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Quote:Something that could be added to such a system, to further differentiate and perhaps enable a swift player to avoid some of the effect by conscious movement: area/volume fill speed and linger time.Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Something like an explosion would be an AoE attack. It would not be conventionally evadeable except by escaping the area of effect completely.
...
To evade an AoE, you have to not be in the area, or be in the area but break line of sight, if the attack requires line of sight. An explosion requires line of sight (to a first order approximation). A poison gas cloud does not.
An explosion requires line of sight but will quickly fill the affected spherical volume, within an animation frame (or perhaps a few frames for the classic slow fireball). A normal explosion will not linger, an incendiary one might have a briefly lingering burning effect.
A poison gas cloud might not require line of sight, but it could require several animation frames to reach its maximum affected area. The cloud might also linger for a bit after it stops spreading. -
There is definitely something odd happening recently with the bug report toolchain, causing bug reports to be handled as other petitions perhaps?
I usually send in bug reports on text errors I find, and normally get an e-mail response saying basically that QA will be notified for a future fix. Last week, on two of them I got a response from a GM that being premium (and ineligible for ingame support) meant I should use these forums instead.
Fortunately it worked out after I logged into the support site and reopened the questions so another GM would take a look at the reports. If this happens to someone else who is premium (which means you can't PM Freitag...) that might be an option to try. -
As a completely free player you might find it a bit hard to get them, without the ability to trade or use the auctionhouse. Once you get them they work fine though. If another character sends one to you as a gift through e-mail, for example. I have not tested, but enhancement tables in a base might also work since issue 23. And of course personally attending all the Liberty/Recluse taskforces and Hami raids you can.
If you are premium with auctionhouse access it is a lot easier. Damage/range are often cheaper than plain level 50 damage SO:s, and acc/mez and damage/mez are usually also reasonably priced. -
Ignoring the debate over whether the current state is intended or not, I'd like to add that the Defender epic Dark Mastery version of Soul Transfer does not include any intentional 0.25 second delay before Untouchable.
As a separate data point, until issue 22, many tankers/scrappers/brutes/stalkers/peacebringers did not get Untouchable at all when using the self rez in their primary/secondary armor set.
Quote:Since the immunity window is apparently considered more important now than it used to be, perhaps that would be an argument in favor of changing it for epic Rise of the Phoenix even if the previous behavior may have been intended when the epic version of the power was created.Originally Posted by Issue 22 patch notes
Self Resurrection Powers
Regeneration / Revive now grants a 15 second window of immunity to most damage after use.
Willpower / Resurgence now grants a 15 second window of immunity to most damage after use.
Luminous Aura / Restore Essence now grants a 15 second window of immunity to most damage after use. -
If you are offered the mission that grants the Cryonite armor (http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Cryonite_Armor includes a list of contacts that might give it to you) I would recommend getting it.
Use it sparingly, turn on before trying a dangerous attack, turn off as soon as the situation is under control to save endurance and temp power runtime. The ugly graphics make sure you don't forget to turn it off. Combine with a purple insp or two for really tough stuff.
The Cryonite armor mission does not grant any badge, so there is no way to earn the power later through Ouroboros. It is most useful while leveling, anyway, not at 50 when anyone can have armor through an epic pool.
I second the recommendation for running the Safeguard missions at appropriate level ranges (if you miss one, try to tag along on team when a lower level friend gets to the right level for that one). The temp power earned from the 5-10 one is nice, but if you miss it 10000 inf would buy the same power if you can get to the vendor across Peregrine Island. The 15-20 safe guard temp power is very nice and lasts for a significant amount of play time, the 20-25 one is also good but will wear out before you can use it much. -
When I visit http://www.paragonwiki.com or http://wiki.cohtitan.com I don't see any ads at all. I do see this statement:
Quote:Note that there is another wiki you might find on the web, recognizable by the word "wikia" present in its server address, which does include rotating ad banners in its pages. That wiki has no connection to the Titan Network. I prefer not to link to it since any link helps it build Google score and it often ends up higher than the good paragonwiki.com site in searches.Ad-Free Fan-Site
Paragon Wiki has been ad-free since 2005. -
Quote:Thanks for trying to help, unfortunately I failed to show what my question was.Originally Posted by Father Xmas
Flash needs extra Acc, it's default is well below the other powers in the set.
Deceive needs recharge, so you can stack it, and confuse to extend the duration. Range can also be useful so you can attack outside of standard detection range (a miss on deceive won't aggro the target).
The Illusion power set has four powers that can slot controller archetype enhancement sets. I mentioned Flash and Deceive to explain why I could not use the damage proc enhancement from the archetype set there, leaving me with two powers (Blind and Spectral Terror) by process of elimination. To use the second archetype set (when that is released), I would put either two procs in Blind, two procs in Spectral Terror or one proc in each of the powers.
If the set bonuses on the second controller set remain as they were in the version that leaked from beta to these forums, it is likely that I would split the first AT set 5+1 with the proc in Blind and the rest in Spectral Terror, then put 3 from the second set in Blind (including the proc), the remaining 3 in Deceive. Then I fill up remaining slots with SOs or Hami-Os to ensure adequate enhancement values.
