Savant_NA

I'd like to purchase the Gladiator's Armor and Shield Wall uniques from any willing sellers. If your price for either of these is 2 billion or less, you got yourself a deal with me immediately. For anything more, I'd like to discuss details on price and collateral for trading, since it's more complicated given the influence cap. (I'm on Virtue, so trading is easier if done on that server.)

Feel free to respond here or PM me. Thanks so much!

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Hey BAB, has there been any news lately on the development of that Psionic Weaponry set? I'd love to know if my hopes for it are at least remotely founded.

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Castle makes a strange noise whenever it's mentioned.

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Probably due to reasons of mechanics: Psi being the second least-resisted damage type would make it vicious on a primary damage archetype, but quite acceptable as a specialist form of damage for defenders, dominators, and controllers.

What's odd is that Toxic, the least resisted damage type, has it's own primary damage set (or is it more like a little sauce on top of Lethal, I'll have to check the numbers . . .)

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That's my guess as well. Psy Blast is not a Blaster option, and even on Dominators, the Psy Assault set conspicuously lacks the set's "Big Guns" TK Blast and Will Dom. A Psi Weaponry set for high damage ATs could be problematic from a balancing perspective. Perhaps if the psi damage is more of an afterthought to the attacks (a la toxic damage for Spines), it might be more feasible.

Supergroup Name: Frontline
Website: Frontline
Leader or Recruiting Officers: Savant (@Savant), Night Eye (@Night Eye), Elat (@Elated)
Preferred Method of contact: PM on our SG boards, global chat message
Guild Description: Formed in May 2007, Frontline is a relatively new coalition of veteran superheroes, many of whom have been playing City of Heroes since release. The advent of Issue 9: Breakthrough inspired many of these heroes to return to Paragon City, where they discovered that the Supergroups to which they once belonged were not the same. In an effort to establish a new "home," the returning heroes created a new organization, Frontline.

The following excerpt concerning the group's history is displayed on the Frontline Website:

Sometimes, heroes retire. Sometimes, they disappear and fade away. Sometimes, they leave the fight and pursue other endeavors.

And sometimes, heroes return…

It was during a time of heroic revival that a chance reunion of old friends brought about a new paranormal organization. These heroes returned to a recovering Paragon, but they found the battle still raging as intensely as ever and the city still beckoning for aid. And so, to best answer this call to arms, the group Frontline was established.

A coalition for both veterans and newcomers, Frontline is a place for heroes with the strength and resolve to fight at the battle’s forefront. Our objective is to help lead the battle against Paragon City’s enemies, to wage war where the fight is most intense, to stand as a beacon amidst darkening days.

Tell us, hero, will you stand at our side?

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I'd like to know about breakpoints for To Hit and Defense and how you, the players, think it should work. I'm not talking about mechanics -- I'm talking about the expectations you have in a fight.

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Let me preface my expectations by saying that my percentages are based upon the ToHit values only, before Accuracy enhancements are applied. In addition, I'll use one percentage to represent both the attacker's and defender's perspective, since I believe there should be no difference in the expectations (i.e., no "surprises").

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1) You have the default To Hit value (ie no buffs), your target has no Defense value. How often do you WANT to hit him? Conversely, as the defender, how often do you expect to be missed?

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50% chance to land a hit, as per the standard CoX convention.

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2) You have the maximum possible To Hit value, and your target has no defense value. How often do you WANT to hit him? Conversely, as the defender, how often do you expect to be missed?

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95% chance to connect, as per the standard CoX convention.

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3) You have the default To Hit value, and your target has the maximum possible defense value. How often do you WANT to hit him? Conversely, as the defender, how often do you expect to be missed?

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5% base chance ToHit.

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4) You have the maximum possible To Hit value, and your target has the maximum possible defense value. How often do you WANT to hit him? Conversely, as the defender, how often do you expect to be missed?

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I think a fair final base ToHit percentage should be somewhere in the 20-33% range. Slotted Accuracy bonuses would increase this to around the 50% "final ToHit" that's been suggested multiple times in this thread.


I know that _Castle_ did not ask for specifics to mechanics, but I do feel it pertinent to echo Psypunk's suggestion for there to be some sort of "unresistable" portion of Defense buffs that is unaffected by ToHit buffs and may or may not be affected by Defense Debuffs (pending further thought/discussion and actual gameplay testing). Along with that, I think there should be a cap to this "unresistable Defense" that puts the final ToHit (before Accuracy bonuses) at the suggested 20-33% noted above. Ideally, this would be a cap that is reachable (but just barely, perhaps only with the addition of a Pool power or two) by a single SR Scrapper/Stalker, Ice Tanker, and FF Defender (for the sum total of Defense buffs applied to a teammate, not for the Defender himself), since Defense is the primary "trick" for these sets. For other ATs that have/grant Defense bonuses, external buffing would be required to achieve that cap.

_Castle_, I appreciate you starting this thread. Despite your disclaimer that no particular impending change is currently in the pipe, the fact that you posted this says to me that a gameplay adjustment in this area (which is sorely needed) is a definite possibility. I certainly hope your time and resources will allow you to explore this avenue further and bring a good balancing change to fruition. Cheers!

My apologies. I misinterpreted your formula. It is actually mathematically equivalent to the one I posted, but with a different naming scheme and a different reordering of the factors. Your explanation cleared up where I was confused.

