To start, I am not looking for why my build isn't meta or whatever. I know full well it isn't. I am more looking at things I can tweak to max the build within the context of what I am trying to do. So lets start with my Finisher Spammer, Jester. For the record, he didn't start out as this for an idea. In fact, he dates back to launch, before Artifacts and such. Heck, I don't think he was originally even Light based. I seem to remember him being gadgets and using a boxing glove a lot I think I went this route because I came back to the game about when Wonderverse came out and Lernaea's amulet dropped so I built around it (I didn't understand the game very well at the time). Anyway, he is Light. RSK. Starts rotation with Light Weight Strike (primarily for Daze and SC build) and then right into Light Blast (Finisher), combo to Mini-gun>Snap Trap and back to Light Weight Strike. This timing is almost exactly the time it takes between Light Blast cooldowns, so I pretty much use it as fast as I can. I have Whip Thrash for times when Light Blast gets interrupted and I am waiting on its timer and a shield for an "Oh Crap" button and Neo-Venom to boost damage. For Arts: La-Mort for Doom stacks, increased finisher damage/recharge. Lernaea's Amulet as my combos give a slight might increase and the constant Finisher spam keeps me healed (saved me more times than I can count). Having a hard time remembering if the 3rd Art is Trans Card or Tetrahedron (because I like helping) but I am up to suggestions. For Allies I have Harley for damage (it's thematic as my guy is a Jester), Queen Dianna (because I invested in her thinking she would be a cool buff for the group before I knew exactly what she did and now I don't want that investing go do to waste) and Flash (also because I thought the speed thing would be cool...but it isn't). So i know I could eventually switch to Batman who laughs for the debuff (on my radar once I can afford to level him) and was thinking Black Adam might be good since he has a finisher buff drop thingy. I know it isn't amazing, but I am usually solid when grouped with people at CR374, and have good survivability because I am constantly healing myself. Generally high in damage unless I am up against more meta-builds. So, what say you all? I know I could use better Allies...who works best with this idea? Is there something better for filling in, power-wise while waiting for Light Blast cool down? I like non-meta/theme builds so I might post more if people respond to this one.
I had a similar idea. My main is Mental, full Might ranged DPS. I use Larnea (180) and La Mort (140), together with Strat (200). I also have Tetra (140), to switch for Larnea, if there's a potential issue with healing priority - I can't realistically expect every healer in every raid to put up with a DPS nearly killing themselves every few seconds... My way of playing with this build is stacking the Might buff from Larnea with short combos, like Mass Levitation - Pyro - Psy Shock spam, then Heat Vision, which gives me three more stacks of Might and ideally takes my health down into the range of Berserker mod, and then the finisher immediately after. Depending on the healing situation and the difficulty of the fight I may skip the finisher sometimes, clipping with Bottled City Soda, for another 1% Might. I may jump-cancel the finisher in the first half of the boss-fight, if I don't need a full heal. Or I may jump-cancel out of HV, if my health gets too low. I find I need to be very flexible with my rotation - if I get complacent and don't watch my health-bar, or my surroundings - I die. And if I use the finisher too often - I lose damage. Also - Robot SK is a must for damage, so no shield for me. I may try a shorter combo, like Horrific Vsg - Psy Shock spam - HV - finisher, to free up a power slot, but then I'd probably go for Neo Venom, or another SC. Invisibility would be great, but unfortunately Larnea disables it. Empowered Channeling mod seems quite helpful, especially that I'm using 2 channeled powers. I think I will level up Solar Amp next, to replace La Mort, especially in situations where high damage is a priority. At 200 Solar Amp gives Empowered Channeling, which would free my hands mod slot for Max Damage. Then there's also Superman ally, with an enhanced version of the mod, but I don't know if that is worth the grind, or an ally slot, especially considering how OP HV with SA is. The Allies I haven't really looked into much yet, except for Batman Who Laughs, which I'm almost done leveling, for the passives. And I use Krypto, because it's just really good, dependable ST damage, plus a cute, unobtrusive animation. It will take me months to get enough Ally Favor to level up another Legendary Ally, so I'd be very curious to read people's suggestions for this kid of build. I might try Calculator-Bot in the meantime, see if the health recovery helps much, but it probably won't. Recently I started switching to troll in my DPS gear, for soloing some of the tougher bounties in clamped open world. A couple of debuffs, a couple of shields and a finisher makes short work of most of them. I'm still experimenting with loadouts and rotations and my SP is not yet high enough for my liking (around 260 atm), but I'm getting through stuff OK, I think, considering that I returned to the game on a new account 3 months ago, after 7 years, or so. I'm not aiming for competing in the meta, just want to be able to survive as a PUGing villain.
