200 points at level 40, I think.

What these types of Talents do is add an effect to your character that scales on how high your Superstats are. Sometimes these are keyed off your Major Superstat (like in the Int tree, there's a Talent that adds Armor Penetration based on your Intelligence). And sometimes they are keyed off the total of your two combined Minor Superstats. Like extra critical severity, knock resistance or crowd control strength.

These talents are often very useful, and are sometimes the main reason for picking a certain Major Superstat (besides wanting a lot of whatever the Stat does at base, like Con giving HP. Sweet HP...)


Buffs to certain categories of attacks or powers
These add additional effects, damage buffs or cost discounts to certain types of Powers, or certain Powers when they're used on certain targets. They range from buffing the effects of your shields when used on other people, to making your Stuns/Holds/Roots make targets take extra damage, to increasing the damage of Combo Attacks or Blasts, to reducing the cooldowns of Active Offenses/Defenses, to many other types of things.

What you need to know in making use of these types of Talents is that you have to have the type of power they buff to get use out of them. A few terms to know when looking at these are "Blasts", "Combo Powers", "Shields", "Heals", Active Offenses, Active Defenses and the various flavors of Crowd Control (like Hold, Stun, Root, Snare, Incapacitate, etc). When you look at the details in the Power Window, it'll show you what a power is tagged as. Here's a very brief description of the two new types of power tags (Blasts and Combos), with some example powers of each type. For every other type of power, check the CO Wiki.

At the end of this section is a list of what powers fall under what tags, for a few of the more confusing tags.
Blast - Usually Tier 0 ranged attacks that can be charged. An example is Ice Blast. Low-tier maintains (like Two-Gun Mojo, TK Assault) or taps (like Fire Strike) are not Blasts, and do not benefit from Blast specs.
List of Blasts:
  • Ice Blast
  • Gust
  • Chain Lightning
  • Force Blast
  • Experimental Blaster
  • Power Gauntlet
  • Straight Shot
  • Shotgun Blast (Yes, I know, wtf)
  • Ego Blast
  • Rebuke
  • Shadow Blast
  • Eldritch Blast (this is really pretty now)
  • Infernal Blast

Combo - These are Tier 0 melee attacks that involve hitting a button multiple times to do different attacks, with increasing energy costs and damage as you finish the combo, with the third hit being the biggest. Blade Tempest, Ego Weaponry and Cleave are examples here. Frenzy and Laser Sword are not "Combo" powers, even though they may look like it.
List of Combos:
  • Blade Tempest
  • Viper's Fangs
  • Thundering Kicks
  • Reaper's Caress
  • Ego Weaponry
  • Beatdown
  • Defensive Combo
  • Cleave
  • Bullet Beatdown
  • Shred


These talents are quite useful if you're making heavy use of the powers they buff, but somewhat useless otherwise.

Character stat boosts
These are buffs to your character's abilities that are either always-on, or trigger when you hit a certain condition. Most of them take the form of buffs to "Substats". Yes, because the STAT MADNESS above was not enough. These are stats that are usually derived from your Core stats, though some of them are base to the character, and some are gained only through powers. So Dex gives Critical Strike, or every character when completely naked has 10% dodge chance, 20% avoidance and 50% Critical Severity, for instance. A lot of buffs to these types of stats are on gear, but you can also get buffs to them through Talents.
List of substats, by slot (or slot they are associated with):

Offensive - Critical Strike, Critical Severity, +Offense, + Heal Strength, +Primary Superstat (yes, this adds to whatever your Primary Superstat is)

Defensive - +Dodge, + Avoid, +Defense, +Crowd Control Resistance, + Maximum HP

Utility - Cost Reduction, Cooldown Reduction, Crowd Control Strength

These talents are great for certain types of builds that make use of them, but can be useful to pretty much any character.


Other types of buffs that don't fit in the above categories
These are oddball talents that don't fit in any other category. There are the Aura talents in each of the "Support" trees that grant an always-on buff to you and any teammates/pets within 150 feet, talents that grant immunity or run speed boosts, and talents that grant buffs on you for doing certain things.

These range from practically useless to completely game-destroying, depending on what you're trying to do.

Taking a break for now, going to start in on the Role trees next.
Post edited by Archived Post on
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Superstat Spec Trees:

    Stat Trees:

    Your first available tree is determined by what Major Superstat you select. The abilities available in the tree should be taken into account as well as the stat’s base effect when you are selecting your Primary Superstat.

    It’s also not always necessary to assume that your Primary superstat will be your highest stat. You may want to Primary a certain stat for access to its tree abilities, but then buff your Secondary superstats with gear and talents beyond the level of Superstat diminishing returns after you get your Primary Superstat to a sufficient level.

    Example: End Primary Superstat with Con and Dex as Secondary Superstats. Getting your End to about 230 and your Con/Dex to about 220 each would be a better investment than getting your End to say 290 and your Con/Dex to 180 each.

    But if you’re going with something like Ego/pre/int on a sniper, you may want to buff your Primary more than your Secondaries.

    Stat emphasis depends on the build and what you want to do with it.

    A few things to keep in mind about powers and stats that have changed with the recent patch:

    -Imbue scales off either Presence OR Constitution now. So bubble builds can have a scary spike

    -Ego and Strength give ranged/melee bonuses, respectively. These are soft-capped, so investing in them past 70 is a good idea. The caps on these are a bit more generous than superstat caps, so you can get to about 40% damage increase to their respective area with about 300 in the stat. This is in the same bonus layer as superstats.

    -New offensive gear gives, essentially, everyone mini-Enrage (from the +Offense on gear). I’m describing it as “mini-Enrage” because it’s basically a flat damage bonus to all your attacks. It’s nowhere near the magnitude of Enrage backed by high Strength, but it’s a decent boost (about 30% boost around 200 Offense, if I remember correctly). This sits in the same layer as your Superstat Damage bonus. This, on its own, makes up for the “loss” of damage in the Tank/Support roles, IMO.

    -New utility gear gives everyone, essentially, a minor in Int as far as cost reduction/cooldown reduction goes. This means every build has a lot more energy efficiency, as soon as you start getting new Utility gear. It doesn’t have to be purples, or even blues. AH greens (which are dirt cheap) are still a nice bit of cost redux/cooldown redux. This also means that Int as a superstat isn’t quite as appealing on its own for energy management, as Int hits diminishing returns with cooldown/cost reduction gear.

    - New utility gear means End and Rec are more viable choices for energy management now. You’ll still want to take Int if you’re using MSA, using Quarry, or have powers with cooldowns that you want to lower, but it’s no longer the absolute “best” choice for energy efficiency on a per-stat basis.

    -New defense gear has more +Defense on it, and all gear (old and new) has some Defense on it. The old “Physical Defense” and “Energy Defense” gear types got rolled into one number, “Defense”. Focusing on this substat in your gear/talents isn’t going to make you a tank on its own, but it can make for a damned tough offensive “squishy”, and further buffs tanks into unkillable walls of meat. Think of Defense as mini-Defiance.

    -You’re going to see a lot of crit-related talents in the Spec trees, especially once you get into the Role trees. This doesn’t mean the devs want “everyone” to go Dex, or that it’s “required”. The new +Critical Strike rating substat on gear is quite good, even for people with no Dex whatsoever. This, combined with the innate 50% crit severity everyone starts with, means that you can get about a 25% crit rate without talents or Dex, just from using +Crit Strike gear. For builds that normally wouldn’t have anything to do with crits, they can now pick it up at little cost to their build.

    -If you want to focus on crits, you have three choices. Dex tree (best for melee crit characters or just general crit-monkey-ness.) Ego tree (for massive crits, better with ranged characters due to Ego’s innate ranged damage boost, but usable for melee. Especially Dragon’s Claws’ builds.) Presence Tree (surprisingly enough. It has a talent that can give you about 8-10% crit rate, on its own. TK/Seraphim plays nicely with this)

    -The spec trees, in general, do not contain a lot of flat damage boosts. You can boost offense or crit rate or crit severity or the damage of certain selected types of powers, but you’re not going to find a lot of “pick this spec for 50% more damage” sort of things. If you’re looking to spec trees for damage, you’re going to end up tailoring it to your build.

    -The spec trees do, however, contain a lot of “quality of life” survival options, as well as some ridiculously strong survival options. I would guess the Dev’s intent here is to make it so non-defensive-passive users can be more survivable. This also means tanks are ridiculously hard to kill now, but that’s why I’m ignoring PvP for the next six months or so.

    -The point of the two above comments is to point one thing out. You aren’t going to gimp your build with your spec choices. Relax. You may not be getting as much of a buff out of them as you could, but you aren’t going to ruin your build. Everything in the spec tree is a buff of some sort. It just may be a buff to a power type you aren’t using, or a buff that doesn’t help you very much.

    Stat Tree info follows in the next few posts (I'm long-winded). Check Ryko_Nailo's topic at http://forums.champions-online.com/showthread.php?t=145568 for detailed numbers.

    The following are my opinions on the Spec Trees. I've tried not to be factually wrong, but if I am, please feel free to correct me. Just please don't be a **** about it. Opinions would also be welcome.

    I'm going to "reserve" some posts here too, as I've still got Role Trees and Builds to cover.

    Note: Remember how I established those "categories" in the first post? Talents are going to be color-coded according to what type they are.

    Gear Boosts: These apply to any gear you have equipped. As long as you have gear (usually new gear, as old gear usually doesn't give +Offense), these will always give a boost.

    Buffs to what Superstats do:These apply no matter what your Superstats are. As long as you have superats, you're getting the benefit.

    Buffs to certain categories of Attacks or Powers: These only apply if you use a power they effect or meet a condition they require. You need to build around these, but they can be quite useful.

    Character Stat Boosts: These are always-on and scale with a specific Stat or Substat. The scaling stat/substat is in Bold. You need to have some of the stat this requires to get a benefit from it.

    Other: These are things that defy normal classification. There's only a few of these.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Stat Tree Analysis: (See Ryko_Nailo’s Spec Tree Info topic for detailed numbers. All credit for all the numbers in the next section goes to Ryko_Nailo and the contributors to his topic)


    Strength
    Strength tree is designed to give a bit of extra survival while also helping you hit things better/harder. A lot of its stuff is melee, but it also has some decent boosts in there for ranged characters that’ll never touch melee (like if you’re using Enrage).

    Tier 1 -
    Swole gives extra health per point of Strength. For reference, Con gives 15 HP per point of Con, whereas Swole gives 3 points per Strength at max rank. This is a nice ancilliary boost, but there are better options in the tier unless you aren’t melee.

    Physical Peak is one of the Strength tree’s melee boosts. It makes your melee attacks cheaper. If you’re melee, max it.

