Dechs Kaison

They gain no less from sets than Tanks. At this point, tanks have more than enough survivability for anything, and yet the easiest thing to gain from IOs is survivability. There is very little that can be done to increase damage output.

Likewise with an MM, you can add +HP, +regen, and +defense until you won't ever realistically die. You can add +recovery so that you can run more team toggle powers more often. MMs still benefit from more recharge, as they will be able to use their debilitating debuffs more often.

There is a fundamental problem with IO bonuses. Sure. But it's not unique to MMs.

This would be true if it were a proc, e.g. Numina's +Regen/+Recovery.

The Steadfast +3% Defense is a global IO, which provides a set like bonus at all times, until you exemplar more than three levels below that of the IO.

Whether it is in True Grit or Tough that you've taken at level 49, if the IO is level 30, you keep the bonus exemplared to 27 and no lower.

Except that 8 man team of lower level characters will be generating far less influence than one level 50 solo farming.

Level 50s earn double influence because they no longer earn experience. Level 50 common recipes also vendor for disproportionately high influence values.

For what it's worth, his stance is that seeing as it is a optional, minimal interest QoL thing that would require substantial coding work, it is hardly worth the development time required.

It's a stance I cannot argue with.

Nope. If I do that, I come right back to SS/WP. I appreciate the advice, but it's already been decided.

Claws/Dark.

And I will make it work.

Because Dark Armor Still Sucks.

Bah, let it help BU, AS, and Placate. You're still going to spend the time activating them.

I don't know if it really helps unless you can actually decrease the casting time, though. I say this because you might quickly get to a soft recharge cap where you're rotating the two most damaging attacks you have, and further recharge would be wasted. I could be way off, of course.

I dunno, though, the idea has some serious merit. Maybe a combination of the two? More common crits on the target and +recharge. Swing heavy attacks faster, crit more often. Rolling snowball.

Yes they can. By a ton (85%).

No, it's probably not.

Which leaves FF, right? Any I'm missing?

Yeah. So while the majority of masterminds have the potential to solo GMs, zero scrappers or brutes can.

Just for emphasis.

I've got a Dark/Fire tank that I occasionally farm purple drops on by doing a -1/x8 freakshow map. At that point, I don't need much damage anyway.

I don't farm with his original build. I have a second one that I specced for hasten, build up, and enough resistance to last through a mob. It's on the real damn cheap and doesn't have more than a few set IOs. I skipped tough/weave. It takes build up and three AoEs before everything's pretty close to dead.

If I were to start sinking money into that build, though, to get the kill speed even faster, I know I'd be better off sinking that same amount of cash to make a brute tough enough and still add more damage/recharge.

I'm just going to walk through this.

Right click an enhancement slot. This brings up the enhancement pop up window.

Click on the sets icon, or the common IO icon. At this point, just type two digits. Now finish selecting the IO you want.

If you've typed an invalid level, e.g. a level 13 common IO or a level 40 Eradication, Mids will automatically adjust to the nearest valid level.

Isn't math fun?

If farming is your only concern, I'd go elec. You can tailor to mobs that won't kill you with either set, but the damage auras are the same and elec gets some bonus recharge and will never run out of endurance.

You can go into configuration and set a default level.

Also, when selecting an ehnancement, you may manually type in the level you desire the enhancement to be.

I use this frequently, as I don't put sets in any higher than level 40, unless they are bonuses I don't care about and I'm trying to get the best enhancement values.

Very much this. If you are going to complain about high prices and ripping people off, farming is the last thing you should be doing.

I agree, and that's how I would calculate that integral. I guess I was using the word to represent the function of "finding the area under a curve," not actually writing out the equation of that curve, then integrating that curve.

Well, when Scrappers start being able to solo Giant Monsters like MMs can, I'll start to care that they can do more "damage."

It's all in this post.

You basically do an integral of that graph, which gives you the total amount of damage boost scourge accounts for.

EDIT: I don't know where you are in the scale of calculus knowledge, so I'll try to break it down a little more. The white area in that graph represents the occasions a corruptor's attacks will do single damage, and the blue represents the occasions a corruptor's attacks will do double damage.

Imagine every pixel on that graph is an attack. Look at 30% health now, just as an example. There are just as many blue pixels on that line as white pixels. If there were one hundred pixels going up that line, it would represent fifty attacks that hit for double damage, and fifty that hit for regular damage. Adding those together, you get one hundred occasions which will do 150 occasions' worth of damage. If every enemy were always at 30% health, scourge would account for a 50% damage increase.

By taking the integral (or, said another way, calculating the area) of the entire graph, we can compare how many occasions will give you double damage and how many will give you regular damage. This is subject to the standard probability clause: These averages are notoriously foiled in the short run, but over the lifetime of a character, they will be extremely reliable.

EDIT AGAIN: Another thing that I don't think is being stressed well enough is that the scourge bonus is strictly greater than the defender damage bonus. Scourge will amplify the damage done by enhancments, -res debuffs, and +damage buffs. Defender Vigilance is only adding to the base damage of the attack and any -res debuffs applied to the enemy. Vigilance does not amplify damage done by enhancements, and in fact can be nullified by enough damage buffs.

Oooh, where can I find that one?

Seriously, I do plan on making one. Like I said, though, it'll be "The MFing Dark Armor Guide," not a guide on how to play DA on a tank.