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Advice on Electrical Ranged DPS Build
prunellagee
Posts: 8 Arc User
I have a ranged dps toon focussed on electrical powers which works well enough solo but is very squishy in team combat.
I'm thinking of respeccing. Does anyone have any suggestions (or examples) for a build that still gives me the monster dps, but is a lot less breakable in a fight?
I'm thinking of respeccing. Does anyone have any suggestions (or examples) for a build that still gives me the monster dps, but is a lot less breakable in a fight?
"Stop worrying. No one gets out of this world alive."
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I'm like Dr. Silverback.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Um...because we are both gorillas and stuff.
1) Use Quarry as your passive. The reduction in raw damage strength even for non-physical is trivial compared to the survivability increase, and the free INT/EGO (core superstats for ranged builds) is just icing on the cake.
2) Get dodge+avoidance gear in your primary defense slot ASAP.
3) Bountiful Chi with resurgent reiki advantage combined with that dodge forms basic survivability via healing.
4) Get Ebon Void as your block enhancer with its advantage. Learn when to block to absorb huge strikes and build up some stacks, as well as a feel for the timing to re-block to get a hit to reset the timer on your existing stacks (and keep building toward 10.) Charging into a crowd and using an attack power is often a good way to get killed. Charging in and holding block for a few seconds then using an attack power, absorbing the inevitable knockbacks and getting some ebon void protection is a much better plan.
5) Masterful Dodge as your "not gonna die for 15 seconds" button. I much prefer to use it proactively rather than wait until you start getting pounded. But the key to squishies is having a good feel of what situation is going to be bad for you and take appropriate action before you get pummeled.
6) Ranged characters get to take advantage of arcane circles. Arcane Power for energy and Primal Dominion for protection are just too awesome to pass up. With an electrical character, energy is not an issue so you get to add primal dom for even more survivability. You don't use this while generally fighting, just on a boss.
With all these pieces, you can tank alert bosses with no issues (really, anything in a non-rampage alert). And you will be tanking if your offensive side is built at all well, at least if you pug. 90% of the time, the people in tanking role on your team don't even have crippling challenge nor challenging strikes, much less enough DPS to hold aggro on a good DPS character even if they have (and know how to use) CC.
I used this build with very few alterations and it has proven one of my most powerful DPS characters and it does quite well in Alerts and even on the Gravitar Rampage Alert.
http://champions-online.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=gameguides&action=display&thread=869
Hope it helps.
Apathy is on the rise, but nobody seems to care.
"Stop worrying. No one gets out of this world alive."
Telekinetic Ego Form or ID Mastery, and Active Targeting ranged toons get additional Damage Resistance of about 20-25% on top of the above.
Circle of Primal Dominion is nice for more damage resist and more importantly - knock resistance.
Another concurrent option is Int as a SS with a Hospitable Eyepiece and more cooldown gear to get your active defenses to about 40 sec recycle.
Another unusual path you can take if you have a stun based ranged toon is using Sentinel Mastery with lots of CON. In that build, Wither is surprisingly good for +10 NET damage to your attacks.
So you don't ALWAYS have to have a defensive passive if you build right. One of my highest heal per second and durable toons is surprising an Ego Blades Brawler with ID Mastery.
Thanks!
"Stop worrying. No one gets out of this world alive."
Missing '%' sign there.
however, you can further improve your defense by picking up Protection Field and self casting it when your under heavy assault.
there are also some good powers with-in the electricity set for defense too. For example; Sparkstorm has a pretty nasty knockback when hitting enemies affected by negative ions.
"Stop worrying. No one gets out of this world alive."
Support Drones provide the best overall healing.
Ritual Of Radiant Summoning with Unbound Ritual advantage provides you with a nice balance of healing and damage with a ranged AoE stun.
They will provide you with a nice bit of near constant healing in any role without sacrificing damage. Just watch out for the increased Energy costs.
Hope this helps.
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'Wen considered the nature of time and understood that the universe is, instant by instant, recreated anew. Therefore, he understood, there is in truth no past, only a memory of the past. Blink your eyes, and the world you see next did not exist when you closed them. Therefore, he said, the only appropriate state of the mind is surprise. The only appropriate state of the heart is joy. The sky you see now, you have never seen before. The perfect moment is now. Be glad of it.' Terry Pratchet The Thief Of Time
For my two cents, Force Shield with the Force Sheath advantage is one of my personal favorites for added defense. Just before combat I tap the Shift button (to Block), which loads the Sheath. The Sheath lasts for something like 8s, during which time I'm protected as if I was still holding down my Shift, but I can attack and I've got full movement speed. I've trained myself to make that quick after any given attack (like after a Maintain or Charge up), so it's basically an "always on" Block.
