Phoenix themed fire-regen build: advice needed

heilkitty · February 2014

I was planning to respec my main toon and only FF into a phoenix themed build with Regen. I want to be hard to kill while still dealing good AoE damage with buffed Conflagration, and I came up with this build on the PH character planner:
PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name:

Archetype: Freeform

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

Powers:
Level 1: Throw Fire
Level 1: Fireball (Rank 2, Unstable Accelerant)
Level 6: Thermal Reverberation
Level 8: Concentration
Level 11: Regeneration (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 14: Conflagration (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 17: Resurgence (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 20: Flashfire (Sweltering Heat)
Level 23: Fire Snake
Level 26: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 29: Masterful Dodge
Level 32: Evasive Maneuvers (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Redemption (Rank 2, Salvation)
Level 38: Ego Surge (Nimble Mind)

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Acrobatics (Rank 2, Rank 3, Versatility)
Level 35: Phoenix Flight

Specializations:
Endurance: Readiness (3/3)
Endurance: Kickback (2/2)
Endurance: Power Overwhelming (3/3)
Endurance: Hardened (2/2)
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)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: The Rush of Battle (2/3) (or maybe offensive expertise, if it scales well with an already high CD reduction)
Vindicator: Mass Destruction (3/3)
Mastery: Endurance Mastery (1/1)
My idea was to use the END tree to get a large healthpool and good equilibrium and gear for 70ish EGO, cooldown reduction, crit chance, dodge/avoidance and maybe a bit of REC.
What do you think about it? Is END primary a good choice for the build? Will I be able to handle the energy cost from Conflagration AND gear for high cooldown reduction? What kind of dodge chance can I expect from r3 EM + decent dodge gear (say, heroic stuff +r5/6 lucky gem) after the dodge gear nerf? Similarily, what crit chance would I get from gear and mods alone? And would Avenger be a better choice that guardian, since it gives +150 offense on maintains and debuffs the target vs AoE attacks (and my mains attack is both an AoE and a maintain)?
I also read that Thermal Reverberation sucks compared to other EU in that it procs less frequently and gives less energy back. Is that true?
So many questions to annoy you with! But that's what the forum is for, right? :biggrin:

ajanus · February 2014

At first glance, I can tell you are pretty familiar with the Fire set. With that in mind, I can also tell you that you definitely want R2 and Trailblazer on Fire Snake. I would take points from Redemption and put them there.

My stat setup on my fire is much more offensive oriented...I use EGO/Dex/End. Since you want Regen and a bit more defense, I would suggest EGO/Con/End. Ego tree will make a world of difference compared to the End tree. Take the crit/severity and cost reduction choices and fill in the rest as you see fit.

With Regen, I would probably take the +Defense choice on gear. I would also take Crit Chance Offense and either more Cost Reduction or an even split for Utility. There isn't much that you "need" to cooldown faster than it already does.

Thermal Reverb. Honestly, I have a few toons that use it and I like it just fine...I don't have any energy issues at all on any toon so I can only assume this is just as good as the others are. The Cost Redux from the Ego tree, Concentration returns scaling on your Ego now, whatever you put in your Utility spot, and secondary SS End with Thermal Reverb, and you should be golden on energy recovery.

heilkitty · February 2014

EGO/con/end sounds pretty good. Dunno why I didn't think of it.
I came up with another idea: a LR build. LR+EM should be quite a defensive wall, and with BCR, Conviction on a low cooldown and the Adrenaline Rush talent from the Con tree I suppose I could heal what little damage get through and keep blasting things at the same time.
Although I was wondering whether EM would get in the way, since Conflag has a 50 foot range and locks me down (this goes for the other build as well).

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name:

Archetype: Freeform

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

Powers:
Level 1: Throw Fire
Level 1: Fireball (Rank 2, Unstable Accelerant)
Level 6: Thermal Reverberation
Level 8: Lightning Reflexes (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Conflagration (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 14: Bountiful Chi Resurgence (Resurgent Reiki)
Level 17: Evasive Maneuvers (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 20: Flashfire
Level 23: Fire Snake (Trail Blazer)
Level 26: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 29: Resurgence (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 32: Concentration
Level 35: Ego Surge (Nimble Mind)
Level 38: Redemption (Salvation)

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Blazing Speed (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Phoenix Flight (Rank 2, Rank 3)

Specializations:
Constitution: Fuel My Fire (3/3)
Constitution: Tough (3/3)
Constitution: Resilient (2/2)
Constitution: Adrenaline Rush (2/2)
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)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: The Rush of Battle (3/3)
Vindicator: Mass Destruction (2/3)
Mastery: Constitution Mastery (1/1)
EGO/End/Con could work too, but I guess the CD on Conviction becomes quite important with Regen out of the picture. Or I could get rid of CON and go for EGO/int/end for great energy management and crits. Dunno
Any suggestions?
BTW, Heat Wave is useless after the hold nerf, right?

ajanus · February 2014

Never been a big fan of Lightning Reflexes or the dodge aspect of Evasive Maneuvers...I usually just take the Sleight of Mind threat dump on it, if I take it at all.

I think you will be much happier with the first build since Regen doesn't need any "help" to work right...and allows you to just stack Defense instead of trying to pile on more dodge/avoidance.

If I were to do a build like that, I would probably just go DEX/Con/Int and use MSA + Conviction for Energy Unlock...or EGO/Con/Rec and use Overdrive.

And I have always thought Heat Wave was useless...

heilkitty · February 2014

I had two other regen builds and they were both very resilient, but one was stacking dodge (EM+gear pre-nerf) and the other was melee with STR primary and Laser Knight. As much as I like the idea of using Regen on this toon, I'm unsure how well it would work without other big defensive buffs.
But I'm probably overanalyzing. In the end the build is pretty much set for the most part. I can respec tactically to keep the passive and a couple other powers on top of the respec list, and the SS can be changed for a reasonable fee.
I'll probably start out with EGO/Con/End/Regen and see how it works out.
Thanks for the feedback!

time to incinerate some Purple Gang goons.

roughbearmattach · February 2014

Why redemption? Why not take the self-rez instead?

heilkitty · February 2014

roughbearmattach wrote: »

Why redemption? Why not take the self-rez instead?

If I go with Regen, the two spare power slots (from EM and BCR) will let me pick more utility powers. I was thinking about using both rebirth and redemption, as they fit the theme and rebirth should work well with regen. I may use the last slot for fire shield to add some defense while turtling up.

roughbearmattach · February 2014

A phoenix without rebirth . . . isn't a phoenix!

Phoenix themed fire-regen build: advice needed

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