Madam_Enigma

And it is. My ice/mace tanker will end up with end redux in both toggles and attacks.

Because RESISTANCE powers do not grant DEFENSE debuff resistance. They innately resist -resistance debuffs.

Maybe you should start thinking about what we're saying instead of disregarding it. The only powers which grant def debuff resistance are personal +def armors. In fact, they are the +def armors from defensive primary/secondary powers. Namely the powers for melee characters.

Just double checked, and you know what? +def armors gained from PPP don't have def debuff resistance either. So it looks like it's just the ones in defense based armor sets (Ice Armor, SR, Ninjitsu, excreta) that get it. Nothing that grants +def outside of melee based armor sets gets def debuff resistance. So again, why do you think they should make an exception here?

You want them to add it to the TT: Maneuvers power? Ok, what are you willing to trade to get it? Because that is how the devs work. You want a buff for an archtype that isn't underpreforming, you have to give something up. SoA are potentially very powerful. One of the balancing factors is that they are subject to cascading defense failure.

The defense armor sets got def debuff resistance long ago due to players proving it was needed. At the time +def armors underpreformed because almost everything could debuff defense. And that was their only form of damage mitigation.

SoA can (depending on type) soft cap defense with reletive ease, have strong control abilities, and/or have damage resistance to back up their defense. Interestingly, Willpower doesn't get def debuff resistance either. And it too combines defense and resistance. Don't take my word for it though, check for yourself.

As for where I get my 'out of date' numbers... I have my defense values monitored IN REAL TIME while playing my SoA. I also monitor my resistance, endurance usage, endurance recovery, run speed, current infamy, debt, and xp to next level.

So here are some of those 'out of date' numbers you don't like. A small luck gives +12.5% defense. It is not 12.5% of your current defense. It is ADDED directly to your current defense. Got that? So just using small lucks here are my 'out of date' defense values:


Ranged (no insps): 27.33
Ranged (1 small luck) 39.83
Ranged (2 small lucks) 52.33

Everything Else (no insps) 15.63
Everything Else (1 small luck) 28.13
Everything Else (2 small insps) 40.63

At 30% defense you avoid most attacks. This is the 'baseline' defense for a super reflexes scrapper using a +3 SO enhanced set of powers. At 40% defense you rarely get hit. At 45% or more defense you only get hit once in a blue moon. Enemies will miss you 95 times out of 100 swings.

My endurance usage is as follows:
Endurance Recovery: 2.60%/sec
End Usage: 0.83%/sec (0.59%/sec if I turn off Tough)

And that's my huntsman build. The one that uses the most end/sec. For my crab spider build, use the 0.59/sec value.

And many people around here can tell you exactly how to soft cap those defenses. You could be running around with 45% defense to pretty much anything that matters.

Wait, you claim you need an AV/EB to risk death, but your complaining about how your SoA needs buffs because they are horribly weak defensivly and do low damage?! Are you even reading what you write?

Yeah, why are you talking if your too lazy to pay attention to your combat logs?

Defense soft caps at 45%. At that point an even level minion through boss has a 5% chance to hit you. And an even level AV/EB has a 7.5% chance to hit you.

A single luck gives my SoA over 45% or so defense to Ranged, and about 30% defense to everything else. A medium luck gives me over 45% defense to everything, including psi. I tend to stockpile medium lucks just for EB fights.

I monitor my defense values at all times on my SoA. Enemies that use a lot of def debuffs (Cim traitors for example) might negate the defense from my leadership for a bit. But rarely long enough to matter. If I grow concerned about it, I eat a single luck. Or better yet I stop standing around, and actually defeat the mob debuffing my defense.

You do realize dead mobs don't debuff or deal damage right? And if you have trouble with a specific Elite Boss, then forming a team to beat it down isn't a sin. Most of them I can handle easily enough. I needed help for Kalinda due to her psi damage completely bypassing my resistances. I needed help for Silver Mantis because her heals and using a MoG version that leaves her current health total alone meant I ran out of inspirations by the time I got her down to 1/4 health the second time.

The damage levels of SoA isn't a problem, with or without Assault. Nor is the defense levels. Some mobs will just plain be your foil. It happens. With Madam Enigma (level 50 claw/sr scrapper) I try to avoid fighting ruulu (or however it's spelled). Most of them aren't so bad, but the overseers (the eyeballs) can hit me through 120% defense with a 95% chance to hit. I can beat them, just don't like fighting them.

Masterminds tend to get ripped apart by anything that uses a lot of aoe (especially burn patches).

Blasters get chewed up by high damage melee mobs.

Kelds have a specific enemy group that shows up in every single mission that can lay some serious hurt on an unwary keld.\

Controllers and Doms have trouble with Elite Bosses, Archvillains, and anything that is resistant to mez.

any melee char will have a specific type of foe their weak to. Usually it's psi, sometimes something like fire or neg energy though.

But you think that SoA deserve to be the one AT without a weakness. Aint gonna happen. Ever.

No, you are acting like one. Defense debuff resistance would be nice, but they wont give it to SoA. If they did, they would have to add def debuff resistance to EVERY pool power which grants defense. which they would have done a long ago when they gave it to Super Reflexes, Ice Armor, and other defense based armor sets.

Let me explain it this way: You want TT: M to give def debuff resistance. Your treating it like an armor. It's not, it's a team buff. Force Field's bubbles don't have def debuff resistance either. Why don't you try making a case for that. Luck inspirations don't have def debuff resistance either. You'd better start lobbying to have it added to them too. Stealth has no def debuff resistance. Neither does Hover or Combat Jumping. Diddo Weave and Leadership: maneuvers. Force Field Generator doesn't have it either. Nor do set bonuses that grant defense.