    Quick Recovery is one of those “Quality of Life” survival boosts I mentioned. It gives you scaling HP regeneration based on your Rec. This is not a lot of HP, at all. At rank 2, with 150 Rec, it’s 30 HP a tick, or 10 HP per second. Looking at this, it’s minor almost to the point of insignificance. But...if you’re using something like IDF or Invulnerability, it’s enough to completely negate some henchmen attacks, and it can (when combined with block turtling) be a way to slow down losses in a battle of attrition. It’s not a substitute for real healing, but it can be stacked with other things. Don’t discount it off the bat.

    Aggression gives extra Offense from Items. If you’re starting out fresh from the patch, with no new gear, this is going to seem useless. It’s not. I’d take this unless you’re melee, and might even suggest taking it if you are melee and don’t want the minor survival boosts of Swole/QR.

    Tier 2-
    Balance is a reason for ranged-knock users to like Strength tree. If you were previously a ranged knock build using Strength and your build was gutted when Ego started scaling ranged knocks, rejoice! This lets Strength scale ranged knocks, with contribution increasing by rank.

    Brutality causes your Secondary Superstats to give you Crit Severity. Now, you’re probably wondering why a Strength build cares about Crit Severity. Three reasons, even if you don’t have Dex in your build: 1. Crit Strike gear 2. The Overpower Talent 3. Crits are basically a free damage boost if you grab Crit Strike gear. This isn’t going to make you a critmonkey on its own, but it’s an additonal boost you can stack on top of other boosts.

    Juggernaut makes your Con grant Defense. This is better than it sounds, because Defense is a bit better than it sounds.

    Overpower causes your Strength to give extra Critical Chance to your melee powers. If you’re a melee build, you’ll probably want to take Physical Power along with this and Brutality. If you’re not, this can be ignored. This isn’t a very big boost on its own (about 6% at rank 3 with about 150 Strength), but again, it can be stacked with other things. And if you’re Strength, you’re probably using Enrage and likely Aggressor, so an extra multiplicative damage bonus every once in a while is a good thing.

    Strength Mastery-
    Str Mastery gives you 20 Strength and 30 Offense. If you’re melee or using Enrage, this is pretty nice. If you have absolutely no other useful Masteries, the 30 Offense is better than nothing even if you aren’t using melee or Enrage.

    Dexterity

    Dex tree is the critmonkey tree, and it’s damned good at it. Anyone wanting more damage and a bit more survival would do well to take this tree. Dodge builds will especially like it.

    Tier 1-
    Combat Training causes your +Offense to also give +Crit. The numbers on this aren’t very high, but considering that you have to be Dex tree to take this, you’ve already got at least some Crit. This adds to it. It’s not bad, but the low numbers hurt it. You may want to look at other options in this tree’s Tier 1.

    Gear Utilization is a nice generalist talent that makes both your Offense and Defense from gear better. Unless you reaallly want something else from Tier 1, I’d give this a good look.

    Brush it Off is a nice situational bonus that makes you more likely to dodge AoE attacks. If you’re a DPS in either Ranged/Melee damage roles (and your Tank’s either taken threat boosts or is in Tank role and isn’t asleep), you’re not likely to be directly targetted by things that the Tank’s occupying. AoEs are the main thing that’s going to hit you, and this talent helps survive them a bit. It’s not bad, since it’s a flat bonus to AoEs (as opposed to Dodge rating, which DR eats alive).

    Power Swell causes your crits to make your next attack/heal cheaper. If you’re having energy issues, you may want to take a look at it. But crit-based builds (at least the most common ones) usually don’t have that many energy issues (Form of the Tempest helps here, of course). May want to take it if you’re spamming high-cost attacks.

    Tier 2-
    Evasion causes your Secondary Superstats to give Avoidance rating. If you’re a dodge build, you might want this (as Avoidance is a bit harder to get than Dodge), but it’s not astounding. Unless you’re trying to maximize your dodge/avoid at the cost of damage, you may want to look at some of the other options in this tier. Dead things, no damage, etc The numerical boost isn’t that high.

    Deadly Aim is amazing. If you’re taking the Dex tree and you aren’t taking this talent, you deserve to be ridiculed. WITH SCORN. This causes your Secondary Superstats to buff your Critical Severity. At an “average” superstat number (150, which is low when you get new gear), you’re getting about 19% critical severity. Y helo thar, 20% damage bonus on crits. Take this, max it, love it, stack with other critical severity buffs for extra lulz.

    Expose Weakness dovetails nicely with Deadly Aim (and the Dex tree as a whole). It causes a stacking resistance debuff to all damage on your target every time you crit. At Rank 2, with 5 stacks, this is a 10% damage resistance debuff. Quite nice for damage dealers, especially if you’re already getting some dodge from your passive (WotW or Quarry) and you’d get a relatively low boost from the Dodge/Avoid talents in this tree.

    Quick Reflexes causes your Dex to add a bit of a dodge boost. The numbers on this are better than the Avoid from Evasion, but Dodge is a bit easier to get than Avoid. This would be far better if it wasn’t competing with Expose Weakness, let alone Deadly Aim.

    Dexterity Mastery-
    This is far more awesome than it sounds. It gives 20 Dex (sorta meh but a nice boost), but it also gives 10% critical severity. This stacks with the Critical Severity from Deadly Aim, and from any other sources. Critmonkeys rejoice! It also gives a bit of Avoidance rating, which is alright I guess. Take this unless you have another Mastery you’re in love with.


    Constitution

    Con tree is primarily for tanking, or at least tankiness. It doesn’t have any offensive-buffing Talents at all. However, combining Con superstat and the Con tree with, say, Dex or Str or Ego as Secondary Superstats and an Offensive Passive can make for quite a durable Blaster-type.

    Tier 1
    Unyielding buffs your Hold Resistance based off your Con. This is alright if you’re annoyed by holds (or building for PvP), but there are a few better choices in Tier 1.

    Fuel my Fire is basically a mini-version of the energy return from Defiance. This is pretty good to add to other energy options (or even Defiance itself), but it only works if you’re getting hit.

    Tough causes your Secondary Superstats to grant you health. As you’re pretty much required to have a lot of Con if you’re using Con as your major Superstat, this means you probably aren’t hurting for HP. Take if you want to make a ridiculously high-HP monster, but it’s not that useful (1.5 HP per point of secondary superstat is pretty tiny)

    Resilient adds an extra dimension of tanky to Con, protecting against knocks. If you don’t have Strength as a superstat, max this. If you do...you still may want to max it. Especially since knock resistance gear is MIA in the new gear reality.


    Tier 2
    Deflection makes your Dex add to your dodge chance. This scales somewhat well, but it isn’t going to turn you into a dodge tank on its own. And if you do have other sources of dodge, this won’t do much for you (as it adds Dodge rating).

    Quick Healing is similar to the other “heal over time” talents in the Strength, Recovery and Endurance trees. It scales off of Secondary Superstats instead of specifically Recovery, though. This makes it more useful to Con tree, as it works even without Recovery. Can be somewhat useful to add on to other self-heals and to help patch you up from henchmen attacks (especially on ATs that otherwise lack self-healing), but it’s not the end-all, be-all of heals by any means.

    Adrenaline Rush causes you to get healed for 2% (at max rank) of your health every time you crit. Since you’re Con superstat, this is a pretty nice chunk of HP. This may make adding some Crit Strike gear or Dex into your build, and can be quite good for dodge tanks that are also somewhat crit-based.

    Armored is a % boost to your Defense from Items. Good for anyone that wants a bit of extra space between themselves and oblivion. This is the highest gear defense boost available in the trees, but Gear Utilization is almost as good (and also adds Offense). Con doesn’t get Gear Utilization, though. You can have some pretty nice shenanigans going by combining this with some of the “tank” role trees, as I’ll get to later.


    Constitution Mastery-
    Straightforward, but not horrible. This gives you 20 extra Con and a nice Defense buff. I want to say the Defense boost is 20%, not a flat 20, but I need to confirm. Take it if you want some more tankiness in your life, assuming you don’t have a Mastery you like better.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Intelligence

    Int tree is a bit of an oddball one. It has the most broken Talent in the game (Revitalize) along with several other niche boosts to various things or to the effectiveness of stats. It can give you innate Resistance Penetration (think Dragon’s Wrath) on every attack, which makes it pretty okay for a DPS’er and would-be-good for PvP (if tanks weren’t more ridiculous now than ever). Int on its own is also good for builds with a lot of cooldowns, and you may want to use it for making a dedicated “Controller” as well, as its talent to add Int to Crowd Control Strength stacks with Talents, Gear and Presence’s +Crowd Control strength. This is one of these trees that (I’m *******izing someone’s sig here), you “might need a Real-Life Int superstat” to understand. It’s quirky.

    Tier 1
    Preparation makes your End boost your Equilibrium. This is similar-to but slightly weaker than the Readiness Talent in the End tree. Not bad if you’re going Int/end/something, but not great.

    Enlightened is a weird one. It takes your non-superstats (so the five left after picking your Primary and two Secondaries) and makes them give more of a bonus. Str/Ego gives more melee/ranged damage, Dex gives more crits (I don’t think this is “30% more crit rate, I think it’s “30% more crit rate than what you’d get from whatever your Dex gives you which is likely low), Pre gives more healing/hold strength, Con gives more HP, Rec gives more equilibrium/max end, End gives more max end. This is most useful if you don’t have Con, Rec or End as a super.

    Tactician makes your Secondary Superstats give Offense. This isn’t as good as some of the ones in the other trees, but it’s a damage buff all the same.

    Battle of Wits makes your Intelligence also give you Hold Strength. This is useful if you use holds a lot, especially if you couple it with a Secondary Superstat in Presence and some of the hold-buffing talents. If you aren’t going with that sort of specialized build though, you won’t really want it.


    Tier 2
    Revitalize is...ugh. This is the most broken Talent in the game. 17 energy builder hits (and remember, some energy builders hit faster than others) will recharge ANYTHING. Even those three-hour-cooldown animal transform potions from Monster Island. Or Active Defenses. Or Active Offenses. Or Palliate. I’m not going to recommend this in builds, as it needs some quality time with the nerfbat, and it likely will get that soon. Can only trigger every 2 seconds on Live, according to patch notes (Thanks, me_less!)

    Detect Vulnerability is pretty good. Have you ever complained about Dragon’s Wrath? If so, this is the talent for you. It makes your Int apply an armor resistance penetration buff to all of your attacks. Against a target with resistance, it’s a pretty good damage boost. Against a squishy (or PvE content), it’s not as great. And this assumes that it works like old Resistance Penetration (like Dragon’s Wrath) instead of new Armor Penetration (like the PvP gear). The former is better against tanks and kinda lackluster against PvE content (since most stuff doesn’t have resistance). The latter is better against squishies, as it’s a flat reduction. Someone shine the Radia/Pantagruel-signal and humbly request numbers of them, please.

    Tinkering is a weaker version of Gear Utilization. This talent confuses me, as it was originally labeled as “Boosts Effects of Secondary Utility gear” on PTS (many builds ago), but never got implemented. I guess they went with this as a stopgap. It’s okay, but there are far better choices in this Tier.