I would like to evaluate other options before deciding, because as a premium player I can't use the test server to try out a build before respecing. I have seen several sample builds posted in the controller forum where people have put the damage proc from the archetype set in Spectral Terror. They might be forced to put it there due to set bonus constraints, but it is also possible that they are using that slotting because it works well for them.
What I am hoping for is someone who can relate their personal experience with using PPM procs for damage in the power Spectral Terror. -
Quote:I do strongly believe an archetype enhancement proc should have a chance to proc through both the Spectral Terror pet powers. However, I expect that the large area of effect on the aura will give a lower proc chance per target.Originally Posted by T_Immortalus
I would be curious as to how the procs work in Spectral Terror, whether it is a chance every 10 seconds with the fear aura or a chance every time the single target fear is used?
That would be important in your decision.
Edit:
Or maybe it would only work when the pet is summoned if at all. That is a possibility.
When I tried to figure out the proc chance in a spreadsheet I got these figures for a 4PPM enhancement with the current pre-issue 24 formula:
Blind single target attack: 71% on the main target I am trying to hold, if hit.
Blind AoE part, spawned once per hit with single target attack: 51% on each enemy that was hit by the sleep within the 2ft radius.
Spectral Terror single target attack: 54% on one randomly selected target about every eight seconds, if hit.
Spectral Terror AoE part, triggered once per ten seconds: 17% on each enemy that is hit with the fear within the 20ft radius.
My spreadsheet result is close to actual results in live play for Blind after adjusting for when the pet misses with its attack. Its hit chance roll is not shown in chat log but it should have base 1.0 accuracy.
I am hoping for someone who has tested the proc in Spectral Terror to comment on their results. Is it practical to use for damage purposes while also using the power for control? -
Coyote:
+917.4% JumpHeight
+291.3% SpeedJumping
+325.5% SpeedRunning
Ninja Run:
+695% JumpHeight
+137% SpeedJumping
+140% SpeedRunning
Figures according to most recent Mids' database.
Detoggling of other powers during use may also be a significant difference, depending on your powerset. -
On my Illusion/Empathy controller, I am considering what to change when the next archetype set comes out. I would also like to prepare for issue 24 when proc chance will change with slotted recharge. I am currently playing as premium without an IO license, so my builds are SOs with archetype sets.
Flash is not in my current build, I am a bit short on power picks.
Deceive is not a good place for a damage proc, since I want it to remain aggro-free. I could still use it for set bonuses from partial archetype sets, but in my current build it is just standard SOs.
Blind is currently enhanced 1 recharge, 1 endurance, 1 accuracy, 2 damage and the archetype enhancement damage proc, at level 47 I plan to start using Hami-Os for acc/mez and dam/mez to improve hold duration. I use this power in every fight. I might want good recharge on Blind for stacking holds, but that will reduce proc chance after issue 24.
Spectral Terror currently holds the remaining five enhancements from the archetype set, for the recharge bonus. I use this power a lot in most fights, but not always (it stops confused enemies from adding to my damage).
Power specifics:
Blind has cast time 1.67 seconds, base recharge 9 seconds, causes normal single target damage and hold, and also creates a pseudopet at the targeted enemy. The pseudopet has an auto power: 2ft radius sphere of mag 2 sleep. It is tagged with a reactivation interval of 2 seconds, but the pet despawns after 1 second. The archetype enhancement proc can trigger both on the single target attack and on any enemy hit by the sleep from the pseudopet. It is even possible to hit the original target twice, if both proc chances trigger.
Spectral Terror has cast time 3.2 seconds, base recharge 45 seconds, creates a pet when cast. The pet lives for 45 seconds before despawning, but is also despawned when the power is reused (only one out at a time). The pet has two powers: one auto 20ft radius sphere of mag 3 Terrorized which also includes -15% tohit, reactivation interval 5 seconds. Also, one single target 50ft range 2.03 cast 6 second recharge power with mag 3 Terrorized, -15% tohit, and status effect Afraid. I think (but have not verified) that the archetype enhancement would proc both from the auto power and the single target attack.
Question:
I like how the proc works in Blind, but I am curious if someone else can share practical experience of using PPM procs in Spectral Terror.
I would just copy the character to Test and try out a respec, but premium players can't access that server. -
If it is not a Praetorian, you might also want to check if the account you are inviting has accidentally toggled on some "block SG invites" option. I think the normal hide from invites slash command would block both team and SG invites, but perhaps there is a variant option I have not seen.
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A completely free account (never paid anything) can't be invited to an existing SG and can't create one either, as ElectroKitty suggested. In issue 23 they should be possible to invite.
However, a Premium account (has at least two Paragon reward tokens, indicating they have at least once in the past spent money on subscription or bought points) should work better.
I have a Premium account which is leader of a SG and has successfully invited other characters to that SG, most recently two months ago. The only thing I have noticed as blocked for a Premium character in an existing SG is paying base rent.
Praetorians can't be invited until they leave Praetoria (even if you meet them in Pocket D), could you verify whether that was the problem for you? -
Quote:A premium player can edit the base as long as his rank in the SG has the appropriate permission. You are correct that free and premium can't create an SG.Originally Posted by ImpulseKing
Currently only VIPs can create a SG, pay rent, or edit the base.
