Linea_Alba

[u]Notes:[u]
The only thing I changed was the .05 to .10 for FF mitigation.

Healer - A character primarily tasked with healing others almost to the complete exclusion of any other role. Derived from the classic MMO Holy Trinity Team of (Damage Dealer/Healer/Tank).

Defender - City of Heroes Arch Type that includes Buffing, Debuffing, Damage Dealing, Controlling, Healing, and Other Utility capabilities.

Disclaimer - This is the simplified version for dummies. The real version is much more complicated and would take 30 to 300 written pages.

If you don't have anything constructive to say, don't say anything at all. I request that you refrain from the 6 of 7 pages of useless comments that this provoked in the defender forums. The other 1 page of comments were useful, Thanks.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


Simply put, defense, resistance, and controls are all multipliers, while healing is only additive.


Average Damage Taken = (Damage * ToHit_Defense * (1 - Resistance)) - Healing

ToHit (decimal) is very complicated, and I suggest you search for Arcana's Guide to Defense v1.4 - Updated for I7 , as a starter resource, If you're really interested. However you can estimate it very roughly as ToHit = (1 - (defense*2)). A single FF, Dark Miasma, or Storm defender can floor enemy tohit, while most other defender types can severely limit it.

Resistance (decimal) is easier, most damage debuffs or resistances can be added together directly. Then put into the equation. Sonics are the predominant resistance buffers, however most defenders have damage debuffs that weaken the enemy and result in the same end result.

Controls and self damage buffs are another complicated issue. Controls can often be considered as maximum defense over the short period of their duration. Self damage buffs however are very difficult to judge, but the faster something dies, the less damage it does to you. Death of your foes is the ultimate damage mitigator.

Example:
The average FF Bubbler will floor enemy tohit to 5%
The average Sonic Bubbler will raise resists to 53%
The average "Healer" will heal 200 to 400 dps (estimate)
(If) The Incoming Alpha damage from X mobs is 10000 with a sustained DPS of 1000

Now, you either need a granite tank with no aggro leaks or 3 healers to survive.
However, if you have the FF and the Bubbler ... incoming damage becomes....

10,000 * .10 * .46 = 460 alpha damage and 46 sustained dps.

There will of course be unlucky spikes in damage, and that's where your "healer" comes into play, as a last line of defense. Of course with incoming damage so low, your "healer" in this case could very easily be a blaster with aid other. While you may argue, but that's 3 defenders or 3 defenders ? Yes it is. But in the case of 3 "healers" there will be no time for offense left over and lucky hits will spike damage twice as high. While in the mixed defense/resist/heal version, all 3 defenders will have 90% of their time free to blast and add substantially to the offense of the group, as well as having lucky damage spikes only half as high as the "healer" version. The offense of the mixed group will be at least 40% greater than the "healer" group, and hence the experience/hour should be equally higher, making for an overall faster safer play experience.

Now consider if the incoming damage were that of an entire "suicide room" and 10 times higher.
You would now need 30 healers, if such a thing were even possible without you simply dieing before you can be healed.
However .... with defense and resistance buffs ...

100,000 * .10 * .46 = 4600 apha damage and 460 sustained dps.

Now a single tank of almost any flavor, or any distraction at all like a pet, to blunt the alpha, and between an FF and a Sonic Bubbler, a single "healer" can keep the entire group alive thru an attack that 30 some odd healers would not be able to otherwise survive. In this case, your "healer" could be most any combination of defender with the better healing capabilities. Dark, Kin, Rad, Emp would all do well. Tho in this extreme case the more limited single target heals and medicine pool would likely fail to bad luck and spike damage.

Healing is only additive, while defense, resistance, and controls are all multipliers.

While healing is a good and often necessary thing, it is not the end-all be-all of the defenders capabilities. Healing should NOT be relied upon exclusively, but should instead be considered a last resort after all else has failed.

<QR>

The following spreadsheet takes account for level and mob type modifiers. What you've stated is basically only true for +0 Minions. Unfortunately it's more complicated than that.

Spreadsheet by MrQuizzles

You may also want to reference: Arcana's Guide to Defense v1.4 - Updated for I7

[ QUOTE ]
There is a great fallacy in every defender whine thread that the defender in question is somehow the only person resposible for defending the team. You have help. Other defenders/controllers are usually there. And beyond that every teammate is resposible for the defense of the team, regardless of AT. Even if its something as simple as tossing you an inspiration when you need it. You're not in it alone.

