Sir Myshkin

I remember an era of F10 cries when cut scenes became a thing and everyone was trying to put something smart into the response.

I can clear most of the Pylons solo before they reset on their timer so... Yeah it's really not that hard actually 🤣

It isn't terribly difficult to get a feel for the way the system works after reading through the why of things. Each proc has what's called a PPM value that is used to calculate its chances of firing off and they range from 1 to 5. Recharge is the other half of the equation for most powers until you get to AoE based ones, then the Cone or Radius gets added in, and then whether or not a power is a toggle also adds a determining factor. Short list: If the power recharges 0-15 seconds, low chance. If it's 15-25, better chances, probably like 33%. As you get closer to 30/s, things start to chance and whether you have significant recharge enhancement in a power can technically matter, but roughly anything that started around 30/s probably is going to have a 35-50% chance of going off every time you fire the power for most procs in the 3+ PPM range. After 30/s up to 45/s you'll push into the 60% territory, and then after that it's pretty much hitting somewhere between 75%-90% cap out in those 60/s+ areas. If you're using AoE's, then things are a lot simpler because body count has a bigger impact: If there's at least 4-5 things in the effect area of a cone or single-drop AoE, then you'll likely only hit one, maybe two, but often nothing. This scales up to 10 targets in the impact zone, once you get to 10+ the magic number is on and you're pretty much in the for-sure going-to-happen where a proc will go off, likely several times with an average up to half the group, but usually you'll get like 33% of the group but sometimes better. If you're using a proc like a Force Feedback +Recharge, at 10 it's a sure-fire so long as the attack itself doesn't miss any of the 10. Toggles and time-based drop effects with durations have intervals of 10/s when they fire proc chances, and this effects their odds of going off a little, but essentially follow the above and you'll end up fine in most cases. The only time procs aren't full worth the investment in toggles are when it's a personal toggle (excluding Gaussian's Proc in Tactics), they don't always balance their consumption of slots to use, kind of a case-by-case basis.

I think sometimes I'm a hazard to my own health, because this is just sick: For some at first glance that may not pop right away as being significant, but by contrast my Scrapper can run most standard content without ever touching Reconstruction, Shadow Meld, Instant Healing, or MoG with just 32% Melee and ~40% Resistance and equal Regeneration to this. This thing is pretty much only killable by exotic types, and even then there's the fact that Rune pops those Resistances up another 25%, there's still IH and MoG in there, and Recon that'll probably collect dust like a broken sofa in a boarded up mansion.

I mean... statistically speaking the average player age based on just when the game launched versus now is likely somewhere around 38-42. If the demographic the game was "intended" for was 16-24 back at launch of 2004, we're 19 years in making the lowest point of a returning player (excluding scenarios where parents/guardians allowed younger to participate) would be 35. We all know that there was a considerable swing in the age bracket back then though and the player age ranged even then into the 70's, so I'm truly not surprised. At the latest point in the game's history (2012), we have just crested into the eleventh year (so really just a decade since "THE EVENT"), if a player were to come back now and say "Oh, I remember play this back then..." If they onboarded in the same demographic range then, that'd put them in the 26-34 range now...

In the spirit of what @Blackjoy was asking about paid sets, your response would... not entirely be accurate. All sets were released and available to all players, but not in issues; some of them did have a transactional value required to play them, and thus were not just "free." Those who were on the subscription service were give 500 coins/points/whatever each month that they could use towards packs, costumes, power sets, whatever extra goodies that came up with costs associated, so for more of the "Pay to Win" (if you will) crowd, they were getting it by happenstance of their "subscription." The list of what sets can be found here on Paragon Wiki. There were 16 total sets released specifically to the "Paid" category, no Shield was not one of them that came out much earlier in Issue 13 which predated the F2P system by quite a bit.

I'm a bit invested in your journey from a curiosity and love-for-regen stand point, and I decided to try a little "play from home" style game by building and slotting in Mid's based on your level progression in your posts. I know you mentioned at the beginning you weren't going to do early investment into IO's, but it did make me curious what could be achieved by 25 with cheap sets and chasing Resistance, Regen, and HP to bolster the natural aspects of Regen as effectively as possible. I also focused on a relatively conservative slotting scheme that played to both set advantage, and looking for maximization of overall ability. This is what I was looking at: There are obviously more optimized choices for certain areas like the attacks once the build hits 50, but I isolated specifically to just what could be achieved by 25(ish). For only having two toggles that is a heck of a lot of resistance and regen at 25.

I don't even have sound on and I can hear the *CRUNCH* of the axe sweeping through my enemies bones.

There, how about a version that just doesn't have unnecessary formatting?

I wouldn’t want to see you suffer unduly Yomo, so go ahead and just send a few billion on over and I’ll fix that problem for you. 😉 🤣

SR disagrees with you, it just gets capped at 95%, but it does generate more than the cap.

I remembered one today from long ago that I used to use on a Scrapper when it went on murderous rampages and left piles of bodies behind it: "Help! Help! I need an adult!" (/em whistle)

That's like saying a bald tire has tread. It should be 100%!

Alright, pack it up folks our work here is done! We got one!

Just a heads up if you're looking at the Ice Armor minimal effects and have no experience with how they stack in-game, be prepared to alter them some after earn them all and have them running. I have a second Ice Armor character that use the minimal effects because they're supposed to look more like they're in a cold soda and the snow effects and shaders don't quite all stack in such transparent ways that once they were all ontop of each other it wasn't what one might have anticipated.

