Rule of 5, Def/RES minimums, etc

[Sigot]

This community has been very helpful so far, and y'all use a lot of acronyms and have a good bit of tribal knowledge. 

 

It took me a week to figure out what the hell a SO, DO, IO is. 

 

People talk about "oh this build violates the rule of 5," or say something like "you aren't hitting your Def minimums here." 

 

I've tried searching those things in the search bar to find a more detailed explanation. 

 

 

Could someone recommend some guides or forum posts that would explain all the basic tribal knowledge in this game? 

[Octogoat]

Do we have a new player guide that explains basic acronyms and concepts? It seems we only have guides for once you're past that phase.

 

I'd look under the guides section on the forums there's a wealth of knowledge also laucianna's kheldian guide was a lot of help that's under the peacebringer section in archetypes.

[Captain Fabulous]

IO bonuses that aren't unique (limited to one) are limited to 5 of any one type and value. While you can slot more than 5, the extras won't apply.

When building for defense the goal is to reach at least 45% in either positional (AoE, melee, ranged) or typed (smashing/lethal, energy/negative, fire/cold, psionic, toxic) defense. For normal content, going above 45% provides no extra benefit due to the way the to-hit formula works, tho it can be beneficial when fighting critters that can reduce your defense. For hard content I believe the goal is about 65% (hard mode critters have a greater base chance to hit), but that's very difficult to achieve on your own.

[ZemX]

You know I get a bit of a chuckle out of this as it reminds me of a long ago time, perhaps shortly after dinosaurs roamed the earth, when I got a college internship at a tech company and one of the first things I was handed was a book... of acronyms they use in the business.

 

Maybe we need one a' those? 😜

[catsi563]

to add a bit to Captain Fs explanation

 

the various IO sets have bonuses they impart at each level so you may see boosts to health boost to endurance etc

 

some of those boosts will be tiny small medium larger or very large and so on

 

some of those bonuses will be unique such as the numinas regen recovery proc or the absorption proc 

 

so lets say you have 5 sets each of which has a Medium health boost and 3 of them have a small end boost

 

the bonuses would look like this

 

5x medium Health boost

3x small end boost

 

this build stays within the rule of 5

 

but if the same build had 6 medium health boosts you would NOT benefit from the 6th one and the build while still functional would be in violation of the rule of 5

 

so while building you need to keep aware of the various buffs you get from sets and make sure to plan accordingly

 

now note that violating the rule of 5 is not a thing that shuts a build down it is just an inefficiency more than anything  a build can still be functional and successful but its just short of a boost or two that a different cet could provide you if build differently

Edited February 1 by catsi563

[Riverdusk]

Not going to probably be near complete of course, but:

 

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Category:Definition

 

Can also use the wiki search bar and probably have much better luck than a forum search.  "Rule of 5" popped up for instance.  Might not always understand the explanation they have there if you are new, but it is something.

Edited February 1 by Riverdusk

[Doomguide2005]

Yep the first thing I'd do is check out the HCwiki.

 

And you don't want to be anywhere near the Defense and Resistance minimums.  If you are you've been badly debuffed and want to retreat post haste if you are still up and if you  can RUN do so.  You start at 0 for both values the ninimums well use Rest and check out your combat attributes for defense and resistance.  You'll see big negative red numbers.  If I recall correctly those are still above the floor minimums.  You want green numbers, preferably as mentioned above the "soft cap" which is +45% defense against the attack in question.  That's because foes in normal content have a base 50% To Hit.  Your defense subtracts from this and since the lowest value their to hit can be is a 5% chance that why 45% is what you're shooting for (50 -45=5)  The whole equation is more complicated and accounts for other factors.  See "Attack Mechanics" article in the HCwiki.  Resistance is a bit more straightforward.   It basically reduces the incoming damage.  10% resist means 10% less damage, 50% -> 50% less and 90% means 90% less damage taken.  The difference from defense is the value to try and reach varies by AT with Tankers having the greatest maximum.  Again it has further details in the wiki such as how you resist getting resistance debuffed and other details.  But start simple and then learn the finer details as you play

 

EDIT:  Or comeback with further questions.  Many of us can ramble on ... for forever

Edited February 1 by Doomguide2005

[Sigot]

Thank you everyone for the help, I think I better understand what I'm doing with builds! 

 

I'm playing a tanker mostly but also a dominator from time to time, looking forward to theory crafting my tankers build. 

[Octogoat]

35 minutes ago, Sigot said:

Thank you everyone for the help, I think I better understand what I'm doing with builds! 

