Luke Cage Crit Combo Fighter dps leveling luke cage pve pvp
Guide by Crem Last update at Mar 8th 2014, 06:52

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LM: Savage Beatdown, Crowbar Beatdown
A: Cold Shoulder
S: Chunk O' Concrete
D: Cage Was Here
F: Vehicular Manslaughter
G: Hero's Call
E: Tactical Defense
RM: Dempsey Roll (F1), Colleen Wing (F2), Iron Fist (F3)

copied from HarryTasker
THE MAX SKILLS
Savage Beatdown: The best basic by far due to the crit damage bonus.

Superhuman Leverage: The tenacity is pretty meh, but the extra health, crit rating, and a decent chunk of bonus damage for Manslaughter is pretty good. Only other place you could put these points would be Natural Leader if you wanted a better group aura.

Natural Leader: Less health and crit but a group aura. Take either this or Superhuman to max, dump leftover points in the others. I prefer this due to group support and slightly better mitigation.

Dempsey Roll: Our bread and butter skill for bosskilling and single target. This ability can boast upwards of 150k dps, which is ludicrous. Use this everytime you hit 4 point immediately to maximize your boss damage.

Unbreakable Skin: More tankyness. That's about it. Projectile evade is op.

Combo Fighter: Our other bread and butter skill. Huge boost to Dempsey Roll, max this absolutely, Easily nets you over 50% more finisher damage with minimal gearing.

Heros' Call: Why they decided to buff this ability is beyond me. The new Hero's Call in combination with Dempsey makes Luke do some really, really stupid single target DPS.

THE 1 POINTERS
Chain Yank: Used for animation cancelling into Dempsey for 100% Khonshu uptime.

Vehicular Manslaughter: Used for instant Dempseys. Always use this on cooldown if you have enough Spirit to Dempsey immediately after, otherwise stick with Beatdown.

Business is Good: Mostly just for the extra credits and bonus move speed.

Tactical Defense: For breaking CC and if you need a double heal from Iron Fist asap.

WHERE TO DUMP THE REST OF OUR POINTS
Natural Leader/Superhuman: Party buff with NL and more HP+Crit with Superhuman.

GEARING
Slot 1: Knuckledusters. +Beatdown, Dempsey, Combo Fighter, some dodger, 5% additive bonus with the +1 Fighting, current hp shred, everything about this weapon is j00cy.

Slot 2: Impenetrable Leather Jacket for the huge bonus tankyness. Absolutely needed for X-Defense as Disco Shirt will just make you go splat. Also makes killing white enemies easier, for what it's worth. While Disco is theoretically better for DPS, you sacrifice way too much tankyness for it to be worth it and you can hit 40 in our 6 main skills without Disco.

Slot 3: Mighty Cage Buckle for the potential +6 to Dempsey and Combo Fighter. The bonus tankyness from the big health roll, dodge, and bonus to Unbreakable Skin is very welcomed as well in addition to the life on hit.

Slot 4: Cosmic Boots, ideally with +health, +spirit, and a mix of +Unbreakable Skin/Natural Leader/Heros Call. Badass Boots do very little for this build and as such are undesirable.

Slot 5: Cosmic Headband, ideally with +health, +crit damage, +crit rating, +, and a mix of Unbreakable Skin/Heros Call/Natural Leader. This will let you get all 6 skills to 40 in addition to having more crit, and some tankyness. Gallant is a decent alternative until you can find a headband like this.

NOTE: IF YOU GET +1 ALL AS AN AFFIX ON JUST 1 COSMIC YOU CAN MAX ALL 6 SKILLS TO 40 IF YOU MEET THE FOLLOWING REQUIREMENTS:
+1 on slot 4 or 5 as a normal affix
+5 Unbreakable Skin, Natural Leader, and Heros Call between both cosmics

Ring: Mix of +melee, +crit, +crit damage, +health, +defense, or +dodge.

Insignia: Elektra with +melee and +crit or valk with +health +crit damage.

