Over the last week or two I have been experimenting with what works best with Audacity.
My conclusion... healing proc gear.
What better way to supplement your PvMP Audacity grind than to offset it with healing proc gear?
Many creeps love to stack DoT effects on you, and depending on your tactical mitigation these generally do not tick for a large amount.
Here's what I have found...
Rank 1 Audacity + 3 healing proc items + tactical mitigation jewellery and virtues:
* You get lots of healing but the DoT's out dps the heal procs, but you live longer.
Rank 2 Audacity + 3 healing proc items + tactical mitigation jewellery and virtues:
* You get lots of healing but the DoT's still out dps the heal procs, but you start to feel like a Warden.
Rank 3 Audacity + 3 healing proc items + tactical mitigation jewellery and virtues:
* You get lots of healing and for the first time DoT's will help to heal you up.
... That's as far as I have gotten, I am currently on Rank 3 Audacity. Some creeps that have been sparring me are having to start to re-evaluate their strategy to not apply as many DoT's against me.
For sure I want R4 Audacity with 3 healing proc items. I'll still barter to obtain R7 Audacity but I'll still need to determine at what point trading Audacity for healing proc items is the perfect balance.
Which by the way, I'm not running tank spec or for survivability. I'm running Overpower dps in the Moors, and solo (95%) a lot. Pre-U6 I used to run more of a glass cannon build but have since dropped my Might down a bunch (while still keeping my crit chance high) in favour of tactical mitigation and resistance rating.
My tactical mitigation in Overpower with R3 Audacity is currently 51.9%. What's confusing is whether I am in or out of the Moors it still shows the same number. If I hover over my Audacity it shows -16% incoming tactical damage. Does that mean that my tactical mitigation in the moors is 51.9% + 16% = 67.9%? It certainly feels that way at times because as I mentioned at R3 Audacity the DoT effects actually heal me rather than damage me.
Last edited by thatabguy; Mar 21 2012 at 05:04 PM.
Reason: adjusting tactical mitigation rating
Audacity affects source damage so it applies before mitigation. Rank 7 would take 30% off of the damage, no matter whether it was from a melee, ranged or tactical source. Then your mitigation would further reduce the damage. In your case if you were to take 100 tactical damage...
100*(1-.3)*(1-.521) = 33.53
...you would take 33.53 damage. You would take even less damage if it was common damage as I assume you have over 60% common mit.
Some other examples of Source based damage reduction:
1) Moors Outnumbered Buff
2) Cappies Shield-Brother
3) Cappies Shield of the Dunedain
4) Damage reduction for carrying a relic
Audacity affects source damage so it applies before mitigation. Rank 7 would take 30% off of the damage, no matter whether it was from a melee, ranged or tactical source. Then your mitigation would further reduce the damage. In your case if you were to take 100 tactical damage...
100*(1-.3)*(1-.521) = 33.53
...you would take 33.53 damage. You would take even less damage if it was common damage as I assume you have over 60% common mit.
Some other examples of Source based damage reduction:
1) Moors Outnumbered Buff
2) Cappies Shield-Brother
3) Cappies Shield of the Dunedain
4) Damage reduction for carrying a relic
This is how it is working. My BA skills that do around 700 base damage are hitting heavy armour freeps for a little over 200 (without any damage reductions, ie. Wind Lore). Champs are one of the strongest PvP classes atm. With full audacity and good legandary set up, they are almost invincible.
This is how it is working. My BA skills that do around 700 base damage are hitting heavy armour freeps for a little over 200 (without any damage reductions, ie. Wind Lore). Champs are one of the strongest PvP classes atm. With full audacity and good legandary set up, they are almost invincible.
I think if I Champ can stack the necessary tactical mitigation then yes, they definitely have the potential to be very strong out in the Moors since once they're in close they can hit like a truck, have lots of interrupts, stuns, and a couple damage bubbles to help keep them alive.
They're Sprint may not be as fast as our Charge, but it lasts a lot longer. Oftentimes 17 seconds is just not long enough for me to finish off a BA. After those 17 seconds are up it really comes down to my Class and its ability to absorb all that damage and keep pushing through.
I've always built my Guardian as this freak hybrid of a Champ / Warden / Burglar, never really considering myself to be a Guardian.
I've come across so many great skilled players of all classes, both Freep and Creep, that I would be so honoured and filled with humility just to spar you guys.
It should also be noted that while any heavy class can get the Scale Guard Leggings of the Hill Watcher, that Champions can also get a healing proc helm from Moria as well. Unfortunately it only heal proc for just over half of what ours procs for.
Pre the new expansion i ran 3 peice heal proc gear and loved it. Now i just can't see it as being useful for a champion. We are just a different class now. I love heal proc and wish more stuff had it on it, however im not prepared to give up like 250-300 stats for it. It doesnt seem like a great trade off. If its working for you i may test it out again I can honestly say I haven't used heal proc in quite a few months.
This is interesting. I've never been too terribly interested in these types of meta builds that yield defensive inequities. I tend to spec and gear for damage. I'm a damage class and I'm not a fan of the more defensive Champ builds out there.
