Dread Legion Armor Impressions

angrymanagement

Played around for a little bit with the target dummies & did a little rough testing with the Dread Legion set.

Armor Set Pros:
The helm looks cool
Has Life Steal

Armor Set Cons:
Set seems to be quite inferior to High Vizer
It has no regeneration

The 4 piece bonus procs Evoker's Ruin (DOT), and the ticks of that can proc Evoker's Ruinous Burst (AOE).
Both seem to always ticks for 125 damage, and it never crits.
The damage is not affected by stats or debuffs.
It seems to possibly have a 20 second internal cooldown (not positive), but can proc on more than 1 target simultaneously.

Changing from HV to DL armor set resulted in a DPS decrease of over 3000 dps with my gear & no pet summoned (3 target dummies).
I thought this set might be nice for trash clearing, but looks like it goes in the bank with the other non HV T2 sets.

Some example sets (5 min = 300 to 306 seconds)

Dread Legion 4 piece (5 minutes 3 target dummies):
Chilling Cloud/COI/SS/StealTime/Shard/Oppressive Force
88 Evoker's Ruin
54 Evoker's Ruinous Burst (AOE)

Dread Legion 4 piece (5 minutes 3 target dummies):
Chilling Cloud/COI/SS/StealTime/Shard/Oppressive Force
117 Evoker's Ruin
64 Evoker's Ruinous Burst (AOE)

Dread Legion 4 piece (5 minutes - 1 target):
Magic Missile
104 Evoker's Ruin
85 Evoker's Ruinous Burst (AOE)

pers3phone

Theoretically the set should provide better DPS in real dungeons, because of "better" stats/Power/DPS bonus... if you have other 1-2 HV CWs to leech from them.

No HV CW to leech from... results turn out bad.

IMO the set bonus is extremely bad. Not good DPS, no buff, no debuff, no CC... just those procs which seem to be quite insignificant from your tests. Nothing for your party, so why would they take you with them?!?

slushpsycho

The stat is nice. If you roll with a good cw that using HV it is actually considerable since you can go a really tanky build with it.

okumba

My parsings say the same (clearing trash mobs in T2 / VT etc). The 4/4 set effect does never crit and seems not to be affected by anything (i think elven ferocity does basicly the same - never crits / no influence of the damage, but it does proc like never... 10 procs in a 5 minute fight would be much procs).
If you have 1-2 CWs using HV, than it might worth wearing since of its stats, but than again you could just mix up two 2/2 set effects and might do more damage again...

angrymanagement

^^
Just paired 2 piece Dread Legion with 2 piece Fabled Iliyanbruen. That is a very nice power boost.

vorphied

2/2 sets are never better than a full HV set. Even if I were running with another HV CW, I'd keep my bonus to ensure maximum application of the debuff on all adds and to keep my own defense buffed.

I don't know what Cryptic is thinking when they make these new sets. I have a lot of respect for the work that goes into the game and hesitate to be too critical since I'm not a combat designer or a programmer, but if it takes players no time at all to tell you that a set is bad, why do the devs not realize this prior to release? This is the same kind of head-scratcher as the mysteriously bad DC armor sets that keep popping up. It's like they regret making High Vizier and Miracle Healer armors and are hoping everyone will forget about them somehow.

On the plus side, the artwork on the new items is pretty awesome.

focusman

1 cn run : 70 - 80k dmg. Either is is bugged since it wont crit/take feats in accounts or it just just bad and dont use it. If it is truely bugged then keep it in stock and see if they fix it. HV still best set.

pointsman

How can you possibly do only 80k in damage in a full CN run?

freethinker1976

pointsman wrote: »

How can you possibly do only 80k in damage in a full CN run?

Obviously he meant that the set bonus only did 80k damage over the run.

focusman

Yes the set bonus, my dmg is between 20-30m depending on the party

grimah

Just from lookign at it, if the dot was always up it would still only do 125 damage per second, which is quite pitiful. (compared to other set bonuses). Im guessing it doesnt stack either.

pers3phone

vorphied wrote: »

I don't know what Cryptic is thinking when they make these new sets. I have a lot of respect for the work that goes into the game and hesitate to be too critical since I'm not a combat designer or a programmer, but if it takes players no time at all to tell you that a set is bad, why do the devs not realize this prior to release? This is the same kind of head-scratcher as the mysteriously bad DC armor sets that keep popping up. It's like they regret making High Vizier and Miracle Healer armors and are hoping everyone will forget about them somehow.

On the plus side, the artwork on the new items is pretty awesome.

Well, as an old RPG player, I am not hesitant at all.

Newer sets need to be made appealing to a certain part of the population. This new set is the top of the line from the latest epic dungeon. Hence, it must primarily appeal to the dungeon-crawling CWs, most of all having the HV set, so it has to be an improvement over it.

There's no improvement at all, neither in CC, neither in damage, and it offers NOTHING to the CW party.

So the set is a full design failure from a functionality perspective.

Basically it all resumes to this: new sets should be better enough to make you grind for them. If they fail at this, then they are badly done.

The artwork is cool though

kozi001

What does 1250 damage over 10 seconds means?[/newb]

Does it 1250 damage overall or does it tick in every second for 10 seconds?
(1250*10=12.500 damage?)

In any case HV is probably better by boss fights. Pulling off 3*450 defense from boss with steal time/OF and giving it to the user.

grimah

Yea set bonuses should be like. arcane stacks give 2% more damage per stack, and chill stacks give 2% damage mitigation per stack.

that would make an insteresting set.

