Flavour of the Month: Power Percentages

[Bossk_Hogg]

1 hour ago, MunkiLord said:

Why is Blizzard skipped so often on Sentinels? Is it for PvP purposes?

I'm baffled by that myself. Fast recharge, HUGE to-hit debuff, good damage, and you can easily get an AE immob from the epic pool. 

[Zepp]

1 hour ago, Bossk_Hogg said:

Yeah, but it IS a good indication of what should be under the rework microscope. Intangibles are almost universally viewed as worthless, as are single target taunts.

 

Both should be reworked into something else entirely. The cottage rule was a guideline to prevent a power SET (not power!) from being changed too much. It was in fact ignored several times, most notably when Fear powers were completely changed. 

As Cipher noted, there are no powers with 0% out there. As such no power is universally seen as useless. I tend to agree with you about ST taunts. However, intangibles are a niche isolation mechanism that works well in solo builds. If there were more self/ally-intangibility powers it could be used as a way to bifurcate the battlefield. Set up your Stalker to solo the boss while Blasters deal with minions (for example). Rather than removal or redevelopment, it may simply need more development...

[Galaxy Brain]

Itd be neat if confront made both you and the confronted target phase shifted, so it's a one on one for you and the target

[DoctorGeist]

Something I'd like to point out... 

Two of the "least popular" power types are Repel and variations on Intangibility powers. You know which power sets get stuck with both? Force Field and Sonic Resonance. But sonic has a lot of popular buffs and debuffs. Force Fields gets... Force Bolt (taken by only 30-40% of players, except for MMs who have to take it as a T1), and Repulsion Bomb (~40-50%). Across all ATs, the numbers for Detention Field and Repulsion Field are roughly in the 25%-35% range. Taken together, that's almost half the powers in the set that are skipped by over half of the players.

 

I'd also hazard that the only reason the numbers are that high for Detention and Repulsion (instead of being in <15% range seen for those powers in other sets) is because after a point you have to take something. 

 

I don't know what the answer is here, but this set gets hit with 2 out of the 3 "worst" types of powers (only missing the single-target taunt), and not a lot to balance it out. The defense shields are absolutely great for everyone else except the character with the power (since they don't affect the user), and the anti-mez bubble is wonderful, but... yeesh.

 

I love my Grav/FF controller, but it's way more about the "Grav" and much less about the "FF". I wish my secondary set had more to offer.

 

(Note of disclosure: I actually do use and enjoy repulsion bomb both because it's thematic for my toon to be tossing everyone around, and because it's a lovely proc holder, so count me in that 46% for that power... but the other 3 are skipped. Although that lack of good options does mean I'm one of the 36% who got stuck taking (but never using) the intangibility power from Gravity, sigh.)

[trogenion]

huh it looks like there are at least a few builds out there that have radiant emission, and elect not to use accelerate metabolism, if i am reading that right, interesting 

 

[jubakumbi]

On 9/14/2019 at 2:23 AM, trogenion said:

huh it looks like there are at least a few builds out there that have radiant emission, and elect not to use accelerate metabolism, if i am reading that right, interesting 

I kind of wonder if, looking at some the power choices made/not made, some people got X/Y combo to 50, skipping powers that perhaps 'make the set' but the player was unaware, and then just dropped the character because it did not perform well...

 

So much data, so little time...

[Scientist]

On 9/5/2019 at 8:51 AM, Myrmidon said:

Not to mention a level 50 Rad that doesn’t have the debuffs.

When playing my Rad defender back in the day, I ran into another who hadn't taken either debuff by the mid 20s.  He was focused on Acc Met, Hasten, and Radiant Emission because he wanted the fastest cycling heal possible for "end game content".  I'm guessing he was from another MMO, which could be just about any of them, where you needed constant heals for hard content, and debuffs were largely worthless.  

[Purrfekshawn]

On 9/4/2019 at 1:47 PM, summers said:

2. Secondaries, in general. Somehow, not all level 50s have their Level 1 Secondary. For instance, there's a Tactical Arrow Blaster without their T1. Your guess is as good as mine...

AND THIS ONE interest Us for most. It is very possible, that by altering game memory one could distort clienside respec process and this way make order of powers another than it's intended! l performed some experimenting on my Private Server (Score, not Homecoming). Yet couldn't skip T1 secondary, but was able to skip both of T1 and T2 primary, like this:

Repeating again - it's SCORE, not HOMECOMING. You see this character after respec has both Charged Armor and Lightning Field skipped.

 

Maybe there is some HACK that can be used to skip useless T1 secondaries as well? If it's so - then these characters with invalid layouts might be made by same person, who discovered this trick (it's not Me). Shud be sum otha hacker. If all chars w/out T1 sec belong to same account you probably should contact its owner. l saw some Sentinel with Energy Aura has Kinetic Shield skipped... But why shud he be doing this anyway?

 

Edit: Managed to do the MAIN trick, however, a chain that made it possible was so sophisticated and wonky, that We are surely not trying to do that on Live. A fortiori We wanna keep Web Grenade on mah Main for AV holding when tank doesn't make its job well, as for auxiliary toonz We don't care much. Maybe there's a trick for lighting possibilities easier to perform - with altering game files or something.