    Expertise is another weird one. It buffs the effects of your Secondary Superstats. So if you’ve got Con and End as your Secondary Superstats, you’ll get more HP/Endurance out of them. This does not boost the things that they do by virtue of being Superstats, only the things that they do by virtue of existing. So it won’t increase your damage buff from taking Con or End, but it would make Str or Ego give more damage.


    Intelligence Mastery-
    Int Mastery is one of the Stat Tree Masteries I rage against. It adds 10 to each one of your non-Superstats (so 50 stat points in total). Good if you aren’t super-ing Con, Rec or End (as those give pretty consistent flat bonuses), but not that great otherwise. It’s like a self-only mini-AoPM that only applies to stats you probably don’t care about. Take it if you have no better options, as free stat points aren’t horrible.


    Ego

    Ego is the other crit-based tree, focusing more on Severity than Crit Chance. Given that Ego buffs ranged damage, you’ll pretty much only want to use this with ranged builds. Unless you’re using Dragon’s Claws or Ego Blades, of course (though Dex tree works quite well for those, too). I wouldn’t suggest using this over the Dex tree unless you’re getting some other benefit out of Ego (ranged damage, ranged knock or Ego Blades’ interactions, for example). It is a nice parallel to the Strength tree (ranged cost discounts, Ego can scale melee knocks), but that’s more a curiosity than a useful application.

    Tier 1
    Mental Endurance makes your Rec give more max energy per point. As it’s something like 5 Rec/1 Max Energy, Rank 3 of this takes it to 5 Rec/2 Max Energy. Decent, but it means you’re using Ego and Rec as two of your superstats. Take that how you will.

    Force of Will is similar to the Presence tree talent that gives Defense from your Secondary Superstats. A decent way to add some extra beef to a squishy blaster type.

    Insight gives a cost discount to your ranged powers. If you’re taking Ego tree, you’re likely wanting to blast things, and this helps give MOAR DAKKA. Stacks with cost redux from gear or Int too. This is a better choice for energy management in this tree than Mental Endurance.

    Aggression is the same as the talent in the Strength Tree (boost to Offense from Gear). A decent overall buff to Offense, but the types of characters that will likely build for Ego as Primary may want the other options in Tier 1.


    Tier 2
    Follow Through makes Ego give Crit Severity. This is pretty much the reason to take the Ego tree. Combine it with Crit Strike Gear, the Sixth Sense Talent (see below), Dex as a secondary or all of the above for those lovely BOOM HEADSHOT moments. It’s about 20% Crit Severity at 175 Ego...and you’re going to have more than 175 Ego at 40. Or at least you SHOULD.

    Exploit Opening has your non-crits get a mini-crit effect for 30% of your Critical Severity, if they occur after a crit. So crit once with 120% severity, your next non-crit does an additional 36% damage. This is..okay, moreso if you’ve got a high-crit rate and are using maintains. Something like Ego/dex/whatever Conflag or Avalanche or Lightning Storm would do quite well with this.

    Sixth Sense lets your Secondary Superstats add Critical Chance. This combines pretty nicely with Follow Through, and a theoretical combination of 3 Follow Through, 2 Exploit Opening, 3 Sixth Sense would be awesome. But since you can’t do that, I’d suggest grabbing three Follow Through and a combination of either Exploit Opening or this.

    Mind over Matter makes your Ego buff your melee knocks, but makes Strength not buff them anymore. Only real use I can see to this talent is if you’re a Strength-less Ego Blader that’s using something like Inexorable Tides as a setup.


    Ego Mastery-
    This is another Mastery that I raged against. 20 to each of your Secondary Super Stats (so 40 stat points total). This is meh, but it does (marginally) help any build. Take it if you have no better options, etc.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Presence

    Presence is probably my favorite of the stat trees. It’s so damned versatile. There’s healing/crowd control buffs coupled with a self-defense boost and two surprisingly good offensive buffs (Crit Chance and +Offense, comparatively). If you have any sort of “support” component in your build (Heals, Crowd Control, Auras, Ebon Sigils, Bubbles, self-heals, etc), or any use for Presence in your build at all, Presence tree can be of great use to you.

    Tier 1
    Repurpose makes your +Offense (from gear, specifically) grant increased Healing Strength. If you’re a support character that either wants to solo or wants to throw in damage (and you should be, because attackless healers are either PvP healers or boring), this is golden. Actually, this is golden anyway, as you can’t avoid getting +Offense from Items, even if you have +Heal Strength %. Take this, use it, love it.

    Selfless Ally causes you to heal yourself for up to 10% of the heal on an ally. The shenanigans possible with Iniquity should be self-evident, but last I checked this also works with Sentinel Aura...

    Dominion increases the Hold Strength you get from Pre. This is good if you’re using Holds (Paralyzes, mainly), Stuns or Sleeps, especially when combined with Vulnerability. Note that Vulnerability DOES NOT work with Stuns. Sadface.

    Grandeur makes your Pre grant up to 3 Offense per 10 points of Presence (at max Rank). The extra offense from this does not work with Repurpose (sadly), but it’s still a pretty decent offense boost. (With 400 Presence and max ranks, that’s an extra 120 offense) Take it if you want to hurt things while you heal.


    Tier 2
    Brilliance makes your Crit Heals grant a buff on the target that makes you heal them for more. I’m not very impressed with this, really...but that’s mainly because Iniquity and Bubbles (the two best “healing” options) can’t crit, and the heal-others that aren’t Empathic Healing are kind of bad. And the rest of Presence tree is so awesome. Worth it if you’re building a crit-based green number slinger, probably. “But Sage, I’m a healer! Where will I get crits from?” Keep reading.

    Moment of Glory makes your Secondary Superstats grant Crit Chance. THIS is where you get the critlcal chance for Brilliance (especially combined with Sentinel tree and crit strike gear). Or, y’know, you could not be a wuss and use the increased crit chance to make things dead. It’s about a 6% crit chance at “average” Superstat levels, and more like 9% if you’re geared well and rocking AoPM.

    Force of Will makes your Secondary Superstats grant Defense. This stacks with every other Defense boost, blahblah. It’s pretty good, especially if you’re buffing your Superstats well or you’ve taken some of the % Defense boosts from the Role trees. Take it if you have points (which you might not, Presence tree’s that good).

    Vulnerability makes your Holds (Paralyzes, so the charged holds) and Sleeps apply a Resistance debuff to your target. I would love this if it applied to Stuns, but as of last reading, it does not. Take it if you use Paralyzes (or especially if you use Ego Sleep). This applies even if the hold doesn’t, so it works on bosses.


    Presence Mastery-
    Pre Mastery is nice for supporty types. It makes your heals apply mini-shields, and your shields apply heal buffs. Take this if you use heals and want to make your team less likely to die. Also, the Pre Mastery bubbles are cool-looking.


    Recovery

    Recovery, in my opinion, got the least benefit from the spec trees. It’s like End-lite. It can still be useful, and there’s a few tricks it can do that End can’t do, but generally speaking, the types of builds that would benefit from Rec tree would generally also get as much or more of a benefit from End tree. It does have the best self-heal out of the stat trees, though. Rec and End trees both get a talent to lessen their reliance on the “other” Energy Stat (End for Rec, Rec for End), so that makes fitting them into a build a bit more flexible.

    Tier 1
    Gear Utilization is the same as the talent in the Dex tree, except Recovery doesn’t have Dex’s massive boosts to offensive potential, so it looks better by comparison here.

    Withstand gives you innate CC resistance, scaling off your Secondary Superstats. This is a bit better than it sounds, though the gear version is even better. It can turn holds into interrupts.

    Rapid Recovery is the best of the “make x grant heal over time” talents, making your Rec grant a heal over time. That’s not saying much, of course. Good for those that don’t have other ways to self heal (like ATs), or those that can turtle behind block for a bit (like anyone with Ebon Void and the advantage).

    Staying Power is Readiness’ (End Tree’s) not-as-attractive cousin, or alternatively, the less-ugly sibling of Mental Endurance (from Ego Tree). It makes your Rec give more maximum energy per point. End granting equilibrium is generally far more useful than Rec granting max energy, but this may have some use depending on your build. More useful when combined with Super Charged and without End as a superstat (as it gives you more wiggle room to stay in the 91%+ of max energy range)

    Tier 2
    Super Charged continues the pattern of Rec being End-lite. It gives a whopping crit chance buff if you’re over 90% energy (15% at max rank), but the practicalities of using multiple crit-capable powers while staying over 90% energy somewhat get in its way. If you use Dark Transfusion and maybe Circle of Arcane Power, you could do some very scary maintains with this, but I prefer Outburst (and End Tree) since it’s a single shot that then allows you to do whatever else you do. Worth trying, especially if you’re an AT locked into the Rec tree.

    Efficient makes it so your Energy Unlock powers (Thermal Reverb, etc) give more energy per tick. If you’re making use of your Energy Unlock often, this can be pretty good. Especially when combined with Super Charged, as it’ll help you stay above 90% energy.

    Well Rounded makes it so your Secondary Superstats give you max energy/health. The scaling on this is pretty terrible, and being tied to Secondary Superstats only makes it moreso. 10 HP and 1 Energy per 5 points of Secondary Superstat, after spending 2 rank points? Not that interested.

    Second Wind is a nice bonus in an otherwise-lackluster tree. It makes your Secondary Superstats grant Recharge Reduction (similar to Recharge Redux on new Utility Gear). Not bad if you’re using things with Recharge (like Active Offenses or Dark Transfusion).


    Recovery Mastery-
    Rec Mastery buffs all your Superstats (Primary and Secondary) by 10 points (so 30 stat points total). I raged, etc. Take it if you don’t have a better option, but it’s not going to make or break a build.

    Endurance

    Endurance is quite good for blasters (mainly ranged types, though I could see a few oddball melee builds using this too), especially alpha-strikers. With Thermal Reverb now scaling off End, the three energy projector energy unlocks all use End now (Wind Reverb, Thermal Reverb, Ionic Reverb). It’s also useful for Force (Cascade) and can even do well with Power Armor. End tree is a big reason why End superstatting is now actually useful, as a major. You still probably will want to focus heavily on your Secondary Superstats though, moreso than with some of the other Primaries.

    Tier 1
    Readiness makes your End grant Energy Equilibrium. Congrats, even if you’ve got no Rec or Dark Transfusion or Electric Sheath, you’ve got Equilibrium! This is quite nice, take it.

    Withstand gives you innate CC resistance, scaling off your Secondary Superstats. This is the same as the Recovery Tree’s version. This is a bit better than it sounds, though the gear version (+CC Resist Substat) is even better. It can turn holds into interrupts.

    Gear Utilization is the same as the version in the other trees. End has a bit more offensive potential than Rec, but not as much as Dex. However, End is likely to be used with big blasty boom things, so adding offense onto those is always good.

