Arbegla

Which proves the point even harder. The most targets you have attacking you, the more chances for that 5% chance to fail. And then you get hit hard in the face because you have no resistance to back it up.

The point I was making was 'this is the chance of at least N attacks landing' where N = the first whole number that would need to be multiplied by the incoming damage per attack to equal or exceed the DPS the resistance character is taking. For 50 damage per attack, N is 3, 100 damage per attack, N is 2, etc. I tried to address the second paragraph you posted, but I didn't provide numbers. Basically no amount of defense will protect you from accuracy boosts, as accuracy increases the 'floor' value after the defense/tohit portion of the combat formula is already figured out.

I've addressed this in other threads, but you've simply missing the point of this thread, and abusing averages to try to make a point that simply doesn't exist about mitigation. For example: 0% defense = 50% chance to hit 45% defense = 5% chance to hit 20 attacks each doing 50 damage, coming at you every second = 1000dps 75% resistance, 0% defense -> 10 attacks hit each doing 12.5 damage = 125dps 0% resistance, 45% defense -> 1 attack lands, doing 50 damage = 50dps, which is 50 damage per hit that land. Chances for 3 attacks to land = 5%^3 = .01% chance you will take 150dps (as you have no resistance, and 3 attacks hit you within that second) However, lets change the number of attacks, and the damage of each attack a bit, but leave the dps the same 10 attacks each doing 100 damage, coming at your every second = 1000dps 75% resistance, 0% defense -> 5 attacks hit each doing 25 damage = 125dps 0% resistance, 45% defense -> 1 attack lands every 2 seconds of combat = 50dps, but it is 100 damage per hit Chances for 2 attacks to land = 5%^2 = .25% chance you will take 200dps (as you have no resistance, and 2 attacks hit you within that second) 1 attack, doing 1000 damage, coming at your every second = 1000dps 75% resistance, 0% defense -> 1 attack lands every 2 seconds doing 250 damage = 125dps 0% resistance, 45% defense -> 1 attack lands every 20 seconds of combat = 50dps, but it is 1000 damage per hit. Chances for 1 attack to land = 5%^1 = 5% chance you will take 1000dps. (as you have no resistance, and 1 attack hit you within that second) Because defense has a softcap on it, and both the defense and tohit equations have floors built into them, the absolute lowest you can go is 5%. Better hope the NRG gods are on your side, cuz 1000 damage hurts. And that isn't even counting if any of those attacks have -def, which ruins defense even more. Resistance has always been more constant in its mitigation, and defense has always been more spiky. That's the inherent balance in them, and the floors within the combat formula don't take into account accuracy bonuses, which anything above a white minion will have. Those increase your chances to get hit even MORE, regardless of whatever defense you have. edit: The above math isn't entirely accurate, but the true math just proves the point even more. @Bopperdoes an amazing job of explaining the true math further down in this thread. Defense can fail very easily, as its not 1 out of every 20 attacks hit, its each attack has a 5% chance of hitting. And the math is MUCH different between those two statements.

This is the key phrase. Try Red side a bit. See how much Arachnos and Longbow (and PPD) you fight. Having the firepower to beat up specific mobs, and then roll over the rest of them because they don't pose a challenge isn't a product of overall game balance, its a combination of knowing the game mechanics in such a way that you've essentially mastered it. That goes back to giving me, @Bill Z Bubba or you an SO'ed character, and giving a brand new player a fully IOed character. Whose is going to perform better overall?

That's exactly why I'm against changing the defense softcap on a global level. Because there are many different factors that would be affected by this change that could cause a lot more trouble then they are worth. Yes, you can build a squishy to only get hit 5% of the time in some content. But, you're not going to get DDR, and nearly every single enemy group has -defense in some form, most of which is actually ranged attacks. That in itself is the balance. If you're intentionally running content with minimal -def, and singling out the mobs that can punch through your defense, its no different then an invuln tanker singling out the psi damaging mobs before soaking the lethal/smash damage. Saying the entire game is unbalanced because of that isn't right. It just appears to be unbalanced because its used so frequently. People intentionally avoid content that is challenging, like Arachnos/Longbow/Rularuu that would punch right through a squishy being soft capped, but would be much easier for a resistance based set to handle, or even a defensive set with DDR.

I think a thing you're missing is the .8 times per volley, which can easily be per second against some mobs, as they have a complete attack chain and can cycle through it frequently. Also, most defense debuffs last between 5 and 10 seconds. Take that same blaster and go run a level 50 mayhem mission with the PPD Peacebringers throwing -def energy blasts at you. The electric armor Scrapper would just laugh at those things with no issue at all.

I would agree that the scaling factors should be looked at, especially in the pre-level 20 range. TOs, and DOs just don't really exist anymore, you have to actually hunt for them now. Having the O-zone arcs inherently be harder than if you ran them at the normal levels just seems weird. Though, having said that, the mobs themselves didn't get a boost, so you're still fighting Skulls and Hellions and such.. can't be overly difficult.

True, but that's more a Person to Person sale, and not a NPC to person transaction (so its inherently limited by supply/demand). T1 inspirations are unlimited in supply due to the NPC to person transaction.

I understand the idea behind the P2W vendor, as there were things locked behind a pay wall on live that people might want to have access to. Giving that same P2W vendor game breaking abilities (like the amplifiers, permanent double xp, etc) is that bothers me. The Prestige/Vet items, and the vanity stuff? Those are neat 'I spent real money on a fake pet!' powers from live, and could help with the RP crowd, and have limited, or no impact on the game itself.

