Sovera

Dragon Tail. Despite having low damage it animates fast and takes the Force Feedback proc which speeds everything. Neither EM nor Ice have that and having it in the AoE makes everything recharge faster which means more damage, more AoE. But I'll be honest with you that if you are having fun with Ice then carry on. You don't need to chase the most min maxed version. Then again this is CoH and we have 5k character slots so go nuts if you want to try it. Personally I'm rather enjoying it. With the changes to everything from dropping the heavy proc approach to dropping the -res procs everything feels nice and chunky even in the low levels. Or even more so in the low levels where there is little recharge due to not having access to all the bonuses. And as Parabola mentioned kicking people while wreathed in flames plays well with my aesthetics. I barely restrain myself from macroing 'HURRICANE KICK!' and 'HADOUKEN!.

It's surprising they don't seem to have a big effect on normal mobs compared to regular damage procs. It is as you say that the point in slotting them seems low unless more testing with different ATs and power sets changes results.

I speak from a very min maxed angle to take it with a grain of salt. Scrappers are great, but they are an AT to deal damage with. That means focusing on damage. Picking a non damage boosting secondary pulls the damage back to what I call Tanker levels of damage. Talking purely in terms of pylon times (as a metric, not as a goal) if a scrapper takes 3-4 minutes to destroy them they are dealing Tanker levels of damage and not having Tanker levels of sturdiness. At that point just play a Tanker instead. Can still 'scrap' but be much tankier. This is a very fantasy destroying approach though. Like, ignore theme and flavor approach. CoH has no need to be played in such a fashion, but it's not a bad thing to be aware of this when deciding on a new alt. Regarding the original question, it would be better to rely on passive protection all the time than on keeping tracks of buffs and debuffs, or even, heavens forbid, inspirations. There was a time that 33% defense builds were a bit more common in these forums. 45% is a lot, so aim for 33% instead and then eat small purple inspirations to reach 45%. Most of the time the time the game is easy enough that 33% is enough and when it isn't then just eat a small purple. They can either be combined or just quickly type /ah between missions and buy new ones (in fact, buying 20-40 at a time and just /ah and pick them up between missions). I tried this approach and it got old -fast-. I didn't want to keep an eye on my buffs or go oshitoshitoshit at seeing my HP dip all of a sudden, but instead of trying to force Shadowmeld to do tricks for you it's one you can try to achieve. I believe that 33% defense to Smash and Lethal is perfectly doable without Weave. Something like this. It's an old unfinished build I tweaked a bit.

I've been testing a few things and since the Tanker forums are a bit stagnant I'll post my findings here along with a request. I was testing the Interface incarnate choices and found them to have very little impact in the 'real' world. My tests on a Tanker over the Comic Con farm map, no inspirations, Hybrid assault used on cooldown, were: - Degenerative 75% chance for debuff: 7:20 - 7:30 - Reactive 25% chance for DoT: 7:20 - 7-30 - Reactive 75% chance for DoT: 6:20. - No Interface slotted: 7:20 - 7:30 The tests were repeated and the numbers held. Basically it seems like the DoT is what influences things and normal mobs don't care about the -HP debuff or the -res has too little of an effect on +3 (+4 downshifted). One minute less is still okay and I can see farmers flocking for it with their influence-per-minute goals, but for regular playing the impact is truly minimal since we are not at agro saturation for 5-7 minutes at a time. While this seems more interesting for playing I then tested against an AV since they notoriously resist -res effects. I randomly picked Mako and wailed on him for five minutes. This is a simple and dirty one run test which is not the best way of testing due to the 5% misses variance: - Reactive 75% chance of DoT: shaved 23% HP off. - Degenerative 75% chance for -HP: shaved 46% HP off. - No Interface slotted: shaved 22% HP off. The 'no interface' and Reactive 75% are so close they can account for whiffing but the difference VS Degenerative is pretty substantial. What I can extract from this is that the -res resistance of AVs squashes the Reactive Interface. In the tail of this testing I had a nagging feeling about -res procs. These are tremendous and can influence a build's output between 30 to 40 seconds to one minute on a pylon run. But. Pylons do not have -res resistance. AVs do. A quick and dirty run removing my Tanker's -res procs and substituting them for damage procs yielded 50% HP off from Mako after a five minute beating. The 4% difference between -res and damage procs is close enough to be from whiffing so exchanging procs is either a wash or a small gain. But what I seem to extract from this testing is that since the -res procs do not stack then multiple players with damage procs instead will do more damage instead of re-applying a non stacking -res effect. The slotting of -res procs have become a staple of builds since they are tested on pylons. The builds end being tailored for the testing being done even when an effort is made to be generalistic. Now, some caveats: - The testing was done on a Fire Armor Tanker. Burn takes notoriously well to damage procs so it skews the results for them. - All testing except the map runs was one run only which is not the proper way to test. All it takes is the 5% to happen to Burn instead of Storm Kick and end results will show variance. My request: - Whomever has the inclination try using their own builds and test a run of Comic Con with their Interface of choice and then with it unslotted. - Find an AV and hit it for five minutes (or if it dies before that *jealous*) with -res procs and then with those swapped out for damage procs.

