Guide to Empowerment Stations

[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.

Oh my, nice write up. This has alot of potential. Something I've always wanted to see are the costs of each empowerment. I mean, I know its all in the game but its a cumbersome setup and would be nice to gauge and compare in one nice web page

I agree that the 3rd station is not much of a jump from the second, and also mixing your types. (we have a tech station in our arcane base).

I cant wait to find out some numbers on the other stuff. My /Nin stalker has been living on the knockback protection now that it lasts an hour. It only costs 1 tech mat and I can pretty much get that per mission. So thats a gem compared to the crappy damage resistance empowerments. I have not tried the +perception or many of the other Mez resistance ones however.

I debated on including the recipes, but some of them (like the hold protection) are big; like 6 ingredients each. Basically, I got lazy, and wasn't sure how to present them. Perhaps I'll add that to a version 2...

Agreed. Very nice write up. Gives me reason and plot device to upgrade in the future.

[ QUOTE ]

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.


[/ QUOTE ]

I'd imagine that the devs don't consider the stations finalized yet, since their powers aren't described. That said, I do think that the mez resistance vs. holds is useful in a very narrow margin. By late game, the foes who mez tend to have multiple mezzes available. If your group is hitting the 40+ game and has the prestige and salvage to spare, I wouldn't consider it a bad investment, particularly if your group's going to be farming Hamidon or especially the Lord Recluse Strike Force, when your choice of inspirations needs to be tight.

[ QUOTE ]

In addition to crafting the empowerment buffs, the stations also provide the ability to craft the basic tech/arcane components.


[/ QUOTE ]

You may want to clarify that you can create refined salvage components. Basic suggests only the tier one refined salvage (used by 'basic' craft tables), which isn't the case.

[ QUOTE ]

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 ]

It's worth putting down both, IMO. The salvage you really care about - the rare and special salvage - doesn't feed into temporary powers with the empowerment station. Similarly, since anyone can use a craft table and add a crafted item to the base (costing its salvage and prestige), empowerment stations may be safer in the long run.

Interested in the increase attack speed buff. Is it a akin to quickness? and has anyone tried stacking to see how close you can get to perma-hasten?

[ QUOTE ]
I debated on including the recipes, but some of them (like the hold protection) are big; like 6 ingredients each. Basically, I got lazy, and wasn't sure how to present them. Perhaps I'll add that to a version 2...

[/ QUOTE ]

really well done and useful - tyvm! and i'd LOVE to see recipe costs in v2.

gj pudds.

[ QUOTE ]
Interested in the increase attack speed buff. Is it a akin to quickness? and has anyone tried stacking to see how close you can get to perma-hasten?

[/ QUOTE ]
I have tried this buff. It is 30%. Not bad actually, very noticable. Perma-hasten? LOL. Thats scarecly possible anymore, it takes ALOT more then a single +30% buff to get it perma, BUT i do have Hasten 6 sloted for rech, and quickness on my stalker..once i get this station put in i will try it out and see how much downtime there is. I will report my findings here.

The other buffs i tested were runspeed, jump speed, and +end. The movement buffs were complete and utter junk. They do less then nothing. They are completely unnoticable. Not worth the trouble at all, the end buff is actually nice. I think its about half as strong as base stamina, its kinda hard to test though.

Nice guide. I'm going to have to try out that increase attack speed buff. The only one I've really appreciated is the knockback protection, it's not perfect...but man it's most appreciated. Like glycerine my Stalker is /nin. Now if only we could add to the duration by empowering more than once. *dreams*

[ QUOTE ]
- Buffs cannot be stacked
- Damage Resistances are 5%

[/ QUOTE ]
Clarification (or update) based on my just having tried this:

The same buff can not be stacked on top of itself. However, you can have as many different buffs going as you want. For example, for my test, I was running both attack speed buff and lethal resistance buff.

Secondly, the lethal resist, at least (1 tech material, 3 tech power) was a lot more than 5%. At least 25%, maybe 30%, roughly equivalent to a tanker's Temp Invulnerability. I could spot the exact second that it wore off; the chain-gun lieutenant firing on me suddenly jumped from 2 per shot to 3 per shot. I didn't check the log to get the fractional part, but the difference went from "Health with 3 DO's was keeping up with the damage just fine" to "holy cats my health is vanishing fast" on a squishy.

And yeah, 2 tech power and 2 tech material for a roughly 25% or 30% rate of fire increase? Absolutely worth it. Cut right through the glue-grenade speed debuff, and the rest of the time gave me the equivalent of a 25% to 30% damage increase, equivalent to roughly one extra SO in every attack power. You were asking about perma-hasten? This is Hasten, no? All by itself?

That being said, in that same hour, I got roughly 8 raw salvage, or, about 1/3rd of what I used making the buffs for that hour. It's not long-term sustainable, and that's probably on purpose.

(Obviously what I need to do is use my solo-friendly characters to farm salvage for my not-so-soloable characters. And save up for PvP, too.)

