Bokou's Psionic Time Traveler (8/14) cable dps leveling pve pvp
Guide by Bokou Last update at Aug 17th 2013, 07:18

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Bodyslider Bomb 1
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This is a guide for a non-soldier Cable build. Right now, Energy Pulse combined with Vortex Grenade and high crit%+crit damage is the popular build. I tried the Soldier build and it can put out some mean damage but to be honest I'm not very good at it. Sure I could get some great DPS against training dummies, but in Midtown I found myself moving around too much and not getting off as many shots as I should have or simply missing too often due to lag or me just sucking. Also, I really like Cable's Psion tree and am not a big fan of his gun spam. I made this build to fit MY play style, not because I think it's the best possible DPS build. This build is very gear dependent but you have some points spare to make up for some of it. So here we go:



POWER TREE EXPLAINED:



-=SOLDIER=-



Vortex Grenade: This is your main DPS and you want to lay down as many as possible. Keep an eye on that cooldown timer until you get a feel for it so you can be efficient with this skill.



Concussion Blast: This is your LMB and also gives a synergy for Vortex Grenade. At rank 20, it gives 20% damage increase and 100% duration increase to Vortex Grenade. Also it provides a decently long stun for those "OH SNAP!" moments in Midtown or simply to freeze unsuspecting victims that wander into your Vortex Grenade.



-=TACTICIAN=-



Veteran Warrior: This skill as terrible diminishing returns after you get around 10 points in this. Honestly, for this build 1 point is fine since you're depending on your dodge% for your crit%. More on that later in the gear section of the build.



Vigilant Aura: This skill also has terrible diminishing returns starting after 1 point. It does give you a decent boost though at one point and all your skills use spirit so why not?



Defensive Roll: Don't worry, you won't actually be rolling anywhere. You just want the dodge% passive from this skill.



Quick Bodyslide: I know what you're thinking, "WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU WHERE THEM POINTS AT!?!?!" Relax, we do use Quick Bodyslide, but more on that in the gear section.



-=PSION=-



Kinetic Repulsion: No surprise here, this skill is super useful. Keeps projectiles and melee mobs away from you... well, kind of.



Psychokinetic Barrier: This skill doesn't have much up-front bang to it and has a pretty long duration before all of the damage is dealt. At rank 20 it deals 1632 damage over 10 seconds. It's pretty good damage considering it is a fire and forget type of skill and it fits the basic play style of this build. More on that later though.



Telekinetic Shield: 33% damage reduction is nice. Also it has a synergy with the above two skills. This one is pretty self explanatory, try to keep it up always.



THE BASICS OF PLAYING THIS BUILD:



The general play style for this build is pretty straight forward. See mobs, turn on Telekinetic Shield (and Kinetic Repulsion if you want), lay down Vortex Grenade, lay down Psychokinetic Barrier, then Quick Bodyslide around to keep out of range of mobs while firing Concussion Blast and laying down more Vortex Grenades/Psychokinetic Barriers as you need.



One reason I love playing this build is because I can lay down all my goodies, then teleport around collecting experience orbs and loot while everything is dying around me. I never have to really try hard to kill stuff since I can cover such a huge area of the map. I usually kill some mobs quickly and while I'm collecting the loot/orbs they dropped, others have died and it's time to collect more loot/orbs. By time I've finished collecting, everything is dead and it's time to move on. This fits my play style more than a normal Soldier heavy build.



The reason I mentioned this build is very gear dependent in the introduction is because we use a lot of spirit. However, the artifact combo makes it so we can regain large amounts of spirit fairly quickly, and at the same time cause all our DoTs to start critically hitting everything. That's right, don't be afraid to get near mobs and let them _try_ to hit you. When you dodge you get 50 spirit back and all your powers (including the ones already on the ground) will get 100% crit% for 1.5 seconds. This isn't as noticeable as on a Soldier build, but when you're hitting the entire screen the damage boost is nice.



GEAR:



Gear is really important for this build, especially the artifact selection. Pym's Shrinking Serum is pretty vital to keep our spirit up so we can throw around our powers and teleport as much as we want without having to stop. Also, the Fearsome Fist gives us more dodge% and gives us 100% crit% for 1.5 seconds every time we dodge. With this build, you should be dodging a lot which means a lot of spirit regen and a lot of crits.