Attacking controlled target now gives you a stacks of 250 power up to 5. Or After using daily your AP gain is increased by 100% for 6 seconds.

vorphied

kozi001 wrote: »

What does 1250 damage over 10 seconds means?[/newb]

Does it 1250 damage overall or does it tick in every second for 10 seconds?
(1250*10=12.500 damage?)

The phrasing "X damage over Y seconds" always means that you will have inflicted a total of X damage by the end of Y seconds.

Otherwise the tooltip would read something like "X damage per second for Y seconds".

petpet2

best used to transmute the HV.

pers3phone

Full CN run (lots of mobs&AoE), decently geared CW (doubt it matters). You can see how the 2 set abilities barely (if...) added to 1% damage, which is quite pathetic compared to that other set we all love.

Picture says it all:

pointsman

Well that's a shame.

I think it would be kinda cool to go for a high-life-steal build and this would be the perfect set to do it in, if the set bonus didn't suck.

Does the additional life steal compensate for the suckitude of the set bonus?

vorphied

Life Steal is only useful while you're attacking, and mobs should generally be controlled or dying while you're on the offense, so I don't believe that Life Steal adds all that much benefit for CWs.

I'll take Regeneration any day since that keeps on healing while you're CCed or teleporting for dear life.

angrymanagement

You can stack up some decent life steal with the Dread weapons, Artifacts, and companion passive bonuses while still keeping good regen. I think I have 1100-1200 regen & life steal is at 800 or so without any pet bonuses.

pers3phone

angrymanagement wrote: »

You can stack up some decent life steal with the Dread weapons, Artifacts, and companion passive bonuses while still keeping good regen. I think I have 1100-1200 regen & life steal is at 800 or so without any pet bonuses.

This. I have 450 or so from weapon set will add more with n artifact (have just 2 now), who knows. It's decent, not much, just a nice addition to the regen.

angrymanagement

Also, there is a Icon for the Ioun Stone that I use that has life steal. It's not BIS based on total stats, but since it has no recovery, it is BIS for me since we get so much recovery on other gear.

helpimblindinrl

I dunno, the 4 piece bonus on hv means nothing to my character because my armour penetration is where it needs to be and my defence is solid, the regen is nice but I never had it stacked to the extent that it was going to make a real difference. I have all the sets but right now I mix shadow weaver and the new set to get crit and power since i have plenty of severity and the damage buff isn't that impressive. The extra recovery on hv is a waste of 450 gs to me because it translates into such a small fraction of a second.

You could argue that hv or sw (if it worked reliably) full sets benefit the rest of the party but that's only true when the party doesn't have armour penetration where it needs to be and what I want from my character is consistency because I play with a lot of different people.

The full set of the new arbour bonus looks like garbage to me though, a chance to do 5k. Oh ok thanks game. Its probably less useless than the phoera I bought for some reason but not that much better either.

jeffmwillson

You could argue that hv or sw (if it worked reliably) full sets benefit the rest of the party but that's only true when the party doesn't have armour penetration where it needs to be and what I want from my character is consistency because I play with a lot of different people.



Just so you know... HV set bonus brings mitigation into negatives above what arpen can do.... so arpen and your groups arpen has absolutely nothing to do with what the HV set bonus is doing. So HV set bonus is never doing nothing. It is ALWAYS adding to dps no matter what your groups arpen is.

pers3phone

helpimblindinrl wrote: »

I dunno, the 4 piece bonus on hv means nothing to my character because my armour penetration is where it needs to be and my defence is solid,

You could argue that hv or sw (if it worked reliably) full sets benefit the rest of the party but that's only true when the party doesn't have armour penetration where it needs to be.

This is NOT how HV works.

After you have negated your target resistance with ArP, HV can debuff it FURTHER. Yes, into the negatives.

So HV is the best choice by far... benefiting you and your party, regardless of your capped PvE ArP.

As for SW, it is bugged I believe. It also makes your crit too high, as increasing Power becomes more reliable for DPS purposes at one point. But it's still a good set.

helpimblindinrl

right yeah show how you know that for fact

vorphied

helpimblindinrl wrote: »

right yeah show how you know that for fact

If you're referring to the bit about HV's debuff, pretty much everyone knows this for a fact. Check your damage logs; the effect is obvious even against targets with absolutely no mitigation, like Target Dummies. Armor Penetration won't increase your damage beyond negating a target's mitigation, but HV stacks will.

rollingonit

vorphied wrote: »

If you're referring to the bit about HV's debuff, pretty much everyone knows this for a fact. Check your damage logs; the effect is obvious even against targets with absolutely no mitigation, like Target Dummies. Armor Penetration won't increase your damage beyond negating a target's mitigation, but HV stacks will.

What he said.

helpimblindinrl

You know what there may be a mild effect there but it is very mild and far less than what i get from more crit, more power especially when i have increased crit severity

pers3phone

helpimblindinrl wrote: »

You know what there may be a mild effect there but it is very mild and far less than what i get from more crit, more power especially when i have increased crit severity

The effect is far from being mild.

This is about mathematics and not "feeling". You debuff the target FURTHER, after the 2540 ArP to negate whatever PvE resistance applies.

Stacking debuffs is key for fast, efficient runs.

... especially as they help ALL party members, not just you.

angrymanagement

helpimblindinrl wrote: »

You know what there may be a mild effect there but it is very mild and far less than what i get from more crit, more power especially when i have increased crit severity

Tested and tested some more, no other armor set can match the DPS increase provided by the HV set with its 4 piece bonus. If you don't believe that do some testing (download ACT & the Neverwinter addin).