Behemoth Guide

[quettzlcoatl]

LAST EDIT: 16/04/12

Guide now includes specialisations, and a link to the specialisation post in the forum at the end. Enjoy.

Having just levelled my big guy to 40, and without a full behemoth guide, i figured I'd try and make one, being a silver myself. I aim to make it balanced for pvp and pve, and please do post any improvements. Ahem, here goes:

Level 1: Clobber
Level 1: Defensive Combo (Crippling Challenge if you're going to be doing tanking)
Level 6: Mighty Leap (Nailed to the Ground, Bull Rush OR Crippling Challenge)
Level 6: Teleport
Level 8: Defiance (R2,R3)
Level 11: Roomsweeper (R2, Concussive blow)
Level 14: Retaliation (R2, R3)
Level 17: Demolish (Below the Belt)
Level 22: Agressor (R2, R3)
Level 27: Unbreakable (R2 OR Better You than Me)
Level 32: Uppercut (R2, R3) OR Haymaker (R2, Nullifying Punch)
Level 35: Whatever travel power you feel like, but I recommend flight, just for practical reasons
Level 40: Shockwave (R2, R3 OR Leg Rumbler,Challenging Strikes)

Explanations:

Clobber: this is your energy builder and little more. Although the onslaught advantage looks tempting, I haven't found that much use for it once you get Roomsweeper

Defensive combo: again, I wouldn't recommend ranking up this one, as other powers soon replace its usefulness (Demolish, for example). The Surge of Strength advantage isn't actually very effective after you get Defiance, so I wouldn't bother with it

Mighty Leap: an essential for any close combat hitter! Coupled with the 'Nailed to the Ground' and 'Bull Rush' advantages, it really comes into its own in both PVP and PVE. If you intend to do mainly PVP, though, I'd grab yourself 'Crippling Challenge' over 'Bull Rush'.

Teleport: nice for escaping from damage immediately, or just skipping boring hallway mobs completely

Defiance: An excellent passive, this effectively means you get harder to kill as a fight progresses! Rank 3 was a must for me, but some would say it isn't worth it as all it does is means you start the fight with more stacks already (says Farmer). Up to you to decide, but I'll quote Farmer again in saying that starting with more can be useful for PVP

Roomsweeper: This will be your one-hit-kill attack for ages, and 'Concussive blow' just gives you that extra edge in PVP to close the gap between you and that annoying ranged guy:D

Retaliation: Either R2 or R3 on this power will give you a nice advantage after taking a pounding, so rank it to win it!

Demolish: What this basically does is increase your damage, and so makes a beautiful opening hit for following up with something like Uppercut.

Agressor: A brilliant damage increaser that just keeps stacking the more you knock those baddies around. R3 is a must for maximum effectiveness.

Unbreakable: Oddly, I rarely use this power, but in order to get it to truly ridiculous levels of briefly increased survivability, I would recommend R2. A must for sticky situations, it has to be said. If instead you decide to take 'Better You Than Me', then the enrage stacks it provides can also give you a nice damage boost in a tight spot.

Uppercut: I would recommend this over Haymaker, because of the knock-up. In fact, I find that its damage is more than other Behemoths with the latter, due to the fall damage, as well as having the advantage of not knocking your target where you can't hit 'em again. R3 for max power! However, if you plan on more PvP, some would say that haymaker, what with Nullifying Punch ending and reducing the effectiveness of heals, is more effective. If you choose that, then be sure to grab R2 as well as the advantage.

Shockwave: A brilliant maintain, and a AoE that finally doesn't knock people away (phew). I recommend R3 over leg rumbler: if you wanna bring 'em down, then Mighty Leap generally serves, I find. However, for a tanking build, you might find Leg Rumbler and Challenging Strikes more effective, due to the fact that they quite simply cancel out an enemy's defences. it comes down to play style, but for soloing, I'd still recommend R3.

