A new Zeus?

amazingproton · August 2012

(09/15/2013) So much time has passed since I looked at this toon, can someone post any changes that need to be done with this build while keeping it in theme as well as keeping it's high DPS Setup?

This is a powerful DPS toon focusing on Lightning with a god-like pool of energy. As long as you're in the circle, you got a 100ft Crit Magnet, at lvl 30 can do over 2600 Damage per tick and that's not including using EGO Surge, unlimited energy means you can keep the beam going... you pretty much 1 shot the henchmen, and wipe huge chunks of health off of larger foes.. in the ON Alerts, I'd watch out since the amount of damage you do causes them to Aggro to you.... if you do get too much attention, turn on Unbreakable and let the tank take back his aggro.

EDIT 1: I've changed out Resurgence for Conviction R3, I decided to also keep Bionic Shielding just because it's a quick and easy heal, and low cooldown... I solo A lot so I'm gonna get hit. Conviction for big heals, Bionic constantly running... I shouldn't have too much issue with getting hurt.

Edit 2: Decided to remove Electric Form for more survivability, I added Stormbringer which boosts, Crushing, Electric, and Cold attacks as well as give you resistances from those, Electric form boosted Electric attacks but only protected you from Energy attacks, a lot of people use Crushing, Piercing, and variants of that. With that said, Removed Force Cascade for Hurricane with Adv to complement your lightning abilities as well as it's knockback.

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name: RAINBOW the Lightning DPS

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Ego (Primary)
Level 10: Recovery (Secondary)
Level 15: Dexterity (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: Quick Trigger
Level 6: Agile
Level 9: Indomitable
Level 12: Tireless
Level 15: Impresario
Level 18: Shooter
Level 21: Wordly

Powers:
Level 1: Electric Bolt
Level 1: Lightning Arc (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 6: Electric Sheath (Matter ? Energy Union)
Level 8: Stormbringer (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Concentration
Level 14: Overdrive
Level 17: Circle of Arcane Power (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 20: Ego Surge (Nimble Mind)
Level 23: Unbreakable (Rank 2)
Level 26: Lightning Storm (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 29: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 32: Hurricane (Perfect Storm)
Level 35: Bionic Shielding (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 38: Ball Lightning (Triplicity)

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Rainbow Flight (Rank 2)
Level 35: Lightning Flash

Specializations:
Ego: Force of Will (2/2)
Ego: Insight (1/3)
Ego: Aggression (2/2)
Ego: Follow Through (3/3)
Ego: Sixth Sense (2/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: Focused Strikes (3/3)
Vindicator: Modified Gear (2/2)
Guardian: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Guardian: Ruthless (2/2)
Guardian: Find the Mark (2/3)
Guardian: The Best Defense (3/3)
Mastery: Ego Mastery (1/1)

in the sections below, you'll see why I chose Overdrive as well as why I have Conviction and Bionic Shielding.. Why I chose Unbreakable... As well as somewhat of an explanation of why I have the stats that I picked.

REQUEST: If you can help me enhance this build to be more DPS with some survivability, please feel free to comment below with your suggestions as well as a possible Build as the one you see above explaining why said powers and stats work for you.

If you feel that my Stats could work better for me if I were to change them to something else, or if a certain power is better over the other while sort of staying in a Zeus-like theme (Mostly electric with some mysticism), please chime in.

amazingproton · August 2012

ENERGY UNLOCK SECTION

Ionic Reverb is good with Endurance and Rec, one of which I have through Super Stat, the other can be through gear, and AoPM. This energy unlock requires your electric powers Arc to another target in order to get energy returns, but this will happen very often, especially when you have more enemies... except when you're stuck with a single target... HOWEVER, below is...

Overdrive, which can be used if you go with Intelligence and Rec. Tends to pump out more energy and does not rely on your powers Arcing to another target to get the return. For this to work, just activate a Maintain ability for half of its duration. Since Lightning Arc and Lightning Storm are your main damage sources, that's going to happen very, very often.
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POWERPLAY (AoPM in Hybrid role (more energy & Survival) Vs. Ranged Role with Electric Form (More damage))

williamkony wrote: »

Assuming now that each stat is at 290 (220 base, +70 from AoPM)...

-Direct stat-based damage boosts give 78% added together.
-Concentration gives 12.37% per stack, for a total of 98.96%.
-Critical rate will sit at 35% via Dexterity alone, and about 42% with Sixth Sense added in. If you get good Critical Strike gear (which is relatively inexpensive, and would end up at about 200 with all of your Offense gear and mods focused on it), you would instead have about 43% before Sixth Sense, and roughly 50% afterwards. This would go up by about 4% if you were to take the third rank of Sixth Sense over the third rank of Follow Through.
-Critical Severity, taking into account your four ranks of Ruthless, would end up at about 107% with rank 3 Follow Through, or 98% with rank 2 Follow Through.
-Let's also throw on 35% boost via Offense. I don't know that you'll quite hit 250-300 Offense, as I haven't memorized the gear totals, but I'm sure you'll come close if not.
-Lastly, Ego's direct damage boost to ranged damage: 37%.

In total: 248.96% damage boost, 50% critical rate, 107% severity.

Now, to calculate how Lightning Arc would do with these stats...

166-368 base.
Damage bonus brings this to 579.3-1284.2.
Criticals will do 1199.2-2658.2.
Average damage should fall at 889.2-1971.2.

Now, for Ranged Damage role and Electric Form passive!

Assuming 220 for each stat, you'll instead get...