That is exactly how it works in terms of applying the -res debuff. That's why they don't stack and the usefulness is dubious in big teams. All it takes is one person having the -res procs for the other seven to have theirs obsolete. Except in terms of keeping it up. While a damage proc will just do damage, period. I don't think the -res procs bypass resistance resists. It is the first time I have heard of this and the simple test versus an AV seems to indicate this is not the case because otherwise a mere regular damage proc would not have kept up with -40% res from both procs. On a pylon the -res proc swings the end result noticeably. I don't know how much of the -res remains once it goes through the +3 level shift and then the AV's resistance resistances, but a case can be made that even if only 5% (random number) goes through it's still 5% for the whole team wailing on it. But the testing on normal mobs does not seem to influence things much mostly because it is not a matter of removing the proc and leave the power with nothing, but of swapping the -res for a damage proc, and the damage proc seems to keep up handily.

Quick and dirty test replacing the -res in Burn and Crippling Axe Kick. - One run of the comic map with Degenerative netted about the same time between 7:20 and 7:30. - A single run against Mako for 5 minutes: 15k out of 30.6k So basically it seems to be a wash. But it was only one run. There was a small gain over an AV but CoH is a pretty terrible game to test things thanks to the 5% chance of missing that can happen on the important powers (missing with Burn is certainly a lot worse than missing on Storm Kick). Still, that was one extra 1.3k which says that at worst its a wash, at best a small gain. Furthermore Burn skews things since it -loves- procs. Two damage procs skews the damage more than a -res proc since what dies just dies and does not need to be debuffed. And this does not include how two damage procs in Burn gives more burst to kill things faster. Looking at the map run the times were about the same but in normal non agro saturation play it is better to down mobs with burst so that they don't have extra seconds to debuff (romans, I'm looking at you) or even hurt back (Vahz, we hate you). What it does seem to indicate is that on a pylon, and looking at past times, a -res bettered the times by as much as 40 seconds. In this case it worsened the times or did not improve them. We slot -res procs despite that they do not stack (two players using a Fury of the Gladiator -res does not mean two -20%) to help killing hard mobs, but hard mobs are AVs and GMs and they resist the effect we are seeking. In the end we have a whole school of thought revolving builds tailored to pylons and their quirks but we are not facing pylons when we go out and play.

Just monologuing here, but after testing in the lower levels the non proc version meshes well with Burn. Sadly pressing Burn is no longer that deeply satisfying affair of insta-killing 3-4 minions, but recharging faster makes it do the same. My next testing is the worth of -res procs. Considering the minimal effect that the -res Interface had in the 'real world' and how badly it then performed against an AV I'm now curious at how well, or how badly, the -res procs actually behave in real world testing. On the other hand they are more substantial than the 10-12% of Reactive at 20% x2. They have become a staple of the 1% builds because the testing for them revolves around pylon bashing who do not resist -res effects. If normal mobs don't show a good effect then AVs are bound to severely neuter them as well, which leads back to the simpler affair of slotting damage procs instead. It does seem counter to regular testing, but again, that testing is done on pylons who do not resist -res. That means for a pylon the -res will always be better, but for normal mobs a damage proc may well perform the same, and then give better results on an AV. Regardless actual testing is better than just pondering or gut feelings.

