Post by PoochieHellhound on Jan 24, 2012 16:54:45 GMT -5
Introduction: The Wind framework works with Repels and knocks, making it one of the most survivable offensive frameworks out there, keeping enemies off their feet before blowing them away (pun intended) with their powerful finishers.
Powers:
Overview:
PowerHouse (Link to this build)
Super Stats:
Level 6: Ego (Primary)
Level 10: Recovery (Secondary)
Level 15: Endurance (Secondary)
Talents:
Level 1: The Squall
Level 7: Daredevil (Ego/End)
Level 12: Wordly (Ego/Rec)
Level 15: Amazing Stamina (End/Rec)
Level 20: Shooter (Ego/Dex)
Level 25: Accurate (End/Dex)
Level 30: Impresario (Rec/Dex)
Powers:
Level 1: Wind Lash
Level 1: Gust (Rank 2, Rank 3) OR [PvP] (Rank 2, Crippling Challenge
Level 6: Hurricane (Rank 2, Perfect Storm)
Level 8: Stormbringer (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Frost Breath (Frost Bite)
Level 14: Concentration (Rank 2)
Level 17: Updraft (Rank 2, Rank 3) OR [PvP] (Rank 2, Nailed to the Ground)
Level 21: Wind Barrier
Level 25: Wind Reverberation
Level 30: Ice Sheath (Rank 2)
Level 35: Dust Devil (Rank 2, Triple Threat)
Level 40: Typhoon (Rank 2, Rank 3, Ionic Discharge)
This build leaves 4 Advantage points to spend on Travel Powers or something else.
Specializations:
Ego: Force of Will (2/2)
Ego: Insight (3/3)
Ego: Follow Through (2/3)
Ego: Sixth Sense (3/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: The Rush of Battle (3/3)
Vindicator: Modified Gear (2/2)
Avenger: Ruthless (2/2)
Avenger: Round 'em Up (3/3)
Avenger: Relentless Assault (3/3)
Avenger: Offensive Expertise (2/2)
Mastery: Ego Mastery (1/1)
Detailed Rundown:
Wind Lash: Your Energy Builder. Its Custom Advantage, Stiff Breeze, may have some use in applying Disorient, thus increasing the damage of Gust, but I chose not to include it in this guide due to limited usefulness.
Gust: Good for use against a single target to gain some Energy (The power usually gives you more Energy than it costs) and to apply Stagger if you would add Toppling Winds, but I chose not to do so since Stagger is not that useful compared to R3. Also it's a nice feeling to compress air into a ball and throw it at people.
Hurricane w/ Perfect Storm: Your bread-and-butter against... Pretty much anything. Does huge damage and regains your Energy after level 22. NOTE: Perfect Storm becomes the most useful when you get Dust Devil with Triple Threat at level 35. You may want to use Rank 3 until then, or maybe even use the Retcon at level 40 to make that change.
Stormbringer: Increases your Crushing and Cold damage (Which increases the damage of your attacks) and your Electrical Damage, which will increase the damage of Hurricane w/ Perfect Storm.
Frost Breath w/ Frost Bite: A fast way of applying Chill, which slows your enemies, making it even more difficult to reach you (As if it wasn't hard enough already). Tap this in the beginning of a fight to keep them away.
Concentration: A Toggle that increases your damage as long as you keep attacking. Attacking from more than 25 feet away makes you not need to charge your attacks to stack it. Also grants energy every time you gain a stack. The energy and damage scale with Ego.
Updraft: A useful Alpha Strike and crowd control move. It's also the best Single Target DPS move you have, so updraft away!
Wind Barrier: Repels enemies as you block, making it a very good block since it keeps enemies from you and pushes them off their feet when they try to attack you.
Wind Reverbation: A very good Energy Unlock that gives you energy every time you try to Repel an enemy. Couple this up with Hurricane and say hello to infinite Energy.
Ice Sheath: This Active Offense increases your damage and Chills enemies around you. It also places a useless Cold Snap buff on you, don't mind that. The reason that Ice Sheath is worth ranking up, more so than most Active Offenses, is that it gives you a Critical Severity boost that increases substantially by Rank. (Rank 1 is +17%, Rank 2 is +20%, and Rank 3 is +24%.)
Dust Devil w/ Triple Threat: An additional layer of damage that increases even more if your enemy is afflicted by Negative Ions or Chill, and increases even more if you have both. But how do you apply both, you say? Say hi to Hurricane with the Perfect Storm advantage. I told you that power would be useful, now didn't I?
Typhoon w/ Ionic Discharge: A funnel of GTFO against enemies in a cone. Use it, and they will fly like mittens everywhere. I decided to add Ionic Discharge to it since I had a spare Advantage Point, that'll increase your damage a little more.
Talents & Stats
The SuperStats of The Squall are EGO and END/REC. That means that you will have loads of energy at the start of a fight, so use it wisely before they have time to react. Lucklily, this is a very good set to do that with, what with all the slows, snares, repels and knocks.
Gear for the above, basically, and you should be fine. A +crit chance Mod could be useful as well, to top off that extra crit chance you get from your Dex and specs for some solid crits.
Just remember that upon reaching 220 or so, Super Stats become wildly less effective to invest in due to heavy diminishing returns. So, if you have a Super Stat that is reaching that number, you're usually better off spending any additional stats from gear or Talents elsewhere.
As a final note, I want to say that everything I say in this guide are in every way guidelines, and by no means should you feel forced to follow my advice. Trial and error is one of the most fun things of this game, and you can make due with almost anything. I am just giving you tips to what you can use to make an effective Squall that does what it's supposed to do.
