MrQuizzles

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DPA is more important than DPS to me

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When soloing AVs (which is kinda what this thread is about), DPA means in and around nothing. DPS and DPE are what you're looking for there.

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Can you please elaborate further on this comment.

I was under the impression that I want to use my highest damage per activation attacks as often as possible to achieve the highest damage per second assuming I can maintain the endurance to use the attacks . Thus, damage per activation is very important.

Does Rain of Fire warrant addition to this calculation?

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It takes a while to solo AVs. Burst damage doesn't do anything much. Dishing out as much damage as you can in the first 10 seconds doesn't matter when you're going to be going at it for at least a few minutes. What it will do is run you out of endurance.

DPA falls to the wayside while DPS and DPE take on more important roles since you're going to have to find an attack chain that you can repeat ad infinitum.

Take Rad blast as an example. Pretty much all of Rad Blast's single-target attacks have absolutely horrible DPA, among the worst in the game. It still puts out decent DPS despite this. The percent difference in the amount of damage dealt by Fire and Rad blast will slowly reduce to a certain limit as time approaches infinity despite the difference in the first volley of attacks being so very pronounced. This is because, as the period of time increases, the difference in DPAs matters less and less.

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So your point is one shouldn't consider Inferno and Atomic Blast? I don't understand how what you are saying is relevant.

What I see is Fire has many attacks with fantastic DPA that exceed the DPA of Radiation. Then I see, over a vastly long time frame, that Fire's DPS significantly exceeds Radiation's DPS. Can you please provide some examples to illustrate how what you are saying is relevant to the discussion?

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My point was that, from a mathematical perspective, DPA becomes less and less significant the longer the fight takes. You should still take it into account to create a nice, fluid chain, yes, and in that way you can use it to tweak your DPS upwards a bit. Simply using all your highest DPA attacks, however, means nothing if it leaves you waiting for them to recharge afterwards.


Anyways, one of the benefits of Rad Blast is that building single-target chains is very easy since you probably only have two single-target attacks, and one of them is almost always available for use. There really is only one option available to you (Cosmic Burst, repeat, fill in any gaps with Neutrino Bolt), and that chain is incredibly sustainable in terms of endurance. You can repeat it infinitely with just stamina and a toggle or two running.

I've not tried soloing an AV on my Rad/Dark Corr, but it's probably worth a shot. My Dark/Rad Defender ran out of AVs to solo long before I7 (AV/GM regen buff). I honestly haven't tried with him in a long while (I know I can't solo GMs anymore, though ). I'm very sure of Rad Blast's feasibility for taking down AVs, though. It might not have the highest DPS, but it can sustain that DPS literally forever.

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DPA is more important than DPS to me

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When soloing AVs (which is kinda what this thread is about), DPA means in and around nothing. DPS and DPE are what you're looking for there.

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Can you please elaborate further on this comment.

I was under the impression that I want to use my highest damage per activation attacks as often as possible to achieve the highest damage per second assuming I can maintain the endurance to use the attacks . Thus, damage per activation is very important.

Does Rain of Fire warrant addition to this calculation?

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It takes a while to solo AVs. Burst damage doesn't do anything much. Dishing out as much damage as you can in the first 10 seconds doesn't matter when you're going to be going at it for at least a few minutes. What it will do is run you out of endurance.

DPA falls to the wayside while DPS and DPE take on more important roles since you're going to have to find an attack chain that you can repeat ad infinitum.

Take Rad blast as an example. Pretty much all of Rad Blast's single-target attacks have absolutely horrible DPA, among the worst in the game. It still puts out decent DPS despite this. The percent difference in the amount of damage dealt by Fire and Rad blast will slowly reduce to a certain limit as time approaches infinity despite the difference in the first volley of attacks being so very pronounced. This is because, as the period of time increases, the difference in DPAs matters less and less.

I usually like opening by teleporting into the middle of a large group of enemies and firing off Eclipse. When doing this, the resistance for Eclipse kicks in before any enemies can react and deal damage to you, so it ends up being incredibly safe. Follow up with a mire, switch to Nova form, and congratulations, you're a tank-mage!

For me, power customization is hue shifting and maybe the ability to pick emanation points/animations. Hue shifting is more important, and I'll explain why in the next paragraph. It is entirely RP fluff to me, but it allows me to make my characters just the way I want them.

