Captain Millennium is a pastiche of the classic flying strongmen like Superman and Captain Marvel (of the Shazam! variety). He's meant to be an iconic hero for the Champions universe in look, behavior, attitude and abilities. To do that concept justice, his build needs to be able to:
- Be extremely durable
- Dish out damage worthy of an iconic strongman
- Stand toe-to-toe with the strongest bosses (primarily single target fighter)
- Handle himself well in casual duels (an iconic hero who folds like a cheap suit or runs from a challenge won't get much respect)
Let's do some damage!
I'm always looking for ways to get more from my build, especially in terms of damage. Not that Cap can't dish it out, but an iconic flying strongman needs the power to change the course of mighty rivers and overpower locomotives, so you can never really have too much, right? I'd heard tell of folks putting 23k crits with Haymaker, so I started doing some experimenting, and here are some approximate crits I was able to get against a level 40 training dummy in the PH using different setups:
20k Crit
Unstoppable R3
Melee Damage role
3KB resist applied
Ego Surge R1
Demolish R2 (Below the Belt)
17k Crit
Unstoppable R3
Melee Damage role
3KB resist applied
Ego Surge R1
15k Crit
Invulnerability
Hybrid role
3KB resist applied
Ego Surge R1
Demolish R2 (Below the Belt)
12k Crit
Invulnerability
Hybrid role
3KB resist applied
Ego Surge R1
The Build
I sure do like the look of a 20k crit floating above my opponent's head, but to get there requires a lot of powers. The build looks something like this:
First, stats and gear
Health: 11,483
Energy: 47/120
STR: 325 (PSS)
DEX: 13
CON: 335 (SSS)
INT: 143 (SSS)
EGO: 13
PRE: 10
REC: 20
END: 18
Offense: 416.2
Crit Chance: 31.9%
Crit Severity: 99.3%
Defense: 301.7
Dodge Chance: 41.2%
Avoidance: 58.7%
All purple Heroic and Vigilante gear. Geared for crit chance, dodge/avoidance and cooldown.
PowerHouse (Link to this build)Name: Captain MillenniumArchetype: FreeformSuper Stats:Level 6: Strength (Primary)Level 10: Constitution (Secondary)Level 15: Intelligence (Secondary)Talents:Level 1: The DevastatorLevel 6: Physical ConditioningLevel 9: NegotiatorLevel 12: Healthy MindLevel 15: Paramilitary TrainingLevel 18: Covert Ops TrainingLevel 21: Body and MindPowers:Level 1: ClobberLevel 1: Mighty Leap (Crippling Challenge)Level 6: Roomsweeper (Rank 2, Rank 3)Level 8: Invulnerability (Rank 2, Rank 3)Level 11: Enrage (Endorphin Rush)Level 14: Ego Surge (Nimble Mind)Level 17: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)Level 20: Molecular Self-AssemblyLevel 23: ResurgenceLevel 26: Shockwave (Leg Rumbler, Challenging Strikes)Level 29: Demolish (Below the Belt)Level 32: Haymaker (Rank 2, Rank 3)Level 35: UppercutLevel 38: Unstoppable (Rank 2, Rank 3)Travel Powers:Level 6: Jet Pack (Rank 2, Rank 3)Level 35: Athletics (Rank 2, Versatility)Specializations:Strength: Swole (3/3)Strength: Physical Peak (2/3)Strength: Brutality (2/2)Strength: Juggernaut (3/3)Guardian: Fortified Gear (3/3)Guardian: Ruthless (2/2)Guardian: Retribution (2/2)Guardian: The Best Defense (3/3)Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)Vindicator: The Rush of Battle (3/3)Vindicator: Offensive Expertise (2/2)Mastery: Strength Mastery (1/1)
Notice I have two passives: Invulnerability and Unstoppable. It allows Cap the versatility to be either the team anchor and tank, or lay down some impressive heavy blows.
Generally speaking I don't like giving up a block, but then again I haven't really tried life without one. Specifically, I'd like to see if it makes much of a difference while tanking Gravitar, but that's really about the only time it's useful for me anyway.
You could do without Uppercut, but combined with Haymaker it builds Enrage stacks really fast, and if you're going to do any kind of dueling you really need some way to juggle your opponent or you'll never land a charged up anything, let alone the slow-moving Haymaker.