There's this public perception that the force fielder is somehow charged with this impossible task of simultaneously shielding up, knockbacking away all enemies, tossing out inspirations, running leadership powers, using his medicine pool tricorder, and keeping himself alive... all in the defense of 7 thin-skinned fetuses who otherwise do nothing but stand around and need to be protected. Your teammates are tough. You protect them, but they also do the same for you, and more. Everytime I hear a defender say, "I can't protect my team," I immediately wonder what the team was doing to protect itself.

[/ QUOTE ]

/signed

That's lesson #1 for every team and defender, and question #1 when someone asks me for help with a build. (Just subsitute the Defender/Controller/Other of your choice in place of "Force Feilder" ) It constantly amazes and annoys me how few people get it, even after trying to explain it to them.

[ QUOTE ]
I'd still rather have Pools A, C, and D and make Pool B (Story Arcs) contain a nice subset of some of what can be obtained in both Pools C and D. That way the reusable content (A C and D) contains everything one could possibly want, while Story Arcs get you valuable things via soloing that you could otherwise only get via teaming (C and D).

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll also add, Story Arcs can be done by any team, even solo, even PuGs. This could finally give more incentive for more people to engage in the Story in the game. Engaging in the Story of an RPG, that could be a novel idea.

Still sharing rewards, or auto-exempt flashback, or something would need to be done for the 50's so they can share. Simply sharing rewards might be the best choice, making Story Arcs the most popular part of the game. Wow, Story Arcs Popular in an RPG.

Of course I'm assuming CoH is supposed to be an RPG, that could be a bad assumption.

[ QUOTE ]
I'd still rather have Pools A, C, and D and make Pool B (Story Arcs) contain a nice subset of some of what can be obtained in both Pools C and D. That way the reusable content (A C and D) contains everything one could possibly want, while Story Arcs get you valuable things via soloing that you could otherwise only get via teaming (C and D).

[/ QUOTE ]

That's a good idea too. Not exactly what I'd ask for, but a very good idea. I think I'd expand that to be Pool B contains all of Pool C and D. And for the same reasons.

That still doesn't help the 50's, but it's a great idea for the rest of the players. More Arcs, or some repeatable Arcs, for 50's combined with that Idea might work. Toss in a Flashback Auto-Exemp system and 50's could be set.

Good Idea.

[ QUOTE ]

Just so you know. The actual Trials shouldn't take longer than 1.5-2 hours each. Some can be cleared in as little as an hour if you know what you're doing. TFs depend a bit more on which one you're doing, but again, most can be done in 3-4 hours by a team that knows what it's doing.

Even Posi and the Shard TFs. It's obviously still a major commitment but if you're teamed with sane people, chances are noone will complain if you need to take out the occasional 10-15 minutes to address real world concerns. That's just the breaks, and people accept that in my experience.

[/ QUOTE ]

Someone is obviously lucky enough to never have to PuG. Good For You. Now How about the rest of the players in the game?

I know that *I* personally want something that is fair to all players and all skills and all capabilities, guilded or unguilded, uber or noob, PL's and Casual, not just the few elite. Give the few elite a Bonus, a Reward, sure, just not exclusive rights.

QR

Pool Arc, Pool Trial, and Pool TF are great REWARDS, BONUSES, but should be only that, a bonus. Not exclusive to that content. If you want a Pool Arc drop, the best way to get it is to run story arcs, However, those same drops should still drop in the regular drop population for those people that can no longer run arcs and for those people that do not wish to ever run arcs. Trading is a good start, but it will not be enough. Get out of the Elite Loot mentality already.

The rares should be available, but rare, in all drops, ALL. So you are not pushing content on people that don't want that type of content, be it Pool A, B, C, or D content.

L50's are still out of luck, or at least severely and unfarily limited, for the story pool.

Further problems if there's exclusivity, ie L35 rare trial recipe won't drop in level 50 trial. etc.

Better, but I still see major headaches in our future.

