How to identify PROC-friendly powers?

[DrCereal]

HI all! As the title says. I've read here and elsewhere a lot of people commenting about how a certain power is "very PROC-friendly" vs others that are not. I understand that I'm mostly searching for long-CD powers (and avoid slotting them for recharge). But are there any other things I need to be aware? What makes a power "proc-tastic"?

 

And, to avoid me some homework, are there any particularly "proc-tastic"powersets I should be aware (mind, if I knew the answer to the above question, I should be able to figure this one for myself, but why not tap into the communal wisdom of the forums?)

 

Thank you all!

[tidge]

Generally, %proc friendly:

• Inherent recharge times greater than 16 seconds (more slotted recharge lowers %proc chances)
• AoE (AoE have lower individual %proc chances, but with more targets potentially being hit spawn clear times improve)
• henchmen/pets, provided those have a side effect common to most of their powers
• self-affecting %procs (and some Globals, like Kismet's +ToHiT) are best in Auto powers, or powers that will always be toggled on.

Generally %proc are wasted in:

• Powers with short inherent recharge times, 8-seconds or less.
• Toggles
• Pseudo-pets (although as near as I can tell, "on cast" %proc rates generally work as expected, provided there are actual targets affected in the cast area)
• Low accuracy powers (including some "auto-hit" powers)

 

Also, be aware there is a difference between a "global" effect and a "%proc" effect. Some people call things like the Luck of the Gambler Def/Global recharge a "%proc", but it is a "global".

 

EDIT: Sometimes a power is called "proc-friendly" if it can slot a large number of different %damage pieces... but not all such powers are a good place to put %procs, see above. For example... fast-recharging single target holds can take a lot of %damage pieces, but the actually chance for %damage may be so low that some of those slots are probably better used elsewhere in a build.

Edited February 3 by tidge

[Rimerat]

You're on the right line of thought and @tidge explained how procs work in general.

 

Now that you know how procs function and the general rules of what to start proccing, you think about how many sets the power can hold, its base damage/attributes and its other functions.

 

How many different sets does the power support? Does it have debuffs (-tohit? -def? slow?) does it have knockback? Can it slot accurate healing? If a power supports 3 or more classes of enhancements and has a 8s+ recharge I think people generally refer to it as 'proc friendly'.

 

Let's look at Dual Pistols Bullet Rain.

 

It supports:

- Targeted AOE Damage

- Knockback

- Slow

 

This would be considered a 'proc friendly' power IMO. You can comfortably slot a Targeted AOE damage set into it, alongside 2 other procs.

 

Now what does a 'proc godly' power look like? Check out Poison Trap in Poison. It supports only 3 sets, but it has a long base recharge, supports PBAOE damage and does minimal base damage on its own, meaning you don't have to bother enhancing its base damage property. You can fit a whopping five damage procs from PBAOE damage and Hold classes, then slap a -Res or a Recharge on there for fun.

[Glacier Peak]

Let's look at one of my favorite powers that is entirely "proc'able."

 

   Infrigidate (Ranged Foe -Speed, -Recharge, -DEF, -DMG (Fire))

• Fires a frigid beam of cold at a single target. This beam dramatically reduces the target's attack rate, movement speed and Defense. Infrigidate draws so much heat out of the target that the damage of any of its Fire attacks will be reduced.

 

This Cold Domination Level 1 power has access to 7 procs in total! This is due to the Invention Origin 'Set Categories' that the power can slot - Defense Debuff, Accurate Defense Debuff, and Slow Movement all being proc-abundant sets. Note: Proc-per-min (PPM)

 

 Achilles Heel: Chance for Resistance Debuff (3.5 PPM)

 Touch of Lady Grey: Chance for Negative Energy Damage (3.5 PPM)

 Shield Breaker: Chance for Lethal Damage (3.5 PPM)

 Analyze Weakness: Chance for +To Hit (2 PPM)

 Impeded Swiftness: Chance for Smashing Damage (3.5 PPM)

 Ice Mistral's Torement: Chance for Cold Damage (3.5 PPM)

 Pacing of the Turtle: Chance for Recharge Slow (3.5 PPM)

 

Now    Infrigidate has a 1 second cast time and a base 15 second recharge time (across all archetypes with access to the Cold Domination powerset). It's the poster child for procs! With these two points of data, we can calculate the Chance to Proc:

 

Formula for Single Target Attacks: ((Base Recharge/(1+Recharge Slotted)+Activation Time)xPPM/60)

 

((15/(1+0%)+1)x3.5/60) = 93% Chance to proc any of the 3.5 PPM procs listed above.

