Okay, as far as my dps goes. I'm not an expert with HL, It's not one of my main powers, so please try to keep any mean comments out. With Hardlight I'm noticing My ticks are usually about 1400, to 4k crits, I don't really achieve those crits a lot of the time, and often I feel like I'm not outputting enough damage. For those that are curious: The rotation I'm using is: Chompers inspiration to start out, then use impact, Hold range: Lightblast, Hold range minigun, Tap range: ram, Tap range into fan. 1) I usually continue the combo, and don't refresh the buffs until all the enemies are dead. 2) I make sure to ultizie the 35% finisher lightblast has, as well as letting lightblast and minigun fully play out. Is there any better alternative to the Combo system? Or is this about as good damage as I'll be getting? Also is it just me: Or is light not critting a lot for anyone else that uses it without inspiration. Thank you for your replies.
For HL just go through the rotation as fast as you can. Do not hold LB or MG for any amount of time. The exception is when enemies health is 35% of less hold LB for 3 tick. 6 ticks usually does no extra damage. Not sure your CR or anything. With 4800+ precision my hardest hit is Impact around 20K as a crit with the low around 1200. Average ticks for me prior to the AM bonus damage is around 1500 bonus damage is around 2200. HL AM Bonus damage is not even equal to the bonus damage that Munitions gets from BF. When I was Munitions the bonus receive from BF was around 60%. HL is around 45%. Seriously, they need to look into the bonus and bring it up to the level of Munitions.
I have no idea where people get this. I've looked at LB and not once have I seen it act as finisher in AM.
Light Blast is a finisher. It will deal additional heavy damage from both the tray and as a combo to enemies under 35% health. The AM however covers that up. Situational PI's are included in the AM's design. What that means is that a combo will deal the same amount of damage regardless of whether the Dazed PI is up or regardless of health level when using Light Blast. Light Blast receive's the largest increase of all combo attacks from the AM. The AM kicks in at 4 seconds of combo'ing out of combat and 2.5 seconds when already in combat. It's fine to let LB and MG tick out. Players have tested and looked into it. Providing data showing that if at full range then allowing all 6 hits for each LB/MG will win out over time. However once you move into Melee range for IMP/Ram(which is about 8.5 M and closer) we can achieve an additional tick of damage for those abilities. If we take that into account then it kinda goes 50/50. IMP/Ram can catch up to that level of damage but depending on where the crits land it can go either way for whatever works better. That is at Melee scale range. Now if in content where adds/bosses(NPC's) die quickly then transitioning through combo's quickly is recommended. Think of LB/MG almost as a 4 sec DoT(each). We need to get all ticks to make letting them play out worth it. It's also worth noting cone size. IMP/Ram have smaller cones at 60 degree's vs LB/MG 180 degree cone. Knowing when to use single target rotations is important too. Although that require's someone to scorecard chase less and do more of what's right to take out the right enemies(using GH on a bow master for example). On the crit percentage. The might based powers get a 5% crit bonus when using their AM's heavy hitter. That's why they parse out higher crit percentage's. Ours is correct for the baseline level that a player can/should achieve when modding/speccing correctly. The AM factors in the Inspiration buff, Spike Quake DoT, and the Dazed PI. That's all part of the formula that makes up the increase in damage while the AM is active. It doesn't actually raise the crit %. We are able to use another players crit buff. Try to look for teammates who are running one(earth, Elec, Nature, HL troll, Rage, etc). If you have other questions please click on the link in my sig. The F A Q section might help with some of these questions.
LB will do the same amount of damage regardless of health while the AM is active. It receive's the largest buff of all powers from the AM. Range from target SHOULD play a bigger part in deciding when to transition from combo to combo quickly vs letting animation's play out. LB/MG will out damage quickly transitioning if playing at full range. If at around 8.5 M then IMP/Ram's Melee tick will occur. That tick will help catch up to what allowing LB/MG play out does. At that point it become's more of where the crits fall. However if adds are dying quickly then transitioning through combo's is ideal. That has more to do with LB/MG being DoT category type powers. I'm reading your post and this part" The exception is when enemies health is 35% of less hold LB for 3 tick. 6 ticks usually does no extra damage". I'm not sure what you mean by that. I'm assuming your meaning if using from the tray or restarting combo'ing. Here's the base damage numbers for LB. Over 35% Total Damage Range: 40-50 Under 35% Total Damage Range: 75-105 At under 35% health it does almost double its damage range( or can double). However, due to the AM we're only going to notice that until the AM kicks in. LB will receive its additional damage bonus regardless of enemy health while the AM is active(for all 6 ticks). Likely we'll already be in combat and will be starting with IMP or Fan. So we'd only see 1 - 2 ticks of regular strength damage before the AM would buff it. It'd still be doing increased damage just no longer dependent on enemy health. If that doesn't clear that up or if I'm heading down the wrong path please clarify. Here's a link to a spread sheet Shiny Mackeral made showing the buff increase per power. I do agree with you that Light still could use a small increase. I know it just got one on test but if we just look at those numbers we see how our Melee damage is somewhere around 4 - 6th in damage and has to be done at point blank melee range. The Full Range damage is still end of the pack. That's all another subject. I'd rather not hi jack this thread but if you'd like to discuss that hit up the Light User Guide. P. S. Good call out on CR as that will increase damage by around 10% per 1 CR increase depending on match type.
