csr

Personally, I like it the way it is rather than with more EndRdx at the cost of the set bonuses. All the sets look good to me, save Preemptive, which is pretty weak. But it's an Uncommon set, and has the unusual Range enhancements, so I think that's fine as is too.

I believe that the primary impetus behind these changes is the fact that the new Tanker inherent offered so little to Dark Melee. So the decrease in single target value and increase in AoE value of Shadow Maul makes sense with that goal in mind. By my metric (which is similar in construction to what Capt P described he was using), these changes increase DM from a distant last place in AoE to about even with the other weak AoE sets. People comparing it to Electrical Melee seem to be ignoring Chain Induction and Thunderstrike (probably because of the cast time on the latter) and the fact that Dark Consumption won't always be cast at 100% END. Interestingly I now have DM getting as much buff from the Tanker inherent as War Mace and just a bit below the average benefit from the +Area. Energy Melee would be the new last place on that list.

Soul Drain has two buffs it applies, so that 1st guy actually counts as much as 6. I just tested to make sure it was working on beta and it is: +48% Damage from hitting one guy on my Brute. If you've been playing DM and think Soul Drain is worthless, then you're doing something very, VERY wrong.

Poison and Storm both have targeted heals that can't affect the caster. So that's 2 of the 5 sets with single target heals that lack an AoE heal to go with them. Shock Therapy's heal would be the only multi-target heal that doesn't affect the caster however. The set does have a self heal when Static is consumed as well. But it has issues solo in that Shock is the only power to build Static charge you can use without an ally and Discharge the only power that can consume it to provide the heal. Shock Therapy also has just 3 of 9 powers usable without an ally, matching Empathy for the least number of such powers.

If you want a medical sounding term "Galvanic Stimulation" is a less negative choice than "Shock Therapy".

I played a bit at levels 1-3 (AP street), 10-12 (Wincott/Flux) and 25 (Wheel of Destruction arc) on a ST/Elec Def to test low level performance. The set isn't good solo at those levels, a bit better than Empathy perhaps, but worse than pretty much everything else. However, it's easy to see how good this set would be on a Mastermind just from looking at the powers you never get to use solo on a Defender. Because so many of the powers require an ally, I think choosing to test it on something other than an MM was a mistake as it limits real testing to teaming; which is never all that common on the beta servers and the teams I've seen haven't been normal teams with one ST toon, but rather teams with multiple ST users on them. Also, teaming is a less controlled environment, making it a bit harder to assess what you're seeing.

Count me in the NO column for the name "Shock Therapy".

While they make a note that the DPS (per activation second here) is largely unchanged on Shadow Maul, the Damage/Cycle is only 44% of what it was. So you need to hit 2.3 times as many foes with the wider arc. You're probably not going to top 1.5 times as many at low levels. Also the END cost was boosted from 8.53 to 13.52 with the increased recharge so you're END/sec of activation doubled, making it less END efficient for the lowbie as well. Since it does roughly 65% the damage for 58% more END it's DPE is 41% what it was. So for END efficiency you need to hit about 2.5 times as many foes. Still, I think it's a good change, as it trades low level/low target environment value for better AoE. You really can routinely hit 3 times as many foes in a farm environment, for example. And with Soul Drain you like more targets to begin with, so it gets some synergy there. It's not a clear cut upgrade though, as the downside you note is real.

Since I had my Incarnate DM/Regen Brute on beta already, I took him out for a spin in the Comic Con S&L farm at +4x8. I didn't bother to rework him, so Dark Consumption was slotted with just three Performance Shifters, reducing the likely damage value by a chunk - he's a Brute though, so less than on other ATs - and increasing the cycle time. I ran the farm in just over 10 minutes using Incarnates but no inspirations. DM is not exactly well suited to this, of course, so that time sans all that +DMG I'd have if I were really farming is pretty good. I could have shaved it to 8 minutes or less if I was more serious about it. That's not going to approach a Spines/Fire of course, but we're talking a DM/Regen here, currently one of the worst farm builds I can think of.

What you get is the "whiff" sound of missing, regardless of a hit or not. It's a bit disconcerting as is.

Did you take both Shadow Punch and Smite?

The AE critter editor definitely does not like the critters copied over from live. It causes a hard crash to the desktop when you try to edit them. To be clear... that's critters copied over with my account, not some manual copy that I did. I didn't have any troubles creating new critters however. Neither in the editor or in a test mission.

Breath of Fire is a small fraction of the size (14% without the Tanker inherent buff) of Fire Breath. As a result the area modifier is much smaller (about 67%) for the former, causing it to do more damage despite Blaster's higher Ranged Damage Scale.