Another round of testing since something had been nagging me since the last test. I'm going to abandon the proc heavy approach *shock* at least for this build. Yeah, testing shows I'm getting about the same numbers with and without. Where the powers are heavy nukes with the proc approach I am still getting the same results simply by firing them more often. This runs a bit counter with the testing with Fire/Claws but I'm not one to argue with testing. Testing on pylons I had: - 3:05 - 2:58 - 3:20 This makes the damage no better, but also no worse. It does bring QoL to the build where powers are both more seamless at higher level . For example the 'normal rotation for 95% of the game ended up being Burn, Dragon Tail, Crippling Axe Kick, Crane Kick, Storm Kick. Repeat. All the things a body needs with the +FF proc in Crane kick, the -res in Crippling and the defense/+res in Storm kick having a place. For things with more HP it ended up being Burn, Crippling, Crane, Storm Kick. Less Storm Kicks helped closing the gap in damage from the loss of the procs. But the non proc slotting also helped at lower levels if exemplaring when I did a quick solo Posi 1 for testing. The extra 30% acc is of no particular use but the extra 20% is pretty good on a build that is already pretty recharge oriented and then Burn comes back much more often with it slotted for recharge. It's no longer that mini nuke that immediately downs 3-4 minions, but the result ends being the same. Testing with a farm map (not because farming is an important goal but it serves as a metric just like pylons do) shows the numbers remain the same pre/post procs as well. The interesting find that Interface seems to have very little effect in the open world remains with the new slotting. The change to non proc slotting altered little in the 7:20-ish Degenerative/no Interface slotted and 6.30-ish Reactive 75% DoT. If someone else wishes to test this with their own build please let me know the findings. The only 'rule' is not using inspirations (Hybrid Assault on cooldown) and then test the different Interfaces and let me/us know the results. Because, damn, it seems pretty weird that no Interface slotted gets the same results as Interface slotted. And only Reactive 75% DoT chance actually makes a measurable difference. Albeit a small one since it takes six minutes to shave one minute. I'm thinking it has to do with the small health pools. Take Degenerative, for example. Does it matter if it shaves 13% HP off if we still need to do one last hit anyway that would hit for 20%? Be the HP at 20% or a 7% (from the shaved HP) the last hit is still needed. The same applies with the10%-ish -res that Reactive has. Does it matter if our hits did 20-30 points more damage if it still needs one last hit to kill that would include the 20-30 points? Empirical testing seems to say yes, and empirical is the best. Bopper could do more with his penchant for maths but just basing myself in practical testing I see two ways to approach the Interface angle: 1 - Reactive still shows a difference. Since Degenerative is so common then stick with Reactive and it will help a little bit with clearing maps which is 97% of CoH's game. Since someone else is bound to have Degenerative as long as players are teamed up someone else will put the stacks on the AV. 2 - Reactive's difference is pretty minimal. It takes six minutes of agro saturation non stop pounding enemies to shave one minute off. Most of CoH's game is not played at agro saturation and there is plenty of downtime jumping between packs of enemies. This stretches the benefit. In practical terms something like 30 minutes of regular playing might see it being done 5 minutes earlier. 3 - Degenerative sees little effect in lower HP mobs to the point of not being noticeable. They die too fast, and the real benefit which is cutting down on the regeneration is of no consequence when enemies die fast. But it makes a large difference against an AV who completely negates Reactive's benefits. Maybe -you- are the one bringing Degenerative so someone else has Reactive. And if you are a person that solos then this is a given to help with the AVs. So it boils down to: - Reactive helps a little bit with maping, but has no effect on AVs (probably GMs too). - Degenerative has no effects in maps but helps with AVs/GMs. Make your decision based on this. I'll throw the changed build to the OP.

There are two advantage in using powexecauto. - One is that if we place teo powers in the macro only one will go off. The auto works around this. - The second is just QoL which is that if the power is not yet recharged we get the 'whoom' sound that can get tiresome pretty fast. The auto does not cause this. If you prefer to only tap W the first is no longer a problem and the second can be removed with the auto moder or or in the sound silencer forum thread. Other than that, yep, glad you got it working 😄 Toggleoff needs its praises sung more. Things like double clicking the Jet Pack and putting it on cooldown by accident, or being able to just spam a key to activate Flight and Afterburner without having to be careful to untoggle Fly or, heaven forbid, put Afterburner in cooldown as the team hares off. I have my Fly set up like this for example: BUTTON4 "powexectoggleon afterburner$$powexectoggleon fly" Can just spam button 4 on my mouse and it will only toggle on those two powers. CTRL+BUTTON4 "powexectoggleoff afterburner$$powexectoggleon hover" Can spam this and Hover will toggle on and stay on. No need for a toggleoff for Fly since Hover does this automatically.

That part is definitely the keypress down/keypress release issue. Try to test in game and press your key deliberately. In my experience this is how the skips happened since I would tap movement, Hasten would light up briefly, but before it could go off I would release the key and the bind would move on.

Mind that it's not the key press down activating a bind and then releasing the key activating the next bind. It's why I have an 'empty' file as explained above.

I have re-done the tests with more attention to start with Interface and Hasten recharged. A simple one time test. Not the best but sufficient for my purposes. No inspirations, only Hybrid Assault use on CD: 7:20 - Degenerative 75% chance for -HP. 7:20 - Reactive 75% chance for -res 6:20 - Reactive 75% chance for DoT. 6;25 - Reactive 75% DoT + Double Hit Hybrid assault. I guess I shouldn't poo poo on the DoT? Though we don't spend 6-7 minutes hitting anything in the game and when/if we do it's an AV. Just like the Fire/Claws test both doublehit and +damage Hybrids ended being a wash. I might just go for doublehit on the rare occasion I play with a Kin. I should probably test against an AV to see the difference between Reactive 75% DoT and Degenerative 75% -HP since a pylon does not serve for this in particular. Found an AE mission with Mako and used him as a test subject. Not the best since he keeps on Placating, but it will have to do. Wailed on the guy for 5 minutes and got: 23.5 out of 30.6k with Reactive 75% DoT 16.3 out of 30.6k with Degenerative 75% -HP 22k out of 39.6k without interface slotted. ...Yeah, it's a large difference against AVs to the point of the -res and DoT being pretty much nullified as the 'no interface' run showed. What about running the farm map with no Interface? Not that farming is an important metric but it somewhat measures 'normal' gameplay versus lower HP mobs. 7:20 7:25 ... Game, y u do dis to me? Okay, apparently the effect of Reactive and Degenerative is negligible outside of big HP pools and the DoT impacts more. I guess? I don't even anymore.

