New IO set - Mending Bulwark, universal protection

[Vanden]

Halloween is on the horizon, and once again my thoughts turn to a possible IO reward for Dr. Kane's House of Horror, following the example of Overwhelming Force being available from the Summer Blockbuster trial. This time, however, I bring something to the table!

 

The Mending Bulwark IO set is the first Universal Protection IO set, and can be slotted into any power that takes healing, defense buff, or resistance enhancements. Details are as follows:

 

Mending Bulwark (Attuned Universal Protection, minimum level 10, all enhancements unique)

Enhancements:

• Resistance / Heal
• Defense / Resistance / Recharge
• Defense / Heal / Recharge
• Resistance / Heal / Recharge
• Defense / Resistance / Heal / Endurance
• Defense / 15% Run Speed Buff

Set Bonuses:

2:  Improves all movement speeds by 9% (Huge)

3:  Increases the range of all powers by 7.5% (Small)

4:  Increases Smashing/Lethal Defense by 1.25% and Melee Defense by 0.625% (Tiny)

5:  Grants you a 4.5% discount to all Endurance costs. (Gargantuan)

6:  Grants 4 points of Knockback Protection (Moderate)

 

Six-slotting the full set will result in enhancement values of:

Defense: 50.82% (Pre-ED: 52.59%)

Resistance: 50.82% (Pre-ED: 52.59%)

Healing: 85.7% (Pre-ED: 87.45%)

Recharge:  63.6%

End Cost: 18.55%

 

The idea here is to create something unique to reward players for running the haunted house trial. One thing I put in there on purpose is that if you split the set into three pairs of IOs across three different powers, you get a very large improvement to your movement speed.

 

Edit: I changed the Defense/Resistance/Heal to Defense/Resistance/Recharge; I felt that the recharge for six-slotting was too low.

Edited September 30, 2020 by Vanden

[Bopper]

My Granite Armor approves

[Vanden]

3 minutes ago, Bopper said:

My Granite Armor approves

I was thinking about Granite while I made it!

[Nyghtmaire]

Very creative! And so many uses/possibilities. I think you’ve come up with a good set with many, many uses over a variety of ATs (thinking Healing Flame for boosting both the heal and toxic resistance). Three thumbs up! 👽 

[Bopper]

You could probably use a little bit more endurance. Maybe sacrifice the D/R/H for a D/R/E. It would still give you 87.5% Heal before E.D. And your endurance reduction will increase to about 40%.

[Vanden]

1 hour ago, Bopper said:

You could probably use a little bit more endurance. Maybe sacrifice the D/R/H for a D/R/E. It would still give you 87.5% Heal before E.D. And your endurance reduction will increase to about 40%.

Personally I think it's the recharge that could stand to be higher. It's quite a challenge to put together sets that enhance so many things well, but it was fun to try.

 

I think there's room in the game for a Universal Mez IO set, too, but no way could you do it without cheating and making all the mez effects count as one IO aspect.

[Razor Cure]

I don't know. I like the idea, but it seems like the set is trying to do TOO much? Are there even any def or res powers with Heal attached? The only one I can think of is in Nature Affinity, and while it would be good for that power, the set bonuses (to me) would mean I didnt use it anyway.

For Granite, sure, it would be ok, but only for the Movement speed. And as pointed out, the end red is poor.

Speaking of the unique (the run speed), that just does not scream 'mending bulwark' to me, in any way. And we already have a +run speed unique.

 

[Vanden]

14 minutes ago, Razor Cure said:

I don't know. I like the idea, but it seems like the set is trying to do TOO much? Are there even any def or res powers with Heal attached? The only one I can think of is in Nature Affinity, and while it would be good for that power, the set bonuses (to me) would mean I didnt use it anyway.

Lots of self-heal powers boost resistance on top of healing. But the set's not necessarily intended for powers that do all those things, but rather meant to be put into any power that improves survivability, whether that's through defense, resistance, or healing (or regeneration or absorb, which are covered by Healing enhancements). A power that does more than one of those things just gets a bonus.