Medallion: Tombstone is ideal, but farming a 60 cosmic one is difficult. Otherwise, nab you a Kingpin for the damage, tankyness, and credit find. Some people like Hydra for the invuln, but I'd personally would rather the extra health since it is always active and not cooldown based. With the newly buffed Heros Call using Mr. Sinister is a large bonus to your overall DPS for the summon duration.

Artifacts: My personal setup is Adv. Crimson (dmg, tankyness), Adv. Meta (damage), Idol of Khonshu (damage) and Ziggurat (damage and mobility). While Zigg lacks damage and attack speed, it makes up for it with crit and being able to instantly reposition yourself. Also makes skipping through instances faster and getting to bosses faster in X-Defense. Zigg is also great since it costs no spirit. If you want to maximize your DPS swap Crimson and Zigg for Wundagore Clay and Advanced Clay with high duration, pop Call, then switch back ot Zigg and Crimson.

Relic: Atlantis, Asgard, or Subterranea. Atlantis/Asgard for damage, Sub for a more balanced character.

Costume: Damage rating, health, or crit damage. Depends solely on your stat weights, but if going Gungnir you will more than likely use a crit damage costume although the difference between damage and crit damage is minimal. Also make sure you use Marvel Noir.

Core: I use LL+Spirit. Spirit is actually a big issue on Cage if you are yanking properly, so being able to break 400 will help your damage uptimes immensely.

Runeword: I really like Viking Gladiator on a defensive Uru. Health, damage, dodge, and defense, what's not to like? Courage of Asgard once you can nab a Zod. Vikings Vitality is also a decent choice.

Enchants: Pretty simple. Health for a more balanced set of stats, crit if you want more damage.

Legendary: Excalibur or Gungnir. For Excalibur, damage, defense, and sustain. While the 50 LoH is quite low, it combined with Buckle and your regen from Unbreakable Skin can easily push you close to 400 hp per sec, which is extremely high. Gungnir is a purely offensive legendary as is the route to go for maximum dps. Its a choice of raw damage vs damage, mitigation, and regen.

Blessings: Fandral if using Excalibur. Free 12% dodge that doesn't diminish and 400 crit rating. I'm a hair short of 40% crit and sitting at 45% dodge with Iron Fist+Dempsey using these.

SYNERGIES
Black Panther
Thor
Squirrel Girl
Luke Cage
Loki
Cable
Daredevil
Wolverine
Thing/Black Widow
Spiderman/Night Cralwer (mitigation vs damage)

CHAIN YANKING
With Yank+Khonshu you can have an extra 22.5% damage for Dempsey up 100% of the time. Simply do 3xBeatdownr, Yank and as soon as the Yank animation starts hit Dempsey. It cancels Yank immediately rather than having to wait on the animation to finish.

HERO'S CALL SHENANIGANS
The best way to use Hero's Call is to carry Adv. Clay, Clay, and a Sinister medallion with you. Top rolls of each gives your Hero's Call a 100% duration bonus. Pop call with all three equipped then switch back to normal gear. Watch the cheesiness in action:




January 9, 2014 Update:
Even with 8 second cooldown on VM it is Luke's most powerful AoE when maxed. Cold Shoulder with an Elektra medallion provides great survival and enhanced move speed and knockdown. It also provides a powerful initial attack and finisher depending up the health of the enemy. Crit based Martial Training skills were maxed to embrace the crit provided by SL.

