Maelwys

If with 45% Defense; the nasty +3 AV has an 9.75% chance to hit you then with 44.55% Defense they'll have a 10.8225% chance to hit you. So in relative terms; on average you'll be hit 11% more compared to if you had 45% Defense (10.8225/9.75=1.11) That's why people argue that the last smidgen of Defense or Resistance before the "cap" is the most important. But either way you'll still be getting hit on average by roughly 1 in every 10 enemy attacks. So I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

Which chart? The resolution of the last one you posted was so small I can't tell if it's correct or not because I can't tell what it's saying. That said, again, absolutely none of this is rocket science. I just spent a few minutes knocking together a quick Google Sheet showing the effect of a given set of Defence/ToHit/Accuracy buffs; including the streakbreaker: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wIsH6SWzb5uH1QZgwK0gneBodGj0LdBaM1MqGeoWe3g/edit?usp=sharing (anyone/everyone can feel free to make a copy and check the figures, then bin it once they realise how simple this stuff is!) IMO the answer is that the 45% softcap (58.75% in Incarnate content) is absolutely a thing. The real question however is whether achieving it is worth the build tradeoffs; given the prevalence of Teammate buffs/Inspirations/etc and Defense Debuffs. (spoiler alert: the answer here is "almost never, unless you are on a toon that already has lots of Defense and DDR such as like Super Reflexes") TL;DR: Is it true? Yes. Should you try and achieve it? Probably not.

Yes. The trick (as we're at pains to point out here!) is knowing what the proper question is.

No, that's not how the streakbreaker works. The allowed misses in a row depends on the final chance to hit, after your defense is applied, not before. If you have high defense, the final chance to hit you will be low, and streakbreaker will allow many misses, easily up to 100, before it forces a hit. MY UNDERSTANDING IS THAT STREAKBREAKER IS SEPERATE MECHANIC AND APPLIED ONLY IF THERE IS A MISS. SO, I REKON A MISS COULD STILL BE HAD BECAUSE OF A HIT-ROLL... You're correct that the Streakbreaker only kicks in to override misses. However in order to see if it should override that miss or not; the Streakbreaker looks at the FINAL HIT CHANCE of the attacks that have actually landed on that target; after the target's Defense buffs and any ToHit debuffs have been taken into consideration. So OK; a +3 AV may well have a 95% to hit unbuffed players with a particular attack... however when they use that attack against [a player that has +45% Defense] then without any other buffs/debuffs in play that attack's FINAL HIT CHANCE will almost certainly be lower than 10% (it'll only be above 5% due to the AV's AccMods!). And unless that FINAL HIT CHANCE is above 20%; the streakbreaker will permit 100 misses in a row. Therefore with significant Defense buffs in play the streakbreaker won't be a factor at all (which is why we're all saying that it's largely irrelevant when building for +defense!)

Endurance Reduction in your attacks (particularly the AoEs) is always the best place to start. VEATs also tend to run a fair number of toggles so make sure those are appropriately slotted and maybe don't run the ones you don't need at the time. Then there's maximizing your recovery via a Panacea, Miracle and Numina in Health and EndMod and Performance Shifter in Stamina. And picking up your passive +Endurance accolades. Many VEATs eventually run Ageless at endgame which will help too... but IMO Crabs are the ones that least benefit from it (especially Crabberminds) To give you an example: my pet-focused Crab (which still has a full spammable attack chain) recovers a smidge over 2 End/Sec with all his toggles running.

This is the answer. All that charts and numbers tomfoolery is just so much bawbaw soup.

Correct (aside from Purples and PvP IOs, as @Uun has already pointed out above!) To add a bit to my statement of I guess it might help to give a few examples... "Luck of the Gambler +7.5% Recharge" Global IOs are maybe a good example of this. Whilst these IOs can be boosted to improve their Defense enhancement aspect; I always attune them because their powerful recharge effect (which is coded as a set bonus) is low hanging fruit when it comes to minimizing build tradeoffs for benefits when exemplaring. Sometimes I'll have a set of 2-5 LoTGs in a power and I might choose to only attune the LotG Global plus maybe 1-2 others; then boost the rest. However the "Steadfast Protection +Def/Res" Global IOs (which function similarly to LotGs!) I'll almost always boost instead of attune. I know that if I boost this IO to Lv30+5 then I can put it plus a Lv40+5 Reactive Armor Res IO and Lv40+5 Reactive Armor End/Res IO into the same resistance toggle to bring that toggle up to the ED cap for Damage Resistance aspect... but if I instead attuned the Steadfast then that combination of enhancements would fall short of the ED cap (so I'd need to combine it with HOs and/or Pure Lv50+5 Resistance IOs instead!). And although this means that my build will lose its global +3% Def effect if I exemplar lower than level 27; that is much less impactful than losing +7.5% global recharge from a LotG(s) if I exemplar lower than level 47.