It should also be pointed out, that Claws got a nice upgrade in i7. Swipe, Strike, and ??? all three got a nice boost and are not the meh powers they used to be prior to mid i7. People recalling "back then" are recalling a much less desireable power. One that in fact would be beat by Air Superiority or Boxing, and perhaps even the dreaded Kick.

That said, I'm in the respec camp, take them early, respec out of at least one later. I would prefer to keep Strike in the respec I think.

pretty much what I tell people.

Now ... I wonder what would happen if I compared Pistols to Air Superiority, Boxing, and Sands of Mu ... hmmm ...

[ QUOTE ]
...like Acro, hasten, heal self or something from the Leadership pool ....

[/ QUOTE ]

Acro: KB is seldom if ever a problem for me.
Heal Self: Why, I have Twilight Grasp AND a Dark Servant slotted to Heal.
Leadership: Got it already, Thanks.
Hasten: Sorry, it just doesn't help much for my MMs. All my powers are already recharged when I need them. Of course, if I had Personal Attacks, Hasten could add an additional 10dps. I'll pick up at 50.

Personal Attacks: Lets see, my minions are doing about 90 dps to targets .... add in all my attacks (all 3, fully slotted) unhastened and now WE are doing 111 dps ... add in Hasten and WE are doing 118 dps. Lets see 118/90 = 131%, so an extra 31% damage multiplied, so that's like 2 extra damage SO's in each pet, or a 62% (base) Damage Buff. And that cost ... 18 slots and 4 powers. Ouch! In the Pocket Book! Yeow! But then what else was I gonna do with those powers ? Patron Powers ? Meh. Patrons are to me of about equal value to weapons, and the weapons are more fun. (Remember, damage buffs work off your BASE damage, not your enhanced damage)

Extra damage equal to a pair of Lt's, Worthless ? I guess that would be in the eye of the beholder. Very Expensive, you bet. Worth the expense ? Again, that's not something I or anyone else can decide for someone else. After all, some people think raw fish eggs are worth $50/ounce. Just because It's your opinion that someone couldn't pay YOU $50 to eat raw fish eggs, doesn't mean someone else might not think it's worth PAYING to get to eat those same fish eggs.

QR

I see claws as a respec build, I don't recall when I scheduled the respec, 26/32, but it was mandatory in order to have good performance both early game and late game.

I have no problem with Spin or it's other set counterparts. I've done both single target builds and AoE builds with conventional sets, as well as Spines/Dark AoE monster builds. All three are viable in their own ways.

I don't solo as much as duo. Duo and Trio teams are probably half my teaming, random sized teams making up the rest of that time. Adding teammates is not always beneficial, infact, if you add simply to have warm bodies around, you're more likely subtracting-by-addition from the group. As a result, with my scrappers I'm more likely to be in the small to mid sized teams, full sized teams are as rare as solo. (some of my other characters run mostly mid sized to full groups, it varies by character and who and how many partners I have in a build)

In the average mid sized team, I find the conventional set AoE build to be the best compromise. Don't get me wrong, I love my single target build and have no plans of changing her. My freind loves the Spines AoE Monster build we built together for him. But over all, I think the most fun, and the build we both liked the most were both conventional AoE builds Claws/Regen and Katana/Regen. I'm on another Kat/Regen build, and I'm not sure if He plans on another Claw build or not.

I guess it just comes down to how you play the game. Mostly Solo, definitely go Single Target. Mostly Duo, IMO it's a 50/50 thing. Once you hit Trio and Up sized teams, the conventional set AoE builds become more and more viable. The AoE Monster Builds (Spines/Dark) really need mid to large sized teams with proper support to flourish. They work solo even, but things run much smoother with support.

On Stamina, It's not "needed" nearly so badly as you imply. I litterally took Stamina at 50. Before pickingup Focused Accuracy at 41, I had litterally zero endurance problems. It was only after FA and it's massive endurance drain that I needed stamina as a counterbalance.

It's not a mistake so much as a lack of update.

Darkest Night (and all tohit/defense buffs and debuffs) were changed and overhauled in i6/i7 when defense was normalized for +/- 5 levels. The worth, benefit, and effect of the skill is unchanged, the only change was in the number and the game wide defense mechanic.

I can show that the weapons attacks (all three summed and hastened) do ~roughly~ equal damage to any teir of pet.

