Mechanic (and one rogue) ideas

[Tlorrd]

Here are a few suggestions for the title of this thread ...

Rogue:
- Opportunist: include doubleshot into this feat: Thus feat grants +3% doublestrike and doubleshot as well as bypass 10% fortification

Mechanic:
Update the Capstone (few ideas below, hopefully some of these seem appropriate)
- +4 to Int, +10 ranged power
- Your ranged attacks apply crippling on a critical hit
- Hipflask: For 12 seconds: heals you for an amount = to your DD skill (scales 400% with ranged power) every 2 seconds, increase dodge 50% (ignores dodge cap, max 95%), increase reflex save +6, +20 ranged power, increase your Crit Threat Range by +1. Increase doubleshot +100%. Cooldown 2min. (Not an action boost since there are no ways to increased actions boosts as a pure rogue)

Update T5:
- Time bomb: change the damage to scale 400% with ranged power and either change this to a shot attack or alchemical trap (in hopes of fixing the problems it currently has on uneven terrain). This could be a great AOE "shiny" at T5.

- change alchemical traps DC to scale off DD skill and damage to scale to off 200% (or 300%) ranged power. Also if they made all alchemical traps in this tree a shot, that would benefit animation sequences to not lost DPS for the 3 secs it takes to throw a flask and start shooting again.

Overall I'd like to see Mechanic GXB use its big damage in place to compete with speed of attacks of NHB or Fusilade ... Thus increasing Core 5/6 and Tier 5 to accommodate for these things. I'd also like to see disable device skill used more for alchemical traps, etc rather than the current save formulas.

By making the changes above you allow flexibility without making things too OP since all of this is basically mutually exclusive to taking Fusilade or NHB.

[Tlorrd]

so after some testing and confirming already previous tests on ranged alacrity, ranged alacrity hardly adds much to additional bolts fired once you have the feats (rapid shot and rapid reload) and a high BAB.

At cap, I tested without 30% ranged alacrity, with it, and with it +haste boost

over a 30 sec time frame i got 40-41 bolts, 45 bolts, and 47 bolts, respectively to above. Thus this in no way makes not having NHB or Fusilade viable in sense. The translation as is known is that since reload and firing are two separate entities, ranged alacrity only affects one of those.

So I have adjusted my OP to see if this could be more viable. I base my suggestions on the premise that I feel GXB should provide greater bang per shot and not being pigeon holed into taking a T5 or T4 single enhancements in other trees thus not allowing full use of the Mechanic tree. Currently there is no burst damage for T5 Mechanics that go 18 levels Rogue. You have a nice steady pace of DPS, but even Haste Boost doesn't provide any substantial burst according to my testing.

[Smokewolf]

Yeah you read it right!

When's the last time you've seen a Rogue doing anything with stealth?
Consider that "most" mobs and ALL Reapers can see thru any form of stealth.

Which begs the question: What's the point of having the ability when functionally its not?

-Smoke

[Tlorrd]

Yeah you read it right!

When's the last time you've seen a Rogue doing anything with stealth?
Consider that "most" mobs and ALL Reapers can see thru any form of stealth.

Which begs the question: What's the point of having the ability when functionally its not?

-Smoke

I agree, when a whole ability is negated, that's a bummer.

Made a change to OP to include doubleshot bonus into Hipflask.

[MacDubh]

Here are a few suggestions for the title of this thread ...
...
Update T5:
- Time bomb: change the damage to scale 400% with ranged power and either change this to a shot attack or alchemical trap (in hopes of fixing the problems it currently has on uneven terrain). This could be a great AOE "shiny" at T5.
...

Still would like to see Time bomb changed to the exploding spider constructs, myself.

[droid327]

By making the changes above you allow flexibility without making things too OP since all of this is basically mutually exclusive to taking Fusilade or NHB.

Its not though, and you have to keep that in mind - the old 10/6/4 Mechanic split lets you T5 Mech and T4 BE...so you cant balance Mech in a vacuum to be powerful enough purely on its own, and then also let you stack Fusillade on top of it.

[Tlorrd]

Its not though, and you have to keep that in mind - the old 10/6/4 Mechanic split lets you T5 Mech and T4 BE...so you cant balance Mech in a vacuum to be powerful enough purely on its own, and then also let you stack Fusillade on top of it.

While you get some great perks from 10/6/4 split ... you still don't get Expert Builder from Core 5 mechanic. You only get the +1 Crit multiplier and not +2. I've been running through a bunch of tests recently, and technically you can do more DPS with an 18/2 Mechanic/x split and/or take NHB for the burst, but depending on your playstyle, you'll lose out on some other enhancements that help you if you solo or infrequently group. Also since they are getting rid of Action Hero in the next ED pass, that will reduce the DPS across the board, but it will be more noticeable on the 18/2 split since you don't get the 30% ranged alacrity for GXB if you go the route of NHB and 18/2.

If you have a steady good group and good threat reduction to ensure you almost always have SA uptime ... the 18/x split will be max damage imo.

Thx for your comment, I appreciate the discussion (I'm often talking to myself on here, lol).

Edit: I guess the +1 crit threat addtion on T5 maybe too OP ... I guess I'd just have it be part of Hipflask then so that it's only for 12 sec, thus that is the burst along with doubleshot increase.

[Tlorrd]

Still would like to see Time bomb changed to the exploding spider constructs, myself.

That would be cool

[Tlorrd]

Next idea for T5 instead of time bomb ...

T5: Unholy Bolt: You use your knowledge of magical devices to imbue your bolts with unholy power (can be a new damage type Unholy (or Evil I suppose)). Action Boost: For the next 18 seconds your bolts will do an additional 1d6 per character level in unholy damage (with a chance = to your doubleshot to explode dealing AOE damage). Scales 200% with your ranged power. Passive: +2 Actions boosts.

So similar to how Tsunami got moved out of EDs and into Druid spell list ... maybe something like this/Dark Imbuement will move to T5 Mechanic.

I only thought about "Unholy" damage since we can garner unholy trap parts (but have yet to have a use for them!)

Being an action boost and T5 would make it mutually exclusive from Fusilade and NHB thus it cannot be abused with those two enhancements at least.

[Tlorrd]

Here is another idea for some T5 stuff ...

Mechanical Reloader:
Active: Action boost: you can now reload your GXB with greater efficiency, it functions as a repeating GXB for the duration of the action boost
Passive: +10 Ranged Power, +10% Ranged Alacrity with repeating crossbows and thrown weapons. +30% Ranged Alacrity with non-repeating crossbows. +1 Action boost.

Another idea is to allow GXB to have access to Manyshot and apply all of manyshot functions to GXB (maybe put this at capstone or in T5)

Either way it appears the tech to do this is available since manyshot/scattershot uses the repeating mechanic.