SStingray

Umbral:
[ QUOTE ]
Actual, healing is not a form of mitigation at all. That's an error in terminology. Mitigation is specifically defined as "lessening in force or intensity". Healing does nothing to lessen the force and intensity of incoming damage. The appropriate moniker for healing and regeneration would be damage recovery. Mitigation and recovery can be roughly equivalent, but they're still completely different beasts.

[/ QUOTE ]
The error in terminology isn't actually lost on me. But with surprising regularly I do hear people claim that "healing is the worst damage mitigation," in the healer-hater vs. healer supporter threads. The fact that the bubblers and tanks simply don't take a large chunk of the damage to begin with is very different than having someone restore the damage after the fact. But people do need a way to somehow compare recovery with prevention in order to make a good decision on how to build their own characters and recruit teammates. Such is life in CoX.

Starsman:
[ QUOTE ]
Didn't read your entire post but both there are situations for both to be superior against the other.

In a very short summary:

Healing substracts from incoming DPS
Mitigation divides incoming DPS.
(..snip..)
That being told the true superior way to build a team would be a combination of both. If you add heavy mitigation you still get some damage. Mitigation cant entirely eliminate incoming damage (although he can make it insignificant,) add a healer on top and he eliminates that "small" incoming damage all toghether.
(..snip..)
So it is true that mitigation can do wonders healing can never do, it is true that provided the incoming dps is lower than the heal per second, healing can be amazing, but when you go into extremes, the best is to have both, not one or the other.

PS: A tanker MAY be able to lower the need of AoE healing and allow any one to be a "healer" with a single target heal.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ironically, even though you didn't read my entire post, your conclusions are the same that I made. Specifically, the best way to build a solid defense for a team is to combine Defense with Healing. Good job.

Emgro:
[ QUOTE ]
Leave the math aside for a minute. Have you played on a team with three VEATs on it, stacking leadership between 3-6 deep? You don't need healing. You don't need a little; you simply don't need any.
(..snip..)
Heals are lacking because:
1) They usually require line of sight. Not always available.
2) Some have a funky range. Try healing a Blaster with transfusion, or a crazy scrapper with Twilight Grasp.
3) Reactive, not proactive. All the heals in the world won't keep my MM from getting two-shotted by Bosses, since he goes from full to dead in about .5 seconds.
4) Lag. A lagging or AFK "healer" provides no benefit. A lagging bubbler is only mildly impeded.
5) Timeliness. Heals use in-combat activation time and stamina to do their job. Buffers do it out of combat.
6) Vulnerable to effects. A mezzed healer is useless. An immobilized healer with an aura heal is useless. If his heal requires a to-hit check, accuracy debuffs may render it useless.

When is there a concern other than burst damage? Maybe I play too much redside, but most teams I've been on lately kill all LTs and minions in less than 5 seconds. At that point you have 1-3 bosses left, who in that 5 seconds have fired all their most powerful attacks off.

[/ QUOTE ]

Either I've been short of VEATs in my team, or my VEAT associates have been absolutely terrible. The one team I had with an Arachnos Solder and a Widow on it was faceplanting left and right. But come to think of it, I didn't need to heal much, since the team was just popping Awakenings and resting up between waves.

I'll get back to you in a bit.

Fulmens:
[ QUOTE ]
Oh dear. One of THESE threads. I do appreciate the detailed explanation and analysis.

Some fun facts:
The difference between 40% Defense and 45% Defense, is, most of the time, 45% Defense means you live through twice as much abuse.
40% means you live through twice as much as 30%.

So that's why capped Defense is such a big deal; you go from "a bit more than twice as much abuse" to "around ten times as much."
(..snip..)
To give the equivalent of 10x mitigation with healing, you'd have to be able to heal [say the tank, for simplicity] for ten times their HP, every fight.

[/ QUOTE ]

You do raise a good point in that Mitigation% can be itself misleading. 90% mitigation allows 1/10 damage to get through, 80% mitigation allows 1/5 damage to get through, so it's half as effective. 60% mitigation allows 1/2.5 damage to get through so it's half as effective again as 80% mitigation. For Defense numbers, 45% is twice as good as 40%, which is twice as good 30%.

But that is really what makes defense+healing so great if you can reach the numbers. Instead of healing the tank full HP 10 times during the fight, you only really need to heal the tank to full HP once per fight.


I think an example is needed of how healing vs. defense might work in an actual situation. Unfortunately, I can't find information on standard enemy types at level 50. But information from Custom mobs in Architect Entertainment is easily available. For now, let's create a custom "group" of super-strength/invulnerability critters (who fly, and have a big S painted on their chest for good measure, not that it matters). We can set the difficulty at Standard so things don't get too hectic. (Or will they?) From Super strength alone:

Minion:
Jab: 72.82 damage burst, 23.72 DPS
Punch: 107.09 burst, 20.59 DPS
Hurl: 175.63 burst, 16.73 DPS
Totals: 355.54 burst, 61.04 DPS (And usually less, since they aren't prone to throwing rocks from within melee range.)
Approximate to-hit (after accuracy): 50%

Lieutenant:
Jab: 109.23 burst, 35.58 DPS
Punch: 160.63 burst, 30.89 DPS
Haymaker: 263.44 burst, 27.73 DPS
Hurl: 263.44 burst, 25.09 DPS
Totals: 796.74 burst, 119.29 DPS (Same Disclaimer applies)
Approximate to-hit (after accuracy): 57.5%

Boss:
Jab: 182.05 burst, 59.30 DPS
Punch: 267.72 burst, 51.49 DPS
Haymaker: 439.07 burst, 46.22 DPS
Knockout Blow: 953.10 burst, 35 DPS
Hurl: 439.07 burst, 41.82 DPS
Totals: 2281.01 burst, 233.83 DPS (Ouch!)
Approximate to-hit (after accuracy): 65%

If we were to take a spawn of say, 5 minions, 3 lieutenants, and 1 boss. The expected alpha would be something on the order of 3745, without any mitigation. That would be enough to drop two tankers if they didn't have their defenses up. No amount of healing alone is even possible to keep the point-man alive in this case. A top forcefield defender who can manage 45% defense will reduce that an order of magnitude. The alpha that does get through is only 375 on average (but with Knockout blow so powerful, a boss can still one-shot a person about 1 out of 50 times, and give the point-man a good scare maybe 1 in 10 times. Natural healing would take on average 90 seconds (squishie) to 48 seconds (tanker) to recover between alpha strikes, assuming the rest of the team steamrolls the spawn before they get a second chance to attack. 1 out of 10 times, knockout blow is going to hit, which is going to keep the blaster or controller on point out for a good 3 minutes, or until Rest is available, before it's safe to take another alpha.