 

20 minutes ago, Razor Cure said:

And we already have a +run speed unique.

No reason we can't have two.

[srmalloy]

2 hours ago, Vanden said:

I think there's room in the game for a Universal Mez IO set, too, but no way could you do it without cheating and making all the mez effects count as one IO aspect.

Something separate from the Controller ATOs, which are universal mez, then?

[Vanden]

Just now, srmalloy said:

Something separate from the Controller ATOs, which are universal mez, then?

Yup.

[Ukase]

The problem I see with this set as being a reward is that it's only going to be useful to a few folks. But it could be there are more than a few powers that I'm unfamiliar with. 

 

 

• Resistance / Heal                                           Okay, maybe a few folks can use this one.  Healing flames was mentioned earlier. 

 

• Defense / Resistance / Heal                           What power is going to boost all three of these facets? Off the top, I can't think of any. I don't know every power, but I'm going to say very few.

 

• Defense / Heal / Recharge                         I can benefit from Def/rec and heal/rec.... but def and heal? I'm probably coming off as presumptuous, and revealing my ignorance - but what power                                                                               would use these three attributes? 

 

• Resistance / Heal / Recharge                    This one could go into healing flames, I suppose, like the first one. 

 

• Defense / Resistance / Heal / Endurance     Same argument as the 2nd and 3rd

 

• Defense / 15% Run Speed Buff      - We already have two run speed uniques, one in the new end mod set, and the other in Gift of Ancients, I think it's called, a defensive set. But this one is unique in that it boosts defense, too. So, I like it...until I think about escort missions, having to go, stop, go, stop. 
  
  
  I like the idea of a new set, but I wonder if it's worth making a set that isn't very rewarding for the majority of the player base. Before I slot anything, regardless of set bonus, I need to know it's going to do something to make my character better in combat. Not just one attribute, but all attributes should be used, unless you've decided you like the set bonuses so much, you can call it a mule. That wouldn't be the case for me with this set. 
  
   

[Parabola]

49 minutes ago, Ukase said:

I like the idea of a new set, but I wonder if it's worth making a set that isn't very rewarding for the majority of the player base. Before I slot anything, regardless of set bonus, I need to know it's going to do something to make my character better in combat. Not just one attribute, but all attributes should be used, unless you've decided you like the set bonuses so much, you can call it a mule. That wouldn't be the case for me with this set. 

I think the idea is that it can be slotted in any heal/resist/defence power and have enough enhancement of the appropriate type to be useful. Using all aspects of the enhancement in one power isn't necessary.

 

It's an interesting idea. My concern is that it is trying to cover too many bases and the bonuses aren't really grabbing my attention. I doubt I'd slot it (but then I've never played stone armour).

[MTeague]

My initial reaction was "Carp. Not Nearly Enough Endurance Reduction."

...... annnnnnnnd then I spotted the 4.5% discount to all powers.

 

That is (I think), a seriously underrated type of set bonus.  Have a character who can't set aside Cardiac because they're sucking wind and gasping for endurance without it?  Work in a few "discount to all powers" set bonuses and watch the math completely change.

 

I admit I don't know of any power that uses all three (Def, Res, Heal).  But it's "universal protection" in the same way that "universal damage" is "slot it into any damaging power... PBAE, Melee, Ranged, Whatever".  And there's a fair number of powers that would benefit from 2/3.  Healing Flames / Kuji-in-Sha come with a side of Toxic Resist.  Steamy Mist provides Fire/Cold/Energy resist as well as defense, etc.

 

I'm not as drawn to the Run Speed buff, but neither does it suck.

And every piece being UNIQUE keeps it from being toooo out of control.

 

Tentative thumbs up.

[Ukase]

7 hours ago, parabola said:

Using all aspects of the enhancement in one power isn't necessary.

Redacted reply on account of my being an ignoramus in this post.

Edited August 23, 2020 by Ukase
I was ignorant.