As an added bonus, FS returns more energy than other blocks, including while the Sheath is on. So depending on your role, it can be like a mini-Energy Unlock.
I know it's a Force power, but my Electricity blaster's has so many zippy-zappy crackles of electricity around her, that I just make her FS blue and it blends right in. FS does stand out a bit more on my Fire blaster, but then I just hue it orange and it looks like a wave of heat... Still doesn't break theme.
Works especially great if you've got good Dodge... I love dishing out a full attack while I'm getting Block-Dodge ticks above my head. Add in Bountiful Chi Resurgence with Resurgent Reiki for some Green ticks at the same time and your health bar hardly moves.
rsrobinson, I'm not familiar with the Ebon Void advantage blocking mechanism. How does that work, and how does it compare to Force Shield (w/Sheath) described above?
When XP earnings during a Double-XP Weekend still feel like I'm underperforming,
there's something terribly wrong with the reward system...
You can find/contact me in game as @PatricianVetinari. Original Join Date: Feb 2010.
- ALWAYS ON/Blocking (Physical/Energy/Elemental/Paranormal>250%, R2>310%, R3>360%)
- TAP/8 seconds (The Force Shield effect persists for a few seconds after you stop blocking, and it will continue to feed you energy from all incoming attacks, as well as providing a small defensive benefit>+8 second duration, + 8.5% resist all)
SIMPLE:The Voracious Darkness advantage causes the rift that you summon with Ebon Void to grow as it consumes the attacks of your enemies, consuming an ever greater portion of their energy, and thus protecting you more effectively the longer you block:
- ALWAYS ON/Blocking (Physical/Energy/Elemental/Paranormal>250%, R2>310%, R3>360%)
- +10% bonus resistance per stack (max 10 stacks)
- +1.2 sec duration (refreshed when struck)
..
Basically:
| ME | A "Guide" Book" | | I, have a "DREAM! | ( Member since Feb 2008 ) ... ?
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He asked... ...And i answered
He can make his own decision on which is better :biggrin:
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So you can either increase your survivability, for which there has been very good advise already, or you can try reduce your threat, or get some crowd control stuff.
The threat thing could be done with the evasive manoeuvres or paliate powers with their respective advantages, or getting a self resurrect power, in which case dying becomes a tactic.
Crowd control in team stuff does not work very good in my experience, the only thing that is overly powerful in some situations is smoke grenade.
Why yes, yes you can.
My bad :redface:
*edited post to reflect error*
| ME | A "Guide" Book" | | I, have a "DREAM! | ( Member since Feb 2008 ) ... ?
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No, that isn't how it works. The buff lasts 10 seconds. As long as you block any damage within that time, the buff will be refreshed and gain 1 stack up to the max of 10. The 1.2 second quote is the cooldown for gaining another stack (in other words, you can't just block a mob's bunch-o-attacks and get 10 stacks instantly). Once you get the hang of it, you block for an instant every few seconds early to build the stacks and then every 6-8 seconds to keep it refreshed. You just don't want to cut it too close since just holding block is not the trigger, you need to actually block a hit. Needing to actually block a hit is where the practice and skill part comes in.
Against hordes of mobs, it is basically a given that the stacks will go up since you will be blocking consistently to avoid each 'salvo' of attacks. And of course you block whenever you see any of the mobs in the group get the charge-up symbol - about 85% of those attacks are going to knock you back or hold you and interrupt whatever you were trying to do anyway, might as well block.
Against bosses, they tend to attack every few seconds with their 'default' attack like clockwork, easy to get into a pattern to build stacks. If it is one of those default infernal alert nemesis enemies for a player that hasn't made a nemesis, it is super easy to build stacks since you are taking damage constantly (and very helpful because they are nasty with that healing debuff.) The only tricky part is once you have a number of stacks built, the pressure drops to little and it is easy to get complacent and let the stacks drop, putting you back into having to block a lot to re-establish your defense.
Voracious' protection is significant. It is 10% per stack, and it is on the block layer. That means it does not add to existing defenses like your 'defense' score or armadillo set bonus, it multiplies with it. Damage is reduced to (100) / (100 + 10*number of stacks). With 10 stacks, you take half as much damage as you otherwise would. Actually potentially less if you have some fixed damage reduction, say someone on your team running IDF or using Ebon Void with an Invulnerability character (yum!)