Yep. Because Attuned IOs always act as if they're even-level to you; their Set Bonuses continue to function regardless of your level (only capping out at the lowest available level of their enhancement set). So whenever you exemplar; they tend to keep their set bonuses. Therefore if you do more lower-level content AND your build relies more on set bonuses than it does on raw power aspect enhancement; then Attuned IOs win. However if you're do more level 50 content OR your build relies more on keeping the raw aspect enhancement of your powers high than it relies on set bonuses; then Boosted IOs win. You can also mix both attuned and boosted; which can sometimes be beneficial if you rely on specific set bonuses more than others (e.g. global recharge for permadoms). Personally I tend to just boost everything other than Procs/Globals; which get attuned (though purchased from the AH rather than manually poked with Catalysts). ATOs (and Winter Sets!) are both separate beasts and they get manually Catalyzed at Lv50 in order to upgrade them from regular to superior.

I actually have quite a few 50s that possess an attuned damage proc plus a boosted Lv50+5 Acc/Dam or Acc/Dam/End in one power or another. Not because it makes any difference to the mechanics of the proc... but because I have a habit of buying attuned IOs off the AH whenever I'm levelling up. It makes absolutely zero difference to the set bonuses; they always combine (because Attuned set IOs are just treated as "even-level" Unattuned set IOs). ATOs behave differently because whenever you Catalyze them they do not become attuned (they're ALREADY attuned!) but instead become an entirely different IO set.

Yes. Works better for henchmen with more ranged attacks though, obviously. You can also still use Defensive Goto to keep them in BG mode, although it's trickier to select a point in midair that isn't maximum distance away.

I think this is going to matter. Neither this sheet nor the "consecutive losing streak calculator" you posted in the other thread have their values properly bounded (they're not expecting any "clamping" to be occurring to their values!) and seem to have been originally intended for other (financial?) purposes. However the binomial distribution function used here is vastly more appropriate than the natural logarithmic function used in that other sheet (attack misses don't compound the same way financial interest does!) and the points where the streakbreaker is kicking in to force a hit in this one look right, so it's definitely showing something... just not the effect of a character having +45% Defense (unless the enemy attacking them has precisely zero positive AccMod bonuses - e.g. that 5% minimum is almost never reached unless you're fighting an even level or lower minion!) It might also be worth noting that the current title of the chart doesn't appear to actually describe what the data is showing. From what I can see the chart is not showing the chance for X consecutive misses over a set of 10 attacks; but rather the chance for X misses to occur over a set of 10 attacks regardless of whether or not those misses are consecutive (so 0X0X0X0X0X is being treated the same as XXXXX00000). This distinction will make at least some real-world difference in CoH, because your character getting hit with multiple attacks in a short space of time - "Spike Damage" - is harder to counter via Health Regeneration and Clickyheals etc. That's why Arcanaville in their old defensive powerset comparisons always used to mention things like Maximum HP and the "Immortality Line" rather than purely focusing on Defense in isolation.

Although this one might be a stretch, as if you're prepared to put up with using a Blast set (rather than a Wallop one) then the Sentinel implementation of /Regen will likely win out... 😜

I think one of them is still in rehab.

