I read about using pylon soloing as a gauge of DPS in the controller and scrapper forums, and thought I'd have a go at it. Amongst all my toons, I should have one that could solo a pylon, right?
Wrong.
Ice/SS Tanker
The tanker had the least problem with the pylon. "Least problem" means that he had no problem surviving the pylon. I even gathered a little pile of grey-con Nemesis to for endurance recharge. However, I couldn't dent the pylon. This means that my DPS < 127.8125 -- even with Rage double or triple stacked! Arch/Ice Blaster
Well, if a tanker can't do it, let's use a blaster. Using a corner of a building to for retreat if I need to Aid Self, I tried shooting the pylon down. The corner too far off though, and hiding behind the corner lowered DPS drastically. Switch on epic armour, which was a great help (having lethal defense), and went ahead, hoping use Aid Self fast enough. Boom boom, ow -- run behind the corner -- run back out -- boom, boom. After two rounds, I died.
Mind/Storm Controller
Ok, let's try debuffs. Charge in with hurricane. Boom boom boom. Hmmm...you'd think that I wasn't putting any debuffs on the pylon at all. Aid self completely could not keep up, and the knockdown was a real bitch. I died.
AR/Traps Corrupter
I thought I'd try my corrupter with nearly capped S/L defense. To his credit, he survived far longer than any of the squishies. The problem was that I couldn't concentrate on blasting the pylon. Although it didn't hit me, it hit acid mortar and force field generator, and I had to heal them or refresh them. Perhaps some kind of tactics where I stood opposite them? No time to try it out. A corrupter with capped defense still has low hitpoints. Two consecutive hits from the pylon killed me (whereas the tanker had no such problem, with huge hitpoints)
Grav/Fire Dominator
No go, really. The KB was a non-problem because of domination, but after it chewed up Singularity Aid Self just couldn't keep up. Even Aid self on something with a ton of recharge.
Dark/Electric Defender
Thought I'd give this a spin. On the bright side, it was simply in no danger of dying at all. The damage from the pylon at each blast dropped dramatically, although it was hitting at almost every round, as if my to-hit debuffs weren't there at all. I guess the Pylon is resistant to to-hit debuffs. The kb was a bitch, again... and I didn't have enough DPS between bouncing on the ground and healing to hurt the pylon. Not that I would have had enough, with just charge bolts and lightning bolt as my single target attacks. But there were "good periods" when the pylon's hitpoints started to dip downwards.
Kin/Rad Defender
I wondered if the correct choice is then a Kin/Rad defender. Since to-hit debuffs seem to be heavily resisted but -dam not, why not get something with -dam and more damage? It was more risky, but with the -dam and huge healing, she wasn't at risk of dying. She wasn't at risk of killing the pylon only. Fulcrum shift doesn't really do a good job of buffing from a single target. On the other hand, I might want to try it again with a few grey mobs (riki monkeys?) pulled to fuel FS.
Ill/Emp Controller
On the bright side, there was almost no risk for this guy. On the dim side, his team-support build meant there wasn't much he could do except heal phantasm and throw phantom army at the pylon. Nothing much happened. When phantom army was up the pylon hp started to hover downwards (or is that my imagination). When phantom army was down the pylon hp healed up again.
So...I'm not sure how people do it.
On the controller forums, a fire/rad did it in 5:35, a fire/kin did it in 4:51, someone's fire/kin and ill/storm did it, and a plant/rad did it in 15:35. Many scrappers have done it on the scrapper forums.
I'm wondering, do I need a magical powerset combo, or just be purpled and IOed up the wazoo? I know that Mind/storms and Ill/Emps have soloed AVs. /Traps corrupters have as well, though it was a fire/traps. (Solo meaning no inspirations and shivans)
Or is there some trick to it? Or some build magic?
1 comment:
I think the trick is softcapped defense, -regen and sufficient DPS.
I don't think any of my present level 50s are capable of soloing the pylon.
As suspected, my poorly built invul/fire tank could barely output enough DPS to tickle the pylon. The regen just topped it off. I could have had defence at 43% if I took the trouble to cherry pick grey melee mobs for invincibility, but was lazy and just grabbed a pack of mixed ranged/melee Rikti.
Let's not say too much about the defenceless fire/fire dom. I made the clever choice of summoning up my imps and Mu pet first, so I "survived" several volleys by not being the one to suck it up. Aid self managed to top up one volley of the pylon, there was an odd 'miss' but animation still play cycle in between, and the next volley hit me just as aid self was almost about to recharge. A bit of +recharge might have enabled a sustainable hp top-up.
I'm not even going to try the blaster or the ice/energy dom. It would be just like the fire dom, as long as I have no stacked ranged defence from IOs.
The D3 has the survivability. On testing, I was rather amazed how much -dmg its powers have. One tends to notice all the -tohit and not realize it cuts significant damage. The pylon was hitting me for anywhere from -13 to -75 ticks of hp, as contrasted with -150-230 for the defenceless ones. Stacked twilight grasps were fantastic at keeping one alive.
However, it has a significant endurance management and DPS problem, and was getting knocked back quite frequently. Without IOs to add +recharge and kb protection, I don't think any significant improvement in DPS can be made. There is still the hurdle of having sufficient end to overcome. Perhaps there is a reason why rad and kin builds are doing better.
Upcoming builds have a significantly higher chance of doing better, methinks. The claw/SR scrapper has high defense, though oddly when I tried it, the swarm missiles seem to hit right through the defense. Perhaps it's the level (41).
The bot/ff mastermind can probably manage the survivability between stacked bubbles and lots of target renewal. DPS, though, may be tricky without sufficient -regen.
Containment damage might be why some controller builds are capable of producing the DPS too.
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