Edited September 29, 2019 by Purrfekshawn

[kiramon]

Guess it's time to change Sonic Repulsion XD (even though I use it with the knockdown enhancement :( - plz change the sound if you do nothing else people hate it lol):

 

Maybe should try changing it to a +Recovery buff :) 

 

In fact, we need more +recovery/+recharge... the  dominance of Kin needs to die just a tad, ;) 

 

 

[kiramon]

On 9/10/2019 at 5:16 PM, DoctorGeist said:

Something I'd like to point out... 

Two of the "least popular" power types are Repel and variations on Intangibility powers. You know which power sets get stuck with both? Force Field and Sonic Resonance. But sonic has a lot of popular buffs and debuffs. Force Fields gets... Force Bolt (taken by only 30-40% of players, except for MMs who have to take it as a T1), and Repulsion Bomb (~40-50%). Across all ATs, the numbers for Detention Field and Repulsion Field are roughly in the 25%-35% range. Taken together, that's almost half the powers in the set that are skipped by over half of the players.

 

I'd also hazard that the only reason the numbers are that high for Detention and Repulsion (instead of being in <15% range seen for those powers in other sets) is because after a point you have to take something. 

 

I don't know what the answer is here, but this set gets hit with 2 out of the 3 "worst" types of powers (only missing the single-target taunt), and not a lot to balance it out. The defense shields are absolutely great for everyone else except the character with the power (since they don't affect the user), and the anti-mez bubble is wonderful, but... yeesh.

 

I love my Grav/FF controller, but it's way more about the "Grav" and much less about the "FF". I wish my secondary set had more to offer.

 

(Note of disclosure: I actually do use and enjoy repulsion bomb both because it's thematic for my toon to be tossing everyone around, and because it's a lovely proc holder, so count me in that 46% for that power... but the other 3 are skipped. Although that lack of good options does mean I'm one of the 36% who got stuck taking (but never using) the intangibility power from Gravity, sigh.)

 

I personally really love the Intangibility from Grav - it's just really buggy with whether you're in or out off it... especially early on when you have ambushes and things. 

 

THAT BEING SAID, sonic and FF definitely get the short end of the stick.  Giving some +recovery/absorbs into the sets would go a long way overall, but also just getting rid of those boring powers.

 

The funny thing about FF is that I put it on a set personally that I wanted to take more of myy primary (as a defender/cor) -- because I knew for FF I'd only be taking 3-4 powers overall, lol... and slotting is not intensive at all for FF, leaving a lot for the Primary haha... 

[EyeLuvBooks]

On 9/5/2019 at 8:22 AM, Without_Pause said:

Also note the AT to least take Flucrum is MMs. Let that sink in.

Kinetics is a relatively new port for MMs so work might not have gotten around yet.

[EyeLuvBooks]

40 minutes ago, kiramon said:

 

I personally really love the Intangibility from Grav - it's just really buggy with whether you're in or out off it... especially early on when you have ambushes and things. 

 

THAT BEING SAID, sonic and FF definitely get the short end of the stick.  Giving some +recovery/absorbs into the sets would go a long way overall, but also just getting rid of those boring powers.

 

The funny thing about FF is that I put it on a set personally that I wanted to take more of myy primary (as a defender/cor) -- because I knew for FF I'd only be taking 3-4 powers overall, lol... and slotting is not intensive at all for FF, leaving a lot for the Primary haha... 

One of the issues with the Intangibility powers is that while they're great early on (get rid of that ONE annoying guy...) they're terrible late-game where the teams are often rolling and you have that one target that nobody can kill and there's no way to turn them off. IMHO they would be better served as a toggle-type power with a 20-second duration but they can be turned off after 10 seconds.

 

Very few players like working with a power they can't control...

[Frostweaver]

17 hours ago, kiramon said:

The funny thing about FF is that I put it on a set personally that I wanted to take more of myy primary (as a defender/cor) -- because I knew for FF I'd only be taking 3-4 powers overall, lol... and slotting is not intensive at all for FF, leaving a lot for the Primary haha... 

Yup, FF is the only set I feel comfortable wasting the power picks to get cross punch.

[kiramon]

On 10/1/2019 at 8:42 AM, EyeLuvBooks said:

One of the issues with the Intangibility powers is that while they're great early on (get rid of that ONE annoying guy...) they're terrible late-game where the teams are often rolling and you have that one target that nobody can kill and there's no way to turn them off. IMHO they would be better served as a toggle-type power with a 20-second duration but they can be turned off after 10 seconds.

 

Very few players like working with a power they can't control...

 

Grav doesn't have that issue; but the FF/Sonic ones do for sure.

 

[kenlon]

14 hours ago, Frostweaver said:

Yup, FF is the only set I feel comfortable wasting the power picks to get cross punch.

I have a Bots/FF build (unfinished, because waaaaay too many other alts) that skips the pulse rifle attacks and the useless later powers in FF to take a whole pile of power pool attacks. It's pretty hilarious, even in it's current, underleveled state. 

