Bopper

I believe you should always play your way. If you don't want to invest in set IOs, don't. I would suggest atleast frankenslot, or go after some cheap IO sets, but again, play your way. The boost from Time Crawl is decent, but for me the -regeneration is small and not stackable if I recall. Plus it's single target. Basically its use is strictly for single tough guys. As for how it improves your powers, it's a 20-25% boost to your debuffs. Time Stop gets a +1 magnitude boost for half the duration, so you can hold a boss in a single shot.

FYI, some of the info in the article is wrong. But the table of procs should be helpful.

It depends on your definition of skippable and your build goals. Personally I have always skipped Time Stop, I usually skip Time Crawl, and I did skip Distortion Field once, but decided to bring it back. In no way do I imply those powers aren't good, I just don't have room for everything. But I don't play with multiple builds. If I dedicated resources to a pure solo build, I would sub out Temporal Selection for one of those.

I would even say the buffing of status protection is more important than healing

I seem to be having trouble. I used the top link from the first post and installed it. However, it still shows as v2.23 Updated 19/05/16. When I click Check for Updates, it says there are none. Is there a reason why it won't update me with v2.6? I think I'm up to 3 different versions of Mids/Pines/MidsReborn on my computer. I'd like to clean it up and just have one that gets updated.

Any updates on your duo? How'd the Time/DP with Time/Sonic wind up working out for you guys?

http://web.archive.org/web/20140821042306/http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/powers/power.php?id=Pool.Medicine.Stimulant&at=Class_Defender Looks like it's a 12.5% debuff (pretty good) for 15 seconds. The description says the debuffs do not stack, but the friendly buffs would stack.

Certainly. You could show the volume of a spherical AoE covers (4/3 x pi x Radius^3) and compare it to the volume of a cone (pi x Range^3 × tan (Arc/2) / 3). Of course relying on the entire volume of coverage is unrealistic. But even comparing the area of the disk is useful (pi x Radius^2 vs. pi x [Range x tan (Arc/2)]^2)

Haha, thanks. That is exactly what I was doing. I just wish I had Combat Jumping instead of Hover. Honestly I wasn't even thinking about the 3D aspect of it (which is actually the most important part of that move). My intention was to simply get quick range on the enemies to expand the width of my cone, then come right back.

That (City of Data) would probably be the 2nd best tool created, behind Mids. I'm not a coder/programmer, reading through it doesn't come natural. But if someone pointed me where to look, I could sift.

If you want accurate, turn on the countdown timer (Options). Once you activate a power it will tell you how long until it recharges.

Are you talking about a guide from year 1 of the game? I doubt any of it would be applicable to today. But you can try to dig around for it through here : http://web.archive.org/web/20120904103636/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/forumdisplay.php?f=585

Pick Up Group. Basically you form a group with a bunch of strangers.

The recharge displayed is only based on the enhancements in the power (and Alpha incarnates if you picked ones that improve recharge for your powers). It does not calculate the recharge with Global Recharge Boosts because that would require constant checking and updating. Global Recharge is also not constant, it changes depending on if you're being buffed/debuffed. If you truly want to know your true recharge, you can use Pines. Or grab a pen and paper and bust out the math.

Super excited about something that came across my way just now. It seems someone (I might know who, waiting to confirm) found the formulas in the source code. I'm not a programmer by trade, so I can't say I understand the entirety of this code, but it certainly seems to show the formulas I've been posting are correct. The base Area Factor formula is the AF = 1 + Radius(11xArc + 540)/30000. This is simply an easy to read version of the formula given in the "Design Formulas" thread stickied in the Guides section which states: Standard Area Factor Spheres: (1+(Radius*0.15)) Cones: ((1+(Radius*0.15))-(((Radius/6)*0.011)/5)*(360-Arc)) The important part of the formula is the 0.75 dampening factor. Basically the code is showing this: NewAF = OldAF x 0.75 + 0.25 This is equivalent to the post I referenced where Synapse (Phil) mentioned wanting to tweak the Area Factor such that: NewAF = 1 + 0.75(OldAF - 1) This is equivalent to the formula I use: NewAF = 1 + Radius(11xArc + 540)/40000 The 2nd most important thing is the confirmation that not only is the max probability to proc 90%, the minimum probability to proc exists too with the following formula: Min Probability to Proc = 5% + PPM x 1.5% Originally, I saw Synapse suggest he wanted a Min = 5% + PPM x 1.2%. It seems prior to i24 Beta coming out he tweaked the numbers. This is very cool, especially for wide radius AoEs. It also appears we have a formula for toggles as well. It is simply: Prob = PPM x ActivatePeriod / (60 x AreaFactor) The one mystery that remains is the last functions used "ChanceModAccumulate()". I have some ideas as to what this is, but I am really hoping to just see its code and determine it explicitly. Anyways, I hope to update the front matter soon with this new information. Today is my daughter's birthday so I won't get to these updates for at least a day. Nonetheless, I wanted to pass this info down.

This is my first time attempting to record myself playing. It's nothing special. But I figure I would share my Time/DP/Soul Defender clearing the Comic Con S/L Farm in under 8 minutes (+4x8, w/Bosses). I honestly don't know if that's fast for a defender. I know it's not fast for a Brute, I'm not trying to compete with that. I just thought it was fun to make a character that could kick ass while not sacrificing (well, not sacrificing too much) on the Buffs/Debuffs if I was on a team.

You could get creative with your Defender ATOs. Instead of using 5 slots of Superior Vigilant Assault, use only 3 for the 3.6% Endurance and 10% recharge into 2 powers. That's 7.2% endurance and 20% recharge with 6 enhancements. Just a thought.