If the bubbler is a controller, mastermind, or cold domination user, things get slightly worse. With 36% defense, 28% of the damage gets through, or about 1/3.6 damage. The alpha expected on average is going to be to to tune of 1048.6, which means you need an actual tanker tanking, and it would take on average of 150 seconds to recover naturally if some recovery or +HP powers aren't invested in.

Enter the healer. A lazy empath, pain domination, or thermal user would still recover about 100 HP/s. So on average, it would take 4 seconds for the empath to heal the point-man of the alpha damage. (One healing aura, one heal other, and you're done most of the time.) Worst case not involving face-planting takes about 20 seconds to heal the tank.

You try to convince Mr. Brute to stick around and rest for a minute when an available healer can get him ready for the next wave even before he finishes the current one. If it's me, I'll just grab the healer and get on with it.

But still, score one for the healer haters anyway. 45% defense + 90% resistance on a tanker would mean the alpha is reduced to 37.5 damage, on average. That would take about 5 seconds to heal naturally. It is also just as possible to have a controller mass-hold or lockdown the whole spawn (except maybe the bosses) and prevent the opponents from getting a chance to attack to begin with.

All this is simply an example. What you might find in missions can vary wildly depending on your party size and team leader's notoriety setting.

In other news, I think a new king of Damage Mitigation needs to be crowned. There is a video posted to the Scrapper forum basically of a dark/shield scrapper soloing Lord Recluse in an Architect mission. The poster himself claims that he got really lucky since usually Big R zaps endurance recovery followed shortly by an out-of-endurance mass detoggling and a Game Over. But even so, that is impressive.

In a recent thread in this forum, a person commenting on the 'Misuse of the word "Healer",' a (predictably) big flame war erupted of healer-haters vs. healer supporters. People are throwing all sorts of hostile words around, including this gem.
[ QUOTE ]
Mad sarcasm for the win, unless that other massive generalization you made was serious. Anyway, it isn't actually a generalization. There is (shock!) a best way to build a team. There is a best way to build the characters on that team. And those of us who number-grind towards that goal, rather than airily speculate towards it based on "experience," realize that heals are the least effective damage mitigation in the game.

Can't argue with numbers.

[/ QUOTE ]
Of course, no actual numbers were given by the poster, nor were any sources posted by that particular poster.

So for now I'm going to put aside the arguments of whether healers are all-that or not and talk about "damage mitigation" and "numbers." I will be collecting what I can find about how damage mitigation really works and hopefully we can all see what is actually happening. It should be educational.

Defense & To hit

The basic formula for to-hit appears to be

HitChance = Clamp( AccMods × (1 - TargetElusivity) × Clamp( BaseHitChance + ToHitMods – DefMods ) )

"Clamp" in this case bounds to hit chances between 5% and 95%. Base hit chances for players are 75% for even-level opponents falling to 20% for opponents at 6 levels above, and 8% for opponents more than 7 levels greater than the player. NPC hit chances are exactly 50%, but they can get to-hit penalties or bonuses based on their relative level to the player, and they can get accuracy bonuses as well.

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Attack_Mechanics has more detailed information on the subject, with sources.

What this means for damage mitigation is that as long as you are fighting opponents between +0 and +5 to your level, your opponents get a base 50% to-hit modified by an accuracy dictated by their relative level and their relative class (minion, lieutenant, boss, or archvillain). So within an instanced mission, to-hit ranges from 50% for an even-level minion to a bounded 95% for a boss +5 levels to you. Typically if you are running on "Invincible" (setting 5), opponents are +3 and +4 to you, and +4 or +5 to someone you have sidekicked.

Defense on allies and to-hit penalties on the opponent have a natural point at 45% before they cap out. So...

A +0 minion will have a 5% chance to hit, compared to 50% chance unmodified. That is about 90% mitigation.

A +5 boss will have a 9.75% chance to hit, compared to the 95% chance unmodified. That is about 89.7% mitigation.

Capped out, defense mitigation seems to be the best you can get. However it has two weaknesses. First, it's a gamble. Defense either deflects the attack completely, or allows 100% of the attack to get through if it fails. There is a bit risk of allies dying to spike damage if their luck turns sour. Second, it is prone to cascade failure. Attacks like SMG bursts, sword strikes, and katana slashes have the potential to take out a chunk of defense. This can make it easier for more attacks to hit, which in turn debuffs defense even more. A firing squad of multiple gun and blade based minions and lieutenants can be an extreme threat to the health of those relying on defense alone for mitigation.

Shield Defense: Deflection & Battle Agility, base 15% (11.5% for scrappers & brutes), Phalanx Fighting 5% non-enhanceable + 3% (enhanceable) per teammate (3.75% and 2.25% for scrappers & brutes), Grant Cover 11.25% for teammates only (8.4% scrappers & brutes).

Alone, a shield defense tanker can manage about 29% defense with appropriate defense enhancements. To get the magic 45%, Combat Jumping (or Hover), Maneuvers, and Weave (from the fighting pool) needs to be added in. Or, simply have another shield-defense user close by to grant each other cover. Two shield-defense heroes can cap each other's defense relatively easily if they're both Tankers.

Scrappers tend to be slightly worse or slightly better depending on their primary. They get less defense than Tankers get from the same skills. But they can also get an enhanceable 15% defense against melee and lethal from a Broadsword primary (Parry power).

Stone Armor: Rock Armor 16% tanker or 12% brute vs. smashing & lethal, Brimstone 16% tanker or 12% brute vs. energy & negative. Granite Armor 20% or 15% all but Psi (with 50% or 37.5% resistance on top of that).

Stone armor mixes defense and resistance until level 32, where you suddenly get perfect defense and resistance at the same time, as long as you don't mind going anywhere. But the two basic toggles alone can get up to 25% defense on a tanker when slotted correctly.

Super Reflexes: Focused Fighting, Focused Senses, & Evasion have 13.875% positional defenses. Agile, Dodge, and Lucky provide 5.675% more, which totals to 19.55% defense before slotting. Upgrading six powers for defense is a big budget, but when done properly, you can get up to 30.5% defense to everything not including psionic. Scrappers and Brutes don't get the same defense from power pools that tankers do. So some help will be needed to top-off defense. But even so, the numbers are impressive.

Forcefields: Deflection Shield & Insulation shield 15% Defender or 11.25% others (Controller or Mastermind). Dispersion bubble 10% (7.5% others except Traps, which is 10% thanks to the fact that a pet generates it).

Properly slotted with SO or IO enhancements, a forcefield defender can manage to bubble anyone except himself to about 43% defense. It simply takes a 4 power combo of Deflection Shield, Insulation Shield, Dispersion Bubble, and Maneuvers. This whole kit is available to Defenders by level 18. With that level of defense available, it's a wonder why forcefield users aren't more popular.