Hi! I'm Troy Mc @Maelwys. You may not remember me as the creator of the first truly-self-sustaining Spines/DA Scrapper; as a member of the first successful Master of Statesman's Taskforce run on a UK Server (shout out to NineClaws!); or as the winner of Worst CoH Santa Costume 2006. Happier now? My builds are posted all over the place. Pick any subforum + chances are that I've posted a build somewhere in the first page of threads. (Especially the farming threads recently for some reason. Srsly if I have to explain the difference between an "Active" farming build and an "AFK" farming in single syllable words one more time... rassin' frassin'...) You want one of my Softcapped Defense builds? Sure. here: Blaster - Archery - Tactical Arrow.mbd Want another? here: Arachnos Bane Spider.mbd Want more? Brute - Battle Axe - Fiery Aura (+Recovery).mbd Controller - Illusion - Time (PwrBoost).mbd Scrapper - Kat_Regen IOed.mbd Sentinel - Beam Rifle - Ninjitsu (Weave).mbd Tanker (Bio Armor - Staff) (CT + Taunt + SS).mbd Just say "when". Have a few "softcapped pet" ones too whilst you're at it: Arachnos Crab Spider (Soul).mbd Mastermind - Robotics - Kinetics (Bonfire).mbd I got hundreds of these things. I've highlighted the relevant bit. Again you're claiming that you can build for Defense without sacrifice. None of us have seen any evidence of this; and our personal experience is to the contrary. The burden of proof to show otherwise and back up your outlandish claims lies on you.

This is exactly the sort of post that makes complete sense to me - someone has made a conscious decision to prioritize Defense in their build over maximum Damage. Whilst the Blaster in question probably still has a decent amount of damage; they won't be cranking it up to 11.. Because everything has a trade-off. A different take on it would be my Fire Blaster; who completely ignores both defense and debt and very much enjoys using Inferno on one mob and Rise of the Phoenix on the next one. AoE damage prioritised; mitigation (other than the sustain from their Secondary and the occasional usage of Clarion Destiny) pretty much ignored. My Archery/TA Blaster also has softcapped Ranged Defense + their Damage output is very good; just not as high as it would have been if I'd completely focused on it.

Sure. And whilst it's decent at the job it's intended for; after viewing the actual build we can confirm its current raw stats and uncover some minor room for improvement. Less boasting, more build file sharing. Please. Note that sharing a toon's build is not the same as watching you race it through a mission. The latter might demonstrate how a toon potentially performs in practice; but it doesn't reveal what raw stats and slotting it has or show whether there is no longer any additional room for improvement via enhancement tweaks (things like player skill, map memorization and specific enemy matchups are variables which differ from person to person and encounter to encounter. Not so with build stats. A lot of us actually enjoy creating/improving/endlessly poking at builds more than we enjoy actually playing the game!)

OK... I finally got the Build Chunk in the Sheet to import and after plugging in your stated Incarnate picks I get this: Mezmera - Dominator (Illusion Control - Energy Assault).mbd That's a fair Pylon basher, although even a quick glance over it shows that many of the powers are overslotted for accuracy aspect (none of them need two Acc/Dam HOs to cap your Hit chance vs +3 mobs; let alone vs an even-level Pylon!) and so a good few of the IOs (and even an entire slot in Bonesmasher!) could be shuffled around to pull a few more percentage points of Damage. The Snipe and the Tarantula pet and Spectral Terror are also missing some Damage Proc opportunities. Also; no Fiery Orb!! (yes it's crap for most gameplay; but the DoT ticks sometimes help a smidge on a Pylon run if you can fit it into an attack you're using anyway...) Anyways; I didn't intend to segue into a critique of what indeed looks like a perfectly acceptable Pylon whomping build. My issue is not with your Pylon hunting build; but with these comments: Because they are implying that you have a permadom that has maximum damage output and maximum control AND softcapped (or at least close to it) defenses. And I don't believe it's possible to hit all those bullseyes simultaneously. Efficiently balancing a Dom is a tricky endeavor. Getting "good enough" in all categories? Sure. Getting "rather impressive" in all categories; sure; I'll buy that too - your Pylon build shows you understand how to push at least one aspect towards maximum. But having ALL THE CAKE? Not needing to make any performance compromises at all? Nah. So I suspect that best case you'll be giving up a good bit of potential damage output. This isn't an attempt to berate you; so apologies if I'm coming across that way. I'm honestly just interested in build theory + finding out how far you've managed to push the toon in question's defence + how much you've managed to minimize the negative tradeoffs given what you're claiming here.

Your build isn't listed in that topic either, unfortunately. Only your Pylon times. And whilst 42s is certainly a reasonable Pylon time... the sheet says there are 7 other Illusion Dominator builds ahead of you within the same Division. You can appreciate that anyone claiming that their undocumented build is fully optimised could be met with a certain amount of scepticism; especially if there is evidence that other people with the same AT and similar (although admittedly not completely identical) powerset combinations appear to be completing the same task more efficiently. I realise not everyone runs with Mids (although that is often an indicator of a rather unoptimised build!) however it's not difficult to type "/build_save_file C:\Temp\ThisIsMyBuild.txt" into the CoX chat window; and failing that there's always opening up the enhancement screen and hitting the Printscreen button on your keyboard a few times.

