What Set Bonus Tool Do you Use?

[BlackSpectre]

Hi,

 

When building a character, I rely on a bunch of spreadsheets that I’ve sorted by enhancement aspect (damage resistance, defense, regen, etc). I noticed tools like City of Data popping up and wondered what everyone else is using or if there’s a tool out there that will determine specific enhancements to use i. Order to build toward a specific purpose? 
 

thanks! 

[Mezmera]

[The_Warpact]

Mids

[AboveTheChemist]

On the wiki, there's the set bonus comparison tables as well as the tables at the top of the 'Sets that improve' invention set categories pages. City of Data has a Boostset Bonuses page that is quite nice. They all do similar things in slightly different ways so some users may find one more appealing than the others.

[Nemu]

If you are using a Mac I can understand that approach (unless you have the ability/tools to fire up a windows virtual machine), but for PC users there is the Mids Reborn app. There is a whole subforum dedicated to it

 

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/forum/74-forum/

 

The download site is here:

 

https://midsreborn.com/

[SaintD]

You're assuming I 'build a character'.

 

Bold.

[Bill Z Bubba]

1 hour ago, BlackSpectre said:

Hi,

 

When building a character, I rely on a bunch of spreadsheets that I’ve sorted by enhancement aspect (damage resistance, defense, regen, etc). I noticed tools like City of Data popping up and wondered what everyone else is using or if there’s a tool out there that will determine specific enhancements to use i. Order to build toward a specific purpose? 
 

thanks! 

 

Everything I build is based off of Mids and CoD.

[Troo]

Tool?

Spreadsheets?

It's the same way all decisions are made..

actually it's mids, see @Nemu's post above

[Andreah]

I don't use any tools. I mix and match sets with a general goal or two in mind. I'll look at builds in the forums to see what sorts of goals people have pursued for various AT/powers combinations, but I don't follow them closely.

 

And my builds do fine.

Edited January 11, 2022 by Andreah

[Redletter]

I load up the beta server and painstakingly crossreference Enhancement Sets on the AH with the freebies menu and my powers - then do a lap around Dark Astoria to get a general idea how good it is as dealing with things there, since IMO, Dark Astoria has a very good mix of mooks that'll let you see what youre liable to face in day-to-day play (CC, Debuffs, hordes, ect). It's by no means perfect, but it DOES let me change out sets immediately and get practical feedback immediately.

 

Like, I'd never had thought to build the Elec/Elec defender for straight damage without that method, since something like MIDs is only gonna give me numbers. How those numbers work in gameplay though is something I needed to see.

[Techwright]

9 hours ago, Troo said:

Tool?

Spreadsheets?

It's the same way all decisions are made..

actually it's mids, see @Nemu's post above

So you've finally upgraded from the Magic 8-Ball?

[arcane]

Excel

 

People with Mids are showing their privilege 

[Sovera]

13 hours ago, BlackSpectre said:

Hi,

 

When building a character, I rely on a bunch of spreadsheets that I’ve sorted by enhancement aspect (damage resistance, defense, regen, etc). I noticed tools like City of Data popping up and wondered what everyone else is using or if there’s a tool out there that will determine specific enhancements to use i. Order to build toward a specific purpose? 
 

thanks! 

 

Mids has a tool for that,

[Erratic1]

14 hours ago, AboveTheChemist said:

On the wiki, there's the set bonus comparison tables as well as the tables at the top of the 'Sets that improve' invention set categories pages. City of Data has a Boostset Bonuses page that is quite nice. They all do similar things in slightly different ways so some users may find one more appealing than the others.

 

Less a response than to toss another view out, there is also Enhancement Sets - Unofficial Homecoming Wiki (cityofheroes.dev)

 

[TheZag]

If you arents mids-ing, you arents trying.

 

Several good options that people use in the previous posts.  Use what you like.  I prefer mids.

 

Edit : guess i need to try harder to convey sarcasm through text next time.  Back to the drawing board.

Edited January 12, 2022 by TheZag

[Ukase]

I have two different approaches, depending on the character's objectives. 

If I'm power leveling the character up, my usual approach, I'll use mids to paint how I'd like the character to be at 50...but when leveling a character through content, how it looks at level 20 is going to be different. Lacking in slots, the choices I make seem more important in the early levels than at 50, when I still think I could use another 3-5 slots to really flesh out the advantages of IOs, there's certainly enough to shore up the glaring things - like running out of endurance because I don't have any passive accolades yet. 

I  can still use mids in the dynamic way, slotting by power & level and see the numbers, but at the lower levels, it can be rough to get an idea of where a character should be at level 15, whereas, at level 50, most of us have a good idea of what a tanks resists and defenses should be. So, I just use my anecdotal experience with the character to gauge how things should go. 

