Question about the Accelerated Metabolism advantage

grifvindh · December 2012

I started playing this game... six months back? About the time they first announced CoH ending (transplant! Hi all!) Anyway, I've mostly focused on bruiser type builds, but I kept trying to create a close-combat dual pistols build and I kept abandoning it after a while.

My latest attempt was a lot easier to play (apparently they buffed Two-Gun Mojo?) and Bullet Beatdown has become one of my favorite powers in the world. IN THE WORLD! But I am finding energy management to be a bit of a problem. He's rather frenetic in combat... two-gun mojo until they close, then bullet beatdown (with concentration and the Not Without Incident advantage) for AOE group fighting, and he's pretty good at leaving a wake of carnage in his path... riiiiight up until the moment he runs out of energy. Then he has to wait a few seconds to build up again to take down the last two.

Which is fine, for the most part, but I was wondering how to delay that. Obviously find gear that boosts his recovery and endurance, but at the moment I'm focusing on boosting my primary stats so I can't count on that.

Which brings me to the Accelerated Metabolism advantage.

Every time you use a power with AM there's a 20% you'll get a 15 second energy recovery buff. This synergizes well with the energy builder, of course, but it seems to me it might also work with two-gun mojo, bullet beatdown and submachine gun. These are pretty fast-moving powers, so if I had that advantage in *all* of them, the chance of at least one getting that 20% chance seems relatively high (that's my non-math background talking. Feel free to disabuse me of this notion).

So what I'm asking is "how viable would it be to invest in AM for my attack powers? Would it make any noticeable difference?"

I'm doing OK now but it would be nice to have a little more cushion. On paper it looks like AM could provide that cushion for one 1 per attack power, but I don't know how it translates into game play.

reddestshirt · December 2012

You are not entirely wrong, but you are missing a crucial part.

Accelerated Metabolism adds a very small and instant amount of energy. (I think it's 10 or so?), and the 15 second "buff" is actually a lockout period where you cannot receive the energy boost again.

Basically there is no way to get significant amounts of energy from that advantage. What you want is an Energy Unlock.

Which you pick is up to you and depends greatly on what superstats and powers you have.
If built carefully, a freeform character will never have to turn their energy builder on.

ajanus · December 2012

If I have a point left over at 40 that I don't have any other use for, I will pick AM on a power. You don't want it on your energy builder because if you are hitting something wtih your EB, you are already gaining energy. You will want to use AM on an attack you use most often, assuming you still have 1pt in that ability. Maintains are the best, in my opinion, so 2 Gun Mojo would be a good option for you.

If I remember correctly, AM has a global cooldown once it procs, so it is pointless to take AM on more than 1 power.

However, with 2GM, you should have taken the Concentration form toggle. If you superstat Ego or Int, this "should" be the only energy management you need, even moreso if your primary ss is EGO since you can choose to have your ranged abilities cost less from the specialization tree.

If you PSS EGO, take Concentration as your form, and take Killer Instinct as your Energy Unlock, 2GM should actually give you energy rather than cost it, eliminating the need for AM all together.

grifvindh · December 2012

I hadn't paid any attention to these before. Killer Instinct looks interesting... It scales with Ego, though, which is a problem, since this build uses Int instead of Ego as a primary (I reckon the damage won't be as high, but it reduces energy costs!)

Still, if even the base value is "more energy" it could help now, and then later on when I have the luxury (and money!) to experiment with gear stats I can see about building it up...

Although Overdrive might work... it's int based and would kick in when I'm half way through two-gun mojo or submachine gun...

... thank you for pointing me in this direction. I now have something else to play with. :-)

grifvindh · December 2012

Hi ajanus, thanks for the extra information...

I'm not using ego as a primary or secondary stat (Int instead) but yeah, I do have concentration and the energy I get every time I gain a stack does help. However, it doesn't *always* help. You only get new stacks when you build or maintain a ranged power, and Bullet Beatdown is a click power. That's usually when I start running out.

And once you get to 8, you can't get any more energy bonuses (unless refreshing a stack counts. Does it count?) That's inconvenient in longer fights, especially since by that point in the fighting it's usually melee and the sustained powers aren't in use as much.

That's why Killer Instinct would be useful. Whenever I crit using Bullet Beatdown I'd get an energy boost. But I decided not to make any of those stats my primary or secondaries. :P

reddestshirt · December 2012

Refreshing stacks does count for the energy return.

Killer Instinct would definately help you, but you would not get a lot without Ego or Recovery as a super stat.

Perhaps Molecular Self-Assembly? It scales very well with Intelligence, but requires powers with cool-downs to trigger. Are you using something like a lunge to get up close, or conviction to heal yourself?

grifvindh · December 2012

I do have a lunge power, but lately I just haven't been using it. What I usually do is open up with Submachinegun from a distance, or two-gun mojo if it's a tougher villain/supervillain, and then when the crowd charges I switch to Bullet Beatdown and go nuts until everyone dies. Er, that's a gloss, but that's the general gist of it.

