Well ... that's interesting ...
So I had a little insight into
Frankenslotting Knockback Powers for my Mercs/Nature Mastermind that I've been leveling. The power in question there was Slug (single target, 8s recharge, 1.67 animation) ... which yielded a proc chance of 32.23% per activation of the Slug power for a +100% Recharge for 5s proc from Force Feedback.
After implementing it on my Mastermind to verify the "yield" in-game (enhancement values, set bonuses, etc.), I thought ... what if I did the same thing to Executioner's Shot (single target, 10s recharge, 1.67 animation) in my Dual Pistols Defender builds?
Look what happens:
Level 28: Executioner's Shot- (A) Kinetic Crash - Knockback/Accuracy: Level 27+5
- (29) Kinetic Crash - Knockback/Damage/Accuracy: Level 27+5
- (29) Kinetic Crash - Knockback/Damage/Endurance: Level 27+5
- (31) Kinetic Crash - Knockback/Damage: Level 27+5
- (31) Force Feedback - Knockback/Damage/Endurance: Level 27+5
- (31) Force Feedback - Chance of +Recharge (2.0 PPM): Level 21
- 2.0 * ((10 / ( 1 + 0 / 100 )) + 1.67) / (60 * (0.25 + 0.75 * (1 + 0 * (11 * 0 + 540) / 40,000))) = 38.9%
- Hybrid Assault Radial Embodiment (6.0 PPM)
- 6.0 * ((10 / ( 1 + 0 / 100 )) + 1.67) / (60 * (0.25 + 0.75 * (1 + 0 * (11 * 0 + 540) / 40,000))) = 90% (Pre-clamp: 116.7%)
Kinetic Crash set bonuses
2: +4.5% Movement Speed
3: +2.25% S/L Resistance, +3.75% Mez Resistance
4: -3 Knockback Protection
Force Feedback set bonuses
2: +7.5% Movement Speed
In-game reported enhancement values:
- Accuracy: 47.4%
- Damage: 117.1% (with T4 Intuition Radial Alpha slotted)
- Endurance: 42.1%
- Knockback: 172.3%
- Recharge: 0%
And, as an extra side bonus, because I could get knockback protection from a Kinetic Crash set bonus, that meant that I could swap out the slot in Hover from a Blessing of the Zephyr ...
Level 18: Hover- (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed: Level 25+5
So effectively, on net, I "didn't" lose the +7.5% Recharge 6-slot set bonus from Kinetic Crash. I only "exchanged" the +6% Regeneration 5-slot bonus in Kinetic Crash for a +7.5% Movement Speed 2-slot bonus in Force Feedback and a reduction in knockback protection (from -7 to -3), which
shouldn't be that much of a loss in a build that has Hover.
With the previous/original slotting of Executioner's Shot (with Superior Winter's Bite, shown above), the 10s base recharge was being reduced down to 2.59174787s after factoring in Hasten, Chrono Shift and global set bonuses. That's shorter than the arcanatime of Pistols + Dual Wield, making for a very TIGHT single target attack rotation (if necessary).
However, with no recharge enhancement in the enhancement slots, Executioner's Shot (with 4-Kinetic Crash and 2-Force Feedback), 10s base recharge gets reduced down to (only) 3.44827586s after factoring in Hasten, Chrono Shift and global set bonuses. In other words, the recharge enhancement of Superior Winter's Bite was only yielding a 0.85652799s reduction in recharge time on Executioner's Shot in the overall context of my build plan (so nice to have, but not exactly
necessary, all things considered). The arcanatime of Pistols + Dual Wield is 3.036s ... but Pistols (in this build) recharges fast enough to "wrap around" Dual Wield if necessary, so you can do a Pistols + Dual Wield + Pistols in 4.224s to give Executioner's Shot sufficient time to recharge.
So instead of doing a 321 321 321 rotation pattern (with Superior Winter's Bite), instead you'd be doing a 3121 3121 3121 rotation pattern (with 4-KC/2-FF) in Executioner's Shot against a single target that you don't want to let any "stray" AoE spill over from (such as against the Weapons Crates and Containment Vessels during the Gathering Phase of Lambda, since those objects "do not communicate aggro" to mobs around them when hit, but AoE attacks will "splash aggro" onto mobs and draw fire onto you).
Suppressive Fire has an animation time of 1.5s and an arcanatime of 1.716s.
5.25 - 1.5) =
3.75s of arcanatime remaining in which to activate subsequent powers able to take advantage of the Decimation Build Up proc (35.83% chance!), plus 2x Psionic Damage procs (90% chance, clamped), plus 2x Hold procs (89.58% and 90% chance clamped) ... so Suppressive Fire is a "pretty decent attack" to use as often as possible so as to "fish" for Decimation Build Up procs.
- Pistols arcanatime: 1.188s
- Dual Wield arcanatime: 1.848s
- Empty Clips arcanatime: 1.848s
- Bullet Rain arcanatime: 1.848s
- Executioner's Shot arcanatime: 1.848s
- Piercing Rounds arcanatime: 2.64s
- Hail of Bullets arcanatime: 2.64s
Theoretically speaking ... you can animate 2x 1.848s attacks (take your pick) ... and consume only 1.848*2=3.696s of the 3.75s of Decimation Build Up duration available (after animating Suppressive Fire). Therefore, you can (theoretically) already have a longer duration 2.64s attack queued up at the end of the duration remaining in the Decimation Build Up and have the buff "apply" to the attack, even though the damage for it "lands" well after the buff duration has expired.
So you can pull off combo moves like this (Decimation Build Up proc duration effects apply to bolded powers):
Suppressive Fire ->
Dual Wield/Empty Clips -> Executioner's Shot/Bullet Rain -> Piercing Rounds/Hail of Bullets = 8.052s total arcanatime, 6.336s Build Up buffed arcanatime
The downside to that pattern is that if your $Target "doesn't survive" while you're attacking and you need to switch targets mid-stream, you're probably going to lose the "overhang" at the end and not be able to have the Decimation Build Up buff apply to either Piercing Rounds or Hail of Bullets.
However, the "beauty" of the Piercing Rounds rotation shown above is that the 8s duration of the (standard ammo) Piercing Rounds Resistance Debuff will
still be active on the $Target by the time you're able to hit the $Target a second time with Piercing Rounds, meaning you'll get a "bigger bite" out of the second rotation than you will from the first (all else being equal) due to the Resistance Debuffing. And of course, Resistance Debuffs "stack" on themselves (because of how the math works out), so things can get pretty heinous if you're allowed to sustain your Gun Fu attack rotation uninterrupted.
Also, do I really need to point out how NICE it is to be able to pull off:
- Suppressive Fire (procs Decimation Build Up)
- Empty Clips
- Bullet Rain
- Hail of Bullets/Piercing Rounds
Being able to have +40% ToHit Buff and +80% Damage on 3x AoE attacks in a row can REALLY "amp up the damage throughput" onto Foes ... and Suppressive Fire recharges in 6.9s in this build, so ... lots of opportunities for "proc fishing" ...
And even better yet is that if you're "shooting into traffic" with Empty Clips, the odds are rather high that you'll get a Force Feedback proc almost immediately. So with Hasten, Chrono Shift, global set bonuses AND the Force Feedback proc ... your Empty Clips will basically be recharged when Bullet Rain finishes animating.
Suppressive Fire ->
Empty Clips -> Bullet Rain -> Empty ClipsThis becomes a REAL possibility (almost a reliable one!) to exploit if you're ready to take advantage of it.
