Doomguide2005

So that's who the other two DM/Rads are. Sweet.

And there goes the bet.

Oh sure, sure rub it in that my computer died and I can't log in 😜 But yep that would do it. Edit: Placing bets its 200.38 like Scrappers for Sents

Yes the game's hard limit to defense varies by AT. It also varies by level but only up to level 21 at which point it has reached the hard cap for that AT. Brute or Tanker 225.05% Khelds, Scrapper, Stalker 200.38% Blaster, Controller, Corruptor, Defender, Dominator, Mastermind 175% Conspicuously not included is VEATs which I'm going to hazard is probably 200.38% like Khelds. Also missing are Sentinels????. HCwiki needs an update 🙂 Critters also vary by rank and level. The soft cap of +45 exists because foes base chance to hit is 50%. 50 minus 45 defense leaves 5% the floor. Incarnates get (rounded) a +14 so it becomes 64 - 59 to floor their chance to 5%. But now you have to account for Accuracy. All foes gain various accuracy mods based on rank, relative level and other things. That's at least part of why you're seeing differences between +0 and +4 mobs for example. @Bill Z Bubbadamn I'm a slow typist ... I also have a 4yr old distraction roaming about.

The aggro cap is no different on a Tanker than a Blaster or a Defender -> 17. Tankers, however, generate relatively huge amounts of Threat comparatively. Threat value determines who gets aggro.

Which DEF cap are you discussing here? The hard cap limit in the game? Other? 60% is a roughly 140% drop off the hard cap game limit for defense on the Scrapper AT What? It's soft! so of course you benefit by exceeding it as you no longer minimize the foes chance to hit you at the previous value. The soft cap has moved to 59%. Face foes in Aeon SF or vs Vanguard Sorcerer's and guess what that soft defense value has shifted again and is higher yet. And it doesn't stop there. Fight some Rularuu Eyeballs and your soft cap is much higher yet. The soft cap is merely the variable numeric value required to minimize the foes chance to hit you. Changing its meaning or to make it a new 'hard' cap, like it or not, on a game wide scale would have far reaching impacts requiring either eliminating or rewriting large sections of content present in the game. Not happening, that's dead on contact whether desired/desirable or not I'd think. *Shrug* got no clue why the picked what they picked. Maybe there's some math reason behind the chosen upper limit, maybe not.

Yes, but the primary point of the buffs isn't to defeat the foe it's prevent defeat of the team so the debuffs have the time to work. And Ninja'd again by @Voltak

@Hjarkiyou missed -endurance and endurance drain 😜. Now you won't die if your end bar is flatlined in and of itself, but it's going to get real hard to take out your foes. Definitely something one needs to mitigate.

@Mezmera Its all good. Two sets I'm always looking to add into hypothetical teams are TA and Darkness Affinity. And purely as a thought exercise thinking about what various teams compositions would do well and why. Ill/TA is one pairing that really stands out to me for cracking open high perception aggro risk situations. They can get close enough to things like Snipers to use Flash Arrow not for the To Hit debuff but to debuff perception. Now the whole team can close distance. Meanwhile Flash Arrow continues to shut down perception on multiple nearby mobs.

That's just it. Maintaining 24-7 defenses in the 80%'s takes a lot of effort (or a lot of team discipline or both) especially if getting bombarded by defense debuffs and a whole mess of other debuffs. But yes if you can keep the numbers needed then yes start applying those debuffs.

I believe it. A lot of the thread is all about which one defender you'd bring. That by most accounts should be an oxymoron. Defenders are at their best hunting in packs. If the team already had 1 Nature Affinity and 1 Electric Affinity ... then by all means the short list is going to include Trick Arrow 😁 Don't get me wrong I'd love to add TA to the mix against hard stuff. But you have to have a way to survive to lay those debuffs in the first place.

It's the AT's fault! 16 choices and you want just the top choice (or 2, maybe 3)!! As for TA a lot of that I'd hazard to guess stems from the fact it is a pure debuff set. Any debuff strategy has at least 2 things to overcome that a buff set does not. First to gain benefit you have to survive long enough to apply those debuffs so you and the team can benefit. Second is the Purple Patch. AFAIK the Purple Patch still applies for "unresistable" debuffs. Meaning in general you need twice the strength in debuffs you'd need as buffs even if unresisted. 66.9% To Hit debuff, half unresisted is up against enough foe To Hit to require something in the area of 80% defense to stay defense capped and still faces the issue of surviving applying the debuff. The amounts of stealth most players have won't cut it when the foes base perception is 66ft, possible, probably buffed further and may involve Snipers to boot. Much easier and more reliable to Power Boost Fortitude or Force Fields or the like. Edit: Durnnit Ninja'd by @Voltakwho managed to say what my wordy self said more succinctly... Dead folks don't debuff anyone.