Cold Domination: Ice Shield & Glacial Shield 15% defenders, 11.25% corruptors.

Worth mentioning because these can top-off the defense of a defense built tanker or scrapper.

Radiation Emission: Radiation Infection, -31.25% to-hit Defender or -25% to-hit Corruptor or Controller.

Using a single power, Radiation users can "defend" as well as tankers and forcefield users, provided the whole group can be herded into the range of the Radiation Infection, and the anchor doesn't die too quickly. The fact that its an opponent debuff instead of a team buff makes it hard to work with, but when it does work, it works well. With To-hit enhancements, most opponents have their to-hit chances floored at 5% before accuracy multipliers are factored.

Storm Summoning: Hurricane -37.6% to-hit Defender, -30% to hit others + all sorts of other nasty effects.

Were you thinking Tsoo Sorcerers were bad? Hurricane by itself is strong enough to floor to-hit chances even cast from non-defenders (as long as it's properly slotted for to-hit). The only catch here is that it tends to push the affected targets out of range, and the debuff only lasts for 10 seconds once the target is out of range. So it's even more annoying to work with than Radiation Infection. Brutes, Tankers, and anybody built for AoE tend to hate Storm Summoners for just that reason.

Resistance

Resistance is easy to understand.

SufferedAmount = AppliedAmount × (100% – TotalResistance)

The caps are set at 90% for Tankers, 85% for epic primaries, and 75% for everyone else. Minimum resistance is -300%, which means it is possible to take up to 4 times more damage than normal if you get debuffed that much. Most people are usually dead before that level of stacking happens.

This does mean Resistance% is effectively Mitigation%. So while Defense can get up to 90% mitigation for everyone, resistance can only get up to 75% mitigation for most people. Resistance also offers no defense against status effects. However most tanker, brute, and scrapper sets have specific powers to defend against the worst statuses.

Invulnerability: Resist Physical Damage 10% (tanker) or 7.5% (others) smashing & lethal. Temp Invulnerability 30% or 22.5% smashing & lethal. Resist Elements 10% or 7.5% vs. fire, cold, & toxic. Unyielding 5% or 3.75% resist + status defense. Unstoppable, 70% or 52.5% all but psi.

This particular set can cap smashing and lethal resistance with unstoppable, but usually offers only a 45% or 33.75% resistance to the same. Only passives seem to resist energy and elements, going from 10% (7.5%) normally to 80% (or 63.75%) during Unstoppable. All that is before enhancement, so expect 70% smashing and lethal resistance normally, and 15% everything else resistance when slotted properly.

Dark Armor: Dark Embrace 30% (22.5%) smashing & lethal, 20% (15%) negative & toxic. Murky Cloud 30% (22.5%) fire & cold, 20% negative & energy. Obsidian Shield 50% psionic & status protection.

Totals: 30% smashing & lethal, 20% energy, 40% negative energy, and 30% fire and cold. After enhancements, it comes to 46.8% smashing, lethal, fire & cold, 31.2% energy, and 62.4% negative. It's a very balanced set, but as you can see, nowhere near any caps. Help would be needed to reach "perfect" resistance.

Sonic Resonance: Sonic barrier 20% (defender) or 15% (others) to smashing, lethal, & toxic. Sonic Haven 20% or 15% to fire, cold, energy, & negative energy. Sonic Dispersion 15% or 11.25% vs. all but psionic.

Totals: 35% or 26.25% vs. all but psionic. After enhancements, 54.6% or 40.95%.

Sonic Resonance is the only Defender example of resistance buffing I can find. Thermal seems to offer a mixed healing and resistance package to Controllers and Corruptors.

All this means is that tankers can cap if they specialize and use their Tier 9 powers, but below Tier 9, resistance seems to be much weaker than defense. The one advantage I can find is that it is a constant mitigation and not prone to random failures. Get 50% resistance and you take half damage from everything. 75% resistance and you take a quarter damage from everything. This can be more than enough to prevent someone from being one-shotted. But it doesn't always replace the need for defense.

You would need two sonic defenders to replace a forcefield defender if you go that route. But if you do, expect good things for your team's damage output. Sonic Resonance can debuff the damage resistance of opponents by 30% directly, and 30% more using a teammate-targeted AoE (using Defender values). That means a Sonic defender can get the whole team up to blaster level of damage output, and improve actual blasters and scrappers to truly epic levels.

Slow

None of the power-sets are dedicated to slowing. But quite a few have a power that has a Slow effect. It seems to be applied like a status effect, so a good slow can act as damage mitigation up to 50%. However, I haven't been able to track down any solid data on how (or if) it stacks.

Healing

The "black-sheep" of damage mitigation would be healing. People either love it or hate it. No generic percentage of mitigation numbers are possible. Healing powers restore hit points that are already lost. So the best milestone is to generate HP/s (hit points per second) numbers for healing powers.

To start with, everybody actually has healing powers of a sort. Hit points are recovered at 5% every few seconds, taking 240 seconds (2 minutes) to go from 1 HP to full. Everybody also has a Rest power that can fully recharge HP and endurance in a few seconds once every 3 minutes, which can be hastened and made usable more frequently with recharge enhancements. (But honestly, who puts slots in to the Rest power?)

Most people at level 50 have a little over 1000 HP without HP buffs. Melee types get more, with Tankers getting the most at 1874 HP at 50. So given regeneration can restore this in 240 seconds, we have our first HP/s numbers.

Natural healing at level 50 is 4.17 HP/s most archetypes. 5.02 for Blasters & Stalkers, 5.58 for scrappers, 6.25 for brutes, and 7.81 HP/s for tankers.

We can easily get comparison numbers from most healing powers by dividing their HP recovery by the sum of their casting and recharge times.

Aid Other: 188.9 Tanker, Brute, or Scrapper to 262.4 for Defenders. 3.93 cast time + 10 seconds recharge time. Estimated recovery = 13.6 to 18.9 HP/s depending on AT.

Aid Self: 157.4 (Mastermind) to 367.3 (Tanker). 4.33s cast time + 20s recovery. Estimated recovery = 6.5 to 15.1 HP/s.

Healing Aura: 117.9 (Controller) to 133.8 (Defender). 2.03s cast & 8s recovery. HP/s values range from 11.8 to 13.3

Heal Other: 230.9 (Controller) to 262.4 (Defender). 2.27s cast & 4s recovery. HP/s values range from 36.8 to 41.8 HP/s.

Twilight Grasp: 238.8 HP healed (pet based, apparently). 2.37 s cast & 8s recovery. So 23 HP/s.

Transfusion: 238.8 HP healed (pet based, apparently). 1.17s cast & 8s recovery. So 26 HP/s.

