1.3 Hybrid and PftT Mental DPS Comparison Videos

DISCLAIMER: I want to make very clear that I do not claim that my loadouts in either of these two videos are "the best" or anything like that. The purpose of these videos is purely to show people who cannot get on the test server how a Hybrid build (using weapons and abilities) vs a Play from the Tray build (using only abilities) could work.

The first video is the Hybrid style. I limited myself to CR43, the entry CR for Tier 2, and spending 50 Skill Points. Since it was a Hybrid build I put 0 SP into Power and focused on filling out my weapon tree (without WM) and getting some crits and Might. Loadout (going from 1 to 6) is: Pyrokinesis (medium cost/cooldown), Cryokinesis (low cost/cooldown), Menace (weapon buff), Mass Terror (high cost/long cooldown - DoT), Horrific Visage (SC generator) and Bolt Barrage (SC). I chose this because the power costs and cooldowns are balanced and I very much like encasing enemies in blocks of ice and then making them explode.


The second video is the PftT style. I put 0 SP into my weapon attacks, instead focusing on crits and Power (no Might). Again I just want to make clear that I do not claim this is "the best" in any way. This is purely to show that a PftT style is entirely possible if you make the right choices in allocating SP and how you fill your loadout. Loadout is similar to the first one, except I swapped Menace and Mass Terror with Telekinetic Bolt and Mass Levitation respectively. I found it extremely difficult not to use any weapon attacks, and I slipped up a couple of times. It's a lot harder not to use weapon attacks than you'd think!

so in your opinion which do you think would be more viable damage and power wise in say T8 content.

See that's the thing - I see them both being viable in different situations. I think hybrid is more suited to solo/duo/alert content but I could definitely see PftT being extremely viable in raid content. It would even allow you to put on more high cost abilities since you would have at least one controller. Personally I found PftT quite boring and very restrictive as I had to spam Cryokinesis quite a lot. I much preferred the hybrid build as the combat flow seemed to be faster. I am aware, however, that even PftT players would use their weapons occasionally (for countering for example, which I didn't do) so my run as PftT may not be typical of what everyone would do.

The completion time for each of the runs was very similar, with less than 2 minutes difference, but it is important to note that I got Hush on the first run and Bane on the second. The Hush boss fight took 2 minutes and 41 seconds to complete and the Bane fight took 3 minutes and 48 seconds to complete, so if you take that into account then the completion times were almost identical. So from this limited play through they both seem almost equally viable. I did only test this with Mental though, I can't comment on other power sets.

Oh so maybe there is hope after all. I might try this at some point but right now I'm still busy with other things.

Thanks for the videos.

Albeit they should be in testing feedback - hey I like to be consistent

That's true actually, I might pop them in there also. I wanted to put it somewhere where most people would see it though as a lot of people think that PftT isn't viable at all. It is, but you have to make the right choices in terms of loadouts and SP. If people are expecting to fill their loadouts with high power cost abilities and put all their SP into Might they'll be sorely disappointed.

I'd like to test it all with 290+sp tbh.

Sorry, but I don't consider that to be playing from the tray.

in the PFTT video you have right there, you had to slow down the Penguin Boss fight Multiple times just to get your power bar restored.

in the Hybrid video, you could keep on going at a much better pace.

Sorry, but I for one don't wanna slow down the pace of a boss battle or gameplay when using PFTT.

sure there is some tweaking that can still be done, but it looks far more positive than the first drop on test.

Oh man I'm glass half full today, time to go outside.

I didn't watch the full videos, but enough to get a general idea of it, it looks like PFtT is more effective then hybrid.

None of my slowing down was to wait for power, it was to avoid damage. I was rolling away so much because I was specifically not using any weapon attacks at all, which meant I was rolling away instead of lunging his interruptible attacks. There was no point during the fight that I didn't have enough power to use, at the very least, Cryokinesis.

To be honest you could have lunged the boss and I'd still have considered it Pftt.

And yeah I got the same feeling that's what you were doing.

This.

So so this.

I plan on testing the absolute piss out of Light once it finally hits Test Server. But I really really really really really wish we had an option to copy our toon from Live to Test. I have 293 skill points on Live and I imagine the difference between THAT toon and the 175 skill point toon I utilize on Test will be world's apart.

So what you say Daybreak? For a secondary option during testing, throw 300 sp our way and let us go crazy .

I did ask Mepps to give me 300sp a while back to test it, he said they weren't doing that just yet but that they may later.

So here's hoping.

interesting...so with only 28 SP put into power, PftT works.

Btw: Why did you put those SP into power instead of power + Vit?

Because the Vit stat isn't what affects the power return for Pfft.

Of course. I don't expect anyone to actually play 100% exclusively from the tray, but I wanted to show that it is possible.

What Proxy said above is correct. Power regen is percentage based and relies solely on the Power stat.

how so

so...what DOES vit affect then in this new world, if not power return?

she's saying PFtT is effective, but hybrid is more effective since she used the word then. So it's PFtT<hybrid.


Oh and can a dev send this to /Testing Feedback?