Arsenal Themes
Adam Makin
I don't like the set, though. I mean it's not bad, but the peak of castle (as well as pirates and many other themes, I LOVE that era) is definitely the 1990s. Most notably the 6086 Black Knight's Castle IMO (which I'm looking forward to buying, heh ).
Absolutely beautiful set. I don't think any of the new Kingdom's sets come close to the nostalgic feeling one gets when looking at this set. Thanks for the great review, it was nice to see this again.
It's been a little bit, now that we've had Arsenal Control in our hands for a time how are people slotting it? It's such a quirky set that a lot of my normal slotting practices don't seem to work and i'm genuinely not sure if I should slot the control effects or the debuffs in some of them. Take Smoke Canister for instance, I originally wanted to slot Confuse like normal but the Confuse seems to go away just after the smoke clears so I opted for a ToHit Debuff set instead. Also procs seem to not work in the patches either thanks to pseudopet mechanics. Sleep Grenade and Liquid Nitrogen also have me wondering about idea slotting, and while I've got a Hold set in Tear Gas I wonder if the damage would be worth boosting.
Also, extra question concerning Liquid Nitrogen. Since the damage is triggered by knockdown, does the damage occur only from LN's knockdown effect or will any other source of knockdown deal damage within the patch too? I have Arse/TA and i'm wondering if stacking LN with Oil Slick is causing LN's damage to trigger more often. Of course they're on fire anywau but more damage is more damage.
However, it's important to remember that how we slot is dependent on what our secondary set is. For example, I mention building for AE defense. But this isn't a realistic option unless you're playing a set like Traps or Force Field that gives significant defense buffs.
Just wanted to add that while sleep canister isn't static field, it does work in a similar way where mobs that wake up can (and do) get put back to sleep as it's a pulsing sleep. One thing I've been doing to squeeze out as much AOE damage as I can is open with smoke canister, then flash bang to set up containment and then used sleep canister as an AOE damage power. It works quiet well once recharge is in a good place in a build (and macros set up). It's no nuke, but it does respectable SAFE damage on my arse/kin controller since I can drop smoke canister, run in and fulcrum, then pop out and drop flash bang and sleep canister. What is left is cleaned up pretty quickly between me and the Tri-cannon (which gets containment damage boosts too!).
Sleep nade: works identical to static field, but has a bit more debuff and trades minor end drain/recovery for damage. It certainly stacks with itself if you have sufficient recharge. Sleep kicks in instantly after the damage, they both alert mobs. Ice Mistral is a decent choice
LN: how the enemy gets knocked on its butt is irrelevant. It's the best knockdown patch because unlike iceslick/bonfire/quake LN has enhanceable slow so +con enemies can't easily run through it. Ice Mistral is a decent choice.
- first off, the -tohit is only active IF the target is successfully confused. It will always apply, but it will be dormant until confused. So if you want to use it as a tohit debuff you will need to see those purple bubbles. Interpret that as you will, but I'm pretty sure it is to tame the potency of the power so it isn't seeds 2.0 given it is a huge aoe, doesn't aggro, and shoots around corners. So the -tohit in the power isn't to protect YOU, because it is only active when the mob is confused. That said, it isn't hard to make this power perform close to seeds for clear speed (at least for doms).
- second, the -kb of the power only applies to enemies that are successfully confused and weakens their attacks so they don't fling eachother out of the patch. You can still send them to kingdom come with a power like gale.
- third, the confuse (like the -tohit) will apply, but be dormant until the target is attacked (doesn't have to hit, doesn't have to be you attacking), or it is knocked. It will go dormant again if the mob is left alone for 15 seconds. It won't stick on them long if they leave the patch, couple seconds.
The difference is that while both have a 5% chance to Sleep a Boss, Static Field has a 100% chance to Sleep that Boss 4 sec later while Sleep Grenade does not. So you can just fire off Static Field to essentially put any spawn 'on ice' until you're ready to deal with it. If you need to re-apply the Static Field, you can do so without waking anything up. It's also useful for endurance management.
However, both Ice Slick and Quake will knockback at about twice the rate of Liquid Nitrogen due to the lack of a lockout period (Bonfire has an even longer lockout period but Bonfire is almost universally used for damage rather than control anyway).
All of the aspects of the power except the perception debuff are linked. They all occur together or not. The target does not need to be successfully Confused (the purple bubbles). It merely needs the Confuse effect on it - if you toss Smoke Canister on a +50 Status Resist AV/GM, you won't see any purple bubbles but you'll still get the -hit.
Flashbang/Tear Gas then Liquid Nitrogen/Sleep Nade for the best effects. Firing off sleep nade/LN on their turns out to be a complete waste of time dps'wise. If you want the damage component from the latter 2 it only seems to be effective to fire off one of the first 2 initially.
I play it on a domi currently (arsenal/sonic/ice). The character is 50+3 and fully IO'd. I'm still working on finishing off accolades. As a domi, my slotting choices were designed to get permadom, but I also built in soft capped ranged defense into the build.
I really dig a proc'd Sleep Grenade. Liquid Nitrogen is kinda meh given its low chance for knockdown and lockout timer for damage. Smoke Canister is pretty effective on my dom using coercive confusion. My current build skips flash bang and tear gas. I've been contemplating ditching liquid nitrogen for flash grenade to be honest.
You are right, I thought they updated static field to reapply rather than stack. My bad. As I've said in the past, I'm not personally a fan of sleep nade, but it mostly sits dormant anyway in my tray. Sleeps in general aren't something I lean on often.
That's my point. +cons can run right through those patches easily, happens all the time to my earth dom as it lacks quicksand. You need to layer, or use other powers on top of them for them to be effective. LN works on its own as area denial and/or to keep things in your patches. It doesn't make popcorn as well as some others, but it is the overall best knockdown patch especially given it triggers interface regardless of successful knock.
Smoke Grenade has to be triggered by some form of attack. If it has not been triggered, it will neither -hit debuff nor Confuse. If it has been triggered, it will do both (for about 15 seconds) regardless of the target's level of Confuse Protection.
Dr. Eglen brings significant experience to Arsenal's healthcare franchise, having spent over thirty years in the life sciences industry. Most recently, Dr. Eglen was an Executive Officer, Vice President, and General Manager of the Life Sciences division of Corning Inc., a world-leading innovator in material science. Prior to joining Corning, he spent over twenty years working in the life sciences, technology, and pharmaceutical industries at PerkinElmer, DiscoverX, Roche and other leading life sciences companies.
Arsenal is a leading private equity firm that specializes in investments in middle-market healthcare and industrials companies. Since its inception in 2000, Arsenal has raised institutional equity investment funds of $5.3 billion, completed 45 platform investments, and achieved 30 realizations. Arsenal invests in industry sectors in which the firm has significant prior knowledge and experience. The firm works with management teams to build strategically important companies with leading market positions, high growth, and high value-add. For more information, visit www.arsenalcapital.com.
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