Currently, your second token is what unlocks the ability to join a SG. A free player gets their first token when they create the account. They get their next token when they either buy points (turning them from free to premium) or if they subscribe as VIP.Quote:Originally Posted by ImpulseKing
In addition you presently have to have at least 1 Paragon rewards token before you can join an SG on live. (i23 will let free players join SGs, but there is no info I know of about whether they can create, edit, or pay rent.) -
Ah, I think your worry is that the unlocks you had already used on that server are now wasted on unlocking empty slots.
Server slots that are not currently used but still permanently tied to that server are shown as unlocked but unused (empty) slots. When you unlock a character using a server slot, it decreases the amount of unlocked empty server slots.
An example, for a premium:
- I have five unlocked characters, five locked characters and three unlocked empty character slots.
- Using 5/8 server slots.
- I unlock one of the locked characters, using a server slot.
- Now I have six unlocked characters, four locked characters and two unlocked empty character slots.
- Using 6/8 server slots.
- I unlock two more of the locked characters, using server slots.
- Now I have eight unlocked characters, two locked characters and no unlocked empty character slots.
- Using 8/8 server slots.
- I buy a global unlock, then unlock one more character, spending my global unlock token to do so and permanently putting that slot on this server.
- Now I have nine unlocked characters, one locked character and no unlocked empty slots.
- Using 9/9 server slots.
- I delete one of the unlocked characters.
- Now I have eight unlocked characters, one locked character and one unlocked empty character slot.
- Using 8/9 server slots.
- I unlock the last locked character.
- Now I have nine unlocked characters and no unlocked empty slots.
- Using 9/9 server slots. -
Quote:I think you can already rename one of the default ranks to "Base Designer" and set the editing restrictions you want on that rank, then withhold them from other ranks (both above and below).Originally Posted by Solairis
Base Designer specialty title/rank- Current settings allow for all who share a particular rank the ability to alter the base, which can lead to the problem of too many chefs in the kitchen syndrome at times. Having a singular title would eliminate potential drama and also allow SGs to hire outside base designers without having to worry about potential conflicts disturbing team chemistry.
One problem with my idea comes when you want to give base designer access to someone who should also have access to other permissions in the SG (invite etc). The solution to that would be for the intended architects to have a "designer alt" and assign only those alternate characters the designer rank.
Another problem I see with my idea above is to decide which of your current ranks you rename to make the new one. That would depend on if you have any levels that are currently underutilized in your SG, while also thinking of who should be allowed to promote others to it.
If you see some other problem with my solution above, then you might want to add that to your explanation of why your suggestion is needed. -
My understanding was that when you land after a fall, the game checks the vertical distance you fell (measured from the highest point of the jump if you jumped, or from where you stopped flying if you were flying before, or from the edge if you walked off a ledge). If that fall distance is less than your current maximum jump height, then you take no damage.
If you run a toggle like beast/ninja run or super jump, then your maximum jump height is increased. If my assumption above is correct, then turning off the super jump toggle mid-jump could result in a landing with significant fall damage.
This is probably most interesting for the Good vs Evil 30 second jump pack, which can often run out while you are in the air. -
A while back I was looking into what it would take for permanent Phantom Army on a controller which did not have +Recharge in its secondary. That turned out to be the most purple build I have designed so far.
I'd never spend that much on a build myself, but if you want expensive while putting each purple set in a power where it is actually beneficial...
Illusion Control / Force Field / Stone Mastery, + fitness/speed/fighting pools.
Apocalypse in Spectral Wounds,
Hecatomb in Seismic Smash,
Ragnarok in Fissure,
Unbreakable Constraint in Blind,
Coercive Persuasion in Deceive,
Absolute Amazement (only Chance for ToHit debuff) in Fissure,
Five LotG +Recharge in various defensive powers,
Four of those defense powers also got five each Red Fortune for more recharge boost,
Force Bolt got sixslotted Kinetic Crash for 51.2 knockback combined with the recharge bonus (when I designed that character I believed that Archvillains had just 50 points of knockback protection, that was incorrect so you might skip that part).
48.4% smashing/lethal defense, 30.3% psionic, 25.3% to all others, capped HP thanks to permanent Earth's Embrace.
59 second recharge on Phantom Army, 116.3 on Hasten with only two slots.
I don't recall why I didn't use the purple pet set in either Phantom Army or Phantasm, probably because I was going for maximum recharge and those did not give that bonus whereas the recharge intensive pet set did.
You could slot five of the Stun set in Boxing too, my sample build didn't since Phantom Army was already perma. I didn't put any PvP sets in it either, even though the build was just for fun, so you can get a lot more expensive by using those of course. Sorry about not giving the Mid's build but I edited my Mid's database a bit recently (looking ahead towards changes currently on test/issue 19) and I am not sure the build would be compatible. -
The number of choices is already high enough that spending dev time on an improved way to select your item (divide lists into groups? or select an item, then extra features like textured surface, scratched etc?) seems like a high priority issue to me.
If that is done well, the problems with option 2 in your poll would be smaller.