I got incredibly inspired to roll a new character the other night and have been full-in on the RP experience with it so far (which is a tad unusual these days for me) and I've been having a blast with it. I realized that I wanted to come up with a battle cry for the character and that those used to sort of be a thing, there's even still that option on the hero cards when we make our characters but I never really see anyone use those hot keys for more than making fun of Romulus during an ITF. Lets have a little fun! So Players, WHAT IS YOUR BATTLE CRY?

Because it's the internet, and without this we'd all still be drinking whiskey in drawing rooms in stuffy two-and-a-half-piece suits with pocket watches and twirled mustaches going "How's the weather today!" But not as a question, but a matter of statement because we already know that the weather is crap and we need to create an argument starter and there's only so many times you can complain about the house keeping before it gets older than the weather! So how about those Cubs?

I'd put some wager on to an Ice Armor/Titan Weapon Tanker. The look for it can go multiple different direction with the weapon skins, as an example straight up as a Valkyrie: Or as a raging Viking: Look at that Ice Man Glow! When did you last try Titan Weapons out? The set was changed a little bit back so that to overall flow and feel was sped up, it doesn't drag quite like it used to and is rather fluid now by comparison. A lot of the abilities have Knock effects (down or up) so it will carry a smash and go presence as well.

It's kind of funny when you describe it like this, and not as its original form it makes it sound like a much better power. It becomes 0.26 eps for 11% Res(S/L) and 6% Def(All), anyone would think "you're crazy if you don't take that, that's such a great pick!" It makes Weave look tedious. Lets go a step further and instead put Gladiator's 3-pack in there with Steadfast instead and now it becomes 0.24 eps, 16% Res(S/L), +2.5% Recovery, 6% Def (All), 3pt KB Res. Man, you really are Tough. 🤣 The fact that Regen doesn't have -Regen debuff resistance is one of the most absurd flaws ever to exist in this game. I get that at conception there wasn't exactly anything running around that could cause this, but by the time it became a thing, the enemies that could/can deliver the effect massively curb-stomp Regen hard and it is insane that there isn't even an after thought of a band aid to fix it.

This is indeed what I was focused on. However this part is a change I missed, I was under the impression they still nuked the stack and only allowed one to go off.

No it still applies, the other sets have access to their own assortments of BU effects under the same testing expectations, and the IO conditions that the builds were tested with are not high-end so it's not looking at peak Claws, and frankly removing Follow Up from the scenario actually advantage Claws even further in favor of Shockwave or Eviscerate. You already answered yourself on this. Energy Transfer is an attack that already does 700-800 damage on its own, and the argument is about damage capping it? And then to add to it Energy Punch and Bone Smasher are also some of the hardest hitting melee attacks available? Sadly I don't think it really has to be tested, you just need a capable data entry sheet to plug in the attacks, run the optimal chain out and get the corresponding value. Really it's just a matter of identifying the most likely candidates to start with (which are all pretty obvious), and go from there. As a side note, having given some additional consideration to this idea, my bet is somewhere between Stalkers and Corrutpors assuming the Stalkers get their AT-O procs, consistent AS hits... bonkers, but a damage capped Corr dropping Scourge on a debuffed GM... that's some tasty pizza.

What about if they smell it?

I think what's got you stuck is thinking inside the box of what it means to be "capped" in general. If a test gets performed at a set and equal level, and then I change a metric of that test equally across the board then most of the board should stay relative to its peers. In this case, if I had a base line damage, and I then capped it, the performance should play out the same, just ideally with faster times. An IO run was taken into consideration to provide for the consideration of things like global recharge improving total dynamic performance too, so that all got attributed. Basically take everything you're stuck on above, and forget about it for a minute, and take that thread and unpack it. This was the optimal performance ranking (using an IO build and an SO build averaged out) to clear a standardized map with minions, lieutenants, bosses, and elite bosses. How quickly could a basic standard build (all with the same slotting and same secondary slotted identically) effectively clear a standardized mission format. Now we take this list and target your search for single target performers that qualify: Claws, Titan Weapons, Dark Melee, and War Mace. Energy Melee would be here as well in its current form, the thread this test was performed on predates its change. Next analyzing the conditional values of the abilities in each set against the conditions of the test, Claws and Titan Weapons both scaled very well due to a lot of strong AoE ability backed by strong single target components, however War Mace comes in with just incredible ST ability with lower AoE and is is a contender still. Dark Melee and Energy Melee would be the biggest stars being primarily ST with next to no considerable AoE compared to the other sets, and knowing that Titan Weapons got trimmed down in the years following this original test, I would say the most relevant choices of top contention would be these: Energy Melee Dark Melee War Mace Of course this only accounts for Melee, so you've got several other AT's to go and evaluate in the same kind of way to really get the answer you're looking for. Or... you could just look through the Pylon bashing thread and find the top contenders and run with those as being your likely bets (excluding MM's).

PI Groups are definitely "Farms for Non-Farmers" and I unabashedly enjoy running in them from time to time to just cut back and let loose without concern. In fact I was on one last night with only two Blasters being 50 and it was a tad chaotic because several of the other players were new and inexperienced to the game and one flat out admitted they had no idea what was going on because things just kept going left, right, and center. No one died though, everyone stayed upright and the missions kept running.

The opposite? No, it's on the same trajectory for sure. The difference is that you're just cranking the damage dial up, but you're doing it across the board so the return value would theoretically curve the entire chart pretty evenly. The practical example would still give valid insight into expected outcomes at a full-cap damage scenario.