Arbegla

With the new PPM, and the way some procs don't work very well with pets (and pseudo pets) is the -tohit debuff proc worth putting in the seeker drones for a /traps? Does it even work?

There's the problem. He's running a mission solo, that's designed for a group of six. And based on your story, you were able to accomplish it, with just two people. This game is honestly balanced around SOs, running solo at 0/x1. Anything above that, and you're playing outside the balanced equation of the game. If you're having issues soloing +4/x8 content, well, you're not supposed to be able to solo that content anyways.

So I haven't read much of the past few pages, but I'm old enough to remember with the ITF was 'End game content' and people complained very loudly on the beta that it was impossible to complete with a full 8 man team, fully IO'ed with Bloody Bay nukes. Then me (a bot/traps MM) and a grav/energy Dom duo'ed it, without using temp powers. Because we understood the mechanics and how to break them, and just rolled over everything. The ITF was never nerfed, and people just got better at completing it, and now we have speed teams doing the entire thing, without deaths, in less than 20 minutes. The biggest issue with this game, isn't IOs, its the sheer fact its been around for literally 15 years. People who are passionate about the game have broken it, with just SOs. Because they understand how the AI works (or rather doesn't work to be fair) and can exploit that. This comes back to the newbie with an OP build argument. If you strip all of the IOs out of @Bill Z Bubba claws/sr and made him run with just SOs, he would still tear apart missions, that a brand new player, with a max IO build can't even dream of doing. How you do balance around skill? And do we care that the very skilled players, are also the ones to have very powerful IO builds? It kinda comes with the knowledge of a playing a game for 15 years...

I agree to an extent. Stacking the -res procs in acid mortar, and then dumping a bunch of recharge is better then the damage procs. having 2-3 acid mortars, with 2 -res procs is between -80 to -100% resistance (20% per acid mortar, 40% from the procs) Also, I think you mean the Preventative Medicine proc for the +absorb

I'm not sure about the +absorb, as its very much HP based, but I do know that the Panacea +hp/+end proc turns Triage beacon into a AoE Heal over time power (in addition to the massive +regen you get) that affects your pets, and any allys. Double/triple stacking a Panacea proc'ed triage beacon is basically plugging the Sleep hole that /traps has, as heals break sleep.

This seems like an easy enough fix. Just put a hard cap on the PPM... doesn't matter how fast you're firing attacks, you'll never achieve higher then the PPM stated. It'll make burst damage insane (mainly because fast attacks would get all the PPMs right away) but it would balance overall.

I mean, mathematically, is it really that big of a deal? Local and Global recharge affects the powers basically the same, and if you're preventing yourself from slotting up to ~95% recharge in a power just to proc more, does the math really make it proc more often, or is it just a trick on the human brain? By 'a trick on the human brain' i mean, the power comes up slightly more often (due to the global recharge) and when it does come up, it seems to proc almost every time, but isn't there still a check on the number of procs you can have in a minute, and thus you 'waste' chances? I mean, looking at my recharge heavy character builds, I'm seeing a power that have a base recharge of 8, and with all my bonuses its reduced down to 1.8. Animation time is 1.87, so the fastest I can cast just this one power in a minute is (60/(1.8 + 1.87) or about ~16 times in a minute. I have the Apocalypse: Chance for negative energy slotted in it, which has a PPM of 4.5. This gives me a 'proc chance' according to Mids of ~42%. Using the ~16 attacks per minute, and the ~42% proc chance, I should get roughly ~6.8 procs within that minute. Is there a check that caps it at 4.5PPM, or do I really get the ~6.8 procs?

So, this might be a dumb question, but doesn't PPM translate to Procs Per Minute? Doesn't it inherently cap procs to a certain number of 'activations' per minute, and if you were to exceed that rate, you don't actually get the proc? I know the argument for procs is to put them in powers with a high base recharge, and then not slot much for recharge, as you'll reduce your chance to proc on the power each activation, but aren't you still limited by the PPM formula? Basically, take a minute long attack again with a 8 second recharge power. You'll be able to use it ~7 times in that minute. If you're PPM is 3, then roughly half (3 out of the 7 attacks) of those attacks will proc. But use that same 3PPM formula, with a 20 second power, and every single attack procs, but its still only 3 PPM.. and if you're waiting 20 seconds between attacking, is it really worthwhile? Or am I missing something here?