You can take that as a positive, or a negative.

Positive: That's a nice bit of damage.

Negative: That costs you 3-4 powers, 15-18 slots -vs- 1 power and 4-5 slots.

Given the costs, if you want them, take them late in life after you've paid for the essentials first. But to say they are worthless is unsupportable opinion.

This is an Issue 1 guide, 2 years old, can we lock this thread as to not steer people the wrong direction.

I will assume it was accidentally resurrected, by the above poster.

Thanks.

Infernal can be rough, since he "can" hit so hard. I think he splatted me once or twice last time I took him down. But that time I had a full team, so I didn't bother with Inspirations, and he wasn't as defensively debuffed as he would have been if we'd had a smaller team. Smaller team and I'd have used different tactics, more inspirations, brought along my DDD instead of my scrapper, etc.


You "can" solo "select" +0 AV's - with shivans and nukes, it's been done.

I have little difficutly Duoing most +1 AV's, no shivans, no nukes. I'm not sure if I ever Duo'd Infernal, but it should be possible, at worst, add inspirations, Shivans, and Nukes.

Almost all +2 Av's tend to stalemate with just two. However, add a third man, or Shivan's and Nukes, then things will go smoothly enough.

The last +2 (Level 52, we had also just duoed three or four +0 and +1) AV I duoed, was my 50 DDD and a 48 scrapper, and we stale mated. The Scrapper at -4 couldn't do enough damage while the -regen spiked from hasten TG and HT. We stalemated at about 40% damage, then Hasten expired and the AV managed to creep back up to 20% before Hasten recharged. We might have eventually worn him down, but it would have been forever. Add a 50 scrapper, splat, dead AV in less than 2 minutes. We were stalemated before, all we needed was something to push us over the edge.

AV's you really need to watchout for Small team are the ones with Auto-Hit effects, Aura's, and PBAoE heavy melee. Inferno (spelling) the Axe Hero (Not Infernal the demon AV) was one of the worst ones I ever accidentally got too close to. We learned our painful lesson: AoE, splat, wipe. Came back and made sure we overloaded defense (inspirations) and overloaded debuffs before we closed in the second time, then kicked him where it hurt.

Can everyone do that, no. -Regen and Debuffs are essential, and given AV resists, massive over debufffing is a really good thing.

Given the resists, the regen rates, combined with average player skill, I'm also not surprised when a "random" 8 man team can't kill an AV, especially the +2 type of AV. I can think of many team combinations that would fail, more that would fail than would succeed. With that in mind, that the fact most pickup teams just add warm bodies till they can't add warm bodies any more, no, I'm not surprised when a "random" team fails.

I can't help but ask, "Did you even bother to read the guide?"

Travel powers have speed caps, not to mention Enhancement Diversification.

Just 1 page back are official numbers for Jump Jet, and only slightly less official numbers for swift.

Too subjective, offers no alternatives or choice nor discusses the merits of the various choices.

For example, 1 acc in minions will yeild. IF minions are inside supremance, and IF you have 2 enforcers in range, and IF you have tactics 3 slotted and running, and IF minionsare in tactics range, 1 acc will yeild 82% accuracy vs +3 targets, the largest you are likely to naturally face if SOLO. Sufficient.

However, 2 acc, under the same conditions yeilds 102% accuracy, which is over the cap of 95%, and would allow for one of those conditions to not be true and still maintain nearly capped accuracy. It would also allow for minor mitigation of mild tohitdebuffs 7%.

If facing higher level targets +4 and up, in a team enviroment, the additional 2's acc enhancement can become even more important.

If facing lower level targets, and maintaining ruthless or lower difficulty settings SOLO, then 1 accuracy would be sufficient for all targets.

What do you plan to hunt ?
Villainous to Ruthless Solo Only - 1 acc will likely suffice.
Relentless - 2 acc is recomended.
+3 - 2 acc is recomended, the number of +3 vs 2, determining the strength of that recomendation.
+4, +5 - 2 acc is highly recomended, if not required.
PVP - 2 acc is all but a requirement.

Understand, if you team, you are much more likely to face foes +1 or +2 higher than normal, as you will not always be the highest level person on the team.

