The Cutting Edge Gadgets Guide

Discussion in 'Oracle’s Database (Guides)' started by Penryn, Jul 24, 2017.

  1. Perdition Committed Player

    Thank you Penryn for doing this! it's really appreciated.
  2. Schimaera Devoted Player

    Thanks for the guide man.

    Next thing for me to do is to be desperately overwhelmed by the decision of what to play really. I'm very interested in playing a weapon-focused build but also would like to play hybrid from time to time making it difficult for me to spec for it since I would need to decide what to mod for. On top of that I'd like to melee like everything and use stealth on every loadout. I think it would better for me if I had 18 slots on my loadout :D

    Since I haven't had a single second of time to go on the test server, it's gonna be a weird couple of weeks for me now. I might just use this guide on a regular basis :)
  3. Penryn The Gadgeteer

    Day 1 Gadgets Revamp Survivors Guide


    Step #1: Panic
    Panic! The Revamp is here! The End is upon us!

    If you feel the need, make the following thread in Gotham City:
    Subject: What happened?!?
    Message: By Spytle's Great Ghost, what happened? Why aren't any of my armories working? What's with this new stats screen?

    Get it all of your system.


    Step #2: Update Your Armories
    Now that we're past the horror stage, it is time to update all of your armories! If you are a Gadgets Damage role player, you maybe feeling overwhelmed and scratching your head. This is only natural. It is a brave new Revamp world out there with lots of scary choices. Advanced Mechanics have disappeared and you don't know how to play anymore. I'd suggest reading the first page of this guide at this point. For those wanting to jump straight back into the game, consider doing this:

    If you are an existing Gadgets playing, you're probably sporting all Might mods. That's fine. Keep them for now and save that nifty mod conversion package for later. Since you're using an all-Might build, I'd suggest trying a "Play from the Tray" build.

    Here is how you spec Play from the Tray:
    [IMG]

    Select the Superpowered Focus, spec SP into all of your crits, and then select "Might/Power." Don't forget to spec some basic weapon attacks and your travel Power.

    For loadouts, you can try experimenting with the following

    Melee:
    Cryo-Field, Implosion Mine, Thermite Mine, Cryo-Foam, Bunker Buster, and a power of your choice

    To use this loadout, you start with Thermite Mine and cast Cryo-Field. You then cast Implosion Mine, Thermite Mite, and Cryo-Foam in rotation until Cryo-Field comes off cooldown. This rotation does consistent damage and is very Power efficient. Plays may find that it lacks burst. In that case, try swapping Implosion mine with EMP Pulse.

    Ranged:
    Here is a long write-up on a good ranged PftT build: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/dc...tting-edge-gadgets-guide.288758/#post-3986618

    Having specced and selected a loadout, save your armories!


    Step #3: But I Want to Use a Weapon
    Let's say you don't want to Play from the Tray and you'd rather try out a weapon. Gadgets works very well with weapons. Try the Weapons Expert or Hybrid Focus. Instead of speccing into Might/Power, you would spec into Precision on the Stats screen. If you're looking for good weapon recommendations, try these to start:

    Melee: Staff Cleave Mastery, Dual Wield Launching Uppercut Mastery, Bow Smoke Bomb Mastery, Martial Arts Smoke Bomb, or almost any Dual Wield group combo
    Ranged: Hand Blaster Meteor Blast or Dual Wield Explosive Shot. Use Hand Blaster Pulse Beam for single-target.

    Cryo-Field, Battle Display, and Suppressor Turret will form the backbone of a melee weapons loadout. Trying filling in some of the remaining loadout spots with some survivability powers.


    Step #4: Experiment
    A lot has changed with Gadgets. Power interactions are different. Some powers behave differently. Don't be afraid to try out all of the powers and see what works best for you.


    Step #5: Ask Questions
    Don't understand how something works? Want to ask for an opinion on a loadout/build? Feel free to ask. We'll try to provide as much help as possible.
    • Like x 2
  4. loupblanc Dedicated Player

    Special thanks again to TheDark, author of The Go Go Gadget Guide to Everything Gadgets, made obsolete by Stats Revamp GU73.
    Special thanks again also to Penryn, author of The Cutting Edge Gadgets Guide, written for Stats Revamp GU73.

