Biography

LOKI 2015





OMEGA BUILD

There are definitely some interesting choices in the Omega System for Loki, so at first deciding what you want can be a little daunting. This can't be any more true based on the type of build your Loki is running (such as if he is a summoner type, DPS type, sorcery type, hybrid and so on). If your Loki is a summoner, you may want to stick to the Psionics tree; however, if your Loki is DPS based, you could be so inclined to use the Psionic Shotgun build. The Psioncis tree is very potent for Mental Damage types and Loki is no different. With all of that said, we are not going to be focusing on this tree for Loki's early Omega Build; no, instead we are going to devote our focus to a very interesting and potentially extremely potent node. This is the perfect segway to introducing the Feature Node for this Loki build.

FEATURE NODE





This is a classic take on Loki (the abilities offered by these two nodes) and for those familiar with the lore behind Loki, then perhaps you know why. In the comics (namely Journey into Mystery and the Siege storylines) Loki utilizes a special artifact by the name of "Norn Stones." These Norn Stones have varying abilities on it's "wearer," but for Loki it provided him with a number of attributes (namely, enhanced speed, strength, power and intangibility). This is the artifact of choice for Loki as he has relied on these stones a number of times.

By looking at the stats provided by these two nodes and by reading the information above, you can see why this is such an attractive choice for Loki. Not only does it have massive potential, it's active very often in combat with Loki, so you are almost always affected by it's power. Not only that, the reason it's so active, is that it feeds off of power duration, which, mind you Loki has a passive that grants it AND we utilize that passive in this build, thus making this node all the more attractive.



As you can see, when the proc activates you will see a visual around your character signaling that it is now empowering you. Once the visual goes off, you don't really have to wait very long for it to come back up, as it returns almost immediately. This is by far and away my favorite Node for Loki, regarding early Omega Builds.



The newest addition and a long time coming feature that was going to be apart of the build eventually, rather inevitably.

Of course right away you notice these nodes really starting to fit the theme of the character, as Loki is of course, immortal in every sense of the word, though this is true because he went an found the Book of Hel and erased his name from the pages, forever granting him eternal life in some form or another.

Now while it's all well and good that this node fits the theme of Loki's character, that doesn't make it any less useful as a utility for him to fall back on. The best part about the node is it's actually rather cheap overall, as after you invest the base 100 Omega Points into the node, the health (based on % increase) is a cheap 20 or so Omega Points per, which is certainly a welcome addition to this Loki build.



This right here is Loki's new best friend, as having this grants us the privilege of never running out of spirit. This is especially significant, because we don't want to sacrifice any DPS with this build by using a sustainability artifact/unique like a Crystal Skull of Cadavus or a Hela ring. This allows us to focus primarily on building his offensive output through gear and primary itemization, while being able to fall back on the Omega System in order to boost our sustainability.

THE OBJECTIVE

The objective of this build is to utilize to its fullest extent the bonuses applied by Enemy of my Enemy and rotating between the Frost Tree, Illusion Tree and the Mischief Tree as it pertains to what situations you find yourself in when in battle.

THE HISTORY

I've had a Loki guide on Marvelbase.com for a long time now, but I have rarely ever updated it and in fact blatantly ignored it for a while. I wanted to explore every possible build there was before I created a full comprehensive battle guide to provide to the Marvel Heroes community. After months and months and months of testing various builds (endless amounts) and min/maxing Loki the way I did Punisher (in my "Punish the Corrupt" guide), I finally came up with the perfect battle plan to conquer all content in the game, while also still retaining the flare of having a truly unique build. I've taken the best elements of popular builds and juxtaposed the pros and cons of those guides and molding their respective qualities into my own design.

TACTICS

The most important part of creating any guide is providing a detailed description of how to use the guide in battle, so without further ado, I will lay before you tactical combat.

Loki is such a unique character, in that no other toon on the game plays like Loki in any way. Loki is a sign unto himself and his kit is magnificent in a multitude of ways. Loki blends quick, fleet footed combat, with summoner type cunning, top level sorcery and the ability to utilize very effective damage mitigation. Loki's most important tools are his shields and micromanagement. The best way to understand micromanagement with Loki is to first try a build utilizing his sorcery tree to debuff enemies and set them up for the big finish with Lay Waste. Once you understand how to blend his debuffs with burst skills, then you truly start to realize Loki's potential. Loki also has incredible spirit conservation, so skills like Winter's Breath and Bouncing Bolt become more like basics, than spirit spenders.