I mean, obvious answer the the Battalion. I've also like to meet Shiva, and the real Nemesis.

I think the root of the issue falls with now -resistance is handled mechanically, and how crazy that could get. Right now, Resistance Resists Resistance Debuffs equally. The numbers are a little messy, but the short and sweet of it is that a -20% resistance debuff, increases your overall damage by 20% (even though it might not be a straight reduction of 20% resistance to the thing you're debuffing) Because of the fact that -resistance is a straight 1:1 increase in damage done, it would be quite insane to enhance -resistance further than it already is.

Did only the tanker primary get the AoE increase? Or secondary as well? I'm specifically thinking things like Damage auras on tankers hitting 16 targets, where the brutes only hit 10..

Hi Guys, I'm not exactly new to controllers, but I haven't really dealt with /Storm much. And for concept reasons, I was thinking of getting /Lev for the water spout and basically adding more chaos to the mix. What're ya'lls thoughts, especially with some KB->KD procs to make it more team friendly, and up the overall damage (as things are being blown away, they are just being trapped in the death storm)

To add to the idea, there is a third (or maybe fourth?) area of IOs that haven't been brought up much. The Franken-slotting aspect. IOs are more then sets, and more then procs. They were the original way to get around ED, as you can get the same values with less slots. That aspect still exists, and is leveraged by those who swear by procs, as they can use 3 slots for some triple/quad IOs, and then the rest in damage procs. Heck, the entire point of the Alpha slot is to have one giant ED proof enhancement buff to ALL your powers. You just get to pick what things you're enhancing.

The Pancea +heal/end proc in Triage beacon turns it into a HoT like power. It affects your pets (and I think other players, but I haven't really tested it) so if you can find room for it, its really nice to fill the sleep hole, as healing will wake you up. Especially if you can double stack triage beacon.

For the story? Though, you've probably ran every story arc possible multiple times over.

I mean, the old Cape mission V side has you break up a hero and literally steal their cape. Its a pretty evil deed. But for the really vile things? Umm, Doctor Creed lowbie arc. (infecting people just cuz?) Here is the list if you wanna look through it. I'm at work right now. https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Villain_Story_Arcs

I mean, this is a comic book game right? AoE until you get to the Big Bad, then its single target until someone dies. Unless he calls in help, then you need to balance.

Inspirations will 'counteract' the defense debuff, but you still have a 5% of getting hit. Same with resistance, the orange pills will help, but they aren't permanent, and you still have a 5% chance of being it. And inspirations don't provide DDR, so the next time you're hit, you're back where you started again with the cascading failure. I can't tell you the number of times I've had my Mastermind, who runs softcapped to basically all positions, experience cascading failure when fighting https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Awakened_Division I think you're missing the point on the difference between getting hit 5% of the time, and 10% of the time. Its not as simple as 'Oh, its only 5% more' Its literally twice (i/e, 100% more) as often as you were being hit before. If you want to just decrease defense by an effective 5%, you would need to have the cap go from 45% to 44.75%. That would be an effective 5% reduction in defensive protection. Which is what happens when a SR is hit with a defense debuff, they resist the bulk of it, and go from 45% to 44.75% (or something like it) and while they are hit 5% more of the time, its the different between 5% and 5.25%. Its not simple math tinkering with the defense softcap, it has cascading effects that you're not really understanding or taking into consideration. And it really doesn't solve the problem you think it would solve. How many characters, out of all of the people who play, run softcapped builds? Especially on squishies like Blasters, and Dominators? Controllers, Defenders, Corruptors, Masterminds all have a buff/debuff set that can get them some level of mitigation, but Blasters and Dominators really don't have anything right out of the box to help them out and get them to the durability you seem to think is very common. Building for softcap defense takes away from other things in the build, and as much as you want to say "Well, you can just kill them before they kill you" it doesn't work in practice very well. Especially in large NPC groups. And if you're softcapped running 0/1 missions, you have wasted a lot of inf for nothing.