The reason I myself lean towards option 2 is that the current rather bland textures are open to use with more imagination than pieces that are "locked" into only being for one particular design.
Let me show an example I tossed together:
I know, it is not a very good costume, but the point I wanted to make is that it uses costume parts in a way that I bet the designer did not originally plan for, and might not take into account during an update.
If you update the "Savage" body texture to improve its looks for the majority that use it "correctly", it might make it less suitable for other uses such as simulating the belly straps here.
If you update the "Horleus" face mask to show wrinkles on the fabric part, it will make it less suitable to be used for things like this, where what was designed as textile fabric is used as the skin and the "skin" showing through in the original mesh part of the texture can be seen as a facial tattoo.
By the way, if you fix the problem several people have been posting about that the ears show through the masks, this character would look like she had very strange ears (or none). That problem is still worth fixing though!
I don't use either of those combos currently, but I do have some more subtle ones on actual characters. Two of those characters already got costume problems by the shininess update making pieces that clipped with each other look like separate sections of different surfaces instead of parts of a whole. Individually the parts look better, but in the combo I used them they were less good than before. -
Bid on a stack with one character, sell one at a time with one or more others. Leave the bought stack in the "bid" slot. Use a selling price that is too high for others to interfere. Drawback: market fees.
Enhancement tables in a personal SG is a better solution. -
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Updated the text slightly, trying to improve the tone since it was coming across wrong as per Transhade's post.
Especially nice with Memphis_Bill's input since it reminded me of something that I had not thought of at all, which is that some powersets for melee characters don't get mez protection until level 16. I will move Clear Mind down to level 8 on one of my Empathy characters on next respec and see if I find it useful down there, thanks! I removed the information about when I take it from the entry for the power since it will no longer be accurate after that respec.
Finally, a note about sounding "passive-aggressive" regarding Empathy and healing. This was probably caused by an incident when I was on my Kin/Sonic defender and got teamed with an Earth/Empathy controller that said in team chat she was very happy to be on her first "pure healer character". I actually had to heal her more than anything else (she seemed to like using area effect immobilization with DoT to attack, negating my normal area effect crowd control of sleep and knockback cones). Yes, she had taken the Medicine Pool and tried to use Aid Self during combat... She also put Adrenalin Boost on me before I told her it was better on someone else, since I already had enough recharge to Fulcrum Shift us to permanent damage cap. No Fortitude though. If people are going to try to build "healers", some of them really need some guidance. -
During the patch downtime today I made note of some thoughts regarding powers in the Empathy set. I am thinking of formatting them into a guide, since the last posted guide for the powerset is rather old now. I tried to keep a light tone but am looking forward to hearing input from you if there are points where that obscures the actual meaning.
If this seems helpful I will reformat the text for easier reading before moving it to the Guides forum.
Quote:Guide: The "selfish" empath
I am writing this because I have on more than one of my characters that has Empathy as primary or secondary been told by teammates that I am good at "healing". Empathy is more than that though, and I would like to showcase some thoughts on all its powers (including heals). I also noticed most guides on this forum that focus on Empathy seem rather old.
You should read up on the real numbers for the powers, but there is no point writing those numbers into this post. It is already written more comprehensively in City of Data and will be updated there if the powers are changed in the future.
Defender version: http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/power...r_Buff.Empathy
Controller version: http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/power...r_Buff.Empathy
Healing Aura
This is the only direct self heal you get. If you are a controller it will be your starting power. As a defender you may postpone it depending on your playstyle, one of my characters waited until level 10 but that was a bit late.
It will also heal any allies within a 25 foot radius (a 50 foot diameter circle), standard melee attacks have 7 foot range for comparison. If you can use the full heal effect on two allies at once (including yourself) it will achieve the same endurance efficiency as one cast of Heal Other, any less than that and this becomes inefficient. A special note for efficiency freaks is standing within a group of mastermind pets, often catching both them and the mastermind.
Healing yourself during combat takes time away from shooting enemies. If you only use this power when necessary it will improve your damage output which could give a shorter battle. When you are the only one in need of a heal, a green inspiration is faster and does not cost you endurance.
On the other hand, you can still move while using this power. Remember to heal yourself while you reposition yourself for your next attack or move from spawn to spawn, since that is "free" timewise. The targets healed will be those which were in range when your command to activate the power reached the server, even when you move before the power is finished.
Enhance this first for maximum heal (whenever you spend the time to use it, make it count), second for endurance discount, third for recharge.
A sample enhancement at level 50 could be five Doctored Wounds (all except the plain Recharge) and the Heal/Endurance/Recharge from another set. This will both enhance the power very well and give you a recharge bonus for your other powers.
Heal Other
As a defender, this is your other choice for starting power. If you feel that healing yourself is a waste of time in the early levels, this may be a better initial choice than Healing Aura. As a controller, you might delay it a bit since you probably have more important powers to take early (damage dealing or controls).
Just like Healing Aura, don't waste your valuable attacking time by healing too early. Your teammate might take care of things by himself, leaving you free to keep shooting stuff. If you have the safety net of Absorb Pain, you can delay Heal Other even longer. Try to get a feeling for which teammates will just take the occasional hit and then stop there versus those that will require your full attention when they get aggro.