Anyway, let's say you have 40% protection from your defense score and 25% from the armadillo pieces in your secondary gear slots. 100/(100 + 65) equals .61 or 39% damage reduction. That is about what you can expect for a level 40 squishy that has made a little effort to get some basic protection. With 10 stacks of voracious, you take half that - you are taking only ~30% of incoming damage or 70% reduction. For comparison, consider someone running Defiance. You can get 100-120% from Defiance with reasonable constitution scores. But that adds to the 65% you already have. If you were getting a good amount from Defiance, the 120%, you are looking at 100/(100 + 65 + 120), or 35% incoming damage (65% reduction). In other words, the squishy who has built up 10 stacks of voracious is taking slightly less damage than the guy running defiance. With BCR running, sitting in a circle of primal dominion, popping masterful dodge as available/needed - that is one way to tank stuff like alert bosses with zero issues without needing any team support.
And no, it does not gut your damage once you get the hang of it. Once you grab aggro as a squishy, you will be blocking as needed anyway. Well, ok, unless you suck like so many of the people I've had the unfortunate experience to team with in alerts. Then you just mindlessly attack and die in 5 seconds, or worse run around like a chicken with your head cut off like that will do any good and just die anyway. Oh, and of course, yell for heals in a team of 5 people all running an offensive role and then accuse everyone *else* of sucking. Sorry, little rant there. Anyway, you don't need 10 stacks for voracious to be good. It is good right as soon as you block that first hit, and just keeps getting better.
As to the thread's talking about Force Shield's sheathe, that used to be quite good though it was never about its protection. That is fairly minor, a slight bit less than 10% reduced damage. It is about gaining energy when hit. It used to be ridiculously OP but it has taken a number of nerfs over time. Now, the energy gains is pretty small even when you have a horde attacking you and lots of EGO. I find it hard to recommend. It doesn't provide consistent energy enough that you can count on it to handle your energy needs. Since you need to deal with energy in some other way anyway, force sheathes' energy returns are often just not that helpful. And the defense it provides pales compared to what voracious is capable of.
It was mentioned "blocking layer" and "defense layer" and I thought I read some where (possibly in another thread) a "dodge layer"... I'm going to guess these have to do with the order in which damage is adjusted (reduced) in this game, but if anyone knows, would you mind elaborating on how that all works, please? How do those factor in with things like Defiance, Invulnerability, Personal Force Field, Mindful Reinforcement, Auras (of Radiant Protection, Sentry Aura, etc.), or even those yellow glowing stars we pick-up?
Thanks in advance.
When XP earnings during a Double-XP Weekend still feel like I'm underperforming,
there's something terribly wrong with the reward system...
You can find/contact me in game as @PatricianVetinari. Original Join Date: Feb 2010.
Order doesn't matter other than fixed damage reduction (like Invulnerability's X points per hit) comes last so the more percentage reduction you have, the better that works. The layers refer to stacking. The basic formula for damage reduction is to multiply incoming damage by 100 / (100 + <damage resistance>). The game may call them damage 'resistance' but they are really time-to-live increases. If resistances are on the same layer, they all add up in one use of this formula. This makes it less effective than being on different layers which each use their own 'instance' of the formula and multiply together.
Consider an example where you have two 50% damage resistance sources. If those are on the same layer, say Aura of Radiant Protection and your defense score, you'd multiply incoming damage by 100 / (100 + 50 + 50). You'd take half damage. Not bad.
Now consider them being on different layers like your defense score and 5 stacks of ebon void. You'd multiple damage by 100 / (100 + 50) and then that result by another 100 / (100 + 50). You'd take 44% damage. Obviously, taking 44% damage is better than taking 50% damage.
Just about every source of damage reduction that isn't a dodge or a block power's lingering effect will get lumped together in the generic pool. However, you mentioned Mindful Reinforcements. Shielding effects like Mindful and Protection Fields just take raw damage off the top. They come first, so unfortunately they are far less powerful than you might believe. Even a squishy is probably going to have 25-30% damage reduction which doesn't get applied to damage absorbed by these effects. For a heavily defended character, 1000 incoming damage might actually only do 250 damage to them but any damage shields will still lose the full 1000. This is why these work best on squishy characters with little existing protection, especially if they are a support character that can get these shields up to several thousand points each.
Aaaaaand I just realized how old this topic was. My bad.