Using my 124 Quantum DPS vs my 122 HL I would say that both are very similar in damage out at ranges beyond 12.5M. Quantum damage increases the closer I get since that would be considered melee. Speaking of melee, HL and Rage melee SUCKS period. Even when you can us it, normally the boss is blocking so if you do use it, you get countered. I think for PVE, HL and Rage when using AM melee should not be countered for 10 seconds, this way Rage and HL can rotate between melee and range as needed if they do no adjustment to HL and Rage melee. I just am irked that I have played with so many Ice characters that stand right where I am and some are doing 25-50% more damage than me using their melee AM. If anything my recommendation for HL is give us a slight bump in damage at the 12.5M range and make Impact and Ram hit at that range. This way, HL can have a melee AM that is not point blank. The same for Rage, when at 12.5M with DB it should also get a boost in damage.
He's right though, for some reason even in AM there are times when LB acts as a finisher. I know many times you get knocked out of your combo and the 2.5 sec restarts, but I'm seeing this happen enough that when something is below 35% it IS best to let LB play out for a few seconds.
I'm not seeing this. It will act the way that its supposed to outside the AM. Dealing additional damage to enemies under 35% health. While the AM is active it SHOULD deal the same range of damage and have the same range of crits regardless of health. It's supposed to receive a 385% buff while the AM is active. Damage range will of course play a factor. If you guys are seeing a bug then we should report that and try to provide a video. I didn't notice anything last night using it though(although I wasn't looking super hard at just that power). LB is meant to deal the same range of damage while the AM is active regardless of enemy health. I'll look again tonight and see if I can replicate it and add it to the list of bugs/issue's out there. Are you noticing this in any specific area's? Time's? PvE or PvP phase? Anything that might help to isolate it? As far as the letting it tick out vs transitioning quickly debate I did look at that again last night. I found that post GU 50 each are dealing a similar range of damage. Although Letting it ticked out slightly edged out transitioning quickly the difference is almost marginal. I used Tunso's Testing method(10 second burst). At full range Letting LB/MG tick out 5 - 6 times gave better numbers than transitioning quickly. The damage range wasn't very far off though. Either method could work better depending on the situation. This was done on a dummy in ideal conditions. It's also worth noting that due to the way NPC's take damage, transitioning quickly can lead to better results. Such as if the adds are dying quickly then it is definitely worth it to transition quickly. Its also worth noting that at melee range(8.5 M) the tick from IMP/Ram helps to push transitioning over the edge. It is more risky but at least wouldn't put a player right next to the boss like the Melee rotations would. Thank you for letting me know your seeing this. If its there I'll add it to the list of bugs I sent Spord. I was thinking of trying to put together some stuff and see if a group of us could get together on here and pick his ear.......
Imp/Ram's Melee tick NEEDS to interact(be buffed) by the AM and it NEEDS to occur at 12.5 M. I totally agree. Their is content where we can point blank Melee but their is also time's where that isn't possible. Most AM's have some way to deal Melee scale damage at midrange. I totally agree.
Test server and real game world is always the issue - till it's live and working....meh Tired of the unachieved balance for the last - how long now? Faith dewindeling....as well as my sub. Unhappy Hard Light user, member and day one HL for going on 5 years! IA ARMY
I agree. I cancelled my auto renewal. Since I bought a three month sub on 6/10, my last day a sub is 9/10. If there is no work towards real balance I'm done. My honest opinoin is that they really have no idea what they are doing. For instance, Mental is getting a buff in GU51. I'm sorry but have they seen how strong mental is in game? Yeah at the sparring target it is not hitting as hard, but it is destroying things in live. My league mate who is one of the best DPS I have ever ran with is mental and he dominates the boards. The lone power he lacks behind is Ice and every now and then Munitions. That should tell you something, but the sparring target says Mental needs a 20% buff on MT and ML....WTF are they thinking. So now instead of him hitting for 70K on average he will hit for 85 on average with good crits exceeding 100K. GREAT!!!! Yet HL, Electric, and Nature got the softe update treatment. With Mental getting this type of increase we may see many Ice players swaapping over to Mental for the new FotM power. Will Mental now become the new standard? If Mental become the new FotM it is CLEAR as DAY that they care more about respect tokens than balancing powers.
