Let's talk [Phoebe] (Theorycraft + Opinion Thread)

Good day fellow badasses!

I've recently fallen in love with Phoebe and she has so many complexities I'd actually love to discuss with other Phoebe players. From gear choices to helix choices to attack patterns.

I will be detailing all the aspects of the character that aren't blatantly obvious (IE: we all know what phase gate does.)

PHOEBE ATTACK PATTERNS / TIPS

Phoebe has 2 forms of non default melee attack... a default melee chain combo (4 straight stabs) and true strike (an 8 way direction dash based on current movement input and a stab).

• The melee combo chain increases in damage and works as follows: Stab (63 dmg) Stab, Stab (75 dmg each) Stab (94 dmg) while true strike only deals 55 damage at level 1 (vs Normal Mode jennerit mobs). As you can see, true strikes damage is not generally very impressive early on.

• You can use the melee chain combat while airborne but CANNOT true strike while airborne.

• If you hold both attack buttons simultaneously, Phoebe will attack twice (the first two attacks of the chain) and then True strike. This can be interesting, but isn't damage efficient since you are losing your last attack from the chain.(NOTE: Apparently if you have 28-30%+ Attack speed bonus the second hit of blade sweep will fail to occur when using the hold both buttons method)

• True strike has an internal cooldown unique to true strike. You can true strike and then melee chain combo at proper attack speed but if you attempt to use true strike twice in a row, there is a sizeable delay before the second true strike happens.

• True striking to the left or right can be a strong way to avoid straight line projectiles!

HELIX TREE CHOICES/OPINIONS

Helix Build editor: http://battlebornforum.com/pages/battleborn-helix-build-editor-phoebe/

• Tier 1: Aggressive Advance vs Preperation ... Two good choices right out of the gate. If you can consistently land preperation triggers it is extremely strong. Hitting from range with a blade rush allows you to teleport on top of enemy (with Tier 2 slow field) and potentially prevent an escape skill for 3 seconds. At the same time, Aggressive Advancement allows you to close the distance quickly if they do use an escape skill. These are both completely valid options based on playstyle preference I think.

• Tier 2: Shield Resonators vs Phase Distortion ... I will always take Phase Distortion on this tier. Resonators aren't a poor choice, I just don't find them to be anywhere near as useful as phase distortion.

• Tier 3: Shield Stabalizers vs Crosscut vs Sharpened Blades ... This tier is very interesting to me, three strong options once again and one hinged based on the future Tier 5 pick. If on tier 5 you are going to pick Blade Sweep or Reprisal then Crosscut is the go to choice. It will empower both strikes from either of those Tier 5 choices. If you are going to pick Passata Sotto on Tier 5, Sharpened Blades or Shield Stabilizers are both viable choices (I will explain this reasoning in my "Alternate Phoebe Build" later on.

• Tier 4: Unintended Innovation vs Raddoppio ... this is entirely a preference choice I think. If you took preperation on Tier 1 picking up Raddoppio is probably a good choice to give yourself more opportunities to silence. Generally speaking I go with unintended Innovation though so that I can aim the blades at the ground of my opponent instead of directly at them.

• Tier 5: Passata Sotto vs Blade Sweep vs Reprisal. This pick is basically pre-determined by our Tier 3 choice. If you took shield capacity you probably want passata sotto to stack on top of that increased effective health pool. If you took cross cut or sharpened blades take blade sweep. NEVER pick reprisal once you have blade sweep unlocked. Blade sweep deals MORE damage than reprisal does in an easier to hit arc! (Credit to Dunking_Machine for pointing this one out to my attention)

• Tier 6: Phasegate V2 vs Contingency Plan vs Disruptor Blades ... Disruptor blades will never be taken here.... Phasegate offers you a consistent removal of cooldown on phasegate which is actually fairly sizeable (Nearly 5 second cooldown reduction). Generally speaking though, contigency plan is AMAZING, offering the ability to phasegate in, have your shield broken in combat and then being able to phasegout back out. So good!

• Tier 7: Core Overload vs Flurry ... Flurry is the only real choice here. Blade rush and Blade Cascade are nowhere near consistent enough or strong enough to ever consider core overload.

• Tier 8: Scientific Method vs Phase Stability ... Phase stability would be strong if we actually had good buffs from phasegating... As far as I know, the only buff we recieve from phasegate is the movespeed from Tier 1 aggressive advancement. Ont he other hand, scientific method offers you a HUGE range increase on phasegate, I'm thinking it's around 100% or so. Absolutely amazing and my guaranteed pick on this tier.

• Tier 9: The Conduit vs Closed Quarter vs Refined Technique ... I think this tier is almost entirely personal preference or build dependant. The conduit sucks... the 12% bonus is added to the TOTAL skill damage, not per blade!, Close Quarter against Refined technique is just entirely based on how you use blade rush. Refined technique is stronger if you use it to pick off ranged targets, Close Quarters is better if you like to fire it at point blank range.