SPECIALISATIONS:
Your first tree is con. Here's what I've found are good (i'm not listing any reasons, but feel free to ask and i'll say why i selected them. Also, i'm dropping a link to the specialisations post at the end, so you can see what they do):
CON
TOUGH (R3)
UNYIELDING (R2)
QUICK HEALING (R3)
ARMOURED (R1)
ADRENALINE RUSH (R1)

PROTECTOR
BULWARK (R2)
RESOLUTE (R3)
FORTIFIED GEAR (R3)
EXHAUSTING STRIKES (R2)

WARDEN
SLAUGHTER (R3)
FORTIFIED GEAR (R2)
THE BEST DEFENCE (R3)
TENACIOUS (R1)
REACTIVE STRIKES (R1)


This build leaves a couple of spare advantage points (I think!) for freelance bashing, but I hope it gives the general idea:D

Well, that's it, I hope my first guide was some help. Do feel free to shout at me if it isn't, and happy hunting:D

And here's the link to the forum post i promised you. Enjoy:D forums.champions-online.com/showthread.php?t=145568

Many thanks to Ryko Nailo for getting up the post on specs. Nice one

[Malchiel]

As with all ATs, any power/advantage choice is workable anyway. One of the big holes with your build is that you won't be able to tank anything in PvE. Behemoth's damage output is low compared to true DPS, you need to have a spammable Crippling challenge move and something with challenging strikes.

Defensive combo is the king of single target tanking powers. You could get Mighty Leap with Bull rush and Nailed to the Ground, and instead put Crippling Challenge on Defensive combo.

Don't bother with R2 Demolish, you're only going to be using it for the debuff anyway, and 2% more is insignificant. Just grab below the belt.

Roomsweeper is a great move, but it's hard to use properly to tank because of the knock, and you usually aren't using AoEs in PvP. You could probably move the points there elsewhere. One of the uses it's always going to have is refreshing enrage stacks. Keep in mind that if you get lots of enrage stacks, it's a huge difference in damage.

Instead of uppercut, Haymaker is amazing in PvP because of the huge knock. It costs a lot more energy but the increased damage output difference is significant on a charge. A fully charged haymaker R3 takes .7 more seconds to charge, but does double the damage of a Uppercut at the same rank, but is a big knockback instead of a smaller knockup which means you have to chase down them down. It still boils down to personal prefence, but if you pull off demolish + retaliation + charged Haymaker, OUCH.

Better you than me on Unbreakable is great for building enrage stacks, so you should take a look at that as well. Big boost to damage if you can maintain the stacks.

[quettzlcoatl]

Dec 14, 2011 17:44:33 GMT -5 Malchiel said:

As with all ATs, any power/advantage choice is workable anyway. One of the big holes with your build is that you won't be able to tank anything in PvE. Behemoth's damage output is low compared to true DPS, you need to have a spammable Crippling challenge move and something with challenging strikes.

Defensive combo is the king of single target tanking powers. You could get Mighty Leap with Bull rush and Nailed to the Ground, and instead put Crippling Challenge on Defensive combo.

Don't bother with R2 Demolish, you're only going to be using it for the debuff anyway, and 2% more is insignificant. Just grab below the belt.

Roomsweeper is a great move, but it's hard to use properly to tank because of the knock, and you usually aren't using AoEs in PvP. You could probably move the points there elsewhere. One of the uses it's always going to have is refreshing enrage stacks. Keep in mind that if you get lots of enrage stacks, it's a huge difference in damage.

Instead of uppercut, Haymaker is amazing in PvP because of the huge knock. It costs a lot more energy but the increased damage output difference is significant on a charge. A fully charged haymaker R3 takes .7 more seconds to charge, but does double the damage of a Uppercut at the same rank, but is a big knockback instead of a smaller knockup which means you have to chase down them down. It still boils down to personal prefence, but if you pull off demolish + retaliation + charged Haymaker, OUCH.

Better you than me on Unbreakable is great for building enrage stacks, so you should take a look at that as well. Big boost to damage if you can maintain the stacks.

great advice:D cheers, I'll add what i can to the guide. I was thinking more of soloing than tanking: I've found this build to be pretty good at that, but I guess I should put in the tanking side of things too

[Malchiel]

As an AT, you can't really solo anything outside of APs anyway, it's always more fun with a team. Usually the difference is more between PvE and PvP.

[KenpoJuJitsu3]

Dec 14, 2011 23:05:37 GMT -5 Malchiel said:

As an AT, you can't really solo anything outside of APs anyway, it's always more fun with a team. Usually the difference is more between PvE and PvP.

Did you mean can or did you really mean can't?

[kurobasa]

*checks log* besides avengers having trouble sometimes soloing certain bosses (like soldier at early level with all of Aftershock's bosses) all Ats can solo the game besides true team based boss fights like Grond or Mega D (though, there can be exceptions to the rule.)

[Malchiel]

Yeah woops, looks like a miscommunication on my part. You can't solo ENDGAME content.

