Space and Time - The Quantum Guide Part II

PI loadout with warped reality (i just hope this is a good idea and works out well):
time bomb cw >warped reality >warp barrage >tachion blast >time shift >temporal vortex
(depending on instance i use quantum tunneling or event horizon instead of temporal vortex)
if the adds are strong or on a bossfight, i use warp barrage first and as soon as out of cooldown again

You are going to need a power that applies Destabilized. Warped Reality only applies Graviton-Charged to a single target, so you are losing a lot of damage without that.

I would drop either Temporal Vortex or Warped Reality for Distortion Wave, and use a rotation along the lines of this.
Time Bomb / Warped Reality (if you have it in your loadout) > Distortion Wave > Warp Barrage > Tachyon Blast
Time Bomb > Warp Barrage > Tachyon Blast > Time Shift
Time Bomb > Warp Barrage > Tachyon Blast > Time Shift

sometimes warped reality destabilizes enemies, and tachion blast ist working with graviton charge.
anyways, thx for the tipps, i will try it out with your loadout!
clipping time bomb with temporal extortion seems to burn too much mana...

Warped Reality applies a CC effect, but it does not apply the Destabilized PI. It also is still single target, and a proc, meaning most enemies you hit will still not have a PI on them at all.

Never use the power dumps as clips, aka Temporal Extortion. It is always a waste of power and potentially slow you down if you don't clip perfectly every time.

clipping is no problem at all. on my ice villainess, i clip four powers together. also rage n stuff. i suggest, lay two power on the mouse weel, forward for the finishing powers and backwarts for the power u want to clipp.
again, thx for helping me for my quantum loadout ^^

The links in the table of contents should be fixed. They were originally links to the old forums, but since they have stopped redirecting you to the current forums I have finally gotten off my lazy butt and fixed them to direct you to the current forums.

Hopefully I will have a little more time to update some parts of the guide later this week.

Ive seen a quantum dps uaing Wm instead Am. He is doing pretty good and actually putting up higher dps than the Am. If thats the case, is better to mod with full prec or might? or prec and might?

WM at the moment is not better than the AM. There is nothing that can be fit into the crit window that would prove to be significant enough to produce a higher Dps.

Even Sorcery, which has arguably the best WM damage potential, does better with it's AM.

Aaaaahhh how times have changed, just a couple years ago I was on this thread complaining about how I was sick of seeing quantum dps and the flashing lights would give me a headache... Since then I have become one with the blue magic...

Anyway I heard along the grapevine that it is possible to fit 4 moves into the time bomb window... Is this true?

Since Warp Barrage has a delay to its damage it can actually be fired before Time Bomb yet still hit after Time Bomb has been fired immediately afterwards. This has been typically referred to as preloading.

This is actually not always useful however. If you use it in a way that causes you to use a power that applies Destabilized, most players use Distortion Wave since it has the largest AoE, more than once every 3 Time Bombs, or if the timing of it would cause it to hit at a time when Destabilized has expire, then it is a Dps loss.

Note: Due to too many edits (that I should have thought of before I posted) while Absolix was replying, please check below for a more coherent post...

First, thank you from all of us who don't have the will to figure these things out!

I'm a bit dense about these things sometimes, so I wanted to make sure that I'm getting the rotation right:

1. Time Bomb > Warped Reality > Distortion Wave > Warp Barrage > Tachyon Blast
2. Time Bomb > Distortion Wave > Warp Barrage > Tachyon Blast > Time Shift
3. Time Bomb > Distortion Wave > Warp Barrage > Tachyon Blast > Time Shift

(Okay, fixed the rotations to what I meant instead of what I typed...)

Also, If I were to put Temporal Vortex in the place of Time Shift, the rotation would work the same as above, but only when I had enough to do the two Supercharges in the rotation? It seems like that would be more complicated than necessary though, but like I said, I'm a bit dense on these things.

Last question: How well timed does the rotation need to be executed to be effective? If I get knocked down in the middle of the 2nd rotation, do I have enough time, or should I go back to the 1st part?