Remember to use this in between fights. Whenever your endurance reaches full, check if you can "store" some of that excess endurance in a teammates health bar by topping them up. This is endurance you won't have to spend later, when you have better things to do.
As long as there is only one injured teammate, Heal Other is always better than Healing Aura. If there are two teammates hurt, you will have the same endurance cost and total amount healed from two casts of Healing Aura or two casts of Heal Other (assuming equal enhancement in the powers). I would personally still prefer Heal Other, since it recharges faster and does not require me to consider my positioning as much.
Try to figure out which of your attacks and control powers have cast times equal or less to your Heal Other recharge time. Try to fit them in even if you are maxed out and casting Heal Other as often as you can (if you are a defender, you probably have a good endurance discount from hurt teammates since you are chainhealing, meaning the attacks give good value for endurance right now). Don't bother targeting enemies, just keep whoever you are healing/planning to heal targeted and shoot their targets. Exceptions from targeting through others could be if they or you are a controller trying to put enemies to sleep, or if your powers have knockback and they are melee.
If you are standing near the tank (and that character really needs the healing), you can alternate between Heal Other and Healing Aura, the aura will help against the area effect damage you are likely to take in that position. You can't put either of them on auto though since you would need to stop queuing up attacks for an auto power to fire. Unless you have enormous recharge buffs there should still be time for a fast casting attack to be mixed in during each cycle.
My enhancement recommendations for this power are similar to Healing Aura, but with a higher priority on getting some recharge in it early. With base recharge time it will be annoying to heal several individuals with it, and even if you have only a single tank taking damage you still don't want to have to waste endurance interleaving Healing Auras between your casts just because your recharge on Heal Other can't keep up. The sample enhancement for a level 50 character is still the same, at that level and with six slots there is enough room to get both decent recharge and endurance efficiency. I have so far only rarely been in situations where I would have wanted to enhance its range, having a wall in between you and your target that blocks line of sight is more common than having them too far away.
Absorb Pain
This is a power with restrictions on its use that make it impractical or dangerous in some of the situations when you need it the most. I still like having it available, since this power has the potential to make you more efficient even when you don't actually cast it (most of the time).
Regardless of the recharge you put in the power, the main limitation for how often you can use it is that you need time to heal yourself up between the 20 second periods of heal immunity/regeneration debuff caused by each cast. In most situations aggro and area effect attacks are too hard to predict to use this all the way to low HP on yourself. It is better to just let the teammate drop and use Resurrect.
The heal effect from one Absorb Pain is equal to about 2.5 Heal Other and exactly 5 Healing Auras, for the same casting time as one Heal Other and negligible endurance cost. As I mentioned for Heal Other, the fact that you know you have Absorb Pain as backup means you will delay your cast of Heal Other more often, making it more likely to use its full healing power. This also gives more time for natural regeneration (or Regeneration Aura) to take care of the teammate without you having to cast anything.
Normally Absorb Pain would be the reserve, not your first choice. On the other hand I have one controller where their build plan actually does not include Heal Other, only Absorb Pain. So far it seems to work since the controller (Illusion) can decide pretty well whether to draw aggro or not. While taking hits myself, Healing Aura is efficient enough, otherwise Absorb Pain is safe. That is a special case since the controller is also trying to work without the Fitness pool and the high endurance efficiency of Absorb Pain gives some benefit, combined with the fact that it is very time-efficient (no wasted time for healing means I can focus on control).
During periods where you have Regeneration Aura active on yourself Absorb Pain might move up to primary heal, since that nice regeneration boost you have might otherwise be wasted. You would have to stack five of the regen debuffs from Absorb Pain to equal the buff from (unenhanced) Regeneration Aura. Since the powers work so well together, you may want to delay this power and take it closer to the level you get Regeneration Aura.
Enhancements can be pretty easy for this power, two common heal IO:s will give it about the same healing power as most squishies have hitpoints (tankers still have room to fill up more). On the controller I mentioned the final plan puts three Numina's in it (Heal, Heal/Recharge, Heal/Endurance/Recharge), the set bonuses to regeneration and maximum HP are valuable both in general and for using this particular power.
Resurrect
Some people will claim that if you are good enough with the other powers, this power isn't needed. Especially now that you can combine to make awakens, use charges from a day job power or buy a temp power recipe.
Personally I see this power as the extra backup plan. When aggro risk prevents using Absorb Pain safely I can let the teammate rest a second on the floor, then quickly put them back on their feet with a complete health/endurance recovery. The other options for getting them back either require longer cast time, give less health and endurance or would require me to cast Clear Mind on them once they are up. The refresh on this power keeps you from using it again during the same fight so you might still want some charges of the day job version for situations where more than one friend drops.
Since the teammate will be unbuffed when standing back up, check if your Fortitude is recharged. If there was too much incoming damage for them to stand up against before, you have to change something to avoid them dropping back to the floor immediately.
My enhancement for this power is usually the same, just one slot with a common endurance IO. Since it is most useful during combat, it is important not to waste endurance on it that could be spent shooting stuff. If you need recharge someone on the team seems to be doing something wrong (charge up your day job to alternate with this instead of wasting slots!).
