Luminara

Would that... Wait for it. WAIT FOR IT. Yes. Yes, I did.

If you stopped wearing them as shirts, they'd fit better.

They couldn't. It wasn't a code limitation, it was because of non-stacking buffs and toggle mutual exclusivity. They'd already created power sets with typed Defense, and typed Defense only works when the relevant toggle or buff is active. Because Emmert was adamant that players be kept in the dark about basic information, there was no way to know which toggle or buff was necessary. And since it's an action MMORPG, it wasn't even possible to keep up with which toggle or buff was applicable within a specific combat situation, because there was no control over enemy actions. At any given 0.125s increment, multiple different types of damage could be hitting the character. Nor did the combat logs list damage types originally, only the name of the attack used. Worse, the animations and graphics they expected to use to telegraph vital information to players were either glitchy (critters just standing there while attacks execute, no animation performed), or obscured by the graphical spam from player effects, or just ignored as players rampaged ahead (again, action MMORPG). All of these problems together threatened to relegate typed Defense sets, such as Stone Armor and Force Fields, to the bottom tier, if they even made it to launch. Exacerbating the situation was their spawn and critter design. They made lieutenants and bosses not only stronger and more dangerous, but also use attacks with more exotic damage types (non-S/L), and appear in greater numbers in teams. The consequence of that was that typed Defense was even less useful for team players, because running the "wrong" toggle or buff in a group wasn't just a greater risk of defeat, it was a guarantee of a team wipe. Against an average spawn. They knew no-one would want to play with sets which were "only good for trash mobs". They had to find a solution. They could've made typed Defense sets positional, but that would've watered down the "flavor", the uniqueness of every set, and they were counting on that uniqueness to draw in players. They could've let players know more about enemy attacks, but that would've violated Emmert's zero information policy. They could've made powers in the affected sets defend against all types, but that would've resulted in players rushing to the last power, or second to last, and ignoring all of the other powers. Instead, they concluded that adding an extra damage type to most attacks, and making certain damage types ubiquitous, would make typed Defense viable, with the least development time. That way, if you were running Rock Armor, or had a FF bubble, you were actually gaining a benefit. Your typed Defense actually mattered in most combat situations, even if you were only using one toggle or buff. That was key to making typed Defense sets playable. And it worked. When the game launched, sets like Stone Armor and FF were functional in the way they wanted, and unique enough to interest players. TLDR: typed Defense wasn't viable without those extra tags when certain restrictions were still in place. They were necessary at launch, to ensure that sets like Stone Armor and Force Fields had a place in the game. Opinion: The extra tags should've been removed at the same time the restrictions that made them necessary (toggle mutual exclusivity and no buff stacking) were lifted. Leaving them in resulted in GDN, a degree of homogenization ("Just focus on S/L Defense, that's all you need for 90% of the game") and limited content development. Good riddance to them, I say.

I found them online last year, but I can't justify spending that kind of money on a luxury item. Maybe next decade.

Chocodile. I haven't had a Chocodile in 35 years. They don't sell them on the east coast any more. My sads, they embiggen.

To expand on that: In addition to this very short list of examples, tack on enhancements, IO set bonuses, Vigilance, Alpha +Enhancement values and everything else one doesn't typically refer to as "powers". All +Damage is a single effect, regardless of source, and that's why it's additive. It has to be additive because it's all-encompassing. If it were multiplicative, it would multiply every +Damage source, including those enhancements, set bonuses, buffs, everything. Every Damage enhancement slotted would buff both itself and any other slotted Damage enhancements in that power. Turning on Assault or popping Aim would buff every enhancement and Assault or Aim. There's no flag, no code in the game, which limits that at this time, so controlling it would require new code, The "Ignores buffs and enhancements" code wouldn't work, because that would just prevent +Damage from working at all. Simultaneous with the new limiting code and a redesign of the basic damage formula, every Damage buff in the game would have to be revised. They'd also have to comb through all critter, pet and NPC powers, silent powers, temporary powers... basically every power in the game which deals damage, buffs Damage or can be slotted for Damage would require attention. The alternative would be to create an entirely new category of +Damage, separate and distinct from the existing one, which could be buffed, limited and controlled, and place it in the game alongside the existing +Damage, but reserve it for use in specific capacities, like enhancements, set bonuses and certain powers, and make it function with the "Ignores buffs and enhancements" flag. But that would still require months of work to create it, integrate it and revise every power to use it. And in the end, it would probably cause more problems than it would solve. In fact, there's only one problem really looking to be solved, the less than honest representation of how +Damage affects powers, and it would be so much easier to just add a notification somewhere, or a brief one-line explanation to a trainer or information NPC, so players would understand that taking Assault on a controller doesn't mean their powers deal 1.15x damage, it means they have the equivalent of a -1 Damage DO added to their powers' damage. I am, obviously, not the person to write that one-liner. My one-liners are porn jokes and movie references.

Oppressive Gloom clone. Only difference is the name.

You're not gangster if you're not drinking RC Cola.

I didn't even have to edit that to make it dirty. Well done.

That's what she said?

