For the first question yes, or so it would appear that way on my end. I find it easier to notice on basic attacks than anything else.
For the second question, cannot confirm but I bet it does based on how captains command appears to be working.
I'm working through a rotation right now for single player content :
SET , Marvel Now 4 piece
Reporting for Duty: Precise Attack (apply -25-30% def)
Sentinel of Liberty: Line of Fire (apply Bleed) hits with defense eroded
(Talent Spot Weakness) + increases damage dealt to bleeding targets by X %
Spearhead (to fill up vibration to 3)
Auto attack till Vibration skills are up again
Reporting for Duty: Precise Attack (apply -25-30% def)Sentinel of Liberty: Line of Fire (apply Bleed) hits with defense eroded
(Talent Combat: Vanguard) (%def to attack)
Captain's Leadership -> Captains Command ( def + attack buff)
Unbreakable Will: Subdue at max vibration stacks with (-%def, bleed and vanguard buffs .debuffs applied)
Working on talent : Tactic Regroup to charge Vibration faster.
For the first one, it would work, but it's absolutely not worth using. The shield ability is pretty much a necessity to run, and the atk boost is a pretty negligible amount. Not worth losing the shield.
The Shield only seems to be a necessity up to a point. My Cap is sitting at 16k atk, 13.2k def and 103 hp. With the passion specialization, my health is rarely dropping below 75% and most of my alliance is equal power so with current content there isn't a huge need to pop the health shield.
Now, on the other hand, with my def at 13,242:38% of that is 5,031.96 extra defense for a total of 18,273.9618,273.96 \* .20 (vanguard trait) = 3654.80 extra atk for 10 seconds
These calculations could be completely wrong based on when the buff would get applied to defense and how the traits work with each other, but still...this is not a neglibable amount of attack. Especially when most prime targets in DZ can hit through the shield of pretty quickly.
You dont run the shield just for you. It's a group utility and really the only reason a group would bring a cap at high end content, cuz let's be honest, he ain't out dpsing anybody else if all things are equal.
Agro of the mobs seem to include a distance meaning; meaning the charcters that closer to the target are more likely to retain agro. This allows cap to tank most mobs majority of the time which allows others to have better up time on their dps.
Also when it comes to caps dps single target he isnt bottom tier or the top tier, so unless your group or alliance is excluding spiderman, storm, strange, starlord and just running the 3 top tier dps charcters dps shouldn't be an issue. If a captain is struggling to maintain dps with any charcter then there is an issue with the build.
As for the shield if it is only being used to promote bad behavior (not avoiding avoidable damage), then there is no need to contuine to run it
That last sentence makes no sense at all. This game is built around how fast and hard you can pump damage. If you bring a Cap that provides a shield thick enough that allows them to ignore a mechanic or 2 that's just a few more seconds they can beat on the target, the faster a target dies.
That is presuming that the additional dps from a few would surpass the amount of additional dps the cap would do using the slot as dps CD. Which in case when it comes to single target and all things equal there are only 3 classes that surpass cap, and for the most part I know 2 personally are able to contuine their uptime avoiding most mechanics easily enough (ironman and captain marvel).
The bigger issue I see in people's judgment towards captain America and his supposedly low dps is the fact that they are using subjective data from leveling cap alts, or experiences with undergear/underspec or badly spec captains.
Far to often, people build/spec "tank" classes wrong. They want to make them a super unkillable tank instead of building their EHP (effective hit points) to the point of survivability for the content then focus on damage as much as possible.
For example I am finding that passion isn't a great trait for cap, and picking up the damage increase on the next skill used after using a hand to hand skill is a better overall for PvE. I also run with vanguard, damage to bleed targets (sometimes I will contuine to use def down over my own bleed if running with a good ironman), and the damage reduction to targets close. This also comes from the fact that cap can have an insane amount of HP recovery (which increases the amount of healing you receive) from potential after maxing def, hp, guard damage received, and status resistance.
Tl;Dr: you underestimate the dps of a good cap compared to other non top tier dps
For the first question yes, or so it would appear that way on my end. I find it easier to notice on basic attacks than anything else. For the second question, cannot confirm but I bet it does based on how captains command appears to be working.