If we could just hue shift, suddenly fire doesn't have to be fire. I could turn it green and say my character consumes enemies in their own burning jealousy. Radiation doesn't have to be radiation. Turn it a dark purple, and it could be the inevitability of fate that my character casts upon her foes (I'd also love the dark purple set to a background of Dark Miasma). We become unbound by what things were made to look like and can go in our own direction with it.

It might just be fluff, but I feel that allowing that sort of creative freedom is a big thing. It opens up a lot of doors to character customization.

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Doms and their numbers may decrease come I15 I fear. I would say on heroes most likely Khelds although there has been a nice increase in their numbers since the buffs and I14 launch.

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Khelds are far and away the least played ATs across the entire game, being played about a third as much as the VEATs. I forget which of the two was on the bottom, but the less common one was played fully half as much as the other.

Blasters have almost always been on top. Defenders have almost always been on the bottom. Tankers usually come second to last but have a decent lead on Defenders.

Yeah, the Defender version has a trio of hard-hitting single-target attacks that inflict some status effects on top of that.

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DPA is more important than DPS to me

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When soloing AVs (which is kinda what this thread is about), DPA means in and around nothing. DPS and DPE are what you're looking for there.

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Not really, activation time is the limiter in what you can chain together not recharge. Can you NB an AV to death? If so a screencap or two would make me change my POV.

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The last time I did such a thing was when I soloed Babbage in I6. With the appropriate regen debuffs, though, you definitely can. Neutrino Bolt definitely puts out more than 25 DPS, even on a defender, and even without procs.

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Wth are you talking about? I have a 50 plant/kin and his SoC do NOT cause me aggro. The only aggro you do get is if you get too close to cast SoC in the first place. Do it from a distance and once SoC is out they just stand like morons.

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Seeds of Confusion note [ QUOTE ]
Nofity Mobs Always

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Mass Confusion note [ QUOTE ]
Nofity Mobs Never

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Nofity?! Is that what we're doing to them? Dang, now I feel bad for all those mobs.

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Edit : To put it another way the slow is a necessary component to Ice Slick to make it as effective as it is.

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Earthquake is quite effective w/o QS on top of it. Better still with, of course, but Ice Slick doesn't *need* the slow component. It's just, er, icing.

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How many times have you used Earthquake without throwing Quicksand on top of it? Be honest now.

"~=" is Matlab notation for inequality, though most people are familiar with the notation "!=". ~= is also sometimes used to denote similarity, though : /

I think he meant !=

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Well, then that's a different story comparing two actual powers.

Shiver on a Dominator gives, base, a 65% Recharge Debuff.

Weave, on the other hand, provides a 4.25% Defense Buff.


Against even-level creatures, using a single 4 second recharge attack, the Defense Buff from weave will lessen damage by about 8.5% on average.

The recharge debuff, on the other hand, will take that 4 second attack to 11.43 seconds. That is, recharge debuffs give a post-mitigation value basically equivalent to the actual recharge debuff value, against even-level enemies.


Now, let's take a +2 enemy, where effects work at 65% value (I think). Against this enemy, your Defense value still gives about 8.5% damage mitigation. Shiver, against this enemy, is providing a 42.25% Recharge debuff, and is therefore still better.

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Will that stack with my other sources of -Rehcarge; Artic Air and the like?

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Yes

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DPA is more important than DPS to me

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When soloing AVs (which is kinda what this thread is about), DPA means in and around nothing. DPS and DPE are what you're looking for there.

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We won't discuss what happens when you start getting 4 or more defenders on a team, heh heh. . .

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The answer is that you make Castle cry.

Really, the only thing Rad Blast has against other sets in respects to single target attach chains is that Rad Blast's is far lighter on endurance. Indeed, if necessary, you could simply cut the chain down to just Neutrino Bolt, still put out respectable DPS, and use very little endurance. So little, in fact, that you can run a few toggles and still gain endurance while doing that.

So, as far as soloing AVs goes, it's at least useful in that regard. If you don't have endurance problems, however, then just go for something more powerful.

It's still a 30-second damage buff, and the buff can get somewhat substantial if you hit a lot of enemies with it. I'm not exactly sure what the numbers on the buff are, though.

