The Survivability Tool

[Bopper]

The Survivability Tool

by Bopper

Written: 2 November 2019

Last Updated: 17 June 2020

(How long will it take until you're dead?)

Author's Note:

Spoiler

This tool is always a work in progress. I am always updating the tool when new information comes in (like how I learned about Blasters having a higher max HP than what's listed on paragon wiki). There is also a giant exclusion from this tool that needs to be incorporated: the Absorb mechanic. I don't entirely understand how it works and I don't entirely understand how I can factor it into the survivability measurements. The temporary duration of an absorb shield is an issue, but once I better grasp it I will incorporate it.

 

Have you ever wondered how strong am I, really? Well, I have a simple test for that. I have written a program that allows the user to enter characteristics of their hero/villain; such as Archetype, Defenses, Resistances, Max Health Bonuses, and Regeneration. You can then input an amount of damage per second you are attacked with (you select the type of damage, specifically) and the tool will calculate how long it would take for you to go from 100% health to death. I call this the "Time until Death" calculation: which is one of four Survivability Calculations I showcase in this tool. The others: Max DPS for Survival Duation, Survivability Score, and Immortality Score will all be described in detail below.

Now, you might be asking, why would I want to know this? Answer, you might not; but if you have ever asked the question, “should I add more defense or resistance (or more HP, or more regeneration)?” then this is the tool for you. In real time, you can tweak any parameter and see how it will impact your survivability.

Without further ado, here is a link to the Survivability Tool (It is a Google Doc that you will make a local copy of).

 

How do I use the tool?

First off, you can only edit the fields marked with a Green background. Also, there are two types of editable fields: ones you enter a value (e.g. changing Max HP Boost from 50% to 15%), and ones you select from a drop-down menu (e.g. changing Archetype from Brute to Defender).

The fields marked with an Orange background are calculated fields, which takes the user-input information to determine their values. You can’t edit these fields, otherwise you would break the formulas in the field.

The fields marked with a Black background are fixed tables, which are used for look-up purposes. Again, you can’t edit these fields.

Now that we know the rules, let’s step through each field:

User Inputs

Select Your Archetype

Archetype:  The user can select their archetype using the drop-down menu. Based on the selection, the appropriate archetype information is loaded into the “Max Values for your AT” field (HP base, HP max, Regeneration max, and Resistance max). Those values are used as limits checks for calculations later on.

 

Enter Your Health Bonuses

Max HP Boost (%):  The user enters the amount of Max HP boosts in the build. This could include boosts from Set IO Bonuses, or it could be a power that increases the Max HP. Ultimately, add up all the bonuses and do not include the 100% from base. Max HP Boosts do 2 things for the character: more Max HP means more damage needs to be done to kill you, also more Max HP means more HP is recovered every time a regeneration tick is triggered (5% of max HP is recovered on each tick).

Regeneration Total (%):  The user enters the total amount of Regeneration in the build (100% from base, regeneration from set IO bonuses and powers). Add up all of them (or use Mid’s Reborn and look at the totals…do include the 100% base). Regeneration determines how frequently the 5% HP recovery triggers.

Additional Heal over Time (HPS):  The user enters the average amount of additional Healing the character receives in units of Hit Points per Second. For example, if every 90 seconds the character Heals them self for 450 HP, then the user will input 5 (450 HP/90s = 5 HPS).

 

Enter Your Debuffs

Damage Debuff:  The user enters the amount of damage debuff their character applies to the enemy. In the game the enemy can resist this debuff, so it is important to know that the user must enter the post-resisted debuff value into this field. For example, if the character applies a 50% damage debuff and the enemy resists 25% of the debuff, the user must input 37.5% into this field:

To Hit Debuff:  The user enters the amount of to-hit debuff their character applies to the enemy. In the game the enemy can resist this debuff, so the user must enter the post-resisted debuff value into this field. For example, if the character applies a 30% to-hit debuff and the enemy resists 25% of the debuff, the user must input 22.5% into this field:

 

Enter Your Enemy’s Attack Info

Attack Damage Per Second:  The user enters the amount of DPS is coming from an enemy’s attack (remember, this is a value that is prior to looking at defense, resistance, etc. Just the raw damage).

Survival Duration:  The user enters the duration (in seconds) that they want to be capable of surviving. This value is used later for the "Max DPS for Survival Duration" and "Survivability Score" calculations.