    Kickback is kinda eh. If you use your End Builder, your next attack grants 5%/10% of your max energy. While that’s a big bundle of energy...you could just use your End Builder again. Or your energy unlock, as there are several that scale off of End.

    Tier 2
    Quick Recovery is basically the same as the talent in the Str Tree. Heal over time, scaling off Rec etc. Except End tree users might want to use it, as you’re likely to have End and be relatively squishy, so this is decent for patching up if you take some stray hits. There are better options in this Tier, though.

    Outburst is great. And I’m not just saying that because I tried to get the devs to add something like this for a while, I swear. If you get over 90% energy, you gain up to 15% extra damage on your attacks for as long as you stay above 90% energy. It also buffs healing and reduces costs of those powers, but if you’re End superstat and above 90% of your max energy, you likely don’t care much about healing or about energy costs. You care about charging up and unleashing massive hell, which is what this talent is for. The “must be over 90% of max energy” is a bit onerous, and hard to sustain. Except for Dark Transfusion. If you take End superstat tree, take this Talent. And then take Dark Transfusion with the advantage. And then alpha-strike the living bejeezus out of things. It’s glorious. Especially coupled with a Con or Pre-fueled Imbue.

    Power Overwhelming is a bit underwhelming, after Outburst. But still quite nice. It makes your Secondary superstats grant additional Offense, which helps with the alpha striking and the general blasting.

    Hardened is the best of the “make x add HP” talents. At max rank (2), it makes every point of End give you 4 points of HP. While that’s still less than a third of Con’s contribution, it does stack with Con (and other sources of HP). And given the Outburst rant I went on about above, you’re probably going to want Con as a superstat. Take this and combine it with Con for a pretty durable “blaster” (can probably hit 10k HP in Ranged Damage role with good enough gear, this talent and high Con/End).


    Endurance Mastery-
    End Mastery makes certain things give you a percentage of your max energy, based on your role. This is good to add even more energy efficiency to a build, and unless you really like one of your other available Masteries, is highly recommended. Ranged/Melee DPS get energy when they hit something, Support Role gets it when they heal someone, Tank Role gets it when they’re damaged (y helo thar mini-Defiance) and Hybrid Role gets a slower tick of Energy-over-time as long as they’re in-combat.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Role Trees (I may have gotten a little lazy on these, credit again to Ryko for numbers)
    Pick any two trees (unless AT)

    Protector

    This is for tanks, or people who want more tankiness. Similar to Con tree, really.

    Tier 1
    Fortified Gear
    This buffs your Defense from Gear. Similar to “Armored” from Con tree.

    Beacon of Hope
    This increases healing received from others. Good if you expect to have a healer around, but there’s better in this Tier if you want survival (like Fortified Gear)

    Unrelenting
    This gives Snare immunity and a minor runspeed boost. Welcome to one of the reasons why PvP is dead. This + Versatility stacks from Acrobatics = no one can stop you unless they slap on a hold. Not as-good in PvE unless you’re in the habit of running around with no travel on.

    Bulwark
    This gives an increase to max HP (which isn’t bad) if you aren't in the Hybrid Role or a massive increase to threat if you’re in the Hybrid role. If you want to be a tank and run in Hybrid, this is for you. (Hybrid gets a heal buff that may outweigh the innate resistance/HP buff in Tank)

    Tier 2
    Debilitating Challenge
    This makes Crippling Challenge lower Resistance. A nice extra, but there’s better in this Tier.

    Exhausting Strikes
    Energy Builder now lowers main target's damage. See comments for Debilitating challenge.

    Defensive Expertise
    This makes your Active Defenses recharge faster. This is amazing if you’re using a single one, and somewhat overpowered if you’re using two. Max it if you use an Active Defense.

    Resolute
    This heals you for a % of max HP when you’re Knocked or Held. “What, you were going to hold or knock that tank to kill them? lolno”. Pretty good, I’d throw it at rank 2 (for 4% of max HP)

    Protector Mastery -
    I hate this. So much. It’s ridiculously good, even after its “nerf”. Take two active defenses, rotate them, if you get knocked below 30% HP, both reset, reusable after 60 seconds. Welcome to the final reason PvP is dead.

    Brawler

    This is for melee, especially Dex-tree-having melee.

    Tier 1
    The Glory Of Battle
    Melee AoEs grant a buff for each target hit (Glory), stacks to 30, at 30 it applies Glorious Battle for increased Crit Strike and Offense for 15 seconds. If you’ve played a game that counts combos, this will give you a similar feeling. Not all that useful (ok, the offense is nice at R3), but fun. I’d throw a point in.

    No Escape
    Your End Builder hits gain a chance to Daze ( 20% speed Debuff)for 4 seconds. Welcome to another reason why PvP is dead (or at least melee PvP is). Brawler innate snare got removed, “replaced” with this. Take this if you have a point available, otherwise don’t bother.

    Penetrating Strikes
    Melee Crits grant a 5%/10% resist debuff on the target. This is golden, especially when stacked with Dex tree’s similar talent.

    Ruthless
    There’s one of these talents in most of the “damage” trees, and they all provide a boost to Crit Severity that stacks (10% Severity at r2). If you crit and you have one of these trees, take these talents.

    Tier 2
    Finishing Blow
    This makes your ST attacks do up to 9% (base) bonus damage to targets under 35% Health. Not bad, but if something’s that low, it’s probably about to die anyway. Might be useful against Cosmics.

    Setup
    This makes your Melee Combo attacks increase damage on next non-Combo Melee attack. Works quite well if you’re using both Combo and non-Combo attacks (So Blade Tempest/Dragon’s Wrath, Cleave/Skewer or Annihilate, Ego Weaponry/EBA or EBB, Thundering Kicks/Dragon something). If you aren’t using both of those regularly, don’t bother. See my first post for a list of combos.

    Flanking
    This slightly increases your Melee damage if you attack from behind your target. Now, take a minute and think for me. How often are you behind a target? Yeah, exactly. Take this if you want a damage bonus against big things and you team often with a good tank. Otherwise don’t bother.

    Offensive Expertise
    This makes your Active Offenses (clicky hold breakers) recharge faster. Nice to have.

    Brawler Mastery-
    This makes your next melee attack after you Lunge do a bit more damage. A nice bonus to have if you don’t have another mastery you like better, but it’s not all that great.

    Avenger

    This is for ranged characters that use Maintains. Or anyone that uses Maintains. Or Active Offenses. But mainly Maintains.

    Tier 1
    Ruthless
    Same as all the others. Crit Severity Boost. Take it if you crit.

    Can't Touch This
    Same as “No Escape” from Brawler, but for ranged Energy Builders. Just as bad, except you’re likely ranged, so it’s EVEN WORSE. Doesn’t stack. Don’t bother.

    Anguish
    This is bad, but Avenger’s first Tier is pretty horrid anyway. This makes your Ranged Crit inflict a lingering DoT that penetrates defenses/shields. Damage is looow (double-digit low). It’s better than Can’t Touch This and arguably better than Round ‘Em Up, but no one takes Avenger for its Tier 1 talents.

    Round 'Em Up
    Yo dawg, I put a buff on your ranged AoE so your AoEs hit harder. Except Xzibit hates that meme, and he hates this skill. Damage buff is low, but it’s better than the rest of the non-Ruthless options in the Tier if you use ranged AoEs. Which you do, right?

    Tier 2
    Surprise Attack
    This is a nice crit buff (20%) to ranged ST attacks...at things that are over 90% health. So your opening strike is more likely to hit harder. Good if you’re having trouble wiping out a single minion with your opening salvo. Would be good for sniping other players, but PvP is dead and any self-respecting sniper is going to try to guarantee his only shot crits (hi2u Imbue).

    Relentless Assault
    This? THIS is why people put up with the utter crap that is the rest of the Avenger tree. If you’re using a maintain, take this. No ifs, no ands, no buts. If you don’t use a maintain? Take it just to use this. It’s that good. Rank 3 is 30 offense per stack, it stacks to 5 (quickly). 150 Offense for trying to kill things anyway? It’s a no-brainer. This also works with those “add x % of your defense as a boost to your offense” skills. Like in Vindicator. Yes, they work together.

    Offensive Expertise
    Blahblah Active Offenses recharge faster, same as Brawler, blahblah. Still a good talent if you use AOs. Avenger tree just makes me grumpy.

    Preemptive Strike
    This is kind of like Setup in Brawler tree (low-tier attacks make your non low-tier attacks do more damage). Except ranged, and Blasts are generally a lot worse than Combos. And if you’re using Blasts, you’re likely to only use Blasts (like...uh...Ice Blast? Maybe?). Take Relentless Assault and Offensive Expertise instead.

    Avenger Mastery-
    Really, Cryptic? I mean, REALLY? This is atrocious. If you crit twice in 5 seconds, your next Charged Blast charges 50% faster. Only one. This is only even usable if you have a crit build that makes use of Blast attacks, and that’s like...one useful build in the entire game (Ice Blast crit spammer on chilled targets). Maybe two if you use Straight Shot in Archery, but even then that’s better tapped. Two of the ATs that have this Mastery (Soldier and Inferno) can’t even USE it because their Blasts are non-chargeable. If it weren’t for Relentless Assault, Avenger would be completely useless.

    Sentinel

    This is for anyone that wants to have a great self-heal, or wants to be better at healing/bubbling/holding/general support.

    Tier 1
    Torment
    This increases Hold duration, stacks with other buffs. Affects Stuns/Snares/Paralyzes/Incapacitates. If you use holds and you don’t want other stuff in Sentinel (seriously, it’s awesome), take this.

    Eternal Spring
    This makes crit heals bestow a HoT on the target for 6 seconds, up to 20% of the original heal. Doesn’t stack, doesn’t work on self-heals. If you’re a green-number-slinger (ie: a healer that isn’t a bubble build or Iniquity-based), this is pretty good.

    Caregiver
    This buffs your healing powers or the HP of your bubbles (Protection Field, MR, game calls ‘em “Shields”) when used on others. This is ideal for support builds, and should probably be maxed.

    Sentinel Aura
    This is...amazing. It’s probably going to see some time with the nerfbat, but it’s still awesome. Heal over time that scales with heal buffs. If you’re a healer? Take this, your entire team has Regen. Including you. Even if you aren’t a healer, you can still get almost-regen numbers out of this. Any squishy that needs a self-heal and that can use ANYTHING else from the Sentinel tree should probably start here. Though it does eat up one of your trees for one ability, which may not be worth it to you.

    Tier 2
    Moment Of Need
    This buffs your critical chance on heals that can crit. Green number spammers, etc, otherwise not that worth it.

    Rejuvenated
    I’ve never actually been able to get this to work. It’s supposed to give you energy when a HoT ticks. I assume it’s supposed to have interactions with Eternal Spring and maybe BCR. Skip it.

