A Guide to Hamidon Enhancements

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If the buff is 20% on the SO (defense, etc..) the Hami buff is 30%. If the buff is 33% on the SO (rechg, dmg, etc...) the Hami buff is 50%

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Except I just went and tested a Hasten Hami-O on Test and it was 42.5%, not 50%. Guess again.

Yes, I do know you said 42.5% but I've seen tests with other Hami's being a 50% buff. I wish I was a bigger 'math buff' to test out things but unfortunately, its not something I like doing as much.

Hasten can be made permanent with 4 HOs, which has been bandied around as proof that the recharge portion of Membrane (ToHit + DEF + RCH) must be 50%.

My own testing showed it to give a 49% boost. Despite the fact that I am very confident of my methodology, I'm willing to concede the 1% difference. So I believe 50% is correct.

You can do the math if you wish:

The raw numbers from my testing:
Build Up with no Enh: 91 seconds (Consistent with 1 sec act, 90 sec recharge)
Build Up with +3 SO: 66 seconds
Build Up with +3 HO: 58.5 seconds

Subtract 1 second for activation time (or is it 1.2 seconds?). The formula is Original / (1 + Enh) = New.

Then, divide New by 1.15 to change it from a +3 Enh to an even-con Enhancement.

If the Activation time is 1.2 seconds, as printed in the Prima Guide, and the base Recharge time is 90 seconds, one gets a boost of 49.6%, which is incredibly close to 50%.

As a sanity check, when I use the above numbers and methods to calculate what bonus an SO gives, I get 33.81%. That's pretty close to the printed 33.33% bonus an SO gives, which implies that my testing method and math are likely good.

- Jeremy White

You would appear to be correct. I was told that the base recharge time of Regeneration Aura was 480 seconds, but when I checked in Hero Planner it was indeed 500. That puts my 337 second result close enough to the theoretical 333 1/3 second count of 500 divided by 1.5 as to make little difference.

A warning about the Damge / Range HO:

never put those in Energy Torrent or Phantasm it will cause a very annoying Bug, the range will get extended but the power will only damage things on the regular unenhanced range, for some reason this bug hasnt been fixed yet.

I just sent a PM to Statesman about this issue; he responded:

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Yeah - I was wrong - I didn't describe the entire way the buffs worked.

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Given that for every Hami-O element we've been able to test, it's worked out to approximately 1.5* the value of an equivalent SO -- 30% if the SO was a 20%, like Range or Dmg Resistance; 50% if the SO was a 33.3% like Accuracy or Recharge Rate -- I would say that this is likely to be their overall value across the board.

I shouldve mentioned the dmg/rng bug in my Original Post (if I did I missed it ). I made a thread on tech forums awhile back and sent a petition and got a reply back from Vyvyanne saying its a known bug and should be fixed soon.

hmm, I wonder if it got fixed in Issue 4 but wasnt documented. I'll test it later after this Hami raid

Just to let you guys know I got a level 46 Golgi when I was level 45 sk'd to a level 50. I was not thinking and I have cursed myself for it since for leaving the sk on. It was my first Hammy raid. I do not know about the level 5 spread. Just letting you know my level, my mentor's level, and the reward received.

Membranes are perfect for Hasten, Moment of Glory, & Focused Chi. No wonder I've never once seen one up for trade. I'll be using at least the first 12 I get, perhaps more.

Cytoskeletons are perfect for Focused Accuracy and Weave.

Edited because I accidentally wrote FA in the first paragraph when I meant FC. Added the second paragraph to clarify my mistake that's not even here anymore.

Great Post. Thanks alot.

I have a question has any one done testings with Ho's and quickness? Just wondering how that will effect things.

Quickness always has an unenhanceable base .2 recharge reduction (or boost?). Quickness obviously makes the recharge faster and Hami's make it alot faster also but AFAIK, there is no way to make it enhanceable.

In a comment on an LJ post in the City of Heroes forum, someone complained that the Lysosome Exposure Enhancement was useless and unwanted, because nobody except a Dark/Dark Def could really use it. Inspired, I went to the powers FAQ at Warcry and ran down the list to see which powers could benefit. I've probably missed a few, but here's my survey of people who can use a Lysosome, which is apparently widely regarded as one of the "most useless" Hami-Os in the game.