Attack Type: The user selects the type of attack being used for the Survivability Calculation.

Damage Type: The user selects the type of damage being used for the Survivability Calculation.

Enemy To Hit:  The user enters the To-Hit Modifier. By default, this value is 50% (63.75% if you want to use Incarnate Trials’ To-Hit mods). The user can make this any value they want though, so if they want to buff it (or debuff it), tweak this value appropriately.

Enemy Accuracy Modifier:  The user enters the Accuracy Modifier. By default, this value is 1.0x, but the user has the freedom to apply an accuracy bonus if desired.

Enemy Type:  The user can select the rank of the enemy, which will introduce additional accuracy modifiers for the calculations.

Enemy Relative Level: The user can select the relative level of the enemy which could introduce additional To-Hit modifiers and accuracy modifiers.

 

Enter Your Defense/Resistance Values

Defense: The user enters the defense for each position and type. Note that there is no such thing as toxic defense (at least according to Mids) so keep that set to 0%.

Resistance: The user enters the resistance for each damage type. Note that there is no such thing as positional resistances so keep those set to 0%.

 

Outputs

Max Values for your AT

HP (base): This is the base Hit Points for the user-selected Archetype.

HP (max): This is the maximum Hit Points for the user-selected Archetype.

Regeneration (max):  This is the maximum regeneration for the user-selected Archetype.

Resistance (max):  This is the maximum resistance for the user-selected Archetype.

 

Your Health Calculations

Resistance:  This is the resistance value to the user-selected damage type. This value is used in calculating the amount of damage taken for each successful attack.

Defense:  This is the defense value to the user-selected attack and damage type. This value is always the highest between the user-selected options.

Max Health:  This is the maximum HP for the character after factoring in the Archetype, Max HP Boost, and HP (max).

Regen Period:  This is how frequently 5% of max HP is returned to the character. When there is 0% Regeneration Bonus, this value is 12 seconds. As regeneration boosts are increased, the interval period reduces:

HP per Regen Tick:  This is simply 5% of the Max Health you recover on each regeneration tick.

HP/sec:  This is the average amount of HP recovery each second. Simply, this is:

 

Using some algebra, we can simplify this formula to be:

 

Your Damage Taken Calculations

Damage Taken (after Resistance):  This is the damage you take when an attack hits you. It is reduced by the amount of your resistance and the amount of damage debuffs.

Total Accuracy Mods (product):  This is the combined Accuracy Modifier used by the enemy. It is the product of the enemy’s general accuracy mod, rank accuracy mod, and relative level accuracy mod.

Total ToHit Mods (sum):  This is the combined To-Hit Modifier used by the enemy. It is the summation of the enemy’s general to-hit mod, relative level to-hit mod, and to-hit debuffs.

Probability to Hit:  This is the final probability of an attack hitting you, combining the effects of all accuracy mods, to-hit mods, and defense.

Note, this is an oversimplification of the formula. The to-hit mod portion and final result are actually clamped to where the result can go no less than 5% and no more than 95%. This tweaks the formula to be:

Average Damage Taken Per Second:  This is the expected amount of damage per second your character will take, which is the product of the Damage Taken (after Resistance) and the Probability to Hit.

 

Your Survivability Calculation

Each of the Survivability Calculations will display their scores for every permutation of Positional and Type attacks. This was a quality-of-life feature added in v2.0 to quickly allow users to view all of their scores instead of having to manually change the Attack and Damage type for every permutation. The table will look like this:

For the table we can see for this build, when facing a Smashing-Melee attack, it has an Immortality Score of 193.33 (same score for Ranged, AoE, and No Position which implies the Smashing Defense is higher than all of the positional Defenses). When facing Psionic-Range attacks, it has an Immortality Score of 54.39. The No Position (or "positionless") attack is rare, but there are a few enemies who do Psionic Attacks that are not tagged with a position, in which case the positional defenses are ignored and only the type defense is used in the analysis.

Time until Death:  This is the amount of time it takes to go from 100% health to death. This calculation uses the inputs from the user and incorporates them into the following formula:

Max DPS for Survival Duration:  This is the maximum amount of Attack Damage per Second you are able to take in order to survive for the user-defined Survival Duration.