HOWEVER, if there is a way to spec even situationally whereas dots = net gain in morale I have to believe Turbine will end up being pretty aggressive with removing that possibility.
Very interesting though, I look forward to more information.
Second Marshal Luc Brandenbuck ~Battlemaster~
Stalker's Enemy*Reaver's Enemy*Blackarrow's Enemy*Warleader-Foe*Weaver's Enemy*Defiler-Foe Champion:'The only thing our opponents can do that we care about is die.'-Graalx2
When I switch over to the Moors I take a few different hits to my Might;
1. the audacity set sucks for Might
2. the healing proc gear sucks period
3. I swap in items with tactical mitigation on them
This lowers my Might down to approx 1200. This causes me to lose some 20% or more Physical Mastery, and while my dps does drop a bit, it doesn't drop a lot. I'm finding by making sure that I keep my Critical Chance high I am still able to kill Creeps. This is largely due to Sting, bleeds, and stuns from Overwhelm and To the King.
Considering how painful and embarrassing it is to wear gear that has such garbage dismal stats on them, the healing proc gear, I highly doubt Turbine cares. You don't really start to feel invincible until you get to at least R3 or R4 Audacity. The smart Creeps just have to adjust their strategy to use less DoTs on you, in which case you can swap out the healing proc gear for Audacity gear.
Last edited by thatabguy; Mar 23 2012 at 01:48 PM.
I tried taking the 3 proc pieces to the Moors on my champ. I had a little under 60% tact miti and 3 audacity. The proc gear was pretty much worthless. It nerfed my DPS so hard that any increase I had in morale was less than what I lost in DPS.
For anyone even considering the healing proc gear it more ideally suits solo players or players in small groups. If you're raiding then there is probably not much point.
The other thing is being proactive in when you choose to use your healing proc gear and when not to. If the enemy is not doing many bleeds on you then it is better to swap to your better gear for that battle.
If you are a Champion and in Fervour, then since you cannot Parry or Evade you also will not be able to partially mitigate your incoming damage either. Healing proc gear was never designed for use by Fervour Champs, either spec Ardour and Glory.
Once again I will state that your Might will take a big hit so you'll have to adjust your build and play style somewhat. I compensate with a high crit chance and investing in legacies for my bleeds to make them more potent.
In this build as a Guardian I spam Guardian's Ward, Sting, Stagger (only when the debuff has worn off), Brutal Assault, and generally tend to wait for a Parry event to open up my Parry chain. If I don't have a bleed on from Salt the Wound and don't have a Parry event then I will force an opening and get that bleed going, and try for a To the King (I could care less about the CJ, I just want the stun and potential interrupt). If the bleed from Salt the Wound is already up I always opt for Overwhelm as I have a very high chance to crit with that which will stun / interrupt the enemy. When an enemy is stunned they cannot BPE, so they will take a lot of damage while they are stunned, make the best of it, force open your parry chain if you need to.
We're not going for a dps race here. While I do find a lot of 1v1's, I also run into a lot of 1v2 and 1v3 battles. As a Guardian at least we cannot hope to post 4k-6k numbers in the Moors off of a devastate. Overall, I win the majority of my battles while soloing. Creeps will try to run away, so have a dummy weapon ready to swap-in that has your Charge duration legacy on it so that you get 17 seconds of +150% run speed. Unless the Creep is a Warg they have absolutely no chance of escaping you.
Last edited by thatabguy; Mar 23 2012 at 02:05 PM.
There is actually a 4th piece of heal proc gear. Skirmish camp level 60 light armour boots I think. 4 pieces of heal proc gear + common negate chest and shield made common damage wargs heal me instead of damage me (before U6 and audacity). I made a warg run away from only my auto attacks because I was pretty much immune to its damage. The heal proc gear doesn't work as well vs other damage types but the two 15% chance for 73 heal still isn't bad because auto attacks are still a small number. It's a fun solo build to mess with especially when you find a greenie group.
I use a LUA plugin called CombatAnalysis and usually over the course of a night out in the Moors only 20-30% of my incoming damage is Common damage.
With the right Virtues, necklace, pocket item and cloak you can get your tactical mitigation pretty high even when dps spec'd.
The other thing that I've started doing is increasing my Resistance rating, mostly so that I don't have to pot so much. I have no problem potting, but sometimes you fall behind in potting because Creeps stack so many debuffs on you. I've been finding that if I don't resist the initial roll check of the debuff that within 20 seconds I'm usually able to do a successful roll check to resist the debuff off.
If they increase creep dps they'll have to decrease their debuffs and bleeds.
My strategy only works because I'm using healing proc gear with Audacity. Without Audacity it wouldn't work. And with the bleeds it wouldn't work. I have to constantly swap gear depending on whether I have bleeds or not.
Rank 1 Audacity + 3 healing proc items + tactical mitigation jewellery and virtues:
* You get lots of healing but the DoT's out dps the heal procs, but you live longer.
