pudds

[u]Guide to Empowerment Stations[u]


Ok, we all know the empowerment buffs are less than stellar, but admit it: you're still curious. You want to see what they do, and you want to know what you'll get if you cough up the salvage to craft a better empowerment station.

I did, anyway, but I didn't want to waste my valuable salvage (ok, not that valuable, it was just going to be wasted on buffs anyway). After discovering an apparent lack of pre-existing information, I decided to break down and compare the differences myself (on the Test Server, of course).


[u]Overview[u]

There are 3 levels of Empowerments stations, in both Tech and Arcane flavours. The buffs available at each style of station are the same, and more buffs are available as you move up to higher level stations. All lower tier buffs are available at higher tier stations. In the lists below, new buffs unlocked by that level of station are white, buffs available at a lower level are shown in gray.

Suggestion: Buffs are crafted using salvage components, not raw salvage, and therefore can be relatively expensive. Each style of station will only accept components of the relevant types (IE: Arcane empowerment stations require arcane components), so putting a Tech station in an Arcane base can help limit salvage spent on buffs to those components that aren't required for more important base related items.


[u]Level 1 Stations[u]

Tech: Radiation Emulator
Arcane: Enchanting Crucible
Placement Cost: 15,000 prestige

Can be purchased in base edit mode.

Provides:
Confuse Resistance
Fear Resistance
Fire Resistance
Grant Invisibility
Increase Attack Speed
Increase Flight Speed
Increase Jump Speed
Increase Perception
Increase Run Speed
Knockback Increase
Knockback Protection
Lethal Resistance
Sleep Resistance
Slow Resistance
Smashing Resistance


[u]Level 2 Stations[u]

Tech: Linear Accelerator (12 Tech Material, 36 Tech Power)
Arcane: Arcane Crucible (36 Mystic Element, 12 Mystic Foci)
Placement Cost: 30,000 prestige

Must be crafted on the Level 1 Empowerment Station.

Provides
Cold Resistance
Confusion Resistance
Disorient Resistance
Endurance Drain Resistance
Energy Resistance
Fear Resistance
Fire Resistance
Grant Invisibility
Immobilize Resistance
Increase Attack Speed
Increase Flight Speed
Increase Jump Speed
Increase Perception
Increase Recovery
Increase Run Speed
Knockback Increase
Knockback Protection
Lethal Resistance
Negative Energy Resistance
Sleep Resistance
Slow Resistance
Smashing Resistance
Toxic Resistance


[u]Level 3 Stations[u]

Tech: Supercollider (38 Tech Material, 25 Tech Power, 9 Tech Hardware, 6 Tech Prototype)
Arcane: Mystic Crucible (25 Mystic Element, 38 Mystic Foci, 6 Arcane Essence, 9 Arcane Glyph)
Placement Cost: 60,000 prestige

Must be crafted on the Level 2 Empowerment Station.

Provides:

Cold Resistance
Confusion Resistance
Disorient Resistance
Endurance Drain Resistance
Energy Resistance
Fear Resistance
Fire Resistance
Grant Invisibility
Hold Resistance
Immobilize Resistance
Increase Attack Speed
Increase Flight Speed
Increase Jump Speed
Increase Perception
Increase Recovery
Increase Run Speed
Knockback Increase
Knockback Protection
Lethal Resistance
Negative Energy Resistance
Psionic Resistance
Sleep Resistance
Slow Resistance
Smashing Resistance
Toxic Resistance


[u]Notes[u]

Unfortunately, I haven't had the time (or salvage) to personally test all of the buffs' effects. There are a few things worth noting, however:

- All buffs have a duration of 60 minutes
- Buffs cannot be stacked
- Damage Resistances are 5%
- "Grant Invisibility" is really self-stealth, without the movement penalty or the defense.
- "Grant Invisiblity" will prevent NPC hostages from following you on escort/kidnap missions.
- Applied buffs can be deleted before they expire by right clicking them in your "Powers" window (P). (Invisibility, for instance...)