My most active MM is definitely my Bots/Kin/Flame. Kinetics is active by default; doubly so if you're trying to use it to keep 6 metal maniacs fully buffed with SB+ID+Fulcrum+Siphons and prevent them from dying. Then there's the personal attacks to inflict -Regen, the Bonfire patches and Fireball; and trying to juggle the Protector Bot's Bubble recasts with Radial Clarion every few minutes. And yes, constant henchmen repositioning too; even if I'm using Group Fly. Hellava fun when it all comes together though. /Marine is fairly active and definitely the top-performing set these days; but almost any MM secondary (other than possibly /FF and /Sonic) is probably quite "active" if you're using all of its tools. I know I play my /Dark and /Traps and /Time etc. etc. etc. MMs that way...

These are the kind of concessions we're talking about. You're using extra enhancements slots in order to gain defense. You're using extra power selections to gain defense. It's very likely that those same power selections and enhancements slots could have been used elsewhere in your build to increase other stats/things like Global Accuracy, Damage, Health, etc. or repurposed to free up slots in your attacks for damage procs. The "cost" to you might be very minor, and it might not even matter on whatever content you prefer doing; but it's still a tradeoff that you've decided to make. The much beleaguered point here is that the best anyone can aim for when making a character in CoH is to be as efficient as possible with their build's tradeoffs - so giving up minor concessions for major gains is where good buildcrafting comes in. Whilst a mediocrely-built toon might be hitting 6/10 in a few aspects; an extremely well built toon could be hitting 9/10 in multiple aspects. However no toon will be hitting 10/10 in everything across the board all the time; the game simply doesn't allow for that - you simply don't get enough power selections or enhancement slots to pick up everything you could possibly ever want. Dominators are also rather notoriously tight when it comes to ticking multiple other boxes with their builds... because they always (unless you're intentionally bucking the trend!) need to push hard for Global Recharge and Damage and Control Duration; which leaves far less wiggle room than usual whenever it comes to things like Recovery; Healing Procs and Passive/Active Mitigation. And it's not just down to a lack of enhancement slots - merely opting for five LoTG mule pool powers means you'll likely not go deep enough for useful stuff like Burnout or Fold Space or Rune of Protection. Defense also comes in multiple flavours; so if a Dom is wading into melee range with Melee/PBAoE Assault Powers rather than hanging back using Procbombed Ranged Control powers then them leaning into Ranged Defense is going to be less useful. And running costly +Def toggles like Maneuvers and Weave whilst you're wailing on things with Procbombed (e.g. not EndRed slotted) attacks will cause Endurance issues unless you're constantly leaning into Ageless, even with Domination regularly topping you up. All that said - I doubt that watching you actually play a mission will be beneficial to anyone. But posting a Mids file or an in-game Screenshot or /build_save of your Dominator might help your case here; as it'll allow us to actually be able to see what your current stats and slotting are. And it might even help your Dom out too - because even if a build is "perfectly slotted" (which is extremely unlikely; as anyone who has ever delved deeply into PPM mechanics let alone mapped out enemy stats to determine exactly how much additional damage enhancement it takes to KO a level 54 minion without overkill knows only too well) there are often minor things like Enhancement level or Boost strength changes that can maximise Damage Proc rates; trading out particular damage proc flavours based on enemy resistance; etc. etc. let alone Lore Pet Selection - if I had a penny for everyone who just took Banished Pantheon and Degenerative...

'til 'er daddy takes the keyboard away? 🏖️ 👦 👦 Or just; y'know, start using the brackets in the correct place and work from there. It's HitChance = Clamp( AccMods × Clamp( BaseHitChance + ToHitMods – DefMods ) ) Not HitChance = Clamp( AccMods ) × Clamp( BaseHitChance + ToHitMods – DefMods ) so this bit: Is throwing you off in every calculation you've made so far; including the derivative work in the spreadsheet. Use an unclamped AccMod; multiply it by (enemy BaseHitChance - player's defense%) and THEN clamp the result. And after that recheck your "45%" and "50%" defense figures again and by all means plug the correct figures into the spreadsheet. But at the moment it's got a bad case of GIGO.