Thanks for reading.
Powers:
Overview:
PowerHouse (Link to this build)
Super Stats:
Level 6: Ego (Primary)
Level 10: Recovery (Secondary)
Level 15: Endurance (Secondary)
Talents:
Level 1: The Squall
Level 7: Daredevil (Ego/End)
Level 12: Wordly (Ego/Rec)
Level 15: Amazing Stamina (End/Rec)
Level 20: Shooter (Ego/Dex)
Level 25: Accurate (End/Dex)
Level 30: Impresario (Rec/Dex)
Powers:
Level 1: Wind Lash
Level 1: Gust (Rank 2, Rank 3) OR [PvP] (Rank 2, Crippling Challenge
Level 6: Hurricane (Rank 2, Perfect Storm)
Level 8: Stormbringer (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Frost Breath (Frost Bite)
Level 14: Concentration (Rank 2)
Level 17: Updraft (Rank 2, Rank 3) OR [PvP] (Rank 2, Nailed to the Ground)
Level 21: Wind Barrier
Level 25: Wind Reverberation
Level 30: Ice Sheath (Rank 2)
Level 35: Dust Devil (Rank 2, Triple Threat)
Level 40: Typhoon (Rank 2, Rank 3, Ionic Discharge)
This build leaves 4 Advantage points to spend on Travel Powers or something else.
Specializations:
Ego: Force of Will (2/2)
Ego: Insight (3/3)
Ego: Follow Through (2/3)
Ego: Sixth Sense (3/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: The Rush of Battle (3/3)
Vindicator: Modified Gear (2/2)
Avenger: Ruthless (2/2)
Avenger: Round 'em Up (3/3)
Avenger: Relentless Assault (3/3)
Avenger: Offensive Expertise (2/2)
Mastery: Ego Mastery (1/1)
Detailed Rundown:
Wind Lash: Your Energy Builder. Its Custom Advantage, Stiff Breeze, may have some use in applying Disorient, thus increasing the damage of Gust, but I chose not to include it in this guide due to limited usefulness.
Gust: Good for use against a single target to gain some Energy (The power usually gives you more Energy than it costs) and to apply Stagger if you would add Toppling Winds, but I chose not to do so since Stagger is not that useful compared to R3. Also it's a nice feeling to compress air into a ball and throw it at people.
Hurricane w/ Perfect Storm: Your bread-and-butter against... Pretty much anything. Does huge damage and regains your Energy after level 22. NOTE: Perfect Storm becomes the most useful when you get Dust Devil with Triple Threat at level 35. You may want to use Rank 3 until then, or maybe even use the Retcon at level 40 to make that change.
Stormbringer: Increases your Crushing and Cold damage (Which increases the damage of your attacks) and your Electrical Damage, which will increase the damage of Hurricane w/ Perfect Storm.
Frost Breath w/ Frost Bite: A fast way of applying Chill, which slows your enemies, making it even more difficult to reach you (As if it wasn't hard enough already). Tap this in the beginning of a fight to keep them away.
Concentration: A Toggle that increases your damage as long as you keep attacking. Attacking from more than 25 feet away makes you not need to charge your attacks to stack it. Also grants energy every time you gain a stack. The energy and damage scale with Ego.
Updraft: A useful Alpha Strike and crowd control move. It's also the best Single Target DPS move you have, so updraft away!
Wind Barrier: Repels enemies as you block, making it a very good block since it keeps enemies from you and pushes them off their feet when they try to attack you.
Wind Reverbation: A very good Energy Unlock that gives you energy every time you try to Repel an enemy. Couple this up with Hurricane and say hello to infinite Energy.
Ice Sheath: This Active Offense increases your damage and Chills enemies around you. It also places a useless Cold Snap buff on you, don't mind that. The reason that Ice Sheath is worth ranking up, more so than most Active Offenses, is that it gives you a Critical Severity boost that increases substantially by Rank. (Rank 1 is +17%, Rank 2 is +20%, and Rank 3 is +24%.)
Dust Devil w/ Triple Threat: An additional layer of damage that increases even more if your enemy is afflicted by Negative Ions or Chill, and increases even more if you have both. But how do you apply both, you say? Say hi to Hurricane with the Perfect Storm advantage. I told you that power would be useful, now didn't I?
Typhoon w/ Ionic Discharge: A funnel of GTFO against enemies in a cone. Use it, and they will fly like mittens everywhere. I decided to add Ionic Discharge to it since I had a spare Advantage Point, that'll increase your damage a little more.
Talents & Stats
The SuperStats of The Squall are EGO and END/REC. That means that you will have loads of energy at the start of a fight, so use it wisely before they have time to react. Lucklily, this is a very good set to do that with, what with all the slows, snares, repels and knocks.
Gear for the above, basically, and you should be fine. A +crit chance Mod could be useful as well, to top off that extra crit chance you get from your Dex and specs for some solid crits.
Just remember that upon reaching 220 or so, Super Stats become wildly less effective to invest in due to heavy diminishing returns. So, if you have a Super Stat that is reaching that number, you're usually better off spending any additional stats from gear or Talents elsewhere.
As a final note, I want to say that everything I say in this guide are in every way guidelines, and by no means should you feel forced to follow my advice. Trial and error is one of the most fun things of this game, and you can make due with almost anything. I am just giving you tips to what you can use to make an effective Squall that does what it's supposed to do.
Thanks for reading.
. You beat me to it ^_^.