To Proc Or Not To Proc For Damage?

[SomeGuy]

16 minutes ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

I had that going with an earlier version of the build, but I'm finding I really should be chasing set bonuses.

 

 

Not every set responds well to procs, and honestly, I personally like the "straight through" simplicity of set bonuses myself. Hey, each their own.

 

When the hammer falls on procs, I personally won't be to butt hurt about it, but I will definitely miss Radiation Melee. That set will be pretty dead in the water.

[Clave Dark 5]

I seriously doubt any hammer's gonna fall; as I've said before, the current iteration of HC leans heavily into playing OP, they enable players to farm toons to 50 in two hours and then slot them with full IO and purple sets and Hami-Os, created a new form of high-end D-Sync-Os, etc...  They can't get all worried about "procs are OP" if they're leaning into making us OP everywhere else.

[Shred Monkey]

22 hours ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

 

How do you sustain that against hard targets? Ageless Core? Do you use different builds for exemplaring or just never exemplar or use that +end temp from P2W?

 

I really try not to rely on ageless because destiny has so many other good options... my Shield/MA tank does use ageless, though.  I do have to plan for something to help with energy, though... body epic is common in my builds, or powersets that have some kind of energy management.  My energy/energy handles it easily.  My Nightwidow had the hardest time, but also has the best use of procs I've seen.  For him, I managed by working out what toggles I really didn't need and doing a lot of +recovery franken-slotting.  For example I replaced one of the acc/dam Hami'Os with a acc/dam gladiator's strike to pair with the gladiator's strike proc for 2.5% recovery each.

5 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

Too expensive!  Plus this is a build to level with, not a farmed-to-50.

Yeah.. this is correct, while I do a lot of planning for my leveling-up builds, I don't generally worry about procs until my final build.  

 

 

Edited July 12, 2022 by Shred Monkey

[Clave Dark 5]

That's the thing, I don't generally have two separate builds, I get distracted by a new shiny about the time I hit 50, so, even if I was having loads of fun with the old toon, I'm moving on to my new one.  So I like to use the procs soon as the slotting opens them up, based upon my funds anyway.

[ScarySai]

It depends on the power, pretty much.

[Carnifax]

In Blast sets / melee sets I'll generally have one "hard hitter" 3 frankenslotted for enough Acc/Dam and then try and fill it with procs. Tier 1 and 2 powers I usually slot a set. 

 

It also depends a lot on the global recharge my character has. If that's lowish I'll probably drop procs in favour of not waiting 30 seconds for the good blast / power to come back. 

 

 

[Clave Dark 5]

Yeah, that's something I'm aiming for overall now.  The one power that has the longest recharge is one I'm going to try and slot Chance for Recharge into, because it needs the most help, not all 3 now.

[Snarky]

On 7/9/2022 at 11:47 PM, Clave Dark 5 said:

Quick question that some cursory looking didn't find an answer to:

 

I'm currently MIDS building and got to wondering about procced-out damage vs. straight up IO slotting.  I have a couple of attacks that do "superior damage" and was considering proccing one up for the hell of it.  Would that be worth it? 

 

I know there's always another set bonus for something somewhere to chase, and there's a lot of subjective taste or distaste for this, but especially when you're getting up into the big league of attacks like say Knockout Blow, would I be sacrificing damage for splashiness?

I tend to not PROC. My builds are extravagant things that chase set bonuses to achieve other goals.  Sometimes even smart and worthy ones.   I enjoy the smoothless feel of a high armor Brute or a high defense Blaster.  I build Doms just because they are fun to chase bonuses on. Too bad they are meh at 50+ content.  Sorry not sorry for any offense.  Similarly I love building Sentinels,  it i feel those start to lose gas 30+

[oedipus_tex]

One nice thing about City of Heroes is that it works as a casual game or as a deep dive into mechanics. I think that's why it still has such a big following this many years later.

 

As such, I think there's a difficult answer to your question, and then there's a much easier answer. The difficult answer is "As much time as you want to spend figuring it out." For some players this is extremely enjoyable, like a puzzle to figure out. Part of what keeps them going is that CoX is complex enough that they may never find a final answer, or at least may find new ways to solve the puzzle in the future.

 

 

For the more casual player, the answer is to slot powers so that they are "good enough." For me, that usually means slotting a damage proc here and there. There are a few powers where damage procs are far superior to other options... most single target holds for example. But that is rare enough that it doesn't break the system. 

If you want something more concrete, you can follow these basic rubriks:

• In ranged AoEs, slot Positron's blast +1 proc from another set
• In snipes, slot Sting of the Manticore +1 proc from another set
• In PBAoEs, slot Obliteration, one proc from another set optional
• In holds, just proc them out, add some accuracy if you need it. 
• In single target ranged attacks and single target punches, slot whatever 
• Don't bother putting procs in rain powers or auras

 

These configs will probably not result in absolute top tier results. But they will be "good enough." You can dive deeper into the puzzle if you find that aspect of the game fun.

Edited July 15, 2022 by oedipus_tex