That's fair. My Dual Pistols doesn't have a snipe, but with my AoE heavy attack chain I figured I use up my fair share of endurance pretty fast. It helps having the +End accolades, too. With 120 endurance, I average about 0.9 recover per second from just the Performance Shifter and Panacea +End procs. I would go ahead and recommend putting some End Mod enhancements to your chronoshift. It does grant a recovery boost for 30 seconds which is buffable.

I'm curious, how much endurance issues are folks having with their Time Defenders? I admit, I focus very little on endurance, and I probably drain more than most, but I still manage it fine with my ChronoShift. Plus, I think you have Conserve Power, no? I'll also admit, I don't mind seeing my endurance drop below half, and if I'm ever desperate, I turn off my defense toggles since I'm already softcapped (stealth and weave, gone).

Not sure which you prioritize more, but if I'm using Blaze every other attack I would put the purple set into Blaze for added damage, and put the defender set into flares.

The only thing giving me pause is losing the 10% recharge from the set bonus. Otherwise, honestly, it's a no brainer. I'll look at my build and see what works for me, but in a vacuum, the buff is better left in HoB.

Can you provide a link to what you saw? But ultimately, jack_nomind provided you with the same link I would have. It seems to be an urban legend. My actual build uses so many FF procs that when I'm farming with it (mobs are almost limitless) my +100 % recharge buff seems like it is almost always up. That's not test results though, just personal experience. I'll have to look at my combat attributes next time I farm and see how often my buff is up (HeroStats, I don't know how to look at time logs of when buffs are active, but if there is a way, let me know).

I used to have the -res proc in HoB, but now I've been using the -res proc in my Soul Drain, while using a 5 piece Armageddon (with DMG proc) and a FF proc in my Hail of Bullets. Given I use HoB twice as much as SD, it can hit up to 16 tgts, and I imagine the final 11 (iirc) ticks of damage likely gets the -res boost, I wonder if I should switch back.

Now that Justin is back, I am able to re-attack some of the questions I had about PPM mechanics. The big test I wanted to look at was whether or not buffing the range on cone powers will result in diminished performance by your procs. Good news, enhancing range does not impact a cone's proc performance!. Now that I gave away the conclusion, folks who don't like math can go ahead and move on. For those who like the math, let's take a look at the results. Just a reminder, I still am assuming the formula for calculating proc probability is Prob = PPM x (MRT + Cast) / [60 x (1 + Radius x (11xArc + 540)/40,000)]. My previous testing showed the divide by 30,000 version does not come close to the actual proc performance. The results of this test further proved this. For this test I wanted to compare three scenarios: Default Range Proc Performance, Range Boosted Proc Performance, and Range Enhanced Proc Performance. For this reason, I decided to use a Dark/Energy/Leviathan Blaster. This offered me 4 cones to test, all with unique range/arc combinations. Also, Energy Manipulation offers the Boost Range power, which grants a 59.6% boost to all range attacks. For the default test I looked at all 4 cones, however given the performance of Bile Spray, I decided to just focus on it for the Range Enhanced and Range Boosted scenarios because any change in performance would be obvious. In each of these tests I slotted a single Positron Blast Proc (3.5 PPM). Test 1: Umbral Torrent. No Range Enhancement. No Recharge Enhancement. MRT: 15s Cast: 1.03s Range: 80 ft Arc: 30 degrees Prob = 34.1271% Results: # Procs: 75 Hits: 223 Percent: 33.63% (Only 1 proc less than expected for 223 Hits) Test 2: Tenebrous Tentacles. No Range Enhancement. No Recharge Enhancement. MRT: 10s Cast: 1.67s Range: 40 ft Arc: 40 degrees (In game says 40, City of Data says 39...I used 40 for my calculations) Prob = 34.3813% Results: # Procs: 129 Hits: 387 Percent: 33.33% (Only 4 procs less than expected for 387 Hits) Test 3: School of Sharks. No Range Enhancement. No Recharge Enhancement. MRT: 20s Cast: 2.37s Range: 50 ft Arc: 30 degrees Prob = 62.511% Results: # Procs: 113 Hits: 172 Percent: 65.70%% (Only 5 procs more than expected for 172 Hits) Test 4: Bial Spray. No Range Enhancement. No Recharge Enhancement. MRT: 32s Cast: 2.67s Range: 60 ft Arc: 30 degrees Prob = 87.7404% Results: # Procs: 139 Hits: 156 Percent: 89.10% (Only 2 procs more than expected for 156 Hits) Test 5: Bial Spray. Range Boosted 59.6%. No Recharge Enhancement. MRT: 32s Cast: 2.67s Range: 60 ft Arc: 30 degrees Prob = 87.7404% (Assuming Range Boosting has no impact) Prob = 65.6037% (Assuming Range Boosting has impact, thus modified range becomes 95.76 ft) Results: # Procs: 60 Hits: 69 Percent: 86.70% (Exactly expected for 69 hits) Test 6: Bial Spray. Range Enhanced by 56.1%. No Recharge Enhancement. MRT: 32s Cast: 2.67s Range: 60 ft Arc: 30 degrees Prob = 87.7404% (Assuming Range Enhancing has no impact) Prob = 66.595% (Assuming Range Enhancing has impact, thus modified range becomes 93.65 ft) Results: # Procs: 51 Hits: 56 Percent: 91.07% (Only 2 procs more than expected for 56 hits)

I mean, if you need a fancy build name, it's gotta be Summertime :P I might have some suggestions on slotting, but I don't want to make any assumptions just yet. Can you tell me what is your typical attack chain? For example, let's say you come to a mob, what AOE chain do you start with? On the other end of that, let's say you're fighting an AV, what attack chain are you using for that ST DPS?