[u]Some thoughts...[u]

It seems worth noting, to me at least, that the third empowerment station provides very little value for its rather large cost over the 3rd station; those extra 2 buffs come at a hefty price. The second one, I was pleased to find, does seem to provide some useful value, however, and might be an upgrade worth considering.

In addition to crafting the empowerment buffs, the stations also provide the ability to craft the basic tech/arcane components. For supergroups that create stations opposite their standard base type (tech bases with arcane stations, or vice versa), this is quite useful as an alternative to placing worktables in order to create components for crafting buffs.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Hmmm... I wonder if the Double XP thing also Double your Prestige?

/e plot

[/ QUOTE ]

I need double influence for a handful of my heroes. And one sad villain.

[/ QUOTE ]

This event would be a perfect way to build influence for poor heroes/villains: cap yourself in debt, earn regular xp and double inf.

Of course, I'd personally rather the double xp

I truly believe that some people would complain if given a free month of play.

I can only assume that your detractor has failed to read or understand the term PvP in your guide. While I don't agree with all their suggestions, they're not terrible from a PvE perspective.

Of course, I could be wrong, in which case, I'd like to request a match against his team.

The recharge can be buffed, like any other power. Once they're cast though, the decoys themselves are unbuffable.

Clear as mud?

[ QUOTE ]
There are occassions when a pull is not only justified, it's just about suicidal not to. Smaller rooms with multiple spawns are just one example where a good pull will keep everyone standing. Another is in situations involving foes that have multiple status attacks. (Malta, Carnies, Rikti, Tsoo)

It has been my experiance that if a tank or scrapper calls for a pull, it's a good idea to know how to do it.

It's only an inferior tactic if it gets everyone defeated. If everyone is happy with the defeat rate, then it's fine.

[/ QUOTE ]

In cases like that, I find the best pull is an AoE pull. There aren't many (if any) situations I can think of where single pulling is overly worthwhile (too slow, as mentioned above). Pulling the entire group away from another big group, on the other hand, can be extremely effective. I'm a big fan of the fireball pull.

For any of you Kinetics out there, you'll know that keeping track of when speed boost is going to expire is a pain. If you use HeroStats, you'll probably also know that speed boost shows up in the buff list as something like "Pyromance -> Unknown", with a duration. This is because the game doesn't show your target name in the combat log for herostats to find like most other buffs do.

However, the guys over at HeroStats do good work, and their method of picking out chat messages is no different. If you look into the ChatMessagesRegexs.dat file (its just a text file), you'll see it has a very large, specially formatted list of power messages. Using this, and a bind/macro, you can force the game to give you something HeroStats can use more effectively.


Step 1: Removing the Original Speed Boost line from the HeroStats Chat File

You'll need to edit the file located in your herostats directory, probably C:\Program Files\HeroStats\. The file name is ChatMessagesRegexes.dat, and can be opened in notepad. You're looking for this section (line 1527 currently):

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre># These are buffs but we don't know who the target is. Still useful to track as a
# timer - at least with the last instance showing you'll have some idea when
# they're about to wear off.
PowerActivated,BuffGiven You activated the {PowerName} power.
ApplyToPower=Grant Invisibility,Inertial Reduction,Speed Boost
PlayerName=Unknown</pre><hr />

This is what HeroStats uses to track speed boost by default. You need to remove speed boost from that line, so it looks like this instead:

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre> ApplyToPower=Grant Invisibility,Inertial Reduction</pre><hr />

If you skip this step, the other steps will still work, but you'll get an Speed Boost buff to Unknown everytime you use it.


Step 2: Adding Your Own Custom Speed Boost Line

Order is relatively important in the chat message file, so you have to be somewhat careful where you put the new line. Don't put it at the top or the bottom, specifically. About 200 lines in (197 currently) there's a section titled "Normal Buff Messages". That's where I put mine (under the Regeneration Aura line, to be exact).

