Why Does Diriga Have 50 Armor?

[RealPandemonium]

I have no idea how this line of reasoning is even supposed to work, but it's hardly "objective" unless you actually go and prove it. General consensus seems largely to be that Diriga is more or less fine as is; you disagree, so you should be the one bringing out proof.

Ok, say a group of enemies surrounds me.  

 

If Arc Coil is prioritized, it will hit up to 7 of them within 10m for a small amount of Electric damage with a 15% chance to proc, and will refire every 1.5 seconds or so.  A couple of enemies may get stunned if you're lucky, and Diriga will fire its weapon less often due to stopping to cast Arc Coil.  If Electro Pulse is also equipped Diriga will likely activate it regardless of precept priority, disabling Arc Coil until conditions are met.

 

If Electro Pulse activates, it will continuously stun the closest enemy within 15m with an Electric proc every 2 seconds or so.  Diriga will do nothing else while Electro Pulse is active, and it stays active until you move out of range or the enemy dies.  One enemy is repeatedly stunned (but may still be able to fire in between stuns,) the other enemies are unaffected (except for those standing directly next to the targeted enemy,) and Diriga is not dealing any damage whatsoever.

 

If I equip Diriga with a Vulklok modded for Blast and Electricity status, it will have between 55% and 70% chance to proc, depending on whether you have High Voltage or not.  Add Vile Acceleration for 90% bonus fire rate, giving us 1.9 rounds per second, and add Split Chamber for .9 extra rounds fired per shot.  Diriga will fire 3.61 rounds per second at the nearest enemy within 70m, with each round having a 70% chance to stun or knock down an enemy and enemies within 2m of that enemy.  Adding punch-through can increase the area of effect due to each round potentially hitting more than one enemy.  Diriga does not stop firing its weapon and takes 2 seconds to reload its weapon after every 10 shots.  Diriga inflicts non-negligible damage (assuming it's not high level lolgrineer) with each round.  

  

Which of these three options offers the most protection?

Edited September 7, 2015 by RealPandemonium

[FelisImpurrator]

-Arc Coil isn't great. Again, that's the one glaring issue - buff its proc chance to 30% or 50% and it should be fine.

 

-Electro Pulse is still better than you might expect at protecting Diriga, because first of all, the "firing between stuns" is barely going to do anything unless you stand there like a lemon and let that heavy gunner plink you to death... as for the rest, one enemy being stunlocked is surprisingly useful assuming you do more than just sit there and wait for Diriga to solo the rest of the mission. Its main purpose is to lock down a threat that enters melee range before it surprises you, which is extremely useful for a sniper's playstyle considering the game's cramped spaces.

 

-Yes, the Vulklok offers the most protection, but that doesn't equate to the other options doing absolutely nothing - or, of all things, being less effective than Fatal Attraction, which is - again - the exact opposite of a defensive precept. That said, Calculated Shot, from my experience, does NOT automatically prioritize the closest enemy. Instead, it appears to prioritize the midrange, only moving to extremely close or far ranges if there are no other targets in between. Layering an electric precept over it is far better at covering close/melee range specifically, while Vulklok itself is built to deal with farther-off targets.

 

That's the point - you have to evaluate it as a complete package, not individual components in a vacuum, and particularly factoring in that Vulklok is most effectively used with DIriga and vice versa.

[RealPandemonium]

 

-Arc Coil isn't great. Again, that's the one glaring issue - buff its proc chance to 30% or 50% and it should be fine.

 

-Electro Pulse is still better than you might expect at protecting Diriga, because first of all, the "firing between stuns" is barely going to do anything unless you stand there like a lemon and let that heavy gunner plink you to death... as for the rest, one enemy being stunlocked is surprisingly useful assuming you do more than just sit there and wait for Diriga to solo the rest of the mission. Its main purpose is to lock down a threat that enters melee range before it surprises you, which is extremely useful for a sniper's playstyle considering the game's cramped spaces.

 

-Yes, the Vulklok offers the most protection, but that doesn't equate to the other options doing absolutely nothing - or, of all things, being less effective than Fatal Attraction, which is - again - the exact opposite of a defensive precept. That said, Calculated Shot, from my experience, does NOT automatically prioritize the closest enemy. Instead, it appears to prioritize the midrange, only moving to extremely close or far ranges if there are no other targets in between. Layering an electric precept over it is far better at covering close/melee range specifically, while Vulklok itself is built to deal with farther-off targets.

 

That's the point - you have to evaluate it as a complete package, not individual components in a vacuum, and particularly factoring in that Vulklok is most effectively used with DIriga and vice versa.

Just tested Calculated Shot's targeting behavior.  Targeting further things happens when it acquires a target and you move away; it remains firing at that target until it dies, you move out of range, or it loses line of sight.  This rarely allows Electro Pulse to better serve as a close-range defense, but given that Electro Pulse disables Diriga's gun any time any enemy is within 15m of you, it's still not worth slotting.  

 

Also, a fairly recent update altered Fatal Attraction's function: instead of drawing aggro to Djinn, it now causes enemies within 24m to walk towards the Sentinel harmlessly for 6 seconds (bugged, should be 10 seconds).  After the attraction period, Djinn pulses damage in a 6m radius 4 times over 4 seconds for a total of 150 damage (lol) while also stunning the affected enemies for the duration.  I'll take this precept over Diriga's any day.   

Edited September 7, 2015 by RealPandemonium

[DelialFallen]

I would like to test it out on the content you are doing so I may revisit my impression of Diriga.  What sort of group comp do I need and where should I go (and for how long, if relevant)?