[Bopper]

30 minutes ago, Ukase said:

When you give an IO 3 attributes, it typically comes down to only boosting 1/3 of an IO that would only boost 1 attribute

Incorrect. When you boost 3 attributes, it boosts each attribute with 1/2 of an IO that would boost 1 attribute. So in a way, a tri-enhancement is like having 1.5 IOs put into 1 slot.

 

A dual-enhancement (enhances 2 attributes), enhances each attribute by 62.25% of what a single IO would do. This effectively makes the IO worth 1.25 IOs.

 

A quad-enhancement (enhances 4 attributes) enhances each attribute by 43.75% of what a single IO would do. This effectively makes the IO worth 1.75 IOs.

Edited August 23, 2020 by Bopper

[Ukase]

6 minutes ago, Bopper said:

Incorrect. When you boost 3 attributes, it boosts each attribute with 1/2 of an IO that would boost 1 attribute. So in a way, a tri-enhancement is like having 1.5 IOs put into 1 slot.

 

A dual-enhancement (enhances 2 attributes), enhances each attribute by 62.25% of what a single IO would do. This effectively makes the IO worth 1.25 IOs.

 

A quad-enhancement (enhances 4 attributes) enhances each attribute by 43.75% of what a single IO would do. This effectively makes the IO worth 1.75 IOs.

Seriously? 
Thank you for that correction! 
I guess I have to admit that I can not read, nor do math very well anymore, if I ever could at all. That isn't the way I remember it at all, but I'll take your word for it. 

[Uun]

This would be very good for powers like Steamy Mist, Arctic Fog, Shadow Fall, etc. that can enhanced for both resistance and defense.

[Bopper]

12 minutes ago, Uun said:

This would be very good for powers like Steamy Mist, Arctic Fog, Shadow Fall, etc. that can enhanced for both resistance and defense.

I agree, its a good set for any power that slots multiple effects. It will mostly be a niche set, but for those who could use it would like it.

[Grouchybeast]

2 hours ago, Ukase said:

Seriously? 
Thank you for that correction! 
I guess I have to admit that I can not read, nor do math very well anymore, if I ever could at all. That isn't the way I remember it at all, but I'll take your word for it. 

There's a really handy table on the wiki that lists all the relative enhancement values for the different types of enhancements.  The number in the left-hand column is the total enhancement value, i.e. if a level 25 Acc/Dam IO gives 20% to Acc and 20% to Dam, the left-hand column would say 40%.

[Monos King]

@Ukase Actually, there are a lot of powers that accept both res/def and healing outside of things like healing flames because HP and regen boosts also take heal enhancements. Overload would take heal/def, as would unleash potential. White dwarf would accept res/heal, as would True Grit from shield defense. And a conventional heal+res move would be wild growth. This wouldn't be that obscure at all, it would be pretty coveted really.

Edited September 24, 2020 by Monos King
Kheld Dwarfs have unenhanceable +hp

[Vanden]

12 hours ago, MTeague said:

My initial reaction was "Carp. Not Nearly Enough Endurance Reduction."

...... annnnnnnnd then I spotted the 4.5% discount to all powers.

 

That is (I think), a seriously underrated type of set bonus.

Ain't this the truth! This type of set bonus is only available on four IO sets. I'm likely to request it be on every IO set added to the game going forward.

[Rejolt]

Semi-necro posting off your response to my post, Vanden: I'd live with just adding endurance mods to Hamidon Exposure Goglis (so heal/endurance/end cost) so I could 3 slot t hem in Blaster sustains and call it a day.

 

But a new set like OF would be nifty. I think they're fixing proc rates before they add sets like that.

Edited September 24, 2020 by Rejolt

[Monos King]

This is priority and I would like a direct installation of this in the real game immediately. 

 

We can nerf regen later.

 

[TheSpiritFox]

On 8/22/2020 at 4:50 PM, Bopper said:

My Granite Armor approves

I was about to say someone really loves their stone tank lmao

[Vanden]

So, as you know, it's only 173 days until Halloween, and the Halloween event starts even sooner than that, so it's the perfect time to bump this thread!

 

Spoiler

 

Edited May 12, 2021 by Vanden