Trying Ageless Destiny will be an experimental move for me. I'm going to see if I can get by with just Inner Will to deal with mez (no it's not Perma, but if it's "enough", that's all I need). And hey if it doesn't work out as well as I want, I can pivot to Clarion later.
Depends on what you're wanting out of your Destiny slot.
In my experience (running iTrials, where Incarnate slotting is most relevant) Ageless is substantially superfluous (not entirely, just mostly). Most builds do not still have END problems by the time they reach 50 and and getting slotted out with Incarnates (and if they do have END problems, they need to be rebuilt in Mids' so they don't have END problems). The other substantially beneficial boost from Ageless is the +Recharge option ... but even then, by the time you reach 50, most builds "have enough +Recharge" in them already and either don't "need" more or they can't make all that much use of "more" +Recharge from Ageless. So in that respect, I often times look upon Ageless as being more of a crutch for poor build choices than an advantage which cannot be obtained by other means.
My personal Go To(s) for Destiny slotting are either Clarion (mez protection, but I tend to go Radial for the Power Boost and +Range buffing) or Rebirth (my preference is for Radial over Core). Clarion Radial is nice on builds which have a significant share of controls (soft and hard) which prefer to fight beyond melee range. Rebirth Radial is great because all of the "healing" (and regeneration?) that it yields in league play winds up attributing to your caster, helping you to work on any Healing Badges that you might not have otherwise been able to fill up. I can often times wind up with something like 10-30k (or more) added to my Healing Badge accounts after each and every single iTrial when I'm playing Redlynne (my SR/MA Tanker, who has no "heal" powers aside from Rebirth Radial). In my experience, the +Regeneration from Rebirth Radial is better for survival than the +Max HP option from Rebirth Core ... and the reason that I say that is that when I'm taking damage, over the 2 minute duration of each Rebirth casting, I'll often times gain more HP (recovered) from the added regeneration than I would have done by increasing Max HP. So on balance, I feel like Rebirth Radial is better for survival (need less healing) than Rebirth Core.
The RR +Per piece is pure necessity. I've found that with all the -Per that Night Widows and Tarantula Mistresses can throw around, yellow insps aren't enough to keep up. And I know if I could get Tactics cooking, that would be a win on a couple of fronts for that, but I have a tough time kicking powers off the life raft. So the RR piece is my least-worst option.
Tactics is useful for MORE than just +Perception.
Rectified Reticle is essentially superfluous in a build that has Tactics running.
If it comes to a choice between a single slot (Rectified Reticle) and a power slot (Tactics), it's better to have Tactics as a One Slot Wonder (my preference is for a Hami-O: Cytoskeleton Exposure that grants +Def/+End/+Tohit) as the "densest possible enhancement values (that matter)" that can be squeezed into a single enhancement slot (see: One Slot Wonder).
Then again, I'm also pretty keen on 6-slotting Maneuvers with
Reactive Defenses for all those sweet sweet set bonuses and scaling resistances. With that slotting, Maneuvers becomes "pretty respectable" as a +Defense power that is working for EVERYONE nearby ... not just yourself.
The way that I think about Maneuvers (as a "useful" power) is to make this kind of comparison:
Weave = 2x Maneuvers in terms of +Defense, but for SELF ONLY.
However, this leads to a somewhat curious effect when taking stacking considerations into account.
- Team-1: Weave = 2x Maneuvers to Self
- Team-2: Weave = 2x Maneuvers to Self
- Team-3: Weave = 2x Maneuvers to Self
- Team-4: Weave = 2x Maneuvers to Self
- Team-5: Weave = 2x Maneuvers to Self
- Team-6: Weave = 2x Maneuvers to Self
- Team-7: Weave = 2x Maneuvers to Self
- Team-8: Weave = 2x Maneuvers to Self
- Team-1: 1x Maneuvers to All
- Team-2: 2x Maneuvers to All
- Team-3: 3x Maneuvers to All
- Team-4: 4x Maneuvers to All
- Team-5: 5x Maneuvers to All
- Team-6: 6x Maneuvers to All
- Team-7: 7x Maneuvers to All
- Team-8: 8x Maneuvers to All
As you can see from this simplified analysis ... Maneuvers is "only inferior when soloing" (or when you're the only one in the group with the Maneuvers power). As soon as a SECOND character in the group has Maneuvers, then EVERYONE effectively gets 1x Weave in the group. That means that if you have Maneuvers yourself(!), you only need "+1 more" with Maneuvers to achieve parity with the +Defense offered by Weave. Needless to say, it's a LOT easier to find "+1 more" with Maneuvers in groups when you've got Maneuvers yourself (protecting everyone around you!) rather than expecting "+2 more" to achieve the same effect because you didn't want to contribute yourself. Stack enough Maneuvers together and everyone can be close to (if not comfortably beyond) the Defense Softcap (and into the realm of
NO GET HITSU!!).