-Direct stat-based damage boosts give 65% added together.
-Concentration gives 10.06% each stack, for a total of 80.48%.
-Dexterity alone, 27% critical chance. With Critical Strike equipment, 42%. Sixth Sense makes this 49% or 53%.
-Critical Severity will be 94%, or 86% if you drop a rank of Follow Through for Sixth Sense.
-Offense would still give 35%.
-Ego's damage boost would drop to 31%.
-You'll also get Electric Form, which adds 89.02%.

In total: 300.5% damage boost, 49% critical rate, 94% critical severity.

Now, the real game changer here is the Ranged Damage role's base damage boost. Electric Arc goes from 166-368, to 207.5-460!

Base damage: 207.5-460
Damage bonus: 831-1842.3
Critical hit: 1612.1-3574.1
Average: 1213.8-2690.9

Those calculations are without the bonus damage from Negative Ions or an Active Offense, but the ratios would still stay about the same. As you can see, Ranged Damage role and Electric Form give WAY more damage, almost a 150% increase! The gap between normal damage and critical damage is also lower with Electric Form, meaning the damage you put out will be a little bit more reliable than with AoPM.

OTHER ABILITIES SECTION

s3rju wrote: »

Ego surge, it's there for the ego and crit chance boost (thanks to nimble mind that scales with your CON).

Electric sheath can be used if you're in a tight spot to buy you some time (until the shield drops).

The On Alert change made it so offensive passives such as electric form are a lot more viable to an electric toon with the multiplicative bonus from ranged dmg role. The bonus dmg you can get from the extra EGO from AoPM is nice and all but Concentration dmg bonus is still additive.

You can change this build to electric form, but you'll end up with less initial crit chance (due to AoPM)

GEAR SECTION

Until you hit level 40, gear's going to be problematic. I'd actually recommend getting Dexterity up to about 200, with Offense items that give Critical Strike (so long as the Critical Strike you get is higher point-for-point than the Dexterity you'd get), and then focus the rest of your efforts on Ego. Recovery can be left on the backburner until you've hit 40.

Once you reach 40, you'll want to make it so that your Dexterity and Critical Strike combined sit at about 400-450, then get just enough Recovery to keep yourself fueled, and the rest into Ego. That basically follows what you should be doing at all levels, but the amount of Dexterity/Critical Strike you need for a good critical hit chance is lower at lower levels, so the target values are a bit different.

williamkony · August 2012

I don't really have time right now to go through everything bit by bit, but I will say that you aren't going to want Strength anymore. Enrage does still scale on Strength, but it mostly gives its boost to melee damage, and only half of that boost to ranged damage. Enrage is also now a Toggle, like Form of the Tempest or Inertial Dampening Field, and you can only have one Form active at a time.

What you're going to want instead is Concentration from the technology trees. It gives the same style of boost as Enrage, but to ranged damage instead of melee. The boost it gives scales up off of Intelligence and Ego, so you'll want one of those.

Each Superstat now gets a "specialization tree", as well. Little boosts that you tack on to the character, which have passive effects on a huge variety of things. For a damage-dealing character, you're most likely going to want Ego as your Primary, as there are a couple specializations for Ego that give critical severity and critical chance based on your Superstat amounts.

I'm not sure how well Aura of Primal Majesty would function compared to Avenger/Ranged Damage role and an offensive passive, these days. If it stands any chance at all, it'll be solely because of the Ego specialization tree.

I'd recommend Ego as your Primary Superstat, and Dexterity as one of the two Secondary Superstats, for the increase in critical chance. You'll probably want something for energy as the second Secondary Superstat, such as Intelligence or Endurance. If you take Overdrive (a new energy unlock), high Endurance should make sure you get a good amount of energy flowing in, alongside the energy gain you'll get from building up stacks of Concentration.

angelofcaine · August 2012

amazingproton wrote: »

Ever since Pulsewave dropped off the face of CO...

Pulsewave recently posted HERE, so i guess he's still around

williamkony · August 2012

Alrighty! I have more time to myself, now, so let's go through this bit by bit. XD

First, a quick clarification since I worded it poorly in the first post: Concentration scales up off of Intelligence or Ego, but not both at once. So taking both stats won't end up boosting its effectiveness. Figured that was the reason you took Intelligence as a Secondary. XD It can still be useful for other stuff, of course, but just wanted to get that info out there.

Ionic Reverberation would work well as far as being triggered often. However, the energy gain is boosted via Recovery and Endurance, so you'd likely want to replace your Intelligence secondary with one of those, if you want to make use of it. Or, you could go with Overdrive, which gives more energy based off of Intelligence. Since Intelligence also decreases power costs, that may be a better energy management choice.

EDIT: The following paragraph isn't fully accurate! I've just learned that Ionic Reverberation can trigger three times per second, not once every three seconds as originally believed. It is actually incredibly potent!
This thread here is absolutely wonderful for determining the exact amounts you'll get from each Energy Unlock. If you end up with 220 in each Superstat (which is a little low, if you're getting the best reasonably-priced mods and equipment you can at level 40), you'll get about 11.2 energy at best every 3 seconds for utilizing (not consuming) Negative Ions via Ionic Reverberation. Overdrive, on the other hand, will give you 6.936 or 14.02 (depending on if you go Intelligence/Endurance, or Recovery), stacked 3 times, every 3 seconds. Overdrive also has the benefit of not having to rely on Negative Ions to work. Instead, you gain a stack each time you use a Maintain ability for half of its duration. Since Lightning Arc and Lightning Storm are your main damage sources, that's going to happen very, very often.