Man, these things have got to be COH's best kept secret.

Let me add some more numbers. I got curious; my (long abandoned) villain SG has a level 3 tech empowerment station and a level 2 arcane one. So I don't know the exact ingredients for the level 3 arcane buffs. But here's what I do have for the recipes for the various empowerment station buffs:

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>Tech ... Mat Pow Proto H/w S/w Exp
Mystic/Arcane ... Elem Foci Glyph Ess ? ?

Confusion Resistance 1 1
Fear Resistance 1 1
Fire Resistance 1 1
Grant Invisibility 1 6
Increase Attack Speed 2 2
Increase Flight Speed 2
Increase Jump Speed 2
Increase Perception 2 1
Increase Run Speed 2
Knockback Increase 1
Knockback Protection 1
Lethal Resistance 1 3
Sleep Resistance 1 2
Slow Resistance 1 1
Smashing Resistance 2 2

Cold Resistance 1 4 1
Disorient Resistance 1 3 1
Endurance Drain Reduction 5 1 1
Energy Resistance 4 3 1 1
Immobilize Resistance 2 3 1
Increase Recovery 6 1
Negative Energy Resistance 4 1 1
Toxic Resistance 7 1

Hold Resistance 4 4 2 2 1 1
Psionic Resistance 10 3 3 1</pre><hr />

As a rule of thumb, you can build tech material, tech power, mystic element, and mystic foci out of salvage that drops from any mob. Tech hardware, tech prototype, arcane glyph, and arcane essence require salvage that seldom drops from lieutenants and mostly only drops from bosses. Tech software and experimental tech (and presumably the two arcane, mystical, magical or whatever whatsits the level 3 buffs require) use salvage that seems to very seldom drop, and mostly from bosses, elite bosses, signature heroes, and archvillains. And as a rule of thumb, you can estimate that it will take either 3 or 4 pieces of raw salvage for each one piece of the above that you refine.

My SG's founder is certain that a tier 3 empowerment station does not allow some component recipes that the lower tier stations have. I would appreciate any reliable reference info that in/validates this statement.

I'm one Arcane Essence short of testing this on the Arcane level 3 empowerment station, but I can tell you already that he's flatly wrong about the Tech tier 3 empowerment station. It refines to all component salvage, including component salvage that it can't even use.

resurrecting this from the dead. I Would LOVE more info on these stations if any new version is in the works....

Lisa peeks into the Base Forums....I have researched, but can't find the answer to my problem anywhere...probably because as I did not build any of the bases I now have the red star for, I don't have the basic knowledge needed to do what I want to do..sorry to be confusing

In one of my Bases I have the Enchanting Crucible which does first order empowerments.

I would like to improve on this, and get the second Tier, the Arcane Crucible .

I clicked on the workshop tab and using Rune, Blood Of Incarnate, Iron, and Empowered Sigil, I hit create hoping to create an Arcane Crucible.

I am now stuck on what to do. The Enchanting Crucible did not turn into an Arcane Crucible. I went into Edit Base mode and looked around for it.

In Edit mode, I ran into a room which can take 6 empowerment and has 0 placed.

I looked in the Empowerment Tab and saw only a lone Enchanting Crucible, then I recalled something I read from Paragon Wiki which made me check out the Arcane Workshop tab...there I saw lots of Forges but no Crucibles.

I have enough Prestige to do this...about 2888186

So, to recap, I paid my salvage to the proper place, I have enough prestige, I have enough room to place it..what do I do now?

I have never built a base from scratch, nor did I build the Enchanting Crucible, so I am probably missing something so obvious the guide writers thought it was too obvious to include.

Thanks in advance....

Lisa-Greatly defuddled but undaunted

If I'm correct, when you enter the base, you get a three button window that pops up on the screen; the top one is "Edit Base", the one under it should say something like "Add Personal Items", and 3rd I think is "Edit Base Layout" or the such.

On the middle/2nd button, "Add Personal Items", you should see the crafted crucible under there.

It's been awhile since I've done this, and am at work, so I can't verify at the moment, but try that and see if your crafted Crucible is in there.

Glad I could help.

I haven't done much base editing of late, and memory being what it is, I'm lucky to even remember what I had for breakfast.

I have several huge bases with nearly all base components that can be purchased/crafted/earned, thus I might remember how/what to do with them once in the blue moon.

Let me or the forums know if you have any other questions; the base commuity is always helpful in this regard!

Out of curiosity, are these buffs disabled like most other temp powers during the Incarnate Trials? Or do they persist, since they are "click" type buffs?

Thankfully I didn't have to resurrect this thread though I had been planning to do so to ask my question!

I'm curious if a complete list of the salvage for every buff was ever complied? It'd be handy to keep on hand so I could keep a certain amount of useful salvage in the base.

If not I guess i'll have to go through and list a few I may find useful on occasion.

Yeah I know, lazy bugger that I am I don't really want to duplicate the effort if someone else has already gone to the trouble and posted it.

Thanks,