Shield Question

[Mack008]

Curious how other folks handle Active Defense from Shields.  Since it's Mez Resistance I like to keep it up at all times, but that creates a conflict.

 

Options:

1) Leave Hasten on auto and click Active Defense when I think I need it.  Not a fan of this option.

2) Leave Active Defense on auto and click Hasten before each fight.  This is what I'm currently doing, and it works reasonably well.  But it's definitely not unusual for me to miss Hasten being ready.

3) I've tried binding Active Defense to my walk forward key, so that I'm constantly trying to turn it on, but I found it annoying.  I don't care for hearing the "it's not ready" sound over and over again, and it prevents me from queuing up another power.

 

Any other options out there?

[SeraphimKensai]

You've pretty much covered them.  I usually just keep hasten on auto and keep Active Defenses near Build up so I can pop them as necessary. But I also like to micromanage my powers and CDs in my head.

[Yomo Kimyata]

Personally, I don't like using macros that activate powers like that for exactly your reasoning in option 3.

 

My workaround is either your option 2, or more likely just not taking Hasten on sets that require a click Mez Resistance.  Blasphemy! I can't say it makes or breaks my characters, and I do tend to match click mez set defenses with knockback heavy offenses to take advantage of the force feedback proc.

 

I guess another possible option, since I don't believe that any of your toggles get turned off anymore?, is to put hasten on auto and just activate Active Defense when you get mezzed.  Honestly, I have no idea if you even can activate it then, but if your toggles don't drop then it should be a relatively minor inconvenience?  I'm sure someone will tell me where and how this is a foolish suggestion, and I look forward to that since I'm just spitballin' here.

[StrikerFox]

Do you start all encounters with Shield Charge? Not sure if it's possible, but try binding Active Defense to it. SC is a 2 part activation, click power and click location. I think AD might trigger in between. Depending on your build, SC probably has a 25s recharge; AD around 65s recharge. There should be significantly less cooldown sound effects. But I really don't know, just a thought.

 

 

Edit: Actually it might cancel SC all together. 

Edited March 17, 2023 by StrikerFox

[ZemX]

4 hours ago, Mack008 said:

3) I've tried binding Active Defense to my walk forward key, so that I'm constantly trying to turn it on, but I found it annoying.  I don't care for hearing the "it's not ready" sound over and over again, and it prevents me from queuing up another power.

 

You can avoid the "not ready" sound by using powexecauto instead.  This is the command equivalent of ctrl-clicking a power to set it to auto.    This way, you'd need to set up two keys, e.g.:

 

/bind A "+left$$powexecauto hasten$$powexecauto active defense"
/bind D "+right$$powexecauto active defense$$powexecauto hasten"

 

The reason to have the middle command in each of these binds is apparently because otherwise the green ring doesn't stay on the power. Something to do with movement keys activating twice (key up and key down).  But you can try this.  It then just causes the auto assignment to switch back and forth based on pressing left/right movement keys.

 

That said, I think I've tried this sort of thing before and found it still sometimes resulted in one or the other power not going off just by dumb luck.  There ARE situations where you might not be pressing movement keys.  A stationary AV fight for example.  Or maybe you zoned in and are waiting for a team to gather.  Meanwhile your mez protection drops unnoticed because you weren't moving and it didn't happen to be the last key you pressed.   Auto-fire also doesn't fire sometimes if you are actively chaining other powers during combat, so you can have the auto-ring move back and forth to powers that are ready to activate, but won't because you have an attack chain going.  

 

Try it maybe, but if it doesn't work all that well (it didn't for me), it really might be best to go with your option (2) and get used to manually activating hasten.  Nothing too terrible will happen if you forget to activate Hasten every now and then.  Same can't be said for mez protection.  And because the DDR in AD can stack, you really do want to have it firing as often as possible and as soon as it's available every time.

[aethereal]

Yes, you can activate Active Defense through mez.

 

In the case of Super Reflexes and Ninjutsu, I wholly endorse not worrying that much about clicking your mez protection power with absolute infallibility, since you can activate through mez if you screw up a little it's NBD.  For Shield Defense, a lot (all?) of your DDR is tied up in the click protection, and there's MUCH more value in double-stacking it than there is for SR or Ninj, so it's probably the one get a little more religious about than the other click-mez-prots.

 

Honestly, some people really, really, really seem to be bothered by click mez protection.  Energy Aura and Stone (or Ice!) are fine defense-oriented sets that have toggle mez protection.

Edited March 17, 2023 by aethereal

[biostem]

A simple fix would be to do something like binding S to move you backwards and to activate hasten.  I'd rather make sure I have status protection up all the time, with hasten being a lower priority...

[Captain Fabulous]

I put AD on auto and then click Hasten as necessary. I have also muted the "recharging" sound because it's annoying.

Edited March 17, 2023 by Captain Fabulous

[Nemu]

Or you can just not take hasten.

 

Not all builds need hasten. Especially defense armor melee builds, especially if you don't hold pylon tests as your bible in gauging performance. Most melee builds have 5-6 attacks and that's enough to cycle through a full rotation. It may not be the highest DPS but this game is easy enough that you'll still be able to kill stuff. For example, Dual Blade builds do fine with attack vitals instead of comboless high dps chains, the former doesn't require hasten.

 

So think about WHY you need hasten. It's not hard to build upwards of 90-100% global recharge bonuses on defense based melee builds. And then there's also force feedback procs and what that brings to the table.

[biostem]

6 minutes ago, Nemu said:

Not all builds need hasten.

I don't dispute your premise but that wasn't the OP's question - his question was how to handle wanting to essentially have 2 powers on autofire...

[Mack008]

Appreciate all the replies!

 

I'll give ZemX's keybinds a try, but otherwise it sounds like I'm not missing another solution.  

[Nemu]

2 hours ago, biostem said:

I don't dispute your premise but that wasn't the OP's question - his question was how to handle wanting to essentially have 2 powers on autofire...

I dislike the "xyz sucks, don't do it and do ABC instead" posts that lack context and adds no value to a discussion as much as the next person.

 

However, that was not the purpose of my post. I offered a perspective, and explained why. Does that not offer a solution to the OP's challenge, which originates from how cumbersome keeping two powers on auto is? If you reduced the number of powers to keep on auto to 1, then doesn't that also address the root of the problem?

 

I'd be happy to share my hastenless /SR , /Nin and /Shield builds to offer additional context and perspective. In fact I have posted a few:

 

Going hastenless was touted as an "elegant" solution to the issue of managing 2 clicks that compete for autopower. And that build still sports 100+% global recharge, which is more than enough for stringing together a decent attack chain.

 

So yes I could have repeated what everyone else has already posted but I feel this might offer a fresh perspective.

[biostem]

1 minute ago, Nemu said:

Going hastenless was touted as an "elegant" solution to the issue of managing 2 clicks that compete for autopower.

Nah, it's more like telling your doctor that your leg hurts when you try to walk on it, and them telling you to just not walk, then.  Take or don't take hasten, that's your choice, but if the question is "I DO have hasten, and I want to know how to get it and another power to keep firing off when they've recharged", then address that...

[Nemu]

I don't find any value getting into this discourse with you. I do hope that @Mack008 sees that there is another perspective to consider. And if he finds value in that then he/she and I can continue that path.

 

Have a good day.