Clear Mind
For me, this used to be the only power in the set that I feel forced to take but didn't like since it only protects for 60 seconds. However, cast time was reduced from 3 seconds to 1 second in Issue 18. This means keeping this up preemptively on squishies in the team might now be less annoying than seeing them type "zzzz".
Stun and hold removal or prevention on teammates is what I consider its primary function. In some situations you will stack up several casts on the same teammate preemptively when you know you are sending someone into a situation where they will receive abnormal mez magnitudes.
Enemies that blind are rare but very annoying, be ready to cast this to free your teammates. Since you can't cast it on yourself, you might want to bring some yellow inspirations.
Confusion and fear are rare and I'd rather keep tactics running to protect both myself and my team, but if you don't have that use Clear Mind there too.
For sleep, it is easier, faster and more efficient to wake them with a shot of Heal Other. You can still use Clear Mind because it adds future protection though, and also because most teammates don't care and will just type "zzzz" regardless of whether they are slept or held/stunned.
An immobilization is annoying but not usually something that requires Clear Mind (melee characters should use their own protection, most others have ranged attacks, many will have Combat Jumping for protection anyway).
Note: This power does NOT protect against knockback/repel like Increase Density from Kinetics does. Unfortunately if you have a Kinetics player on the team they will probably claim to be too busy and still leave you with this duty (and they are probably correct, too).
Comment thanks to Memphis_Bill: You can take this power earlier than even some non-squishies get their own mez protection from their armor set. Especially Fiery Aura, Regeneration and Invulnerability on scrappers, brutes or stalkers are late in getting their own ways to handle mez.
Enhancements: Consider whether to use recharge, or endurance reduction. Used reactively and seldom, no enhancements are needed. When used preemptively to stack on someone or when you need to cast it on more than one teammate at once (if the enemy has area effect mez powers), you need the recharge. For keeping it on squishies in advance, endurance enhancements might be nice. I don't like to spend more than one or two slots on it in my builds but you might have room for more depending on your planned use of it.
Fortitude
With decent recharge and Hasten you can reach about 22 seconds cycle time (cast time + recharge). That is enough to put this power on about four teammates (you will not be able to keep it up gapless on all of them when Hasten runs out though). In my opinion, this power is useful whoever you are putting it on. Also remember that it does not have to be the same group that you rotate through, you can mix and match who gets it depending on who you feel it would help you the most to put it on.
A teammate taking damage: 15-24% extra defense means you probably don't need to heal them as often, giving you more time to blast. Only players already past the softcap might say no to this.
A teammate who is dealing damage: 25-31% extra damage enhancement is useful on anyone, unless some Kinetics friend nearby is keeping everyone fulcrum shifted to the damage cap.
A teammate who is dealing damage/controlling/debuffing: 15-25% extra to-hit buff makes a very large difference. Only people who are already at the 95% cap for final to-hit chance would lack benefit from this. However, since many characters are actually built to reach that on their own, this will be your lowest priority for enhancing.
If all your teammates already fit the criteria for "no-benefit-from-Fortitude", have a nice shooting trip for the remainder of the mission!
Enhancements: It looks like the perfect fit would be Hamidon enhancements, namely Membrane Exposures, giving very good enhancement with just 3 slots. Unfortunately they can be expensive. A cheaper mix at the cost of two extra slots could be four from a defense set (the three with recharge enhancement plus the global recharge from Luck of the Gambler, for example) plus one Membrane or a common recharge IO. Real cheapskate slotting would be taking a plain Defense and a Defense/Recharge from any set plus two common recharge IO:s, this is assuming your teammates are responsible for their own softcapping and you mostly buff them for the damage.
Recovery Aura
This power is very useful for soloing, since you can use fewer endurance enhancements in your powers and possibly even skip Fitness if you accept that you might need to rest once during the gap where you don't have Recovery Aura active or conserve power through other means. This power (slotted) can add 400% recovery which will put anyone except a Defender, Controller, Dominator or Mastermind at their hardcap for endurance recovery without any other buffs or Stamina (it is eight times more powerful than Stamina). See http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Limits#Endurance_Recovery
On teams, you may want to consider where you position yourself before you refresh it. Think of which teammates would make you the most happy if they had more endurance on hand. This depends both on their playstyle and their builds. If your tanker wants to rest before running to the next spawn, standing near him when you recast the aura will give you more stuff to shoot faster. If your blaster is overnuking so much that you spend all your time healing him, giving him even more endurance becomes a low priority (though hopefully the rate of kills on the team is fast at least).
The radius of the buff is 25 feet, same as Healing Aura. Since you should be familiar with that range it should be easy for you to determine who will get hit. In the very rare situation that I really feel that two people on the team must have this buff, and they never stand within 50 feet of eachother before I need to refresh the buff for my own needs, I might call out something like "RA near tank next fight". If they don't listen to that it is their loss...
If I know that a boss fight is coming up I may hold off on refreshing Recovery Aura and then try to catch everyone on the team just before they run through a door or other chokepoint.
