Fleeting Whisper

More than fine. With the exception of Grounded (ElA), in-set KB protections grant 10 points of KB protection and 10,000% KB resistance. KB resistance works exactly like damage resistance; that is, 100% resistance reduces the incoming effect to 0. So the mag 10 protection is protecting you from mag 0 KB effects.

Force multipliers are any ally-buff power or any foe-debuff power (especially damage, defense, and resistance), not just stacked Leadership. This is why Defenders, Controllers, Corruptors, and Masterminds as a whole are called force multipliers, because they get those buffs and debuffs in their primaries and secondaries (and have better attribute modifiers for the buffs and debuffs)

Of course it is. It imposes the "having fun" rule.

They're both 0.5s

That's not exactly how enhancements and ED work.

There are four enhancement schedules: A, B, C, and D. A (damage, accuracy, recharge, endurance, and more) is most common, with +0 SOs giving 33.33% enhancement value. B is the next most frequently used (defense, resistance, tohit) with +0 SOs giving 20% enhancement. The C schedule only applies to Interrupt enhancements, giving 40%. The D schedule only applies to Knockback enhancements, giving 60%.

ED has four tiers where reductions are applied.

In the first tier, enhancement values do not change (E < 70% for Schedule A).

In the second tier, only the enhancement amount above the first tier is reduced by 10% (for Schedule A, the first 70% is unaffected, but the next 20% after that is reduced).

This repeats in the third and fourth tiers of diminishing returns; only the values that stretch into the next range are reduced by that diminishing value. The third tier reduces by 30% and the fourth tier reduces by 85%.

With Schedule A enhancements, the final tier of ED is applied when your enhancement total is at 100% or above. If you get 99.999...% enhancement, the 85% reduction still isn't affecting anything... but the 10% and 30% are. At 99.999...% enhancement, the ED calculations bring you down to 94.999...% final; at exactly 100% enhancement, the ED calculations (now taking the 85% reduction into account) put you at 95%.

95% enhancement isn't the cap. 95% is the result of ED applied to 100% for Schedule A enhancements, beyond which you can't increase the enhancement value very far very fast. For Schedule B, the same is true at 56% (ED applied to 60%). For Schedule C, the same is true at 112% (ED applied to 120%). And Schedule D does the same thing with 168% (ED applied to 180%). In all cases, the 85% reduction begins at the enhancement value created by 3 +0 SOs. (+0 Schedule A enhancements are fractional unlike the others, though, so the math for that requires rounding.)

Brokers/Detectives are simply random.

Initial blueside contact is based on origin.

Other contacts are introduced by specific other contacts (who can also generally be introduced via a Mayhem/Safeguard), you can walk straight up to them so long as you're high enough level, and some will automatically appear in your contacts list.

Multiple haxagonal energy barriers.

Exactly that. Toggles function by applying a short-duration effect repeatedly over some interval.

If you had a foe-phase toggle which applied an effect longer than the activation period, the toggle wouldn't be able to apply the effect the second time (the foe is phased). The toggle wouldn't shut off (you can put toggles on phased enemies, it just doesn't affect them), but you would have to wait for the effect to end, and wait for the next activation period tick after that before the phase effect could be applied again. Result: The phase flickers on and off constantly.

If you had a foe-phase toggle which applied an effect shorter than the activation period, the effect would end before it could be reapplied. Result: the phase flickers on and off repeatedly (but at a more steady rate than the previous option).

If you had a foe-phase toggle which applied an effect with equal duration to the activation period, whether the next application succeeds or not isn't necessarily given. As far as I know, it isn't even necessarily deterministic. Result: even more wildly flickering on and off phase effect.



I suppose I should amend my statement. It's not impossible to create a foe-phase toggle power. In fact, Castle could probably whip one up in a few minutes, I'm sure. The problem isn't creating the power, the problem is making the power work as you expect. The effect most people want (toggle on/off a cage over the target) cannot be created with the current powers system.

Both Super Speed and Super Jump can get you to their respective caps with very little efforts. But the running cap is already higher than the jumping cap, and the game can't handle players running much faster.

I'm also curious how someone running really fast is supposed to reach a location faster than someone who teleports there instantaneously?

