Willpower and High Defense


Caulderone

 

Posted

Scrapper Willpower defense in I15

With the ever increasing number of posts concerning "soft capped" willpower builds, I thought it would be helpful to consolidate some of the builds and tips. Since willpower is not a defensive based powerset, the use of IOs to achieve high defense is considered an extreme build and will involve tradeoffs. The focus of this guide will be a high defense willpower build with solid hp/regen and 6 slotted attacks. The compromises will be expense, recharge rate and possibly a travel power.

For each type of defense, I will go over what I have found to be the least painful options to obtain that type of defense. If anyone who desires to "be presented with all the options", I suggest going to a COH wiki. This is intended to be a min/max build discussion. If I have overlooked a solid alternative, please let me know and I will include it. Once this has been polished (or hammered) enough, I'll submit it as a guide.

Disclaimer: I have never soloed an AV, never had over 200 million in influence (ok, one guy did ask me to xfer a billion influence once, but I was honest and gave it to his alt... I was freaking out the entire time), I don't have any purples unless you count defensive IO enhancements and I have an undefeated PvP repuation of zero. I just enjoy crunching numbers and toying with my katana/willpower build in mids and I wanted to share some of my findings with others who enjoy tinkering with their builds. I make no claims of being an expert.

The starting point

Out of the box, willpower comes with two defensive powers: Heightened Senses and Indomitable will. Since high defense is a priority, I will assume that weave, combat jumping and maneuvers are taken in the build. I have seen some builds use stealth but I have not run the numbers to see the pros/cons of using stealth rather than one of the three other defensive power pool picks. For each of these powers, I will use numbers based on being slotted with 3 luck of the gamblers (7.5 recharge, defense and defense/endurance). While enzymes would free up a slot and use less endurance, the first two set bonuses of LOTG (hp and regen) are a perfect compliment for willpower's regen, and the +7.5 recharge will help reduce the sting of not having hasten.

Using this slotting, the starting point for defensive numbers are:

Heightened Senses: 3.9 v.s. smashing/lethal and 15.3 v.s. Fire/Cold/Energy/Negative
Indomitable Will 11.8 v.s. Psychic
Weave 5.9 global
Combat Jumping 3.9 global
Maneuvers 3.6 global
Steadfast defense IO 3 global
PvP IO 3 global

In addition to the above numbers, I will be taking rise to the challenge's -3.75 to hit debuff into account and will use 42.5 as my target defense number. It is my understanding that AVs softcap at 42.5 anyways. For regular mobs, 42.5 is close enough that RTTC will floor their chances to hit. Even if you desire to reach a true 45% softcap, the slotting options discussed below are close enough to be worth reading.

With these assumptions, lets take a look at how close we are to soft cap.

Smashing/Lethal: 26.05 (18.95 remaining)
Fire/Cold: 37.45 (7.55 remaining)
Energy/Negative: 37.45 (7.55 remaining)
Psionic: 33.95 (11.05 remaining)

The numbers in parenthesies represents how much defense is needed from IO sets to achieve the 42.5 target. Many willpower builds chose to only max Fire/Cold/Energy/Negative (FCEN). This is because heightened senses provides a significant amount of defense to these damage types allowing a high defense against these damage types without great build sacrifices. I will begin with the FCEN damage types since they are the easiest to address.

Fire/Cold
Fire cold needed 7.55 more defense. The least painful approach in this area is to focus on using resistance sets. The Aegis resistance set provides 3.13 defense to fire/cold with 3 slots. Placing 3 Ageis each in High Pain tolerance, Tough and Mind over Body easiy achieves the 42.5% target I set (In fact it exceeds 44%). The opportunity cost for using this approach is actually quite low. These powers are all good power picks, and 3 slotting a resistance set in each of them is a resonable choice. The two slot bonus of 5% run speed helps if you had to skip a travel power. Strength of Will could also be slotted allowing enough overkill on fire/cold defense to compensate for missing something from the starting defensive numbers (such as the pvp defensive IO or one of the pool defense powers).

