gimp set. the blaster would end up dead before any of the npc's. also, before posting ideas about power sets, please think them out and present them with data.
You present an interesting (albiet only partial) idea. I support the idea of a set with a broad mix of damage types.
However, if ALL of the attacks were DoT, then Sharker_Quint may have a point regarding the Blaster's survivability. It would need to have some form of mitigation, like Ice Blast has holds, Energy Blast has KB, etc.
P.S. Minor Quible: No such thing as Acid Damage. You're probably thinking of Toxic. 
I think the nearest we have in game right now is Dark blast
Dark Blast
Moonbeam
Blackstar
are all up front damage
Gloom
T Tentacles
NightFall
Are DOT
Dark Pit, torrent and Life Drain are utility powers with minimal damage.
(Though to be fair lfie drain is the same base dark blast, just a longer animation and would tend to be slotted for heal)
@Catwhoorg "Rule of Three - Finale" Arc# 1984
@Mr Falkland Islands"A Nation Goes Rogue" Arc# 2369 "Toasters and Pop Tarts" Arc#116617
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I will return the rude remark, maybe it should be you who think the response before making it.|
Originally Posted by Sharker_Quint
gimp set. the blaster would end up dead before any of the npc's. also, before posting ideas about power sets, please think them out and present them with data.
|
I will extend the courtesy that you did not have, and explain why you are wrong.
If the mob is weak and destructable with one shot, odds are the DOT will kill it in the same round or beginning of next. If the mob is a LT odds are the blaster will need two to three shots to kill it. A DOT Blaster will take 2 shots to kill it, but the LT will die after the third round, which the blaster is now using to commence to work off the next LT.
In the case of bosses, the Blaster may take 5 to 6 rounds to polish him off, since now we talking so many rounds, it is quite possible that the DOT Blaster would defeat the Boss in just as many rounds.
In the case of EBs, and AVs; I believe the DOT Blaster is better off, for normally the Blaster is going to spend in excess of 12 hits to bring the EB down, and many more for an AV. With these many rounds, the DOTs have plenty of time to accumulate, see their damage cycle completed, and have the next cycle do its thing. Bottom line, the DOT will kill EBs and AVs much faster than a normal Blaster.
A way to look at my proposal of the DOT Blaster is like this: A normal Blaster will have a higher Damage per Second, but a DOT Blaster will have a higher Damage per stock of time.
What needs to be agreed to, is how much weaker is the DOT per second, and how many seconds of effect it has. For instance say a normal blast has 1 unit of damage, a DOT could be 0.75 units of damage for 3 rounds. With this in mind, lets see the effect of stacking over 5 seconds:
Blaster gets 5 attacks and thus get 5 units of damage over 5 seconds
DOT Blaster gets 5 attacks as well, but the damage is as follows:
Attack Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 total
#1 0.75 0.75 0.75 - - 2.25
#2 - 0.75 0.75 0.75 - 2.25
#3 - - 0.75 0.75 0.75 2.25
#4 - - - 0.75 0.75 1.50
#5 - - - - 0.75 0.75
Grand Total: 9 units
It would seem to me, there is nothing gymp with a DOT Blaster to me.
Hugs
Stormy
let me explain some things to you. i don't sugar coat my posts. i am up front with how i feel. if you can't take that then oh well. a DOT set would not be a viable set at all unless it did insane damage for the dot with no secondary effects. while you are waiting for those ticks to go off the npc's will have plenty of time to kill you, especially if it's an eb/av. and like i said before, if you want to suggest a new power set then come up with 9 powers with descriptions and numbers. then things can be broken down from there. don't expect people to come up with these thigns for you because you think something sounds cool.
/no to this idea.
Yes, you'll be dealing a lot of damage... Over time. And while you're waiting for the damage to tick away? They're dealing their damage upfront, and killing you.
So, you're dead, and you might just kill them! But if you're dead, then that's a bigger problem.
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He was not being rude. He was merely pointing out that you should probably put more thought into your ideas before presenting them. AS is, you presented about half of an idea: a DoT set. Great. Now flesh it out. Give it nine powers. Or figure out how it's going to work. Do SOMETHING to it, rather than just throwing it out there like you just came up with it.|
Originally Posted by Stormfront_NA
I will return the rude remark, maybe it should be you who think the response before making it.
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I will extend the courtesy that you did not have, and explain why you are wrong. If the mob is weak and destructable with one shot, odds are the DOT will kill it in the same round or beginning of next. If the mob is a LT odds are the blaster will need two to three shots to kill it. A DOT Blaster will take 2 shots to kill it, but the LT will die after the third round, which the blaster is now using to commence to work off the next LT. |
The Lieut will get off even more attacks in the same timeframe.
[quote]In the case of bosses, the Blaster may take 5 to 6 rounds to polish him off, since now we talking so many rounds, it is quite possible that the DOT Blaster would defeat the Boss in just as many rounds.[quote]
Except that you haven't factored in healing, yet. Basically, the longer it takes you to kill the enemy, the more HP he will regain. A character that is purely DoT will have to apply more damage to counteract that healing. The harder the enemy, the more damage the DoT Blaster will need to do over the front-loaded Blaster. So, it is very likely that the DoT Blaster will take longer than the Front-loaded Blaster to kill the same enemy.