If you do indeed end up taking Aura of Primal Majesty, that'll make a good bit of difference to the energy gains. Unfortunately, that information thread doesn't yet have AoPM charted out, so we'll just have to use good ol' blind estimation. Last I remember seeing of AoPM was at least 70, but we'll say 50 just to be on the safe side... With that added in, Ionic Reverberation would return 15.2 per utilized Negative Ions, and Overdrive would add 9.426 per stack with Intelligence or 16.51 per stack with Recovery.

Provided I'm calculating it all correctly.

On to the next bit!

If you go with Aura of Primal Majesty, you'll have a much easier time with energy and criticals. However, you can't use that in Ranged Damage role, which provides a 25% boost to the base damage of all of your ranged attacks.

I know I calculated AoPM as adding 50 up above, but I'm going to ramp it up to 70 for these other calculations in the interest of competing with the Ranged Damage role and an offensive passive.

Now, the things AoPM will change via its stat boost are: Stat-related damage bonus, Concentration damage bonus, critical rate via Dexterity, and critical rate/severity via the Ego specialization tree.

Assuming now that each stat is at 290 (220 base, +70 from AoPM)...

-Direct stat-based damage boosts give 78% added together.
-Concentration gives 12.37% per stack, for a total of 98.96%.
-Critical rate will sit at 35% via Dexterity alone, and about 42% with Sixth Sense added in. If you get good Critical Strike gear (which is relatively inexpensive, and would end up at about 200 with all of your Offense gear and mods focused on it), you would instead have about 43% before Sixth Sense, and roughly 50% afterwards. This would go up by about 4% if you were to take the third rank of Sixth Sense over the third rank of Follow Through.
-Critical Severity, taking into account your four ranks of Ruthless, would end up at about 107% with rank 3 Follow Through, or 98% with rank 2 Follow Through.
-Let's also throw on 35% boost via Offense. I don't know that you'll quite hit 250-300 Offense, as I haven't memorized the gear totals, but I'm sure you'll come close if not.
-Lastly, Ego's direct damage boost to ranged damage: 37%.

In total: 248.96% damage boost, 50% critical rate, 107% severity.

Now, to calculate how Lightning Arc would do with these stats...

166-368 base.
Damage bonus brings this to 579.3-1284.2.
Criticals will do 1199.2-2658.2.
Average damage should fall at 889.2-1971.2.

Now, for Ranged Damage role and Electric Form passive!

Assuming 220 for each stat, you'll instead get...

-Direct stat-based damage boosts give 65% added together.
-Concentration gives 10.06% each stack, for a total of 80.48%.
-Dexterity alone, 27% critical chance. With Critical Strike equipment, 42%. Sixth Sense makes this 49% or 53%.
-Critical Severity will be 94%, or 86% if you drop a rank of Follow Through for Sixth Sense.
-Offense would still give 35%.
-Ego's damage boost would drop to 31%.
-You'll also get Electric Form, which adds 89.02%.

In total: 300.5% damage boost, 49% critical rate, 94% critical severity.

Now, the real gamechanger here is the Ranged Damage role's base damage boost. Electric Arc goes from 166-368, to 207.5-460!

Base damage: 207.5-460
Damage bonus: 831-1842.3
Critical hit: 1612.1-3574.1
Average: 1213.8-2690.9

Those calculations are without the bonus damage from Negative Ions or an Active Offense, but the ratios would still stay about the same. As you can see, Ranged Damage role and Electric Form give WAY more damage, almost a 150% increase! The gap between normal damage and critical damage is also lower with Electric Form, meaning the damage you put out will be a little bit more reliable than with AoPM.

AoPM does still have its benefits, however. You'll be more survivable using that instead, and energy won't be as much of a concern.

However, if you replace Intelligence as a Secondary Superstat with Recovery instead, Overdrive will give a nice amount of energy to you even in Ranged Damage role... And then, if you're willing to fit the power in, Circle of Arcane Power can act as an excellent bit of fuel, too. Electric Arc is already going to be rooting you in place, so throwing down a Circle of Arcane Power won't make too much of a difference, there.

Survivability, then, is the one true strength AoPM has over Electric Form and Ranged Damage role. Being in Hybrid for AoPM also means that your Superstats will give a bit of a healing boost, though I'm not sure if that affects Resurgence.

I'm going to go ahead and take a break, now. Not sure how long I've been at this, but my eyes are starting to hurt. XD Calculations tend to make me get carried away. I can't guarantee that they're all 100% accurate, especially in terms of diminishing returns on the stuff not covered by Mecha Teddy's information thread, but it should all give a good general idea of your options.

Good luck with the rest of the build! I might hop on back over if I get some free time. XD

s3rju · August 2012

that thread is up there thanks to me, but don't get me wrong i give radia all the credit in the world about that jewel of information :redface:

on to the build...

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name: Thunder Buddy

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Ego (Primary)
Level 10: Endurance (Secondary)
Level 15: Constitution (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Void
Level 6: Acrobat
Level 9: Shooter
Level 12: Accurate
Level 15: Boundless Reserves
Level 18: Daredevil
Level 21: Ascetic

Powers:
Level 1: Electric Bolt
Level 1: Lightning Arc (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 6: Ionic Reverberation
Level 8: Thunderstrike (Ionic Compression)
Level 11: Aura of Primal Majesty (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 14: Electric Shield (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 17: Ball Lightning (Rank 2, Triplicity)
Level 20: Concentration
Level 23: Unbreakable (Rank 2)
Level 26: Lightning Storm (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 29: Resurgence (Rank 2, Evanescent Emergence)
Level 32: Ego Surge (Nimble Mind)
Level 35: Bionic Shielding (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 38: Electric Sheath (Matter ? Energy Union)

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Lightning Flash
Level 35: Rainbow Flight: Cloud

Specializations:
Ego: Force of Will (2/2)
Ego: Insight (3/3)
Ego: Follow Through (3/3)
Ego: Sixth Sense (2/3)
Avenger: Ruthless (2/2)
Avenger: Round 'em Up (3/3)
Avenger: Surprise Attack (2/2)
Avenger: Relentless Assault (3/3)
Guardian: Fortified Gear (1/3)
Guardian: Locus (2/2)
Guardian: Ruthless (2/2)
Guardian: Find the Mark (2/3)
Guardian: The Best Defense (3/3)
Mastery: Ego Mastery (1/1)

if you have any questions feel free to ask, should be solid and very surviveable

amazingproton · August 2012

This build came together quite nicely, and WilliamKony's assessment of the number crunching, tells me that the build will deliver total results. Then I wish to thank S3rju for taking that Assessment and putting it into a viable build.