[Fifield]

Also, a fairly recent update altered Fatal Attraction's function: instead of drawing aggro to Djinn, it now causes enemies within 24m to walk towards the Sentinel harmlessly for 6 seconds (bugged, should be 10 seconds).  After the attraction period, Djinn pulses damage in a 6m radius 4 times over 4 seconds for a total of 150 damage (lol) while also stunning the affected enemies for the duration.  I'll take this precept over Diriga's any day.   

 

 

Good info, thanks.

[FelisImpurrator]

Just tested Calculated Shot's targeting behavior.  Targeting further things happens when it acquires a target and you move away; it remains firing at that target until it dies, you move out of range, or it loses line of sight.  This rarely allows Electro Pulse to better serve as a close-range defense, but given that Electro Pulse disables Diriga's gun any time any enemy is within 15m of you, it's still not worth slotting.  

 

Also, a fairly recent update altered Fatal Attraction's function: instead of drawing aggro to Djinn, it now causes enemies within 24m to walk towards the Sentinel harmlessly for 6 seconds (bugged, should be 10 seconds).  After the attraction period, Djinn pulses damage in a 6m radius 4 times over 4 seconds for a total of 150 damage (lol) while also stunning the affected enemies for the duration.  I'll take this precept over Diriga's any day.   

Ah. I did not know Djinn was buffed recently. I stand corrected - although, with an unranked Calculated Shot, in the last missions I ran with Vulklok it seemed as though it really was overlooking closer enemies when Diriga's target died. I should probably go and double-check.

 

Although it seems to me that the precepts themselves are a bigger issue than the sentinel's armor rating. I would suggest at least doubling Arc's status chance, for one... and allowing Diriga to fire its weapon during Pulse.

 

I did read that Electro Pulse does not randomly trigger whenever an enemy enters range, though; it's actually a Revenge-style precept that triggers when an enemy hits you. Which would work out very well if it A) had a small chance of proccing on chained enemies (like the current 15-20% of Arc Coil), B) switched targets after some minor retargeting delay based on the highest-priority attacking enemy, or C) allowed Arc Coil to trigger simultaneously.

 

A few precept tweaks and I don't think Diriga would need an armor change at all.

[RealPandemonium]

I'm glad that you guys are seeing what I'm seing regarding the precepts' lack of efficacy.  Let's hope DE cares more than they have for all the other useless sentinel precepts.

 

I would like to test it out on the content you are doing so I may revisit my impression of Diriga.  What sort of group comp do I need and where should I go (and for how long, if relevant)?

I just did syndicate dailies solo.  I tried to not use defensive powers and relied on movement and good practices to avoid damage.  That, and my sentinel.  

Edited September 7, 2015 by RealPandemonium

[bubbabenali]

Also, a fairly recent update altered Fatal Attraction's function: instead of drawing aggro to Djinn, it now causes enemies within 24m to walk towards the Sentinel harmlessly for 6 seconds (bugged, should be 10 seconds).  After the attraction period, Djinn pulses damage in a 6m radius 4 times over 4 seconds for a total of 150 damage (lol) while also stunning the affected enemies for the duration.  I'll take this precept over Diriga's any day.   

 

Sadly, that seems not to work every time sometimes enemys still shot at Djinn. I think enemys that are entering the AoE after Fatal Attraction started behave like before the buff.

Also the cooldown is considerable longer than that of the Dirigas percepts

Edited September 7, 2015 by bubbabenali

[DelialFallen]

I'm glad that you guys are seeing what I'm seing regarding the precepts' lack of efficacy.  Let's hope DE cares more than they have for all the other useless sentinel precepts.

 

I just did syndicate dailies solo.  I tried to not use defensive powers and relied on movement and good practices to avoid damage.  That, and my sentinel.  

 

I'm in the process of testing out different Sentinel loadouts while using the Vulklok.  The first thing I notice is that those tested so far (Wyrm Prime and Djinn) do not seem to fire quite as far as the Diriga.  In some instances, that can be a good thing like in some maps wherein my Diriga was trying to shoot enemies through walls.

 

I tried a fire rate and status hybrid build, 60% status, 1.90 fire rate.  I've not yet tested with Vile Acceleration as I would need to drop an element to do so, and thus lose the Blast (I've a few Forma in it already).  In my runs so far, Wyrm Prime outperforms Djinn in how often it shoots and how often I get a status procc, if only because Fatal Attraction's animation takes longer than Crowd Dispersion's.

 

In situations when you are often in melee (Hive missions, fooling around on Valkyr, etc.), I found Diriga to perform consistently better than both Djinn and Wyrm Prime when using Arc Coil, since it targets enemies immediately close to you (quickly and efficiently) and you do not necessarily need to CC That Guy Over There right away.

 

I'll test T4 Surv and T4 Defense solo (Equinox and Frost Prime respectively) and grouped with each of the three sentinels, and with Diriga precepts on and off before I come to a satisfactory conclusion.

[RealPandemonium]

Sadly, that seems not to work every time sometimes enemys still shot at Djinn. I think enemys that are entering the AoE after Fatal Attraction started behave like before the buff.

Also the cooldown is considerable longer than that of the Dirigas percepts

It has a 24m range.  Enemies outside of its range will behave normally.  Also, if you go into a large room you can observe that during the attraction phase enemies will begin walking limply as soon as you get within 24m of them; in other words the effect follows you like an aura, so the issue with enemies shooting is purely a matter of range and not incorrect behavior due to entering the zone after the initial cast.

 

The 30 second CD is longish and could stand to be reduced, but at least the precept works consistently against enemies in its range.  80% of the time Arc Coil doesn't do anything to enemies and Electro Pulse usually lowers the sentinel's damage and cc output instead of raising it.