Heatstroke's Helpful Hints on End Management and Stamina

[Heatstroke]

HI. My name is Heatstroke and I think I've been playing CoH about a month after it first launched way back in 2004. One thing I have seen consistently is people that struggle with endurance issues and they often ask for help or advice. Here are some of the things that I have learned over time building characters of pretty much every AT. These are just my suggestions and I am sure there are others that are just as valid. I just decided to do something to help the CoH Homecoming community as it as helped me tremendously over the years. 

 

 

1) First thing we have to acknowledge and understand is that that end management is DESIGNED to be a limiting factor in the game. You have to account for it. It can't be ignored. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with, and it absolutely will not stop working to drain off all your ability to utilize your powers. One of the ways to do that is to understand several things. 

 

 

Toggles.. Oh those toggles.. so many times you hear the phrase. " My toggles are killing my end" Well its very possible that your toggles are not your main problem. You just THINK they are. YES they drain your endurance. Here is what happens.. Your toggles are on.. And you see that little line circling around and around and around all the time.. And you know the power is on.. And your look at it and say.. That thing is KILLING my end bar.. And it is a PART of the problem. 

 

Your ATTACKS drain more end than anything. And I have seen so many builds that don't account for end management in their attacks chain or sequence. And here is what happens to most people. When you start out.. Your measly attacks don't drain much end.. But as you level and you get more powerful attacks, and you get more AoE attacks.. Your end bar starts dying fast… and you think the culprit is that toggle being on.. But let's examine that..  Let's look at a basic fire/fire tank. No enhancements. Just bare.

A standard defense toggle drains about .26 end per second. Offensive toggles on average are .52 per second. So let's take a Fire tank running two defense toggles and Blazing Aura. An offensive toggle. The end use is 1.04 per second. 

 

Let's take the weakest attack in Fire Melee- Scorch. Scorch drains 4.37 per cast. It can be cast in 1s and has a 3 second recharge.

 

So let's look at which is draining more end over span of three attacks. That would be 9 seconds (Scorch 1s activation, 3 Second recharge)

 

Scorch- 13.11 end drain over 9 seconds ( three possible activations )
Fire Shield, Plasma Shield and Blazing Aura- 9.36 end drain over 9 seconds. (1.04 per second) 

So we can see that the ATTACK drains more end than the toggle. But visually you don't see it.. You SEE the toggle swirling ALL the time.. Now as you get MORE powerful attacks.. The end drain increases to balance the more powerful attacks. AoE attacks drain more end than any of your attacks and you tend to get these AS you level depending on build. 

 

So you need to account for some end reduction in your ATTACKS. 

 

Now I do believe what toggles do is hinder end recovery to a degree because they are always on and ticking they can affect how quickly you recover lost endurance. But in general they don't DRAIN as much as your attacks do. There are some builds that run a massive amount of toggles. Dark Armor is the one the most toggle heavy builds I've ever had running TEN toggles and I still found ways to manage the endurance. 

 

There are certain toggles that are very end hungry. Choking Cloud in Radiation Emission is .65/s. Focused Accuracy is .78/s, and there are probably a few others that are Super End heavy toggles. These guys can really hurt you end bar. 

2) Understand that more Recharge will KILL your end bar.. As we stated in point number one.. Attacks drain end MUCH faster than toggles.. You took hasten? You added recharge bonuses in all those IO sets? Well now you are attacking more and MORE OFTEN.. So now you drain END more often.. You have to understand the relation between more recharge and quicker end drain. Did you know that when Hasten shuts off.. It drains 15 end when it shuts down? 

3) Speaking of shutdowns.. And I'm not talking about the crashes that drain ALL your end.. Most of us are aware of those. Many powers drain end when they crash OR they hinder end recovery for a small amount of time.  Hasten drains end when it crashes. Rage in Super Strength Drains End when it crashes you need to know if these are in Your build.. And you have to account for that.

