Is AP Drain Monstro Mara still good?

[Omegus]

A fresh 40 should run something like this:

https://builder.returnofreckoning.com/c ... 3,521,8428

Once better gear and rr you go this:

https://builder.returnofreckoning.com/c ... ,8435,8432

Jagged edge or flanking for 4th tactic

Growing instability tactic is more valuable than mutated aggressor if you run fof. If you really don't want to drop MA you could probably drop wave on mutilation too. My point is, for a class with pretty constant 50% crit crit amplifier is an insanely good trade and should be prioritised above most skills.

The newbie version isn't running FoF or GI, likely because it's for a fresh 40/40 who is likely in terrible gear and has no AP regen, not enough mastery points and not much crit reduction so FoF will make them blow up even quicker. For a 40/40 build for a new player it's fine.

[Cyrylius]

40/40 mara with fof is still more tanky than invader choppa, or at least comparable. And I do really belive that playing with fof from the beginning will teach you positioning much faster.

[reyleuor]

One of the big reasons Exhaustive Strikes stopped being used was because it turned out the tactic was bugged and was draining more AP over a shorter period than it should've been.

Patch notes from when it was fixed: viewtopic.php?t=45820&hilit=exhaustivedrift boss

The old lockdown Sav/Monsro build for AP drain and morale drain no longer works as the AP drain was fixed and the morale drain was reworked and made pretty useless (now a morale stopper). On top of that, due to changes to how morale damage works, morale bombs are no longer meta so there's less incentive to drain morale en mass.

Instead, you're now speccing to try and do actual damage which means mixing Brutality with Monstrosity. From Brutality comes Growing Instability (crit damage tactic) and Mutated Aggressor (damage boost ability), and from Monstrosity you get Concussive Jolt (aoe knockdown), Mouth of Tzeentch (frontal cone interupt, very important for countering coordinated enemy channels), with some extra utility from Wave of Mutilation (AOE DoT with a weapon skill and initiative debuff). Main damage is Demolition (spam cone AOE) and Wrecking Ball (channeled AOE damage).

Your 3 main tactics are Feeding on Fear (crit chance boost), Growing Instability (crit damage boost) and Piercing Bite (armour bypass for mutated attacks, which is pretty much all of the useful ones in Monstrosity), and the final tactic being something like Brute Force (strength) if your stats are bad, or Jagged Edge (corp DoT on crit), or Flanking (bonus damage attacking from back or sides). I've heard of some people using the Insane Whispers tactic (cast time increase) for situations where healers will be blobbed up such as pushing into keeps, or using the Hulking Brute tactic (passive toughness and init) just to try and stay alive longer in huge fights, but I don't believe either are particularly common or meta. I could be wrong on that though.

At 40/70 and 40/Sov+2 it's possible to get useful stuff from all 3 trees if you're willing to give up Wrecking Ball.

as good as dragon gun?