The most comprehensive and informative guide on defense I have seen. Thanks so much for your work.

A clarification on Force Fields:

- Because of the strange and situationally suboptimal stacking of the various bubbles as you described in your guide, the devs changed Force Fields so that Insulation Shield includes both Ranged AND AoE Defense. In addition, Dispersion Bubble now provides +Defense(ALL), which includes all damage types (minus toxic, obviously) as well as melee, ranged, and AoE Defense. I just verified the short text for these powers this morning, and they include these changes. You'll also find the implied decision for those changes in Statesman's post here.

And yes, the Illusion invisibility powers also say +Defense(ALL) for the short help texts as well.

Also, I think your toHit formula might have some modifiers in the wrong position. The upcoming change to higher level/rank mobs from getting a toHit bonus (applied BEFORE defense) to getting an accuracy bonus (applied AFTER defense) is supposed to make Defense buffs more useful against those mobs.

The example given by a dev (_Castle_?) was how an even-level AV has 75% final toHit against players currently. The 50% toHit buff will be changed to a 50% accuracy buff, so that defense will have a greater effect.

The formula I've seen posted is:

FinalToHit = {[BaseAcc * (1 + toHitBuff - toHitDebuff) - (DefBuff - DefDebuff)] * (1 + accBuff - accDebuff*)}
* I'm not even sure there are accDebuffs, as it seems all debuffs regarding accuracy are actually toHitDebuffs instead.
Given that formula, the AV gets the same FinalToHit of 75% under both the 50% toHitBuff and the 50% accBuff, as follows:

FinalToHit = {[0.5 * (1 + 0.5 - 0) - (0 - 0)] * (1 + 0 - 0)} = 75%
or
FinalToHit = {[0.5 * (1 + 0 - 0) - (0 - 0)] * (1 + 0.5 - 0)} = 75%

However, Defense becomes much more effective with the impending change (use 25% defense as an example):
FinalToHit = {[0.5 * (1 + 0.5 - 0) - (0.25 - 0)] * (1 + 0 - 0)} = 50%
vs.
FinalToHit = {[0.5 * (1 + 0 - 0) - (0.25 - 0)] * (1 + 0.5 - 0)} = 37.5%

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If that tanker has Focused Accuracy or Build Up, even the "super bubbled" friend is easily hit.

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As it should be. Third party buffs should never be as good as an entire primary or secondary powerset (Ice for Tankers and SR for Scrappers).

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But adding defense to your team is the "primary" focus of a "primary" Defender set. The defense FF defenders grant teammates is much higher than the defense we can give ourselves. How is it that our "primary" purpose should be completely negated by a "secondary" (Build Up) or even an "ancillary" (Focused Accuracy) power?

If that tanker has Focused Accuracy or Build Up, even the "super bubbled" friend is easily hit.

Statesman,

While I would generally agree that the Defender AT seems to be in a good position, I think you would be hard-pressed to say all the individual sets within the AT are equally viable. More specifically, the added defense of Force Fields (a hallmark of the set) provides negligible benefit in many high-level PvP situations. Super Reflexes for Scrappers has a similar problem, but I read from another post that you had replied in a PM that you would be looking at that.

I hope Force Fields is on the list of power sets that need balancing, and that it has a fairly high priority.

Name: Evolution
Website: www.evo-guild.com
Recruiting Officers: @Savant, @Fatality, @OnyxWulf, @Gravaknight
Preferred Method of contact: PM and post on our website forums

About us: We are Evolution, a coalition of tried-and-true heroes ever honing our skills and improving our ability to combat the evil that plagues Paragon. While crime and corruption are to be found at all levels, our battle is with those deemed most dangerous and deadly to the safety of our city. And like our name suggests, we will continue to grow, adapt, and thrive in the fight against the ever-present and ever-expanding darkness that threatens our fellow citizens.

Evolution is a supergroup focused on the exploration and enjoyment of CoH’s higher-level content, both PvP and PvE. We are a group of players working to facilitate and enjoy the fellowship of dependable, competent, team-oriented individuals. Our goal is to provide such players with an instant base of in-game friends to both help and be helped in tackling this content and promoting a cohesive team atmosphere. Currently, Evolution is home to over 70 unique players, most of whom have level 50 heroes and many more working together diligently to make it there.

For those interested in pursuing membership in our family, details about our expectations and recruitment process can be found in our recruitment forum here.

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My other option at 35 is Scramble Thoughts. I would want this to disorient bosses, however the post above notes that it doesn't work on bosses. The question is: If I used thunderclap in near the boss to stun the minions, then applied scramble thoughts to the boss, won't that disorient the boss for the overlap time?

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I haven't personally tried this combo, but it certainly seems like it should work. Typically hold/disorient/mez effects stack, so a disorient from Thunderclap and another from Scramble Thoughts should stop a boss. Of course, that's assuming you don't miss with one or the other....

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I've tried it, and it does work. It's one of the only reasons why I have Psychic Wail and Scramble Thoughts in my current build. I can use Scramble Thoughts on a boss, then run up to it (and the rest of the group of mobs my team is engaging) and release a Wail. The boss is then stunned, just like the lieutenants and minions.

Great post, SoulHealer. Informative and insightful.