    Wither
    If you have a Stun or a Hold or a Sleep, take this. It means you can apply up to a 20% resistance debuff whenever you try to hold something. Whether or not it works. This is golden.

    Genesis
    This makes your heals, shields and holds cheaper. Quite good if you’re having energy problems, and every bubblespam build can use more energy.

    Sentinel Mastery
    If you use Stuns/Holds/Paralyzes/Sleeps, this is nifty. Any target you attempt to mez will gain a debuff that makes anyone attacking it gain 2% of their max HP, every time they attack it (once per second). This lasts 8 seconds and gets reapplied when you attempt to mez again. So yes, you can heal people without being able to see them (Sniper Rifle, yo). Great if you throw around crowd control, especially combined with the resistance debuff talents.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Commander

    Disclaimer: I hate pet builds. I really hate “mongrel horde” pet builds. If you take the little *******s, you’ll probably want to use this tree. It’s a no-brainer otherwise, it’s only useful for pets or Sigil users, and the only thing that buffs Sigils is Rapid Response.

    Tier 1
    Evasive Action
    “What, a pet army? Just use an AoE, they’re individually weak!” No, not quite. Take this, make your little monsters more resistant to AoEs, by quite a bit. Stacks with the “I’m a pet” buff for 75% AoE Resistance.

    Rapid Response
    Summon faster. Good if you summon/resummon a lot. Also good for Sigil users, but the rest of the tree...isn’t...unless you’re using other pets.

    Create An Opening
    When you crit, your pets are more likely to crit, up to 20%. If you’re a crit build that uses a few attacks (or a normal build that crits and has pets), this is great.

    Multitasker
    Lowers the energy Penalty caused by Pets. Good if you’re actually trying to fight alongside your pets, but Evasive Action is going to want priority.

    Tier 2
    Well Trained
    This reduces recharge time on pet abilities. Good if you’re using a pet that has useful “Active” abilities

    Durable
    Make your little monsters have more HP and receive more healing when you heal them. Better for keeping the pets alive than “Relief”, but “Relief” adds more utility if you’re using healing pets. Savage is better than both if you’re going with attacks, so these will be using what’s left.

    Relief
    Your healing drones and Angels will heal for more, based on your Secondary Superstats. Stacks with “Durable” on the Pets and with Beacon of Hope from Protector. Take it for more pet survival, if you have room.

    Savage
    This makes your Secondary Super Stats increase your Pets’ Damage. If you’re using a pet build, you want this.

    Commander Mastery-
    Now your little monsters do more damage. If you take pets, and they attack, this is great. Otherwise, not so much.


    Warden

    Warden’s ideal both for melee-using tanks and for damage-type melee that want to be better at surviving and killing things. It’s quite a good tree as long as you’re using melee. It gets better if you’re using stuff like Ego Weaponry, Thundering Kicks, Cleave or Blade Tempest.

    Tier 1
    Fortified Gear
    This buffs your defense from gear, same as the others. Warden has a talent that makes this far more useful than it’s already sorta-useful self.

    Slaughter
    Buffs your crit chance on melee combos (up to 9% at rank 3). Ideal for Blade Tempest and Cleave, so-so for the others (because the other melee combos are mediocre at best.). Amazing for Ego Weaponry with the heal-on-crit advantage. This gets better if you’re stuck with a combo (like on an AT, for instance)

    Ruthless
    Same as all the other incarnations of Ruthless. Crit Severity buff. Better for Warden if you’re using Combos (due to Slaughter).

    Elusive
    This is similar to the Dex tree talent that buffs Dodge on AoEs, except increases your Resist against AoE attacks instead of your chance to dodge them. Good for a bit more beef, but Slaughter and Ruthless are probably better unless you don’t use Combos or don’t attack.

    Tier 2
    Reactive Strikes
    This makes things that hit you get hurt for up to 20% of the damage they dealt you. Meaning it won’t be very much damage if you’re a Tank. Not horrible, but there’s better here.

    Tenacious
    They hit you, you hit back harder. Stacking Offense buff as you get attacked. Pretty good.

    Upper Hand
    This makes you do more Melee damage to debuffed targets (Disoriented, Bleeding, Shredded, Ego Leeched or Staggered). Sorta useful if you apply those debuffs regularly, but Tenacious and Reactive Strikes are arguably better, and “The Best Defense” is amazingly better.

    The Best Defense
    So good. Makes your Defense grant you bonus offense, up to 100% of your Defense added to your Offense. This makes tanks hit harder, and makes all those “+x% defense” things better. Take this, max it, love it. Even if you aren’t a tank (as you still have Defense from Items)

    Warden Mastery
    Your combo attacks get a hefty damage boost (10%) and stack damage resistance up to 9% on you. This is great if you’re using any of the good combo attacks (Blade Tempest, Cleave, Ego Weaponry, Thundering Kicks) and non-horrid even if you aren’t. Take it if you can, unless you don’t use combos or you have something you really want to use more.

    Guardian

    Guardian is Warden’s slightly worse brother, designed for range tanking.

    Tier 1
    Fortified Gear
    Same as the other instances of this, better in Guardian/Warden because of “The Best Defense” talent.

    Locus
    Hitting with an AoE or getting hit with an AoE grants a stack of Locus, at 30 stacks you get the Locus Explosion buff (+Offense/Defense for 15 seconds). This works with “The Best Defense”, so it might be worth it if you use AoEs.


    Make It Count
    This makes your Blast Attacks (see first post for a list) hit harder and cost less. If you use them heavily, this is pretty good. So...basically, if you use Ice Blast and you don’t want anything else from the tier, take this. It’s not that big a boost, though.

    Ruthless
    Same as other instances of Ruthless, same advice applies. Crit Severity buff.

    Tier 2
    Retribution
    Similar to Reactive Strikes in Warden, single-target attacks aimed at you proc a buff ( Retribution) that gives a nice Damage buffs and a Heal over time 6 seconds. If you expect to be hit often, this is pretty good.

    Tenacious
    Same as in Warden, same advice applies, except Retribution is a bit better than Reactive Strikes (as it’s a buff to your damage, not a percentage of their damage to you). Take it if you get hit.

    Find The Mark
    This gives a chance for your Ranged attacks to debuff the target to make them easier to crit. Not bad if you have points to spare and use crits, but the other options (TBD, Tenacious or Retribution) are pretty much better. Even 3 stacks of this is only 9% increased crit chance for a few seconds.

    The Best Defense
    Amazing, as in Warden. Defense grants you Offense. If you take this and take Warden’s version too, they stack. Not infinitely, but it’s a hell of a boost. Assuming that still works, rather. (This was current as of the build that went Live, haven’t tested yet on Live)

    Guardian Mastery-
    Ick. Blasts stack a buff to lower their charge time and give you a minor dodge boost. This might be useful if you’re running an Archer tank or an Ice Blast user that makes use of dodge. Otherwise, pass.

    Sentry
    Sentry is a tree for tanks that heal themselves or others, or anyone who wants to be a bit more durable while healing themselves or others. It also has a mechanics-breaking Mastery that can Stun the Unstunnable (row row, fight the power, etc)

    Tier 1
    Fortified Gear
    Same as the other trees. Sentry lacks “The Best Defense”, so it’s not quite as good as it could be. Not bad, but a bit of a letdown after writing the Warden/Guardian tree stuff. :(

    Twist Fate
    Eww. Use your end builder, gain a slight dodge/ crit chance. Pass.

    Precise
    Flat buff to Single-target attacks and heals/shields on other people. Not a huge buff, but good if you heal others or use single-target attacks. Stacks with other buffs to ST attacks or heal/shield other buffs.

    Sentry Aura
    This is a mini-Aura of Radiant Protection for your whole team. Stacks with other stuff, but it’s relatively minor. Take it if you have points. These Auras (like Sentinel Aura) do not stack from multiple users.

    Tier 2
    Fortify
    If you crit (attack or heal), get a stacking buff that increases your damage resistance and healing. Relatively minor (6% at rank 3), but if you’re critting anyway, it’s not bad.

    Stalling Tactics
    If you use Stuns, Sleeps or Snares and you don’t like anything else in the second Tier (entirely possible, though Perservere is good, take this. It makes them last longer.

    Persevere
    Every time you get hit with a Single-target attack aimed at you, you have a 10% chance to heal you and teammates by a % of the damage you took (so after mitigation). This is a pretty okay “maintenance” heal, but it only really works if you’re taking hits consistently. This used to be hilariously broken on PTS (think healing 20k HP every attack you took), so its “real” version seems lackluster by comparison.

    Reinforce
    If you crit heal someone, they gain up to 10% damage resist (rank 2). If you critically hit something with a Single-Target attack, you get the damage resist. Stacks with the other damage-resisty stuff here, and doesn’t require you to get hit (so non-tanks might want it). A decent bonus.

    Sentry Mastery-
    If you get hit by something that drops you below 50% Health, they get stunned for 3 seconds. And all teammates are healed for 10% of your max HP. Pretty nice, the 1 minute cooldown makes it not as useful as it could be, but the reason it’s imposed is because the Stun can stun anything. This includes normally-non-stunnable things. Like bosses. Niche but useful and could be funny.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Arbiter
    This is a melee-damage based tree with some pretty good support abilities added in.

    Tier 1
    Enforcer
    This buffs your (melee combo) damage, heals and shields. Unlike most of the other Shield buffs, it also buffs them on yourself. Good if you want extra shield HP on yourself, or if you use combos/heals.

    Ruthless
    You know the drill. Crit Severity buff. This gets bonus points for being in a pretty decent support tree.

    Arbiter Aura
    Makes you and your teammates do a bit more melee damage. Not bad, but there’s better in the Tier. Only applies to melee damage, doesn’t stack from multiple sources.

    Rend
    Puts a damage resist debuff on the enemy when you crit. This one’s smaller than the ones in Brawler or Dex, but they all stack. Stacking those things would be a good idea. Decent enough on its own, much better when stacked.

    Tier 2
    Honor
    I like this. Places a hefty damage buff on you (that applies to your next attack) and lingers for a few seconds when you heal or shield someone else. Stacks with the other version of Honor in the “Overseer” tree, at least last I checked. 10% damage buff per stack is a nice reward for doing your job. Bubble team, TK Lance with 5 Ego Leech stacks, profit. Repeat.

    Concussion
    This isn’t as useful as the “lowers target resistance when stunned” Talents, because stunned things usually, y’know, ARE STUNNED. Meaning they aren’t attacking. But it does apply on Stun attempts, so it works on things that can’t be stunned. Decent, but there’s better in the Tier.

    Preservation
    Makes your single-target melee attacks, holds and heals a bit cheaper. Good if you’re using an expensive single-target attack, but heals and holds are cheap-enough (and infrequently-cast-enough) that this isn’t that great. Maybe if you aren’t in Support role.