 

4) Big Powers Drain Big End. There are a lot of these. Powers that summon can be a huge culprit. I play a lot of Stormies. These powers can drain a TON of end when activated. Lightning Storm is 31.2 end when Activated. That is almost 1/3 of your entire end bar. Tornado is 20. You activated both.. That's  half your end gone. Pet Summons for controllers can be 16-20 ish end when summoned. Aoe Patch Powers also can drain decent end when used. Oh you threw down Freezing Rain AND Ice Storm.. say good bye to 1/3 of your end bar. Big AoE attacks and Nukes drain more end ( as they should ). 

 

This is why slotting End REDUX in attacks with SO's or IO's becomes so important. 

 

Also a quick word on Procs. When you fill out  an attack with a bunch of procs ( and I have done this for some powers ) understand you are probably getting ZERO end reduction from that power. That can be a serious detriment to you end bar. Which brings me to my next point

 

5) Understand the spirit in what I am saying next. Learn to build your OWN characters. It's good to look at someone else's build for ideas. I do that all the time. And in doing that I have learned that some of the people that make these builds are LUNATICS. I've seen builds (particularly end game centric builds) that consistently sacrifice endurance management to build in defense or ridiculous amounts of recharge and make up for the lack of endurance by taking a T4 Ageless incarnate. IMO this is bad design. Its end game centric and doesnt help you as you level or if you exemp down. 

 

Also learn to BUILD your own characters. Mids Reborn is a great tool for this. You might not understand what you are doing at first but over time you will learn to see and comprehend the numbers that affect your playstyle. And it's not about " being a min/max player" . I've heard that often when Mids is mentioned. " Oh im not a min/max player, I just play for fun". Well you DO want to be effective and have fun no matter HOW you play.. sucking wind isn't fun. 

 

Learn to use the IO sets to BUILD end reduction into your powers. I cant stress this enough.. End Reduction through IO sets makes a big difference.. Using the Lightning Storm example from earlier.. with IO's that power went from costing 31.2 end per summon.. to 16. I can now summon TWO clouds for the price of one.. 

 

There are some IO sets that give Increase End Recovery across the board and some that Reduce your end usage across the board. 

 

 

6) Slot Stamina. Seriously. I see too many builds with just the default slot. What I find to be most effective is three slots in Stamina. Use a combination of two IO's for endurance modification and one slot for the Performance Shifter + Endurance Proc. Also consider using boosters to push the standard IO’s to +5. This makes it almost as effective as three slotting Stamina. You can use more slots, but I only recommend that if you are going for specific bonuses from an IO set.  The Proc will add about 10 points of end every time it fires. And it fires often.

 

7) Use Health to boost your Stamina recovery. There are three enhancements you can slot into health to boost Stamina recovery. Numina’s +Regen/Recovery, Miracle + Recovery and Panacea + HP/Endurance. The Panacea Proc will also add about 10pts of endurance when it procs. These items can be expensive to buy depending on the market, especially the Panacea. However there are ways around that. You can use Reward Merits to buy them. You can use converters to convert OTHER Miracle and Numina enhancements into the one you desire 
(although this is random and can take several rolls) 

 

😎 Look for procs that can be slotted into powers that can help your end management. An excellent one in targeted heals ( heals that need accuracy ) is the Theft of Essence Proc.

 

 

9)  Tanks, Brutes, Scrappers and Stalkers can utilize the Epic Pools of Energy Mastery or Body Mastery as places to slot extra Performance + End proc's into powers like Superior, Conditioning and Physical Perfection. Physical Perfection in particular can be helpful because you can slot extra Stamina IO’s, The Performance Shifter + End Proc AND a health IO like the Panacea Proc as well.  The Performance Shifter + End Proc is not unique. You can slot it more than once. 

 

A quick note on the health and stamina proc's, They work BEST in auto powers. They fire more often in heath stamina that in a click power or a toggle.

10) Depending on your build you still might need some help especially in the end game to manage your stamina issues. The incarnate powers of Cardiac. Vigor and Agility can help with that. This might sound very basic, but understand the difference between end REDUCTION and end MODIFICATION. Reduction reduces the amount of endurance that you USE. Modification affects the amount of endurance you RECOVER (either natively through things like Stamina or through End Drain powers). 

 

Cardiac will reduce the end cost of EVERY power you have, This can be huge for end management. There are builds even with all the end management, I still need Cardiac. I often put it in high recharge, High Aoe Builds because again they will drain endurance very quickly. 