Radiant Aura: 117.8 (Controller, Corruptor) to 133.9 (Defender). 2.03 cast & 8s recovery. So 11.7 to 13.3 HP/s

O2 Boost: 155.5 (Controller, Corruptor, Mastermind) to 176.7 (Defender). 2.27s cast and 4s recovery. So 24.8 to 28.2 HP/s recovery.

Nullify Pain or Warmth: 117.8 HP. 2.03s cast & 8s recharge. So 11.7 HP/s.

Soothe or Cauterize: 230.9 HP. 2.27s cast & 4s recharge. So 36.8 HP/s.

All these numbers are before Enhancements. Healing enhancements usually get the full 33% bonus before ED. So 3 slotted with SO enhancements (or IO), an improvement of about 95% is possible.

Converting to HP/s

We have a whole bunch of numbers for healing values that don't have any meaning compared to our numbers for Defense and Resistance. But we can still create a meaning from then by realizing that everyone does heal. A formula of

Healing rate / (1-mitigation%) = Effective HP/s mitigation

will give us a HP/s number of how much damage needs to happen per-second to actually overcome the rate of HP recovery our heroes have naturally. So we can start with the ideals.

90% possible mitigation from a maxed Defense yields:
4.17 HP/s / (1-90%) = 41.7 HP/s for most archtypes.
7.81 HP/s / (1-90%) = 78.1 HP/s for Tankers.

75% possible resistance for non tankers yields:
4.17 HP/s / (1-75%) = 16.7 HP/s.

An Empath Defender using both of his first two powers gets:
25.9 (Healing Aura + enhancements) + 81.5 (Heal Other, enhanced) + 4.17 (base healing) = 111.57 HP/s.

And thus, the numbers have just lied. (Sarcasm intended.) Picking an Empath Defender is more valuable than picking a Forcefield Defender by this logic.

Let's take a look at some combinations for a larger team.

90% possible mitigation from defense + max mitigation from resistance:
4.17 HP/s / (1-90%) / (1-75%) = 166.8 HP/s for squishies.
7.81 HP/s / (1-90%) / (1-90%) = 781 HP/s for tankers.

90% possible mitigation from defense + empath healing:
(4.17 HP/s + 25.9 HP/s + 81.5 HP/s) / (1-90%) = 1115.7HP/s
(7.81 HP/s + 25.9 HP/s + 81.5 HP/s) / (1-90%) = 1152.1 HP/s

max resistance + empath healing:
(4.17 HP/s + 25.9 HP/s + 81.5 HP/s) / (1-75%) = 446.28 HP/s
(7.81 HP/s + 25.9 HP/s + 81.5 HP/s) / (1-90%) = 1152.1 HP/s

Perfect 3 mitigation combo, squishie edition:
(4.17 HP/s + 25.9 HP/s + 81.5 HP/s) / (1-90%) / (1-75%) = 4462.8 HP/s.

Do you really need the Tanker edition?

But if you start to consider that level 50 heroes might have 1000 HP usually and rarely more than 2000 HP, a reality check is needed before you read too much into these numbers. No matter how many HP/s you "heal," burst damage can still be lethal if enough comes at once. Healing mitigation doesn't deal with burst damage. If over 1000 damage comes in at once, 95% of the time the character is going down if he isn't a tank, brute, or scrapper. For defense mitigation, 1000 damage can still be effectively lethal, but the odds of that damage landing are much worse. That works out to about 10% chance of being lethal if the alpha is from a single knockout blow or seismic smash, considerably less if it is from cascade failure from a firing squad, and practically non-existent for others unless the combined alpha of the enemy group exceeds 10,000 damage. Resistance mitigation does work. 4000 damage would have to come in at once for a squishie to be in danger of dropping from burst damage if resistance gets maxed. But if that 4000 damage does get unleashed at once, it is about 95% effective in dropping the teammate.

The bottom line?

Can a team survive without healers?

Yes, if they're good. Very specifically, a resistance based Tanker (dark, fire, invulnerability, or willpower), a sonic defender and a forcefield defender can join forces to create a 3 man team where the tank will only feel 1 point of damage out of 100. Natural healing is more than enough in this case, unless the two supporters start taking AoE damage or drawing aggro. From this base team, it would then be easy to pick up 5 more DPS people and you're ready to steamroll.

Defense based armors (Ice, Shield, or Super Reflexes) get the short end of the stick somewhat. Their defenses overlap with with a forcefielder can do. So the defenses aren't really helping anymore. A broadsword & shield scrapper or a katana & super reflex scrapper might not have need of any additional defense at all. All that really means is the forcefielder might be replaceable with cold domination users, or another shield user. But to get that perfect resistance, two sonic resonance users become necessary. Frankly they aren't that easy to find.

So healers are not important, right?

My numbers show me almost the complete opposite. When burst damage is not a concern, Empaths, Pain Domination users, and Thermal users can mitigate a lot more damage than even the perfect bubbler can alone. But things start getting really powerful when they mix. One forcefield caster and one empath working together is worth about 10 empaths, and will turn anybody in the team into a tank. So actually, everybody is important except the tankers. Sorry tankers.

So who you gonna call?

For small teams who aren't usually facing big spawns, or for teams tolerant of herding and control tactics, the best single-person damage mitigation experts are the Storm Summoners, Dark Defenders and Radiation Defenders, in no particular order. All three of these power sets offer both the means to shut down the to-hit ability of opponents, effectively hitting the defense cap without actual defense, and some means of healing to recover what little damage that does get through before it becomes a big issue. You also get Slow based mitigation from Snow Storm, Tar Patch, or Lingering Radiation, so either of these three can lock-down a medium sized enemy group before sending the rest of the team in to clean up.

For large teams, a forcefield user and an empath are all you really need. I might make a suggestion that a forcefield defender and a /Thermal controller would give somewhat better results, with a resistance tanker, or scrapper in front. But that isn't worth stressing over if the right people just aren't available at the time.


If you have read and understood so far, you have seen "the numbers" for yourself, and should be well equipped to start picking good combinations for teams. Feel free to start up your flamethrowers and get the BBQ started now. What am I not seeing that can change these conclusions?

My first Defender was a Radiation/Energy. My most recent Defender is a Radiation/Electric. I've tried some of the other powersets, but had trouble really getting into them. Except for Bots/Storm, but that's a Mastermind.