Back on Live, I remember each server having an 'unofficial' global channel used for teaming, badges, TFs, etc. Does Torchbearer have something similar? I see Looking for Group a lot, but I miss the true Global Channel feel.

I mean, in a vacuum, with each attack coming at you at the same time, and the next attack not hitting until the first was completely recovered from, I would agree with you. 0 is greater then 1. Except that is not how City of Heroes works. Building for softcap on a blaster is already tough enough, as they have 0 defense to start with. Building to 55%? Or 58% (the incarnate 'softcap')? Good Luck. You're going to sacrifice so much else in that build that you might as well reroll as a different character entirely. Is it possible? Yes. Is it probable? Not really. You're still really undervaluing the affect that -defense has. You're not facing 1 attack with -defense, you're facing tens of attacks, each with -defense. If a single one of those hits, your defense falls, and then the next volley knocks it down even more. Most NPC attacks cycle pretty quickly, and like I mentioned, -defense is the most common form. -Resistance on the other hand, is fairly rare, even in Incarnate content, and doesn't cascade. You might be taking the debuff regardless, but its not going to completely remove your protections like -defense would on a softcapped blaster. This proved more Bill Z Bubba's point than yours. Layers protections (Defense, Resistance, Regen, etc) is more powerful then just relying on 1 aspect completely.

I would argue for both actually, cutting the defense boost in half, and having the shields provide +absorb. Force Field doesn't provide any DDR, so cascading failure still happens. But, that's a discussion for a different thread.

Actually Resistance functions significantly better then defense, when you factor in debuffs, and debuffs resistances. Resistance Resists Resistances Debuffs, but only so you don't experience cascading failure. a 10% resistance debuffs results in a 10% DPS increase. Its simple math. Defense, especially without Defense Debuff Resistance, is basically all or nothing. If you have 45% defense, you get hit 5% of the time for 100% of the damage. But if you add a -def debuff to that hit, (which is the most common form of debuff honestly, I'm pretty sure every single NPC group has -def in it) you can experience cascading failure, where that 45% defense gets reduced to 40%, doubling the number of attacks that come in. And that is with only a -5% defense power. If you get hit with a -10% defense power, your defense drops to 35%, and you're hit 300% more then you were when you had 45% defense. (5% to 15%) Cascading defense failure happens all the time, and its why your reflexes tank can stand AFK on the roman wall, because even your passives have DDR. A softcapped blaster? Wouldn't last much past the first hit. And not all Defensive sets have DDR, also there are no IOs that grant DDR. So the inherent debuffs already balance it.

Is the +13% tohitbuff equal to the different between fighting +3 vs fighting +1s? If so, they didn't really 'raise the defense cap' so much as hardcoded the purple patch level difference. I know mobs have a ACC bonus based on rank and level, and that could roughly translate to the +13% tohit bonus?

Another thing to make your mastermind more tank like is to get the "Provoke" power in the Presence power pool. This combined with your pets being in "Bodyguard Mode" allows you to take a really large amount of damage and divide it among your pets, effectively giving you their hit points in addition to yours. I would set up a 'emergency' button as a keybind that puts all of your pets in 'defensive stance/follow' for when you need the additional toughness they can provide.

Point 1: They actually didn't raise the effectual softcap, they just made all of the Incarnate content against level 54s which following the normal difficulty scale (Purple patches, the def/tohit equation etc) affects ALL characters equally. Try fighting a +4 boss at level 1. Tell me how well that goes. Point 2: Changing the 'soft-cap' Defense from 45% to 40% actually doubles your chances of being hit. You go from 5% to 10%. 1 out of every 20 hits, to 1 out of every 10 hits. Another thing to consider, is very few ATs have build in Defense Debuff Resistance. So even if you softcap a blaster, you run into cascading defense failure very often. a 5% overall decrease might sound 'minor' on paper, but in practice, it is a massive nerf for really no true gain. DDR is already the grand equalizer as it exists right now. Point 3: They added T9 level defense/resistance buffs to Power Pools. Things like Rune of Protection, Unleash Potential, Unrelenting, etc. I would argue that having access to those powers, on any AT is a more damaging to balance than IOs.