As previously stated my build blends together all elements of his respective trees and utilizes bonuses gained from passives and gear. Your main attacks in my build are Winter's Breath and Permafrost Spikes.

Winter's Breath-

As you can see the initial damage of my Winter's Breath is very high, but that's not where the fun ends. Along with its high base damage, it is boosted even further by chill effects (which it also applies, so it can strengthen itself at times). Here, take a look.



This is without any of Loki's active buffs I could get from gear like Storm Giant, Asgardian Vigor, his Signature, etc. This is simply the power of Winter's Breath with chilled effects applied.

*Note- You can earn bonuses to slow also when an enemy is chilled, so the damage is further amplified by gear. Remember that his passive "Enemy of my Enemy" also adds bonuses to chilled enemies. Here, take a look at the passive at rank 37.

Enemy of my Enemy-

As you can see, that is an additional 1200 damage, making this passive absolutely vital to my build. Also, you will get another 600 damage or so from his toggle "Arcane Shield."

Arcane Shield-

That's an additional 1800 damage that you can apply to Loki just by investing in his passives. These two skills are no brainers to max out as far as you can take them.

Other important powers and stats for Loki to keep in mind are those of Unyielding Power and power duration boosts. If it seems like you are investing heavy into Loki's passives; you are. Loki's "Master Sorcery" passive is one of his best methods of acquiring power duration to extend the time that Unyielding Power is active, especially now that the duration no longer scales when leveled up. Here's a screen shot of the other various important stats to keep in mind when building Loki using my guide.





Unyielding Power is one of the single most devastating signatures on the game.



It would be over 200k (the brutals that is) if I got the base damage over 50,000 twice per second, but alas, I'm 300 damage rating away from that milestone, eheh.

The most burst damage; however, is going to come from your Permafrost Spikes attack.



The funny thing about this skill is that it actually boosts it's own power with initial uses, due to it not only freezing enemies and activating the bonuses from Enemy of my Enemy and damage against slowed enemies, but it also has a vulnerability affix. A very powerful PVE skill indeed.

My build is also strong in his sorcery tree and his mischief tree, by utilizing "Bouncing Bolt" with "Permafrost Spikes" I can boost the damage all the way to 80,000-100,000 per bounce. Here's a screen of this in action. And by utilizing "Spatial Deception" this will serve to assist you better when fighting bosses and allows you more STDPS than Bouncing Bolt allows you, because most times you will find yourself staying at range casting Permafrost Spikes and getting within Melee Range with Winter's Breath. Spatial Deception fits in very nicely with the rotation in this build, so I recommend it as well.









I added attacks like "Arcane Illusion and Arcane Ruin" for added effect (like an aesthetic of sorts), though the two skill do have their uses. Arcane Illusion as opposed to Illusionary Projection is capable of summoning illusions at "cursor point," which IMO makes it more versatile than projection and allows for more strategic placement for Loki in battle. Arcane Ruins serves its purpose by refilling Loki's health and spirit a considerable amount, upon activating the skill.

And now onto my own personal favorite, a method of attack I came up with to deal with mob content and my own way of improvising with Arcane Illusion, seeing as how I don't use Illusion Projection; I named this method the "Diamond Formation." I'll explain further below.

SCOURM'S DIAMOND FORMATION
This is a method I use in battle in which i close off all choke points and place myself accordingly to where the attention of the mobs is diverted. The "Diamond" formation goes as follows.

One of the primary components of my Diamond Formation are the attacks "Arcane Illusion and Meteoric Illusion." I'll explain further in the description down below.

I first use Misdirection to create an illusion, but as you know the illusions created in Misdirection have an ICD (internal cooldown), so due to not using Projection, I have to improvise. Okay first I find a mob filled with elites or champions and send an illusion into the middle of the pack to attract attention, next I form a diamond shape trap area around them using Arcane Illusion so I usually summon 4 illusions via arcane (one west, one east, north and south of any given group) this helps to divert attention away from me and allows me to place myself on the battlefield strategically, with all corners closed off, the mobs usually just stick together.

*Note* - With your crowds now bunched together you can slip in, cast enthrall and capture the entire mob in the effect, and to top things off, then cast Meteoric Illusion to proc the effects of God of Mischief. This is a truly iconic and dynamic way to play Loki.