    [IMG]

    2 questions:
    i) Will there be a Pvp section in this guide?
    ii) For Suppressor Turret, is the cooldown for jump cancelling it still the same as before Stats Revamp?
  5. Penryn The Gadgeteer

    1. I would like to add one, but I haven't touched Live arenas in a long time. I could use some input on it. The guys I tried scrimmaging against on Test were more interested in exploiting glitches than having a fair match.
    2. If you jump cancel the summons, the cooldown will be 1.5 to 2 seconds. So it isn't a big loss if you have to jump cancel or get interrupted.

    Update:
    I updated the Debuff section. I was informed that debuffs now use spherical targeting instead of ray targeting. That will make them much easier to apply.
  6. killercomic Dedicated Player

    Very detailed, thank you.
  7. loupblanc Dedicated Player

    1. Not part of the small Pvp legendary clique that looks down on all non-member non CR100-101 players. Not part of the exploiting glitch crew.
  8. Kid Multiverse Loyal Player

    Thanks so much for this thread. Other testers need to take note!
  9. Penryn The Gadgeteer

    Thanks for the sentiment.

    On that note, the guide should be fairly accurate as of the Test server build that was deployed on Sunday. If any changes were made between then and the Live deployment, they won't be reflected in the guide.

    If anyone sees anything that isn't true or doesn't seem right, please post.
  10. Penryn The Gadgeteer

    Doing some testing today, I see that Extended Supercharge and Supercharge mods can work together.

    Battle Drone costs 5000 SC to cast. Supercharged Battle Drone III and Extended Supercharge will automatically restore 1000 SC when Battle Drone is summoned. If you're using Stasis Field (your Supercharge Generator) and a good SC charging weapon attack, you can generate ~3000 SC by the time Battle Drone comes off cooldown. That leaves you with ~1000 SC to generate when Drone's cooldown is up.

    If you're able to use Cryo-Field too, you'll generate a lot of Supercharge and Drone will be ready to use again the moment it comes off cooldown.
  11. loupblanc Dedicated Player

    A bit of confusion regarding terminology.

    I see some hybrid loadouts out on Youtube, but yet the focus chosen is Weapons Expert. :confused: I have even seen a Hybrid loadout video but the focus chosen is Superpowered Focus. :confused:

    Shouldn't Hybrid loadouts be with Hybrid Focus, and Weapons Expert Focus for Weapons Expert loadouts only and Superpowered Focus for the Pftt loadouts.
  12. Penryn The Gadgeteer

    Before last Friday, there was a clearer distinction about which Focus went with which playstyle. The Test Server update on Friday muddled the waters with significant buffs being given to the Hybrid and Supercharge Focuses.

    As defined by the developers, "Hybrid" covers any playstyle that uses Weapons and Powers. That covers a very broad spectrum of playstyles.

    Here is some general advice on Focus selection:
    Hybrid - Support roles should take this.
    Supercharge Focus - Works great if you're a damage role player and using a lot of loadout abilities.
    Weapons Expert Focus - Use this if you're using a lot of Weapon Mastery attacks.

    I'm still on the fence about which Focus a One-Handed Spin Chop clipping player should select.
  13. The Game Well-Known Player

    I still don't know what I'm doing lol. When I came to the game gadgets was nerfed and Love and War was 3 months away from being released lol.
  14. Crimson Mayhem Loyal Player

    The first step to knowing what you're doing is to know what you're trying to do. What are you trying to do?
  15. The Game Well-Known Player

    I'm playing from tray
  16. Crimson Mayhem Loyal Player

    That's a start. I'm guessing you're looking for a general purpose build for now. I'll try to give you a summary of the thought process you'll have to go through to build around that concept. There's a section in the guide (here) dedicated to this which is more in-depth. The build I will try to construct for you is also in the guide (here).