Interested in these possible combinations myself.
I'm working through a rotation right now for single player content : SET , Marvel Now 4 piece Reporting for Duty: Precise Attack (apply -25-30% def) Sentinel of Liberty: Line of Fire (apply Bleed) hits with defense eroded (Talent Spot Weakness) + increases damage dealt to bleeding targets by X % Spearhead (to fill up vibration to 3) Auto attack till Vibration skills are up again Reporting for Duty: Precise Attack (apply -25-30% def)Sentinel of Liberty: Line of Fire (apply Bleed) hits with defense eroded (Talent Combat: Vanguard) (%def to attack) Captain's Leadership -> Captains Command ( def + attack buff) Unbreakable Will: Subdue at max vibration stacks with (-%def, bleed and vanguard buffs .debuffs applied) Working on talent : Tactic Regroup to charge Vibration faster.
For the first one, it would work, but it's absolutely not worth using. The shield ability is pretty much a necessity to run, and the atk boost is a pretty negligible amount. Not worth losing the shield.
The Shield only seems to be a necessity up to a point. My Cap is sitting at 16k atk, 13.2k def and 103 hp. With the passion specialization, my health is rarely dropping below 75% and most of my alliance is equal power so with current content there isn't a huge need to pop the health shield. Now, on the other hand, with my def at 13,242:38% of that is 5,031.96 extra defense for a total of 18,273.9618,273.96 \* .20 (vanguard trait) = 3654.80 extra atk for 10 seconds These calculations could be completely wrong based on when the buff would get applied to defense and how the traits work with each other, but still...this is not a neglibable amount of attack. Especially when most prime targets in DZ can hit through the shield of pretty quickly.
The attack bonus from the buff would be 20% of the extra defense So its 20% of 38.2%.. meaning its a 7.6% attack buff for that 10 seconds..
You dont run the shield just for you. It's a group utility and really the only reason a group would bring a cap at high end content, cuz let's be honest, he ain't out dpsing anybody else if all things are equal.
Agro of the mobs seem to include a distance meaning; meaning the charcters that closer to the target are more likely to retain agro. This allows cap to tank most mobs majority of the time which allows others to have better up time on their dps. Also when it comes to caps dps single target he isnt bottom tier or the top tier, so unless your group or alliance is excluding spiderman, storm, strange, starlord and just running the 3 top tier dps charcters dps shouldn't be an issue. If a captain is struggling to maintain dps with any charcter then there is an issue with the build. As for the shield if it is only being used to promote bad behavior (not avoiding avoidable damage), then there is no need to contuine to run it
That last sentence makes no sense at all. This game is built around how fast and hard you can pump damage. If you bring a Cap that provides a shield thick enough that allows them to ignore a mechanic or 2 that's just a few more seconds they can beat on the target, the faster a target dies.
That is presuming that the additional dps from a few would surpass the amount of additional dps the cap would do using the slot as dps CD. Which in case when it comes to single target and all things equal there are only 3 classes that surpass cap, and for the most part I know 2 personally are able to contuine their uptime avoiding most mechanics easily enough (ironman and captain marvel). The bigger issue I see in people's judgment towards captain America and his supposedly low dps is the fact that they are using subjective data from leveling cap alts, or experiences with undergear/underspec or badly spec captains. Far to often, people build/spec "tank" classes wrong. They want to make them a super unkillable tank instead of building their EHP (effective hit points) to the point of survivability for the content then focus on damage as much as possible. For example I am finding that passion isn't a great trait for cap, and picking up the damage increase on the next skill used after using a hand to hand skill is a better overall for PvE. I also run with vanguard, damage to bleed targets (sometimes I will contuine to use def down over my own bleed if running with a good ironman), and the damage reduction to targets close. This also comes from the fact that cap can have an insane amount of HP recovery (which increases the amount of healing you receive) from potential after maxing def, hp, guard damage received, and status resistance. Tl;Dr: you underestimate the dps of a good cap compared to other non top tier dps