DCUO Guides: Seismic Earth DPS guide

After experimenting with various loadouts, I’ve worked out what I believe are the tools for the best Daze based loadout. Rather than give all the tricks of the trade away, I’ll point out the Power Interactions and tools needed to tear it up as DPS. I’m a firm believer in learning by doing, so this thread will do more than enough in terms of pointing you in the right direction. If I have not mentioned a power in the Seismic tree, consider it useless to dps.
 
THIS IS NOT A THREAD FOR LEVELING, THIS IS DESIGNED AROUND THE PURPOSE OF ENDGAME DPS IN RAIDS AND HIGH LEVEL ALERTS.
 
First point of business, stack precision. Lots of it. I wouldn’t go as far as to give up might altogether, but putting prec/health in your blue slots and prec/power in your yellow slots for mods is the best start. If you want might based stuff, Crush is your best bet.
 
Daze and Crush effects last for 13 seconds, unlike electrifying effects it is not harvested and can have multiple power interactive powers used at a time, as long as Daze or Crush is active.
 

BREAD AND BUTTER POWERS

Don’t leave home without them.
 
Reinforce:
HULK HANDS! Self buff that gives both weapon attacks and powers a 7% increase to crit chance. On top of that, you get a sweet 115 precision all to yourself for 14 seconds, dispite what the tooltip days. Once you run out of juice, it’s only 8 seconds before you can pop it again. So if you play your cards right, 2/3 of the time you can keep the buff on. 50% buff and you can slip powers with it. REALLY cheap on power now, so there’s no excuse why this should never be off cooldown.
 
Debris Field:
Creates a large AoE field of Damage over time , surprisingly large. Will do an extra tick of damage of about 1/4 of the initial tick if the targets are Dazed or Crushed. 50% buff and VERY quick cast, can be used at full range, providing your reticule comes up red on your target.
 
Jackhammer:
This move is INSANE. And looks AWESOME. THIS is that power you see earth players spam in the WT or HoD. Punch into the ground with vicious strikes, just like the Hulk. FISTING IS FUN. AoE centric to your character, bursting out. Surprisingly long range when at the perfect distance. Hit the melee button for additional Aftershock damage, and much like Hard Light construct combos, the Aftershocks are based on your precision, not your might. Make sure you apply a daze effect to any enemies you intend to hit with this, becasue it wiull add an extra tick to the aftershocks of about 35% of what your initial tick would be. . This move is incredible for fliers in particular. If you fly in the right spot, you have 360 degrees of AoE mashing goodness. With the right precision, you can keep a constant stream of high damage on multiple mobs, or single targets. The AoE does split on targets once it moves from around 4 targets or higher, but the split goes from 100% damage down to about 60-65% damage, so it’s still very much worth using. I wouldn’t use this past a 20 hit combo with it, and using it with Reinforce active it makes this power tear things to shreds in seconds. Remember that this power is sustained AoE damage, not burst damage. So it will do a LOT of damage when it all adds up, but won’t show massive single numbers on your screen. If you run out of power during this, it’ll give you a running start to a melee combo for big damage. I’ll touch more on this later.
 
3 MORE SPOTS:
You have 3 more spots on your loadout, and one NEEDS to give you a Daze effect. The others are up to you. Downdraft is a safe choice for a small AoE DoT on yor target, neovenom works well too if you want a little more juice in your single target. Some run with a Supercharge, some prefer the damage bonuses to certain weapon attacks for a full SC bar, others like their nukes. Earthquake and Meteor Shower can do great things, IF you aren’t flight. If you’re flight, you want Vacuum Bubble. If you doubt it’s AoE nuke abilities: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ostwV9gj-Bs
 
Tectonic Break:
Has the same kind of AoE that Jacks does. So it starts from your character and bursts out. The AoE doesn’t go very far, but does pretty good damage and Dazes multiple targets. 50% damage bonus and practically no cooldown, so clipping weapon attacks with this will always be a safe bet.
 
Unstoppable:
This move is GREAT for melee Earth dps. It’s usable while controlled. It’s a breakout. It gives you 5 seconds of CC immunity. In PvP tank role it’s a cleanse. It hits AoE (smaller than Tectonic). It Dazes everything it hits. It clips powers. It knocks back mobs, regardless of dominance requirements, IN DPS ROLE. I love this move, the recent patch added some changes to it, and definitely helps with the melee feel to earth dps.
 
Sandblast:
If you’ve ever played Sorc or Nature dps, you’ll know what a finishing move is. At less 35% health, your enemy will take heavy damage from this. First tick will do a decent hit, but the second tick will hit HARD. I’ve seen crits on this just short of 3K on that second tick with 1650 might, so it’s nothing to snuff at. If you’re on the ground and thecast is too long, you can jump cancel it, but you will lose the second tick. Easy price to pay for staying safe. 50% damage buff.
 
Upheaval:
Narrow cone AoE, does pretty good damage, but can be really hefty on power if you use all the aftershocks. From full it will almost take you down to half power, so it’s heavily situational. 35% damage buff, so it’s best to cast a 50% first to make sure you don’t waste the power on poor damage.
 
Localised Tremor:
Quick cast AOE, does decent damage on dazed targets. Very small range, much like Fire’s flashpoint. If you’re going to be in the thick of battle it might be worth using, spamming this after a Tectonic Break can do some pretty good close AoE damage.
 

WEAPON CHOICE:

Regardless of what people will tell you, perfect range dps is not viable on Earth. You need to be at close or mid range to be 100% effective. So the best choice will always be a melee weapon. For a loadout based around Daze, you’ll find you use Jackhammer a lot and will probably run out of power. When you do, you will notice your melee attacks start up from your weapon. So having a weapon that needs a running start on a few taps to get your finishers is a great idea and will make you even more efficient. Staff’s downward smash, Duel wield stunning swipe and dual flurry, Two handed mega smash, Brawling’s launching uppercut and haymaker will all work very well when jacks run out. On top of that, those melee weapons in particular will allow you to regen power and build supercharge MUCH faster when you build jack combos.
 
Hope this helps some of you who found Earth dps “lacking”. This power set works like no other, but has so much potential once you get used to it’s unique mechanics. It heavily relies on having a good controller in group to run at 100% efficiency, but with reinforce on at all times, you should be able to adjust when power becomes an issue and tear things to shreds with weapon combos.
 
This power set is not easy to use, or as simple to output damage as others, so don’t expect big numbers on day one. It will take you time to adjust, just give it some love and practice and you’ll be fisting Brainiac in no time.

We would like to say a big THANK YOU to theendzeit proud member of Collective leaguefor making this guide. We think this will be extremely helpful for all of the DCUO community members and we hope you will enjoy it.