Survivability Score:  This is the survivability factor above your Archetype's base values. This simply calculates the ratio of your "Max DPS for Survival Duration" rating versus what that rating would be if all of your attributes were set to their base values (e.g. no defense, no resistance, no HP boost, no additional regeneration). This score is not intended to compare across other Archetypes as other ATs will have different Base HP 

 

Immortality Score:  This is perhaps the definitive metric one can use to measure how well they can survive. It simply calculates how much the DPS of the enemy needs to be for it to overtake your build's HP/sec. Anything more, and your health bar will trend downward over time; thus this is the maximum amount of DPS your character can withstand while still surviving forever.  

Edited June 18, 2020 by Bopper
Long overdue update to the Guide. It now properly reflects the features of the Tool

[Bopper]

Revision History:

13 Dec 2020(v3.0):

1. Note: Content of the guide does not reflect recent changes to the Tool. That will come later
2. Added the Conditioning Inherent for Arachnos. Previously it was using the base regeneration of 1 tick every 12s, it should have been 1 tick every 10s
3. Added Bodyguard Mode for Masterminds. You can choose your number of pets (0-6) to divide your damage across. The tool will assume the pets won't die, so temper expectations. 
4. Incorporated Purple Patch for Enemy Relative Level selections. Previously, the Attack Damage Per Second, Damage Debuff, and To Hit Debuff fields were assumed to have the Purple Patch included. I have now broken that out so that those three fields will be pre-purple patch (e.g. If you enter a Damage Debuff of 40%, but select the Enemy Relative Level to be +3, the purple patch modifier of 0.65 will be applied, making the actual damage debuff to be 26%).

 

17 Jun 2020(v2.0):

1. Updated the content in the guide to accurately reflect the features of the v2.0 Survivability Tool
2. Added a Description for the Immortality Score
3. Added additional Formulas for clarity as well as for the new calculations

 

5 Feb 2020 (v2.0):

1. Changed Regeneration Bonus to just Regeneration (so now you include the 100% base value, which is how Mids Reborn shows it)
2. Added Immortality Score (this calculates the maximum Enemy DPS your character can take before the net DPS exceeds your HP/sec, thus you start losing life on average)
3. Added new computational blocks that now allows you to see all of your Survivability Calculations for every positional/type damage pairing. This is a quality of life improvement as you no longer have to select between every single permutation just to see each score.
4. Included in the new Survivability Calculations is "No Position". This is rare, but I believe there are some psychic attacks that are positionless, which would render the use of Psionic defense only, and no Melee/AoE/Range defense checks. 
5. Made a new sheet for notes on the program (I need to update the notes, however)

 

9 Nov 2019 (v1.03):

1. Added a New User Input for Health Bonuses, "Additional Heal over Time"

 

3 Nov 2019 (v1.02):

1. Updated the Survivability Tool to correct an error in the "Probability to Hit" formula (forgot a minmax function)
2. Added a New User Input for Enemy's Attack Info, "Survival Duration".
3. Added a New Survivability Calculation "Max DPS for Survival Duration"
4. Changed the "Survivability Score" to be a ratio of the "Max DPS for Survival Duration" result with its Base result

 

 

Edited December 14, 2020 by Bopper

[Bopper]

Reserved

[Crowcus Pocus]

I'll go first.
 

"Damn."

[Giovanni Valia]

I was looking for something exactly like this, for all my blaster tanking needs. Thanks!

[Bopper]

1 hour ago, Giovanni Valia said:

I was looking for something exactly like this, for all my blaster tanking needs. Thanks!

I'm glad it helps 🙂

[Call Me Awesome]

Nice, looks like a +4 AV needs over 800 DPS Psionic to take down my Invuln tanker... or over 24,000 Smashing.  I don't think I'll find a lot of mobs capable of those numbers.

 

Any possibility of an interface with Mid's?  Or an import function of a Mid's export?  Because it's based on Google Docs I'll guess that's a no...

[Bopper]

18 minutes ago, Call Me Awesome said:

Nice, looks like a +4 AV needs over 800 DPS Psionic to take down my Invuln tanker... or over 24,000 Smashing.  I don't think I'll find a lot of mobs capable of those numbers.

 

Any possibility of an interface with Mid's?  Or an import function of a Mid's export?  Because it's based on Google Docs I'll guess that's a no...

Likely no interface. It was a simple tool I made in excel and ported over to google docs. But the local copy you generate has everything in the tool, so if somebody wishes to incorporate that capability and share it, that would be nice.

[Troo]

it's like you have some sort of wizardry..