Here is my current build plan, but not 100% set in stone. The actual character is still level 24 as I write this, so it can still be considered a work in progress.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Nene Shirai: Level 40 Science Defender
Primary Power Set: Radiation Emission
Secondary Power Set: Electrical Blast
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Flight

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Radiation Infection -- EndRdx(A), ToHitDeb(5)
Level 1: Charged Bolts -- Acc(A), Dmg(3), Dmg(5), Dmg(13), Acc(17), EnManip-Stun%(17)
Level 2: Accelerate Metabolism -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(3), RechRdx(7), EndMod(13), EndMod(15), EndMod(15)
Level 4: Radiant Aura -- Heal(A)
Level 6: Maneuvers -- EndRdx(A), DefBuff(7)
Level 8: Hasten -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(9), RechRdx(9)
Level 10: Short Circuit -- EndMod(A), EndMod(11), EndMod(11), Acc(37)
Level 12: Lingering Radiation -- RechRdx(A), Slow(19), Acc(19), Acc(31)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Run(A)
Level 16: Swift -- Flight(A)
Level 18: Health -- Heal(A)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod(A), EndMod(21), EndMod(21)
Level 22: Ball Lightning -- Acc(A), Dmg(23), Dmg(23), Acc(25), Dmg(25)
Level 24: Hover -- Flight(A), Flight(29), Flight(29)
Level 26: Enervating Field -- EndRdx(A), EndRdx(27), EndRdx(27)
Level 28: Tesla Cage -- Acc(A), RechRdx(31), RechRdx(31), Hold(34)
Level 30: Choking Cloud -- EndRdx(A), EndRdx(33), EndRdx(33), Hold(33), Hold(34), Hold(34)
Level 32: EM Pulse -- Acc(A), Acc(40)
Level 35: Voltaic Sentinel -- Acc(A), Acc(36), Dmg(36), Dmg(36), Dmg(37), RechRdx(37)
Level 38: Thunderous Blast -- Acc(A), Dmg(39), Dmg(39), Dmg(39), EndMod(40), EndMod(40)
Level 41: [Empty]
Level 44: [Empty]
Level 47: [Empty]
Level 49: [Empty]
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Vigilance

Basically, the first powers of the radiation set are just very important to me. These include Radiation Infection, Accelerate Metabolism, Radiant Aura, and Lingering Radiation.

Accelerate Metabolism combined with Haste is enough to push damage output of other defenders and controllers to near blaster levels, and can really super-charge an actual blaster. Recovery boosted from AM and stamina is also a huge help keeping the damage flowing without running out of juice. Only flaw in my build is the fact I'm built as an actual Defender and not an "Offender." So until the mid levels, the tier 1 attack is about all I have to actually fight with (and six-slotted to make that easier).

Radiation Infection makes it all worthwhile. Some herding is necessary to keep everyone in the zone, but when it happens, one becomes untouchable, Maneuvers and Hover (or Maneuvers and Combat Jumping) make things that much harder on the opponents.

Lingering Radiation is really useful as a backup when the anchor goes down or decides to run. Radiant Aura is useful as a backup for the same reasons.

Short Circuit from the electricity set is just plain evil when used to attack the opponents' endurance. If it isn't an archvillain, an application of Short Circuit completely drains the blue bar of every opponent in range, forcing them to combat their own endurance recovery to continue attacking. It is just plain fun.

But that's just me.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I make an answer to this already and people still try to argue with me about it?

[/ QUOTE ]

"Argument" implies a dispute over facts. No-one has offered you any argument, we've merely corrected misinformation.


[/ QUOTE ]
Actually, argument in this context is a verbal dispute or quarrel.

Saying the same things over and over again without listening to dissenting opinions never makes a "fact." To be anything other than just an opinion, proof is needed. Sometimes debate is needed to strip the real facts from the opinions and biased viewpoints masquerading as such.
[ QUOTE ]

Fact: there is no such thing as a "healer" in this game (other than Cimerora Surgeon critters). No specific AT, not even a specific powerset, is dedicated to healing. Even Empathy, the powerset most likely to be used by someone attempting to create a "healer", has heals or +Regen buffs in fewer than half of its powers.


[/ QUOTE ]
False. See below.
[ QUOTE ]
Fact: the game was designed to avoid the need for "healers". Not only is there a greater emphasis on proactive buffs and debuffs than in similar games, but all players are also given access to healing powers via the Medicine pool, temporary powers, pets and inspirations. All players, not one or two specific ATs or powersets, can heal both themselves and their teammates if they wish.

[/ QUOTE ]
And that is one of my points I was trying to make. All players have the option of investing in Medicine power pool and being a Healer, should they so choose.

If there were no such thing as healers in the game, then the Medicine pool wouldn't exist. Neither would the Empath, Thermal, or Pain Domination sets. So this "fact" is a direct contradiction to the previous "fact."
[ QUOTE ]
Fact: with the specific exception of healing badges, none of the content in this game was designed to require heals to be completed. Every task/strike force and trial in the game can be completed by a team of competent players without a single one of them being capable of healing.

[/ QUOTE ]
I won't argue that the original City of Heroes was deliberately designed in such a way as to make healers unnecessary. Frankly I was there back in I1 and reading the developers talk about it. The real issue is, the design in this case just isn't perfect, possibly deliberately. Are healing inspirations building up in your inventory to be converted to other inspirations or simply used to make room for more of other types? Did you and your supergroup skip the Health power from the Fitness pool (which almost everyone takes on their way to Stamina). Did you forget about the Rest power that everyone has starting at level 2? These are all, technically, healing powers.

Tell me that you can clear a task force without your team taking a single point of damage and I'll laugh in your face. Even if you honestly think you've done it.

But this really gets back to the original topic. Exactly what is supposed to be the definition of "healer?" How can we avoid misusing it if people can't agree on what it means.
[ QUOTE ]
Fact: there is no "heal aggro". The potential for that specific type of aggro does exist, but it has never been "turned on". The developers deliberately and consciously chose, and still choose, to treat healing as just one of many forms of damage mitigation, not a special form of mitigation worthy of special attention.


[/ QUOTE ]
Truth, and I have never argued otherwise. Was this brought up before?
[ QUOTE ]
Fact: proactive damage mitigation is superior to reactive damage mitigation in this game, in every conceivable way. Healing is reactive mitigation, and as such, it costs more endurance in the long run, requires more effort and places the players at greater risk of defeat.

[/ QUOTE ]
Uh, you're preaching to the choir here. Damage mitigation is superior to recovery. As I tried to say before, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
[ QUOTE ]
Fact: in the few rare situations where players became reliant on healing in order to progress through content, the developers changed that content to alleviate the emphasis on healing. Note the changes to Hamidon raids and the addition of "heal decay" in PvP for examples.

[/ QUOTE ]
Good for them. They're correcting balance issues that made healers overpowered.
[ QUOTE ]
Fact: healing is not an important "role" for or function of defenders, controllers, corruptors, masterminds or any other AT, or any AT with access to any powerset with one or more heal powers. Healing is just one potential source of damage mitigation out of many.