Rank 2 Audacity + 3 healing proc items + tactical mitigation jewellery and virtues:
* You get lots of healing but the DoT's still out dps the heal procs, but you start to feel like a Warden.
Rank 3 Audacity + 3 healing proc items + tactical mitigation jewellery and virtues:
* You get lots of healing and for the first time DoT's will help to heal you up.
... That's as far as I have gotten, I am currently on Rank 3 Audacity. Some creeps that have been sparring me are having to start to re-evaluate their strategy to not apply as many DoT's against me.
For sure I want R4 Audacity with 3 healing proc items. I'll still barter to obtain R7 Audacity but I'll still need to determine at what point trading Audacity for healing proc items is the perfect balance.
Which by the way, I'm not running tank spec or for survivability. I'm running Overpower dps in the Moors, and solo (95%) a lot. Pre-U6 I used to run more of a glass cannon build but have since dropped my Might down a bunch (while still keeping my crit chance high) in favour of tactical mitigation and resistance rating.
My tactical mitigation in Overpower with R3 Audacity is currently 51.9%. What's confusing is whether I am in or out of the Moors it still shows the same number. If I hover over my Audacity it shows -16% incoming tactical damage. Does that mean that my tactical mitigation in the moors is 51.9% + 16% = 67.9%? It certainly feels that way at times because as I mentioned at R3 Audacity the DoT effects actually heal me rather than damage me.
That just makes my spider very sad, though it does explain why I do a net of zero dps on some guards/captains.
STROZZAPRETI 10/X6|RIGATONI 8|GNOCCHI 7|MACCHERONI 7|RAVIOLI 6|FUSILLI 6 ASTERIX|CHARAKHA|KHAGATAI|VORO RIP Nidor, we miss ya.
Heal proc gear should be removed from moors, its one more step to champs OPness, they are good enough with their bubbles, same for gurds and cappies but different strategy way.
Heal proc gear should be removed from moors, its one more step to champs OPness, they are good enough with their bubbles, same for gurds and cappies but different strategy way.
I wouldn't really call it OPness. As I've already mentioned, by equipping this garbage gear your stats go way down. A decent ranked creep intent on getting away will probably get away. For a high level creep it just isn't going to be a short battle, it's going to be a long battle, and if that creep really wants to get away they can without dying. You guys truly don't understand just how incredibly garbage the stats are on this gear.
Last edited by thatabguy; Mar 26 2012 at 04:18 AM.
That just makes my spider very sad, though it does explain why I do a net of zero dps on some guards/captains.
Captains also have +20% returning damage. So a Captain with good dps and +20% returning damage is going to heal themselves pretty decent every time that they attack.
A Guardian, especially tank spec'd if they stack tactical mitigation combined with Audacity are going to be a mobile tank. A Guardian in Overpower with stacked tactical mitigation and high Audacity is also going to be very durable, without healing proc gear.
The healing proc gear is so garbage that it becomes very situational to when you want to use it, ie; stacked bleeds. Otherwise your survivability actually decreases because if there are not many bleeds on you then all that you're doing is gimping yourself and you will die faster, ironically, but true.
If they increase creep dps they'll have to decrease their debuffs and bleeds.
.
Why?
Creep spike damage is pathetic, only a BA can say they have decent spike damage. Almost ever freep can spike for that of a BA and several can spike for double that of a BA.
I wouldn't really call it OPness. As I've already mentioned, by equipping this garbage gear your stats go way down. A decent ranked creep intent on getting away will probably get away. For a high level creep it just isn't going to be a short battle, it's going to be a long battle, and if that creep really wants to get away they can without dying. You guys truly don't understand just how incredibly garbage the stats are on this gear.
Yes, the stats are carbage, but still: reaver charges Rk, reaver uses every CD and rk is quickly in half of his health, if the reaver chrges a champ, the champ takes no damage.
You give up a stupid amount of stuff effectively nerfing your toon wearing heal proc gear. Sure you take less damage but you do far less to so whats the point? I can use my 3 minutes or less cool downs and win 90% of my 1 v 1s. There just isnt any point to wearing if anything champs should be stacking more damage at this current time to burn through creep audacity faster. You will never beat a good war leader or defiler wearing heal proc gear because they will out heal the pathetic damage ya do. Its really only effective against classes that have to use dots like wargs and the way wargs debuff you will be in rough shape with #### damage and attack duration debuffed as much as they can.
Heal proc gear is effective against greenies and common damage thats about it IMO.
Creep spike damage is pathetic, only a BA can say they have decent spike damage. Almost ever freep can spike for that of a BA and several can spike for double that of a BA.
Creeps have NO heal proc armour.
More often than not I'll be lucky if my crits and devs will be 1k due to mitigations and audacity, unless the creep sucks then I'll hit him a lot harder. Normally my Might in PvE floats around 1700 but in the Moors that drops down to 1200.
Prior to Update 6 and Audacity I went for more of a glass cannon build and would crit/dev 1.5-2.5k, but definitely not now.
Flayer Wargs are nigh invincible if they choose to drag out a fight and kite due to their bubbles. Good Defilers and Warleaders are almost impossible to kill.