Now I can quickly summon illusions;however, if there is some reason I can't utilize the diamond method, but have to stay fleet footed due to cosmic rings or Doom or whoever, I use Misdirection + Arcane about 2 or 3 times to summon all illusions, this is a quick and easy way to stay mobile and still summon all your illusions. If you have GOM (God of Mischief) as I do, then most times this will proc the 10+ Loki illusions. This is where Meteoric comes into play. Based on my testing I find that when having all illusions active and then casting Meteoric on Mobs, it procs GOM more often than any of his other skills, outside of his Signature of course. The reason being is becaue each illusion hits at the same time, but each of their respective crashes are counted, none are left out, so that's 2 hits per illusion for a maximum of 12 hits on any given content. This tends to proc GOM quicker (especially if Signature is on cooldown) because you are hitting more times in quick succession than you are with spamming Bouncing Bolt or Permafrost Spikes. So I use Meteoric to proc GOM, because of this.

That wraps up my battle method, next I will talk about gear choices and why I use that specific gear, but first lets look at my how I place all these skills, using my famous "hotkey" method, that I utilize in every single one of my builds.

A key- Misdirection
S key- Arcane Levitation
D key- Permafrost Spikes
F key- Arcane Illusion
G key- Meteoric Illusion
H key- Cold Snap

Left Click (1)- Spatial Deception
Right Click- Winter's Breath
Left Click (2)- Staff Blast
Left Click (3)- Glacial Shard (for PVP)
Left Click (4)- Enthrall (for elite crowds and bosses)
Left Click (5)- Arcane Binding
Left Click (6)- Arcane Ruin

Now the main difference with this build is that fact that I utilize two sets of keybars, but the only keys I have set on my second keybars, that is different from my first keybar, is I have Arcane Shield as my left click move and Unyielding Power as my right click move. Here's a screen of what each keybar looks like.





SYNERGIES

Loki is quite versatile when it comes to synergies, due to being very well versed in ranged damage, mental damage, AOE damage and his ability to dodge, projectile evade and so on. I don't use every single toon on the game, but the obvious choices for Loki are to pick up
are Doctor Strange, Jean Grey, Ghost Rider as they each give bonuses to mental damage. Other strong prospects are those of Scarlet Witch and Emma Frost, who give bonuses to AOE damage and Dot damage. Black Widow, Wolverine, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Taskmaster and Captain America are also recommended. This build isn't too heavily invested into summon damage, but Rocket Raccoon is a strong choice for those that take this build that path way. Finally, this build utilizes Spatial Deception as a primary attack, so Thor and Nightcrawler are strong choices as well. Here is a look at my synergies with Loki (mind you, I do not roll with every toon).



GEAR





The primary focus here is on crit rating, because it is very tough for Loki to get crit rating from other sources using this build. This is because of how heavily invested into mental damage this build is. So when creating your ideal costume, make sure you grab crit rating affixes.



There are some new features to this build to introduce and these new features drastically increase Loki's TTK (overall DPS) and line him up to meet Raid standards of DPS, while still retaining the core of what brought this build together in the first place.

The first of these items to introduce is:



Yes, the mental variation of the Danger AI Chip is potentially the single best DPS artifact for Loki builds. Here is why, 600+ base damage rating (meaning mental), which is more than he will get from any other artifact. You don't really have to go out of your way either to fully activate the "stack" mechanic of the artifact, as it will more than likely be completely by simply casting Arcane Binding and following up with your normal rotation of attacks. I suggest going after an artifact like this with at least 350+ mental damage rating, as that will give you the best returns.

The next addition of the build is actually a "high end." I know, I know, I don't normally use those in my builds; however, Loki benefits greatly from the artifact I am about to describe.



The Hand of Doom isn't BIS for a majority of toons on the game, but for some toons it makes vast improvements; Loki is no exception. Loki inherently struggles with crit rating and brutal rating as most of Loki's uniques don't offer much in the way of either (actually the only uniques that offer this for Loki, that are in use within my guide are Ikol and Nisanti Boots). Thus, you either have to apply crit rating to your costume and hope for good rolls or you have to get your crit rating from artifacts and insignias, and rings. However, you don't want to invest too heavily into artifacts such as this, as you are going to want to stack as much mental damage rating as possible, so your options are very limited.

That's where HOD comes in very handy, as it not only offers crit/brutal rating, but it also boosts Loki's base damage, so it it fulfills everything Loki needs in an artifact and doesn't deviate too much from the premise of the build; mental damage rating.

Note- These two artifacts will replace the Advanced Wicked Wand and Advanced Metasensory Array.

As if staying within the theme of adopting all of Doom's toys, I introduce you to the next newest addition to the build.