Energy/Negative
Energy/negative also needs 7.55 more defense. In my opinion, the PBAOE powers are the easiest way to get there. The Eradication set has a 3 slot bonus of 3.13% and Cleaving blow has a 3 slot bonus of 1.25%. Combined, they provide 4.38 Energy/Negative defense. Two PBAOE powers can be 6 slotted for 8.76% defense (again exceeding my target). The opportunity cost for doing this is once again, fairly low. The eradication set has a damage proc allowing the attacks to be 5 slotted for accuracy/damage/endurance/recharge and 1 proc. This is not an unresonable way to slot an attack power, especially since the 2 slot bonus for both sets helps with endurance. Even if a build had 3+ PBAOE powers, I would still lean towards slotting two of them with this configuration and use a purple set in the third (or use the third pbaoe slots towards psionic defense).

--- The half way point ---
So far, the high defense approach has not involved a huge amount of sacrifice. In fact, the opportunity cost has been low enough that high FCEN defense can be worked into most willpower builds. The remaining typed defenses are more difficult and involve greater sacrifice. One suprising finding was that some of the popular defensive sets actually are counter productive to a high defense willpower build. Specifically, I am refering to the guassian buildup set and the blessing of the zephyer travel set. These are both awesome positional defensive sets, but they are less useful for a typed defense build because the typed bonuses are cut in half, and FCEN was so easy to max that the bonuses in these areas are not a great gain.

Lethal/Smashing
Lethal/Smashing needs 18.95% defense to reach the goal of 42.5% defense. This is a lot, and the sacrifices typically are enough that many builds give up. The numbers are also big enough that many builders focus first on lethal/smashing and over look easy ways to cap FCEN defense. The two most slot efficient sets for lethal/smashing defense are Kinetic Combat (3.75% defense for 4 slots) and Rectified Recticle (1.88 for 2 slots). If five melee attacks are slotted with kinetic combat, that would provide 18.75 defense and be just shy of the target. This is not an accepatable approach for most builds. For me, the easiest approach was to slot kinetic combat into 2 primary attack powers (purple for the third), set mule boxing and brawl with kinetic combat and then use 3 rectified recticle sets (buildup, tactis and focused accuracy). The second approach provides 20.64 defense (again well over the target). The opportunity cost is much higher than the FCEN defense types. The two primary attack powers slotted with kinetic combat still have 2 slots for additional enhancements and/or procs. The painful part is "wasting" 8 slots and two power picks (tactics/focused accuracy). Remember that the toggles do not have to be running in order to receive the set bonus. The 3 slot bonus on kinetic combat is 1.5% health increase, which increases the willpower regeneration.

Psionic
Psionic needs 11.05 defense to reach 42.5%. I typically don't try for this in a build since willpower already has psionic resistance and I'm typically not willing to make more sacrifices after paying the cost to cap lethal/smashing. But if if someone was to pursue psionic defense, the apocalypse ranged purple set provides a 5% defense bonus for 6 slots (almost half way there!). Defestation (ranged again) has a 3.75% bonus for 6 slots, Scirocco's Dervish (pbaoe) has a 3.13% bonus for 6 slot, Miracle (heal) has a 1.88 bonus for 6 slots and Impervium armor (resistance) has a 1.88% bonus for 3 slots. It is quite possible to make a fully softcapped willpower build, but it would require a lot of ranged/pbaoe attacks.

Summary
High defense can make a huge difference in the surviability of willpower. Understanding how easy it is to softcap FCEN defense can allow a low cost build to specialize in AE missions with those damage types. Sacrifices are needed to cap lethal/smashing/psionic, but with the right sets the cost is not as high as most people assume. a willpower build can pursue high defense and still have room for purple attacks and enduance uniques. The sample katana build has enough recharge for gamblers cut to recharge in 1.33 seconds, enabling a solid attack chain. Like most other things in COH, there is no ultimate build... just choices and priorities.

--- SAMPLE BUILDS ---

Here is a softcapped FM/WP scrapper (original build by Iggy and tweaked by Speed_Force) from this thread http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....0&fpart=all