[Bopper]

For those interested, I have updated the tool with some QoL improvements and added a new Survivability calculation that folks may like: Immortality Score. This sounds more impressive than it is, as it simply backs out calculations we already do to determine how much DPS the enemy/enemies can throw at you before your hit points per seconds is overcome (thus a net of negative HP per second for your character, eventually resulting in a loss of life). Honestly, this calculation was already available to you if you selected your Desired Survival Duration to be something insanely high. Still, it's a metric that folks would like to know right away, so I added it.

 

As for the guide, it will need some re-work to incorporate the changes I made. In particular, I'm no longer using Regeneration Bonus as an input, instead I made it simply Regeneration. This way, you can take the number that shows in Mids Reborn and directly input that value, as opposed to having to subtract out the 100%. Eventually, I'll do the same with Hit Points, but not just yet.

[Caulderone]

FYI, I couldn't access the new google sheet without logging in.  I copied the link location and removed the /copy at the end, and then it loaded.  I was then able to save a copy locally.

[Bopper]

3 minutes ago, Caulderone said:

FYI, I couldn't access the new google sheet without logging in.  I copied the link location and removed the /copy at the end, and then it loaded.  I was then able to save a copy locally.

Thanks for the heads up. I thought it worked when I tested the link, but I could've goofed something up. I'll fix it later tonight

Edited February 6, 2020 by Bopper

[r0y]

Hey @Bopper,

 

Is it possible to add Power Transfer proc and other procs/regen things to the spreadsheet?  Including the maths used when multiple ones are used in toggle/always on powers?

[Bopper]

27 minutes ago, r0y said:

Hey @Bopper,

 

Is it possible to add Power Transfer proc and other procs/regen things to the spreadsheet?  Including the maths used when multiple ones are used in toggle/always on powers?

It would be difficult to add in as I dont know what you're adding it to. If the Power Transfer is slotted in stamina, that's easy enough to calculate. But if it is slotted in Lightning Field, or Ball Lightning, there's nothing I can do to help. I dont know your slotting, I dont know the number of targets you're hitting, etc. I do have a PPM Guide if you want to know how to do the calculations, however the homework for extra HP/S from procs will have to be done by the user.

 

As for the regen procs, are you talking about Brute ATO? Or are you talking about globals like Numina, Regen Tissue, and Impervious Skin? If its the globals, those regen boosts should already be plugged into the tool (they show up in Mids so there's no extra calculation by you). The ATO proc, again, thats for you to calculate as I wont have that information. Plus, I think it stacks, so you have to factor that in too.

[r0y]

5 minutes ago, Bopper said:

It would be difficult to add in as I dont know what you're adding it to. If the Power Transfer is slotted in stamina, that's easy enough to calculate. But if it is slotted in Lightning Field, or Ball Lightning, there's nothing I can do to help. I dont know your slotting, I dont know the number of targets you're hitting, etc. I do have a PPM Guide if you want to know how to do the calculations, however the homework for extra HP/S from procs will have to be done by the user.

 

As for the regen procs, are you talking about Brute ATO? Or are you talking about globals like Numina, Regen Tissue, and Impervious Skin? If its the globals, those regen boosts should already be plugged into the tool (they show up in Mids so there's no extra calculation by you). The ATO proc, again, thats for you to calculate as I wont have that information. Plus, I think it stacks, so you have to factor that in too.

Yeah, I meant to add that it would be for Auto powers and/or Toggles (if they are even treated differently when calculating).

 

Maybe also add a "clickable heal" such as Reconstruction, Aid Self (assuming no interruption), etc. using mids' numbers (recharge, heal amount, etc).

 

[Bopper]

16 minutes ago, r0y said:

Yeah, I meant to add that it would be for Auto powers and/or Toggles (if they are even treated differently when calculating).

 

Maybe also add a "clickable heal" such as Reconstruction, Aid Self (assuming no interruption), etc. using mids' numbers (recharge, heal amount, etc).

 

They are calculated the same, but Auto is always a 0 radius power, wheras toggles might not be. Also, Autos only have a chance to proc off of you, wheras a toggle might proc off all enemies within range and/or all league mates.

 

I can't incorporate clickable heals because I don't know how many you have nor how fast they'll recharge. To incorporate your build's numbers, you have to take the heal from the power and divide it by your frequency of use. This may be whenever it's off cooldown (recharge time + arcana time), or maybe on a fixed interval (e.g. Dull Pain cast every 120s).