 

In my opinion, 6-slotting   Infrigidate would be a waste in most cases, but it's still cool to see all the procs fire off!

Edited February 3 by Glacier Peak

[Yomo Kimyata]

Great responses so far!

 

Some things I would add:

 

"Proc-friendly" can mean both "there are a lot of useful procs that can be slotted" or "this power will generally activate the proc each time you use it."  "Useful" may be in the eye of the beholder.

 

Different enhancements may have different proc rates, in terms of PPM.  The standard is 3.5, but some are higher or lower.  Any proc in an ATO or a Winter set that is made Superior with a Catalyst has a higher PPM.

 

Powers that can affect more than one target can have a greater than 90% chance of activating.  What?!?  But the cap is 90%?!?.  This is because if a proc does NOT activate on any particular target, there is a chance for it to activate on a subsequent target.  For example, let's say you attack a single target with a power that has a 50% chance to hit and to proc.  Half the time it will activate and half the time it will not.  Now let's say you attack five targets that are in range with this power.  For a proc that affects the target, like a damage proc, each target will have a 50% chance to take damage.  But if the proc is something that affects you, like %chance for recharge, then the only way it will NOT activate is if it does not activate on all five targets.  In this case, it would NOT activate 0.5 ^ 5 = 3.125% of the time, meaning that it WOULD activate 96.875% of the time.  (Sadly, it does not have the chance to stack five times.)

 

In general, I like to proc powers when I feel that there is a "good" chance for activation, or when I have a spare slot and nothing better to use it on.  Sometimes you get a lottery pick proc activation!

[DrCereal]

Thank you all so much. I have a very specific question:

 

In other games, I'd hazard a guess that abilities that continuously do damage (DOTs, AoE spells that leave a hazard) are particularly good at PROCs, since each damage instance has a chance to set off the PROC independently from others. Is this the case in CoH? For instance, my intuition would tell me that caltrops (low but continuous damage) is a great candidate for damage procs. Am I on the right path here?

Edited February 4 by DrCereal

[nihilii]

This is generally not the case in CoH. Such powers tend to check only once every 10 seconds.

[tidge]

14 hours ago, DrCereal said:

Thank you all so much. I have a very specific question:

 

In other games, I'd hazard a guess that abilities that continuously do damage (DOTs, AoE spells that leave a hazard) are particularly good at PROCs, since each damage instance has a chance to set off the PROC independently from others. Is this the case in CoH? For instance, my intuition would tell me that caltrops (low but continuous damage) is a great candidate for damage procs. Am I on the right path here?

 

We might think this, but in fact the opposite is true. These types of powers are what I was referring to in my "pseudo-pets are a bad place for %procs". This is mostly because of the way 'recharge' works for the pseudo-pets' "attacks".

 

A power like Caltrops isn't a terrible place for %damage, if you can "hit" a large number of enemies when the power is immediately "cast"... but subsequent ticks of the power aren't good for %damage.

 

Unslotters are cheap, so I recommend experimenting with slotting pseudo-pets. There is a surprisingly wide variety of effectiveness of %damage in them.

[SuperPlyx]

59 minutes ago, tidge said:

We might think this, but in fact the opposite is true. These types of powers are what I was referring to in my "pseudo-pets are a bad place for %procs". This is mostly because of the way 'recharge' works for the pseudo-pets' "attacks".

 

This is one of the things that confuses me with the changes on beta to Storm Blast.....Storm Cell gets increase proc rate but it's a pseudo pet. Category 5 gets proc rate increase and it's a summons. I feel like I am missing something simple.

[Unclemarty]

When evaluating whether to load up a power with procs or not its also important to keep in mind what's going on with your non-attack set too. 

Generally, when slotting procs, you're giving up accuracy, recharge, or endurance reduction. So a non-attack set that brings those things back into your build is going to support your procced out power better. 

[ZemX]

On 2/3/2024 at 10:53 AM, Wiseguy said:

Now what does a 'proc godly' power look like? Check out Poison Trap in Poison. It supports only 3 sets, but it has a long base recharge, supports PBAOE damage and does minimal base damage on its own, meaning you don't have to bother enhancing its base damage property. You can fit a whopping five damage procs from PBAOE damage and Hold classes, then slap a -Res or a Recharge on there for fun.

 

Isn't this considered a pseudo-pet and thus a recharge time of 10s for the purposes of proc chance calculation?  Or does it work differently in this power for some reason?