[higirls]

It was about time Behe got a guide of its own
I actually think ranking up Roomsweper is a good choice. Shockwave is good but as a ranged, sonic DoT attack it can't use most of the bonuses this AT gets (aggressor, str melee dmg bonus and retaliation don't boost its damage- it gets half the str knock bonus and maybe scales with Enrage but that's about it) while a fully charged Roomsweeper with the R3 realiation buff is truly evil, and as a charged attack you don't need to get your block down for too long to unleash its full power. Shockwave with CS is essential for tanking (and getting it at lv 40 is horrible) but I believe Roomsweeper is a better mob killer. However, I don't usually play on Elite with my Behemoth, and on that difficulty level Roomsweeper might be dodged or something.
I agree with Malkiel that there is no point in ranking up Demolish, since you're only going to use it for the debuff once you get either Uppercut or Haymaker.
BTW, those who wish to tank will also want CC on defensive combo since it is spammable and already has increased threat generation.

[quettzlcoatl]

Points taken and guide modified:D

[Malchiel]

Still need a bit more tweaking.

Shockwave is pretty much only useful for tanking, and stopping people from getting away. You'd usually want leg rumbler and challenging strikes.

I'd take away the points you put into Unbreakable R2 for Better me than You. Enrage stacking gives a huge boost to damage, and that adv makes it a lot easier.

[quettzlcoatl]

Any better now? Thanks for helping me write this, btw, I'm just trying to help out new players with the AT, and the feedback is really helping

[Zed Brightlander]

Thanks for doing this quettzlcoatl.

Your guide fills the Behemoth shaped whole in the All-In-One Silver Guides Thread perfectly. ;D

I do have a question for you and the other guide experts (of which I do not include myself) (I collect 'em, I don't write 'em.). Small note: I never PVP, just PVE and mostly just solo.

In my experience with Zed Mightlander, Blocking is the bread-and-butter Power Builder of the Behemoth. The higher level he gets the easier it is to just Block while walking up on the bad guys and then - WHAM! Does not your suggestion of Teleport as the first Travel Power take away this primary advantage? I suppose my question is -

Does a Behemoth really ever need to be stealthy or need to flee in a big hurry - often? Doesn't Teleport take away the Blocking advantage of the Behemoth Arch?

Beyond lvl 11 and the advent of the Room Sweeper, the light taps of henchmen are all a B needs to build for the single backhand to make most of them go beddie bye. Again, that has been my experience.

Now, to be fair, Mightlander does have a Better-of-Dead Perk, but he often tangles with Mega-D with or without support. And no, he's not an idiot, he's a hero! (And I really want the Dead Man Walking Perk on at least one of my heroes). ;D

[Malchiel]

@op, it's probably easier to post two different builds and explain them rather then giving a big list of options. Essentially there are 3 different things you can optimize for, Teaming, Soloing and PvP

@zed, Block is only bread and butter if you're soloing. In a team, you need to be hitting stuff and drawing threat while a healer keeps you alive. Teleport is useful for getting around unnoticed, and a requirement if you ever PvP. After that you'd probably want flight or acrobatics with versatility.

[quettzlcoatl]

aw, Thanks, Zed, just following the example of all the helpful people who posted silver guides here:D

What Malchiel said is true, I found.
While blocking will serve you most of the time, teleport is essential in PvP for getting in close to ranged attacckers, especially if there's someone else in the way. Also, it's useful for the rare moments when you find yourself losing health all too quickly in a PvE fight (If you're tanking a boss and the healer dies, for example, you're not gonna last so long.)

Plus, you get the advantage of being able to zip quickly around a map, while another power like flight is useful for long distances.

A lot of it's down to personal preference, but I found teleport essential.

[secksegai]

Dec 15, 2011 14:29:24 GMT -5 Malchiel said:

Yeah woops, looks like a miscommunication on my part. You can't solo ENDGAME content.

Where is this end game content?! 3 40s and I still have yet to see it!

But on a serious note - I disagree with some of what Mal said.

Currently lvl 30 (soon to be 40), I have basically roomsweeper or demolish for dealing dmg. I find adding r2 + below debuff to be well worth it when I dont want to be chasing after my loot if the mobs aren't killed by the roomsweeper hit alone (as say finished off by the fall dmg).


I wouldn't suggest bull run - there's no reason that leap shouldn't have nailed in it leaving just 3 points, and having CC will help make debuffing a primary heavy hitting target in pve (or disabling a block while nailing to ground in pvp) much easier.

Note - even if you do have a healer, you still need to block, just less often - and dependent on enemies. I get energy much faster blocking a hit or two than bothering with my energy builder.