Note that the same mentality applies to Assault and Tactics as well (although not quite as neatly).
3x Assault = an extra Damage SO of throughput for everyone.
2-3x Tactics = insta-snipes
Being one of the "Leadership MAKERS" rather than just being a "Leadership TAKER" has some pretty surprising long term benefits, since EVERY TEAM/League that you join is "better off" for having you in it.
Don't think of the Leadership Pool as something you'll add "if you can find the space for it" ... MAKE THE SPACE FOR LEADERSHIP ... and if necessary, figure out what else you want to drop in favor of Leadership.
Acrobatics not having the LOTG piece is just a Mids miss on my part. I'll change that later.
My personal preference of LotG proc mules wind up being Leadership: Vengeance, Concealment: Stealth and Concealment: Grant Invisibility. If I'm short on slots for Maneuvers (so can't 6-slot
Reactive Defenses, my fallback option is to 4-slot Luck of the Gambler into Maneuvers.
I don't often plan around purple sets (they're usually a bit over my budget), which is why Ragnarok wasn't part of my initial setup. But I might try getting a hold of that later (right now I'm in the process of getting a set of Unbreakable Constraint for Shocking Bolt).
Purples are obtainable from the Ouroboros Incarnate Vendors if you can't obtain from drops (HA!) or from the auction house.
Pretty sure you can use Merits and or Hero/Villan Merits as well to obtain purples, although the "economics" of doing so via these methods are going to be a lot more "grindy" to obtain.
When it comes to
6-slotting ranged single target attacks (pre-Level 50), my personal preference is:
- ATO Set
- 5-set Entropic Chaos + (optional) Proc
- 5-set Decimation (including Build Up proc) + (optional) Proc
I'm not really in love with the Dervish set, but Obliteration gives me pause in certain context because of its low EndRdx component. I'll take another look, and reassess my options.
The only time(s) I've ever considered Scirroco's Dervish for
6-slotting a PBAoE is when I need a set bonus that can't be obtained elsewhere.
If I need the +Defense, my personal preference is for the full 6-slot Eradication set.
If I need Damage/Accuracy/Recharge set bonuses, I reach for 5-slot Obliteration plus the proc from Fury of the Gladiator (-Resistance).
At Level 50+, 5-slot Armageddon + proc of choice becomes the "go to" option.
As for your choice of Preemptive Interface ... may I make an alternative suggestion to you?
Try T4 Gravitic Radial instead of Preemptive.
PreemptiveEndurance/Recovery (75% Core/25% Radial), stacks up to
4 times collectively: -1% endurance per second for 4.3 seconds, -5% recovery for
4.3 secondsEnergy DoT (25% Core/75% Radial), stacks up to
8 times collectively: 13.3863 energy damage per second for
4.3 secondsGraviticRecharge (75% Core and Radial), stacks up to
4 times collectively: -10% recharge for
8.3 secondsRecovery (50% Core and Radial), stacks up to
4 times collectively: -10% recovery for
8.3 seconds(75% Core) Movement, stacks up to
4 times collectively: -10% jump height, run speed, flying speed, jumping speed for
8.3 seconds(75% Radial) Special, stacks up to
4 times collectively: -10% defense (ALL), healing, tohit, run speed, flying speed, confuse, terrorize, hold, immobilize, stun, sleep, knockup, knockback, repel for
8.3 secondsCompare the -Recovery debuffs between the 2 options.
Preemptive 4x stacks = -4 END and -20% Recovery for 4.3 seconds
Gravitic 4x stacks = -40% Recharge, -40% Recovery, -40% Defense (ALL), -40% Healing, -40% ToHit, -40% Movement, -40% Controls for 8.3 seconds
Recovery debuffing needs to "last a while" in order to be useful.
Gravitic will debuff Recovery "twice as strong for twice as long" compared to Preemptive ... while also piling on a lot of other debuffs that will ALL be helpful to Blaster survival.
Think about it.