Did you try zoning after switching, or waiting a minute or so? Or were you just flipping the switch with Null the Gull right away? I know there is a backend script that checks badges and badge requirements that takes a few seconds to kick in (and/or checks when you zone) so that might've fixed the issue.

I like the amplifiers self-delete at level 20, like the DFB or DiB temp powers. They are good for lowbies, to get the hang of the game, but not really required once you hit a certain level.

Well, T3 and T4 inspirations can't be bought with inf (only merits I think) so they aren't as readily available. SOs and T1 (and I think T2? maybe.. in the shadow shard?) inspirations can be purchased with inf.

Except 6 ATs don't cap at 75% resistance. And two of them cap at 90% resistance. Did you run the numbers on those ranges too? I looked at your math, and you legitimately account for DDR, and very clearly show that DDR is the linchpin to what makes defense better than resistance. If you don't have DDR, defense crumbles very quickly. Your math only supports that 40% defense at +4 outperforms the 75% resistance cap when you have DDR to back it up. Which is entirely my point. Defense is already balanced around DDR.

While I can agree that the game can seem very easy in some areas, putting a 40% hard cap on defense just simply isn't the best way to handle 'balance'. This has been shown time and time again, the difference between 40% defense and 45% defense is literally getting hit twice as often, and it doesn't affect Resistance sets nearly as much as it would affect defense sets. Defense, while powerful, already has a massive weakness in cascading failure, as it is very hard to get DDR. You either need to have it inherently, or pick a very specific Destiny power, and then use that just before the cascade kicks in and kills you. This is even more evident by people who don't actually understand what the 'softcap' gives you, as 45% defense only floors the tohit for white minions and lower. Anything higher has built in accuracy bonuses that increases their 'floor' on their tohit to above the 5% rate. Regardless of what defense you have, its affecting a different side of the equation, so more defense isn't going to help you against the 'rank' and 'level' accuracy boosts that mobs get inherently. Hard capping defense at 40% would mean completely reworking the combat formula, adjusting resistance sets accordingly, and simply changing the whole game on a fundamental level. Its not at all the way to try to 'balance' IOs and other high end characters. The idea that temp powers, base boosts, P2W powers, and emailed inspirations are somehow the norm, and need to be balanced against is also pretty insane, as I can count the number of people who actively know those things exist AND use them regularly on 1 hand. They shouldn't be part of the balance equation at all, as they aren't really under the normal bounds of game play. I would argue that there are many different ways to build a powerful character, but enhancements and Incarnates are the primary ways that a normal player would push for. Enhancements can mean using high end IO sets (purples, PvP IOs, ATOs, boosters to +5 etc), middle of the road sets (no purples, PvP IOs, ATOs, but still pushing for set bonuses), Low end sets (Frankenslotting, procs, etc), and pure SOs. Incarnates can literally mean any combination of the Incarnate powers, ranging from no Incarnate powers at all, all the way to up to T4 everything. And Balancing for each of the above combinations (High end IOs + T4 everything vs Low End Sets + T4 everything vs High End IOs + No Incarnates vs Middle of the road IOs + t2 incarnates on just Alpha/Destiny/Interface.. so on and so forth) is going to be hard. And that is before you account for muscle memory and simply knowing the game mechanics. A SOs build in the hands of me, or Billz would simply perform better then a high end IO set build in the hands of someone who has never played City of Heroes before. How do you balance around that?

I'll put my hat in for /regen as well. Its a very active playstyle, especially with a weapon primary (like Katana, or Broadsword) as you can get decent defense, but you need to be active with it, using Parry/Divine Avalanche as often as possible.

The prestige pets can be buffed, and benefit from the Pet Auras. I'd love for them to be able to take more than a single hit, but as their bonus is basically 'free' I understand why they aren't durable at all.

While I don't remember the LGTF being 45+ on live (I remember it being 35+ like the ITF, and just running with a bunch of 50s, so everyone was 49+ due to super sidekicking) if the Weakened Hami is indeed spawning at level 50 regardless of the level of the leader, than the LGTF needs to be looked at, as even at level 45 having a +5 Weakened Hami would be really hard to take down. Roleplay or not, unless its a specific Task Force (think the LRSF or the MsLib one, which specifically says its tough) the AVs/EBs should always scale down.

In before lock. Also, I wanna play that elf. I think it'll be fun. What power sets do you think it'll have? Ill/cold?

doesn't he

I do wish the LFG Queue would auto-kick you from the queue if you got a team invite. There are times I just wanna sit in the queue for a specific TF, but run my own missions for awhile, and then I decide 'oh wait, I wanna team now' and have to de-queue to even accept the invite. Getting some kind of 'You can't team with others while in the queue.' or a 'X person sent you a team invite, do you want to accept and remove yourself from the LFG queue' popup would be amazing, like the collaboration mission completion popup. And it'll it so you don't have to explain anything, the popup does it all for you.

Also Area of Effect (Pyronic is a 'targeted AOE' Ion is a chain power for example)

Huh, for some reason I thought MaxHP handled heals, and damage scales, but maybe I wasn't thinking of the right thing.

does -maxhp affect it? say, from the degenerative interface?

I donno man, having main'ed a bots/traps MM, I get the shaft on the "holy trinity" concept often, but I'm not really Damage, I'm not really a Tank, and I'm definitely not "healz". But, my build can legit solo +4/x8 ITFs, so having a team is more a 'Oh, I guess you guys get rewards too...'

Doesn't he actually scale all the way up to 50? I'm pretty sure he's introduced early, but can be done all the way up to level 50.. Maybe he should be introduced later? Or does he gives access to the midnighters club, so you need to do him sooner to get access to the O-portal and cimcity?