[Frostweaver]

so overlevel it, see how it does, and then tell us about it 🙂

 

[oedipus_tex]

I'd like to see an effect in Force Bolt and Sonic Siphon that strips enemies of the Intangible effect, Then you could the powers to cancel your own Intangibles, as well as ones cast by other players, or powers used by enemies.

Edited November 27, 2019 by oedipus_tex

[agentx5]

Wow!  Flares and Flame Breath apparently suck compared to all other fire powers? Only about 50% of Fire Blasters take them, each, and similar for Corruptors.  I wonder why that is?  Slow cast time? Mediocre damage?

[Roderick]

3 hours ago, agentx5 said:

Wow!  Flares and Flame Breath apparently suck compared to all other fire powers? Only about 50% of Fire Blasters take them, each, and similar for Corruptors.  I wonder why that is?  Slow cast time? Mediocre damage?

I can only speak for the Blaster version, but I think the same is true for other ATs.

 

Fire Breath does more damage than Fire Ball, but it has no up front damage, and a large, long duration damage over time. This makes it fine for large targets that are going to survive the full duration, or large groups, but I personally prefer the big up front damage of Fire Ball, and I usually don't have room in a build for both.

[agentx5]

18 hours ago, Roderick said:

I can only speak for the Blaster version, but I think the same is true for other ATs.

 

Fire Breath does more damage than Fire Ball, but it has no up front damage, and a large, long duration damage over time. This makes it fine for large targets that are going to survive the full duration, or large groups, but I personally prefer the big up front damage of Fire Ball, and I usually don't have room in a build for both.

Oh yeah I love fireball on my main character!

 

You see, I have Rain of Fire currently instead of Flame Breath because it's fire-and-forget AoE, but unfortunately it doesn't proc anything past the initial spellcast, not like how Bonfire keeps proc'ing things like KB-->KD effects.  I've been curious about Flame Breath, especially since a veteran level 165 with a Fire/Nrg build similar to said they liked it and that you could use the hand-out cast animation (instead of looking like you're trying to spew all over everyone).  But looking at this list it make me have doubts on using a respec to try out Flame Breath.  Is the time-to-cast an issue in combat?

 

Also, not sure what to think about Flares. I used it a lot leveling up, but with enough cooldown redux (recharge) at level 50 I don't have to wait and can usually chain single targets between Blaze and Blazing Bolt with a fireball, build up, aim, or something else thrown in between that cycle.

 

I guess this data just leaves a whole lot more questions on a wide variety of powers.  Seems some of it comes down to how it functions in a combat situation, rather than raw numbers.  Or like you said, Roderick, maybe there's a better alternative and that's why the % is noticeably lower for certain powers.

[roleki]

On 9/10/2019 at 5:16 PM, DoctorGeist said:

Something I'd like to point out... 

Two of the "least popular" power types are Repel and variations on Intangibility powers. You know which power sets get stuck with both? Force Field and Sonic Resonance. But sonic has a lot of popular buffs and debuffs. Force Fields gets... Force Bolt (taken by only 30-40% of players, except for MMs who have to take it as a T1), and Repulsion Bomb (~40-50%). Across all ATs, the numbers for Detention Field and Repulsion Field are roughly in the 25%-35% range. Taken together, that's almost half the powers in the set that are skipped by over half of the players.

 

I'd also hazard that the only reason the numbers are that high for Detention and Repulsion (instead of being in <15% range seen for those powers in other sets) is because after a point you have to take something. 

 

I don't know what the answer is here, but this set gets hit with 2 out of the 3 "worst" types of powers (only missing the single-target taunt), and not a lot to balance it out. The defense shields are absolutely great for everyone else except the character with the power (since they don't affect the user), and the anti-mez bubble is wonderful, but... yeesh.

 

I love my Grav/FF controller, but it's way more about the "Grav" and much less about the "FF". I wish my secondary set had more to offer.

 

(Note of disclosure: I actually do use and enjoy repulsion bomb both because it's thematic for my toon to be tossing everyone around, and because it's a lovely proc holder, so count me in that 46% for that power... but the other 3 are skipped. Although that lack of good options does mean I'm one of the 36% who got stuck taking (but never using) the intangibility power from Gravity, sigh.)

Repulsion Bomb still gets a bad rap from its original, horrible design; even as amended, it doesn't SOUND very useful.  That said, it is an *excellent* opener if you're a solo squish and you need to be in melee to do your thing.  Lob the bomb and follow it; you arrive in melee just as everything hits the deck.  Now you can fire off Nova or Void Judgment or whatever you're there to do and not take any alpha. 

 

Sure it's situational and if it were a pool power I wouldn't dream of taking it, but if FF hands you lemons, might as well make dead goons with it.

[Snarky]

On 9/3/2019 at 11:20 PM, nihilii said:

Interesting to see the number of people who skip kinetics Repel and superstrength Hand Clap, even though these powers are now great mitigation tools with KB-to-KD IOs. Old habits die hard. Even Bonfire only has a ~60% pick rate, and that's with AoE immobilizes suppressing KB now.

I use Handclap now on certain builds.  It makes the SS tank set very tanky before footstomp. Get all armors taunt and handclap with a KD proc. You are now a Tank Bot