But, I'd like to know what Ego Surge is there for?

s3rju · August 2012

actually, i didn't look at Kony's i just looked at your build and the title and changed it up abit to make it work.

as for ego surge, it's there for the ego and crit chance boost(thanks to nimble mind that scales with your CON).

electric sheath can be used if you're in a tight spot to buy you some time(until the shield drops).

as mentioned above, the on alert change made it so offensive passives such as electric form are alot more viable to an electric toon with the muliplictive bonus from ranged dmg role. the bonus dmg you can get from the extra EGO from AoPM is nice and all but concentration dmg bonus is still addivite.
you can change this build to electric form, but you'll end up with less innitial crit chance (due to AoPM)

let me know if you need anything else cleared out.

amazingproton · August 2012

Thanks for clarifying that. The description for Ego Surge throws me for a loop.

williamkony · August 2012

As a note, Ego Surge + Nimble Mind will add 66.308% damage, 15% critical chance, and 2% critical severity with AoPM. Electric Form + Damage Role will give 69.808% damage, 8% critical chance, and 3% critical severity.

That means averages of 1177.7 - 2611 using AoPM, or averages of 1515.4 - 3359.6 using Electric Form, while under the effects of Ego Surge.

Not only does Electric Form still hit higher than AoPM, its average damage without Ego Surge is higher than the damage of AoPM with Ego Surge!

Here's a partial build to consider. Doesn't have all the powers filled out, so this is just bare minimum.

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name:

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Ego (Primary)
Level 10: Recovery (Secondary)
Level 15: Dexterity (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: Quick Trigger
Level 6: Agile
Level 9: Indomitable
Level 12: Tireless
Level 15: Impresario
Level 18: Shooter
Level 21: Wordly

Powers:
Level 1: Electric Bolt
Level 1: Lightning Arc (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 6: Electric Form (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 8: Concentration
Level 11: Overdrive (Ionic Reverberation can also work very well! I've just learned that it can activate up to 3 times per second, as opposed to just once every 3 seconds as originally believed. Sorry for the mistake!)
Level 14: Ego Surge (Nimble Mind)
Level 17: Circle of Arcane Power (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 20: Ball Lightning (Triplicity)
Level 23:
Level 26:
Level 29:
Level 32:
Level 35:
Level 38:

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Lightning Flash
Level 35: Rainbow Flight: Cloud

Specializations:
Ego: Force of Will (2/2)
Ego: Insight (1/3)
Ego: Aggression (2/2)
Ego: Follow Through (3/3)
Ego: Sixth Sense (2/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: Focused Strikes (3/3)
Vindicator: Modified Gear (2/2)
Guardian: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Guardian: Ruthless (2/2)
Guardian: Find the Mark (2/3)
Guardian: The Best Defense (3/3)
Mastery: Ego Mastery (1/1)

By Mecha Teddy's charts, Circle of Arcane Power will give you 30 Energy per second. Add the 14.02 per second from Overdrive for 44.02 per second, plus 22 every 4 seconds from Concentration stacks, and you won't have to worry about energy at all.

I also changed up the specializations. Vindicator/Guardian (or Vindicator/Warden) is a much-loved combo, as you can get "Aggressive Stance" and "The Best Defense" from them, each of which boost Offense or Defense by a percentage of the other. The boosts also scale off of the boosts, so you get a feedback loop shooting your Offense and Defense to incredible values, which means a nice resistance boost. You're definitely going to want that, as your survivability is low. Offense doesn't give much of a damage boost as you get higher due to diminishing returns, but it's still substantial. The combo will give way more than the 150 gotten by Relentless Assault in Avenger.

Vindicator also gives higher Critical Severity, and "Focused Strikes", which gives a 6% critical rate to single-target attacks. That's a pretty big boost to Lightning Arc.

Anyway! For that build, you're probably going to want an AoE attack. Lightning Storm is nice, but only 50-foot range, which makes it hard to use alongside Circle of Arcane Power. However, Electric Form boosts your Energy Equilbrium, so if your Recovery Superstat doesn't bring you to maximum energy, Electric Form will. That means being able to fire off at least four or five ticks of Lightning Storm before running out, which should take care of most small enemies.
An alternative AoE is Gigabolt, which should do roughly the same damage-per-second, while also having 100 range and allowing you to have a potent alpha strike. Though, I don't know that you'll have the max energy required to fully charge it, and since it's a Charge instead of a Maintain like Lightning Storm, it won't trigger Overdrive.

I actually have a very similar build to this that used Orbital Cannon with the Anvil of Dawn advantage, to act as supplementary damage and an alpha strike. The charge time is nasty, but it'll do roughly the same damage as Gigabolt initially, with a much lower energy cost, and will continue to hit the area for a considerable amount of damage.

