User:Aluthal/Modified Buffer
Superbuffing
"Xyber Huge!"
If you've toiled as a normal buffer with the supposed Holy Trinity of buffing (Support/Lingering Kindness/Healing), then ocassionally you may notice that sometimes another buffer just walks in and makes you completely useless. Their buffs are simply larger than yours, and not by a small amount, but by an insane amount. Did you pick the wrong skills? Is there some power you're missing? What kind of gear do they have that lets them do that?
The answer is that they are simply playing a different game than you. They possess the Modified flaw and have taken a set of modifications designed to maximize the magnitudes of every buff they throw out to ridiculous heights. Everything you could possibly get out of Support and Healing is duplicated entirely by a single application of the Heavy Modifier, and Lingering Kindness just isn't worth it at that point. At this point, you should be asking, "But how does this help me?" Well, you're going to want to walk yourself up to the Zephyr Inc Nanite Workshop and take a look at the Medical Implanter.
The Medical Implanter gives you the Modified flaw, which sets all of your combat skills to 0. So now you're feeling all weak because you don't have any bonuses to your buffs, but that's okay, because the store also has the schematic for a 'Modification'. The Modification, if you've been following along with +rpinfo, simply adds all of the bonuses and penalties of any Modifiers applied to it to everything you do. So let's take a look at something relatively simple, an Overwhelming Modification. By equipping this monster, the Charge time of all of your powers is reduced by 20%, the Loadout and Upkeep both increase by 20%, and imporantly all Status Magnitudess are increased by +40%. That last bit is the important one for you, because Status Mag is everything that you do as a buffer. So let's take a look into the Modification that you're going to make to go along with your Modified flaw.
Modifications
"Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger"
There are a few options for Modifcations, so let's examine them by levels (and thus, the order you'll take them in.)
Level 15: You get your first Modifier. That Modifier is going to be Heavy. You may be wondering why we're taking a Modifier with such large penalties this early, but it's really simple. We're going to be getting the weight increasers out of the way so that you don't make any equipment decisions based on normal equipment limits, and we're choosing Heavy first because it pulls so much weight. Heavy does a lot of things. The first thing you're going to care about is that it increases Loadout by +10% and Upkeep by +15%. So you're hurting. It also decreases your Accuracy by -10% and increases your Charge by +25%, your Cooldowns by +40%, and your Energy by +25%, but hey, it increases Damage by 40%! Realistically, you're going to be buffing yourself to reduce all of those penalties, so you're just going to eat them right now. What you really care about is that your Status Chance is being improved by +50%, your Durations by +30%, and most importantly, your Status Magnitudes by +30%. If that looks like everything that Support could ever do for you plus change, then you're starting to learn what it means to be a Superbuffer.
'Level 30:' Two Modifiers! This is where something really magical happens and you really learn why Superbuffing is so very powerful. Your Modification for today is Overwhelming. You now have the two modifiers that have been put on almost every buffing item ever made. We already talked about what Overwhelming gives you, so we'll ignore that for now. In fact, you can just use +rpinfo when I mention a modifier from now on. However, it's even better than what +rpinfo may suggest. When you slap your Heavy, Overwhelming Modifcation onto your brainstem, you'll notice that the numbers don't quite match up to what you may have been expecting. Your Status Mag bonus isn't quite the the *170% you might have been expecting, but is in fact *182%. You've just walked into one of the key tricks of the Superbuffer. Modifications don't stack linearly like Modifiers on equipment do, but multiplicatively. This will become very important. For now, all of your buffs are bigger than normal buffing could ever do and you're starting to really make the normal buffers feel small in the pants.
Level 45: Your third Modifier gives you some actual choice in the matter. You can take Sucking, Flexible, or one of the Quality Slot modifiers such as Improved, Overcharged, or Unpredictable. Sucking is the obvious first pick, because of the +30% Mag (bringing you up to an impressive 236.6%). However, Sucking has the pricetag of three Sacramento Suckers, which are a bit hard to obtain, so even if your build includes Sucking, you may want to hold out until your final Modification. Flexible has some real benefits, the biggest being the Status Chance increase. However, the Defense bonus only applies once (twice including the passive) and is smaller than some of your other options. Improved is a strict upgrade, but may be too small for your tastes. Overcharged is a very safe pick, but is a bit hard to obtain. Unpredictable has some serious flaws, but if you really want the extra 5%, it may be what you need. Think long and hard before including it in any build.
Level 60: Your option for your fourth Modifier is much the same as your third, minus whatever you took. At this point you have the option of Dropped Craftmods, which give you a bit more freedom on what Modifiers you can take and also give you the chance of getting a Tier 2 Dropmod, which will add a 5% bonus to everything you do with diminishing returns.