 

Agility can also help some because it boosts End Modification. It will boost powers like Stamina and Physical Perfection. It will also boost the end recovery of any end drain powers you might have in your build. But Agility can be a catch 22 because it ALSO increases recharge… I have a few builds that I use Agility in as well. 

 

Vigor is one that I really didn't look at for a long time because its primary ability is Healing. But recently build a Regen/Psi sentinel I saw on on the higher tiers (T3 and T4) it has options for end reduction as well. It also increases accuracy at the higher tiers.. that's a bonus.. higher accuracy so my power hit better AND they cost less end? thats a win win.. not for every character... but definitely can be useful. 

 

I hope this helped in giving you a better understanding of how end management works in the game. 

The struggle is real.. But it can be overcome !!!!

Edited August 16, 2023 by Heatstroke
updated

[Bananiac]

THanks for the write up! I think I recently stumbled across a comment somewhere else that mentioned the endurance drain effect of attacks and recharge, which I never really thought about. All my powers above a certain endu cost usually get some kind of reduction slotted, and I put all the neccessary parts into Stamina. But I used to walk into that same trap you mention here, focussing on bringing the toggles down while probably underslotting on the heavy hitters. 

 

Must say however that once a toggle comes in the 0,5/s and above range, I found that this IS noticable and needs some form of workable mitigation. Focussed Accuracy being the worst offender here, to the point that I have respecced out of it at times...

 

 

[Marshal_General]

Well FA comes late and often with physical perfection so bt adding a slot to FA to put 2 +5 endrec in it and the proc in physical perfection you pretty much account for FA's cost.

[Hyperstrike]

Additionally, pursue your Accolades.

Portal Jockey/Born in Battle is +5%  Health and +5% Endurance
Received the Atlas Medallion/Marshall also grant +5% Endurance.

These don't sound like they give you a lot.
They don't.
However, they give you just enough to COMPLETELY change the performance profile of your character.

Throwing in the Performance Shifter Proc is probably the easiest and cheapest way to quickly bump your Recovery.  As it's roughly equivalent to an L50 EndMod IO in Stamina.  And after the first two slots, is BETTER than an EndMod IO due to the effects of Diminishing Returns.

Edited January 31 by Hyperstrike

[Heatstroke]

On 1/31/2024 at 10:51 AM, Hyperstrike said:

Additionally, pursue your Accolades.

Portal Jockey/Born in Battle is +5%  Health and +5% Endurance
Received the Atlas Medallion/Marshall also grant +5% Endurance.

These don't sound like they give you a lot.
They don't.
However, they give you just enough to COMPLETELY change the performance profile of your character.

Throwing in the Performance Shifter Proc is probably the easiest and cheapest way to quickly bump your Recovery.  As it's roughly equivalent to an L50 EndMod IO in Stamina.  And after the first two slots, is BETTER than an EndMod IO due to the effects of Diminishing Returns.

Agreed,.. I never tend to do them.. but FREE 10% endurance is worth it.. 

Also keep in mind.. Performance Shifter is NOT unique. It works BEST in Auto Powers. You can slot several of them.

 

Tanks with Energy Mastery and Scrappers with Body mastery can stack 2 of them (Willpower Tanks and Scrapper can stack 3 ).

 

Brutes and Stalkers can really abuse this. Brutes that take Energy Mastery and Stalkers that take Body Mastery can stack 3.

 

Willpower Brutes can stack FOUR !!!!!!!!!

[biostem]

Another good habit to get into is learning to avoid "overflow damage";  If an enemy only has a sliver of health left, and your character is in otherwise good health, it's probably the better choice to wait for a weaker attack to recharge then firing off a more powerful and costly one that is ready *now*, even if it results in you taking some damage in the interim.

 

Still another option is, if you are already delving into the leadership pool, (and your build permits it), consider taking Victory Rush.  It's a pretty significant recovery buff, but requires targeting a defeated opponent.  The only downside besides that is that it has an uptime of only about 2 minutes, has a 5 mins recharge, and does not benefit from any recharge buffs.