Assessment of Pet set aura IOs (preliminary)
By
ChaosExMachina,
Posted on: 2007-04-09 11:22 in The Market and Inventions
I been meaning to ask about these. Do they work at the full value listed on the enhancement, like 10% resistance or is this something that you have to get at lvl 50 to get the full 10% resistance value? If that is the case then you could just get a lvl 35 IO for this and it would still work like the lvl 50 version of the same enhancement?
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The benefit of the aura enhancements is independent of the enhancement level. A level 25 res aura IO has the same effect as a level 53 res aura IO. In fact, if there's a way for these enhancements to be made level 1 always, I think that would be a good idea.
Also, I forgot to mention that in the recipe title for Edict of the Master: defense bonus, it suggests that the bonus is 10%, while the enhancement description says that it's 5%.
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about that 20 feet radius... should be enough with melee pets... just get team teleport and use it
I'm not saying that there is no way to make a 20' aura useful (the goto command is another workaround that doesn't require deep investment into a particular travel pool), just that it's a rather tight constraint given other similar powers.
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it even affects the npc pets that you can pick up in a mission.
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OK, this comment may need to be revised. Last night I was playing Vernon von Grun's missions, and the Deathspores I summoned didn't get the purple defbuff shields. I was fairly certain the Ghost Widows I mentioned in the OP did, but maybe Ghost Widows have a defbuff natively and that's what I was seeing. I'll do more testing to verify.
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The pet auras were buffed on Friday, hooray! From the patch notes:
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Increased radius of Pet IO Enhancements which grant auras.
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and
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Added visual graphics effects to Pet IO Enhancements which grant auras.
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I did some testing with Djeannie and we verified that the radius of the +def and +res auras is the same as Shadow Fall's radius, which is 40'. I think this change will make the auras more consistently useful for pet ATs.
We also noticed the red resistance buff animation for Sovereign Right's +res aura is now in place, this is good news, too.
I now have the taunt resist and placate resist aura from Commanding Presence slotted, but I see no visual indication of its buff (nor do I know what such a buff would look like), so I can't test the radius easily. I'm not certain that this aura needs a buff animation, but some indication that the buff isn't working wouldn't go awry. Buff icons would be nice for all of these powers, but I suspect we don't see them because adding them isn't straightforward.
Now that my houseguests are gone, I'll try to get some testing of who the auras affect done today.
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I think a buff icon (a single icon, as long as every set has the same range) would be more useful than an animation. Dark has Shadow Fall, so you can use that as a buff icon, but other sets will need it.
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Assessment of Pet set aura IOs (preliminary)
So I've been doing a lot of testing on my mastermind, and I've managed to get my hands on Edict of the Master's +def aura (thanks to Djeannie), and Sovereign Right's +res aura. I haven't got my hands on Commanding Presence's taunt resistance and placate resistance aura piece yet - if anybody has one villain side and is willing to donate or trade for it, I'd be grateful for the help.
If anybody has more or different experiences or comments on the below, please post.
Here are my observations:
1) These are passive abilities. They are unique among "Global" effects slotted in click powers in that they are active 100% of the time. _Castle_ lived up to his promise and it's an excellent result.
What exactly does this mean? Let's say you're a Thugs Mastermind. You have slotted the Edict of the Master defense aura into your Call Enforcer power so that you can get some nice stacking with the Enforcers' Maneuvers. When you use the Call Thugs power, they will have the defense buff as long as they are within 20 feet of you. Think of it more like Supremacy than anything else - it even affects the npc pets that you can pick up in a mission. I had a couple of Lt Night Widows running around with me in a Longbow mission, and they were impressively durable with Shadow Fall, the +res aura and the +def aura. Then again, they're pretty impressive to begin with.
2) The description of the IO says that the radius for both powers is 20 feet. My own testing supports this.
3) Edict of the Master's defense buff creates the spinning purple defense buff shields (the ones you get when you use a Luck) around your pets and any other mobs it affects. This is how I was able to test the radius of the buff and how I was able to determine that it affects npc allies.
4) I can't tell if Sovereign Right's resistance buff has a buff animation that it applies. It certainly does not have the spinning red resistance buff shields (the ones you get when you use a Sturdy) around your pets. It may apply the defense buff shields, but I can't tell because I got and slotted Edict of the Master before Sovereign Right. If I can find another Sovereign Right aura IO, I will test it alone in another copy of this character. If I can't, I will burn a respec to get the Edict of the Master IO out of there.
5) Unfortunately, the auras do not have discrete buff icons. This is my biggest complaint about them. Buff icons are very important for masterminds, because they let us know whether we're buffing our pets appropriately. Every MM has at least one PBAE buff (Supremacy), very many have more from Leadership, and two of the secondaries have PBAE buff toggles. If the radius were at least the same as Supremacy, then we could use that buff icon as a visual indicator.
6) The 20' radius is rather low. Compare to Supremacy, Maneuvers, Assault, Tactics (60'), Force Bubble (50'), Shadow Fall (40'), and Dispersion Bubble (25'). It's tougher for MMs whose pets prefer melee, because their pets will spread out more than those who prefer ranged combat.
Recommendations:
1) The auras should have buff icons if possible.
2) If not possible, the auras should have their radius increased to match Supremacy, so that Supremacy's icon can function as the buff icon for these powers. Incidentally, this wouldn't be a bad change to make in any event, because the tight radius unfairly constrains masterminds with melee henchmen.
3) The resistance aura should give the revolving red shield buff animation. Currently it either doesn't do this at all, or doesn't do it when the defense aura is also present.
Yet to test:
1) Placate/Confuse resistance aura.
2) Verify the resistance against a number of different damage types.
3) Resistance aura animation without the defense aura active.
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