Every single defensive ability in this game has holes in their coverage.. What makes you think that SoA should be an exception to that?

Jaded player is jaded!

Seriously, it's no where near as bad as you claim. I run on -1/x4 for the extra experience. I could easily run +2/x2 or +1/x3. In fact, I was running that last one for a while. And the only time I've had problems with def debuffs was in Cim and fighting Silver Mantis.

Did you know a single small luck gives you soft capped ranged defense, and around 30% melee/aoe defense? Or that a single medium luck soft caps those defenses too? No need to OD on lucks. Carry a stock for the really tough fights, just like anyone else would. And I didn't just get to 30 on my SoA. I'm at level 40 so far. Endurance isn't really an issue outside of EB fights. But then during those endurance is usually an issue. Defense and Resistance levels aren't really a problem either, unless dealing with an EB either. Then again, I need to stock up on inspirations for an EB fight no matter what character I play. And most of them require eating 3 or 4 lucks at a time to get the same level of protection my SoA gets with one.

Funny, I ran some repeatable missions in Cim the other day with a crab spider build. The fifteen minute timed missions were a cake walk (and those mobs love their def debuffs). Switched to my huntsman build (which at the time had no real resistances) and said mission was finished even faster, with fewer endurance recovery pauses.

And if your afraid to use Rest, I'm not sure what to say. It recharges fast enough these days, it's Okay to use it. Especially when solo.

And I don't know anyone who 'afk fights'.

Actually, I find that having to use blue insperations during EB fights is pretty standard. And the wolf spider tree IMO is better suited to fighting a good number of EB's then crab spider tree. My EB loadout of inspirations depends on character. For some it's heavy on Lucks. Some are heavy on Respites. Some heavy on CaBs. And others have a mix.

You want to see endurance issues? Run a DM/DA scrapper or brute. Even with stamina you'll find you need a full tray of catch breaths... for minion fights.

You didn't. I was just pointing out for the newbies to kelds reading this that it was just one option of many. As is how I slotted. For example, most love the little fluff balls of doom and try getting as many as possible. I found them meh. Some love quasar, but I found it to suck. Sure the damage is nice if double mired. But I decided I'm gonna drop it in a respec. It didn't do enough damage to me to be worth the crash. And if it did kill everything, I'd have killed everything just as easily with nova form and without the crash.

Ironically I ended up creating a pet dismiss bind which I use before entering every mission. That way I don't have to worry about my henchmen going "Wee! an elevator! Let's ride it up and down all day!"

And that's your choice. Kelds can fit a wide range of play styles.

The name of the pet doesn't swap. The pet's position in the window might change, but if your arsonist is normally named "Jake", and the other thugs are "Mike" and "Phil" then Jake will always be the arsonist, no matter where Jake appears in the pet window. If Mike and Jake both die, and when summoned Mike is at the bottom with Jake at the top, it's still naming the proper pet each name. Their position in the pet window is all that changed. While it's annoying, it's nothing to worry about. Your pets aren't name swapping. Just position changing in the pet window.

For example with my thug mastermind the pet window normally looks like this:

Bruiser: Big Joe
Enforcer 1: The Specialist
Enforcer 2: The Operative
Thug 1: 4th Street Boyz
Thug 2: 5th Street Boyz
Arsonist: Flames McGee

Sometimes when a pet dies from tier 1 or tier 2 it might look like this after I resummon:

Bruiser: Big Joe
Enforcer 2: The Operative
Enforcer 1: The Specialist
Arsonist: Flames McGee
Thug 1: 4th Street Boyz
Thug 2: 5th Street Boyz.

How do I know that is what is happening? Because 5th Street Boyz and Operative didn't die, and are hurt. And when I go to target Flames McGee it is always the arsonist. When I go to target 4th Street Boyz it is the generic thug I just resummoned. Not an arsonist, or the thug which had previously survived.

Dude, I remember trying to tank outcasts and clockwork on a level 12 ice/mace tank. They bypassed my defenses like they weren't there. In fact, my defenses didn't exist for clockwork. AND YET I TANKED THEM! I would charge in first, and I would keep aggro on myself. I knew I couldn't kill anything, but I kept aggro on myself. I faceplanted about 15 times a mission, and I kept aggro on myself. Even when the dark armor scrapper on the team told me to let him tank, I kept everything attacking me. When I'm playing a tank, it's professional pride to tank no matter how useless my defenses are.

Micro Madness is there so the squishies don't get hit. He does his job, even if he can't protect himself.

FightingCanadian, I do understand your point. And I agree that henchman customization would be great. I doubt we'll ever get it though. and for your ninja...

Yes, your ninja should look so very different then any other ninja. Because a ninjitsu outfit is so unlike any other ninjitsu outfit. Traditionally they should be black (night ops) or white (winter ops). And they should all look different because a ninja's true advantage is that they are indistinguishable from anyone else. The ninja garb we traditionally think of is designed for stealth and keeping one's identity secret after all.

Granted, it's more likely if you saw a real ninja, you'd not know it.

It has situations where it's handy *coughambushingghostwidowduringpatronarccough*. However the situations are so few and far between, it's a waste of a power choice. If it's a choice of Poison Trap or a 'for fun' power, either can be used as a for fun power. Although... Elixir of Life (on a solo mainly build) is more useful.