I enjoy it on my Rad/Dark Corr, since it's very conducive to being in the middle of large groups of enemies.

They fail to realize that the majority of Dark Blast's power comes from its two cones.

TAKE THEM
SLOT THEM
LOVE THEM

Dark/Rad

Debuffs debuffs debuffs debuffs control control debuffs debuffs debuffs AoE debuffs control AoE debuffs debuffs debuffs!

Slows can still be practically applied as a soft control. Fearsome Stare is nice, but Fearsome Stare + Tar Patch is something special.


But no, I'd have to say that Dark Miasma wins in the defender control department. Fearsome Stare is far and away the best control power Defenders can get their hands on, rivaling controller powers for effectiveness. Mix with Tar Patch to stifle movement and sprinkle on Howling Twilight to taste, and there's no reason you can't keep your foes in a constant pit of misery.

It's incredibly effective, and you can do it pretty much every fight.


Petrifying Gaze, on the other hand, is around the worst control power Defenders can get their hands on. Taking a secondary with a single-target control power (Ice or Radiation, for example) really negates the need for it. I guess you could stack it with Ice's holds, but I've never really felt the need.

<3 Cosmic Burst

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I don't think I've ever said anything is "hard" to do or even intentionally implied it. Challenging isn't really a factor for 99% of the stuff we do. Instead, it really boils down to time, available manpower, and prioritizing what's needed over what's desired or what we think will have the biggest impact on the game over what will appease the vocal minority.

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I guess "hard" in this case is what the system can and cannot do, then I suppose there's little you guys CAN'T make it do with enough work, so I see what you mean.

While you're here, though, how about it? Is it even possible for dead characters to perform emotes without having to rewrite core systems?

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Absolutely possible, and absolutely awesome to be doing so.

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You seem to have misspoke.

The correct answer is that Dark Miasma is best thanks to its heavy-handed combination of -ToHit, -Damage, and control in addition to the great AoE heal on its single-target debuff. As an added bonus, the set is completely non-disruptive and works well with most forms of teaming. Why, you'll hardly even notice just how much damage you're not taking. All you'll know is that life is good!

So pick up a Dark Defender today, you'll be glad you did!

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And if I recall right, Vahzilok poison darts are typed LETHAL, not Toxic for defense.

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There is no toxic defense type. Attacks that deal ONLY toxic damage will have just a positional type wrt/defense.

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Care to revise your statement?

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I was pointing out that the dart wasn't typed for toxic defense because there IS no toxic defense type. That's correct. I also mentioned another attack, Acid Arrow, that ONLY does toxic damage and therefore has no damage attack-type defense at all. Only positional. That's also correct.

So... no. No revision. Thanks for asking though.

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Unfortunately, he's trying to call you out on saying that they'll ONLY have positional. The Toxic Dark is also typed Lethal in addition to Ranged while only doing toxic damage.

However, I want to believe that this is a more recent change specifically to help sets that carry no/little positional defense and rely entirely on typed defense to avoid damage.

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I don't think it's a recent change at all. It's more of an artifact from when toxic damage didn't exist. The darts probably used to do all lethal. You can probably also find that toxic spit attacks are typed as fire for defensive purposes for the same reason.

Dark/Rad was my first character, my first 50, and my most played character. I've also got a lvl 50 Rad/Dark corr.

They're awesome. That's all I really need to say.

Maybe now people will believe me when I tell them that Toxic is one of the most resisted damage types in the game.

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We're sitting in a meeting and our Development Director said "We've contracted some Type R programmers".

I had never heard this term before, so I jotted it down on my notepad, so I could inquire about it later.

Just then our Lead Engineer asks "What is Type R?"

Our Dev Director looked stumped. "What do you mean?"

"You said 'Type R Programmers'" said the Lead Engineer.

"No, I said 'High Powered'." said the Dev Director.

"No you didn't. You said 'Type R.' See I wrote it down." I said, and showed him my notepad that said "Type R?".

So now, everything high powered and awesome in the office is "Type R".

I am now on a crusade to get it used outside our offices. I should add it to urban dictionary or something.

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What's a 'High Powered' programmer?

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The sort of person who can use Memcpy() without creating any vulnerabilities.

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needs more Touhou programmers

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So...Zun?