    For a general from-tray build you'll want to maximize your Might and Power. Start with modding for Might in red, Might&Power in yellow, Might&Health in blue. Invest your SP into Superpowered focus (for the Might, Power and Power regen buffs), crit attack chance, crit attack damage, and Might/Power. Depending on how many SP you have, you could only invest 10 SP each into the crits and dump the rest into Might/Power to be able to use more high cost abilities.

    Once your stats are accounted for, you'll need a loadout and rotation. Start with considering what range you build for (melee, midrange, or full range). Melee is more dangerous (and probably not suited before you're more experienced with the new mechanics) so I'd aim for long range first. Now you'll need to see which abilities work well with that. For long range, the 300 cost heavy hitter is Paralyzing Dart.

    Loadout: Paralyzing Dart - empty - empty - empty - empty - empty

    You'll notice that Paralyzing Dart has a cooldown of 3 seconds. Assuming that each ability has an animation time of around 1 second, that means you'll need to use 3 other abilities in the time your Paralyzing Dart is on cooldown. You'll also notice that Paralyzing Dart interacts with any of the four main Gadgets PI (Daze, Burn, Electrify, Frostbite). So you'll need to apply at least one of those to get the maximum damage out of Paralyzing Dart. Let's go with Frostbite, which you can apply with Cryo-Foam.

    Loadout: Paralyzing Dart - Cryo-Foam - empty - empty - empty - empty

    Now since Cryo-Foam has a 0.5s cooldown and stacks with itself, you could in theory already use these two abilities to play from the tray. But practically, that doesn't work out for several reasons. 1) Cryo-Foam's cooldown starts only after the animation is finished so it's not as spammable as other 0.5s abilities. 2) Cryo-Foam encases frostbitten targets unless they also burn. That means repeated use of Cryo-Foam without a burning PI would frequently encase your targets and prevent you from damaging them. 3) Cryo-Foam also interacts with the Burn and Electrify PI and even applies Burn on electrified targets.
    So the best way to supplement Cryo-Foam would be to electrify your targets so that Cryo-Foam deals more damage and does not encase them. We can do that with Gauss Grenade which is conveniently a 100 cost spammer that would make our rotation cheaper as well. Gauss Grenade also interacts with Frostbite so it works well with Cryo-Foam.

    Loadout: Paralyzing Dart - Cryo-Foam - Gauss Grenade - empty - empty - empty

    Now we have a functioning PFTT loadout that allows you to use Paralyzing Dart every 3 seconds and fill the gaps with Cryo-Foam and Gauss Grenade. But this would mean using either Gauss Grenade or Cryo-Foam twice per rotation (since both only take 1 second and we have 3 seconds to fill). Using Gauss Grenade more often would make our rotation quite cheap, but in a group situation you may want to consume more Power for a bit more damage. We could also use Cryo-Foam twice per rotation for more damage over time. Or we could supplement our rotation with more burst damage from something like Sticky Bomb. Sticky interacts with any PI like Paralyzing Dart, and it's a 200 cost burst that will fit nicely into this rotation.

    Loadout: Paralyzing Dart - Cryo-Foam - Gauss Grenade - Sticky Bomb - empty - empty

    Now that we have a full rotation, we can fill our loadout with a Supercharge and a survivability option:

    Loadout: Paralyzing Dart - Cryo-Foam - Gauss Grenade - Sticky Bomb - Distract - Asphyxiation Gas
    • Like x 4
  17. Penryn The Gadgeteer

    Some changes from today's patch notes:

    Photon Blast is now vulnerable to interrupt.

    1. I have no idea what the note about Suppressor Turret is a reference to. Turret still has the Passive Power Regeneration penalty. Its damage output is parsing the same as it was yesterday.

    2. Cryo-Field now only generates a single hit for the hit counter and one SC tick. That's a significant reduction in its utility.

    4. The description for Taser Pull was adjusted to note that it is single-target only now.


    The relevant sections of the guide have been updated.
    • Like x 1
  18. Caesar's Lion Dedicated Player

    Thank you for all the detailed info in the guide. As someone who started immediately prior to the AM era, I'd like to highlight this particular point:

    Gadgets abilities do not consume power interactions on use. This means that a Gadgets player can setup a power interaction and follow-up with multiple abilities that leverage that same status effect.