All that said, this build has one real problem: DPS. Yes, you can hit like a ton of bricks, but Haymaker's DPS is still pretty poor thanks to it's long charge time. Let's compare Haymaker with a couple other punchy hits (numbers are Cap's base, with only the default single stack of Enraged, his stats and gear:
Haymaker R3
Charge + Activation: 2.5 seconds
Min: 1,029 (1,536 DPS)
Max: 3,657 (1,462 DPS)
Demolish R3
Charge + Activation: 2.0 seconds
Min: 1,108 (1,654 DPS)
Max: 3,151 (1,575 DPS)
Dragon Uppercut R3
Charge + Activation: 1.5 seconds
Min: 1,100 (1,642 DPS)
Max: 2,346 (1,564 DPS)
Burning Chi Fist R3
Charge + Activation: 1.5 seconds
Min: 1,267 ( 1,891 DPS)
Max: 2,822 ( 1,881 DPS)
Keep in mind this one caveat: every attack will do more than the damage listed if you've already debuffed your opponent with Demolish, preferably with Below the Belt. You saw the crit numbers above with and without it.
So while it won't give us the heavy burst damage of Haymaker, it would seem our best bet for sustained damage is BCF...except in practice it doesn't really work that well with the build, which depends a lot on constantly trying to knock your opponent. We need to keep Enrage stacks refreshed both for the damage buff and for the constant passive healing from Endorphin Rush (which I still say is great if you have the points to snag it), and when running in Unstoppable we want the free energy from each knock. Our best sustained damage attack turns out to be Dragon Uppercut, which I've been using for some time already. Here's an alternate build:
PowerHouse (Link to this build)Name: Captain MillenniumArchetype: FreeformSuper Stats:Level 6: Strength (Primary)Level 10: Constitution (Secondary)Level 15: Intelligence (Secondary)Talents:Level 1: The DevastatorLevel 6: Physical ConditioningLevel 9: NegotiatorLevel 12: Healthy MindLevel 15: Paramilitary TrainingLevel 18: Covert Ops TrainingLevel 21: Field Ops TrainingPowers:Level 1: ClobberLevel 1: Mighty Leap (Crippling Challenge)Level 6: Roomsweeper (Rank 2, Rank 3)Level 8: Invulnerability (Rank 2, Rank 3)Level 11: Enrage (Endorphin Rush)Level 14: Ego Surge (Nimble Mind)Level 17: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)Level 20: Molecular Self-AssemblyLevel 23: ResurgenceLevel 26: Shockwave (Leg Rumbler, Challenging Strikes)Level 29: Demolish (Below the Belt)Level 32: Dragon Uppercut (Rank 2, Rank 3)Level 35: RetaliationLevel 38: Unstoppable (Rank 2, Rank 3)Travel Powers:Level 6: Jet Pack (Rank 2, Rank 3)Level 35: Athletics (Rank 2, Versatility)Specializations:Strength: Swole (3/3)Strength: Physical Peak (2/3)Strength: Brutality (2/2)Strength: Juggernaut (3/3)Guardian: Fortified Gear (3/3)Guardian: Ruthless (2/2)Guardian: Retribution (2/2)Guardian: The Best Defense (3/3)Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)Vindicator: The Rush of Battle (3/3)Vindicator: Offensive Expertise (2/2)Mastery: Strength Mastery (1/1)
This build has a couple of major advantages:
- We're able to fit in a block (or something else if you prefer)
- Every single tap or charge of DU results in a knock that refreshes Enrage/Endorphin Rush or gets energy returned from Unstoppable (if we're in Melee Damage role)
- Higher sustained DPS than Haymaker
- Ability to damage and juggle opponents with one power instead of two
Another advantage is the faster charge on DU just
feels better than Haymaker. In addition, on teams Haymaker's long charge results in my targets dying from group DPS before I can get off a single blow. I haven't really tried it yet in duels, but the only way to really get the most of it is to hit them with a tapped uppercut, followed by a charged uppercut, followed by a charged Haymaker. And somewhere in there you're gonna want to at least get in a tap of Demolish first.
Frankly, I'm torn between the two. I feel like the second build is the better of the two. Sustained damage is where it's at really, but man...a 20k bursty crit is hard for an iconic strongman to turn his nose up at.
I'm still trying to decide, which is why the powers in question are last in the build. I want to be able to swap them out if I change my mind. I'm leaning toward the Haymaker setup though.
I'd welcome any insight from your experiences, especially those who've spent a lot of time perfecting similar builds (looking at you Thundrax and Real Soviet Damage :biggrin:).
Comments
Old school Might/Elec combo.