Gauntlet chat messages are now appearing for all types of attacks: Taunt aura, single target attacks, targeted AoEs and untargeted AoEs. YEA! I do have a question though: Is the taunt component of all taunt auras meant to be auto-hit? I thought it was, but Blazing Aura only taunts on a hit. Chat messages for this last case (first hits all three, second only two in same fight): You hit Vortex Cor Leonis Sonic with your Blazing Aura for 17.75 points of Fire damage. You hit Vortex Cor Leonis Marksman with your Blazing Aura for 17.75 points of Fire damage. You hit Vortex Cor Leonis Sonic with your Blazing Aura for 17.75 points of Fire damage. You Taunt Vortex Cor Leonis Sonic with your Gauntlet. You Taunt Vortex Cor Leonis Marksman with your Gauntlet. You Taunt Vortex Cor Leonis Sonic with your Gauntlet. You hit Vortex Cor Leonis Marksman with your Blazing Aura for 17.75 points of Fire damage. You hit Vortex Cor Leonis Sonic with your Blazing Aura for 17.75 points of Fire damage. You Taunt Vortex Cor Leonis Marksman with your Gauntlet. You Taunt Vortex Cor Leonis Sonic with your Gauntlet. Blazing Aura missed! MISSED Vortex Cor Leonis Sonic!! Your Blazing Aura power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 95.79.

I didn't see this on basic tests for Dark MM, Cont or Corr. I didn't test the Def and APP versions, as I didn't have those readily available.

That's fine then. I just noted it because non-targeted click AoE Gauntlet messages were gone from chat and I was looking to find indicators that it was in fact working.

It's actually triggering the visual special effects on all targets hit by the AoE Gauntlet taunt, not the target of the attack. In the pic below I hit the guy in the middle with Quick Strike and the guys on either side (but not the target) had the VSFX.

There's little difference in the behavior of Spines/Fire in this patch compared to Jan 29. The only change I noted was that you don't have to re-toggle on zoning. Otherwise it seems to behave as it did in the Jan 29 patch. I didn't test that combo with the Feb 9 patch.

I did a quick test on just one Tanker (Fiery/Staff). Blazing Aura seems to be carrying the global taunt proc through zoning now, and is reporting at the rate expected from Blazing Aura. On a side note though... I am no longer getting Gauntlet (non-AoE) taunt messages from attacks - only the Gauntlet AoE punch-voke and the Gauntlet from Blazing Aura - working as intended? [Edit:] I did another pair of quick tests on an Inv/Kin Tanker. No ST taunt messages there either. I do see the radiating lines around the heads of targets hit with the Gauntlet AoE punch-voke, but no special effects indicator for the aura or primary target of attacks. So.... Attacks with a target proc AoE Gauntlet and state which foes were taunted in chat and produce the radiating lines around the head special visual effect. Taunt auras have the message, but no special visual effects. Attacks which should trigger basic punch-voke on targets hit have neither message nor special visual effect (but they do behave as if taunted - as far as I can tell).

It still seems to require a toggle cycle to get taunt auras to work after zoning. Also, it appears that Gauntlet isn't working each time I hit a foe with my taunt aura. In a simple case where I let Blazing Aura defeat two prisoners on the street, I hit the minion 9 times with Blazing Aura and had 5 Taunt messages. The Lt was hit 16 times and had 9 Taunt messages, and one of those came after a Blazing Aura miss (the only one of the 26 attacks from BA that missed). It almost seems as if the tick rate for the Blazing Aura taunt is half that of the rate for damage. Though it could simply be that either it isn't taunting all the time, or isn't reporting the taunt even though it worked. Whatever the case, something is not right. BA test.txt

I believe the missing RWZ dummies is a long standing issue. Things may have changed in the last 8 years, but as I remember it they despawn when someone logs into the area with no one else around (and I don't think they respawn until the zone is reset).

That's why I used the logs to start with. However, those logs were skewed, as I was maximizing my own combined damage/mitigation rather than going for max -Res while sololing AVs (Psi CWK, BM and Bobcat). I don't think it's worth the effort to work up a sim, as who is really going to go all out for -Res? A Cold Def has other things to do that are more useful; such as casting Benumb. Hasten, maximizing the value of Heat Loss' END value, etc.

It probably is for very high recharge and using just Sonic attacks. The average -Res per activation (-20% * dur / ArcanaTime act) for the attacks are: Dreadful Wail -189.4% Screech -139.9% Shriek -84.2% Scream -75.8% Shout -68.9% Howl -63.8% That gives you a rough priority ranking. How things fit together makes a big difference though.

I was expecting about -80% from attacks. Using Infrigidate regularly instead of an attack was costing me about 8% -Res. So that estimate would have been close to the estimate I get if I replace Infrigidate with an attack when I can (about a combined -79% instead of -71%). About 13% of my time was used casting Sleet and Heat Loss. So that's going to eat into that 91.5%. As will that 5% miss chance (I calculated my -Res off of hits in the combat log). You're going to lose around 16.5% Res to those, leaving you at 75% or so. Pretty much the same as my chain of Shriek-Scream-Shriek-Shout.

I dug up a few old logs from vintage CoH for my Cold/Sonic Def. Adjusting proc rates to HC and applying the debuffs for each hit he would average about 138% -Res in long AV fights. Roughly 62% from attacks, 58% from Sleet and 9% each from the AH proc in Infrigidate and from Heat Loss. Note that that is a well IOed build, but with no purples and the only Incarnate ability a T3 Spiritual Partial Radial Alpha (he was my second to last 50).