[/ QUOTE ]
False. And that is one of the conflicts that really irks me. I would expect that Empaths, Pain Domination users, and Thermal users would start getting huge rebalancing boosts, or the rest of the damage mitigation sets getting huge nerfs if this ever did become "fact." That's not even considering that the last sentence of this "fact" is a direct contradiction to the first.
[ QUOTE ]

Heals are tools, and yes, they're versatile, but they aren't the only tools, or the best ones in the toolbox.


[/ QUOTE ]
Which is, ironically, a huge contradiction to your last "fact," and a rephrased version of what I have been saying. Heals are tools, yes. They aren't the only tools or even always the best ones in the toolbox. But they're really versatile.
[ QUOTE ]


[ QUOTE ]
You know what? This is the same argument I've been in three years ago. It is also clear that everybody is ignorant, lazy, and just plain incompetent except "you."

[/ QUOTE ]

Has nothing to do with me. I don't even have any particular interest in "healer" debates, I just prefer to see accurate information conveyed on the forums. And it is accurate to say that heals aren't important as a function of any one AT or powerset, and that players who emphasize healing as the sole or primary method of progression through content are doing so out of ignorance (lack of knowledge, not stupidity), laziness (preferring to make others work harder to support them, or simply not willing to wait a few seconds while a buffer/debuffer does his/her thing before combat) or incompetence (playing poorly).

Don't get your knickers in a knot, I'm not insulting anyone or pointing fingers.

[/ QUOTE ]
Not a good idea to take me, or any forum reader, for a fool either.

A lot of the game mechanics has only recently been made more open, and I have been away for a long time. The player community, and therefore the forum, is still pretty much the best resource for for players to know what works, what doesn't, and how well it works. So when there is a significant difference to what people are saying and what I actually see in the game, the only sane way to deal with the misinformation is to poke at it in the forums and see what happens. I do enjoy a good debate occasionally.

I have already accepted the fact that I had a bit of misinformation on opponent accuracy and that defense on Invincible is better than I gave it credit for. But checking the facts still came up with a nasty hole. Having 1 out of 11 enemy blows able to hit can be really nasty when something like a Warrior Hewer lieutenant can take out half of a blaster's or defender's hit points in one lucky strike.

Sure if the tank or controller can get control again, the squishie can get to safety and rest up. But healing is still an incredibly convenient band-aid to get the teammate back in the battle quickly and safely as long as the damage mitigation is still there. "As long as the damage mitigation is still there" being a key phrase here. With healing alone, the "healer" ends up forced to rely on Revive, Resuscitate, Mutation, etc. etc. to pick instantly defeated teammates off the floor. But as long as the damage mitigation is there (and that's worth repeating), healing can bring someone back from the edge who got unlucky before they get two-shotted by a run of bad luck. The only real way to replace that kind of convenience is to have multiple defenders buffing both the defense and resistance of everyone involved so you have both the 91% defense mitigation and the 75% resistance mitigation (and possibly even a 50% slow-based damaged mitigation on top of that). I just don't see that happening outside a dedicated super-group or the old "City of Defenders" that existed before the rebalancing act they pulled years ago to correct that. (That was some fun times on the forum. )

Yes, healing is still important. I am still not convinced to drop Radiant Aura from my character build.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Healing is an important part of what defenders can do.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, it really isn't. It's part of what some defenders can do, but it's not an important part of what all defenders can do. It's not even the important part of what any defender can do.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Indeed.

And as for SStingrays comment:
[ QUOTE ]
Healing is an important part of what defenders can do.

[/ QUOTE ]

Umm... No. I see the one, single power in my kit bag that heals, as being the least important ability that my Kin has.

[/ QUOTE ]

Holy misquote Batman! It doesn't sound like you really read what I said at all. If healing wasn't important, there wouldn't be teams asking for healers to begin with.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's not the importance of heals that drive players to seek out "healers". Ignorance, laziness and sometimes sheer incompetence are why some players want "healers".

[/ QUOTE ]

I make an answer to this already and people still try to argue with me about it?

Let me try to restate this clearly, then. Just because healing is the "least important" thing in the defenders' arsenal does not change the fact that it is still important for at least someone to have. Personally, I truly believe if the defenders, controllers, scrappers, and tanks on the team are good enough, Aid Other from the power pool on two people is enough. Stimulant from the same power-pool is really useful for teammates to have as well.

Storm's O2 does most (but not quite all) of the same things with no interruption and half the recharge rate and with only a single power. Radiant Aura, Transfusion, Twilight's Grasp, Healing Aura and Heal Other are all powers that can replace Aid Other from the power pool, with some of them also effectively replacing Aid Self at the same time. So usually it falls to the Defender to provide what healing is necessary.

Otherwise, if the Scrapper wants to take the medicine power pool and call himself a healer then that's just fine with me.

You know what? This is the same argument I've been in three years ago. It is also clear that everybody is ignorant, lazy, and just plain incompetent except "you." Time for me to get used to it, again. Enough is enough. This thread is not worth coming back to if people are just going to say the same things over and over again. It's not a discussion or debate. It is just an angry argument.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
For both players and NPCs, the game actually forces an attack to auto-hit occasionally. That means true 95% damage mitigation isn't really possible

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes it is. Streakbreaker isn't just random, it has a system.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thank you for pointing me to that nice little article. After a couple years absence and being lured back only by Architect, I had been having a really hard time finding some of my old data sources. It definitely looks like I don't have to worry about the actual Streakbreaker code. Just the soft and hard caps. So 90% damage mitigation from defense alone is at least possible. (5% low-end capped to-hit * up to 1.5 accuracy mod for purple targets * 1.3 accuracy for boss types = 9.75% to hit. Or maybe just 9% if those accuracy mods add instead of multiply.)

That's not quite convincing me to drop Radiant Aura from my build just yet, though. Getting that level of defense is going to be tricky for anybody but a force-field defender, multiple defenders, or a defender buffing a tanker or scrapper (or substitute corrupter, mastermind, controller, or brute as appropriate if you prefer.) Even then, having 1 out of 10 attacks hit can still hurt.

[ QUOTE ]

Indeed.

And as for SStingrays comment:
[ QUOTE ]
Healing is an important part of what defenders can do.

[/ QUOTE ]

Umm... No. I see the one, single power in my kit bag that heals, as being the least important ability that my Kin has.

[/ QUOTE ]

Holy misquote Batman! It doesn't sound like you really read what I said at all. If healing wasn't important, there wouldn't be teams asking for healers to begin with.

I'll let you in on a secret, then. Even though I find it hard to really get by without some form of healing, I have never actually bothered to slot Radiation Infection, or O2 beyond the default 1 it comes with. The reason I have healing at all is because of a little mechanic in the game called "the Streakbreaker."