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Unknown: Level 50 Magic Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Fiery Melee
Secondary Power Set: Willpower
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Scorch -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(3), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(3), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5)
Level 1: High Pain Tolerance -- Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Aegis-ResDam(11), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(11), Heal-I(40), Heal-I(46), Heal-I(46)
Level 2: Cremate -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(5), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(7), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13)
Level 4: Mind Over Body -- RctvArm-ResDam(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(9), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(9), Empty(13)
Level 6: Fast Healing -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Numna-Heal(43), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(43)
Level 8: Build Up -- GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(15), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(15), GSFC-ToHit(17), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(17), GSFC-Build%(36)
Level 10: Indomitable Will -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 12: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 14: Health -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(36), Numna-Heal/Rchg(37)
Level 16: Rise to the Challenge -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(23), Numna-Heal/Rchg(25)
Level 18: Fire Sword Circle -- Erad-%Dam(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(19), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg(21), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx(21), C'ngBlow-Dmg/Rchg(23)
Level 20: Quick Recovery -- P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(A), P'Shift-EndMod(37), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(37)
Level 22: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(40), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(40)
Level 24: Boxing -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(25), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(31), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34)
Level 26: Incinerate -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(27), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(27), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(29), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(45)
Level 28: Heightened Senses -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(29), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(34)
Level 30: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(31), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(31), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(34)
Level 32: Greater Fire Sword -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(33), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(33), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(33), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(45)
Level 35: Weave -- HO:Enzym(A), HO:Enzym(36), LkGmblr-Rchg+(46)
Level 38: Strength of Will -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), Aegis-ResDam(39), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(39), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(39)
Level 41: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), Zephyr-Travel(42), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(42), Zephyr-ResKB(42), LkGmblr-Def(43)
Level 44: Maneuvers -- Empty(A), Empty(45)
Level 47: Confront -- Mocking-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(A), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg(48), Mocking-Rchg(48), Mocking-Taunt(48), Mocking-Acc/Rchg(50), Mocking-Taunt/Rng(50)
Level 49: Super Jump -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit



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Here is a theoretical Katana/Willpower build
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Level 50 Technology Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Katana
Secondary Power Set: Willpower
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Gambler's Cut -- Hectmb-Acc/Rchg(A), Hectmb-Dmg/EndRdx(23), Hectmb-Dmg(25), Hectmb-Dmg/Rchg(34), Hectmb-Dam%(34), Achilles-ResDeb%(36)
Level 1: High Pain Tolerance -- Aegis-ResDam(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(13), Numna-Heal/Rchg(17), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(25), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(29), Numna-Heal(50)
Level 2: Flashing Steel -- C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx(3), C'ngBlow-Dmg/Rchg(3), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(5), Erad-%Dam(7)
Level 4: Fast Healing -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Heal/Rchg(13), RgnTis-Regen+(15), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(40)
Level 6: Build Up -- Rec'dRet-ToHit(A), Rec'dRet-ToHit/Rchg(7), RechRdx-I(11)
Level 8: Divine Avalanche -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(9), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(9), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11), LkGmblr-Rchg+(39), LkGmblr-Def(39)
Level 10: Indomitable Will -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(33), LkGmblr-Def(34)
Level 14: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 16: Rise to the Challenge -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(39), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(40)
Level 18: The Lotus Drops -- C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx(19), C'ngBlow-Dmg/Rchg(19), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(21), Erad-%Dam(23)
Level 20: Quick Recovery -- P'Shift-End%(A), P'Shift-EndMod(40), EndMod-I(43)
Level 22: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A)
Level 24: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%(A), EndMod-I(33), P'Shift-EndMod(37)
Level 26: Soaring Dragon -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(27), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(27), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(29), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43), LdyGrey-%Dam(43)
Level 28: Heightened Senses -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(33), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(37)
Level 30: Mind Over Body -- Aegis-ResDam(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(31), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(31), Empty(37), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(45)
Level 32: Golden Dragonfly -- Armgdn-Dmg/EndRdx(A), Armgdn-Dmg(36), Armgdn-Dmg/Rchg(46), Empty(46), Armgdn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48), Armgdn-Dam%(48)
Level 35: Maneuvers -- HO:Enzym(A), HO:Enzym(36)
Level 38: Boxing -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(42), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(45), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(45)
Level 41: Tough -- Aegis-ResDam(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(42), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(42)
Level 44: Focused Accuracy -- Rec'dRet-ToHit(A), Rec'dRet-Pcptn(46)
Level 47: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(48), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(50)
Level 49: Tactics -- Rec'dRet-ToHit(A), Rec'dRet-ToHit/Rchg(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(15), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(17), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit



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Posted

Reserved for whatever.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
In addition to the above numbers, I will be taking rise to the challenge's -3.75 to hit debuff into account and will use 42.5 as my target defense number. It is my understanding that AVs softcap at 42.5 anyways. For regular mobs, 42.5 is close enough that RTTC will floor their chances to hit. Even if you desire to reach a true 45% softcap, the slotting options discussed below are close enough to be worth reading.

