Just showing it’s possible to heal Frosty without an “optimal” healer build – look at Mecha-Arisa’s totally ghetto Concentration form!.
Gear and stats are shown at the end of the video. Read on for Mecha-Arisa’s build.
Introduction
My goal with Mecha-Arisa was to make a Support character that was as solo-viable as possible, i.e. without sacrificing on DPS or survivability while solo farming.
I’ll be honest and say my first day with access to Mecha-Arisa for F&I was rough. Frosty hits harder than just about every other enemy in the game, with the possible exception of Mega-D Terminators. Originally built as a bubble build, I found that bubbles alone don’t really cut it for mitigation.
Adapting for F&I
As a healer I like the people holding aggro to have a healthy buffer of survivability to account for reaction time – it’s just too risky and inefficient to constantly babysit one person. That just leaves too little room for contingencies:
- What if I need to heal someone else?
- What if I sneeze?
- Should I pop my AO?
- Can I hit F1 and heal myself?
If I blink for two seconds and the tank is dead, there just isn’t enough time to make snap decisions like that. So in cases like that, rather than boosting healing, boosting mitigation is more important.
To make tanks in F&I less squishy, a bit of knowledge of the meta is needed here. The two main mitigation stats are Damage Resistance (DR) and Dodge/Avoid. In F&I, Dodge/Avoid is golden – with a 100% Dodge LR tank, Frosty is going to tickle and you don’t really need to worry about the tank dying. So the main worry is the DR tanks, and it can be safely assumed that these tanks are stacking DR enough that they will be in steep diminishing returns.
Of course, huge boosts like AoRP will still help, but that would require huge sacrifices in other areas like DPS.
My solution was that Mecha-Arisa’s build was fine for the most part – I simply had to swap out Gas Pellets for Sigils of Ebon Weakness to get that extra buffer I needed. The debuff from sigils would lower the healing she needed to put out. The other support powers I had were Empathic Healing, Protection Field, Mindful Reinforcement and Divine Renewal – and that’s all the support she needs.
That’s already one power too much for my liking though – Sigils are so out of theme! Post-F&I, I need to account for the possibility that attacks can punch through bubbles and I need to spend time actually healing. In this new meta I’ll probably do a Lifedrain-Vampiric Sympathy/Seraphim healer that eschews bubbles completely for a DPS healer concept, but that’s another alt for another day.
Build Choices
As for superstat choices, Primary Ego makes a lot of sense for stacking Presence. With Specializations, Presence will increase your Crit Chance, Defense and Offense, and Ego’s severity specs means crit heals are worth it. Presence on an Aura of Primal Majesty (AoPM) support doesn’t need explaining. Constitution is there to make sure she lives through most random stuff (yes someone tripped the fire ring in the video and she died to 80k damage 🙁 ). The boost during Ego Surge is nothing to complain about either though.
The rest of the build is what you’d find on a typical Aura of Primal Majesty DPS – Two-Gun Mojo, Lead Tempest, Ego Surge…
The Actual Build
Name: Mecha-Arisa
Archetype: Freeform
Super Stats:
Level 6: Ego (Primary)
Level 10: Presence (Secondary)
Level 15: Constitution (Secondary)
Talents:
Level 1: Divinity
Level 6: Shrug It Off
Level 9: Ascetic
Level 12: Showmanship
Level 15: Acrobat
Level 18: Shooter
Level 21: Finesse
Powers:
Level 1: Gunslinger
Level 1: Two-Gun Mojo (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 6: Killer Instinct
Level 8: Aura of Primal Majesty (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Energy Shield
Level 14: Masterful Dodge
Level 17: Ego Surge (Rank 2, Nimble Mind)
Level 20: Protection Field (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 23: Mindful Reinforcement (Rank 2, Revitalizing Boost)
Level 26: Lead Tempest (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 29: Empathic Healing (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 32: Divine Renewal (Rank 2)
Level 35: Concentration
Level 38: Sigils of Ebon Weakness (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Travel Powers:
Level 6: Displacement Acrobatics (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Jet Pack
Specializations:
Ego: Force of Will (2/2)
Ego: Insight (3/3)
Ego: Follow Through (3/3)
Ego: Sixth Sense (2/3)
Warden: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Warden: Ruthless (2/2)
Warden: Elusive (2/2)
Warden: The Best Defense (3/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: Focused Strikes (3/3)
Vindicator: Mass Destruction (2/3)
Mastery: Ego Mastery (1/1)