Beginner's Luck scales down as you level up. You'll miss slightly more frequently with each level, unless you're making an effort to compensate for the loss in +ToHit (Offense amplifier, Kismet unique, extra Accuracy in each attack). And against +1 critters, you're already at a slight disadvantage, as your attacks have a 65% base chance to hit, rather than 75% base. Every miss equals an increase in endurance cost per critter defeat, and since we're dealing with short animation and recharge times, it does add up quickly. Regarding endurance, there is a mechanic, Endurance Discount, but it's only applied by specific powers, not as part of the leveling system. The 2.5% and 3.75% Endurance Discount set bonuses in a few IO sets, Conserve Power, those sorts of things.

Not true. At launch, Defense functioned very differently from the way it does now. Typed Defense forced a hit check for each type, essentially "double-dipping" when attacks with multiple damage tags were being checked. Defense used an overwrite mechanic at that time, so it didn't stack in any other way, only the highest value from all sources was applicable. And Defense buffs, click or toggle, only buffed Defense to position or type, not both. Pool powers had zero typed Defense at that time. After toggle mutual exclusivity was removed, Cryptic modified the overwrite mechanic, allowing stacking from different sources, but only to permit both positional and typed Defense to apply, not to allow multiple values to stack the way they do now. The highest value of any position or type was still the only one used when a hit roll was performed. Defense calculation was changed to prevent typed Defense from "double-dipping". Pool powers and some stealth/invisibility powers were modified to include Smashing/Lethal typed Defense in addition to their positional Defense (none of which offered AoE Defense) but only Smashing/Lethal. Most powers still only offered Defense to positions or types, not both. GDN was implemented concurrent with the release of CoV. Interspersed with these Defense changes were adjustments to critter hit chances, which is a lateral Defense adjustment. For instance, when GDN went live, it was accompanied by a reduction in base critter hit chance, from 75% to 50%, equating to a 25% increase in base Defense for all characters, all archetypes. When metrics indicated that Defense was under-performing, the overwrite mechanic was removed entirely and Defense was allowed to stack the way it does now. Numerous powers which only offered Defense to types or positions were adjusted to include both a position and one or two types, and pool powers were revised to provide Defense to all positions and types (except Toxic, which was only recently added). It was only after all of those changes, comprising the period between launch and the release of Issue 6, that Defense became what it is now.

Maybe they bonded with the T-virus at the cellular level.

An assemblage of nine powers linked thematically and accessible at specific levels. Assault Rifle, Broadsword, Axe, Mace, Devices, Claws, Martial Arts, Spines, a whole lot of stuff that wasn't tied to "elements" when the game was released.

That's what happens when you don't bond with the T-virus at the cellular level.

Ah, the power of the mullet.

Beating things into quivering gelatinous stains is therapy. What I need therapy for is the rage I experience when my best attacks miss every... damn... time... I... use... them... Miss! Forced hit! Miss! Forced hit! Miss! Forced hit! Mi- OHYOUMISERABLECOCKGARGLINGSHITBAGMOTHERFUCKERAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

None, you're right. There are so many toggles in Dark Armor, and my eyes are 50 years old, I couldn't tell what I was looking at. Good catch, thank you. Fixed. Again, thank you.

SOs are the balance point. SOs in a vacuum are not. Individual powers slotted with SOs in a vacuum are not. You included Hasten in your analysis, and a single +Recharge SO, but failed to account for other variables. RI and EF are in Radiation Emission, a set which also happens to have Accelerate Metabolism, but the recharge times on your Rad toggles don't reflect AM's buff. You use the current animation time for RI, rather than the reduced animation time, which is irrelevant in an examination of the effects of the new suppression. Empowerment buffs have been made easily obtainable, no prestige, no farming. It doesn't even take two minutes to make a supergroup, enter a basic base, drop a couple of empowerment stations and have access to empowerment buffs, and that's if the player isn't part of an established SG with their own base. The only expense is salvage and the buff lasts 90 minutes. Even I have begun using empowerment buffs, and I'm one of "those people" who don't use temporary powers, or inspirations. Offense amplifiers are just a step above free at level 1, can be stacked up to 8 hours and add 15% global +Recharge. Over and over again, people on the forums have pointed out that all one has to do is take the free inspiration generator, sell the inspirations on the market and have 8 hours of Offense amplifier time, with change left over. In any power with no +Recharge slotted, slotted +Recharge can be substituted for global +Recharge. Yes, you added comparisons with single SOs, but nothing for two SOs, nothing for frankenslotted level 20/25 set IOs (which adheres to SO baselines and, in eschewing set bonuses, the spirit of the restriction). Most all of these toggles can slot set IOs and benefit significantly from frankenslotting. All of them could be slotted with a second Recharge SO and benefit, and we're not talking about scavenging a build for a dozen slots, we're talking about adding one or two slots to each toggle, which equates to one or two slots total for most builds. Nothing touching on buffs from teammates, either. Someone playing strictly by the SO standard is statistically likely to be teaming, since the HC team has stated that the modern performance expectation for solo characters is 3 +3 minions, rather than the 3 +0 minions as it was at launch. 3 +3 minions is IO and set territory. And this is without going into post-50 Incarnate stuff, which further skews the metric. Point being, failure to account for variables is why toggle mutual exclusivity was axed. Failure to account for variables is why GDN was implemented. Failure to account for variables is why the purple patch was added. Failure to account for variables is why ED happened. Failure to account for variables is why PvP went through multiple revamps and still hemorrhaged players. Don't examine this in a vacuum, because it's not happening in a vacuum. Every variable not properly accounted for will bite you on the ass later.