[/ QUOTE ]

An interesting use of an otherwise often forgotten aspect of this power.

A couple of things to note though.

RttC can accept -ToHit debuff IOs so theoretically you can push this power to the point where it is reducing the hit chance of any enemies in range by about 6.27%. That would put the requirements for the Defensive stats at or about 38.73% to equal the effective Softcap.

That having been said, the Flaw in using RttC -Tohit bonus as part of your overall defense is that it is unreliable in many situations.

Even when you are fighting (or trying to fight) most of your enemies in melee range (as most scrappers do) there will always be some enemies who just refuse to cooperate with you. The mob AI practically insures that when you charge into a group that several of then opponents will hang back and attempt to attack you at range which puts them out of reach of RttC and its debuff.

In a 10 enemy spawn, you will typically see 3-5 opponents who will attempt to hang back and all of their attacks against you will be going against your base Defensive values at least until you manage to close with them and put them in melee range.

While I admit that the debuff in RttC can be helpful, for players attempting to "hit the Softcap" it really should not be relied upon as a stable part of a character's Defense.


 

Posted

&lt;QR&gt;

Pretty good. This can be used as a guide, IMO.

but yeah.

[ QUOTE ]
In a 10 enemy spawn, you will typically see 3-5 opponents who will attempt to hang back and all of their attacks against you will be going against your base Defensive values at least until you manage to close with them and put them in melee range.

[/ QUOTE ]

This happens.


 

Posted

I understand why your saying not to depend on the tohit debuff for softcapping....makes sense. I was wondering though, when figuring tohit into your defense, does 5% tohit debuff = 5% defense?


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
I understand why your saying not to depend on the tohit debuff for softcapping....makes sense. I was wondering though, when figuring tohit into your defense, does 5% tohit debuff = 5% defense?

[/ QUOTE ]

A 5% tohit debuff and a 5% def buff provide identical survivability boosts on an unresisting target. The last two words are the problem - any enemy higher than even con will resist the tohit debuff:

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>Lvl Effectiveness
+0 100%
+1 90%
+2 80%
+3 65%
+4 48%
+5 30%</pre><hr />

There are also enemies that resist tohit debuffs, most notably being AVs (who will resist 85% of it, on top of the purple patch).

Also, as mentioned, RttC's tohit debuff will only effect enemies in melee range, and only up to 10 at a time. If you're fighting more than 10, they will remain uneffected. (Also note, that above 10 won't be giving RttC any extra fuel, either.)

So when you're getting close to the soft cap, the tohit debuff does make a difference, but it's definitely not 1:1 with defense in actual play.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
It is my understanding that AVs softcap at 42.5 anyways.

[/ QUOTE ]

In addition to Sarrate's comments above, this stands out to me.

This is wrong.

At the 5% to-hit floor, a mob's accuracy bonus gets multiplied in. This gives an AV/EB, especially with +levels, 7.5%+ final hit chance, varying somewhat with the exact accuracy bonus.

At 7.5% (50 - 42.5) to-hit, that same accuracy multiplier will put them at 10%+ final hit chance.

It's not a world of difference, but saying an AV is capped by 42.5% defense is incorrect.


 

Posted

Thanks for the explaination Sarrate. I'm not exactly sure on the deal with defense. Like why is 42.5 % way better than 38%? I always hear people talk like there are certain magig numbers in defense that make a huge difference to survivabilty. I also here people say at a certain point it's just too much defense and a waste. Care to try and explain to a lamen how it works? or maybe just provide a link? Thanks.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the explaination Sarrate. I'm not exactly sure on the deal with defense. Like why is 42.5 % way better than 38%? I always hear people talk like there are certain magig numbers in defense that make a huge difference to survivabilty. I also here people say at a certain point it's just too much defense and a waste. Care to try and explain to a lamen how it works? or maybe just provide a link? Thanks.

[/ QUOTE ]


Here's a simple breakdown.

Say 10 enemies are attacking you each swinging at you once every 2 seconds, if they hit they will do 400 points of damage upon each hit.