For both players and NPCs, the game actually forces an attack to auto-hit occasionally. That means true 95% damage mitigation isn't really possible unless you combine a resistant tank (Stone Armor or Invulnerability, probably) with a resistance defender (Sonic). 75% resistant is about the cap that anyone else can get to. Defense can get better depending on who you are picking on. Most even level critters have about a 50% chance of hitting, so with about 20% defense coming out of Deflection shield, 15% defense coming out of Dispersion Bubble, and 5% from your choice of maneuvers, combat jumping, hover, or weave, then most even level NPCs have about a 90% chance of actually missing you and your teammates. But the catch here is that enemies at higher levels get bonuses to their to-hit (and give penalties to your to-hit) for each level they are higher than you. If the idiot in charge has his difficulty set on "invincible," than even the minions start showing a 60-65% to-hit chance and the purple bosses are as accurate as players, at 75% chance to hit. Damage mitigation from defense goes down to about 65% at worst. Still, it is considerably better than nothing.

One thing I have never seen in any build posted ever is the Rest power 3-slotted for recharge. For that matter, most people take Health on their way to Stamina, but how many people actually 3-slot it for healing? Seriously, any kind of healing power, even if it has never been slotted, is incredibly helpful in shortening the downtime between battles and keeping things running smoothly. Mostly because the tankers and blasters to seldom think about it in their power picks and slotting strategies.

So yes, healing is important. It just isn't as all-important as people make it out to be. City of Heroes is a game where an ounce of prevention really is (at least supposed to be) worth a pound of cure.

You have near-missed a hot topic that defenders have been wrestling with for nearly 5 years now.

Healing is an important part of what defenders can do. I honestly find it hard enough to play well without healing that I've chosen to be a radiation, dark, or storm defender (corrupter, or mastermind) on most of the heroes (or villains) I've rolled up and seriously played.

However, healing alone does not work the miracles that defenders are known for. So I don't even try to advertise myself as a "healer." Even though a lot of defenders only have the one heal in their set, their real value is in keeping their teammates from harm to begin with.

An empath with all their healing skills available isn't going to be able to save a blaster that managed to pull something away from the tank, unless you count "resurrect" as a save. A storm summoner can and will save the blaster with a well timed hurricane. A force-fielder, thermal, ice, or sonic would probably have the loose-cannon blaster bubbled enough so the blaster can tank, and therefore likely already "saved" the blaster in advance. Even O2 is more than enough if the defender is built around their primary powerset. For that matter, Aid Other works wonders on a forcefielder, cold domination, or sonic defender.

But the real kicker here is that people still don't seem to realize this. If teams don't get it in their head that there is more to defending than just healing, then other defenders have to fudge their team advertisements just to stand a chance to get one. The hope is that at least when these teams start seeing what a "real" defender can do, they then start looking for proper defenders instead of mere healers, or possibly even invite the defender back another day.

Personally, I don't like it either. So my universal response to "R U healor?" is simply not to give one. I would prefer to go solo rather than try to be the one and only team healer to a team of berserkers with no concept of tactics. But I certainly do know where that frustration is coming from.

[ QUOTE ]
well im fairly new to coh (about 3 weeks)and i had a few Q about defenders

1. how is the dmg

[/ QUOTE ]

From what I understand, Tankers and most ATs red-side use their powers at a "default" level (barring effects of Scourge, Rage, and so on). Blasters and Stalkers seem to get a 20% bonus to damage for just being who they are. Scrappers seem to have something along the line of a 40% damage buff for being scrappers. In contrast, Controllers, Masterminds, and most importantly Defenders actually have their power "debuffed" by 30-31%

That means using the same powers, a blaster will do about 70% more damage to an opponent than a defender is capable of, before buffing effects start to be applied.

The balance here is that some defender builds have a lot of options to increase the damage of their team while reducing the damage the enemy does. Having little more than half the damage output of the blaster doesn't matter much on a team when you are keeping the rest of the team from being hit and killed and taking down 30% of your opponent's damage resistance while you're at it. Yes, that means everyone on the team does 30% more damage to whatever you've targeted.

[ QUOTE ]

2. what is a good primary/secondary for someone who likes a good mix of solo and team play with a few aoe attacks thrown in(im likeing the looks of /sonic and /dark

[/ QUOTE ]

The best primary sets for soloing tend to be Dark, Storm and Radiation. These sets mostly focus on shutting down opponents ability to hurt you and defend itself, aka. "debuffs." So they are always helpful even if your team is a team of 1. Force Fields and Empathy are infamous for having their better powers only useful if you have a teammate to use it on. So they don't tend to be very popular, even though they are in very high demand for team players.

[ QUOTE ]

3. how do defenders fair at endgame?
4. if i play more offensively will i just be seen as a gimped blaster


[/ QUOTE ]

A few years ago, you wouldn't see blasters at all end-game because they kept seeing what defenders could do and abandoning their blasters for defenders. Then the balance patch hit. Right now I just couldn't tell you how blasters and defenders see each other endgame, and I have no desire at all to wade into the cesspool of PvP. So I couldn't tell you. That might be a good thing, since it may mean all the ATs are at least competitive.

That sounds like something to try with a few very understanding super-group mates some time.

Honestly though, if your elite bosses are getting steamrolled too easily, then there is no reason not to upgrade them to archvillain status and go from there. If the group size is too small, the system will automatically downgrade them back to elite boss status, and everything should be fine.

On the flip side, something that is naturally elite boss or simply boss isn't supposed to downgrade itself unless the player is running solo on difficulty 1. That means if your mission has 5 elite bosses in it, most people are going to get 5 elite bosses even solo. That is probably excessive, and is likely to contribute to frustration and low ratings from less-than-perfect solo players. I would recommend for the general public that you keep 4 of the bosses as bosses and just upgrade one at the back of the mission to elite boss status.

But that's just my opinion. Do what you feel is best.

Ah yes, there is Super Jump. My first serious character, a rad/nrg defender got around by super jump very well, and for the most part I really had very little to complain about.

The actual reason I didn't mention it is that "Great Scott" already has the prerequisite powers for three of the travel pools with Recall Friend (Teleport), Hover (Fly), and Haste (Super Speed). To get Super Jump, he is going to need to somehow fit in Combat Jump or Jump Kick, which is not going to happen without a respec or a switch to build 2. His fourth power-pool, Medicine, closed that road as I think 4 power pools is the hard-coded limit.

If you really want my relatively unbiased opinions on the travel pools, here it is.

Flight: Taken by itself and compared to other travel powers specifically for the purpose of traveling around City of Heroes zones to get between missions, Flight sucks. It isn't as slow as it once was, but it is still slow. If you have a teammate with Recall Friend and another travel power (especially the matched one, Teleport) then you can expect that teammate is going to use Recall Friend on you regularly to keep things flowing.

