Divine Avalanche - is the description accurate and how do I read City of Data and in game data?

[DougGraves]

Divine Avalanche says: You can use your Ninja Blade to parry incoming melee attacks and then quickly return the favor. Divine Avalanche does minor damage, but every successful hit will increase your Defense against melee and lethal attacks for a short while.

 

First - minor damage.  City of Data says 100% chance 46 dmg.  It then says 100% chance 46 dmg if critter and (source>kMeter > 0).  What does that second part mean?    Assuming 46 dmg, Gambler's Cut does 50% of that and Sting of the Wasp does 150% of that.  So it seems like this is not a minor damage attack - is the description there just wrong?

 

Second - every successful hit will increase your defense.  City of Data says "+15% Defense (Melee, Lethal) (self only) for 10s".  Nothing in there about hitting.   In game the +Def says chance increases the more allies are nearby.   So is this always a +15%?  Does it change based on if you hit, or if you are hit, or if allies are nearby?

 

In game it then lists +15% Defense again and says unresistable.  Does that mean you get +30%?  

 

 

Edited December 31, 2022 by DougGraves

[Psyonico]

The game is terrible when it comes to it's descriptions of damage.  Minor, low, moderate, etc. are all rough guides, but that's it.

 

As for the defense, yes, it has to hit to get the bonus.

[DougGraves]

1 hour ago, Psyonico said:

As for the defense, yes, it has to hit to get the bonus.

 

Is it just 15%?  Does it stack - is there a way to tell from the in-game information if it stacks?

[MoonSheep]

7 minutes ago, DougGraves said:

 

Is it just 15%?  Does it stack - is there a way to tell from the in-game information if it stacks?

 

are you familiar with how to monitor certain combat attributes to see what your current defense, damage bonus, dmg resistance etc is? i tend to keep a few stats monitored on every alt to see what my current numbers are

[StrikerFox]

19 minutes ago, DougGraves said:

 

Is it just 15%?  Does it stack - is there a way to tell from the in-game information if it stacks?

 

Yes, Divine Avalanche +def stacks with itself. Open the Combat Attributes window, monitor L/M def and hit something twice in a row. DA's L/M def will double up. Hit three times and it will triple up.

 

Edited December 31, 2022 by StrikerFox

[Major_Decoy]

Of note, I'm pretty sure that the Tanker version doesn't stack with itself?

[SaintD]

Summary:

Divine Avalanche and Parry are regular attacks, used like any other attack, that give you a 15% melee/lethal defence buff if they actually hit the target. Their defence buff can stack with itself, which can create absolutely insane levels of melee defence at the expense of cratering your DPS because they are NOT very strong attacks.

NOT summary:

Divine Avalanche and Parry are probably some of the most powerful defensive abilities for leveling non-Tanker characters in the game. They are absolutely bonkers. You can acquire levels of defence vastly beyond what you realistically should have at the point you get them. While people can hit back at that statement and say that it's ONLY melee/lethal, that still covers most of the damage that will be thrown at you, and there's just no way to argue at all with how absolutely enormous that stackable 15% is. It's better than.....almost every single defence providing power in the game that isn't one of the clickable "Oh shit" T9 buttons. Off the top of my head, I think ONLY Tanker SR/ and the megastacked Stalker /EA Kinetic Shield beats it. That is crazy.

Edited January 1, 2023 by SaintD
Because people can continue thinking and having to put in edit reasons to go next to a massive edit flag is dumb.

[Glacier Peak]

38 minutes ago, SaintD said:

Summary:

Divine Avalanche and Parry are regular attacks, used like any other attack, that give you a 15% melee/lethal defence buff if they actually hit the target. Their defence buff can stack with itself, which can create absolutely insane levels of melee defence at the expense of cratering your DPS because they are NOT very strong attacks.

NOT summary:

Divine Avalanche and Parry are probably some of the most powerful defensive abilities for leveling non-Tanker characters in the game. They are absolutely bonkers. You can acquire levels of defence vastly beyond what you realistically should have at the point you get them. While people can hit back at that statement and say that it's ONLY melee/lethal, that still covers most of the damage that will be thrown at you, and there's just no way to argue at all with how absolutely enormous that stackable 15% is. It's better than.....almost every single defence providing power in the game that isn't one of the clickable "Oh shit" T9 buttons. Off the top of my head, I think ONLY Tanker SR/ and the megastacked Stalker /EA Kinetic Shield beats it. That is crazy.

Arachnos Widows can get pretty crazy Defense percentages. Aside from clicking their Elude which is insane and pointless IMO, they can pretty easily hit +55% across all three positional defenses while solo. Add on Mind Link to that and its mad defense, (and while it's permable, it's effects are not stackable by the same caster).

 

That aside aside, yeah Divine Avalanche is pretty awesome! It works really well with resistance based sets, especially when the character is built for recharge.

[Doomguide2005]

4 hours ago, Major_Decoy said:

Of note, I'm pretty sure that the Tanker version doesn't stack with itself?

According to CoD you are correct.  

[Yomo Kimyata]

Scrapper version:

 

 

See the pop up "Stacks with existing effect."

 

Tanker version:

 

 

See the pop up "Replaces existing effect".

[Uun]

18 hours ago, DougGraves said:

It then says 100% chance 46 dmg if critter and (source>kMeter > 0).  What does that second part mean? 

This is the critical damage if you use the attack while hidden (this is the stalker version).

[DougGraves]

7 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

See the pop up "Stacks with existing effect."

 

Is there a place in CoD that explains all of the icons, or I should just mouse over each of them to see what they mean?

[Uun]

1 hour ago, DougGraves said:

 

Is there a place in CoD that explains all of the icons, or I should just mouse over each of them to see what they mean?

This page isn't complete, but it covers a lot.

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/help.html?page=power-page

[ZemX]

On 12/31/2022 at 5:54 PM, Major_Decoy said:

Of note, I'm pretty sure that the Tanker version doesn't stack with itself?

 

Yeah, and I can't say I see a reason for it.  Could be a bug in the database.  Staff and TW both have similar powers that are stackable.  MA's Storm Kick on Tankers isn't stackable but I'd imagine that's because it's +def(All) which would be pretty insane if it was self-stackable.

[Doomguide2005]

7 minutes ago, ZemX said:

 

Yeah, and I can't say I see a reason for it.  Could be a bug in the database.  Staff and TW both have similar powers that are stackable.  MA's Storm Kick on Tankers isn't stackable but I'd imagine that's because it's +def(All) which would be pretty insane if it was self-stackable.

     Had the same general thought.  I started to think about gauntlet plus spammed Parry especially pre IO (i.e. on an SO build) would make a Tanker stupidly tough ... but DA and Parry had to get ported to Tankers and IOs, Incarnates etc. already make them stupidly tough and then some (and then there's Staff and TW's powers) so yeah.