Rethinking Rank 3 Attack Epics

With the Marleybone and Aquila update came the release of Rank 3 epics. Some seem incredibly overpowered, while others seem useless. I recently did some gold retrains to try out some of these epics with Destiny, and came to some interesting conclusions. Here's what I learned about each of the Rank 3 talents and what I think about their usefulness.

I'm going to talk about these epics in three posts: First, attack epics. Then, response epics. And finally, movement epics.

Relentless, Burst Fire, and Mojo Echo

These are the top talents out there. Any companion that can train this talent does. In fact, any companion that can train the third version of this usually does. Why? Because it's one of the few talents that are triggered from your own hits, though you can't control it as easily as some others. It only has a 35% chance of activating, so you do need other epic talents to make it function to its maximum potential.

Having the third version of this talent is almost always a good idea. The few exceptions I can think of are Old Scratch, because Improved Mojo Blast 2 is of greater use than Mojo Echo 3, and possibly Argos, as his Relentless 3 just doesn't trigger often enough with just Vengeance Strike 1. The third version increases the chances of activating the epic based on the unit's health - the closer it is to zero, the more damage is done. This probably uses the same curve as Bonnie's Second Wind, as it can increase chances by up to 25%, meaning you could have up to a 60% chance of activating Burst Fire not including buffs (which can add an additional 25%, meaning a 85% chance that that epic will activate), so that's definitely a solid path to choose.

Second Chance, Quick Adjust, and Jobu's Ruse

These are some of the more controversial talents because they don't give you extra hits. In fact, they rely specifically on you missing. In my opinion, these can be great for companions who have below-par accuracy, but others will choose to ignore them entirely. I personally like Second Chance on my Hoodoo Cornelius. He's already very inaccurate, but I like to use him for lower-level farming and some higher-level Musketeer battles. And Quick Adjust already comes on Nausica, but you'll notice that it makes a killer combination by filling the holes in her Burst Fire chains.

The third version of these epics increases your accuracy by 15 points each time you miss, meaning you could add an additional 45 accuracy. Given that companions usually have between 100 and 150 accuracy and dodge, that's pretty significant. The catch is that it only lasts for that one round, meaning you could greatly increase your chances of hitting over-buffed companions on a Privateer's team, but other than that, chances are that you'd need other triggers to make real use of it. Ultimately, then, I have to say no to these group of talents beyond Rank 1, so I'm certainly avoiding Rank 3.

Blade Storm, Double Tap, and Mojo Rising

Ah, the last of the triggers that are largely affecting by your doing. These come standard on many companions, and are oftentimes available on others. With these, you get an additional hit if you defeat an enemy. That should be an immediate red flag, because battles have between two and five enemies in them on average. That means you have two to four chances for this to activate the entire battle. That's not a very good number. Then again, think of talents like First Strike, Quick Draw, and Intuition. They can activate many, many times per battle, but rely on the units being one of five classes (which some overlap and First Strike affecting three of five classes). If that type of unit isn't in the battle (Witchdoctor enemies are pretty rare, but there are some battles with all of one type of unit), then that epic isn't of use at all.

The third version of these gives a bonus sneak attack (meaning no epics are triggered) when you defeat an enemy. Personally, I don't train past the version already trained on the companion. I won't even get the first rank of these talents except maybe in the case of my crab companions. So the third version? No question - I'm not interested.

Potential Improvements?

Some of these powers are popular, some are situational, and some are, quite frankly, useless in most cases. Do you have ideas on how rank 3 epics could be improved to make them better choices over other triggers? Or are some already too powerful? Let me know by commenting!

Thanks for reading and see you in the Spiral! Credits: Thanks to Destiny for helping me test out some of these epics! Thanks for Angel Ice, Jason Goldenshield, Sheldon, Storm, Dead-Eye Collin, and Kyle Spirit for assistance with pictures.  **One or more card images in this post has been edited because it cannot be viewed yet.