My passive is Quarry, and I have the advantage that heals me every time I take foe down. That's what I use for healing primarily at the moment. Conviction looks interesting but apparently according to the wiki the healing is negated by taking damage? That seems counter-intuitive.

One thing is that Quarry does boost ego when you gain stacks of Audacity, and the boost (apparently) scales with Int. But according to the Wiki it's only +2 per stack, so... three stacks is +6, and I don't know how much the Int modifier would effect that.

reddestshirt · December 2012

No, the way Conviction works is that it both heals you and increases your maximum health until you get hit again. This allows you to pre-heal if you so chose, stacking the heal ontop of your regular hitpoints.

The boost to max health is pretty minor though and is unlikely to make much of a difference. It is primarily a pure self-healing power.

grifvindh · December 2012

Ah, I see. It's the *buff* that's removed when you take damage, not the effect. I misread the wiki.

That might work. It's awfully pricey, though. The wiki says 50 to activate, which means it probably won't be accessible when I need it.

However, it resets in three seconds, which makes it pretty quick for Molecular Self-Assembly to kick in. I can certainly play around with it.

I think over the next few days I'll mess with Killer Instinct & Molecular Assembly and see how they work out. I don't see me getting a lot of gain with KI but it should be pretty easy to trigger. Munitions as a whole is a power set that seems to crit a lot.

jorifice1 · December 2012

Well, you seem to favour Maintains for most of your attacks, so consider Overdrive as your Energy Unlock (the Power Armour Tree). It gives you Energy whenever you keep one of those Maintains going for 50% or more. Also consider for your Block Enhancer Force Shield with the Force Sheath advantage. This will give you Energy whenever you take damage and it persists AFTER you release the Block for several seconds. If you hit your Block before combat it will often be the only Energy supply that you need. And DO consider Ego as one of your Super Stats. This does sooo much for your Ranged powers.

grifvindh · December 2012

Well, I was playing with INT in place of EGO because while it doesn't boost damage as much, it still does, and it has some other benefits (reduced cooldown and energy cost on powers) so I figured I'd give it a try. Obviously the character's not at the higher level portions of the game yet (currently in his mid-20s) but he's not really having any issues with his ranged attacks so far...

jorifice1 · December 2012

grifvindh wrote: »

Well, I was playing with INT in place of EGO because while it doesn't boost damage as much, it still does, and it has some other benefits (reduced cooldown and energy cost on powers) so I figured I'd give it a try. Obviously the character's not at the higher level portions of the game yet (currently in his mid-20s) but he's not really having any issues with his ranged attacks so far...

Dex (primary) with Ego (secondary) is the gold standard at this point. Your third secondary is a matter for debate, with Rec., Int., and Con., all having their fervid supporters. Int. seems to be the current pack leader because of the scaling with Quarry.
The reasoning behind this is that with the Maintains in Munitions you rely on a great many tiny ticks of damage. Even relatively small increases in those ticks adds up FAST in terms of DPS. Very soon you will discover the joys of Cost Reduction Items. Repeat after me: "Gamblers Lucky Gems are my friends"

tomaan · December 2012

I actually like to use both an energy unlock and accelerate metabolism for energy management, but would agree the energy unlock is the more effective and the higher priority.

I'm still an Intel fan -- combined with a good unlock it can turn some maintains into near-energy builders.

reddestshirt · December 2012

This, by the way, is my gunslinger. I never even toggle my energy builder to on except when I have to resurrect a lot (Basically against Gravitar), since that does not build my energy, only consumes it.

Nano-swarm Gunslinger

It is tank-oriented though which may not be what you wish for.

grifvindh · December 2012

This is the build I was toying with:

Brawling Pistols concept

It was a suggestion based on a request for advice I made when I first started playing the game. I've made a few alterations so far (notably I've swapped out Dragon Kick with Submachinegun, and instead of Form of the Tempest I've got Concentration so I can get AOE 100% of the time with Bullet Beatdown). Obviously the more I play with munitions, the farther I am drifting from the original concept (a melee-oriented pistols character) so I may need to rethink the whole thing.

I really do like the Quarry passive, though, esp. with Fair Game. And according to one of the guys who posted in the thread where I that build was suggested, Quarry can bump up Ego to 90 on its own (that post is here).

I'm going to play around with a separate Dex/Ego/Int/Quarry build, though, and see if I can live without the extra hit points...

selphea · December 2012

Ego does reduce energy costs as a primary stat

Look at the Insight specialization.

ajanus · December 2012

If you aren't too sold on Bullet Beatdown, you should try this:

EGO Dex/Rec: 2GM, Concentration, Killer Instinct, Kinetic Manipulation. You will be the reason your team wins Smash Alerts :biggrin:

Personally, I prefer Assault Rifle over 2GM, but to each his own.

grifvindh · December 2012

Oh but I *love* Bullet Beatdown. I don't know how effective it is compared to other munitions powers but it looks amazing.

Question about the Accelerated Metabolism advantage

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