Luke Cage Tanking with Misty Knight:
This build is intended to take advantage of Luke's passives that provide the best surviveability focused on the strength of melee attacks while Misty provides ranged. Savage Beatdown, Belt Buckle and Crowbar Beatdown are the only spirt-less combo point generators. Players must decide which is more effective for their play style by choosing between a weaker punch with a crit enhancement in SB versus a stronger slower punch that provides potentially 7x the damage from CB. CB’s noted strength against bosses may allow it to replace SB. At low levels SB/CB generates max combo points very quickly which allows for constant use of Cage Fighting on higher health enemies while allowing Cage Was Here to be spammed as an AoE attack. Cage Was Here proves to be very effective in MM when surrounded by swarming enemies. The initial build was to max Accelerated Healing Factor and place a single point in Superhuman Leverage and Vehicular Manslaughter. Diminishing returns in AHF suggest maxing SL instead. SL and VM together may prove to provide insane damage and VM might be capable of replacing CWE as an AoE attack. Until tested at higher levels, neither SL or VM are essential skills in a tank build for Luke. At this time, the primary skill to max is Unbreakable Skin. The Lumeria relic and other health generating artifacts may allow US to be the only necessary skill to allow Luke to be an effective Tank although his health may drain quickly when he is not attacking to regain health. Heroes For Hire die very quickly when Luke gets swarmed. They also get targeted very quickly by bosses; therefore, players must decide if any should be maxed and if so, which one. Colleen Wing should have the best chance of survival if a playstyle chooses to take advantage of a Hero For Hire. It should be noted that Luke fairs well without a sidekick. Diminishing returns of Tactical Offense/Defense justify a single point if any points at all. TO/TD and Hero’s Call may prove to be 1 point wonders. It may seem unlikely to place more than 1 point in the Hero’s Call skill when the Heroes only last 10 seconds. If choosing to solo tank Luke (no sidekick) additional points aquired from completing chapters, should be placed in SL stricktly for tenacity and crit bonus. Tenacity should diminish knock-back, knock-up, and crowd control effects. SL improves Combo Fighter and is another reason to choose SB over CB because of it’s crit bonus. At this time the most effective tank build will probably max SL, SB, CF, and US. SL and SB are mandatory when choosing to max CF. Players get Iron Fist as a default Hero For Hire and Hero’s Call is probably a 1 point wonder. Additional points earned from completing chapters may prove most effective in AHF or a Hero For Hire of choice. One point in Iron Fist and Misty Knight prove to be ineffective in levels beyond 30 especially in Heroic mode. The Heroes for Hire die too quickly; therefore, 1 point in the Hero for Hire Colleen Wing is a more reasonable choice. Tactical Offense only provides a very small crit and haste bonus as a 1 point wonder; therefore, the point can be better used in another skill. Cold Shoulder provides the haste and SL provides the crit. One point should be maintained in Tactical Offense to provide crowd control cleansing.
Most of the previous data is voided because Luke has been proven to be ineffective at higher levels. Spirit cost, stationary animations, and cooldowns make many expected useful skills non viable; therefore, starter skills became more viable than level earned skills and early level skills scale equivalent to later level skills. Even with a charge up effect, CWH proves to be very effective against mobs in MM. Players apparently must choose between creating a Summoner or Crit Luke. Both prove to be nonviable in endgame because Luke and pets die quickly. Neither Luke or his summons have high enough defense or health to survive; therefore, leveling Luke cannot be adequately accomplished in Super Heroic mode in MM. Summoners should max Belt Buckle, Unbreakable Skin, and Hero's Call along with Heroes of choice. A crit build should max SB, SL, CF, and US. Other viable choices for effectiveness are CWE and HD, while placing 1 point in VM, CS, AHF, and TD. Misty Knight is an effective range crit machine, while Iron Fist provides healing. Gear drops offer additional points to make either fairly effective. One issue with the crit build is Luke does not generate enough spirit to spam HD as often as needed especially when fighting bosses. Luke is spirit starved when using HD or CWH, while re-summoning Heroes and using TD for defense or taunt. Dodge from gear, medallions, or artifacts does not provide effective surviveability. Likewise, Electra medallion and other items don't provide enough spirit to effectively reduce spirit starvation issues.
Cage uses a Radioactive Isotope core. Durability and fighting should provide the most survivability unless a very powerful Isotope is found that provides damage converted to health. If lifesteal is still available in game, it may prove to be more effective than adding durability or fighting to a core. An Electra medallion for dodge or a Doc Oc medallion for AoE may provide the best results, but a Juggernaut medallion and other similar items that provide invulnerability will probably provide the best surviveability. Will try Juggernaut, Madame Hydra, and Sabertooth medallions along with other invulnerability items like the Crimson Crystal of Cyttorak and Moonstone Shard.