The catch here is that in the context of a situational tactical power, Hover and Group Fly definitely fall in the category of "does not suck." Get yourself a good outdoor map heavy on the melee mobs, start hovering, and the developers find good reason to start adding throwing knives, shuriken, and other projectiles to those same melee heavy mobs, to put it bluntly. But even with the ranged weapons popping up on everything, you are generally much safer staying out of reach of the melee mobs than you are in range of their fists, blades, and clubs. Sure, you can do that with control powers or just running around like a chicken with its head cut off. But Hover is just too convenient in setting up nice situations.

For a character that's not interested in haste or teleport, flight becomes a relatively cheap travel power to get with those side benefits.

Super Speed: It is almost the complete opposite of fly's advantages and disadvantages. It has no vertical movement. So the super speeder generally needs to go well out of their way to find ramps and other means to get around vertical obstacles. But outside of a handful of maps built with lots of vertical challenges, Speeders are generally either the first or second people to arrive at the mission area.

For a mission focused task force, a super speeder with recall friend is a godsend. Within a mission, a good super speeder can map the whole complex, find all the glowies, and get the whole team in the boss room in a matter of minutes, instead of the usual hour or two for the "lol xp" groups it takes to clear every single mobile in a mission. A 14-20 hour task force can be completed in less than half the time like this, depending on the number "defeat all enemy" missions it features.

(Honestly, "lol xp" was the one biggest contributors to my burn-out and quitting the first time around. But that may be a topic for a different post.)

Super Jump: It is in many ways a compromise power. Jump Kick and Whirlwind are generally considered less than useful compared to what you can get from other pools. However, the almost-free defense from Combat Jumping can be quite welcome with certain builds. It is limited what kind of vertical challenges it can handle compared to fly, and it is slower on flat land than super speed. On the positive side, it is much faster than fly on flat land, and can handle vertical challenges much more easily than super-speeders can. Actually, there aren't many obstacles at all that can force a super jumper to go around rather than over, so it is a travel power you can't really go wrong with until you get to the Shadow Shard.

Teleport: For the purpose of actually traveling around between missions, there is nothing better. It is faster than even super speed, and doesn't have any vertical limitations. Once you get to the mission area, Recall Friend helps the rest of your slower team to catch up. Since it's technically an area-targeted click power, you can move even in situations where the opponent has you immobilized. But on the bad side, it sucks endurance like nothing else. You may be arriving first, but you'll be arriving exhausted too. It also becomes very hard to control in confined spaces like most indoor missions.


Quite honestly, Super Jump was my very first power and very enjoyable in the early days. But Teleport was my favorite before Architect came along. The absolutely incredible distance between the Mission Architect contact and the Mission Architect mission entrance has me moving to Super Speeders. Getting around in missions has become more important than getting to missions. I just can't seem to make a 'toon without Haste and Stamina. So Super Speed becomes a cheap travel power, for me at least.

I have had some strange issues with the Assault Rifle set in general. Before the melee-patch, I had one specific minion that was an assault rifle/electric melee. She was part of an electric themed set with one story element being the minions are not quite powerful enough to actually project electricity. After the patch, even though I had a ranged preference, she turned into a weakened electric assault. She would use the electric melee's lightning bolt and never draw her assault rifle.

I had to compensate by switching the second power to the electric manipulation set which has just electric fence and charged brawl at normal settings. At least with this the minion actually does her job, and somewhat still fits the theme.

It appears to me, that custom enemies in Mission Architect have this thing against drawing weapons unless they really don't have a choice. Mixing any weapon attack set with a non-weapon attack set seems to get the weapon ignored completely. But non-weapon attack sets (like electricity and energy) seem to mix just fine.

I personally haven't tried mixing two weapon sets (like assault rifle and broadsword). Honestly, I thought it was technically impossible. But if it did work before, it does make sense that it would be broken now. At the very least, the throwing knives power has a conflict with the powers in the assault rifle set which would have the AI choosing between two weapons when it can't properly handle one if it isn't set up right.

Actually, I have a simple bind I use to control Super Speed only when I need it.

/bind lshift "+$$powexecname Super Speed"

Basically the + causes the bind to be called when the key is pressed, and called again when the key is released. So it's easy just to hold left shift and move in any combination of directions without binds conflicting with each other. This is similar to +forward, however +powexecname does not work. So that makes the $$ portion necessary. "Super Speed" can easily be replaced with "Flight," "Super Jump," or "Sprint" as needed for the specific character. The only issue I've had is that if something stuns, holds, sleeps, or generally causes a toggle-off while moving, the power then activates again when the key is released and deactivates when the key is pressed, so it is necessary to manually toggle the power to get things working correctly again.

I'm another returning player that was gone for a while until Architect lured me back. But even in my brief time playing recently, I have seen a lot of things.

The silver, full-fledged jet pack is called the Raptor Pack. You can get one by completing a protector mission between levels 5-10 from kings row. That is, do police radio missions 3 times in King Row, then see the detective about a special mission, and the pack is yours as soon as the villain is defeated. This pack lasts for 2 hours of use. Since the timer doesn't move when the pack is off, this can last quite a while if you use it sparingly. But once it's used up or if you missed it, you need to be level 40 and spend 10,000 influence to a vendor in the Shadow Shards to get another one.

The PvP area of Siren's Call also has a similar travel power set available (at any level, technically) for 10,000 influence when the Hero side is winning. However they only lasts 30 minutes whether you use the power or not. The arena also has a vendor for temporary travel powers, but only usable within the arena, so that is probably not going to be useful to you.

Otherwise you pretty much have the same choices you did back in the day.

Flight is a lot of fun, but it is still the slowest of the travel powers. In flat areas, you aren't likely to be winning any travel races. The actual flight power will now downgrade itself to a hover whenever you are in combat. So all added up, you might be better off adding two slots to the hover power and three-slotting it for flight speed rather than bothering with the flight power itself. Considering you already have Haste and Recall Friend, you still have options.

Super Speed is really good over anything that's relatively flat. I find myself very frustrated with just Super Speed in Faultline, even though it's a very different zone than it was back in I2. But just about anywhere else, it's one of the quickest ways of getting around town. It's also been really useful in missions as the whole map can be explored relatively safely usually in mere minutes.

Teleport is also another good option. It is really endurance intensive, and actually really hard to use in indoor mission areas. But outdoors there is nothing faster, and it covers all three dimensions of movement. Even unslotted, Hover becomes a good compliment as it allows you to rest and get your bearings, or stay out of reach of most melee users. Keep in mind outside of Architect, just about everything has at least one power that can be used at range against flyers, and there's stuff in the works to add ranged attacks to the melee sets of Architect's custom enemies, so you won't be completely safe. But possibly still safer than you would be on the ground in many cases.

I think that about covers it. Travel powers aren't as necessary as they were in the past. But still good to have. Flight sucks. Speed & Teleport are still king. Am I missing something?