Teach a man to fish.

[Ukase]

So, as much as the lazy jerk in me would love for someone to just say "Do this", I don't enjoy asking questions like that. I like to find the answers on my own. 

So, off the top of my head, for my specific question - I think the answer is assault radial hybrid. I'm on a water/natty core. 

And I want to dish out - not just the most dps for me, but for my lore pets as well. And the team/league, if applicable. 

So, the first thing I do is read the information for each description of the various hybrids. Some of you know exactly where I'm going with this. Do I seriously have to go to brainstorm to discover what the answer is? 

So as to not take up a bunch of room, this is what city of data has. And City of Data is appropriately named. All kinds of data, but it's not processed into information yet. How does one process this into useful information to make an informed decision? 

I'm going to have to go to Brainstorm, and that kind of reeks, because I've got other things I want to do. 

 

Spoiler

From what I know, a blaster typically wants Assault Core, unless they're routinely at the damage cap, and then they'll want radial. And since I expect this corruptor to be at that cap frequently, I would be inclined to go radial, but I cannot find any clear information that I'm smart enough to interpret from the data that's there. 

 

Spoiler

I don't at all grasp why the word melee is used as a variable, or constant, or whatever it represents. I do see the 100% chance, which is useful, because I know what that means. But 100% chance of what? The description says "a small boost". It would be truly amazing if the word "small" were replaced with a % value, so one could compare that value with the value in hybrid assault. 

But, we've got what we've got. I'm grateful I get to see this much, but I sure would like to figure out what this all means, without having to consult City of unparsed data. 

[Major_Decoy]

You might find the ingame information more helpful, just right click on the icon in the creation screen.

 

 

[Ukase]

Thank you very much. Now, I'm wondering why I didn't think of that myself. Thank you again! 

[Major_Decoy]

The general rule of thumb is "The double hit doesn't actually double your damage, it is 1.0 multiplier and if your multiplier is lower than 1 you're better off with the double hit, higher than 1 better with the damage buffs." But you're right that if you're near the damage cap most of the time you're better off with the double hit. Or if you'd prefer randomized spike damage.

 

So, to parse the City of Data information:

 

The effects in the top box have a 100% chance of being applied if the target is a player. (you see how that box ends in "target player")

The effects in the bottom box have a 100% chance of being applied if the target is a critter. (your pets and league mate pets)

 

The "Entities affected" in the Activation details explains that it only applies to self and league mates (so enemies won't be getting that bonus)

[Major_Decoy]

From what I can tell "Melee_Ones" is always 1, so that should mean 6% bonus if the target is a player and 12% if the target is a critter.

 

Edit: Yeah, the ingame information only shows the 12% bonus that pets get, not the 6% bonus that players get. I suppose that's why city of data is more helpful once you can parse it.

Edited Thursday at 08:58 PM by Major_Decoy

[Psyonico]

If you select an AT, Melee_Ones should change into a number. 

 

As for Support Hybrid, the basic rule of thumb is that Core is better for MMs and Radial is better for everyone else.  This is because when you go core, the value for players is lower than the value for everyone if you go Radial.

 

If you're going to be on full teams often,  I'd say that Support will do more than Assault.  Assault will pull more weight the smaller the team size.

[WuTang]

13 hours ago, Psyonico said:

If you're going to be on full teams often,  I'd say that Support will do more than Assault.

 

I've never actually thought of it that way! It makes total sense though.

[Ukase]

I appreciate the time folks are taking to explain and expand on their thoughts. 

I should probably share the context of my curiosity. Solo, I'm about getting something done. I don't often do +4/8, as I see no added value to it. More inf? Incarnate XP? That's not a driver for me. I want the merits and/or the reward table. So, in that context, I don't even use hybrid most of the time. 

I'm thinking mainly about Hamidon raids and MSRs. In both, there's generally a cluster of characters for buffs. Specifically with Hamidon, and the use of incandescence to bring the league together, I see the reliance on lore pets to get things done quickly. Now, that leaves me to explore Support Core, which provides this information: 

 

My fire/nature affinity character doesn't dish out anything but fire damage, 12% more of zero is still zero. 
Now, if suddenly my fire blaze attack which deals 100 fire damage, (as an example) now dealt 112 fire damage, and 12 damage of all the other types, well, that would just be OP and crazy, so that certainly isn't it. 