Clobber -1
Aggressor-2
Mighty Leap-2: Crippling Challenge
Haymaker-2: Nullifying Punch
Unleashed Rage-1
Molecular Self Assembly
Resurgence-3
Uppercut-2: Head Trauma
Roomsweeper-1
Demolish-2: Below the Belt
Electric Sheath-2
Gigabolt-3: Accelerated Metabolism
Enrage-2
Way of the Warrior-3
Strength
Physical Peak-3
Aggression-2
Brutality-2
Overpower-3
Vindicator
Aggressive Stance-2
Merciless-3
Focused Strikes-3
Modified Gear-2
Warden
Fortified Gear-3
Ruthless-2
Reactive Strikes-2
The Best Defense-3
Strength Mastery
Fissure is a nice AoE that readily knocks mobs down, allowing you to build stacks in the background while you're wailing away with BCF. Also pretty good damage. Theme might be an issue; YMMV.
Unbreakable with Better You Than Me adv.. As an active defense it has lost a lot of value since On Alert, but with the adv. it's a great Enraged stack builder. With INT and cooldown reduction you can click it pretty frequently and let it work in the background like Fissure. The drawback is you have to be taking damage for it to work.
Also, if you can find a way to work Aggressor Rank 3 in there somewhere, your DPS will improve noticeably, as will the ease with which you can maintain 8 stacks. The list of synergies it has with the Might set is impressively long.
I do like Aggressor, but Ego Surge with Nimble Mind is a better choice for an active offense I think. I could get both if I went with the Dragon Uppercut build, but dropped Retaliation. Ranking it up could be a problem. I could lose Versatility easily, but to get to R3 I'd probably ditch Endorphin Rush.
For now I'm really enjoying the Haymaker build though. The DPS over time may not be as good as the MA attacks, and it's sometimes hard to land...but it feels pretty darned "super".
The poster formerly known as Lightwave!
If you're not married to off-tanking the tanking advantages can be used to rank up your Roomsweeper, otherwise it's basically there as an Enraged builder.
If you really have to have Endorphin Rush (I've never found it that helpful) you can take a rank out of Fissure, as it's also largely there as an Enraged builder. If Fissure is theme-breaking, replace it with Unbreakable with adv.
Conviction and Rush of Battle (and possibly Endorphin Rush) should be enough healing without Resurgence.
The most glaring deficit is the lack of an active defense (I tend to prefer Masterful Dodge), but switching to Invulnerability can make up for that.
Gearing suggestions: CON>>STR>INT; Crit Vigilante secondary offense slot if feasible.
PowerHouse (Link to this build)
Name: Captain Millennium
Archetype: Freeform
Super Stats:
Level 6: Strength (Primary)
Level 10: Constitution (Secondary)
Level 15: Intelligence (Secondary)
Talents:
Level 1: The Devastator
Level 6: Physical Conditioning
Level 9: Negotiator
Level 12: Healthy Mind
Level 15: Paramilitary Training
Level 18: Body and Mind
Level 21: Quick Recovery
Powers:
Level 1: Clobber
Level 1: Mighty Leap (Crippling Challenge)
Level 6: Roomsweeper (Challenging Strikes)
Level 8: Invulnerability (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Enrage
Level 14: Ego Surge (Nimble Mind)
Level 17: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 20: Molecular Self-Assembly
Level 23: Aggressor (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 26: Fissure (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 29: Demolish (Rank 2, Below the Belt)
Level 32: Burning Chi Fist (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Retaliation
Level 38: Unstoppable (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Travel Powers:
Level 6: Jet Pack (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Mach Speed
Specializations:
Strength: Swole (3/3)
Strength: Aggression (2/2)
Strength: Brutality (2/2)
Strength: Juggernaut (3/3)
Warden: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Warden: Ruthless (2/2)
Warden: Elusive (2/2)
Warden: The Best Defense (3/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: The Rush of Battle (2/3)
Vindicator: Focused Strikes (3/3)
Mastery: Strength Mastery (1/1)
Are the DPS numbers you listed taken from the tooltip, or from parsed combat logs? If it's from the tooltip, I wonder if delays between power activations would actually give Haymaker an edge due to its longer charge time.
The poster formerly known as Lightwave!
Nope, he only modified Capt's original build idea. It has 2 passives.
The poster formerly known as Lightwave!
