Thoughts about damage auras on ITFs

[KaizenSoze]

I have written a tool to analyze the logs and provide amount other things hit/miss ratios for damage auras like Icicles. While running an kill most 4x8 ITF. I noticed a lot of missed messages in the client and dug around to find out which power was missing. Turned out it was Icicles.

 

I am a wee bit obsessed about accuracy, so I do things like run Tactics and Focused Accuracy. Icicles in-game has an accuracy of 1.8x. MIDS shows 138.5% accuracy against +3 mobs. The tool showed an actual accuracy of 86% based on the logs. This means I lost quite a bit of damage due to missing. That stacked Roman defense, when the team isn't running a lot of Tactics or other accuracy buffs is noticeable. I suspect that a lot of players are missing a lot with their damage auras on ITF.

 

TLDR: Make sure you have high accuracy in your damage auras on ITF. Or you will miss a lot.

 

Tool in question:

 

[Frosticus]

Roman's get pretty slippery when they clump up. 

[Meknomancer]

Immunes Engineer

 

Engineer

The tactics of the Engineer have been honed through countless battles. They function as a secondary team amongst the Centurions and Legionarii, performing quick strikes to the weakest points in their enemies' armor.

Powers

 Push Back Melee (Cone), Superior Damage(Smash), Foe Knockdown
You attempt to Shatter the bones of your opponent by striking them with all your might. This attack will deal great damage and can knock foes back a great ways. The power of this attack can actually extend a short distance through multiple foes.

 Frag Grenade Ranged (Targeted Area of Effect), Minor Fire/Smash Damage, Location Area of Effect, Minor Damage over Time(Fire)
The explosion from this Fragmentation Grenade affects all within the blast and can knock them back.

 Roman Armor Auto, Self Def( S8 L8 F8 C8 E8 N8 ), Resist(-Defense)
Roman Armor will deflect most types of attacks and grants protection from Defense Debuff effects.

 Phalanx Fighting Toggle, Self Def( S2 L2 F2 C2 E2 N2 ) per ally, Prot( Ho 3.0 Im 3.0 St 3.0 Sl 3.0 Kb 3.0 Rp 3.0 )
Your coordination with allies grants you enhanced protection.

[KaizenSoze]

2 minutes ago, Meknomancer said:

Immunes Engineer

 

Engineer

The tactics of the Engineer have been honed through countless battles. They function as a secondary team amongst the Centurions and Legionarii, performing quick strikes to the weakest points in their enemies' armor.

Powers

 Push Back Melee (Cone), Superior Damage(Smash), Foe Knockdown
You attempt to Shatter the bones of your opponent by striking them with all your might. This attack will deal great damage and can knock foes back a great ways. The power of this attack can actually extend a short distance through multiple foes.

 Frag Grenade Ranged (Targeted Area of Effect), Minor Fire/Smash Damage, Location Area of Effect, Minor Damage over Time(Fire)
The explosion from this Fragmentation Grenade affects all within the blast and can knock them back.

 Roman Armor Auto, Self Def( S8 L8 F8 C8 E8 N8 ), Resist(-Defense)
Roman Armor will deflect most types of attacks and grants protection from Defense Debuff effects.

 Phalanx Fighting Toggle, Self Def( S2 L2 F2 C2 E2 N2 ) per ally, Prot( Ho 3.0 Im 3.0 St 3.0 Sl 3.0 Kb 3.0 Rp 3.0 )
Your coordination with allies grants you enhanced protection.

I do know this, but I don't think people realize how much defense gets stacked when packs of them are together.

 

All Romans, except surgeons, default to 15% s/l/c/f/en/neg defense. Then stacking Phalanx Fighting +3% defense aura and it gets ugly in packed spawns.

 

I suspect people are missing a lot more than they realize, which means less damage.

[Meknomancer]

6 minutes ago, KaizenSoze said:

I do know this, but I don't think people realize how much defense gets stacked when packs of them are together.

 

All Romans, except surgeons, default to 15% s/l/c/f/en/neg defense. Then stacking Phalanx Fighting +3% defense aura and it gets ugly in packed spawns.

 

I suspect people are missing a lot more than they realize, which means less damage.

 

Its the stacks that get you. A single engineer is getting bumped by the number of allys he has around him, when your aggro herding rooms thats a lot of +defence.

 

And it depends on the damage aura. If you run an ice/rad tank or rad/ice broot you'll find it less of an issue if they're getting tagged by the - defence from irradiated ground. 

[shortguy on indom]

• MAYBE ITS EASIER TO SAY BRING A DPS TOON THAN TO SAY: BRING TOON WITH TACTICS/HYBRID SUPPORT AND PARALYTIC?

[KaizenSoze]

45 minutes ago, Meknomancer said:

 

Its the stacks that get you. A single engineer is getting bumped by the number of allys he has around him, when your aggro herding rooms thats a lot of +defence.

 

And it depends on the damage aura. If you run an ice/rad tank or rad/ice broot you'll find it less of an issue if they're getting tagged by the - defence from irradiated ground. 

That's if it's hitting. Irradiated ground has the same accuracy as Icicles. The ITF is a special case where the mobs can actually have enough defense to impact players damage.

[Psyonico]

It's not just auras though.  You need to make sure you have enough accuracy/to-hit for all of your attacks.

[KaizenSoze]

The main point is that it is obvious when your player activated attacks miss. Damage auras fly under the radar and might be missing a lot.

[Jacke]

On 9/14/2024 at 11:22 PM, Psyonico said:

It's not just auras though.  You need to make sure you have enough accuracy/to-hit for all of your attacks.

 

@Psyonico is right.  And @KaizenSoze, you may not notice the misses in an AoE attack.

 

And then there's Pets.  Except for a very few (like Electrical Blast's Voltaic Sentinel), they mostly don't benefit from the Caster's Global buffs, like Level Shifts, Global ToHit, and Global Accuracy.  That +4 Notoriety really is +4 to the Pets even when the Caster has a T3 or T4 Alpha Boost.  That lead me to this general rule so I wouldn't have to recalculate for each Pet:

• The Pet Summon Power should have ED-capped Accuracy.
• If the Pet has important attacks that have less than 1.2 Base Accuracy, they also need Tactics (even just Mastermind base-Slot only Tactics) or good -Def on the target(s).

That was on Targets without Def.  Considering most Cimerorans have +15%....

[Hjarki]

And people scoffed at my Rad/Psi Tanker...

[tidge]

On 9/14/2024 at 1:56 PM, KaizenSoze said:

TLDR: Make sure you have high accuracy in your damage auras on ITF. Or you will miss a lot.

 

I think this is good advice, no matter the content. The toggles that affect enemies aren't "auto-win".

[shortguy on indom]

On 9/14/2024 at 1:56 PM, KaizenSoze said:

I am a wee bit obsessed about accuracy, so I do things like run Tactics and Focused Accuracy. Icicles in-game has an accuracy of 1.8x. MIDS shows 138.5% accuracy against +3 mobs. The tool showed an actual accuracy of 86% based on the logs. This means I lost quite a bit of damage due to missing. That stacked Roman defense, when the team isn't running a lot of Tactics or other accuracy buffs is noticeable. I suspect that a lot of players are missing a lot with their damage auras on ITF.

 

TLDR: Make sure you have high accuracy in your damage auras on ITF. Or you will miss a lot.

• AGREE
• T AND FA CAN GET ALSO SUPPRESSED WHEN STUNNED/HELD/CONFUSED, SO THIS MAY ALSO BE AN ANGLE TO COVER.