@Bopper, I invoke you again. Without a DPS meter to help I am forced to rely on math and you're our current guru. I was testing the different Interfaces and found very little difference between them their two T4 versions versus a pylon. Degenerative 25% HP debuff or 75%, a wash. Reactive 25% chance for resist or 75%, same. I was expecting the DoT chance to make more of an impact when it has 75% chance of going off but this has not been the case so far. Now CoH is a fickle game to get any empirical testing done since the chance for missing messes things. The way around it is doing extensive testing, something like a hundred tests at least, but even then randomness is involved if the test is something like clearing a map since mobs may flock to us or spread out, etc. One versus the other (instead of the same but choosing left or right side T4) it did surprise me that on a pylon test the Degenerative 75% was only slightly better than Reactive 25% chance for -resist (I know this doesn't apply to AVs since they resist the already small -res numbers of Reactive but please correct me if I say something wrong). At the time I ass-umed it was because the 'medium fire DoT' played well and brute forced things. But I recently did a test on a farming map and there was almost no difference between Degenerative 75% chance for -HP and Reactive 25%. It seemed to me that the shaved HP and a minor DoT on lower HP mobs such as lieutenants and bosses would make much less impact that the 'medium DoT' and -res, even though it is known the -res proc is pretty small. After testing on a farming map I expected Reactive to take a comfortable lead, both for the 'bigger' damage from the Dot and the -res, but they ended so close together. Of course this is difficult to test without more instances being ran. As I recall Reactive is -2.5% stacking 8 times, correct? Things I've tested: - Reactive's DoT does 10.7 base on my build. - Reactive's DoT is not affected by damage buffs such as reds or Assault. - Reactive's DoT IS affected by -res. It went to 10.97 under it's own -res. 12.84 under its own (I assume) -res and Achilles. It reached 14.98 under Achilles, Fury of the Gladiator and, I assume, it's own -res. - Degenerative hit for 8.56 under its own power. - 10.27 with Achilles -res - 11.98 with both. You're quite correct that these numbers are so low as to be inconsequential. With the DoT being so low it is better to maximize the chances of the effect we are after, be it -HP or -res. With all the damage procs in my usual builds the -res seems to take the lead for usefulness, but after having run the farm map with near identical numbers it seems like the -HP has more of an impact on lower level mobs than I thought making it viable for general play.

... Carry on. Nothing to see here.

SR has a taunt aura for Tankers. It's baked in Evasion. Check Effects on Mids.

I meant the resistances, but I'm just goofing around. It looks great o/

I love me Claws. Best thing ever. But the Brunker title demands the best all rounder that fits it. And MA it is. (IMO)

Replaced the OP with a spruced up version of the new Brunker champion. Fare thee well, Claws.

Just shy of three minutes. Which is my Claws average. MA is not as good as Claws. And Spin does twice of Dragon Tail's damage. But the FF procs mean more of everything so it turned out a bit better than the Claws in clearing a farm map as well despite that. And you'd never guess but 45% to M/R/A also makes it sturdier than Claws with just S/L at 45% 😛

Storm Kick itself gets extra crit chance. Should do the same for Stalkers.

Dat overcapped S/L makes my teeth itch 😄 My Fire Armor/Martial Arts with Storm Kick on and one stack of tanker proc: Barrier = 5% to defense and resistance, so 45% to Melee/Ranged/AoE, and S/L resistance becomes 83.95%. E/N becomes 82.54%. Second stack makes it 90%+ S/L and E/N becomes 89% and change, 90% once HP dips to 90%. If it does. I've been leveling this and its a beast.

Martial arts. 45% to melee, ranged and AoE 😄 I just finished tweaking my FA/MA and managed to reach capped S/L resistance without Tough. That's one less toggle (I still have to pick Tough to grab Weave but it's a mule).

^_^ I found my new baby, Fire/Martial Arts. I get to roleplay Xena meet low level Shazam while pulling my best all rounder.

Still don't see it o_o; Where do you mean?

I did? Where was this? It's been a while 😄