The penalty for not slotting the extra acc, 10%-20% damage vs those targets that are +3 and up. Less than removing a damage SO, but still significant. Slot 1 acc, then 3 damage, then the 2'nd acc. Damage is a priority over the second acc.

The lack of the 2'nd acc could also be partially mitigated by running assault, but assault costs endurance and we're assuming the mm with 2 acc will NOT run assault.

Last, just a reminder that the 2'nd acc will also have a larger skewing impact when the minions are under tohitdebuff effects.

Discuss each choice with that kind of depth, and we'll have a useful guide. As is, all I see is one persons personal build complete with quirks, not a guide.

And back to the topic at hand, I spent the evening nuking everything in sight and simultaneously visiting the debt cap.

In conclusion, I have to agree with Arcanaville again, but with a bit more specifics this time.

Nukes need short activation times like Dreadful Wail.

Nukes need "slightly" increased damage, if right now they are 87.5% odds of taking out a +1 lt, those odds need to be raised to 95%. A bad roll can still happen, call it a critical failure, but it should not happen more than 1/20 times, preferably a bit less.

Nukes Stamina Crash needs to be removed. This seems the most practical solutions. When considering how many possible mobs drain endurance, zero endurance with recovery becomes a very untennable solution. You still get 20 seconds of 0 recovery, and so fight at a reduced effectiveness, but reduced is better than none.

[ QUOTE ]
I would suggest that this would represent the *lower* limit of how much damage nova should do: since a solo heroic mission can spawn a +1 LT, nova should be guaranteed to kill such a critter, if its designed to incapacitate the blaster completely.

[/ QUOTE ]

/agree

I think their current design is left over from the days of 5-6 slotted damage.

PS: I also like the three design idea.

The biggest annoyance and problem I found was the generator caused too much spam in channels. So for my latest character I rewrote it to use 3 rotating files on a 10 minute timer, so that only one phrase per 10 minute period would be spoken. The result is much more chat window freindly.

I'm using an ancient dos version of gnu AWK, but it could be adpated to perl or any other script language. This version is also very specific and hard coded, instead of the more flexible general version I still use for all my other characters.

Caile.awk
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>BEGIN {
MAX=7;


printf "Begin ";
srand();

## Transfusion - Maanagh Eibhleóg: Absorbing A live Coal or Spark
r[5] ="local Maanagh Eibhleóg."

## Siphon Speed - Deoghail Deann: Siphon Speed
r[6] ="local Deoghail Deann."

## Fulcrum Shift (also Siphon Power)
## Uamharr Cumhachd Fùidreadh:
## Dreadful Power Commixing and Pulverising
r[7] ="local Uamharr Cumhachd Fùidreadh."

## Transference - Ishayati: Refresh
r[8] ="local Ishayati."

## Sirens Song - Mùsuinn Surram-suain: Confusion, Hazy Deep Sleep
r[9] ="local Mùsuinn Surram-suain."

## Dreadful Wail - Ruathar Adhbhal Corranach Caisil-chrò:
## Violent Onset, Spell, Vast, Aweful, Loud Weeping,
## Bed of Blood, and Violent Death.
r[10]="local Ruathar Adhbhal Corranach Caisil-chrò."

## Iocshlaint - Remedy or Cure

a="a";
b="b";
c="c";
last=0;

printf "\n\nINFINITY\n\n";

for (infinity=0;infinity&lt;36000;infinity++) {

filea = sprintf("caile%s.txt",a);
fileb = sprintf("caile%s.txt",b);
filec = sprintf("caile%s.txt",c);
filex = "cailex.txt"; ## Aux file for toggle binds

## Emote
printf("4 \"powexecslot 4$$bindloadfile .\\random\\%s\"\n",filea) &gt; filea;

## Blank
printf("4 \"powexecslot 4$$bindloadfile .\\random\\%s\"\n",fileb) &gt; fileb;

## Previous Skip Forward
printf("4 \"powexecslot 4$$bindloadfile .\\random\\%s\"\n",filea) &gt; filec;

while( (lucky=5+int(rand()*(MAX-4))) == last) ;
last=lucky;
for(i=5;i&lt;=MAX;i++) {
emote(i,lucky);
}