Aett is correct. Caps are not set up in that fashion, and altering the game to allow for something like that would be nontrivial.

To put it in perspective, Castle spends his day working with Excel. That's where all the power information is: simply an Excel sheet. The data entered into Excel is translated into the proper format for the game, which then uses the information to decide what powers do, what the caps are, etc. Castle can't just swap a few values around in his spreadsheet to make a Fiery Melee Scrapper's Fire Damage cap be higher. It simply doesn't work like that.

Absolute Defense Field:

8 Blasters/Scrappers/Tankers/Brutes/Stalkers with slotted Maneuvers: ~27.3% defense (a bit less than a SR Scrapper with SOs)
8 Defenders with slotted Maneuvers: ~42% defense (a bit less than the softcap)
8 Arachnos Widows with slotted Tactical Training: Maneuvers*: ~60% defense
8 Arachnos Soldiers with slotted Tactical Training: Maneuvers*: ~120% defense

8 Blasters/Scrappers/Tankers/Brutes/Stalkers with Assault: +84% damage (2 common IOs outside of ED)
8 Arachnos Soldiers/Arachnos Widows with Tactical Training: Assault*: 120%
8 Defenders with Assault: +150% damage (3/4 Fury bar)

8 Blasters/Scrappers/Tankers/Brutes/Stalkers with slotted Tactics: ~84% tohit
8 Arachnos Soldiers/Arachnos Widows with slotted Tactical Training: Leadership*: ~120% tohit
8 Defenders with slotted Tactics: ~150% tohit (level 50 players will reach capped tohit with +125.35%)

* For regular Maneuvers, Arachnos Soldiers and Arachnos Widows have the same values as Defenders. For regular Assault and for Tactics, Arachnos Soldiers and Arachnos Widows have the same values as Controllers and Corruptors. Of course, the Arachnos ATs can stack all 6 toggles

Not being online keeps you 100% safe!

Damage does contribute to Threat, but nowhere nearly as much as Taunt does. (However, read through the rest of my post to see my opinion on underslotting damage.)

Most damage auras are 13.5s taunt duration for both Tankers and Brutes (thus contributing 13500 to the Threat). That's not true for all -- Invincibility and AAO have a 16.875s duration, while RttC has a 1.25s duration. Scrappers get the same Taunt duration as the others, but they only get the Taunt portion in Invincibility, RttC, and AAO. Every Tanker secondary attack and Brute primary attack has a 13.5s duration Taunt (the same as most of the taunt auras), as do Tanker APP attacks and Brute PPP attacks. Tankers even get the 13.5s Taunt from power pool attacks. (I believe the only attacks which don't apply Threat for Tankers are temporary powers.)

So no, the taunt auras do not generally have a stronger Taunt effect; only Invincibility and AAO do.

However, you are partially correct: the taunt auras can hit 10 targets at a time, while Gauntlet can only hit 5 (and pokevoke can only hit 1). Invincibility and AAO have an activation period of 1s, so you have to consistently hit 2 groups of 5 targets twice each with your attacks in that time frame in order to match them*. RttC has an activation period of 1s, but it's less than 10% as powerful as the other auras and attacks. The other auras have an activation period of 2s.

I absolutely agree that it's not a good idea to underslot damage specifically for the purpose of slotting taunt in your attacks, but more because slotting damage helps both team and solo play, making everything go by faster (and making you need to endure less damage), than because the auras are so much more effective (they aren't necessarily more effective than the attacks, and can be worse especially for Willpower).

* Or rather, as many targets as are being affected by the aura, twice in the same time frame.

Taunt enhancements increase duration. Duration of the taunt directly correlates with the effectiveness of the taunt on your Threat rating for the AI. (The Threat equation includes TauntDurationRemaining * 1000.)

I'll point out that I have witnessed an AR Blaster acting as the tank for the team, on the STF no less. AR Blasters (or Blasters in general) passing out buffs are not uncommon in my experience, either. Admittedly, Blasters have access to much fewer buffs than Defenders or Controllers, but they can do it.

So do the AVs. With specific exceptions, AVs are surrounded by a swarm of bosses, lieutenants, and minions.

My Fortunata has 6 Leadership toggles

What's my 32,000 month vet reward gonna be?

Is that what you kids are calling it these days?