    Enhanced Gear
    Flipside of Fortified Gear, works for Offense instead of Defense. I’m reasonably sure (last I checked) that this stacks with Pre tree’s “add healing strength from Item offense” talent. Good if you want more damage.

    Arbiter Mastery-
    If you use combo attacks often, this will be useful for you. Heals you for 1% of your health every time you finish a combo, and heals nearby pets/teammates for 3% of your max health. It’s not a ton, but again it’s one of those “maintenance” heals. Good if you have a lot of HP, tend to have friends nearby, and are using combos often (like a tank, for instance).

    Overseer
    I hated this tree on PTS, but it’s starting to grow on me. It’s a ranged-damage version of Arbiter, with the same caveat that Blasts are usually worse than Combos.

    Tier 1
    Administer
    Buffs damage of your blasts and the healing/shield HP of your heals and shields. This works on self-cast heals/shields as well. Quite a nice boost.

    Ruthless
    Same as all the other incarnations of Ruthless. Crit Severity buff. Good if you use crits.

    Overseer Aura
    See Arbiter Aura, replace “melee damage” with “ranged damage”. Slightly better in that it is marginally harder to get ranged damage boosts than melee, but still minor.

    Impact
    When you crit, the target does less damage. Decent for debuffing boss attacks, but I’d prefer Arbiter’s Rend instead.

    Tier 2
    Honor
    Same as the Arbiter version. Just as good, pretty sure it stacks. Damage boost on you when you use Shields/heals on others.

    Trapped
    If you use Paralyze-type Holds or Sleeps, take this. Your team will thank you.

    Conservation
    Makes your heals, holds and single-target ranged attacks cheaper to use. Again, these likely aren’t a problem unless you’re in a role other than Support, but it’s still a pretty good discount (15% at rank 2).

    Enhanced Gear
    Same as the Arbiter version, same things apply.

    Overseer Mastery-
    This is my third-most-hated Role Mastery (after Avenger and Vindicator). It’s not “bad”, it’s just ridiculously limited in use (things you’re damaging that are below 20% HP are likely to die soon, things that are below 20% health that you’re healing are probably better served by an actual healer that will have more useful Masteries available taking over ASAP). The numbers are pretty low too (10% buff). Skip it unless you have absolutely no other, better, options.

    Vindicator
    Vindicator is my favorite of the Role trees. While it may seem to be “just” for damage, it has a few tricks in it that make it valuable to any character (ok, so any character that has gear and wants to survive). Plays quite nicely with Warden, Guardian and Avenger trees, especially.

    Tier 1
    Aggressive Stance
    This is amazing. It makes a percentage of your Offense (20% at max rank) buff your Defense. While you may be looking at “The Best Defense” and wondering why this is so low, it’s because you can get much higher Offense than Defense, and Defense is more valuable per-point than Offense. This stacks with “The Best Defense” from Warden/Guardian, along with any situational +Offense boosts you may get (including Relentless Assault from Avenger). If you’re taking Vindicator and have any Offense whatsoever (from Gear, Pre tree, TBD, etc), take this and max it.

    Merciless
    This is Ruthless’ bigger, scarier, slightly more expensive brother. It ranks up to 3 and can give 15% crit severity total. If you’re using Vindicator and using crits, take this and max it out.

    Initiative
    This makes your end builder apply a resist debuff. Not bad, but compared to the other Tier 1 Vindicator choices, it’s not really worth it.

    The Rush Of Battle
    So, +HP on kill items got removed. This is their replacement, and it’s better at what it does. It procs a heal-over-time based on a % of your max HP (15% at rank 3), that gets refreshed when you kill things. If you want some supplemental healing (or you’re a squishy damaging AT that has this tree), you’ll want this.

    Tier 2
    Focused Strikes
    This is a flat crit chance buff to your single-target attacks. Straightforward, somewhat low (6% at rank 3), but ideal if you use a lot of single target attacks and you crit, but want to crit more. Stacks with all other crit chance increases (Gear, dex, Super Charged, etc)

    Modified Gear
    Same as the other trees’ offense boosts from gear, but slightly lower (2 ranks at 20% max instead of 3 at 30% max). The rest of Vindicator’s so good that you’re probably not going to have the points to take this, unless you don’t want a heal over time or don’t crit.

    Offensive Expertise
    Lowers your recharge on Active Offenses, stacks with any others (or with recharge reduction). Take it if you have points and use an Active Offense, though Vindicator’s one of the few trees where you might have other options you like better (ok, so Avenger’s bad except for RA and Brawler’s decent).

    Mass Destruction
    Read the description for “Focused Strikes”, replace “single-target” with “AoE”. Same things apply. Stacks with all other crit chance increases, etc.

    Vindicator Mastery-
    You knew all that awesome had to come at a cost, right? Vindicator Mastery is nigh-useless unless you’re using Enrage with ranged attacks or have both Ego and Strength in your build while using both ranged and melee. I hate this not because of the numbers (they’re decent), but because this was Cryptic’s chance to remove the hybrid tax at the cost of something that was useful (a Mastery) but not crippling. And...they didn’t. So eh. Take it if you meet the criteria I mentioned above.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Please help me edit the following lists. I'm kinda tired.

    List of buffs available from Spec Trees

    Offense - Locus, Relentless Assault, The Best Defense, Tenacious, Grandeur, Enhanced Gear, Modified Gear, Gear Utilization, Tinkering, Aggression

    Defense - Aggressive Stance, Force of Will, Armored, Fortified Gear, Gear Utilization, Tinkering

    Crowd Control Resistance - Withstand, Unyielding

    Knock Resistance - Resilient

    HP - Bulwark (when not in Hybrid), Hardened, Swole, Tough, Well-Rounded

    Heal over Time - Quick Recovery, Rapid Recovery, Quick Healing, Sentinel Aura, Rush of Battle

    Heal when x condition is met - Selfless Ally (sorta), Adrenaline Rush, Resolute

    Dodge - Deflection, Quick Reflexes

    Avoidance - Evasion, Dexterity Mastery

    Damage - Outburst, Arbiter Aura, Overseer Aura, Warden Mastery, Upper Hand, Honor, Administer

    Critical Strike - Overpower, Combat Training, Sixth Sense, Moment of Glory, Focused Strikes, Mass Destruction, Super Charged, Glory of Battle, Surprise Attack (target > 90% health), Moment of Need (heals only), Create an Opening (pets only), Slaughter (melee combo only), Twist of Fate

    Critical Severity - Follow Through, Ruthless, Merciless, Deadly Aim, Dexterity Mastery

    Max Energy - Well-Rounded, Mental Endurance, Staying Power

    Equilibrium - Readiness, Preparation

    Power Cooldowns - Protector Mastery, Second Wind, Revitalize, Defensive Expertise, Offensive Expertise

    Power Cost Discount - Physical Peak, Power Swell,

    Threat - Bulwark (in Hybrid only)

    Healing Strength - Beacon of Hope (heal from others), Administer, Caregiver


    Types of powers that Spec Trees talents buff:

    Melee Combos

    Blast Attacks

    Ranged Attacks

    Melee Attacks

    Single-Target Attacks

    AoE Attacks

    Heals

    Shields

    Critical Hits

    Critical Heals

    Holds (Paralyze)

    Holds (Sleep)

    Holds (Stuns)

    Holds (Incapacitate)
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Reserved for Builds.

    Stat Tree Builds:

    Suggested Strength Tree Talent builds:
    -Durable melee: Physical Peak 3, Quick Recovery 1, Swole 1, Juggernaut 3, Overpower 2.

    -All-out offense: Physical Peak 3, Aggression 2, Overpower 3, Brutality 2

    -Ranged Enrage user: Aggression 2, Quick Recovery 2, Swole 3, Juggernaut 3

    Suggested Dex Tree Talent Builds:
    Durable Critmonkey DPS: Gear Utilization 3, Brush it Off 2, Deadly Aim 3, Expose Weakness 2

    All-out Damage: Combat Training 2, Gear Utilization 3, Deadly Aim 3, Expose Weakness 2

    Dodge Build that for some reason isn’t at DR: Gear Utilization 3, Brush it Off 2, Evasion 2, Quick Reflexes 3 (Don’t use this. This is a travesty. Take Deadly Aim!)

    Suggested Con Tree Talent Builds:
    Beefcake McTanky: Fuel my Fire 3, Unyielding 1, Resilient 1 (Resilient and Unyielding, season to taste), Armored 2, Quick Healing 3

    Dodge Tank with crits: Fuel my Fire 3, Resilient 2, Adrenaline Rush 2, Armored 2, Deflection 1

    General Blaster Survivability Pack: Unyielding 2, Resilient 2, Tough 1, Quick Healing 3, Armored 2 (may want to swap in Adrenaline Rush for Quick Healing if you have Crits)

    Suggested Int Tree Talent Builds:
    Have to admit, this one was tough.
    Hold-user (take Pre as a secondary superstat): Battle of Wits 3, Endurance 2, Detect Vulnerability 3 (Ego Sprites, maybe...), Expertise 2

    Gouda, Emperor of Cheese: any 5 points in Tier 1 talents, Revitalize 3, whatever. Take a bunch of Active Defenses (ie: Masterful Dodge, Unbreakable, Ascension, Smoke Grenade), take Protector Mastery and be literally unkillable. Bonus points if you then brag about your duel prowess and offer to pay people to fight you, whilst you spend match time running around unkillable. More bonus points if they accept.

    Jack, hipster of all trades: Enlightened 3, Preparation 2, Expertise 2, Armor Penetration 3. (Take Dragon’s Wrath and use it, ironically of course)

    Suggested Ego Tree Talent Builds:
    Sniper (Dex-based): Insight 3, Aggression 2, Follow Through 3, Sixth Sense 2

    Sniper (Imbue-based): Insight 3, Aggression 2, Exploit Opening 2, 3 in wherever since you’ll likely only be using non-imbued strikes as finishers

    High-damage all-round ranged blaster: Insight 3, Force of Will 2, Follow Through 3, Exploit Opening 2 (Secondary Dex and use Crit Strike gear)

    Suggested Pre Tree Talent Builds:

    This was a tough one, as there’s a lot of stuff to like in Pre tree.
    Heals with a side of offense: Repurpose 3, Grandeur 3, Moment of Glory 3, either Force of Will or Selfless Ally 1

    Healy McHealington the crit-healer: Repurpose 3, Selfless Ally 2, Brilliance 3/Moment of Glory 2 or Moment of Glory 3/Brilliance 2 (I’d go with the latter)

    Paralyze-using Debuffer: Repurpose 3 (noticing a pattern?), Dominion 2, Vulnerability 2, Force of Will 2, Selfless Ally 1 (Take Sentinel Mastery and probably Ego Sleep)

    Suggested Rec Tree Talent Builds:
    -Survivable Blaster (I think Cursed/Scourge may like this): Withstand 2, Rapid Recovery 3, Efficient 2, Second Wind 2, Gear Utilization 1

    -Maintained Crit-monster (grab Dark Transfusion and Circle of Arcane Power): Gear Utilization 3, Staying Power 2, Super Charged 3, Efficient 2

    -General Survival Starter Pack (take an Active Defense): Staying Power 2, Rapid Recovery 3, Second Wind 2, Gear Utilization 3

    Suggested End Tree Talent Builds:
    Alpha-spiker (works best with Gigabolt/Force Cascade, Imbue, Dark Transfusion, Con or Pre as Secondary Superstat): Readiness 3, Gear Utilization 2, Outburst 3, Power Overwhelming 2

    Durable Blaster Type: Readiness 3, Gear Utilization 3, Quick Recovery 2, Hardened 2,

    Balanced Blaster/Spiker: Readiness 3, Gear Utilization 2, Outburst 3, Hardened 2


    Starter Builds (somewhat unoptimized but what I'm using). Builds in my posts are hosted on Powerhouse, an online character builder created by my SG mate (and all-around awesome guy) Brizel.