For your Bodysuit and your Armor you want dodge% and spirit. I usually try to get 4.5%+ dodge and 50+ spirit on each of these pieces for every hero I have. I have some pieces that go up to 12% dodge on one though so the more you can get, the better. Remember, dodge is key to this build. It makes your close to invincible, regen huge amounts of spirit, and also increases your damage through crits. All that in one stat, so get it! Also, these two pieces of gear are the only ones that give you "grants ____ skill" affix. Now I'm going to put my foot in my mouth real quick because in beta I went off on how useless of an affix this was. Well, now it's pretty dang useful for this build. One skill that would be nice to have granted at rank 8 is Defensive Roll. Not because you would ever use that disgusting roll, but because it gives you +4% dodge just like that. This is great while leveling and putting your points in the more important skills and saving Defensive Roll for your last skill. Also, you NEED "Grants Quick Bodyslide at rank 8" affix on one of these two pieces. This saves you 8 skill points and gives you a decent range on your teleport with no investment. Dynamic Aura would also be sweet to have.



Here's an image of the distance Quick Bodyslide gives you at rank 8: http://i.imgur.com/tmbUCQX.jpg?1



For your boots you want +skill to your favorite skills. Basically Vortex Grenade, but if you really like Kinetic Repulsion or Concussion Blast then follow your heart. Just remember Vortex Grenade is your bread and your butter. Defensive Roll (if you can't get 'grants' affix) or Veteran Warrior are also some nice passives to pump. Don't look for these affixes actively, but if it's there, bonus! Also +movement speed is only obtainable here and who doesn't want to go fast? Oh yea, and get some spirit here too.



On your Cyberware, you want +crit%, +spirit, +skills, and +damage on crit isn't bad to have either. You really want the +skills and spirit though, the others are just great bonuses.



Your weapon should have the most damage you can get with +big number to Energy damage and +big number to useful skills. Remember you aren't using any basic attacks so the affixes that are normally nice like freeze aren't nice for you. However, gain spirit/health after you kill an enemy is nice, but the +skills is the most important affix.



A note about cosmics: I really really really prefer the "Bulwark" cosmic items. These are the ones that proc invulnerability when you get hit and it's really nice to have. I use two items that have this, one at 5% chance and one at 6% chance and it's really nice. Combined with another 4% chance on my Juggernaut medallion and 42% dodge chance, I'm pretty sturdy and suggest everyone to try and get this flavor of cosmics when possible.



Your costume should be stacked with dodge% affixes and you want a core that fits your play style. The lifesteal doesn't work too good right now but if it did it would be awesome. The 25% health+spirit on medkit is nice especially before 44 when you can use the Pym's. Invulnerable for 2 seconds is great too but not as useful as the flat 25%. +1 energy will give you a damage boost to Vortex Grenade and Concussion Blast so I prefer having that. +1 energy and 5% lifesteal is the ideal core I personally want but I'm hoping it gets fixed soon.



For your medallion, I personally use Juggernaut. I just love the invulnerability proc, the defense boost and the health. Cable is pretty squishy when you don't keep up his Kinetic Repulsion or Telekinetic Shield so I like having the extra defense/health just in case. Bullseye medallion would be nice for some extra crit damage if that's what you're into. Dr Doom gives power duration which is nice for Vortex Grenade and your shields but I personally hate the fear on it (especially when I'm a melee hero next to the guy in the Doom medallion) so I stay away from it. Elektra gives you some more dodge if you're hurting and deals damage on dodge. Elektra medallion used to break Fearsome Fist's crit proc but it's fixed now. I also messed around with MODOK and Madame Hydra but I just prefer Juggernaut myself. There isn't one medallion that is a must-have so find one that fits your play style.



A FEW MODIFICATIONS:



You may want to take one point in Mental Resilience for the CC break which is really great to have but I just don't have room on my quickbar for it. If you're good at switching skills fast on your quickbar than you want this but I'm not too good at it.



Techno Organic Reconstruction can be useful since you will have time to use it while your DoTs do the dirty work. If you get a 'grants' affix for it, try it out and see if you like it. I would never max it but if you have enough cosmics a couple points could give you a decent heal.



If you find that you have no issues with spirit at all, feel free to switch from Dynamic Aura to Bold Aura for a decent speed boost, or switch it out to have one of the above two skills on your quickbar without having to switch with the F# keys. Or you could even put the one point in Eye for Weakness which is a pretty sweet damage increase.