How do you decide on gear loadouts?

Battleborn Battleborn General Discussion
#3

I base my gear on the following things:

  1. Which mode am I playing? Capture has less shards available, so I go for cheaper gear. Maybe even a free shard item. The other two modes are plentiful so I can run 2-3k shards of gear
  2. Do you remember to buy gear and get shards? If you have trouble using gear, but like to buy stuff? then get a few free items with downsides you don’t mind. -Heal Power on an assassin is a beautiful thing.
  3. Either play to your strengths or shore up your weaknesses. If you have a lot of trouble moving around the arena, then consider move speed. If you keep almost getting away, then get more shield/health. If you get killed while reloading a lot, look at reload items, etc.

To answer your questions, I find wisecarver’s points really good. It depends on your character of choice.
My personal preference for CC gear though, is don’t. 10-15% just isn’t that much. On a two second stun, you’re shaving off about a quart of a second.

As a general math comment, percentage changes have a higher effect on big numbers. If your Ultimate is on an 80 second cooldown, then 10% takes off a whole 8 seconds. (vs a 50 second cooldown). If your damage per attack is high (like ghalt), then +attack damage is going to give you a bigger initial burst. etc.

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#4

Zero activation cost shard generation gear is good on any character, you can choose to activate your other gear items early or build for quick levels and map control.

I currently run a purple attack damage/attack speed item and a blue attack speed item, I main Deande and Thorn and these items work well on both but MUCH better on Deande. I exeriment more with Thorn, skill damage and cooldown are good options for her burst damage playstyle. It really depends on who you play as most, if you play Oscar Mike go for reload speed and attack speed for huge DPS output, if you play Montana stack max health and health regen items, if you play Kleese or Shayne use shield buffs. Cater to your characters strengths, not their weaknesses.

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#5

The key is to look forr deficiencies in your character that are impacting your playstyle. Feel their attacks are sluggish? Attack speed gear. Have trouble closing the gap or getting away? Movement/Sprint speed. Having to retreat a lot? Increased health or shields.

What you have in your loadout is going to somewhat depend on how you play the character. My suggestion is to just experiment and keep an eye out for things that don’t “feel quite right” and boost those.

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#6

I’ve been thinking the same thing about -CC duration gear, just doesn’t seem worth it. Thanks for the tip about percentages vs numbers, that is super helpful.

Obviously mode makes a difference I just didn’t want to create a massive wall of text in my initial post, it was getting long enough already. I tend to run a shards per second item in meltdown because buildables are so important there. In Incursion I don’t think it’s as worth it.

#7

Thanks, I have been debating if it’s better to cater to their strengths or weaknesses. I think you have the right of it to focus on what they’re good at. Appreciate the advice.

#8

Catering to weaknesses is somewhat redundant, there are 25 versatile characters so there’s no sense in trying to balance out a character when you can just use someone else who fits the role you want then further enhance their best qualities with gear.

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#9

i am just going to tell u this go play the story on advanced and hardcore cuz u get some pretty good legendary gear the mission i recommenced is algorithm and the sentinel

#10

Not necessarily true. A slight boost to a weak skill can make the character a perfect fit for you. Example, Boldur has an incredibly slow attack speed, but his defensive play fits my playstyle. So I pop an attack speed on him and he’s perfect for me.

Now you might say, “Just play Galiea, she is survivable with a faster attack”, but her survivability is more aggressive than defensive and just doesn’t fit me as well. So I boost the parts of Boldur that suit my playstyle (the other 2 pieces are for health regen and max health, do it’s not like I only boost his weaknesses.)

#11

In point 2, I would think the opposite :slight_smile:

With proper positioning and cautious gameplay, I probably don’t need higher run speed for her. I put higher run speed on characters which needs to close gaps to kill, melee or Ambra…

Just wanted to write totally opposite point of view, I am not saying that this is the correct one.