PowerHouse (Link to this build)
Name: Captain Millennium
Archetype: Freeform
Super Stats:
Level 6: Strength (Primary)
Level 10: Constitution (Secondary)
Level 15: Intelligence (Secondary)
Talents:
Level 1: The Devastator
Level 6: Physical Conditioning
Level 9: Negotiator
Level 12: Healthy Mind
Level 15: Paramilitary Training
Level 18: Covert Ops Training
Level 21: Body and Mind
Powers:
Level 1: Clobber
Level 1: Mighty Leap (Crippling Challenge)
Level 6: Roomsweeper (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 8: Invulnerability (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Enrage (Endorphin Rush)
Level 14: Ego Surge (Nimble Mind)
Level 17: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 20: Molecular Self-Assembly
Level 23: Resurgence
Level 26: Shockwave (Leg Rumbler, Challenging Strikes)
Level 29: Demolish (Below the Belt)
Level 32: Haymaker (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Uppercut
Level 38: Unstoppable (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Travel Powers:
Level 6: Jet Pack (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Athletics (Rank 2, Versatility)
Specializations:
Strength: Swole (3/3)
Strength: Physical Peak (2/3)
Strength: Brutality (2/2)
Strength: Juggernaut (3/3)
Guardian: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Guardian: Ruthless (2/2)
Guardian: Tenacious (2/2)
Guardian: The Best Defense (3/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: Focused Strikes (3/3)
Vindicator: Offensive Expertise (2/2)
Mastery: Strength Mastery (1/1)
I've picked up a Legion's gloves of Piercing, which added over 10% crit severity but gave up some offense, so I made some specialization changes that sacrificed a bit of healing/survivability in favor of some added offense and crit chance. I crit more often, and my Haymaker crits are hitting for over 21k in Brawler with Unstoppable now (using same criteria as my OP - against a level 40 training dummy with a fully charged Demolish with Below the Belt). I really enjoy this build. There are melee setups that can pull off much higher DPS, but if you like punching things really, really hard...this feels pretty great.
I mostly run in Brawler with Unstoppable, but if things get out of hand I drop into Hybrid with Invulnerability. Against Gravitar I use the Tank role to get the buff to my health. Helps me survive those yellow bubbles.
The poster formerly known as Lightwave!
I plan to experiment with it on Test later today. I'll let you know how it goes.
The poster formerly known as Lightwave!
PowerHouse (Link to this build)
Name: Ka'ar Draaga
Archetype: Freeform
Super Stats:
Level 6: Strength (Primary)
Level 10: Dexterity (Secondary)
Level 15: Constitution (Secondary)
Talents:
Level 1: The Hero
Level 6: Acrobat
Level 9: Martial Focus
Level 12: Physical Conditioning
Level 15: Relentless
Level 18: Impresario
Level 21: Quick Recovery
Powers:
Level 1: Bludgeon
Level 1: Cleave (Rank 2, Rank 3, Accelerated Metabolism)
Level 6: Decimate
Level 8: Defiance (Rank 2)
Level 11: Enrage (Endorphin Rush)
Level 14: Brimstone (Rank 2, Rank 3, Challenging Strikes)
Level 17: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 20: Guard
Level 23: Annihilate (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 26: Arc of Ruin (No Quarter)
Level 29: Resurgence (Rank 2)
Level 32: Aggressor (Rank 2)
Level 35: Unleashed Rage (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 38: Unbreakable (Rank 2)
Travel Powers:
Level 6: Athletics (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Flight
Specializations:
Strength: Physical Peak (3/3)
Strength: Aggression (2/2)
Strength: Brutality (2/2)
Strength: Juggernaut (3/3)
Guardian: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Guardian: Locus (2/2)
Guardian: Ruthless (2/2)
Guardian: The Best Defense (3/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: Modified Gear (2/2)
Vindicator: Mass Destruction (3/3)
Mastery: Strength Mastery (1/1)
Your build looks solid though. If you're geared well you should be getting about as much damage as you can out of it if you're staying in Hybrid. How are you doing with energy? Is Defiance keeping you fueled so you can keep up your big attacks?
The poster formerly known as Lightwave!
The poster formerly known as Lightwave!
The poster formerly known as Lightwave!
The poster formerly known as Lightwave!
The poster formerly known as Lightwave!
My character's source of power is magic and i'm not a big fan of sending my opponents flying, i like to get them close,reeealy close and hit them hard with my fist.Any suggestions for a Supergirl/Wonder Woman type Build?
P.S. I'm such a fan. Would love to meet you and fight crime someday.
- Be safe and have fun, champs - for science!
Cap's build depends on knocking people because that gives him energy (through Unstoppable) and builds his Enrage stacks. If you don't want to knock at all, you're looking at a different build altogether. You'll want to search the forum for Unarmed builds -- you can still be tough and strong, but getting energy for them is a different thing.
If you don't mind knocking things down or up instead of far away, you could just about take this build and plug in alternatives: Dragon Uppercut for Haymaker, Inexorable Tides or Havoc Stomp for Roomsweeper, etc. Or if you wanted more Wonder Woman than Supergirl, you could look for Heavy Weapons attacks.
Cap updated his build, incidentally, in this thread: http://co-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=238091
And then most recently here: http://co-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=262591
I'm also glad to hear I helped inspire you to give the game a try! There's a lot to love here.
The poster formerly known as Lightwave!