Another power I'd recommend considering is Force Eruption, with its Gravitational Polarity advantage. The power has multiple uses: One, the advantage will make you do more damage if you stay where you used the power, and with Circle of Arcane Power, you'll be staying in one spot anyway. Two, you can use it to get enemies off of you due to the knockback. And three, charging it up halfway will add a stack of Concentration, and since it doesn't need a target to be used, this means you can charge up Concentration before going into combat.

Yet another power I used for my own electric build was Field Surge, with the Power Swell advantage. Gives you yet another damage boost, as well as a little bit of a health buffer via the shield. The cooldown keeps it from being super useful, though, so it's hardly a requirement. Same with Ego Surge, in fact, though it gives a much larger boost than Field Surge would.

That's all for now!

amazingproton · August 2012

thank you for the insight, my toon is currently lvl 22 and Also the fact that I do not have the proper gear yet, this toon is pre On Alert, and still has the Old Gear from when you were able to equip 9 pieces of gear... So with that said, I still need to get the proper gear...

Any Ideas what kind of Gear Stats to look for, or specific kinds of gear to buy or trade for?

Also, WilliamKony, where would some of those powers fit into the build I have up top? Any Ideas what to exchange... I want a powerful build like the Pulsewave Zeus was before the changes... you could barely kill that one. But it was a FoTM (flavor of the month) style build using AoPM and massive amounts of Strength to do massive damage and withstand damage.

Today, using Enrage with AoPM doesnt work... so with your ideas and S3rJu's ideas combined, I would like to create ... the most awesome Lightning toon this side of On Alert, and be able to share it with the people of CO and see the Genius of you two.

williamkony · August 2012

amazingproton wrote: »

thank you for the insight, my toon is currently lvl 22 and Also the fact that I do not have the proper gear yet, this toon is pre On Alert, and still has the Old Gear from when you were able to equip 9 pieces of gear... So with that said, I still need to get the proper gear...

Any Ideas what kind of Gear Stats to look for, or specific kinds of gear to buy or trade for?

Also, WilliamKony, where would some of those powers fit into the build I have up top? Any Ideas what to exchange... I want a powerful build like the Pulsewave Zeus was before the changes... you could barely kill that one. But it was a FoTM (flavor of the month) style build using AoPM and massive amounts of Strength to do massive damage and withstand damage.

Today, using Enrage with AoPM doesnt work... so with your ideas and S3rJu's ideas combined, I would like to create ... the most awesome Lightning toon this side of On Alert, and be able to share it with the people of CO and see the Genius of you two.

Unfortunately, from levels 1 to 39, you're basically just going to be scouring the Auction House for the best stuff you can find. There's not really anything specific to be looking for. If you can get cheap blue-named primary items that have multiple mod slots, those'll go a long way to helping your stats out.

Once you hit 40, a whole new world opens up! For primaries, you'll want "Heroic" gear, which you can buy from the Silver Champions Recognition vendor in Millenium City using UNITY Recognition. You can get 18 Recognition with them per day doing their level 40 quest packs, provided you succeed all the missions. Some of them are timed, so be careful there. There's also at least one where you have to refrain from killing a certain enemy type, so make sure to read through the mission objectives carefully until you've learned how they all work. There's only a small batch of missions that are chosen from each day, so it shouldn't take long to learn them all by heart.

As for secondary gear, you can either keep going as normal by buying from the Auction House, or save up a ton of Questionite for Vigilante gear. The Vigilante stuff can be found in the Questionite store, accessed via the bottom to the bottom right of your minimap. Be warned, however; the amount of Questionite required is HUGE. If you refine all of the Questionite yourself using just one character, it will take you 13 days to build it all up.
Vigilante gear adds 44 to your Primary Superstat, as well as other boosts that are a bit higher than you'll find on normal dropped secondaries. People do occasionally buy the gear and put it into the auction house, but that's not terribly common, and the prices for them are very high.

As for your current build... You're after highly survivable, and highly powerful, right? That's going to be a heck of a lot harder than a focused damage-per-second build. XD Is lightning an absolute requirement?

Looking over the old Rage of Majesty build, I'm not really seeing what made it survivable, myself. There was one power for damage reduction (Unbreakable), one for healing (Resurgence), and one damage-rerouting power (Electric Sheath with advantage). Constitution got a little bit of a boost, but nothing terribly substantial, unless he got a lot from his gear, which'd require sacrificing damage stats. Even then, that's just pure HP without any damage mitigation for it. Doesn't help too much in today's Champions.

So, yeah, main question before trying to get defense-related stuff in there is: Do you need it to be lightning, or are other damage types alright? Because sadly, while keeping high damage, lightning doesn't really have anything available for defense except "the best defense is a good offense", killing enemies before they can kill you.

As for your current original-post build!

As far as I'm aware, you can't have Enrage stacks going alongside Concentration stacks. So Evanescent Emergence on Resurgence isn't going to be of use unless you want it for the break-free damage.

Bionic Shielding is very potent for quickly healing back a lot of health if you're under attack, but the 15-second cooldown makes it a little less reliable than might be needed for drawn-out fights. I'd still take that over Resurgence if there were a choice between the two, as 15 seconds is a heck of a lot shorter than 1 minute and 30 seconds. Unfortunately, Bionic Shielding can't get criticals, which you'll get a lot of.

Unbreakable should hopefully be very useful for taking out rooms of enemies. Its duration should last long enough to get the job done before it runs out. However, there's then the cooldown before you can go room-clearing again.

It's definitely one of the best choices you have for surviving, though. Masterful Dodge is the other "good" Active Defense, and might help a lot to have in order to cycle between the two. They'll still both be on cooldown for a long while, though.