NPCs in the game typically have a base chance to hit of 50% which means that with no points in Defense or Resistance, a character attacked in the example above should be hit (on average) 25 times and take 10000 points of damage every ten seconds.

If your character has 45% defense against them, then in theory, this translates in the example above to being hit 2.5 times in ten seconds for a total of 1000 points of damage.

If the same character has say, 35% Defense against their attacks then in theory that would translate into being hit 5 times and taking an average of 3000 points of damage over that same ten seconds.

Essentially, for every five percent of defense a character has below the softcap (45%) they will take (on average) a proportionate increase in the damage that they would have otherwise taken.

Ie.

Using the same numbers given in the example above that translates to:

45% = 1000 points
40% = 2000 points
35% = 3000 points
30% = 4000 points
25% = 5000 points
20% = 6000 points
15% = 7000 points
10% = 8000 points
05% = 9000 points
00% =10000 points


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the explaination Sarrate. I'm not exactly sure on the deal with defense. Like why is 42.5 % way better than 38%? I always hear people talk like there are certain magig numbers in defense that make a huge difference to survivabilty. I also here people say at a certain point it's just too much defense and a waste. Care to try and explain to a lamen how it works? or maybe just provide a link? Thanks.

[/ QUOTE ]

Very, very simple example (even con minion):

30% def = enemy has 20% chance to hit
40% def = enemy has 10% chance to hit
45% def = enemy has 5% chance to hit

Okay, so going from 30% to 40% def decreased the chance to hit from 20% to 10%. Instead of being hit 20 / 100 times, you'll get hit 10 / 100 times. That means it will take twice as many swings to get hit as before. In short, it doubled your survivability.

Now going from 40% to 45% def decreased the chance to hit from 10% to 5%. instead of being hit 10 / 100 times, you'll get hit 5 / 100 times. Again, that means it will take twice as many hits as before. This doubled your survivability again. (This is four times as survivable as 30% def.)

(As another point of reference, it takes going from 0% to 25% def to double your survivability the first time, 12.5% def to double it again (37.5% total), 6.25% to double it again (43.75% total. Etc.)

As you can see (assuming I explained it well enough) approaching 45% def increases your survivability exponentially.


(This works against mobs with higher accuracy too, be it from rank or higher level. I used an even con minion since it would be simpler.)


 

Posted

Speed Force, I'll add a paragraph talking about the drawbacks of -tohit. Sarrate would you mind if I pull some of your charts in as well?


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Sarrate would you mind if I pull some of your charts in as well?

[/ QUOTE ]

Not at all, go for it!


 

Posted

Just to be fair, I went ahead and took my WP scrapper's defense up to roughly 39% and ran him around solo on a map set for 8 characters to see what would happen. (essentially letting him take on swarms of enemies on his own).

He definitely took more damage from the mobs when they hung back and used ranged attacks. Enough so that I had to use Greens to survive.

However, if I could manage to get the bulk of the opponents into melee range then the incoming damage leveled out to where the character's regeneration could compensate fairly easily.

This was with RttC 6 slotted with 3 health and 3 -ToHit debuff IOs.

So the concept of using RttC as the last little bit to cap your defense can work, but it's definitely not a guarantee for survival.


 

Posted

Well since you got that FM/WP...
Here's something for a Kat/WP...

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Posted

My Katana/Willpower build is as follows, but it leans heavily on divine avalanche to provide lethal and melee defence, with pure smashing attacks and psionic being the only hole.

(note the steadfast res/end is a holding IO for the day, far from now, when i get influence at Donald Trump levels and can afford the PvP +3% Def IO).

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@Moondog
Union:
CoH: Moondog (WS); V-Rock (Tnk, semi-retired); Pole-Star (Bla); Demon Dog (Scr).
CoV: Midnight Gunner (Corr); Operative John Doe (Ban); Day-Star (Dom); Commissar Jaeger (MM).

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by JDouble_NA View Post
Thanks for the explaination Sarrate. I'm not exactly sure on the deal with defense. Like why is 42.5 % way better than 38%? I always hear people talk like there are certain magig numbers in defense that make a huge difference to survivabilty. I also here people say at a certain point it's just too much defense and a waste. Care to try and explain to a lamen how it works? or maybe just provide a link? Thanks.
In layman's terms the defense numbers become especially important when considering packs of mobs. They become less important (within the context of a few percentage points) when talking about a single mob unless that mob has the ability to two-shot you.

