Mack008

Wish we had the ability to respec single power without having to rebuild the entire character. For example, if I took Leadership's Assault and later wanted to change it to Maneuvers, would love to have the ability to swap it.

StrikerFox, so you don't bother with any of the +Resistance or +Defense IOs for your henchmen?

Minor changes I'd like to see: -- Bump up the effectiveness of Leadership powers on a Sent. -- Increase the number of targets hit by AoEs. -- A little boost to the -Res/-Def that comes with all attacks.

Per Mids... Oppressive Gloom as a standard accuracy of 75%, and the power accepts Accuracy Enhancements, so it's not auto-hit.

Yes, it's showing up appropriately. I was thinking of how Panacea puts a nice +XX number above your head when it procs.

Ugh... think I had a brain fart and was thinking of how Panacea's unique shows up in the log.

I put the Numina's Unique in True Grit from Shield Defense, but it's not going off. Thought it was my imagination at first, but I scrolled through the log and could find anything. Anyone else have this problem?

Thanks. OK, it uses the AoE formula. So with an 8ft Radius, 0 Activation, and 5.5 sec Recharge, a typical 3.5 PPM should go off 16.9% of the time. Hmm... with three Procs in it... -- 60% of the time none of them will go off -- 34% of the time 1 will go off -- 6% of the time 2 will go off -- And there's a miniscule chance of all three going off Acid Mortar won't wipe out any groups, but since it's an AoE and will fire several times, it will contribute.

How well do Procs work on Acid Mortar? I know the chance of a proc going off will be low, but that might be balanced out by the fact that it's an AoE and how often it fires. Anyone have experience with it?

I have to second the comment about changing their Knockback to Knockdown. -- For Drones, I used the Overwhelming Force Damage / KB / KB->KD. -- For Assault Bot, I used a Sudden Acceleration KB->KD. Made a big difference in not scattering the mobs all over the place, and keeping them inside AoEs instead of knocking them out.

In short, yes. They stay at range now.

The one thing they do is that most of their attacks have a Defense Debuff, so against tough targets they can bring it's defense down so that everyone can hit it. But that doesn't make up for their other shortcomings.

Learned something new. Thanks.

I'm going to expand on Bodyguard a bit, because I know it confused me. When your henchmen are not in Aggressive mode, and not sent to attack a target (so think Defensive or Passive modes), some of the damage the MM would take is shared with each henchmen. Here's how it's distributed. The MM counts as 2 portions, and each henchmen counts as 1 portion. So if you have two henchmen out, there are a total of 4 portions (2 on the MM, 1 for each henchmen). If you have all six henchmen out, there are a total of 8 portions. Suppose your MM is hit with 80 points of damage. With six henchmen, that would be portioned out 8 ways. The MM would take 20 points (2 portions) and each henchmen would take 10 points (1 portion each, six times). So that incoming attack damage is spread across the whole group. This makes the MM much more durable than his/her normal hit points would imply. (Note, with only two henchmen the 80 points would be split into 4 portions, with the MM getting 40 points for his two portions and each henchmen getting 20 points for one portion. Having more henchmen means spreading the damage over a larger group.) But there's a downside, and that's AoE attacks. Suppose that same 80 attack was an AoE that affected the whole group. In that case, the MM would still take 20 points, but each henchmen would take a total of 90 points (80 from the attack, and 10 shared from the MM). A series of AoE attacks can wreck a group of henchmen. So you'll want to look for AoE Defense powers/bonuses where you can. Hope that helps.

Yes, I'd say take the AOE grenade and stick a couple damage procs in it. Here's the quick math: At Level 50, Photon Grenade has base damage of 27.5. With 3 Damage SOs, it rises to about 57.3. A typical 3.5 PPM proc will have a 44% chance of triggering. Putting two damage procs gives an average damage of 91.2. Is 91.2 amazing damage? No, but it ain't bad and it adds a decent tool to your toolbox. I've got it slotted with 1 Acc and two procs (Posi's Blast & Bombardment). You can also go with a few of the utility procs (chance for knockdown, -res, etc...)

For Repulsion Bomb: -- Ranged AoE: Positron's Blast -- Ranged AoE: Bombardment -- Knockback: Explosive Strike For Photon Grenade, the same two Ranged AoE's as above. Yes, the Sudden Accelerations sell quickly. You'll have to place a bid or two and be patient. Don't forget to bid on the recipe as well. If you've got merits to spend, then at the Merit Vendor you can buy the Overwhelming Force: KB->KD / Damage for 100 merits.

Another suggestion... put the KB->KD IO (Sudden Acceleration) in Force Bolt, along with an generic Accuracy. Use it to keep as many targets as you can (or one annoying one) on their backsides. Don't slot for damage since even at level 50 it only does 6 points, but you can add the Chance for Damage (Explosive Strike). For that matter, I make liberal use of that Sudden Acceleration IO on my Bots/FF. I've got one in Assault Bot, Force Bolt, and Repulsion Bomb, plus an Overwhelming Force KB->KD in Battle Drones. That keeps all my targets nearby instead of scattering. For your personal damage, Repulsion Bomb can take several damage procs. Highly recommend it. Likewise, Photon Grenade can take a couple of damage procs. Then there's a few choice attacks from the Epic/Patron pools you can add.

I'll have to check that. Thanks.

Lately I've noticed that when zone or enter a mission door, my Thugs will lose their T9 Upgrade Equipment but still have their T4 Equip Thugs. Not a big deal, but a minor annoyance that I have to double check and reapply it. Anyone seeing this?

One thing to keep in mind is that just because a power can take a proc doesn't mean it should. For example, DP's Piercing Rounds has a 47% chance of a typical 3.5 PPM Proc going off. And a typical damage proc would give 71.75 damage. So the expected damage increase, on average, is 33.1 ( 0.47 * 71.75 ). However, slotting a normal damage SO would increase the damage by 40.3. For this power, don't worry about adding procs until after the power's damage has been increased by normal SOs / IOs. On the flip is is a power like DP Hail of Bullets, where a 3.5 PPM proc gives more damage than a SO / IO. In general, a power is a good candidate for a proc if: 1) It has a long recharge time. The longer the time, the more likely the proc will go off (up to the 90% limit). 2) It has a low base damage. The lower the damage, the more likely the proc will give a stronger boost than a simple SO / IO.

This is a tangent... but I'd love it if a "No IO sets" server was setup.

I'm just going by what Mids says, which is: -4.9% ToHit to Targets for 60 seconds (to Mobs, requires a ToHit check)

According to Mids.... it's an AutoHit power, but the effect requires a ToHit check. I will use it along with Celebrity +Stealth for when I want to drop a Trip Mine or Time Bomb in the middle of a group. It doesn't require much for slotting. You could leave it with just the default, or put 4 Dark Watcher's Despair in it for the 5% recharge bonus. One other note... on a team, you may have to tell them it doesn't draw aggro. Otherwise you'll toss it and the team will think you're pulling the target.

Yea, this changes one attack on Soldiers and one on the Commando, so I'm not expecting to see much difference. My Merc/Elec MM is level 35, and I'll toy around with him tonight.

Ahh! Thank you. I never realized you could click on that text to see the henchman's attack details. (And yes, Soldier's Assault Rifle Auto Fire is now down to 2.5 seconds.)