I'm not sure how effective Electric Sheath's advantage is, so I can't really offer any input there.

One power you might consider, which carries an almost Active Defense-esque evasive power to it, is Smoke Grenade with its advantage. This will blind enemies to your presence for 10 seconds, allowing you to go off and heal. Unfortunately, you can't attack enemies during this time or else they'll come right back after you, and the effect itself can only occur every 30 seconds, even though the power itself has a lower cooldown than that.

Yet another power, which acts as a sort of mini-Resurgence, is Conviction. It gives a nice heal right when you hit the button, but comes off of cooldown in 6 seconds instead of 90.

Here's what I would go with, myself:

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name: Rainbow Thunder

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Ego (Primary)
Level 10: Recovery (Secondary)
Level 15: Dexterity (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: Quick Trigger
Level 6: Agile
Level 9: Indomitable
Level 12: Tireless
Level 15: Impresario
Level 18: Shooter
Level 21: Wordly

Powers:
Level 1: Electric Bolt
Level 1: Lightning Arc (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 6: Electric Form (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 8: Concentration
Level 11: Overdrive (EDIT: Ionic Reverberation is also effective! I misread the description during calculation, thinking it only activated once every three seconds, when it's actually able to activate three times per second, instead. Quite a difference, there!)
Level 14: Ego Surge (Nimble Mind)
Level 17: Circle of Arcane Power (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 20: Ball Lightning (Triplicity)
Level 23: Lightning Storm (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 26: Force Eruption (Gravitational Polarity)
Level 29: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 32: Smoke Grenade (Escape Artist)
Level 35: Masterful Dodge
Level 38: Unbreakable (Rank 2, Rank 3)

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Rainbow Flight (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Lightning Flash

Specializations:
Ego: Force of Will (2/2)
Ego: Insight (1/3)
Ego: Aggression (2/2)
Ego: Follow Through (3/3)
Ego: Sixth Sense (2/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: Focused Strikes (3/3)
Vindicator: Modified Gear (2/2)
Guardian: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Guardian: Ruthless (2/2)
Guardian: Find the Mark (2/3)
Guardian: The Best Defense (3/3)
Mastery: Ego Mastery (1/1)

Powers not necessarily chosen in that order; you might want to get one of the Active Defenses earlier in order to survive as you're leveling, for example.

Anyway, you're still going to be relatively squishy with that, but at least you can cycle between the two Active Defenses and tap Conviction often in order to keep going for a bit longer. Be wary about Smoke Grenade's 10-second stealth; if you attack while under its effects, enemies will come after you again... And this may include Ball Lightning with its continuous attacks. I'm not sure.

You could possibly replace Unbreakable with rank 3 Lightning Shield, or any other shield if you're okay with losing the damage component. In fact, getting Ebon Void with its 1-point advantage could be incredibly useful, as it will stack your resistance up to 100% over time (which doesn't completely nullify damage, but it takes off a big chunk), and will continue to last after you stop blocking, which lets you attack some more while still being defended.

Anyway, if you'd be willing to switch from lightning, there's one build premise that I think might work in its place against all but high-Intelligence stealth-detecting enemies. I've used something like it before, myself. Shadow Form with Smoke Grenade at rank 3. Lets you beat on enemies to your heart's content without them being able to see you at all. A little bit of an unorthodox approach to defense, but whatever keeps damage off works, right?

amazingproton · August 2012

I would like to keep this toon as a concept Lightning character with not so many out of the way powers.. I understand I'm gonna be a little squishy... I've played it and being able to kill before being killed seems to work nicely. Throwing down the circle also helps except when getting knocked away from it.

This build should be good..

But the one you're talking about for survival, I could definitely use to rebuild another toon I have, who was originally a nearly invincible Heavy Weapons character, I was beating lvl 40s as a lvl 33. Striking them with over 3K damage with almost every attack, at that level as well. Doesnt work anymore with the Ranged Stealthy noobs. too scared to face someone in person.

And that build was based off of Malware's Unkillable PVP/PVE hybrid. this thing was brutal, you hunt Cosmics with this thing... but it's way outdated like most of my old toons.

I can Open A New Thread for this.

tammer316 · August 2012

thnx williamkony, im following your build atm. question. Is it possible to replace gigabolt for lightning storm or support drones for conviction? I keep seeing people with support drones in alerts. It seems like a useful move for leveling. Sorry im still fairly new to the game.

williamkony · August 2012

tammer316 wrote: »

thnx williamkony, im following your build atm. question. Is it possible to replace gigabolt for lightning storm or support drones for conviction? I keep seeing people with support drones in alerts. It seems like a useful move for leveling. Sorry im still fairly new to the game.

Heh, absolutely. XD

Lightning Storm has a shorter range than Gigabolt, but does roughly the same damage aside from Gigabolt's initial spike, and is a bit easier to deal with than tapping Gigabolt over and over. The delay between taps of Gigabolts serves to reduce its damage output a little bit, so you may actually do more with Lightning Storm.

Gigabolt also costs more energy to put out, and may even outpace the energy from Circle of Arcane Power, so Lightning Storm could very well surpass it in that regard as well. Given that Lightning Storm triggers Overdrive, you shouldn't have to worry about energy at all with it, whereas Gigabolt might just be able to hit brief periods where you can't fuel it.

As for Support Drones versus Conviction, that's also entirely viable. But you'll have to be a bit more careful when in combat, as your health gain will be significantly lower.

Conviction at rank 3 gives 803 health, and can get critical hits, which should happen about half the time with this build and will more than double the effectiveness of the heal.