If you plan to use Recovery Aura to soften a nuke crash for yourself or a teammate, check up on the amount of the recovery crash. For example, Blackstar (the tier 9 in the Dark Blast set) has a crash that first removes all endurance, then applies a 1000% debuff to recovery. Recovery Aura won't help against this. On the other hand, Force of Nature in the defender Ancillary Power Mastery will only cause a 100% debuff to recovery after removing all endurance, so with Recovery Aura on you will start gaining again immediately.
I tend to sixslot this power, but it is much more important to get some recharge in early to even out the ups and downs than to enhance the actual endurance modification. You could easily get by with fewer slots. For a level 50 sixslotted build plan, you could mix items from two different End Mod sets with two common recharge IO:s. The plain End mod and the End mod/Recharge ones from the sets seem a given but you may want the End mod/Endurance IO from Efficacy Adaptor instead since it really stinks to lack the endurance to cast this power when you need it the most.
This power is one of the bigger differences between controller Empathy and defender Empathy. For defenders, it comes at level 18 and will be available even when exemplared to Positron's Taskforce, the lowest you will normally need. Controllers have to wait until level 28 and may want to consider alternate measures for endurance efficiency during levels 1-27 (or 1-22 exemplared).
Regeneration Aura
Like Recovery Aura, this power is very useful when you play solo since you can regain hitpoints without having to waste time casting actual heals at that particular time. However, as long as you lack some resistance/defense armor, you are still not quite a tank. Your lower hitpoint maximum will also mean fewer hitpoints regenerated per second than for an actual tanker.
On a team, while this buff is on the team you can switch to full blast mode, normally waiting for your teammates to recover health on their own and only using Absorb Pain as a last rescue. Those who also have Fortitude should be safe without causing you any bother.
The buff radius is the same as Recovery Aura. Since the increased regeneration on your teammates is more relevant to you than to them (if they expect you to keep them standing with heals when they missed the aura), plan your target selection accordingly. The characters who benefit the most from high regeneration are the ones with high maximum hitpoint level, exactly the ones which require a lot of work and time from you to heal using normal Heal Others. I would normally never bother announcing the cast of this one, saying "now the other RA near tank next fight" will just get people confused.
Note: Sometimes it is smart to cast both Recovery Aura and Regeneration Aura at the same time and hit the same people with both buffs, while other times you want to cast Regeneration Aura shortly before Recovery Aura runs out (so you have time to recover the high end cost of this buff before the recovery buff ends). That way they overlap and help out in different ways during different periods. Which is better? Since you will be shooting a lot during the active period for Regeneration Aura, this may depend on if you have enough endurance recovery to blast fulltime without Recovery Aura active.
Since I like to be able to solo my build plans usually spend five or six slots on this but I probably would do the same even if I teamed exclusively. You will have to decide whether to go for recharge or heal enhancements first, but if you plan to cast it together with Recovery Aura it helps a lot to go for a similar amount of recharge. If you plan to alternate the two buffs it is more important to have enough recharge to be able to recast this with some margin before Recovery Aura runs out. A sample fiveslot build at level 50 could be all Doctored Wounds except the Heal/Endurance, with six slots I'd add a Heal/Recharge from some other set to that.
Adrenalin Boost
Recharge: Almost a Hasten-and-a-half, or the same as the Geas of the Kind Ones accolade. Useful on anyone except a character with an attack chain so speeded that it would take more than a 100% buff to enable them to cut out the worst power and switch to a better chain.
Regeneration: Exactly the same as Regeneration Aura. Both powers together (enhanced) can put most archetypes at their hard cap for regeneration. As mentioned by that power, putting regeneration on characters with high maximum hitpoints will save you a lot of time casting heals on them.
Recovery: Four times as much as Recovery Aura, 32 times as much as Stamina. Even without End Mod enhancements this will put any archetype at their recovery hard cap, unless they also have recovery debuffs active. Since you can already put most characters at their recovery hard cap with just Recovery Aura, this is not as interesting as it might sound. Together with Recovery Aura, or alone with some End Mod enhancement, it can keep a character recovering endurance straight through most tier 9 crashes. Those tend to debuff recovery by either 100%, 1000% or 10000%. Only the last type can't be ignored after Adrenalin Boost (an example of that "worst case" is Power Surge in Electric Armor).
Slow resist: 80%, really high, and applies to both movement and recharge debuffs. How useful this is depends on what enemies you fight, most characters will love it against caltrops and some cold/psi attacks.
Blasters and brutes are archetypes I find it very interesting to put this on, but it could be useful for many different people, in different ways. Unfortunately you can only get enough recharge to put this on one person at a time, and even that may have a gap unless you have really extreme recharge. Either stick to putting it on one player all the time or swap it around occasionally (you can give the excuse "I am sure your fingers must be getting tired from keeping up that level of intensity..."). Ideally you want it to be on the player that will help the team most by using it. Special mention goes out to someone with a buff/debuff or control power that is really nice for the entire team but has a long recharge timer (especially area effect versions such as Heat Loss, Liquefy etc). If your team has two empaths, you might even set up a deal with the other one to buff eachother, use it for your blasting but justify it to the team with "you really like getting those RAs more often, right?"
.
