Preparing for 12b

mynaam · October 2017

With 12b coming I was wondering if I should level up my Aug (bulette pup) and use I in 12b or if it will be wise to stay with bonding.

I mainly use a my op as tank but also have a healadin build I use when needed

hirogarde · October 2017

afaik, the jury's still out on this one, so I'd say level it up and test it out for your build/playstyle.

The numbers say bondings will still be better than augments (so if you can't afford to level it up, don't worry too much)... but augments won't be as far behind as they currently are, so they may prove more valuable in specific instances or with certain builds.

mynaam · October 2017

Thank you. Will level it up and get 3 X rank 12 Eldritch just in case

armadeonx · October 2017

As soon as I heard about the changes I bought a Bulette Pup (for 12k lol) and I've saved some Empowered Runes that I can level up to r14 - giving a total of 60k HP. Putting Radiants in Defence slots I can get the HP transfer to 72k.

I'm guessing that we'll stick with r14 Bondings on regular companions but you never know. I may never use it but if it works out I will save some AD by preparing ahead of time.

ravenskya · October 2017

I bought a Bulette pup as well for the same reasons - I'm thinking in certain fights it might be better for me - Final boss of ToNG for example or any of the others where you tend to lose your companion right off the rip anyway

elmeister · October 2017

My initial thought on the augment vs bonding discussion was that there's no way an augment will ever be able to surpass bonding comp with the power share mechanic, even with bondings nerfed, but now there's a few consecutive changes in the brewing, with the bonding nerf, double dc nerf and now lightning proccing on BL getting potentially changed. So doing some initial calculations for discussion, assuming some average end game stats of 40k power, 250k hp without comp:

With new bondings we're going to look at:
HP: 250k
Power: 40+25+(0.25*40+5k)*2.26=98.9k

With augment we're looking at:
HP: 250k + 84k*1.31 = 360k
Power: 40+36=76k

The below setup looks clearly inferior with the other two changes, since only power affects lightning procs, the 11k extra power share is not *that* much, and you lose a ton of crit to achieve the result, on top of losing power share from DCs.

BUT, here comes the catch. If lightning does indeed stop multiproccing, we're probably going back to Fey as capping crit will be difficult, AND the new meta evolves to include a DO/DC under constant pressure to fixate on power numbers, rather than flat rate % buffs, we might be seeing the latter situation come close. If we're seeing tenebrous enchantment proc for 28% chance, 7% and AoC procs (which don't crit) we can do some new math:

BL hit in case 1:
AoC: 250*0.013*140/40=11.4k
Tenebrous: 250*0.07*0.28=4.9k
Total: 16.3

BL hit in case 2:
AoC: 360*0.013*116/40=13.6k
Tenebrous: 360*0.07*0.28=7k
Total: 20.6k

So, under the pretty hefty assumptions that we are running in groups with us being the sole major power sharer, Fey > lightning, BL still being BiS for trash, and lower crit numbers ending up not as significant, we might see a situation where bulette pup could close the cap. Once the difference in power becomes smaller due to less external power share, our temp hp gains will not be affected as much and the extra 11k in shareable power becomes more of a buff factor in groups. That said, this will completely nuke our single target dps, but I find myself stepping more and more into the buff, rather than extra dps role on bosses anyways. If we see the AC drop out from meta, there's a very real chance that an augment will in fact become the BiS choice.

greyjay1 · October 2017

don't forget, that you lose potential 4k base power, when you slot 4 tenebrous

mynaam · October 2017

So does that mean i should not use Tenebrous?

I thought they are being improved by quite a big amount

greyjay1 · October 2017

Maybe you can squeeze them into a niche-build (you would have to multi-proc them a lot).
But as far as I know they don't scale with Power/buffs which is a huge contra.
And they belong into offense-slots, so it would be a direct trade of personal dps > buffs (no radiants in these slots).
I didn't find a way to efficiently include them into a build, but that doesn't mean that there is none.

It's tricky because:
1) If you want to play as a pure buffer, sacrificing all your personal dps to max out your buffs (similar to what most AC-DCs do),
then removing 4k base power (to get a small? personal dps-boost) sounds like a bad (contradictive) idea.

2) If you play a hybrid, then you want to find a balance between personal dps and buffs,
since you will be using bondings and if you frequently run with decent buffers, then any source of dmg that doesn't scale with buffs/Power won't make a big difference.

elmeister · October 2017

Yeah, my hunch is that bonding will be BiS but it's mostly a theory crafting exercise.
If tenebrous dies I suspect it kills any chance of augment working. Also I'm expecting it to scale with flat rate buffs, but being PS myself no idea. Also all r14 40k is actually too low, that's my current r12 value

Preparing for 12b

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