Support Drones, on the other hand, heal 31 HP each, every 0.5 seconds. That adds up to 744 over 6 seconds, which is the base cooldown for Conviction. However, Support Drones don't critical nearly as often as Conviction will (if at all; I'm not sure how pet critical chance is calculated), and Conviction won't quite take 6 seconds between each click given that most Utility Gear is going to give you some Cooldown Reduction.

What Support Drones have over Conviction is that they require a lot less attention, they don't have to be used in the middle of your attacks (meaning you put out more damage), they heal a group, and if you really want to, you can switch them to their offensive mode to tack a little extra onto your damage output.

Support Drones also raise your energy costs a little bit, but that shouldn't be much of an issue with Circle of Arcane Power and Overdrive both keeping you topped off.

Again, though, you're going to have to be a lot more careful with Support Drones than you'd have to be with Conviction, given that the healing is quite a bit lower. Conviction will heal for about 240 per second (rough estimate) if you make sure to hit the button every time it becomes available, whereas Support Drones will only give you about 120. Conviction also gives you a little bit of a "shield" for the next attack that hits you after casting it, for 15% of your HP. That's not a heck of a lot without any extra Constitution, but it could make enough of a difference to save you.

Ultimately, either will work, but just so long as you know what you're gaining or losing with each power. XD

EDIT: Wait, wait, I'm a dork. I forgot about pets scaling off of your Superstats. That should make a big difference in how much they heal you. Yeah, go with Support Drones. That may actually be a good move in all regards, health-per-second included. XD

EDIT 2: If they DO scale... Tested with my level 29 Inventor. The Support Drones tooltip says that they heal 21 ever 0.5 seconds, but actual results showed 31-33 healing. Removing equipment actually brought no difference at all to the healing amount, so I'm not so sure Superstats play a part. What I do wonder now, though, is if the "31 healing per 0.5 seconds" data on the Wiki is accurate. If I'm getting that much healing just at 29, I have to wonder if it increases by level 40, or if it just stays the same at all times.

So, hard to say. I'd recommend just testing them both and seeing which you like better, because the information I'm finding just isn't adding up. XD

tammer316 · August 2012

Thnx william that was helpful. Also, i would like to know if it would be wise to take another dmg buff(Electric Sheath) to replace Smoke Grenade. I see most electic builds rotating ego surge and Electric Sheath. Or should i just stick with smoke grenade for that extra defense capability for leveling?

williamkony · August 2012

You could switch Smoke Grenade out for Electric Sheath, absolutely. Or, an even better Active Offense would be Lock N Load, as it boosts your critical hit rate on top of the damage buff. Electric Sheath's secondary effect is simply to raise your Equilibrium, and grant you a bit of extra energy, which would just be overkill with the energy sources you already have.

Just make sure that you can make that sacrifice. This build won't have much in the way of defense, and Smoke Grenade is one of the few things standing between you and death. Being able to call "time out" every thirty seconds is very helpful to your survival. But, if you can generally kill the enemy before being killed yourself, or you have a good tank or healer friend, then by all means, toss in another Active Offense!

hubrix · August 2012

I'm coming into this late and I'm too lazy to comment about anything else but those numbers for Overdrive versus Ionic Reverberation seem horribly skewed. Ionic reverberation's Negative Ion utilization is 3 times per second not once every 3 seconds. An advantaged Ball Lightning along with Ionic Reverberation can pretty much keep an Electric hero going.

williamkony · August 2012

hubrix wrote: »

I'm coming into this late and I'm too lazy to comment about anything else but those numbers for Overdrive versus Ionic Reverberation seem horribly skewed. Ionic reverberation's Negative Ion utilization is 3 times per second not once every 3 seconds. An advantaged Ball Lightning along with Ionic Reverberation can pretty much keep an Electric hero going.

Ohhh, so it does! I was reading it wrong, then. XD In that case, it's definitely a viable alternative! Sorry for the incorrect information! I'll edit the posts that mention it.

amazingproton · August 2012

thank you William!

williamkony · August 2012

You're welcome!

Was fun to do. Good luck with this and any other builds you make!

amazingproton · September 2012

williamkony wrote: »

You're welcome! Was fun to do. Good luck with this and any other builds you make!

do you have any cool ideas about my Miss Hard to kill build? in my signature she's Hollie Daye.

tammer316 · September 2012

Question William. What stats should i focus on for gear? I'm at lv32 so far but i don't think im dealing enough damage. Since our stats are ego, rec, dex, i've been focusing more on getting gear with ego rec. So far my ego-212, rec-123, dex-107. Should i focus more on ego, dex then rec?

williamkony · September 2012

tammer316 wrote: »

Question William. What stats should i focus on for gear? I'm at lv32 so far but i don't think im dealing enough damage. Since our stats are ego, rec, dex, i've been focusing more on getting gear with ego rec. So far my ego-212, rec-123, dex-107. Should i focus more on ego, dex then rec?

Until you hit level 40, gear's going to be problematic. I'd actually recommend getting Dexterity up to about 200, with Offense items that give Critical Strike (so long as the Critical Strike you get is higher point-for-point than the Dexterity you'd get), and then focus the rest of your efforts on Ego. Recovery can be left on the backburner until you've hit 40.

Once you reach 40, you'll want to make it so that your Dexterity and Critical Strike combined sit at about 400-450, then get just enough Recovery to keep yourself fueled, and the rest into Ego. That basically follows what you should be doing at all levels, but the amount of Dexterity/Critical Strike you need for a good critical hit chance is lower at lower levels, so the target values are a bit different.

tammer316 · September 2012

This made things much easier for me. Thanks for helping me understand this game better.

amazingproton · January 2013

Welcome Back everyone at CO... Here is a crazy build that I would like to continue to work on..