Edited new last questions: I was reading back in the thread, and there was some talk about the usefulness of Warped Reality. Is it still good in the rotation? Also, what kind of range does the rotation have compared to something like Gadgets' EMP?

Okay, if the answer to the Warped Reality question is that it's not all that great, would Quantum Tunneling be a decent power to add for defensive reasons? Or is there something better?

You would only be able to use Warped Reality to clip the first Time Bomb and not the second and third since it has a 12 second cooldown. It's cooldown would perfectly line up with the forth Time Bomb assuming there aren't any delays.

When loading a Time Bomb you always want to load it with at least 3 damaging powers from the Time tree. You only have two in your first Time Bomb which is a significant loss of damage and means you will be doing nothing for a second while Time Bomb waits to come off cooldown.

The PI from Distortion Wave lasts 12 seconds, so you only have to use it once every 3 Time Bombs. The time it takes to use Time Bomb and 3 damaging Time powers is 4 seconds, so 3 Time Bombs x 4 seconds = 12 seconds, the same length as the PI's duration.

So an optimal rotation would look something like:
Time Bomb / Warped Reality (if you have it in your loadout) > Distortion Wave > Warp Barrage > Tachyon Blast
Time Bomb > Warp Barrage > Tachyon Blast > Time Shift
Time Bomb > Warp Barrage > Tachyon Blast > Time Shift

Temporal Vortex is used whenever you have enough supercharge, but can be delayed depending on a few factors.

Most importantly, never use it as the third power after Time Bomb as it does it's damage in 3 ticks and there is a delay to it's second and third ticks that can cause it to not count towards Time Bombs damage if used third.

If delaying Temporal Vortex would allow for it to be used during a damage boosting effect then it would be better to wait until the effect is active. This would be something like if a trinket is close to coming off cooldown so you can use a Might buff from it to further buff Temporal Vortex, or if a supply drop that has been fully upgraded to provide the 50% damage boost is about to come of cooldown.

The last factor is if you have one of the mods from the older Time Capsules that returns supercharge after Temporal Vortex has been used. If you have one equipped then you will want to make sure to let the effect of the mod, I think it is 6 seconds, but it should say in the description of the mod in-game, play out before using Temporal Vortex again. This only applies to times where you have enough supercharge to use Temporal Vortex in 2 Time Bombs in a row.

Okay, I've got the rotation concept now, I think.

Since I kept editing while you were replying, I thought I'd put the questions that came up as I was playing around in game.

1. How well timed does the rotation need to be executed to be effective? If I get knocked down in the middle of the 2nd rotation, do I have enough time, or should I go back to the 1st part?

2. I was reading back in the thread, and there was some talk about the usefulness of Warped Reality. Is it still good in the rotation? If not would Quantum Tunneling be a good replacement for a bit of defense and fun?

3. What kind of range does the rotation have compared to something like Gadgets' EMP?

1. With good reaction times you can breakout and continue as if nothing has changed. If you are bit slow with breaking out then you simply skip the next power unless it is Distortion Wave or Time Bomb. If it is Time Bomb simply use Time Bomb instead of skipping it. If it is Distortion Wave simply use it next unless Time Bomb has just come off cooldown, then use Time Bomb then Distortion Wave instead.

2. Warped Reality is great for fights that are primarily single target as it is single target. It and Temporal Vortex are the best choices for the 6th loadout spot if you are looking to increase damage. If you are not concerned with increasing damage both Quantum Tunneling and Event Horizon are good defensive choices. Quantum Tunneling's detaunt can get enemies off you and the movement can help you avoid boss mechanics. Event Horizon can help with group pickups or even a bit of power for healers and tanks.

3. Unlike most AMs that have usually have one power that performs melee and mid range Dps and another that performs mid and far range Dps, like in the case of Gadgets EMP and P Dart, Time Bomb is used for all ranges. When Time Bomb detonates enemies from 0-7m get hit for melee damage, from 8-13m get hit for mid damage, and 13-25m get hit for far range damage. For comparison, EMP hits out to 13m and hits harder on enemies within 7m.

Tap Range -> Time Bomb -> Distortion Wave -> Time Shift -> Tachyon Blast ( Clipped w/ Warped Reality) and Robot Sidekick.