• Tier 10: Calamitous Cascade vs Stormbringer vs Swordstorm ... Three decent choices again. Calamitous Cascade offers the potential for teamwide AOE damage amplification (It just screams combo me with black hole from kleese!)... Strombringer allows you consistent damage output (because you will likely be hitting your target with 4-5 seconds of blade cascade rather than 1-2 seconds and having them run out of it) but offers no added utility. Swordstorm allows for a greatly increased radius (which can translate to more damage dealt) on top of a 30% movespeed increase while you are inside it. (Combine with Alternative Advanacement for insane movespeed albeit a bit redundant). These 3 options are all good and they all offer their own benefits (damage amplication vs raw damage vs mobility)

PHOEBE'S GEAR SUGGESTIONS

Phoebe's Lore Legendary Gear:

http://i0.wp.com/mentalmars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Phoebe-Legendary-Gear-Blade-Dancers-Shoes.png?w=604

Unfortunately Phoebe's lore legendary is not very good. The stats on it are not very strong, and the passive is maeh at best.

There is 1 legendary that is FANTASTIC for phoebe though, Vow Of Vengeance.

https://i.redditmedia.com/4Ek7LvRzPsVESrM66UdCXt3YTgzPjn6ZTOPzkzlSBbs.jpg?w=488&s=405873930a2b671822805eb4cb91c098

This item is absolutely amazing, offering attack damage, attack speed and more attack damage... and it's a base attack damage item which allows us to also pick up an attack speed item on top of this!

General Gear: Attack Speed, Attack Damage, Move Speed is the normal gear set for Phoebe. Some honorable mentions: Damage reduction, Health Regeneration, Shield Capacity.

STANDARD PHOEBE BUILD (ASSASSIN)

http://battlebornforum.com/pages/battleborn-helix-build-editor-phoebe/?rows=-1,1,0,-1,0,0,1,-1,0,1,

• This is about the most common cookie cutter spec for Phoebe that deals heavy damage output. Explanations for every skill can be found in the helix breakdown.

MY PHOEBE BUILD (15-20% less damage, 35-40% more tanky)

http://battlebornforum.com/pages/battleborn-helix-build-editor-phoebe/?rows=-1,1,-1,-1,-1,0,1,-1,0,1,

This build is not designed to be pure assassin, I feel that pure assassin phoebe is a bit squishy and I don't entirely enjoy it and she's also susceptible to being poked down from range with little to no ability to offer return fire.

With this build I use the gear: Vow of Vengeance (+Attack Damage, +Attack Speed, +Attack Damage), A rare attack speed dagger (Attack speed + Attack speed for 5 seconds when taking shield damage) and A 0-cost Shield Capacity battery (+128 shield, -19% recoil)

• At Level 1 and 2, I take standard picks...nothing special here.

• KEY CHOICE At Level 3, this build sports a rather sizable 668 shield capacity on top of phoebe's ~1400hp @ Lvl 3... this makes you nearly as healthy as a tank! This makes phoebe much more durable both against being poked and when going in for dives. I estimate that when phoebe kills a target it is using approximately 70% melee damage. Compared to Sharpened Blades (18% melee damage bonus) we are losing approximately 12.5% overall damage (.7 * .18 = 12.6). In my opinion that's a somewhat small price to pay for such a huge boost in tankiness and ability to brawl it out.

• At level 4 I take unintended invention because I tend to use close range blade rushes (and combined with conduit at Tier 9, we actually get rather strong explosive blades!)

• CONTESTED CHOICE At level 5 we take Passata Sotto which offers us an additional 30% damage reduction on top of our shield nearly tank-like health bar. Honestly, this choice is fairly contested in mind. If we choose Passata Sotto, we sacrifice a bit more damage output for 30% more tankiness (which is actually fantastic stacked on top of 2k+ effective HP). However if you feel like Tier 3 makes you tanky enough as is, you could take blade sweep for additional damage output.

• At level 6 contingency plan is taken because it's amazing. Nothing more to say about that.

• At level 7 flurry is taken because it's still fantastic and synergizes with our attack damage+attack speed gear.

• At level 8 Scientific method is taken because I love being able to teleport huge distances.

• At level 9 I take close quarters because I use it as close range damage, It is a personal preference choice though.

• CONTESTED CHOICE At level 10, honestly I took Swordstorm on the builder, but they are all useful. You could take stormbringer to make up for the slight lack of damage compare to pure assassin Phoebe. Taking Swordstorm gives you the mobility to stick to people for a bit and Calamitous Cascade can just be good in the right situations.

Anyways, hope you at least enjoyed some portions of the wall of text... Feel free to discuss your approach to phoebe, add in tips (and I will add them to OP with credit to you) and share a build... Feel free to critique any opinion or builds I have laid down within as well!