close(filea);
close(fileb);
close(filec);
printf("=============================\nFILE A:\n");
system("type cailea.txt");
printf("\nFILE B:\n");
system("type caileb.txt");
printf("\nFILE C:\n");
system("type cailec.txt");
system("sleep 600");
tmp=a;a=b;b=c;c=tmp;
}

exit;
end;
}


function emote(N,L) {
if (N==10) { slot=0; } else { slot = N; }
if (N != L) {
printf("%i \"powexecslot %i\"\n",slot,N) &gt; filea;
printf("%i \"powexecslot %i\"\n",slot,N) &gt; fileb;
}
else {
printf("%i \"powexecslot %i$$%s$$bindloadfile .\\random\\%s\"\n",
slot,N,r[N],fileb) &gt; filea;
printf("%i \"powexecslot %i\"\n",slot,N) &gt; fileb;
}
}</pre><hr />

Terribly Subjective and One Sided.

I've built multiple builds around Vengeance. It's the "Fulcrum Shift of Defense". If you want really scarey, try Power Buildup+Vengeance, then toss in a side of Fallout.

I've built one build around Resuscitate (other). The build was tremendously successful for small team support, and squishie support.

Concealment is under rated for squishies. If you go squish, one of the things you can do to better reduce aggro is pickup some kind of stealth power.

Boxing is under rated too. It's a good dpa attack. For an extra attack typically recommend Air Superiority first, but Boxing would be second.

Aid Self is a great power, IF SLOTTED. Sure, unslotted it slurps, it's the next best thing to useless if you don't slot it. 5 slots minimum with 2 intrdx and 3 heal. A 3'd intrdx for 6 slots total is debatable. Environment Awareness is critical to it's use. Crystals, Quicksand, Earthquake, or similar powers, or too many dots can interrupt it. Otherwise with 2-3 intrdx you'll be able to use it alot more often than not. Also, turn off /follow, you can't use it while moving/chasing.

Presence and Fear can be tremendously powerful. Highly reccomended for PvP, consierably more meh for PvE due to it's very high cost and very short duration. Still way better than a 1.5.

Ok, not that I agree with all the rest, but those are the only ones that just made me want to scream.

[ QUOTE ]
HighDA &gt; Regen &gt; LowDA &gt; Invuln &gt; SR

[/ QUOTE ]
Subjectively, I agree. I find the biggest difference in DA to be if I can get an external endurance buff. I might also want to argue "Invuln = SR" on the end of the equation. But that's a subjective feel. Obviously some primaries work better with some secondaries and vice versa, and some people work better with some secondaries and primaries and vice versa. 8-p

/thumbs up

Not that what I have to say addresses any current issues, but ...

1) ability to link bases (and personal bases) to one specific door found somewhere in the world. Purely cosmetic and of no functional value, but of potentially emmense RP value.

2) Personal bases, yeah, I dig that idea, especially combined with (1) above. Even if limited to minimum size and costing influence instead of infamy. You can't have it all in a personal base, but you could have a nice personal environment.

3) Personal Storage in SG bases. Functional change that I think everyone would dig. 100 slots for combined enhancements and inspirations

4) 1000 slot inspiration storage with included lowest tier inspiration vendor. 100 slots goes nowhere quickly, and a cheap mass availability vendor (selling the same as a contact) would be good for everyone.

And obviously I'm thinking PvE only with (3) and (4). I'll shutup and slither back under my rock now.

goto_tray - Go to specified tray number.
goto_tray_alt - Go to specified tray number.
goto_tray_alt2 - Go to specified tray number.
goto_trays_tray - Go to specified tray number in the specified tray. Syntax: goto_trays_tray &lt;SHOWING TRAY NUM&gt; &lt;TRAY NUM between 1 and 10&gt;

See : http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....ev=#Post4837240

[ QUOTE ]
...something is limited to 2 binds...

[/ QUOTE ]

I load the file twice, and that seems to forcefully overwrite the old binds.

[ QUOTE ]
... Thought Bubbles ...

[/ QUOTE ]
uhm, maybe try /afk blah blah, or do alot of /em blah blah

If you want your pet (named "Pinky") to talk for you try:
/bind enter "beginchat /petsayname Pinky,"
But be warned, almost no one will be able to hear you unless they just happen to see the chat bubble, since the pet channel for "other peoples pet's" is turned off by default.