Curse

lennymon · Mar 28, 2008, 08:51 PM // 20:51

Volley outclasses Barrage when used in conjunction with [skill]Ebon Dust Aura[/skill] also, on account of... well if I gotta explain it you won't get it

MasterSasori · Mar 28, 2008, 08:57 PM // 20:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by lennymon

Volley outclasses Barrage when used in conjunction with [skill]Ebon Dust Aura[/skill] also, on account of... well if I gotta explain it you won't get it

Lol thanks for reminding me. Yes EBA is awesome with volley. I actually just talked about this on another thread lol.

Vexed · Mar 30, 2008, 03:08 PM // 15:08

I have never much liked using Barrage because it limits you to hammering away on one button for 95% of most missions/areas.

True, you get more damage per shot out of Barrage, but how often do you tag the maximum number of targets per shot? You get more bonus damage out of splinter weapon - which you should be running anyway - but even at max Marksmanship, barrage only does 9 more damage. Negligible when you have much more powerful skills available with your elite slot free.

You can overlook BHA in normal play, but in Hard Mode BHA is very nearly stapled to my bar. Yes, concussion shot inflicts daze as well, but in Hard Mode it is much more difficult to reliably interrupt (especially if you insist on hammering on the barrage button!) Having a daze-on-command skill makes your life so much easier.

I'm not saying Barrage doesn't have its uses - it does, obviously. But once you start playing HM more, the superiority of BHA+epidemic+volley becomes rapidly apparent. And volley isn't even a requirement, it's just to add some AoE damage and a trigger for a mass splinter explosion. Take away volley and you can still totally incapacitate any caster with just BHA + savage/distracting shot, which it was pointed out earlier in the thread, should always be on your bar anyway.

Quaker · Mar 30, 2008, 04:02 PM // 16:02

BHA+epidemic is over rated. It works great when it works, but "adjacent foes" is a very small radius. EBA is an attractive alternative.

Vexed · Mar 30, 2008, 04:53 PM // 16:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quaker

BHA+epidemic is over rated. It works great when it works, but "adjacent foes" is a very small radius. EBA is an attractive alternative.

It's true, I very rarely use epidemic in conjunction with BHA, maybe five times per mission or area. It's nice to have in those situations, though. I also pack Pin Down and will typically plink a mob in the middle of a group and instantly cripple the whole group while my henchies and heroes get to work with the hexing.

I haven't picked up an ebon bowstring to use EDA with yet, but I'm sure in physical-heavy areas, that's a vastly superior skill to BHA.

Quaker · Mar 31, 2008, 04:06 PM // 16:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vexed

I haven't picked up an ebon bowstring to use EDA with yet, but I'm sure in physical-heavy areas, that's a vastly superior skill to BHA.

I wouldn't say either one is "vastly superior" to the other. They each have their uses. Currently, in my H&H setup, Jin uses BHA+epidemic and Margrid uses EDA.

The Meth · Mar 31, 2008, 04:53 PM // 16:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vexed

It's true, I very rarely use epidemic in conjunction with BHA, maybe five times per mission or area. It's nice to have in those situations, though. I also pack Pin Down and will typically plink a mob in the middle of a group and instantly cripple the whole group while my henchies and heroes get to work with the hexing.

I agree on epidemic being overrated in most instances. All thats needed is that one important target to be shutdown and groups get steamrolled, epidemic is just a chancy thing trying to get more then 1 important target and you can't rely on chance all the time.

Personally I use BHA for most areas, sometimes using BHA-volley-splinter for decent aoe damage. Physicals are better handled with enfeebleing blood on my necro hero since they don't have to spend 2 skills, one of them elite, to disable them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vexed

I haven't picked up an ebon bowstring to use EDA with yet, but I'm sure in physical-heavy areas, that's a vastly superior skill to BHA.

How insightful. Would you also say that prot monks aren't good vs mallyx and that minion masters aren't good in corpse-less areas? Just messing with you

SnipiousMax · Mar 31, 2008, 06:05 PM // 18:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Meth

I agree on epidemic being overrated in most instances. All thats needed is that one important target to be shutdown and groups get steamrolled, epidemic is just a chancy thing trying to get more then 1 important target and you can't rely on chance all the time.

I think you nailed it. Very few and far between are the areas were there are more than one critical target in a mob. And even when you are working against those groups, the chances of the critical target standing right next to each other are even slimer. Epidemic's Range is so low as to almost completely render it useless, despite it's relatively low cost. BHA is great, don't misunderstand me, but I think it's frequent pairing with epidemic isn't neccesarily all it's cracked up to be.

And as long as you've got enough oomph to give you enough time to take down critical targets, I'm not sure you're getting your money's worth out of EDA either. If you can survive the assault long enough to take out the healer of the group, everything else drops pretty fast.