Yop, here it is, I'm still thinking about which one to ride when the next xp artefact arrives, I can't decide between the 2, which one would be the most interesting?
Solar Amplifier can be fortified to 180 to get all the damage and extra powers. By going to 200 you get Empowered Channeling only when you're using Solar Amplifier. (For all other powers you have to use the mainframe mod.) So, that would save you a lot of bits and exobytes. I only made mine 200 because it was a double weekend and had all my other artifacts fully loaded. As for Ebon, it's great with The Batman Who Laughs. But you really need both of them maxed out to get the ole' one-two punch. It also takes a lot more finesse and paying attention when using it.
Not true. Solar Amp's Empowered Channeling works for all channeled powers, just like the hand mod, or Superman's passive. You can see it for yourself - if you have the "Show Vulnerability Icons On Myself" option enabled, you don't get the icon above your head when casting a finisher, or other channeled power, if you have 200 Solar Amp equipped. Also - if you don't need the Emp. Channeling effect, you only need Solar Amp at 160, because at 180 all you're getting is 4% health, which for a DPS is hardly worth the extra 500k XP.
Does Heat Vision regularly leave your load out bar or do you find yourself leaving it on? How cast can you get to 10 ability ticks using your load out bar? Because Ebon generally has quite a ramp-up before you're buffed all the way. The answers to those two questions should solve your dilemma. You probably have another month or so to think about it at this point, as we don't usually get an nth metal bonus until just before an episode drops, and there's nothing on the test server at the moment.
I have heat vision in my mono target bar (Mental) and even when I was Hardlight, I found a way to include it in my mono target hardlight bar.
Generally speaking, as long as you can get at least 5 stacks of ebons buff in one rotation, it's better than any other artifact, or equally strong as strat card (if used with trans card). I am not a big fan of solar amp and it has been quite some time since i used it, but if you think about it, its generally better to have more damage throughout your whole rotation than one big hit on one ability. The same kind of happens with ebon on your finisher, but its still less problemeatic in case you have to interrupt your rotation. If you got access to the test server (which only requires a laptop from 8 years ago or even worse hardware), you can easily test it on there, since every playstyle/rotation has some characteristics which may make one artifact stand out over the other. However, generally speaking, Mental and Gadget in particular work very well with ebon even without artifact swapping. I will get it for my Mental character too and make a video about my rotations then, but until 2x XP week arrives, my hands are tied.