There is an on going debate as to which medallion is better for Loki between Doom Medal and Wizard medal. The answer isn't as straight forward as it would seem, especially if you factor in the damage advantage that Wizard has over Doom. You see Doom has one distinct advantage over Wizard and that is power duration. Power duration is an attribute that is extremely potent for Loki's, especially considering that you second most primary damage source Xerogenesis is extended through power duration, which allows almost 100% uptime, seeing as how the cooldown start's immediately after the base duration wears off.

Along with power duration, the Doom medal also offers some health, which is of particular importance for Loki's that use this build and that wish to venture into Raid content. It's not something you are going to want to stack on Loki (health that is), but it is something that's nice to have on a medallion focused primarily on damage. I'm of the belief that 15k health is enough for Loki to not only survive, but allows enough focus for Loki's to build primarily on their DPS and more specifically their my mental damage rating.

The primary focus here is on mental damage rating; the staple of this build. You see on each of the artifacts that mental damage is featured, this is for good reason and by being so heavily invested into mental damage, this allows this build unbridled versatility.

The Uniques I use on Loki are primarily "Any Hero" uniques, though it is perfectly viable to use his own slots. However, I min/maxed every single thing in this build, so some of the uniques I have are fairly difficult to find.

UNIQUES



Slot 1- Soulsword: I use Soulsword as opposed to his own Slot 1, which is still powerful, mind you, because it not only boosts his sorcery tree just as his slot 1 does, it also grants +1 energy, just as his slot 1, has higher base damage and mental damage and has a chance to completely stun bosses for 3-5 seconds with its proc. Soulsword is a monster weapon for Loki and I highly recommend it to all users of Loki, regardless of build.

Notice the new effect on the weapon- the Challenge Bonus. This is going to be key for future iterations of this build, as I raid more and more with Loki and acquire more Challenge Bonus gear, I will then add it to the unique list provided here. This gear will make a huge difference regarding Loki's DPS and his itemization options with primary and secondary (Omega Build) sources.



Slot 2- Armor of Invincibility: Easily BIS for any Loki build, due to how potent Asgardian Vigor is and the fact it gives +'s to two of the most vital components of my build: the Frost Tree and Arcane Shield. The Durability and nice amount of health just further push this unique through the stratus sphere.



Slot 3 (A)- Nisanti Cloak of Invisibility: This is a very unique (heh) and powerful unique to have. Not only does it give massive damage vs unaware targets, something you will capitalize on often in using my build, but it also gives power duration, health and a very effective invisibility proc that allows you to attack and still stay invisible at the same time. This unique is highly recommended for those that follow my guide.



Slot 3 (B)- Ikol: With Raids now being a feature of the game and most min/maxers gravitating towards Raiding, it's time this build be modified to meet Raid standards of DPS. That's where this unique comes into play, as it's definitely a better pure DPS option than the Nisanti Cloak. A very interesting feature of this unique is the damage proc associated with it and what makes it so very intriguing is the fact that it's a power. What's the significance of this you ask? Well, a proc such as this is extended through power duration and if you are building this Loki as I have, Omega Build and Mental Damage focus, then this type of proc takes Loki figuratively from 8000+ (when Xerogenesis is active) to more than 10,000 mental damage rating (not counting the damage rating gained from his Sig). I don't think I need to explain any further why this is such an attractive DPS option and with everything stated above, I still haven't carved into the fact that there is a great deal of critical damage and sustainability associated with this extremely potent unique, along with other goodies like dodge, +1 and critical rating.



Slot 4- A fantastic option to use in my build. Along with a synergizing invisible proc and some really neat healing per second, this unique also offers very strong damage versus unaware and along with Nisanti Cloak, the bonus to unaware exceeds +1000 in damage, which also synergizes with the passive Arcane Shield and Enemy of my Enemy. To top it all off it gives a very heavy boost to brutal rating and provides health and damage reduction. This is a unique I highly recommend to min/maxers like myself.



Slot 5- Cerebro: That's it. But honestly with the very, very high grades on Mental Damage, this is a no brainer in this slot, due to how heavily focused on Mental Damage my build is.

Now finally for the Legendary to top off my build and send you on your way.



With how heavily focused on mental damage my build is, there is literally no other option other than the potent mental Legendary that is "Warlock's Eye."

That wraps up Scourm's "Glorious Purpose" guide. If you have any questions and want to learn more about my method or why I use what I use, please feel free to ask.

Godspeed and thanks for reading!