I've got a Venomous Breath character just now and I'm using Pestilence on him. He's coming up to 40 and I'm trying to finally make up my mind what passive I want him to use when he's not using Regeneration (and he doesn't use Regeneration often).

TL;DR version: Which do you think I'll get the best results from: Pestilence + Con, Ice Form + End or Fire Form + Pre
(cause I just realised how long this post got o_O )

All three of these I can squeeze into my concept without causing my brain to heamorage. The character is undead & an embodiment of the Horseman of the Apocalypse Pestilence. The first is a no-brainer, the second represents the chill of the grave he brings with him and the third is based on the ignition of all the noxious gases that he can exude.

Yeah, he's not pretty.

He's more comfortable with civilians running away from him than any of my other guys are

Pestilence (SSing Con)

1. Con means more HP
2. Resurgence will be more effective
3. Pestilence adds about 150 dps to any attack
4. Pestilence deals about 150 dps to anything in melee range, whether I'm hitting it or not
5. increased effective dps vs anything that heals
6. can do all this while I'm blocking

Ice Form (SSing End)

1. End means that I'll be getting fun benefit out of the SSed Rec (currently I'm hitting the top of my end bar)
2. damage scales with end (how much dps this would provide, I don't know)
3. dps gain is based on the attack that I'm using
4. Small elemental resistance buff
5. chills enemies in melee range (good for gaining breathing room/chasing with DE)
6. only gain benefit when I'm attack and only to what I'm attacking
7. doesn't help the Force powers

Firey Form (SSing Pre)

1. Pre would mean I'd get more out of DE's heal
2. Pre means more threat reduction so I can dps more in a group without pulling agro
3. damage scales with Pre (how much dps this would provide, I don't know)
4. dps gain is based on the attack that I'm using
5. Small elemental resistance buff
6. small melee range fire damage (~50 dps iirc)
7. only gain benefit when I'm attack and only to what I'm attacking (fire damage barely worth mentioning here)
8. doesn't help the Force powers

I have one Power & currently 6 Adv points spare in this build:

Build by championBuilder 0.4.1

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Bob of Pestilence: Level 40 Champion

Superstats:
Level 5: Super Recovery

Powers:
Level 1: Infernal Bolts
Level 1: Venomous Breath -- Rank 3, Rank 2, Infectious Bile
Level 5: Regeneration
Level 5: Tunneling
Level 8: Devour Essence -- Rank 3, Rank 2
Level 11: Aspect Of The Infernal -- Rank 3, Rank 2
Level 14: Force Shield -- Force Sheath, Rank 2
Level 17: Resurgence
Level 20: Shadow Shroud -- Rank 3, Rank 2
Level 23: Supernatural Power
Level 26: Immolation -- Rank 2, Rank 3
Level 29: Force Eruption -- Gravitational Polarity
Level 32: Force Detonation
Level 35: Ice Sheath -- Rank 3, Rank 2
Level 35: Fire Flight

Talents:
Level 6: Quick Recovery
Level 9: Shrug It Off
Level 12: Prodigy
Level 15: Boundless Reserves
Level 18: Amazing Stamina
Level 21: Lasting Impression

Force powers vs toxic chains: Purely a concept choice as I can think of no way to make chains work, whereas with force I can mentally work this in as being bases on the gasses that build up during putrification of a corpse (ew! I told you he's not pretty). Chains don't fit.

The three clickie offensives: I can kinda work in as well (see explanations of the passives + well, darkness and evil and decay all kinda work for Shroud)

I'm probably gonna ditch Supernatural Power to get Defile when the next patch hits.

You should probably ditch Force Detonation instead.

Ice & Fire Form should both provide a larger dps increase for the Toxic powers than Pestilence. My initial reaction is that without more heals/team buffs, you'll find more value in END/REC (and thus Ice Form) than PRE/REC.

I find that going with presence is the real winner with Infernal because it boosts Fire Form and the healing from Devour Essence. Being able to dish out some very respectable numbers and heal yourself is a large plus in my book.

In addition having high PRE lets you sneak in some support powers if that's your thing as well.


I think you're hurting yourself with this choice. Force Detonation is not boosted by Aspect of the Infernal or Fire Form. Whereas Vicious Cyclone is. Vicious Cyclone does some very nice damage and you could safely remove venomous breath and force detonation from your build if you took it.

I should explain that I'm hoping the next patch will fix it so that Force Detonation counts as knockback for getting stacks of my Aspect. This also plays in the favour of Pestilence in my mind, as it does apply the Pestilence DOT. But like you say, no benefit from Ice/Firey Form.

Not gonna happen ;)

Gaa-ah!

I'm not planning on taking any actual support abilities... and they nerfed the heal on Devour Essense last patch so I'm not really sure the heal's gonna be good enough to win this battle, even with the Pre SSed.

Fiery Form IMO.

IIRC the heal on DE with Fiery Form, Aspect and Brawler is about 400hps. Not as good as a real heal, but certainly pretty nice when considering the 2000dps you're doing at the same time.

And heals really do make a massive difference to your survival. Even simple stuff like Conviction and BCR.

devour essence and mindful reinforcement makes you remarkably sturdy for an offensive build without hampering your damage too much.