    Sage - Buffer, bubbler, telekinetic and support attacker- http://powerhouse.nullware.com/powerhouse.html?v=2&n=&d=1645QRSVgOI71I3E0008203E6033603M5033704EB00FA00FD03EK0338033E00EL04JA00

    Note: Sage's build could be much better. Start with adding an active defense and dropping Two-Gun Mojo for Telekinetic Assault. I use it because I like using it.

    Presence: Repurpose 3, Grandeur 3, Force of Will 2, Moment of Glory 2
    Sentinel: Sentinel Aura 3, Caregiver 3, Wither 2, Genesis 2
    Overseer: Administer 3, Overseer Aura 2, Honor 2, Enhanced Gear 3
    Sentinel Mastery


    Ayame - Infernal blaster with survival - http://powerhouse.nullware.com/powerhouse.html?v=2&n=&d=1738b3aPQNXH351Q000Q705Q903QB05QG03QI03K604QA00F500EH059A00KA04MA032C04

    Note: Rapid Recovery really isn't needed with Sentinel Aura, and I'm debating swapping to End tree anyway. This build's atypical for an Infernal as it doesn't use Enrage and is skewed towards survival.

    Recovery: Rapid Recovery 3, Staying Power 2, Second Wind 2, Super Charged 3
    Vindicator: Aggressive Stance 2, Rush of Battle 3, Offensive Expertise 2, Merciless 3
    Sentinel: Sentinel Aura 3, Eternal Spring 2, Wither 2, Caregiver 3,
    Recovery Mastery


    Sentinel - Might/Wind Crowd Controlling Tank - http://powerhouse.nullware.com/powerhouse.html?v=2&n=&d=1317W3PQAEa1331I000I700IC0m9603IF0S450046004804II05J503J6039A04QF00IG05

    Note: This is probably into diminishing returns on Defense. Don't really care, wanted to see how high I could get it.

    Constitution: Fuel my Fire 3, Unyielding 1, Resilient 1, Armored 2, Quick Healing 3
    Protector: Fortified Gear 3, Unrelenting 1, Bulwark 1, Defensive Expertise 3, Resolute 2
    Warden: Fortified Gear 3, Elusive 2, The Best Defense 3, Tenacious 1, Reactive Strikes 1
    Constitution Mastery (Protector's better, don't care, refuse to use it)

    Huntress Athene - Crit Dual Blade DPS - http://powerhouse.nullware.com/powerhouse.html?v=2&n=&d=1214ZH9BGAM4750A000A10BA600A803AF04K70K7C00J503AC03AH00AE046504AA04A901

    Dexterity: Gear Utilization 3, Brush it Off 2, Deadly Aim 3, Expose Weakness 2
    Brawler: Glory of Battle 2, Penetrating Strikes 2, Ruthless 2, Setup 2, Offensive Expertise 2
    Warden: Slaughter 3, Ruthless 2, The Best Defense 3, Tenacious 1, Elusive 1
    Dexterity Mastery

    Voltaic - Sturdy Electric Alpha-Spiker - http://powerhouse.nullware.com/powerhouse.html?v=2&n=&d=1834O3UQMPa3350100012031503170014051B031A04J603KA049A007803FD01M2031600

    Endurance: Readiness 3, Gear Utilization 2, Outburst 3, Hardened 2
    Vindicator: Aggressive Stance 2, Rush of Battle 3, Modified Gear 2, Offensive Expertise 2, Initiative 1
    Avenger: Anguish 2, Round 'em up 3, Relentless Assault 3, Offensive Expertise 2
    Endurance Mastery

    (You can post after this one)
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Can I link this near the top of the build directory?
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    I can't find the +1 button to mash. ಠ_ಠ

    Seriously, this is awesome, and extremely helpful already (it's got me reconsidering my Dex talents; I waffled and didn't get Deadly Aim and in consideration, you're absolutely right. No reason not to, ever).

    o7 Carry on, good sir.

    EDIT: From the PTS, courtesy Eldrake2 (compiler) and Ryko_Nalio (PTS Spec Tree Info thread compiler):

    Archetype Trees
    Brought to you thanks to Eldrake2

    Silver Archetypes

    Grimoire
    Intelligence/Guardian/Overseer
    Behemoth
    Constitution/Protector/Warden
    Glacier
    Constitution/Guardian/Protector
    Inferno
    Recovery/Avenger/Guardian
    Blade
    Dexterity/Brawler/Warden
    Mind
    Presence/Sentinel/Sentry
    Marksman
    Dexterity/Avenger/Guardian
    Soldier
    Ego/Vindicator/Avenger
    Unleashed
    Dexterity/Warden/Vindicator
    Radiant
    Presence/Sentry/Sentinel


    Gold Archetypes

    Scourge/Cursed
    Recovery/Overseer/Avenger
    Devastator
    Strength/Brawler/Warden
    Inventor
    Intelligence/Overseer/Commander
    Specialist
    Dexterity/Vindicator/Guardian
    Savage
    Strength/Warden/Brawler
    Impulse
    Endurance/Guardian/Vindicator
    Mountain
    Constitution/Protector/Guardian
    Disciple
    Ego/Vindicator/Brawler
    Master
    Constitution/Warden/Protector
    Fist
    Dexterity/Brawler/Vindicator
    Squall
    Ego/Vindicator/Avenger
    Tempest
    Endurance/Avenger/Guardian
    Void
    Endurance/Guardian/Avenger

    Should still be accurate (and thanks to both of them both for getting the info and making it easy to find <3). If anything has been changed, I'll edit it (feel free to PM).
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    KenpoJuJitsu3 wrote:
    Can I link this near the top of the build directory?

    Go for it.

    I've still gotta do (all of) the Role trees, but I think I've got enough posts reserved. And those should be a little shorter.

    And if you catch anything I've missed or misrepresented, please let me know. I want to make sure this works well, but if it's going in the Build Directory, I doubly want to make sure it does.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Many thanks for this Sage. It's going to take a while before I memorize (and connect) what all the new specs do, so this will be a useful reference in the interim.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Hey, this is pretty awesome, good job Sage. Also, that site is pretty awesome.

    http://powerhouse.nullware.com/powerhouse.html?v=2&n=The%20Ascended&d=1354fhigfKT5010E000E200E500J700K700EG04EB00DI04DK00J100J3043704EJ04J500

    Can anyone see where I went with that? >_>

    I accidentally the whole trinity.

    EDIT: Here, at someone's request I'll post a screenshot detailing how I speced this guy...
    http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/578953933014205207/24CC1DA2313DA1C08CABCE2C8273965840BA14B8/
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Awesome Sage, as usual your advice is invaluable. I haven't even started to retcon my toons as I was waiting for the gurus to do all the hard work for me ;) Cryptic, pretty please give these guys a special forum title, such as Build Guru.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Thanks, guys. :o

    The Superstat Trees and Role trees are both up now. Role Trees are a bit less wordy than Stat trees, as they share a lot of general buffs, and they're far more modular (you can change your Role trees without changing anything else about your build, unlike the Stat trees).

    Things I plan to add:

    - Sample builds, both powers and spec choices for individual characters

    - List of buffs available through the trees and where to get them

    - At least one "solid" power build with chosen superstats, listed twice with two different Role Tree combinations, to show how the different role trees impact capabilities. This last one's iffy, and I may not get around to it.

    Unleash the feedback, please. And thanks for reading. I know I'm wordy.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Dr.Sage wrote:
    And thanks for reading. I know I'm wordy.

    <_< Because I'm totally one to complain about people being wordy.

    Thanks for doing a lot of hard work that will go on to help many people be a little less silly.

    ...or at least more effective.

    EDIT: Of most of the trees I use, I don't have any disagreements at all. Though I'm going to have to go back and re-do a few at this point... Too many misplaced points that have been nagging at me, but I didn't really consider alternatives. :B

    Some of the descriptions were not just informative, but amusing! Also a plus.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Great post! Sticky please.

    Also, im pretty sure the notes on revitalize says it can only trigger once every 2 seconds now. The must've changed it from the last PTS push to live.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    I knew this would turn out great and even not complete it's surpassed what I thought and even made me find new ideas.

    Also a few things I'd note.

    *Those +stat effects in Int Tree as ridiculously amazing if you use Primal Aura, basically 20-30% more stats then you already had
    *Any bubble boos that increases on self does effect PFF's max hp (not regen) potentially very nice in hybrid role as all 'bonus healing' boosts the prot bubbles too for even more bubble health on ones self. Still haven't figured out a good PFF TANK build yet but.... probably doable now especially with that threat skill in Protector for hybrid.
    *The Kickback in End tree is bleh but not if you use Wrist Bolters and Automated Assault adv
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    This is the kind of detailed and helpful guide Mods and Fusion should of been launched with. Thankyou for doing this Dr.Sage. :)
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Excellent post. Thanks for taking the time to write it down!

    Regarding Reinforce in the Sentry tree:

    If you crit with a self-heal, it applies the buff to you. That means if you have CON as your primary stat and use Imbue, Imbue + Resurgence guarantees a stack. At least that's how it worked on PTS. I'm not sure if it works with HoT crits (Imbue + Endorphin Rush). I'd need to test it, or someone else can if they have the time. If that combo would work, you'd get the reinforce stacks pretty fast. Might be useful for tanks with the Sentry tree.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Sekimen wrote:
    Excellent post. Thanks for taking the time to write it down!

    Regarding Reinforce in the Sentry tree:

    If you crit with a self-heal, it applies the buff to you. That means if you have CON as your primary stat and use Imbue, Imbue + Resurgence guarantees a stack. At least that's how it worked on PTS. I'm not sure if it works with HoT crits (Imbue + Endorphin Rush). I'd need to test it, or someone else can if they have the time. If that combo would work, you'd get the reinforce stacks pretty fast. Might be useful for tanks with the Sentry tree.