 

I added the HP/s field to the tool to allow for the user to incorporate those numbers easily, but they have to do the math. For me to add the capability, I would need to know what power it is, how fast it recharges, how enhanced its heal is, etc. It's programmatically impossible. I just recommend estimating what is a realistic total HP/sec, and add that into the field. As we did with your Aid Self and Siphon Life, we gave a ballpark recycle time. 

Edited May 19, 2020 by Bopper

[Bopper]

Good news... I finally found the time to update the guide to match the update I did to the tool back in February (v2.0).

Bad news... no updates to the tool. But I do understand the Absorb mechanic now, so if I get time I'll add it to the tool eventually. Still need to figure out how to incorporate absorbs that are on short durations with quick refreshes, but I'll cross that bridge if/when I get there.

[Bionic_Flea]

Thanks!

[Arbegla]

I know this might be an older thread, but I was wondering if there was a way to calculate Bodyguard Mode (and the damage reduction it gives to Masterminds) in the spreadsheet as well?

[Bopper]

11 hours ago, Arbegla said:

I know this might be an older thread, but I was wondering if there was a way to calculate Bodyguard Mode (and the damage reduction it gives to Masterminds) in the spreadsheet as well?

I don't plan to add it. There is an oversimplified way of doing it and an extremely complicated way of doing it.

 

The simplified way, you just multiply the DPS by whatever you feel is most accurate for the Bodyguard Mode. If you want to assume you always have 6 pets out (and alive), then your damage taken is 1/4th of what it normally would be. So multiply the DPS you set (or was calculated) by 4 and you have your answer.

 

The complicated way is to encorporate the health of your pets and how long they would survive. You likely won't always have 6 pets out, so you would have fluctuations in how much damage you would be taking over time. Given level shifts, varying health pools, pet specific defenses/resistances, it would be quite difficult to try to incorporate pets into the tool specifically for bodyguard mode. 

 

So I would recommed the simplified way, but to cage it. You know x4 is best case scenario, so make up a worst case scenario (x2?) and you can give yourself a range of DPS performance you can check for your survival.

[Bopper]

12 hours ago, Arbegla said:

I know this might be an older thread, but I was wondering if there was a way to calculate Bodyguard Mode (and the damage reduction it gives to Masterminds) in the spreadsheet as well?

Actually...I will go ahead and add it. I just noticed I had not factored in purple patch for the to-hit and damage debuffs, so I should update the tool anyways. I'll add a field for number of pets, and if you are an MM, I will assume bodyguard mode and it will divide the number of damage based on the number of pets you have selected.

[Bopper]

I updated the Survivability Tool to version 3.0. This includes Arachnos having their Conditioning Inherent reflected in their Regeneration, Masterminds having their Bodyguard Mode for spreading damage across its pets, and incorporating the Purple Patch for changing the strength of enemy's damage as well as damage/to-hit debuffs. These updates were also added to the Bopper's CoH Tools and Formulas if you use that.

 

This was a fairly rushed update to a spreadsheet that is buried in formulas, so please, if you notice a bug, please let me know.

Edited December 14, 2020 by Bopper

[Arbegla]

Mostly because I just noticed, is there a way to incorporate damage from multiple sources? While this is a pure "Incoming damage from 1 source is X" guide, that's not very accurate when you have multiple sources.

 

Multiple sources also hurts defense MUCH more than resistance, as you get into N choose K situations which can result in really high incoming damage. Though I'm not sure the intent of this guide is to really mirror real world examples, or to just have a metric to start with.

[Bopper]

10 minutes ago, Arbegla said:

Mostly because I just noticed, is there a way to incorporate damage from multiple sources? While this is a pure "Incoming damage from 1 source is X" guide, that's not very accurate when you have multiple sources.

 

Multiple sources also hurts defense MUCH more than resistance, as you get into N choose K situations which can result in really high incoming damage. Though I'm not sure the intent of this guide is to really mirror real world examples, or to just have a metric to start with.

There is a chance to expand that, mostly to allow for various attack types and/or ranked enemies. As for the binomial stuff, I likely won't add that in. It doesn't change the average performance, so including it would almost force my hand into showing a distribution of results which is far too complicated for an excel spreadsheet. I thought about doing something like that to incorporate DDR and cascading defense but there is no easy way to do that. I had to create a program that uses Monte Carlo simulations to display long term performance.