And as I look through those 2 sets, ones I've yet to play (and definitely wish to), I can definitely see why you say what you say and agree. They are both very total package. Not just buffs and debuffs but a wide mix across virtually any such a team might need. Nature Affinity: Debuffs --> -resist, -damage, -regen, -recharge, -to hit. Buffs --> just kind of flip the above; +resist, +damage, +regen, +absorb, +heal and HoT, +to hit, +end discount. Electric Affinity is similar though I don't see -resist but do see a +recharge. I just haven't given them a try yet, so I couldn't bring one 😉. About the only thing I'd be wanting to add i don't believe you can with a defender, namely DDR. Incarnates can solve that for the 45+ teams. That's only found in Fade from Darkness Affinity. Having multiple SR characters has taught me how valuable keeping your defenses intact can be. That 5-man team many issues back was a Dark themed group: 4 defenders Dark/Dark, Dark Archery, Cold/Dark, Sonic/Dark and our 'spear tip' a DM/Willpower scrapper probably sometime in i13 to i16. Never really got to run them as a group past Faultline ... our own worst enemy they succumbed to boredom.

In some ways though this is not really the right question to ask because the ideal answer is highly dependent on what the team already has. The best choice(s) depends on what the team is missing. Time, for example, is potent as hell yes but utterly lacks +damage resistance. So a team with a ton of +defense and minimal resistance is better served by a defender bringing more damage resistance. It's why an 8-man team of all Empath's is virtually indestructible but is pretty much required to take down an AV through raw damage output as it totally lacks any debuffs to help (and why /sonic assault is such a popular secondary for Empathy). It's why that 5-man team was so silly strong by the mid 20's with minimal if any IOs. We were capping nearly everything and by higher levels would have been. You name it that team likely had it.

Common answer on Pinnacle would have been my Cold/Ice/Power Defender. I also had a Sonic/Dark who was part of the strongest theme team my friends and I ran on Live (and quite possibly the strongest team of 5 I've played on bar none). The 5 of us were crushing +4/×8 Arachnos in the early to mid 20's (on primarily SOs and DOs) in Faultline arcs. Or a Dark/Rad, Kin/Psy or Emp/Dark. Freedom was home to the majority of my Empaths so likely either Emp/Rad, Emp/Sonic, or one of several still leveling /Elec, /Ice or /Fire.

I haven't been able to run it owing to a dead computer. But I'm fairly sure I'll like doing it when I finally get an opportunity.

Works well in static fights. Not hard to send regeneration to the ~+600% range with higher recharge builds. Like a lot of things Traps, traps works easiest in static fights or where the fight comes to the Trapper.

I'll double down on what Psy said. The only real downside to specifically Sonic/Sonic, if you can call it that, is you are very focused on resistance debuffs. Outside of Liquefy it is pretty much all you can do to the foes. No -regen, -damage, -recharge, -defense, etc.. in this respect if looking to buff your allies resistance a Thermal/Sonic might be considered a stronger pairing.

Thank the gods you said secondary. That's easy for me. SR is at the top, everything else is a diversion. Fun, frequently played even but it still isn't SR. Now primary is another thing. While I love Claws, it definitely isn't the runaway choice.

Controlling what the map and foes are and what they are capable of doing. Of course those factors in turn influence what sort of xp you get. At least that's my understanding as someone who rarely power-levels And I think @Shred Monkeyis largely correct about AE babies. For one how many actual new players do you think are truly present on HC servers. Even most of the 'new' players are typically returning players not first time players. Second farms and power leveling with door sitters have been around much, much, much longer than AE. AE is just easier and shorter to say than "Dreck, Knives, you name it babies" all of which existed since farms were a thing from probably day 2 or so onward. Players simply learn at differing rates and to different levels of capability for a huge variety of reasons. Interest, avaliable time, sg mates, random helpful folks (including some of those PL, friends who already play and many more. PS: and I'd probably suck on a SS/Inv Tanker but while I'm rusty from my hiatus I'm hardly a newbie and like to think competent player. I'd suck on that Tanker because both sets would be completely new to me having never played them on any AT nevermind a Tanker.

Yeah I get it might be overkill ... but @Rudra so you want to combine medium and smalls (i.e.mixed sizes of same kind) to get a small? That i can understand.

Just curious but why?

<-- Claws/SR scrapper. Epecially pre IO days a solid understanding of the relation between To Hit and Defense, softcaps, etc. was pretty vital 😁

Agreed. Not sure which power it is offhand but like the mez protection it isn't by default active. Edit: looks like Energized Shield has Repel protection (and knock)

Perhaps I'm sure that happens sometimes. But without a crystal ball to see the future it's also possible that the stun and other effects may have prevented the defeats in the first place.