Running out of endurance? I aim to see what set bonuses are in reach to address this with the next two or three slots I'll get next level. Or what power I pick - I'll try to avoid selecting a toggle, as I'm already gasping for endurance. 

Did I have a rough go of things, health wise? Why? Biting off more than I could chew, or am I needing some more defense? Or more resistance? Or would I fare better just having more hitpoints? This is all subjective in a fashion. I can make the case that more defense might be more useful than more HP on a blaster, but on a tank, more Hitpoints might be a better route, due to more HP means more regen. So, no real tools other than my feeble mind, drawing on my experience. 

I've no idea how I'd fare if suddenly all the content were brand new, with NPCs I'd never heard of, but I think I would be able to adapt fairly quickly by scoping out the combat logs and and what seems to be happening to my character during the missions. 

Mids is a fantastic tool, no doubt. But for leveling a character, I rely more on me than any spreadsheet. And it's much faster that way, too. But, often times it does result in a mess requiring a respec at 50. 

[arcane]

8 minutes ago, TheZag said:

If you arents mids-ing, you arents trying.

 

PC privilege detected 😉

 

If you arents calculating everything manually in a spreadsheet, you arents trying!

[Hyperstrike]

16 hours ago, Nemu said:

If you are using a Mac I can understand that approach (unless you have the ability/tools to fire up a windows virtual machine), but for PC users there is the Mids Reborn app. There is a whole subforum dedicated to it

 

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/forum/74-forum/

 

The download site is here:

 

https://midsreborn.com/

https://aws.amazon.com/free/?all-free-tier.sort-by=item.additionalFields.SortRank&all-free-tier.sort-order=asc&awsf.Free Tier Types=*all&awsf.Free Tier Categories=*all

 

Easy way to get a Windows machine to run Mids on.

[Hyperstrike]

1 hour ago, arcane said:

PC privilege detected 😉

 

If you arents calculating everything manually in a spreadsheet, you arents trying!

I'm playing CoH, not frickin EVE.

Not my fault if you're running a toy computer with a toy OS.

😉

Edited January 11, 2022 by Hyperstrike

[arcane]

41 minutes ago, Hyperstrike said:

I'm playing CoH, not frickin EVE.

Not my fault if you're running a toy computer with a toy OS.

😉

A lot of millennials were seduced by Apple’s shiny user interface tricks 10-20 years ago when Mac laptops and the first iPhone were all the rage with the kids.

 

Some of us never found our way back in spite of the occasional issues with software compatibility we have to put up with.

[SeraphimKensai]

I might be a bit of a freak, but I have most of the set bonuses  (maybe like 90%, some I just hardly use like confuse, immobilize, etc) memorized and can reasonably do the calculations in my head.

 

I do however use excel for my proc rate calculations, and I have mids because I often get asked for copies of my build and then I have to make one on mids to send someone else.

[Doomguide2005]

It really depends.  A couple of sets where I don't have much experience probably Mids+CoD. But a lot of it is simply filed away between my ears (though now with a bit of rust creeping in).  I look at a lot of builds on the forums and had a lot saved.  A lot is just memorized (or a quick glance to confirm) what bonuses fall at what slot on which sets.

[BlackSpectre]

Thanks everyone! It is really interesting hearing what everyone is doing to build their toons. 
 

Mids is great.  I can’t help thinking that there could be a tool that took a toon from Mids and, according to a stated goal such as slash/lethal defense soft cap, and automatically populated the slots and specific enhancements to achieve the goal. Seems like something a computer is uniquely suited for. Unfortunately, my programming skills are almost nil, otherwise I’d take a wack at it. 
 

Anyway, some cool ideas here. 😀

[AboveTheChemist]

57 minutes ago, BlackSpectre said:

I can’t help thinking that there could be a tool that took a toon from Mids and, according to a stated goal such as slash/lethal defense soft cap, and automatically populated the slots and specific enhancements to achieve the goal.

There was a project about a year and a half ago to do just that. At least, I think that was its purpose. I never actually used it, and don't know if it is in a form that is currently usable, but I did follow that thread off and on and I think the author was able to create something that worked reasonably well. Unfortunately, development seems to have dropped off, which is a shame because that author was also working on a web-based character designer that looked quite promising.

[Hyperstrike]

9 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

I might be a bit of a freak, but I have most of the set bonuses  (maybe like 90%, some I just hardly use like confuse, immobilize, etc) memorized and can reasonably do the calculations in my head.

 

I do however use excel for my proc rate calculations, and I have mids because I often get asked for copies of my build and then I have to make one on mids to send someone else.

So if we axe you, you'll lay there, stink a little, then rezz and pester us with your excel sheets again?

😉