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Fixing an old PA build
oddbirdy
Posts: 176 Arc User
So I hopped on an old character of mine today, Recoil, and noticed that some time ago I altered his build to try and improve on it. After playing on it just a short bit of time, I clearly failed in that mission. I'm turning to you guys to try to help fix this.
Originally, he was a PA with pets build:
Pet Master Recoil
I found that the pets really did not pack a punch or grab any of the aggro at all, and deemed them useless. I went through a revamp, coming to what's currently on Live:
Recoil without Pets
He's even worse. I mean, maybe I wasn't doing the pets thing right before, but now it's definitely bad news bears.
My biggest problem, without the Circle of Arcane Power, is energy management. I like the Circle of Ebon Wrath for the damage boost, but his energy equilibrium is incredibly low and I can't really activate the circle pre-attack (and mid-fight isn't a great time for these things.)
Any suggestions on how to resurrect this dying hero?
Originally, he was a PA with pets build:
Pet Master Recoil
I found that the pets really did not pack a punch or grab any of the aggro at all, and deemed them useless. I went through a revamp, coming to what's currently on Live:
Recoil without Pets
He's even worse. I mean, maybe I wasn't doing the pets thing right before, but now it's definitely bad news bears.
My biggest problem, without the Circle of Arcane Power, is energy management. I like the Circle of Ebon Wrath for the damage boost, but his energy equilibrium is incredibly low and I can't really activate the circle pre-attack (and mid-fight isn't a great time for these things.)
Any suggestions on how to resurrect this dying hero?
Post edited by oddbirdy on
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The big problem I'm having with it, though, is that Automated Assault only kinda half works; any time you activate a power armor power, your energy builder shuts off for a bit instead of continuing to fire like one of the real power armor maintains would. So far this hasn't been more than annoying, but I also haven't gotten the character to level 40 yet...
So here are some ideas; some of these may work for you, some of them may not.
Super stats: I'd swap out Dex for Int; int is what will scale up quarry and concentration - and with enough int, quarry will give you plenty of ego as well. You can get a decent crit chance just off of gear & specs.
Endurance spec: I'd go kickback / readiness / outburst, with the extra points landing in gear utilization. Power Overwhelming is, well, rather underwhelming; it gives what, maybe 40 points of offense? Hardened is kinda nice, but you've already got con as a super stat; still, an extra 800-ish hit points (assuming I'm getting my math right) is nothing to sneer at; that might beat out gear utilization.
Specs: You don't have a really strong boost to offense or defense to fuel a wardicator loop. Not that the loop is bad, but there are other options worth trying.
Specifically, I'm looking at using Sentry and Avenger specs.
Sentry: Twist Fate, Sentry Aura, Fortify, and Reinforce = as long as you're attacking, you've got +9% crit, +9% dodge, +22% resistance, +6% healing
Avenger: Round 'Em Up, Anguish, Ruthless, Relentless Assault. This part I haven't gotten high enough to test, yet, but in theory it should make fast-maintained AoEs (read: minigun) pretty vicious, and slower ones that don't benefit much from Anguish still get the +9% damage from Round 'Em Up.
I'm also seriously considering taking Dark Transfusion; I don't have energy problems once I'm in combat, but I don't have enough endurance yet to do a proper alpha strike from equilibrium. Of course, if you use it for that, you might be able to skip Readiness from endurance spec...
Other things to look at: Chest Beam is good damage, and a useful debuff; I might consider using it instead of either micro munitions or force cascade.
I also really like having an active offense that offers defensive benefits; ascension or electric sheath with matter-energy union advantage. (Or keep Ego Surge, but find a self-heal that can crit.)
That sounds like a good idea. Taking Int over Dex would help with my energy crisis, and using Preparation so that End increases my equilibrium can assist with that as well.
Dropping the Endurance primary stat for Int. There's just no good reason for me to take it as the primary.
Oh man, the Avenger tree with the minigun looks really nice. I agree, this is a nice alternative to Wardicator.
I've been reading up on Reconstruction Circuits as well, and I think I'm going to tack that on as well to take advantage of the addition of Fortify to the build, to synergize with Compassion for boosted healing and damage stacks that I can stack at will, and to give myself Overdrive stacks for energy.
I think with that, adding on 3 active offenses/defenses to cycle through should cover me. Just gotta figure out what I want.
As the build now stands:
Recoil: edited
Int primary, by contrast, will give the nice bonus of defense penetration and (if you spec into it, which you probably should), reduced cooldowns from energy builder hits. You've still got automated assault, may as well get what you can from it.
