Enhancement of Defense Debuff Resistance

[Uun]

All of the defense-based armor sets have powers which provide defense debuff resistance (DDR). They do not all treat enhancements in those powers the same way. All numbers below are for Brutes/Scrappers/Stalkers and ignore T9s.

• Super Reflexes: DDR is enhanced proportionately to the amount of defense you have slotted in each of the 6 powers.  The base DDR of 62.3% can be enhanced to 97.2%. This wasn't always the case and was changed in 2008, seemingly as a bug fix.
• Energy Aura: base DDR is 51.9% and cannot be enhanced. All 3 powers are coded to ignore enhancements. Entropic Aura doesn't accept defense enhancements, but Kinetic Shield and Power Shield do. [If DDR in Kinetic Shield and Power Shield was enhanceable, DDR would be increased to 71.3%.]
• Shield: base DDR is 45.0%. Battle Agility can be enhanced but Grant Cover cannot. Active Defense stacks with itself and can be doubled with sufficient recharge. As a result, DDR can be increased to 70.0%.
• Ice: base DDR is 41.5%. All 3 powers are coded to ignore enhancements. Wet Ice doesn't accept defense enhancements, but Frozen Armor and Glacial Armor do. [If DDR in Frozen Armor and Glacial was enhanceable, DDR would be increased to 57.0%.]
• Stone: base DDR is 41.5%. All 3 powers are coded to ignore enhancements. Rooted doesn't accept defense enhancements, but Rock Armor and Crystal Armor do. [If DDR in Rock Armor and Crystal Armor was enhanceable, DDR would be increased to 57.0%.]
• Ninjitsu: base DDR is 34.6%. Both powers are coded to ignore enhancements and accept defense enhancements. [If DDR was enhanceable, DDR would be increased to 54.0%.]
• Invulnerability: more of a hybrid set than a true defense-based set, but it has base DDR of 50.0% (DDR was added to Invulnerability in 2008). Both powers are coded to ignore enhancements. Resist Physical Damage doesn't accept defense enhancements but Tough Hide does. [If Tough Hide DDR was enhanceable, DDR would be increased to 64.0%]

 

I'm fully comfortable with the idea that some sets have more DDR than others and that SR is the king in this regard. I'm not suggesting that other defense sets be buffed to that level (but a balance pass may be in order if Invulnerability has more DDR than most defense armors). I am suggesting that, barring coding constraints, DDR provided by powers which accept defense enhancements should be increased by those enhancements.

 

Is this power creep? Possibly, but I'm really trying to level the playing field so that powers that provide DDR are treated the same way.

[SwitchFade]

Case for change?

 

If the justification is to "level the playing field," that's very nebulous and I am unconvinced, thus a no vote. All the sets you list perform very well.

 

Why specifically are you advocating for increased DDR on sets?

[Captain Fabulous]

28 minutes ago, Uun said:

All of the defense-based armor sets have powers which provide defense debuff resistance (DDR). They do not all treat enhancements in those powers the same way. All numbers below are for Brutes/Scrappers/Stalkers and ignore T9s.

• Super Reflexes: DDR is enhanced proportionately to the amount of defense you have slotted in each of the 6 powers.  The base DDR of 62.3% can be enhanced to 97.2%. This wasn't always the case and was changed in 2008, seemingly as a bug fix.
• Energy Aura: base DDR is 51.9% and cannot be enhanced. All 3 powers are coded to ignore enhancements. Entropic Aura doesn't accept defense enhancements, but Kinetic Shield and Power Shield do. [If DDR in Kinetic Shield and Power Shield was enhanceable, DDR would be increased to 71.3%.]
• Shield: base DDR is 45.0%. Battle Agility can be enhanced but Grant Cover cannot. Active Defense stacks with itself and can be doubled with sufficient recharge. As a result, DDR can be increased to 70.0%.
• Ice: base DDR is 41.5%. All 3 powers are coded to ignore enhancements. Wet Ice doesn't accept defense enhancements, but Frozen Armor and Glacial Armor do. [If DDR in Frozen Armor and Glacial was enhanceable, DDR would be increased to 57.0%.]
• Stone: base DDR is 41.5%. All 3 powers are coded to ignore enhancements. Rooted doesn't accept defense enhancements, but Rock Armor and Crystal Armor do. [If DDR in Rock Armor and Crystal Armor was enhanceable, DDR would be increased to 57.0%.]
• Ninjitsu: base DDR is 34.6%. Both powers are coded to ignore enhancements and accept defense enhancements. [If DDR was enhanceable, DDR would be increased to 54.0%.]
• Invulnerability: more of a hybrid set than a true defense-based set, but it has base DDR of 50.0% (DDR was added to Invulnerability in 2008). Both powers are coded to ignore enhancements. Resist Physical Damage doesn't accept defense enhancements but Tough Hide does. [If Tough Hide DDR was enhanceable, DDR would be increased to 64.0%]

 

I'm fully comfortable with the idea that some sets have more DDR than others and that SR is the king in this regard. I'm not suggesting that other defense sets be buffed to that level (but a balance pass may be in order if Invulnerability has more DDR than most defense armors). I am suggesting that, barring coding constraints, DDR provided by powers which accept defense enhancements should be increased by those enhancements.

 

Is this power creep? Possibly, but I'm really trying to level the playing field so that powers that provide DDR are treated the same way.

The amount of DDR and whether it's enhanceable is based upon what other kinds of damage mitigation a set gets. SR has none other than the minor amount of scaling damage resists. Energy and Ninjitsu have a heal, Ice/Invul/Stone have Hoarfrost/Dull Pain/Earth's Embrace, Shield gets moderate resistances and a damage debuff.

[Uun]

1 hour ago, Captain Fabulous said:

The amount of DDR and whether it's enhanceable is based upon what other kinds of damage mitigation a set gets.

I agree with you about the amount of DDR, but I'm not convinced that whether it's enhanceable factored into the balancing. Originally, none of the DDR powers were enhanceable. In 2008 it was added to SR, with the following patch note:

 

Super Reflexes powers which granted Defense Debuff Resistance were, in most cases, not increasing that resistance when enhanced. This has been corrected. In other words, your Defense slotting will now also increase your resistance to Defense Debuffs.

 

This suggests that DDR was intended to be enhanceable and this was a correction, not a buff. Shield Defense (the only other armor with enhanceable DDR) was added to the game after this change. It wouldn't surprise me if the original devs just never got around to fixing the other sets.

 

2 hours ago, SwitchFade said:

If the justification is to "level the playing field," that's very nebulous and I am unconvinced, thus a no vote. All the sets you list perform very well.

 

Why specifically are you advocating for increased DDR on sets?

I think the current set up, where some DDR is enhanceable and some isn't, leads to a lot of confusion among less informed players. If they made all the DDR powers enhanceable, I wouldn't object to adjusting the base values as required to maintain appropriate set balance. I'm not advocating for increased DDR across the board.