When I looked at my build plans for this power on different characters I saw I had it scheduled to use from one slot (on a mostly solo build using it to give its pet some occasional regeneration) to five or six slots. If you have the slots go for recharge to ED cap, then consider whether you want to slot end mod so a blaster buffed by this can use his nuke and still gain endurance afterwards. Unless you specifically plan for that use case, end mod enhancements have no effect here. Heal enhancements are the only other thing I'd use (from sets, of course, to get both heal and recharge maxed easier).
Some strategies and general tips that are not tied to any particular power:
- Viewing the game from a third-person vantage point, slightly behind and above your character, will make it a lot easier to determine when you have the right people within your aura radius.
- Try to check who else on the team has a heal. If they like using it, cooperate so they get a chance to do it efficiently.
Especially valid if you are teamed with a Kinetics or Dark Miasma character, their area effect heal does twice the amount of your Healing Aura. Try to wait and see if they will cast it so you don't have to. Their heals will also give useful debuffs on the enemy. Since their heal requires a to-hit check and is centered on an enemy, be ready to back them up if they miss, and fill in with Heal Other on people outside the radius of their circle.
On the other hand, your Heal Other is more efficient than what most other healers will be using if you have enhanced it according to my preferred lines (Heal first, then endurance, recharge last). I rather dislike when I am deliberately waiting to heal to let someone lose enough hitpoints that my entire heal will fit without overfilling their health bar but someone else on the team is wasting their time chaincasting inefficient small heals and keeping the bar from dropping to the level where I would cast my heal. The same applies if they cast during the animation for my heal so we both spend the cast time but one of the power applications is totally wasted.
I tend to avoid Absorb Pain when teamed with another character that likes to heal. First there can be confusion because I am waiting so long to use it, then they don't know how long to wait before they can heal me afterward.
- For teammates with lower maximum hitpoints, you need to be a lot more alert when healing.
Try to test how large a percentage of their hitpoint bar you will cover with a single cast of Heal Other. For a squishie that has not enhanced their maximum HP with accolades or set bonuses, a single cast might represent half their hitpoints or more. On a tank, it might be 15-20% of the bar.
Try to cast Heal Other on a squishie slightly before they reach the level where it will fit, for safety margin purposes. When a squishie has already gone below the level where Heal Other would take them to full, Absorb Pain is preferable if it is safe for yourself. If they lost the first bunch of hitpoints too fast for you to notice in time, they are likely to keep hurting faster than you can recharge Heal Other.
On the other hand, on a tanker or high HP scrapper, it is better to wait until the entire heal will fit. This is for three reasons: First, to avoid using your own healing inefficiently; second, a good tanker or scrapper might take care of it on their own; third, to leave room for them to regenerate. This applies even if you are using the very large heal from Absorb Pain. Exception: If you are using Power Boost or Power Buildup with Absorb Pain it can heal over 2000 hitpoints, at that point trying to ensure the entire heal will fit may become dangerous even for some tankers.
- What heals you want to use may depend on your attack powerset. Powers may also influence your teammates positioning.
Since I usually try to use single target heals as my first choice of heal, I don't care too much about where people position themselves. Most importantly, it also means I am free to move around and set up my own cones without hugging the tanker. Though I can usually get decent cone placement while still keeping within 25 feet from the tanker, the more narrow a cone is, the further away you want to stand to get decent width.
- Though I normally don't bother filling up the health bar for someone who is close to full, there is one important distinction when facing certain enemies that can do more damage with a single hit than a squishy character can even have hitpoints. If the target was originally exactly full health, it will stop at 1 hp and require a second attack before falling. When the health of the target is anything less than completely full, it can drop immediately from the first shot.
- I won't discuss your control/attack Powerset much, but to leave your options open for switching to some Empathy power when needed I can really recommend to focus your other powerset around powers with a short cast time. How many of them you take depends on what you need for a complete attack chain and control requirements. I have one Archery defender that gets by with just three attacks plus the tier 9 Rain of Arrows (the quick recharge gives a gapless attack chain and acceptable area effect damage) but at least all the attacks are sixslotted. -
Thanks for verifying that the same thing is occuring for everyone that runs this, and giving what Ibelieve is the correct analysis: scripted events at 75, 50 and 25 percent health.
Maybe they wanted to give her rather low max hp, which also means slow regen, without making the encounter completely trivial to characters with high burst damage. -
I defeated her and got the mission complete text, blue exit button shows up etc. Then for some reason she stands up again and is ready to go again with full HP... so I dropped her again.
Has this happened to others, with this or other enemies? It was the first time ever I saw this behavior, and it did not happen when I did the same mission with another character later. I am not sure whether it is a known bug or not.
I got mission reward the first time, but enemy defeat reward (enhancements etc) the second time. She spoke her "defeated" line again the second time she was defeated, but I did not hear any of the inbetween ones (aggro, 75%, 50%, 25%) during the second run.
I was demorecording at the time, here are the lines around the first defeat:
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0 51 Chat 4 0 "Nocturne: No...my Lord Recluse...I...failed..." -
If you have done a tip mission where you ran in and defeated the boss (or some other objective) without clearing the map, remember that you may continue fighting in the map and perhaps get a new tip right away. As soon as the blue Exit button has shown up the previous tip slot is cleared and you are allowed to get a new tip (unless you have already filled the five fame slots).