    This I did not know & opens up far more options when it comes to loadout/rotation. I thought exploiting an effect removed it & replaced it with the effect of the power used to exploit.

    I had originally planned on starting out playing from the tray as I'm spec'd might but your loadout suggestion actually made me give hybrid a try (note I loved my gadgets AM & as such was somewhat dreading the revamp). GG was annoying me due double clicks although I'll probably have to work on that for a ranged pftt loadout.

    If I can ask a general SP spec'ing question. Loadout is SF, BD, EMP, SB, Photon Blast & BB if it matters. I have around 264 SP so around 200 left after crits, etc. I'm MA & too OCD to every change power or weapon so It's the 2 hold Shuriken weapon attack. For a hybrid build is it better to split these evenly between might/power & precision, or spec more heavily into 1 or the other?

    Thanks again
  19. loupblanc Dedicated Player

    I can advise a bit with regards to efficient SP allocation until you get more SP. Below are the gains.

    Crit Attack Chance (20 max for 20%)
    - easy enough. Every 1 SP earns you 1%.

    Crit Attack Damage (40 max for 80%)
    - 10 SP for 20% and up to 30 SP for 60%
    - 35 SP for 70% and 40 SP for the 80% max

    Precision (175 max, 100 to reach 10%)
    - 10 SP for 2% and up to 20 SP for 4%
    - 30 SP for 5% and up to 60 SP for 8%
    - 80 SP for 9% and up to 100 SP for 10%
    - Every SP after 100 adds numbers on an exponential curve.

    Might and Power (175 max, 100 to reach 10%)
    - 10 SP for 2% and up to 20 SP for 4%
    - 30 SP for 5% and up to 60 SP for 8%
    - 80 SP for 9% and up to 100 SP for 10%
    - Every SP after 100 adds numbers on an exponential curve.

    Most people doing hybrid probably go for an even split between Precision and Might/Power. After that, if you favor one more than the other, you get diminishing returns.

    Eg. You can only allocate 120 SP as below. Examples of different configurations.

    60 SP Precision for 8%
    60 SP Might/Power for 8%

    40 SP Precision for 6% (Sacrifice 2% Precision)
    80 SP Might/Power for 9% (Gain 1% Might)

    20 SP Precision for 6% (Sacrifice 4% Precision)
    100 SP Might/Power for 10% (Gain 2% Might)

    In conclusion, its easier to enter your SP in an Excel sheet.
    It takes 261 SP to max out the crits.
    1 for Focus
    20 for Crit Chance
    40 for Crit Dmg
    100 for Precision 10%
    100 for Might 10%
    Add 7 SP for Movement Powers
    Add 1 SP in Iconics for Neo Venom Boost if you want

    You get to 269 SP. You have 1 free SP in your chosen weapon, so you get to 270 SP.

    Number of SP you allocate for your weapons will depend on your chosen weapon at character creation, your preferred DPS weapon and finally your preferred Mastery selections.

    Then you reach your final SP allocation.

    Hope this helps. Excel will be your friend.
    • Like x 1
  20. Penryn The Gadgeteer

    It did work that way for a couple of interations of Gadgets Stats Revamp. Fortunately, that idea didn't make it to Live.

    You can replace Gauss Grenade with Taser Pull on that loadout if you want to focus a single target. Taser Pull benefits from the Frostbite PI setup by Cryo-Foam.

    For a single-target ranged raid loadout, try using Heat Vision and Taser Pull. Heat Vision + 3x Taser Pull. Heat Vision does a large amount of damage.

    As for the speccing question, I'd recommend trying out different stat investments and testing on the 3 target league hall sparring targets. Start your 30 second combat parser and record a few numbers for each build. Total testing should take about 15 minutes. Let us know the results. I'm suspecting you'll get better results if you spec more into Might/Power.
    • Like x 1