These are all the powers I could find that can benefit from two out of the three factors enhanced by a Lysosome Exposure (To-Hit Debuff/Defense Debuff/Accuracy):
<ul type="square">[*]Assault Rifle Blasters (Burst)[*]/Device Blasters (Smoke Grenade)[*]Earth Controllers (Stone Prison, Stone Cages)[*]Dark Miasma Defenders (Twilight Grasp, Fearsome Stare, Petrifying Gaze, Dark Servant)[*]/Dark Blast Defenders (most Blast attacks debuff Accuracy)[*]Radiation Emission Defenders (Radiation Infection—though, granted, the Debuff/End Reduc Hami-O is a better choice for this)[*]/Radiation Blast Defenders (most Blast attacks debuff Defense)[*]Storm Summoning Defenders (possibly; I'm not sure if Tornado takes Acc or not)[*]Broadsword Scrappers (Hack, Slash, Whirling Sword, Disembowel, Head Splitter)[*]Claws Scrappers (Slash)[*]Dark Melee Scrappers (most attacks debuff Accuracy)[*]Katana Scrappers (the same attacks as Broadsword, by whatever names they're called now; the guide I'm looking at isn't updated with the new names)[/list]

This may be a stupid question given all the information already posted on this thread - which I really appreciate btw - but, has it been verified that the acc bonus on a lysome (acc/def debuff with acc) is the same as a acc/mez or acc/dam?

Thanks in advance.

I believe that was confirmed but I am not positive about that.

The problem with the acc/debuffs is that even though two aspects can be used in a large variety of powers, frequently one of those aspects will be augmenting an exceptionally minor aspect of the power.

Most attacks that do acc debuff or def debuff only debuff it for 3 seconds at most and for 5% or so. Not ever worth slotting for. There are the rare exception but those frequently will be far better suited to a different Hami-O such as Dam/Acc or Dam/Mez or even Acc/Mez.

There is no power I know of that craves this HO.

It is the least valuable for a reason. I always feel the need to appoligize out of pity to the poor shmoes who get it and are trying to trade it away.

In my experience the heiarchy of Hami-O value is as follows.

MVE (Most Valuable Enhancer)
Resist/end

Second Tier
Heal/End, Acc/Dam, and Buffs/Recharge

Middle value
Acc/Mez, Dam/Mez, Debuffs/End, Buffs/End

Lesser value
Travel/End, Dam/Range

Worst Value Enhancer
Debuffs/Acc

In most cases it is alright to trade one bracket above or below your won HO without anything extra thrown in. Anything in the top two tiers being traded with anything below them however can get 2 HOs for the price of one more often than not. As things progress the recharge reducers seem to be going up in value and may rival the Damage Resistance/End enhancers in time. We will see though.

AFAIK, as said above, the acc buff is the same on any of the Hami's

Thanks for the quick replies! Unfortunately, most of my Kinetics powers don't buff or debuff defense or accuracy. However, they can benefit from the accuracy, endurance reduction, and recharge effects.

Yeah, unfortunately for my Kin controller, Hami's are scarce as usable. I slotted most of my Hami's into my Fire primary and only thing really in Kinetics is a travel/end in Inertia Reduction

anyone have any experiance with putting Peroxisome's (dam/mez) in controlling pets like Sings, dark fluffies and Jacks instead of regular Damage SO's? I would imagine a Sing with a couple of these would be lethal in PvP

I've seen it in action and yes, it can get sick. 3 dmg/mez and 3 rchg (or however you want it depending on your taste) as said can get pretty nasty

then why are they in such low demand? i would think every grav and ice controller, dark defender and maybe the odd ice blaster would want one yet they seem to be only slightly more valuable then the travel HO's

if it wasnt such a dang long run to 45 i would start up a grav/* just so i could pick them up cheep

Some people are like that and dont look outside the box. They always want dmg/acc and fail to think that dmg/mez is so much better

im glad that a blaster in my SG wants it for Total Focus.

i would hate to waste it on something like Touch of Fear.

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then why are they in such low demand? i would think every grav and ice controller, dark defender and maybe the odd ice blaster would want one yet they seem to be only slightly more valuable then the travel HO's

if it wasnt such a dang long run to 45 i would start up a grav/* just so i could pick them up cheep

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Part of it has to do with availability. For some bizzare inexplicable reason Acc/Mez and Dam/Mez are far more common than Acc/Dam. As a result All of the blasters and scrappers who want Acc/Dam for their attacks are clamoring for what few of those get dropped while the defenders and controllers can pick up all the acc/mez and dam/mez at bargain basement prices because they drop so often. Thats also why Dam/Range is so undervalued.

I have my Cosmic Burst slotted up with 1 Acc/Dam, 2 Dam/Ranges, and 3 Dam/Mez's

I have my Total Focus slotted up with 1 Acc/Dam, 5 Dam/Mez's

And my EMP of course gets 6 Acc/Mez's ;-)

As an Illusion/Rad Controller, my EM Pulse lasts 55 seconds base. I'm gonna put one HO in there with ACC no matter what, just to make sure I'm at 95% chance to hit almost any mob, and it might as well be an Acc/Mez. But 6??? That's 220 seconds if you're a Controller, or 180 for a Defender. If it takes you that long to defeat mobs, you might want to consider adding some slots to your Brawl. Or better yet, take an attack power! :-)