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Post by Prince Mordred on Apr 21, 2011 10:08:50 GMT -5
Wow! Lots to read through.
Well, I took one thru the tutorial today and played around. I thought his energy builder should have done more damage to single target instead of light damage to close group - it would have been more in-character - and more useful.
The #2 attack was great for power and close area attack, slaying whole groups with single strokes quite well at Level One. Nice. Too bad I got out of the tutorial without ever getting enough energy to swing that axe more than twice!
I also got my goon, er... toon, practicing his swinging!
OK so, I had some fun with it - but I'll have to read all that stuff above me before I train his powers!
One main complaint - he can't use my crudule I unlocked - he better get a big stick soon or there's no point in the class! Can you imagine a freeform Devastator using a single-blade power to wack someone with a club??? No sense in it!
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Post by not1stepbackwards on Apr 23, 2011 4:00:38 GMT -5
The Devastator is going to put out more damage than your Behemoth at the cost of being far less durable. Your Behemoth will solo things easily by simply lasting longer while the Devastator will not. No one is saying it isn't viable, but it is not as solo friendly as other ATs due to lack of defenses and lack of healing built into the AT. I noticed all these Viking warriors around and I think what you say is true. I've been comparing the Devastator to the Behemoth, but the better parallel might be with the Blade. With what was said in this thead, I'm starting to see how it plays out. It's quite an interesting AT, very strategically released around the time of the Thor movie, which I think is a fun thing. I'm sure they would not pass it out and sell it if it was not a viable AT. The Devastator looks like a fun class, and I like how you described knocking back as a "visceral" joy, but in my case I think I might get more mileage from the other paid Archetypes, particular the Inventor or Void. That's the ulterior motive of this post, really. Cryptic has earned my money with Free-to-Pay and I want them to take it! But it took a long time for my Behemoth to reach level 35 (2nd travel power, yay) and my Glacier's just about 30, so I'm just careful of whatever my paid AT alt will be.
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Post by GammaBreaker on Apr 23, 2011 11:23:01 GMT -5
Just two things of note:
1) As mentioned earlier, Unstoppable has an energy gain component, and paired with Recovery you shouldn't have many energy issues if you keep the knocks going. In addition, the lack of energy problems with The Blade is also heavily contributed to by the way the Martial Arts Forms work -- they provide a reliable stream of energy.
2) Dexterity only provides Dodge/Avoidance if you have Lightning Reflexes or some other way of acquiring Dodge/Avoidance rating, such a Parry + Elusive Monk, Way of the Warrior, Strafe + Aversion, or a Primary Defense item with Dodge/Avoidance rating. So you're not missing anything defensively by not having Dex as a super stat, unless you are planning to wear one of those pieces of gear since nothing in Heavy Weapons lends itself to dodge.
Ultimately if you play a Devastator, it's going to be a race against time. Kill or be killed.
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Post by Dewey on Apr 23, 2011 11:45:26 GMT -5
Just two things of note: 1) As mentioned earlier, Unstoppable has an energy gain component, and paired with Recovery you shouldn't have many energy issues if you keep the knocks going. In addition, the lack of energy problems with The Blade is also heavily contributed to by the way the Martial Arts Forms work -- they provide a reliable stream of energy. 2) Dexterity only provides Dodge/Avoidance if you have Lightning Reflexes or some other way of acquiring Dodge/Avoidance rating, such a Parry + Elusive Monk, Way of the Warrior, Strafe + Aversion, or a Primary Defense item with Dodge/Avoidance rating. So you're not missing anything defensively by not having Dex as a super stat, unless you are planning to wear one of those pieces of gear since nothing in Heavy Weapons lends itself to dodge. Ultimately if you play a Devastator, it's going to be a race against time. Kill or be killed. That's an excellent analysis. I've noticed everything you said in this post already. The Devastator really tends to have great energy management. It may be because it usually only takes one or two skills to kill someone. In regards to defense, I wonder if I should take the Defensive Stance advantage on Cleave.
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Post by GammaBreaker on Apr 23, 2011 12:13:50 GMT -5
That's an excellent analysis. I've noticed everything you said in this post already. The Devastator really tends to have great energy management. It may be because it usually only takes one or two skills to kill someone. In regards to defense, I wonder if I should take the Defensive Stance advantage on Cleave. Substatting Constitution should be fairly easy. STR and REC do not compete too aggressively for item slots with it. It should be possible to achieve, give or take, 10% Damage Resistance from the stack of Defiant! it gives you. It's small, but this is an AT with almost no survivability outside of killing things quickly. It won't be noticed on little hits, but it may help take the edge off of medium and larger hits. Just think to yourself how often you've been in an "almost got 'im..." situation as you died. If you find it happening a lot, then you may appreciate it. If you don't, rank it. :] That said, Cleave has got to be one of he best T0 melee attacks in the game considering it's an AOE. I suspect it's because Cylinder-type AOEs are not very heavily penalized in terms of cost and power. Prime examples of how little they're penalized are Chest Beam, Gigabolt, Force Cascade, and Chainsaw Gauntlet. Compare this to Sphere-type AOEs, which tend to be very heavily penalized (too much, IMO). Oh, and it helps build Rage. Yes, I <3 Cleave.