In my opinion, here's your issue: Lernaea's Amulet and the La Mort Card work against each. Let me explain. Obviously, La Mort Card benefits the use of the finisher - fine. The LA, on the other hand, removes its stack of might buffs everytime you hit your finisher. So you're effectively building a few stacks for a little bit of might and then wiping it away every 3ish seconds. I know it's technically the meta, but I would suggest pairing Transformation Card and Strategist Card for your gameplan; keep the La Mort Card. The TC/SC combo will help you keep extra damage going and help your crits, and you'll want the TC for the chance to get your La Mort Card explosion (whatever it's called) to crit. Ultimately, it's up to you. I always thought using all 3 card artifacts was its own cool theme for those who want to go that route. You already know about getting the Batman Who Laughs. Even when I use the finisher a lot, I find myself using his Luck of the Draw ability more because so many tanks I seem to play with would end up moving enemies out of the red cloud. It's sad, really. Unfortunately, you're apparently hindered by resources, which means you are stuck (my opinion) with the Flash. Still, I'd drop him the first chance and get Flashpoint Aquaman for his finisher passive, and Queen Diana's buff is not ideal for you but can be decent for a troll power to buff the group a little. I'd drop her for DPS role at the first chance I'd get. When my main was hard light near the beginning of this year, I used the same Light Blast combo clipped into Ram with it's first clip, of which I don't remember what it's called, for an AOE scenario, or, if a single target fight, clipped into Hand Clap clipped back into Light Blast. I rarely set the PI and only had the supercharge generator Light Weight (?) ready in case I messed up a rotation or to start a fight
No, Aquaman doesn't buff the finisher. He's just great for calling your combat ally more often based on you using supercharges. If a character likes their theme and/or wants to do damage with their thematic combat ally, he will make that happen more often. Man, I'm all over the place tonight. He doesn't have a passive for the finisher; he has a passive for the supercharge. Mea Culpa Diana's might/prec buff goes to every player in your group. It's not obvious from the main ally screen. Click "all allies" then choose Nubia (I meant Nubia, are we talking about Nubia?) and hit "fortify". It will give better descriptions of what the ally does. I apologize in advance if this was more patronizing than I intended; I assume you're actually asking where to find more details about an ally's abilities. In my mind, I was talking about Nubia. Sorry if that was the source of confusion. I would drop Queen Diana yesterday. I forget that some people actually bought her.
This is correct. While yes both amulet and la mort affect the finishers, they actually work against each other. La mort asks to spam your finisher as much as possible while amulet is asking to only use it as needed to avoid dying. Since this build revolves around wanting to spam finishers you’ll want la mort but will want to replace amulet. As drew said, trans and strat will probably your best friends here since (if I remember correctly) the doom stack can crit. So using trans to increase the chance of the stacks critting will make the build up worth it. And the only ally that works with finishers (from what I remember) is the Batman who laughs. One of his passives places a debuff (I think) when you use a finisher.
It depends on what a person's goal is... if you get maximum damage from these artifacts, then they certainly work against each other... and if the point is to get stable constant healing from the finisher, then they have synergy...
CAVEAT: These are quick and dirty numbers for an explanation of the theory of function - I'm testing this over coffee, so someone else can run it later to see what it "does" does. This is a very important nail, for two reasons - in a single-target rotation, the Finisher output is usually the highest possible single target damage in a single Ability use, discounting only for Solar Amp Heat Vision, Invisibility - > Pain Blast (or the equivalent Gadgets Ability) and Supercharges; La Mort will reduce the Finisher Cooldown by 25% - from 4.4s to 3.3s - meaning that in 60 seconds of output, it's going to fire five additional times. That doesn't sound like much until you account for the fact that, as a single Ability, the lowest amount of damage it's going to do @ 378 w/159K might is +/- 85K, and the largest amount is right at 220K, if all four hits Crit. Increasing that by 10% moves that range up to 93.5 and 240K, respectively. And accounting for the Lern's stacks, probably actually higher than that by that point in the rotation. A Strong ST burst Ability (which is what you would be using instead of the Finisher for those points in your rotation) tops out at 95-100K in the same range per single use, and starts at 42, so around half as much, little less. So it's basically allowing you a free extra 350K damage every 30 seconds, which is essentially 5.8K/S possible extra damage from that replacement alone. This may not make up the entirety of Lern's, but it makes up some, plus - in a fight that long - you're gonna be leaning more on La Mort's stacks at the end anyway to bolster ST output numbers. Also - Your DPS is zero when you're dead. Lern's major issue is the fact that it will make you accidentally die a Lot. La Mort's encouraging you to spam finish is going to reset the stacks frequently, yes, though you'll still have some time to benefit from the Lern's stacks since you're always going to have 2-3 Ability activations between the reduced Finisher cooldown (depending on what you use) - plus your recovery will be substantially higher as a result due to the Lern's healing potentiating from the higher Finisher damage. "I provide my own 200K Burst Heal every 3.3 seconds" is a hard argument to pass up in a complete crapfest of an instance. I don't think it'll read higher on a sparring target but in application I think it would be at least as good as a Lern's only rotation option due to the second point alone.
I do a lot of random grouping, which means often not having reliable healing/tanking. Lerns has saved my bacon many times....several just this weekend. If I wasn't such a alt-o-holic, I could work on another artifact and swap it out when I am in a good group.
I might not understand how the amulet art works since I'm a new user, but I thought it heals back the damage you do to yourself? It seems like if you use it in a random group with a weak healer and tank, you could actually be taking away priority heals from the tank? Does it actually heal above the damage it causes?
Yes. Yes. It's a risky artifact to use. However you can mitigate that, by spamming your finisher, which heals you, but lowers your damage. Once leveled to 120, your finisher power heals you for 100% of the damage it does to your target.
