OK, so I'm kind of at an impasse, guys. I've been unable to decide on what dailies to give Valerian post-switch, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. Currently, Val has Boiling Cloud and Swift Panther Rage. The idea between the two is to give him the ability to charge all day erryday, plus use Savage Growl to its full extent by tanking up on defenses enough that attacks will miss outright, plus tack on damage with Boiling Cloud. The issue here is, Boiling Cloud requires marking to deal that autodamage, and it's just 3 damage a turn, hardly anything noteworthy beyond popping minions like they're Pringles. So I've been looking at other options, thinking. Here's the choices at my disposal, as I see it:
-Take Form of the Relentless Panther (level 1 Warden daily, the one Val's used so far), plus Rage of the Crimson Hurricane. His defenses stay stuck at their current values except for Reflex, and he still has to mark his target, but he does stupidly huge damage if he catches enemies with his newfound AoE trick (Thundering Howl), as it works once per target hit and Thundering Howl can hit a bunch, plus it triggers twice if I hit with Wildblood Frenzy, and he can chargespam all day. Oh, and he has a +1 bonus to attack rolls as a consolation prize
-Take Form of the Fearsome Ram and Rage of the Crimson Hurricane. This is the full-offense option, making Valerian hyper accurate on a charge (something like four points over his base attack roll. Yeah, really), letting him push people around, and dealing extra damage not contingent on marking. Downside is my defenses ain't that good besides the Bloodiron bonus.
-Stick with my current setup. It's mostly defensively oriented (I give everybody a +2 bonus to defenses for hugging me, so if I do go with this it's a good idea to stick with Val, bee tee dubs), so it wins more by attrition than anything else. Granted, having 27 AC is really good at this level and it will keep improving as I get real armor.
-Special option: Currently my Warden power is Call Faerie Guardian, which gives me easy marking (to go with Boiling Cloud). If it would be more useful, I could instead take Nature's Abundance or Fey Congress, which create Cover and Concealment in a Close Burst 3 and Burst 1, respectively. The issue about them is that the former munches up a Standard Action to start up (but that IS a lot of cover for us that doesn't work for the enemy), while the latter eats up minor actions. The other downside is that I love the fluff of Call Faerie Guardian, but I might be able to live with the loss. As a note, Nature's Abundance stacks with Boiling Cloud, which kicks our defenses up by a whopping +4 if I put both down.
So, any ideas, gentlemen? I kinda wanna take what will work best with the group, but I'm not sure what that is, as all choices have pros and cons.
EDIT: I should clarify why I'm worrying about this: Valerian's OTHER utility power is Savage Growl. That baby grants me a bonus 1d8 damage for a couple turns, plus it marks. The downside is that it makes the target deal 1d8 damage to ME, too. SInce that's a losing tradeoff but the damage bonus is sweet, I need high defenses. The question is just how high, since I can't count on Vance marking people to take the heat off me.
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Sburbopolis, Homestuck RPG: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/60981373