Another PROC Question: Energy Manipulator Chance to Stun

[JusticeBowler]

So, I built a Electric/Poison Controller and I'm having a bit of fun. But the truth is, I just can't quite slam the -END and -REC quickly enough across enough of the mobs to be terribly useful doing it. I mean, if someone else had the same effect (even unslotted) then together we could sap whole mob groups. But I got to thinking about EM:CtS...

 

I mean, it isn't unique. Why can't I put 3 or even 5 of these in every one of my Electric attacks? Each one would fire off about every 30 seconds which would mean across 4 or 5 powers and 3-5 procs per power I could be a stun spamming nightmare.

 

Tell me why this doesn't work a lot better than trying to sap the poor bastages.

[subbacultchas]

The initial issue is, while they aren't unique they are bound by the rule of "no more than one copy of an IO in a given power". Just like you can't slot four Annihilation Acc/Dam/Recharges in a single power. Uniqueness means only one per build, in addition to the regular rule here.

 

[subbacultchas]

But this is a good question. Because otherwise there's some powers I'd slot with nothing but FF +Recharges, and soak up all that lovely recharge.

[JusticeBowler]

So a Tank with Electric Melee could slot EM Chance to Disorient, Triumphant Insult Chance to Disorient, and Pounding Slugfest Chance to Disorient but I'm out of luck?

[Sunsette]

Proc Sets were really badly thought out. I almost swear it was intentional.

 

"Yeah this melee attack has a tiny knockdown, a tiny chance to mez, does a tiny amount of endurance drain, and a huge amount of damage."

 

"GIVE IT ACCESS TO ALL THE SETS. THERE'S NO WAY THIS COULD BE ABUSED."

 

"This single target ranged attack does damage. ... Just damage."

 

"IT MAY NOT HAVE ANYTHING GOOD EVER."

[subbacultchas]

5 minutes ago, JusticeBowler said:

So a Tank with Electric Melee could slot EM Chance to Disorient, Triumphant Insult Chance to Disorient, and Pounding Slugfest Chance to Disorient but I'm out of luck?

I reckon that's right. Since they are different sets, and different IOs, they can slot them.

[subbacultchas]

Not to mention some powers which they were just like, "Nope. No sets. Not a single one. Ever."

Benumb affects like several different things, none of which beyond acc and maybe recharge you can slot. And zero sets.

[JusticeBowler]

Procs are so confusing and the implementation is so strange. I mean, I can't see how Impeded Swiftness Chance for Smashing damage could possibly be better than just slotting a DMG IO in there. There's a lot of that sort of thing with slotting sets. Apart from the "overall effect" of getting all the sets to carefully line up so a character is at the DEF softcap, or to satisfy some RCHG hungry-crazy folks trying to get to 350+ global ... all of it seems not much of an improvement over straight slots.

 

I'm sitting here thinking "can I improve over common IOs for anything I'm doing" and the answer is, not really. Getting Shield Breaker and Cloud Senses chance for damage into Envenom and Weaken is novel (hey they do damage now) but such minimal damage as to be unnoticable. It looks like procs (apart from some specific ... devs screwed up and missed this crazy idea) are primarily for people with some extra slots for powers otherwise already maxed out in utility.

[subbacultchas]

Not far off base there Justice. It is a weird implementations. I think people use set IOs for three different things mostly.

1. More diverse slottings. Instead of say 1acc, 3 dam, 1 recharge, 1 end you can slot with a set that gives better bonuses overall.
2. Specific sets geared toward global bonuses, heavy +recharge, defense-capping, removing resistance holes (like psi).
3. Making subpar powers into proc machines.

I think in your case, the first one may provide a benefit to you in some powers. But it's not always the case that you'll get the ratios you want.

[subbacultchas]

Case number two can really help some ATs I should add. Granite form Stone Armors can get enough +movement to make it usable, and I'm sure there are other instances I'm not aware of.

[Sunsette]

50 minutes ago, JusticeBowler said:

Procs are so confusing and the implementation is so strange. I mean, I can't see how Impeded Swiftness Chance for Smashing damage could possibly be better than just slotting a DMG IO in there. There's a lot of that sort of thing with slotting sets. Apart from the "overall effect" of getting all the sets to carefully line up so a character is at the DEF softcap, or to satisfy some RCHG hungry-crazy folks trying to get to 350+ global ... all of it seems not much of an improvement over straight slots.

 

I'm sitting here thinking "can I improve over common IOs for anything I'm doing" and the answer is, not really. Getting Shield Breaker and Cloud Senses chance for damage into Envenom and Weaken is novel (hey they do damage now) but such minimal damage as to be unnoticable. It looks like procs (apart from some specific ... devs screwed up and missed this crazy idea) are primarily for people with some extra slots for powers otherwise already maxed out in utility.

A proc damage IO is usually not better than enhancing damage straight -- though it can be -- but it's not capped by ED and it's possible to increase an enh-capped damage power by another 50 to 100% with the right procs.