(Aside: I notice you swapped Concentration out for Compassion on your latest build. I'm not sure how well that's going to work for you - literally not sure; I haven't used Compassion yet, so I'm not familiar with what actually stacks it, how much of a bonus you get from it, etc. Personally, I'd prefer to get my healing bonuses from hybrid stance, Outburst spec, and maybe Ascension. But if Compassion works for you, go for it.)
Also, under Sentry spec, you dropped Reinforce (10% damage resistance as long as you crit on your attacks) for 20% more defense from gear - admittedly, Reinforce only triggers from single target attacks*, but your energy builder is a single target attack with at least a decent rate of fire... Hm. I actually hadn't noticed the "single target" restriction before. This may be a justified change, depending on your crit rate; the benefit is definitely lower, but it's not clear if you could keep Reinforce active all the time.
* Footnote: single target attacks, or heals... but that requires heals that can crit, and reconstruction circuits doesn't.
I'd also suggest keeping energy shield with phalanx defense system.
Yeah, I find that I tend to run around with Minigun + EB as my primary damage, tacking on Micro-Munitions if the crowd is large enough or the opponent boss-y enough. My assumption is that Kickback and Outburst only initially work when you turn on your EB, rather than continuously proc'ing as you maintain?
I'm a fan of the idea of Compassion keeping me full up on stacks via Reconstruction Circuits and improving the healing that it does. I don't like losing my Form stacks and only getting them back halfway through the battle because they proc from attacks.
Energy Shield with PDS is a gimme, I'm not sure why I didn't have that on there. Fixed. This looks like it should be a solid build now as soon as I've picked out my Actives, so I'm picking that up and running with this:
Recoil: Final Draft
Thanks for all the advice, you have been super helpful!
Name:
Archetype: Freeform
Super Stats:
Level 6: Ego (Primary)
Level 10: Constitution (Secondary)
Level 15: Recovery (Secondary)
Talents:
Level 1: Matter Manipulator
Level 6: Enduring
Level 9: Indomitable
Level 12: Tireless
Level 15: Ascetic
Level 18: Quick Recovery
Level 21: Wordly
Powers:
Level 1: Wrist Bolter
Level 1: Mini Gun (Rank 2, U-238 Rounds, Accelerated Metabolism)
Level 6: Concentration
Level 8: Targeting Computer (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Micro Munitions (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 14: Overdrive
Level 17: Concussor Beam (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 20: Energy Shield (Phalanx Defense System)
Level 23: Implosion Engine (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 26: Munitions Bots (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 29: Sonic Device
Level 32: Ego Surge (Nimble Mind)
Level 35: Unbreakable
Level 38: Circle of Arcane Power (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Travel Powers:
Level 6: Athletics (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Jet Pack
Specializations:
Ego: Force of Will (2/2)
Ego: Insight (3/3)
Ego: Follow Through (3/3)
Ego: Sixth Sense (2/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: Modified Gear (2/2)
Vindicator: Mass Destruction (3/3)
Warden: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Warden: Ruthless (2/2)
Warden: Elusive (2/2)
Warden: The Best Defense (3/3)
Mastery: Ego Mastery (1/1)
This is similar to what I use.
You can actually change out passives to Night Warrior or AoPM depending on energy issues.
Insight from EGO, Concentration procs with EGO as primary, Circle of Arcane Power, and Overdrive with Rec should be enough to hold you over until you get Cost Redux on your gear to finish it up.
Remember: Half the people you know are below average...
Do not correct a fool, for he will hate you for it. Correct a wise man, for he will appreciate you for it.
Don't be like the Qularr. They would not last one round in the Interstellar Galactic Arena...
Handle @brayv
Kickback procs off any energy builder hit; with automated assault, you don't get the normal energy boost from energy builder hits (while other PA attacks are running), but you do still get kickback procs.
Outburst works any time your energy is over 90%, regardless of anything else; I use it as just another ramp-up ability, though (as mentioned), I'm considering taking Dark Transfusion just to be able to start fights at 100% energy.
(As an aside: I've considered a tank-y version of the character, which would use con primary and defiance as its main source of energy. But that requires getting hit, which you can't rely on in team content - there's usually someone who can out-threat you.)
Also: it's not necessarily worth it, but you can maintain (or even build up) concentration stacks (without needing an enemy) using a ranged pbaoe move, such as Energy Wave.