 

I'm playing a tanker mostly but also a dominator from time to time, looking forward to theory crafting my tankers build. 

Tanker is a good archetype(AT) to cut your teeth on. Hope you have fun out there! 😉 

[arcane]

There are no minimum requirements for defense or resistance for a good build - you might’ve been talking to noobs.

[Techwright]

On 2/1/2025 at 11:56 AM, Octogoat said:

Do we have a new player guide that explains basic acronyms and concepts? It seems we only have guides for once you're past that phase.

 

I'd look under the guides section on the forums there's a wealth of knowledge also laucianna's kheldian guide was a lot of help that's under the peacebringer section in archetypes.

 

I didn't list rule of 5 and such, but I did compile a starter list a while back (5 years?! ), and the TO, DO, SO stuff it at the top:

 

 

[tidge]

19 hours ago, arcane said:

There are no minimum requirements for defense or resistance for a good build - you might’ve been talking to noobs.

 

This, times a lot.

 

Not getting hit (via defense) is going to be better than getting hit, but it isn't as if for 99% of the game's content one hit causes insta-loss.

 

It isn't fair to judge another player's choices for defense/resistance because I don't know what kind of content they are playing... but I definitely think that chasing a "soft cap" is something of a distraction for most players (especially newer ones) .

[srmalloy]

On 2/1/2025 at 10:19 AM, catsi563 said:

the bonuses would look like this

 

5x medium Health boost

3x small end boost

 

this build stays within the rule of 5

 

but if the same build had 6 medium health boosts you would NOT benefit from the 6th one and the build while still functional would be in violation of the rule of 5

Note that it's the name of the bonus, not its value, that determines the count. So if you had three 1.5% "Medium Health Boost" and three 0.75% "Medium Health Boost", the Law of Fives would mean that you wouldn't get one of the lower-value boosts. See the Law of Fives explanation on the wiki.

 

[Sovera]

23 hours ago, Sigot said:

Thank you everyone for the help, I think I better understand what I'm doing with builds! 

 

I'm playing a tanker mostly but also a dominator from time to time, looking forward to theory crafting my tankers build. 

 

I've added your doubts to the guide in my signature since it seemed like it had a place there. There is more info there you might find of use.

[High_Beam]

On 2/1/2025 at 12:28 PM, ZemX said:

You know I get a bit of a chuckle out of this as it reminds me of a long ago time, perhaps shortly after dinosaurs roamed the earth, when I got a college internship at a tech company and one of the first things I was handed was a book... of acronyms they use in the business.

 

Maybe we need one a' those? 😜

True.  I came form Naval communications and messaging so we had to know a whole book of trigraphs designed to ensure brevity.  On my first ship there was this salty old hole snipe who actually had a printout of about a hundred acronyms and alternate names for shit.  Plus there is all of the crazy things that things are named after.  This was all before the internet made it easy (87-89 timeframe).

 

Every time I see a moron posting something in Broadcast I say to my self ZBM-2 that cat.

[JJDrakken]

On 2/1/2025 at 10:53 AM, Sigot said:

This community has been very helpful so far, and y'all use a lot of acronyms and have a good bit of tribal knowledge. 

 

It took me a week to figure out what the hell a SO, DO, IO is. 

 

People talk about "oh this build violates the rule of 5," or say something like "you aren't hitting your Def minimums here." 

 

I've tried searching those things in the search bar to find a more detailed explanation. 

 

 

Could someone recommend some guides or forum posts that would explain all the basic tribal knowledge in this game? 

 

Rule of 3

Rule of 5

Rule of Unique

The 3 R's

 

Rule of 3: Will use Stamina as example. Past 3 Endurance enhancements the values start to drop drastically for what you'll be getting out of it.

 

Rule of 5: Is for Recipe Set Bonuses: So say you got 6 Recipe sets that give +3% S/L Resists. Well that 6th set bonus will not apply. Even if it's 6 different recipe sets, if they have a +3% bonus to S/L Resist.  That 6th won't work.

 

Rule of Unique: You can only have 1 of that thing.  Example: Steadfast Res/+3% Defense. Which is also a Global piece. Subcontract: Global: Meaning that it can be in any power and it will still grant that bonus. Even if it's not active power or toggle.

 

The 3 R's: +Recovery, +Recharge, -Regeneration. First two are obvious with out Blue bar or some form of positive recharge. You'll be standing around twiddling your thumbs. While -Regen is more for 50 game. Without that, you'll be having hard time dropping AVs/Heros/GMs, etc.. (While some can pull it off without it, it's going be more specific ones)