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Post by Dewey on Apr 23, 2011 12:20:06 GMT -5
The interesting thing is I didn't much care for Blade Tempest on my Specialist until late T3. I wonder if I'll feel the same way later on for Cleave too. I like Blade Tempest because it's a quick attack that you can use while moving, and it also deals a hefty amount of damage. The difference is the Specialist doesn't have much for CC while the Devastator does. With the Devastator, you can pretty much afford to be self-rooted, so long as your target is rooted too.
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Post by GammaBreaker on Apr 23, 2011 12:33:00 GMT -5
The interesting thing is I didn't much care for Blade Tempest on my Specialist until late T3. I wonder if I'll feel the same way later on for Cleave too. I like Blade Tempest because it's a quick attack that you can use while moving, and it also deals a hefty amount of damage. The difference is the Specialist doesn't have much for CC while the Devastator does. With the Devastator, you can pretty much afford to be self-rooted, so long as your target is rooted too. This is quite true. With regards to Blade Tempest, I believe it's a Cone-style AOE, which is middle-ground in terms of how it's penalized. As such, they tend to be okay. Most of the T0's become appreciable at a higher level and higher ranks. Still not a fan of Beatdown, though. Anyway, you can definitely keep people stuck to the floor with your Devastator. Between Decimate's root advantage and the double-stacked snare, it should work out. Furthermore, there's a little trick from Devastator's sibling set, Might, that is useful. There's a somewhat-known combo in Might comprised of Charged Uppercut > Tapped Demolish > Charged Haymaker. Due to the way the game checks for range validity on attacks, this works perfectly for an intensely powerful three hit combo. When you knock someone up with your Uppercut, there is a time in which you can tap Demolish (applying the debuff and 700-1200 more damage depending on build), and start charging Haymaker. The timing is perfect such that you can land your Haymaker precisely as your foe is hitting the dirt. Now, with Devastator, you can do this again. You can tap Eruption and immediately start charging a followup attack like Arc of Ruin, Skullcrusher, or Skewer. Eruption has a lower knockup than Uppercut, but this still works because the HW attacks charge faster than Haymaker. I personally thank Brou for making me aware of the Upper/Demo/Haymaker combo. The general theme of it now has function in HW too. :]
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Post by jaguar78 on Apr 27, 2011 12:25:26 GMT -5
Well just made my devastator this thursday, and i must say its a lot of fun!!! Its a very damaging at, and lacks of survivability. It was said before, u need to kill fast before u get killed! The pve is really awesome! almost all powers have aoe component, so whenever u choose to upgrade you will be doing a lot of dmg in a lot of people! Im also doing some arena to test his pvp potential! Im liking it so far...not as resistant as my main at, the savage, but i can kill more!
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Post by vaishevik on Apr 29, 2011 18:40:20 GMT -5
Awesome insights so far guys. I'm still at the point where I'm just happy to swing a big-ass hammer around and watch minions fly like leaves before a leaf-blower, but I was curious where it fit into the overall game, as compared to the existing powers.
swing KERRRUNCH!!! "It's another home run!"
;D
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Post by soyokaze14 on Apr 29, 2011 22:36:37 GMT -5
. inertial dampaning field, or agressor would have worked wonders where enrage is..... you already have arc of ruin which is freaking ridiculous so they should drop decimate(put either agressor or force snap there), put viscous descent where skewer is and have earth splitter as the sole lvl 32 power.... You seem to forget that ATs are NOT meant to be the powerhouses your suggestioons would make the Devastator into. In AT pvp IDF would pretty much shut down several ATs completely. Ats as a rule end up with one or two powers they simply don't use because they get a higher tier power that replaces them, seems that Arc of Ruin and Decimate fill that spot in the Devastator. Having actually fought quite a few Devastators in pvp I think this AT is very good and so far even seems superior to quite a few of the older ATs.
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Post by tkolter on May 24, 2011 23:22:12 GMT -5
I wanted to play a Devestator before commenting. My experience with them after they beefed up the Level 8 AT power and being 13th Level are as follows:
1. Like the Blade its a bit soft but that is compensated by truly impressive damage and attack synch, its built early for dealing with multiple attackers with its base powers. And later on goes to one-on-one with a vengence. Properly built and played its so far pretty much a walking death machine.
2. Stat improvement and careful advantage selection is important. For example any attack that knocks an opponent farther than ten feet is bad IMHO since that is your kill zone with the big arching slash strikes on multiple targets. But if you treat it like a Blade focus on Con and primary super stats its not bad. I personally am leaning to damage boosts of a general nature and will take any advantage that will add to it. I noticed one power for two points in two advantages gives the attack a 40% damage boost, adding in the generic boost maxing out the 8th level power that now gives a 69% boost. Scary.
3. I went with Acrobatics for travel and found its a good move with Versatility on it, but I hate Teleport for the first power. Its just fitting and it saved me with on the field options in a fight like using cover and staying mobile.
Down side for me and its an issue no R&D weapons for the AT and no drops so far with powered up power replace items either, I assume this will be fixed but still its an issue.
I can't say much PvP on this with the right advantages it could be deadly but is heavy offense, designed for PvE only its great but its a defense based on crushing offense.
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