Since the majority of the game is spent tackling multiple mobs, this is the context most people are referring to when giving advice about defense.

For WP Scrappers it's crucially important due to having about 60% of the regen rate of a WP Tanker (due to total Health).


 

Posted

I see posts regarding typed def and positional def, is one better than the other?
SR seems to be position because the descriptions mention Melee, AOE and Ranged
Is one easier to achieve with Willpower than the other.
In my case the character I'm interested in pursuing def with is a DM/WP if it makes a difference in terms of what sets I can use to achieve good def numbers.


Feel The Burn

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by TerraScorcher View Post
I see posts regarding typed def and positional def, is one better than the other?
SR seems to be position because the descriptions mention Melee, AOE and Ranged
Is one easier to achieve with Willpower than the other.
In my case the character I'm interested in pursuing def with is a DM/WP if it makes a difference in terms of what sets I can use to achieve good def numbers.
In a vacuum, I would say typed (S/L specifically) defense is better then positional since the vast majority of attacks have an S/L component to them (whether melee, AOE or ranged).

However this really depends on what kind of defense type your character has access to. For instance, an Invuln Scrapper should be trying to raise typed defenses as all of its defensive powers are based on typed defenses (Tough Hide and Invincibility).

However a Shield Scrapper would be raising positional defenses as its toggles and passives are all positional based.

For Will Power, this may become a little of a conundrum. Its one defensive power (Heightened Senses) is typed based, however since the S/L defense from it is so low, one could debate the merits of raising typed versus positional here.

This debate would stem from the fact that it's generally easier to raise positional defenses rather than typed, both from a resource standpoint (availability and price) and desirability (most sets that give positional defense usually also give better bonuses overall).

Scrapper should generally be concerned with melee or S/L defense first, and all others a distant second. If given the choice, I find it much easier running a Scrapper with soft capped S/L defense then soft capped Melee AND Ranged defenses. Take that as you will.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Caulderone View Post
[ QUOTE ]
It is my understanding that AVs softcap at 42.5 anyways.

[/ QUOTE ]

In addition to Sarrate's comments above, this stands out to me.

This is wrong.

At the 5% to-hit floor, a mob's accuracy bonus gets multiplied in. This gives an AV/EB, especially with +levels, 7.5%+ final hit chance, varying somewhat with the exact accuracy bonus.

At 7.5% (50 - 42.5) to-hit, that same accuracy multiplier will put them at 10%+ final hit chance.

It's not a world of difference, but saying an AV is capped by 42.5% defense is incorrect.
Just to clarify (because I think there's still room for misunderstanding here):

AVs have a x1.5 multiplier to hit. Bosses, Lts, GMs all have a different multiplier, but let's just stay w/AVs for now.

Your softcap defenses are 45% to everyone, from minions to giant monsters. What AVs (and others) do is apply that 1.5 multiplier after all defenses (including to hit debuffs) are factored in. So if you have a 45% net defense, the AV has a 5% base chance of hitting you x1.5, which comes to that magic 7.5% number.

This does NOT mean that you have a 42.5% "cap" for defenses against AVs. You still have a 45% cap. If you lower that to 42.5%, the AV will have a 7.5% base chance to hit you x1.5 which comes to an 11.25% hit rate. What that means is that over time, you're taking 2/3 more damage than if you'd capped your defenses.

As for using debuffs to hit cap, unless those debuffs are unresisted (rare) or very large, they'll largely be ineffective against AVs and such who usually resist them to a great degree. Just as an example, my Fire/Rad w/maxed out RI for To Hit debuff, still needs around a 39% defense to hit cap vs. even level AVs and GMs, which means his RI is only debuffing away a paltry 6% of their to hit values instead of the 39% debuff it presents to even level minions. If you're facing higher conning AVs, that just gets worse. RTTC has a paltry debuff value, only 15% effective as RI so I really wouldn't count on it for much, if any effective mitigation against AVs (fully slotted, it'll net you like 1%).

Oh, FWIW, I fully cap both my WP/SS & DB/WP for S/L damage and it works out great.


An Offensive Guide to Ice Melee