User:GuyPerfect/TheToxicand

Character Background

When Rachel Biggers, otherwise known as "Bobbie" (and the secret identity Bob the Biohazard), returned to Paragon City in order to show off her new super hero identity, it was just before the Praetorian invasion. She was able to team up with her former colleagues (which were the ragtag group of thugs she'd trained to be effective thieves and combatants) to help ward off the interdimensional threat. Just as Bobbie thought she'd seen all there was to see and plundered all there was to plunder, a new set of targets knocked on the door with technologies unlike anything seen in her own world. In particular, these Praetorian warriors were substantially tougher than all but the toughest cronies here on Primal Earth, and that's just the run-of-the-mill cannon fodder. They're still ordinary humans, though, which means they have a source of power not previously available on Primal Earth. Things took a turn for the more interesting, and Bobbie and her comrades took their first opportunity to jump through a portal and explore this curious new world.

Even the underdogs in Praetoria, called the Resistance, had some formidable armor and firepower at their disposal. And well they should, lurking in the tunnels below the city and fending off the monstrosities that are the Ghouls, the Devouring Earth and even the Praetorian police and military forces. Those police and military forces themselves had an impressive array of technological doodads and Bobbie couldn't wait to get her hands on some of it. She and her team set out to make a sweep through the entire city and the tunnels beneath it, bashing heads and kicking tail all in the name of science... mostly. With a new selection of questionably acquired combat equipment in tow, Bobbie set out to investigate what made the Praetorians so powerful. As it turns out, it wasn't the combat equipment. The armor was certainly top-notch, but it wasn't anything exceedingly remarkable compared to armors from her home world. And while the weaponry could lay on the hurt in its own regard, it wasn't especially powerful compared to Primal weaponry; in fact, Bobbie had seen better weapons in her day. Something in Praetoria was empowering its army; something mystical that couldn't be succinctly expressed in the combat tech.

Under the guidance of the demigod Prometheus and the Oroboros mender Lazarus, Bobbie got the answer she was looking for: the Praetorians were empowered by an entity known as the Well of the Furies, which is where the powers of Statesman and Lord Recluse come from. If anything could improve her strength and potions, that was it. Bobbie joined forces with many heroes and villains alike to take the fight back to the Praetorians and take their power for herself. With enough samples of Incarnate-augmented technology and magics, and water from the Well itself, Bobbie went straight to work looking for new and unusual applications for it.

Some time earlier, Bobbie had already encountered the phenomenon of Blood Coral in Sharkhead Isle; the essence of the Leviathan. She had used it in conjunction with her own combat armor and toxic weaponry to create her Bob the Biohazard super-powered identity. Integrating mystical resources into her otherwise tangible inventions was no mystery to her, so she began to search for ways to put the power of the Well of the Furies to use. What she discovered is that the Well is very powerful indeed, and its power can be controlled by anyone determined enough to take it. Among other anomalies, the power of the Incarnate can be used to augment a warrior's prowess, construct an army of apparitions, imbue a wide array of enhancements to allies and much more. Combined with the Coral's ability to animate everyday objects, Bobbie put together a most unusual plan: to create a warrior made of her stolen tech and trademark poisons.

The project began with a core essence: a form of existence that would be formed to go out into the world and fight. In particular, this would be a potion in and of itself, animated by the Blood Coral and empowered by the Well of the Furies. Bobbie traveled between worlds a number of times to collect samples of some of the most powerful toxins in existence. In addition to her own creation, she gathered venom from the Snakes inhabiting Mercy Island; corrosive bile and buoyant protoplasm from the Praetorian Devouring Earth; enchanted snow from the Winter Horde of all things; and self-regenerating enzymes from the Hydra. The final concoction, rich in energy and teeming with sentient intelligence, was dubbed "the toxicant" by Bobbie and kept in a temporary storage cooler while a housing was built for it.

The toxicant was to be sealed within a combat enclosure: a battle suit outfitted with the best and most caustic weaponry available. Defensively, the suit was largely constructed with Resistance and IDF armor along with a mix of traditional metal plating and some thruster-powered rocket boots for mobility. Offensively, weaponry was very diverse and powerful, but Bobbie settled on Arachnos mace and ordnance tech due to its already-toxic design elements. She customized an Arachnos Mace to increase its chemical payload and sharp-force bludgeoning capability. She also tweaked a Wolf Spider assault rifle to create a customized grenade launcher outfitted with a particularly potent variety of the standard-issue Arachnos Venom Grenade: this particular version would draw toxicant from within the power suit as an additional coating. In addition to its versatile weaponry, the suit was configured with a fluid launcher in the head that could spray toxicant wholesale over the enemy, and a high-powered, slow-charging liquid compressor in the hands that fling frigid shards of toxicant at lightning-fast speeds. Due to the regenerative nature of the toxicant resulting largely from its Hydra component, pressure-release valves were installed all throughout the enclosure, making the whole thing dangerous to come into contact with.

This completed entity--a suit of armor filled with intelligent slime--was named "the Toxicand" by Bobbie and was sent out to wreak some havoc on the criminal underworld in the name of science... sort of.

Character Details

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

Powers:

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Gotta Be Different

As mentioned before, the 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 had 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 (Demon Summoning)

(Other Spines and Thorny Assault attacks)

(Other Widow Training attacks)

Poisonous Ray (Mace Mastery)

Crack Whip (Demon Summoning)

(Other Dual Pistols attacks)

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.