User:GuyPerfect/TheToxicand

Character Background

The origins of the Toxicand are anyone's guess, but its mission is clear: to wreak havoc just for kicks. It is not a person, and is neither beast nor machine. It is a concoction: an amalgamation of acid, mucous, poisons, bile, venom and other assorted hazardous chemicals. This grotesque, caustic substance, referred to as "the toxicant," was somehow animated and sealed within a combat enclosure, which it controls freely. The completed entity is known as "the Toxicand" by its unknown creator.

Whoever formed the battle suit that the Toxicand controls has some unusual resources. The armor has been shown to contain technologies strongly resembling those of the Praetorian Resistance and Imperial Defense Force, and seemingly contains a prototype majesty capacitor for tactical stealth. Its weaponry seems to be based primarily on Arachnos mace and ordnance tech, but has been modified for an increased chemical payload. In addition to its weapons, the Toxicand is equipped with a fluid launcher that allows it to throw some volume of itself at its foes, condemning them to a corrosive and viscous doom.

Curiously, the Toxicand emits no apparent odors.

Character Details

Statistics: Name:   The Toxicand Server: Pinnacle Alignment: Rogue Archetype: Arachnos Soldier Level: 50 Primary: Bane Spider Soldier Secondary: Bane Spider Training Epic: Leviathan Mastery

Powers:

Screenshot:

Gotta Be Different

It shouldn't be too difficult to discern that the unknown creator of this monstrosity was Bob the Biohazard, whose roll is nearly identical: a Guy Perfect deviation from the norm, with some poison-based thematic aspect. Many things were learned during the production of the original Petless Mastermind, and among them were the desperately low Mastermind damage output (petless, remember) and the curiousness of Toxic damage. The introduction of the Degenerative Interface abilities pushed me over the top, and I set out to concoct the perfect recipe for a Toxic damage dealer.

What's the point? Turns out Toxic is one of the least common damage types; not a lot dishes it out, and not a lot protects you from it. Contrast with the game's equivalent to Kryptonite, Psionic damage, which is usually unresisted but has whole Power Sets dedicated to it. Toxic is only moderately resisted--inconsistently at that--and very scarce coming from player characters. Psionic-themed damage dealers are a dime a dozen, but I've never encountered anyone dedicated to Toxic. I've met some characters with gross/slimy thematic concepts, but never a build mechanically tuned to Toxic damage.

The character actually came from a level 50 Arachnos Soldier I hd laying around since Issue 12 and never deleted since... well, you have one level 50 Arachnos Solder, you have 'em all. In the end, the character is very entertaining to play, and is actually an effective combatant as a departure from the petless Mastermind that led to its creation.

Oh, the Research

Toxic damage isn't just scarce among player characters: it's nearly nonexistent. There are three Power Sets that have any dedicated Toxic output--Dual Pistols, Spines and Thorny Assault--and they all treat it as a secondary attribute; Dual Pistols even going so far as to making the Toxic component optional. The Arachnos archetypes do have a bit of a devotion as well, since their melee attacks and some of their ranged have Toxic damage mixed in. So the question to answer was this: which archetype, with which powers, will put out the most Toxic damage over some arbitrary time period?

I was fortunate enough to have someone with some easy access to the powers information run a query for me exporting the Toxic damage values for all player attacks that deal it. A very generalized list of the powers in order of most Toxic damage output looks like this (Dual Pistols powers assume Chemical Ammunition is enabled):

Poisonous Ray (Bane Spider Soldier)

Hail of Bullets (Dual Pistols)

Bile Spray (Leviathan Mastery)

Ripper (Spines, Thorny Assault)

Venom Grenade (Arachnos Soldier)

Degenerative Interface (75% chance for Toxic procs)

Executioner's Shot (Dual Pistols)

Impale (Spines, Thorny Assault)

Throw Spines/Fling Thorns (Spines, Thorny Assault)

Dart Burst (Widow Training)

(Other Bane Spider melee attacks)

Piercing Rounds (Dual Pistols)

Lash Lash (Demon Summoning)

(Other Spines and Thorny Assault attacks)

(Other Widow Training attacks)

Poisonous Ray (Mace Mastery)

Crack Whip Crack Whip (Demon Summoning)

(Other Dual Pistols attacks)

Corruption Corruption (Demon Summoning)

Thorny Darts (Thorny Assault)

Acid Arrow (Trick Arrow)

Suppressive Fire (Dual Pistols)

As stated, this is a general list. Depending on the Archetype, certain powers will move up and down the list, especially when comparing Blaster and Defender versions of the Dual Pistols attacks. For the sake of consideration, though, powers higher up in the list should be favored over powers at the bottom, and it's still a tough call. Not included are powers used by summonable entities such as Acid Mortar and Hellfire Gargoyle.

Intrinsically, Blasters with Dual Pistols and Leviathan Mastery will deal the most Toxic damage as long as they use all of their attacks. Hail of Bullets is a good third of that, though, and that power doesn't lend itself well to general combat strategies. The next step down is Bane Spider Soldier, which has access to 3 pure-Toxic attacks; all of which are in the top 5 for most Toxic damage dealt of any attack. While the numbers individually don't quite meet up with Blaster, Bane Spiders do get access to three significant Damage Resistance debuffs (Venom Grenade, Surveillance and Arctic Breath) for a total of -75% to Toxic in particular, wheras the Pistols/Leviathan Blaster doesn't get any Resistance debuffs to speak of.

Accommodating the not-insignificant amount of Toxic contribution from Degenerative Interface, the Bane Spider pretty handsomely wins out when it's all said and done.