Here's what you need to add to the file:

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>#######################
#BuffGiven Binds
#######################
# Custom line for Speed Boost
BuffGiven \[\w+\]--&gt;.+: Buffing {PlayerName} with {PowerName}.
BuffGiven \[HSBuffs\] YourGlobal: Buffing {PlayerName} with {PowerName}.</pre><hr />

Note the second BuffGiven line. This should be changed to your global chat handle (without the @ sign). The space between the BuffGiven and the backslashes should paste in as a tab, but you should double check to ensure they did. HeroStats will crash on load if they are spaces instead of a tab.

At this point, you can save and close the chat message file, and reopen HeroStats.

Edited: fixed a bug with the chat file that caused other people in the channel's buffs to be caught as well

Step 3: Creating a Bind/Macro for HeroStats to Use

I used a macro for this, because I'm too forgetful to remember what my bind keys are, but a bind will work just fine.

The trick to getting the real buff timers is to give HeroStats a name to track. This is done by sending a message that HeroStats can see everytime you activate Speed Boost.


3a: Using a Tell

The tell option is the easiest, but it will fill your window with tell messages from yourself, which is a bit annoying. I used it for a day quite successfully when I first created the bind and it didn't bother me much after a while.

For tell mode, use this macro:

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>/macro SB "/t $name, Buffing $target with Speed Boost.$$powexec_name Speed Boost"</pre><hr />

Don't forget the period before the $$. If you miss it, it won't work.


Step 3b: Chat Channel Mode

The chat channel is nicer, since you won't be bombarded with messages, but you'll need at least one free chat channel. The second line we added to the chat file is setup to watch a channel I created named HSBuffs. You're welcome to join this channel if you like, but if you'd rather create your own channel, you'll need to change the name in the chat file.

One caveat: as of writing, only the unstable version of HeroStats allows you to watch global channels. If you want to use this method, you'll need to download the unstable version (3.7+).

To use chat channel mode, use this macro:

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>/macro SB "chan_send HSBuffs Buffing $target with Speed Boost.$$powexec_name Speed Boost"</pre><hr />

Don't forget the period before the $$. If you miss it, it won't work.


Step 4: Configuring HeroStats

Under View &gt; Hero Options, you need to tell HeroStats to watch the appropriate channel. If using tells, turn "Private Messages" on under the "Chat Channels" tab. For global channel mode, enter the name of the global channel (HSBuffs) in the first box under the "Global Channels" tab.

HeroStats also doesn't track buff timers by default. Under the "In-Game" tab, you'll want to enable "Show buff timer window" and "Show buff supplier/recipient".


Known Issues

The message will fire off regardless of whether speed boost actually activates or not. This means that if your target is out of range, or your target is invalid, HeroStats will still think you buffed them and show you a timer. Not a major issue for out of range targets, since you can just rebuff them and the timer will reset, but occasionally you'll have to look at things like "Pyromance -&gt; Button Man Gunner" for two minutes

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That's it folks, long-winded as it was. If you actually made it this far, you're all done. One other tip I can offer that's not directly related to the bind is for HeroStats...for anyone that might find HeroStats causes a performance hit, you may want to disable the graphing function under View &gt; Hero Options (I disable it for _Global so it's off for all characters). As cool as this function is, its also pretty resource intensive. Turning it off made all the difference for me.

Enjoy the less stressful boosting

[ QUOTE ]
Did you know:
Originally when you right-clicked on a player and read their Info, all the data would appear in a single window with no tabs?
This window would contain the character description, if written, and a list of all powers, including the inherent powers Brawl, Sprint, and Rest, and also any special addition DVD powers, such as Prestige Power Quick. This effectively allowed anyone to tell which version of the game another player was using.
The Info window was changed to something similar to the current version some time after the addition of Badges and the Arena. I’m afraid I don’t know the exact date, or the exact nature of the change.


[/ QUOTE ]

Can't say when exactly the change happened either, but I can tell you it was before the arena and after badges. Either introduced with Issue 3 or some time prior to it...I know this because I've never seen them any differently (except for the PvP tab which was added with the arena), and I started playing after badges and before the arena

How many controllers did it take to actually confuse him?

Also, if it was viable to confuse hami, even ignoring the possible spawn outcomes, confusing hami from the beginning could be a good way to speed up the mito clearing and negate the need for a pet dropping team....