#12

Yeah I’m with you I have plenty of mobility with her

With thorn I go
Attack Damage
Skill Damage
Health Regen

Right now I have all 3 with 0 cost with negatives that don’t hurt her so I can just start building right away to level faster.

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#13

There are bit more factors to analyse… It also depends how exactly is the boost being applied…

The +XY health is more useful for low health characters than high health (the % portion is much higher) (well just theoretically, +health is always nice thing :slight_smile: )

The +% speed theoretically not that perfect for attributes with low base value (in your case, it could be the attack speed)…

But I would like to know, how +% attack speed applies… Do fast attack speed characters get more bonus ? If so then you gain most from applying such bonuses to high attack speed chars

I also wonder whether +% attack speed applies to Ambra’s beam primary attack…

edit: Maybe I am minmaxing too much, ha :slight_smile:

#14

Yes I was thinking that +health regen would be really useful for her too…

#15

I choose loadouts to compliment my strengths and shore up weaknesses. e.g., as ISIC I choose speed bonuses and healing, when tanking. I choose health regen and shields when running and gunning.

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#16

That’s a fkn badass gear build

Like, seriously… :astonished:

#17

If I understand your question right, “yes”. If I have a +10% attack speed bonus:
A character with 100 attacks per minute gets 10 extra attacks, while a character with 20 attacks per minute only gets two extra attacks.

In both scenarios, you’re getting an overall 10% increase in dps (not counting any reloads, etc), but the higher attack speed has more chances to proc on-hit effects (like criticals)

As for Ambra’s beam, I’ve heard that attack speed increases beam ticks, but haven’t been able to confirm.

#18

You need to have different load outs for different characters and different situations.

  1. Game type.
  2. Hero
  3. What you plan on doing during the match. (Ex. Are you collecting shards? Are you leading the way? ARe you healing? Just dps? Going ninja?
#19

OK, you’ve confirmed what I was thinking, thank you.

#20

For PVE I use the best I have (only blue so far)
Healer + health regen + cooldown (for healers, duh)
Attack Damage + health regen + cooldown (for hard hitters or melee/ranged combos)
Attack Speed + health regen + cooldown (for bullet hose, fast strikers)
Reload + health regen + cooldown (for all magazine based main weapons)

For Incursion and Meltdown I use blue/purple
Build cost reduction/shard gen + Healer + cooldown
Build cost reduction/shard gen + Attack Damage + cooldown
Build cost reduction/shard gen + Attack Speed + cooldown
Build cost reduction/shard gen + Reload + cooldown

For Capture I use whites
health regen + attack damage + cooldown

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#21

It’s different for each character, you either want to augment their strengths, or buff up their weaknesses, and it comes down to which one feels more vital to succeed.

For instance, on Kleese, I go with shield strength, damage reduction, cooldown reduction, and health regen attributes, because he’s just a little too squishy, cooldown helps keep him alive, and a little health regen lets him stay in lane almost indefinitely. Buffing his bad points so he can stay alive and keep doing his job.

With Montana I go with all health regen items, and health increase items. He’s never going to have a shield for long, and when he gets under %50 his regen goes through the roof. It helps him stay alive and keep pulling enemy team bullets, which is what he needs to do, dealing damage is not my biggest concern. buffing what he does well, because it helps him keep filling his role.

With El Dragon I go with sprint speed, damage reduction, movement speed and attack speed, while he’s good at these, he’s better with more, and dealing damage keeps him alive better for me than him being tanky, buffing what he’s good at.

With Whiskey Tango, I go all attack speed… seriously, I have 4 attack speed attributes, it’s what he really fails in, so that’s what I buff, and then a little crit and a little skill damage.

The point is, it depends on what you need to do, pick what’s going to help you do that better.

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#22

…Pick any topic in the World today and you get 50/50 split opinions. :slight_smile:
Thing is, when I am faster as her I can help my team much more, especially on a map like The Experiment.