First off... is this power selection still viable?
Secondly, will it still deliver the same results as before Christmas?

If no to any of these, please help me rebuild the toon while keeping the Lightning Concept alive.

thanks.

amazingproton · January 2013

is there nobody?

amazingproton · January 2013

I would just like to know if It still works fine, or if i need to change something.

soupology · January 2013

1) It's recommended to get a threat dump like Evasive Maneuvers with Sleight of Mind advantage.
2) Unbreakable seems inferior to Masterful Dodge due to how easily you can get Avoidance nowadays, though I'm not too experience with the Pros/Cons of both.
3) I'm not sure how well Ball Lightning is, the original use of it was to proc Ionic Reverberation. So I'm not sure how well it works when you're running Overdrive.
4) For DPS, Ice Sheath does a lot better than Electric Sheath due to the Crit Severity Buffs.
5) Bionic Shielding is wonderful, though problems with requiring you to be hit in order to proc it doesn't make it as reliable as the current FOTM of Conviction.

Also, Fire Themed Build

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name:

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Dexterity (Primary)
Level 10: Ego (Secondary)
Level 15: Recovery (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Inferno
Level 6: Shooter
Level 9: Impresario
Level 12: Accurate
Level 15: Wordly
Level 18: Daredevil
Level 21: Amazing Stamina

Powers:
Level 1: Throw Fire
Level 1: Fiery Form (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 6: Fireball (Unstable Accelerant)
Level 8: Conflagration (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Overdrive
Level 14: Concentration
Level 17: Evasive Maneuvers (Rank 2, Sleight of Mind)
Level 20: Fire Snake (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 23: Force Eruption (Gravitational Polarity)
Level 26: Masterful Dodge
Level 29: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 32: Heat Wave (Engulfing Flames)
Level 35: Ice Sheath (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 38: Circle of Arcane Power (Rank 2, Rank 3)

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Fire Flight
Level 35: Athletics

Specializations:
Dexterity: Combat Training (3/3)
Dexterity: Gear Utilization (2/3)
Dexterity: Deadly Aim (3/3)
Dexterity: Expose Weakness (2/2)
Guardian: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Guardian: Ruthless (2/2)
Guardian: Find the Mark (2/3)
Guardian: The Best Defense (3/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: Offensive Expertise (2/2)
Vindicator: Mass Destruction (3/3)
Mastery: Dexterity Mastery (1/1)

amazingproton · January 2013

Thank you for the insight, but I'm trying to build a Zeus-like creation.. Your fire build may be good, but wrong theme.

I may take your advice for the Masterful Dodge, BUT, i believe the reason why i have Unbreakable is to start Bionic Shielding, then hit that.. and heal without taking damage... and it also lasts longer than Masterful Dodge which gives me time to stop attacking, and escape or allow the Tank to take back his aggro before attacking again. It also allows me to solo full rooms before the time limit... I deal enough damage to wipe the majority of the room.. then I can run... and return after they reset... and finish off the rest.

As I've found out Electric Sheath with adv is there to provide a slight boost to my attacks, BUT also if I took damage, it subtracts it from my Energy pool (with the Circle, I have Unlimited Energy) rather than my HP.. so this gives me more survivability ... with the power setup i have now, I on average hit over 2K per tick... So more crit severity won't really matter as this is an overkill build as it stands.

I don't remember what Ball Lightning was for, mostly for theme perhaps, But I've used it as an Opener for the DoT while I whittle away at their health. I may swap it for something else..

The Electric Sheath Can be swapped for Ice Sheath if I find it to be better... Since it's the last power in my selection, it shouldn't cost much to change.

Thanks for posting.

If there are more Electric Based toon ideas, I'd love to hear them.

deadmanhooker · February 2013

I am Silver account, I have a Freeform slot, problem is I cannot take Lightning Arc at level 1 I have to get to level 8 before I can

amazingproton · July 2013

deadmanhooker wrote: »

I am Silver account, I have a Freeform slot, problem is I cannot take Lightning Arc at level 1 I have to get to level 8 before I can

What I do is when you create a character, and when Defender tells you to go get your new abilities, you talk to the trainer, then click REMOVE Powers, and then Undo the 2nd ability and then get the power as listed in my build.

amazingproton · July 2013

I'd like to know if this build can still work, or has the updates while I was gone changed a few rules?

If you know something please fill me in on what I can keep, and what I should swap out. I'm trying to keep her a very survivable ranged crit hitter.

Thanks!

carrionbaggage · July 2013

Still looks good to me.

You could consider swapping Electric Form for Stormbringer, to give you a broader range of resists. You could also try Hurricane (the advantage adds a lightning component) in place of Force Eruption, assuming that Force Eruption is used to keep enemies out of melee range.

amazingproton · July 2013

Thanks for the tips, I'll do that, and see how it works. I believe the Electric form was to boost my Electric attacks in order to give them more damage. BUT i'll see how Storm Bringer works. Hurricane, sounds like a good one too.

amazingproton · September 2013

HEYYA Folks, I'm bumping this thread to ensure others can view my newish build.

What I'm going for is DPS. Kill before being killed. But on a Massive scale. I also do not wish to die so much, though it really can't be helped.. BUT if you know of a way to make this build slightly more survivable while still keeping DPS and Electricity. Where the defense comes from doesn't necessarily have to look Electric.

I'm going for a Zeus-like build.. Unlimited Energy, DPS, a God-like resistance to attacks.. doesn't necessarily have to be Invincible. I think what I have may work nicely.. But since this character is not lvl 40 yet, there is a lot of content I have not tried with it.

A new Zeus?

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