So, it's my thinking that this would just boost the fire damage my corruptor does by 12%, for all attacks, and 24% for the pets.

(or is it something more convoluted like: Pet Damage = Base *1.12*1.12
No idea if that's right. They say the boost is doubled. My brain says 24%, but CoH math is weird to me. ) 

But radial is a different thing: 

 

 

Most of you have seen these snips before on your own characters. There's a part when you're figuring out which way to go, where you see the core side gives a stronger boost, but for a reduced area. Oh, and you can scroll all the way down - there's no mention as to how much of a passive boost to Endurance Discount is granted. And given all the end discounts my character's tend to have, finding it in combat attributes is just more trouble than it's worth - if it's even displayed there. 

 

So, it leaves me to conclude Support Core is better for the league than Support Radial if we're all snuggled within 50 feet, which seems to be the case during a hami raid.

It would be nice to definitively know what "special" means. I sometimes think it means things like slows, and debuffs and such, but there's no evidence in these tabs what that means. 

And, given that Support Core extends to pets, it begs the question - does it only extend to mine, or the league's pets? It seems like it would, provided there's only 5 total active in the area. 

I am likely missing something. I hear that support radial is preferred for the hami raid, but I don't know why. The corruptor brings value to these with buffs and scourge; boosting the damage it does via assault doesn't seem like the right path, as it has no impact on pets that I can see. 

Am I missing something? What am I missing? 

[tidge]

14 hours ago, Psyonico said:

If you're going to be on full teams often,  I'd say that Support will do more than Assault.  Assault will pull more weight the smaller the team size.

 

There are very few of my characters that don't opt for Hybrid Support. When I'm solo, I have very little need to do more whatever. When I'm on teams, I prefer that the teams do more.

[Maelwys]

26 minutes ago, Ukase said:

I am likely missing something. I hear that support radial is preferred for the hami raid, but I don't know why. The corruptor brings value to these with buffs and scourge; boosting the damage it does via assault doesn't seem like the right path, as it has no impact on pets that I can see. 

Am I missing something? What am I missing? 

Radial is 80ft radius, +8% Buff for up to 255 allies
https://cod.uberguy.net./html/power.html?power=incarnate.hybrid.support_genome_9&at=corruptor

Core is 50ft radius, +6% buff for up to 255 allies that are flagged as "player"
Core ALSO has a SEPERATE +12% buff for up to 255 allies that are flagged as "critter" (READ: "pets and henchmen and npcs")
https://cod.uberguy.net./html/power.html?power=incarnate.hybrid.support_genome_8&at=corruptor

Note that Radial affects EVERYONE (it's just that the buff is +2% higher for players and -4% lower for pets/NPCs) and has a larger range than Core.
So if you have lots of friendly pet/npc allies in a tight formation; go Core... otherwise, go Radial.

[WuTang]

10 minutes ago, Maelwys said:

Core is 50ft radius, +6% buff for up to 255 allies that are flagged as "player"
Core ALSO has a SEPERATE +12% buff for up to 255 allies that are flagged as "critter" (READ: "pets and henchmen and npcs")

 

Maybe I'm getting something confused. In game Support Core shows me receiving a 12% damage bonus.

Nope never mind it is 6%...

Edited 15 hours ago by WuTang

[Maelwys]

3 minutes ago, WuTang said:

 

Maybe I'm getting something confused. In game Support Core shows me receiving a 12% damage bonus.

Nope never mind it is 6%...

Aye; IIRC the detailed power window often doesn't cleanly separate out the buffs for different entities (like 6% to players and 12% to critters).

It wouldn't be the first time someone looked at the Core Support Buffs and thought "hey that power says it'll give me +12% so does that mean pets will get +24%?".
Unfortunately though it's only +6% for you and +12% for pets.
Which does make Radial a bit more attractive... 😉

[Uun]

Without getting too deep in the weeds, I find this page very handy for summarizing what the various Hybrids do:

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Hybrid_Slot_Abilities

 

I happen to like Support Radial and take it a lot for defenders, controllers and corruptors. An often overlooked benefit is that it provides an always-on 10% endurance discount.