    That build I linked above uses Constitution/Protector/Sentry and I just spam Ego Blade Frenzy into a group of enemies and more or less instantly get full stacks. If you're running a critty build, it's REALLY easy to stack up quickly.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Ryko_Nailo wrote:
    Still haven't figured out a good PFF TANK build yet but.... probably doable now

    This made me chuckle. Just leave it to me. I'll have a build put together in due time thanks to all that I've been reading from the gurus while waiting for my desktop.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Thanks for the guide. :)
    Cyrone85 wrote:
    This made me chuckle. Just leave it to me. I'll have a build put together in due time thanks to all that I've been reading from the gurus while waiting for my desktop.

    I think the trick is to quit being a hero and rename yourself Kevin Poe or Draconis.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Actually, you know what, I'll move the AT specs bit to my post on the second page (just after the main article) to make it easier to find.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    OmegaDestroyer wrote:
    Thanks for the guide. :)



    I think the trick is to quit being a hero and rename yourself Kevin Poe or Draconis.

    Well played, sir. Well played. :p
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Hexia Decimal is the reason Sage hates pets and the Commander Tree. I mean, he haaaaaaaaaaaates pets. Hates them like the sun hates Super Mario. Hexy was bad enough, and then she got Commander and Sentinel trees. (Did I mention Sentinel Aura works on pets?)

    So, pet lovers, don't take it personally. Larry the Arcane Construct has ruined Sage for all other pet players. :)
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    ZandarTheWeeble wrote:
    Hexia Decimal is the reason Sage hates pets and the Commander Tree. I mean, he haaaaaaaaaaaates pets. Hates them like the sun hates Super Mario. Hexy was bad enough, and then she got Commander and Sentinel trees. (Did I mention Sentinel Aura works on pets?)

    So, pet lovers, don't take it personally. Larry the Arcane Construct has ruined Sage for all other pet players. :)

    I like Larry. We're cool. He tanks for me. I have no problem with convenient walls of meat throwing themselves in-between me and incoming damage. :cool:

    And you've at least bothered to come up with a believable (and quite good) origin story as to why you're running around with a swarm of pets on Hexy.

    As opposed to "lol I use pets because they mean I can be lazy". And then naming your petmaster the same as one of your pets, and queueing in PvP, and...rage, etc

    Anyway. Gonna try to finish the "list of things you want to buff and the talents that buff them" that's towards the bottom of the first page. Probably tonight.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Cyrone85 wrote:
    Well played, sir. Well played. :p
    I must admit I chuckled, and also that I had hoped you'd notice the PFF stuff to get on it. Some of us have PFF tanks waiting to dust off but have spent our masochism elsewhere.;)
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Very helpful thanks :)

    Can someone clarify; are the heals from healing pets affected by boosts to your own healing ability or only healing received abilities?

    I'm assuming the later (+ pet specific heal abilities, but there's less of those)
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Dr.Sage wrote:
    I like Larry. We're cool. He tanks for me. I have no problem with convenient walls of meat throwing themselves in-between me and incoming damage. :cool:

    And you've at least bothered to come up with a believable (and quite good) origin story as to why you're running around with a swarm of pets on Hexy.

    As opposed to "lol I use pets because they mean I can be lazy". And then naming your petmaster the same as one of your pets, and queueing in PvP, and...rage, etc

    What? Just because she's the daughter of Morocco's greatest super scientist and the Seelie Court's most powerful summoner and inherited both of her parents' powers, and has Larry the Arcane Construct (who is now a frighteningly decent tank)?

    Also, I have to say your guide has allowed me to turn my kinda nifty Elec/Celestial healer Life Dose into a bubbly, bubbly death machine as a very viable Presence/Ego/Rec Guardian/Sentinel hero that can bubble tank, blast and heal. A bit more specialized gear for those roles through Unity farming and she'll be good to go.

    We're going to be famous. Well, you are. BUT I AM YOUR ERSTWHILE LEADER, so there's that too.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    With the patch going in tomorrow morning, retcon costs for removing Specializations, Talents and Superstats is going to jump from 1 Local to 50 Global (at level 40).

    Get your changes made now or be prepared to be price-gouged tomorrow morning. Or burn a retcon.

    I think this is a horrible decision, but it's not as if they're listening to feedback at this point.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    I like how they're introducing a Spec Retcon Fee before they actually fix the Specs everyone's going to end up taking. I'm looking at you Sentinel Aura.

    When the Nerfbat falls we're all out 50 global per character.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    BlackManedReaver wrote:
    I like how they're introducing a Spec Retcon Fee before they actually fix the Specs everyone's going to end up taking. I'm looking at you Sentinel Aura.

    When the Nerfbat falls we're all out 50 global per character.

    My money's actually on The Best Defense stacking from Guardian and Warden getting it right between the eyes rather than Sentinel Aura getting b
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Random dumb Fox question of the day because it'll bug me until I'm sure:

    If you have multiple Auras (Sentinel and Sentry, Overseer and Arbiter, etc.), do they stack or does one override the other?

    I know my one friend has Sentinel/Sentry, but I've never been able to catch both icons active at once. ಠ_ಠ

    EDIT: Follow up - does Sentry and Aura of Radiant Protection work together? That may be what's causing the weirdness some...
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    OK, I see a lot of stuff that buffs Offense or Defense stats from Secondaries, etc. But what exactly does 1 point of Offense or Defense do? I searched in vain on the forums for an answer. This will help my spec choices so thanks in advance!
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    monsterdaddy wrote:
    OK, I see a lot of stuff that buffs Offense or Defense stats from Secondaries, etc. But what exactly does 1 point of Offense or Defense do? I searched in vain on the forums for an answer. This will help my spec choices so thanks in advance!

    Like everything else it is a diminishing returns number.

    At low numbers it is like 10 offense will give you 5% bonus damage or whatever, by 100 it is maybe 25% bonus I think, getting in the 200-300 range will give maybe 30-40%.

    But it takes 622 to get a 45% bonus damage which is as high as I checked. And 475 got 41% So the last 150 points got me a whopping 4 % more bonus damage. (That was with guardian/warden/double stacked 'defense gives +100% to offense' Tenacious, Locust, and Glory of Battle all at full - but no gear so it could go higher - but I dont think the damage would ever go above 50% I am guessing even if you had 1000 Offense)
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Thanks for the guide buddy!
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    YuriFoxfirega wrote:
    Random dumb Fox question of the day because it'll bug me until I'm sure:

    If you have multiple Auras (Sentinel and Sentry, Overseer and Arbiter, etc.), do they stack or does one override the other?

    I know my one friend has Sentinel/Sentry, but I've never been able to catch both icons active at once. ಠ_ಠ

    EDIT: Follow up - does Sentry and Aura of Radiant Protection work together? That may be what's causing the weirdness some...

    Sentry and AoRP work together. And I'm pretty sure different types of Auras from the same source stack, but not from different sources.

    So, say...Sage, my main. He's got Aura of Primal Majesty, Sentinel Aura and Overseer Aura. They all work.

    If I team with someone that has Sentinel Aura, only one of the Sentinel Auras will apply, but they get all the other Auras too.

    And I think only specifically +pet healing abilities affect pet healing, to the question from like two days ago that I missed.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Gotcha. o7 Thanks! I'll chalk it down to poor observation on my part (I had a ton of buffs rolling that run, it was hard to tell what was coming form where anyway, and the Support auras share an icon with Focus anyway).
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Dr.Sage wrote:
    And I think only specifically +pet healing abilities affect pet healing, to the question from like two days ago that I missed.

    Cheers mate, suspected that would be the case. Thanks again for the guide, seems to be a constant reference point at the moment :)
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Ah glad somebody finally posted a comprehensive guide! Thank you so much for this Dr.Sage!

    :)
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    I do like my Sentinel Aura.. but whatever happens, happens.

    For the record, I'd like to note that Overpower from the Strength spec tree seems to cap at 10% critical strike chance at 360 STR:
    • 296 str = 8.9% crit
    • 316 str = 9.3% crit
    • 356 str = 9.9% crit
    • 375 str = 10.0% crit
    • 396 str = 10.0% crit
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Okay, so, Sage has been a willful bulletcatcher for me in trying to test out the Intelligence tree's "Detect Vulnerability" talent. We were told it would work like Dragon's Wrath penetration. Sniper Rifle was used because it features a static damage output, making it easier to work with. We made sure to write down the resistance value from gear, passives, and talents.

    INT: 189
    Detect Vulnerability Penetration: 15%

    Dm - Damage Maximum; the tooltip damage from Sniper Rifle
    Dm - Damage Total; the actual damage the target suffers
    R - Resistance value; the decimal value (plus 1) of how much damage resistance the target has


    1) TEST DUMMY: Dummies have 10% resistance. With Dragon's Wrath, they take damage as if they had exactly 5% resistance.
    a) Without Detect Vulnerability
    Dm = 4062
    Dt = 3693
    R = 1.10

    4062/3693= 1.10 (rounded up) -- This matches the expected result.


    b) With Detect Vulnerability
    Dm = 4062
    Dt = 4062
    R = 1.10

    4062/4062 = 1.00 -- This does NOT match the expected result. It's behaving as if the dummy had no resistance.



    2) Dr.Sage: Was willing to eat some hits to help gather numbers. Slotted AoRP for 69% Damage Resistance. 26% resistance from gear. No other passive damage reductions.
    a) Without Detect Vulnerability
    Dm = 4062
    R = 1+(.26 + .69) = 1.95
    Dt = 2096

    4062/2096=1.94 (rounded up) -- This is extremely close to the expected result.


    b) With Detect Vulnerability
    Dm = 4062
    R = 1+(.26 + .69) = 1.95
    Dt = 2274

    4062/2274=1.78 -- This does not match the expected result.


    c) With Detect Vulnerability, Gear Resistance Only
    Dm = 4062
    R = 1.26
    Dt = 3684

    4062/3684= 1.10 -- This does not match the expected result.

    From the above, it appears as though Detect Vulnerability is behaving in a subtractive manner, chopping its value off the opponent's resistances rather than the Dragon's Wrath style divisive penetration. If this is true, it means that Detect Vulnerability is most powerful VS softer targets, by cutting down what little resistance they have. The impact on a tank with 100% to 150% resistance (quite attainable, now) would be far less drastic.


    That said, it would be best for one of the resident number gurus would check it as well, as it is not necessarily my strong suit. I may have missed something.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Thanks for the insights.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Force Shield/Force Sheathe is another good addition to a Super Charged crit maintain blaster.

    My Seraphim/Lifedrain/Shadow Embrace character is happily going through full maintains in the 90% power range. Now I just need to get her some decent gear...
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Great guide.

    Powers that be - Please Sticky!!!!!
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    I'll second the sticky request; a very helpful guide. :D
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Thanks guys. :D

    It would be nice if this could get stickied.
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    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    *Votes to be stickied*

    I also would like to point out that it should be added to the 'Big Box of Guides'.
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