2nd Time Around

Tap Range -> Time Bomb -> Distortion Wave -> Time Shift -> Tachyon Blast

Robot Sidekick does way less Dps than Warped Reality or Temporal Vortex making them better choices for any spare loadout spots if you are looking to maximize. However, not having Warp Barrage to load Time Bomb's damage with the damage of 3 powers that do more damage against Destabilized enemies, Warp Barrage, Tachyon Blast, and Time Shift, is an even greater loss of Dps.

Are you quantum? I'll be more than happy to DPS against you in oly or GoM.

I am quantum. I sort of wrote the only current quantum guide that you are posting in.

I'd be happy to run oly or GoM with anyone, but I don't see how that would change that your suggested loadout and rotation are suboptimal.

But just to be thorough, let's look at the math of why it is suboptimal.

Let's start with your proposed rotation.
Warped Reality is single target with a base damage of 60-84 meaning an average of 72.
Distortion Wave's base damage is 32-40 with an average of 36, Time Shift's base damage against destabilized enemies is 48-60 an average of 54, and Tachyon Blast's base damage against destabiized enemies is 48-60 an average of 54.
A Time Bomb loaded with Distortion Wave, Time Shift, and Tachyon Blast would in Dps role with the max damage mod equipped and core strength equipped would have a base damage of approximately:
236.8-296 an approximate average of 266.4 from full range
308.48-385.6 an approximate average of 347.04 from mid-range
396.8-496 an approximate average of 446.4 from melee range

By adding the averages together you get an approximate average base damage over 12 seconds of:
1303.2 from full-range
1545.12 from mid-range
1843.2 from melee range


Now my suggested rotation.
Warped Reality is single target with a base damage of 60-84 meaning an average of 72.
Distortion Wave's base damage is 32-40 with an average of 36, Warp Barrage's base damage against destabilized enemies is 48-60 an average of 54, Time Shift's base damage against destabilized enemies is 48-60 an average of 54, and Tachyon Blast's base damage against destabilized enemies is 48-60 an average of 54.
A Time Bomb loaded with Distortion Wave, Warp Barrage, and Tachyon Blast would in Dps role with the max damage mod equipped and core strength equipped would have a base damage of approximately:
236.8-296 an approximate average of 266.4 from full range
308.48-385.6 an approximate average of 347.04 from mid-range
396.8-496 an approximate average of 446.4 from melee range
A Time Bomb loaded with Warp Barrage, Tachyon Blast, and Time Shift would in Dps role with the max damage mod equipped and core strength equipped would have an average base damage of approximately:
266.4-333 an approximate average of 299.7
347.04-433.8 an approximate average of 390.42
446.4-558 an approximate average of 502.2

By adding the averages together you get an approximate average base damage over 12 seconds of:
1405.8 from full range
1667.88 from mid-range
2026.8 from melee range

This means that in order to just match the average damage of my suggested rotation Robot Sidekick would have to boost the Dps of your suggested rotation by approximately:
7.87% from full-range
7.945% from mid-range
9.96% from melee range

Considering the best estimations put Robot Sidekick as a 1% maybe 2% boost you can see how a player would clearly be putting themselves at a disadvantage with your suggested loadout.

There are further problems when you consider that stat boosts from trinkets and soders won't effect Robot Sidekick's damage making the difference even larger. The 50% boost from fully upgraded supply drops makes even more of a difference. This is because the 50% increase in the damage modifier affects the damage of the damage of the Time powers used to load Time Bomb, thus increasing it's damage indirectly, but still directly boosts Time Bomb's damage affecting it a second time.

In case you are wondering if I forgot the tap ranges, I didn't. You can add tap ranges in between every power and clip it for all the powers with AI AMs, so since it would provide the same boost to my rotation as it would to yours I decided to not waste more time doing math. Also if you are wondering Rifle is the best weapon to do this with as it has the highest damaging tapo range of any weapon, and is the only tap range which is AoE.

To the above...well got damn lol

wow...that you had to answer..."did you ever play Q??" question...on his behalf I apologize