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| In the case of EBs, and AVs; I believe the DOT Blaster is better off, for normally the Blaster is going to spend in excess of 12 hits to bring the EB down, and many more for an AV. With these many rounds, the DOTs have plenty of time to accumulate, see their damage cycle completed, and have the next cycle do its thing. Bottom line, the DOT will kill EBs and AVs much faster than a normal Blaster. |
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| A way to look at my proposal of the DOT Blaster is like this: A normal Blaster will have a higher Damage per Second, but a DOT Blaster will have a higher Damage per stock of time. |
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What needs to be agreed to, is how much weaker is the DOT per second, and how many seconds of effect it has. For instance say a normal blast has 1 unit of damage, a DOT could be 0.75 units of damage for 3 rounds. With this in mind, lets see the effect of stacking over 5 seconds: Blaster gets 5 attacks and thus get 5 units of damage over 5 seconds DOT Blaster gets 5 attacks as well, but the damage is as follows: Attack Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 total #1 0.75 0.75 0.75 - - 2.25 #2 - 0.75 0.75 0.75 - 2.25 #3 - - 0.75 0.75 0.75 2.25 #4 - - - 0.75 0.75 1.50 #5 - - - - 0.75 0.75 Grand Total: 9 units It would seem to me, there is nothing gymp with a DOT Blaster to me. |
For a Defender:
Gloom: scale damage 1.76 over 3.6 seconds
Lightning Bolt, Ice Blast, Power Blast: scale damage 1.64
Thus, the DoT aspect of Gloom seems to give it a 7% increase in damage over other set's comparable attacks.
As such, your set would likely be about 7% more damaging over time. Is that enough to counter something like an AV's regen? Probably depends on the AV. But is IS a factor that will need to be looked at, especially since there is no other mitigation in the set as you proposed.
Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I was just the one with the most unsolicited sombrero." - Traegus
Just something I have to point out:
you said you would deal "more damage that straight DPS"..
You obviously don't know WTF DPS means.
Damage Per Second
If you deal more damage than a straight 'DPS' char.. that makes you.. a straight DPS char 
Tha aside.. naw, I'm fine with DOT as a secondary effect.
It's called Fire Blast and we already have it.
to 
TO THE END!Villains are those who dedicate their lives to causing mayhem. Villians are people from the planet Villia!
A DoT set. For a burst dmg AT, waiting for the enemy to melt can be dangerous. And overall, the gimmick is covered by other sets (Fire Blast can be considered a DoT set because that's its secondary effect).
I'd suggest thinking the set out more and give it more of a unique effect other than DoT which many other sets have.
Just off the top of my head, the set would have difficulty with tough targets because the longer they last, the longer they can beat on you. So what about giving the 'DoT set' a pet specifically built to draw aggro with a DoT aura to add more damage and keep aggro off the blaster/defender/corr.
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Well, sort of. The main difference is that foes who are resistant to fire wouldn't slough it off as easily, but foes weak to fire wouldn't be taken down as easily, what with the damage types being varied.|
Originally Posted by cursedsorcerer
It's called Fire Blast and we already have it.
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As for the "Give us more details" crowd: I agree that the OP's idea was lacking in detail, but at least it wasn't as bad as soon we've seen. You all know the type, the ones that say "I have a new powerset idea! Metal Defence! Discuss." Nothing but two damn words.
As for the survivability of DoT? Well, Fire Blast comes to mind. From L1-43 I can think of a few times my Corruptor has been killed by a foe, only to watch it die from DoT. (Once made a Mission Complete that way. I found it quite amusing.)
With Fire Blast on both a Corruptor and a Blaster, I've found fights generally either go very well or very bad. Very quickly.
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I must apologyse, I guess, for you not reading my post in its entirety, and your need to flame and feel like a big man.|
Originally Posted by ToySoldierZolgar
Just something I have to point out:
you said you would deal "more damage that straight DPS".. You obviously don't know WTF DPS means. Damage Per Second If you deal more damage than a straight 'DPS' char.. that makes you.. a straight DPS char Tha aside.. naw, I'm fine with DOT as a secondary effect. |
It may be pointless with you, but if you actually bother to read my post, you may see that I actually spelled DPS, and described the contrast between DPS and DP-stock of time. From the various following posts, it is obvious that I failed to make that point clear, but it is hard to explain something to someone bent into misunderstanding you or just to disagree with you.
I tried to make a simple chart to illustrate how DOT could be more damaging that straight DPS in a stock of time, say 5 seconds.
Now I have folks saying the chart is bogus, well of course its bogus, it was only intended to illustrate a concept, a concept to assist some of you understanding Damage in 2 different parameters; instantaneous total damage, and cummulative damage. I know at first, thoughtless moment, DPS will jump at you as superior and many of you have decided to stop there and listen no more; and ridicule from there on.
There was a sample used to disagree me, by using the gymped damage from a defender, and tell me the whole concept is flawed based on defender performance. The problem it is all relative, and it is difficult to keep things in context.
I am trying to explain things in a generic way, to get a concept thru, and that is finding itself remarkably difficult. It is obvious from many of the postings, that many does not understand the concept.
I will try one last final time...
Blaster straight damage: Full damage, no chance for heals, regeneration to take place.
Blaster DOT: Partial repetitive damage, chance for heal, regeneration to mitigate.
(There has to be a balance for this).
If you look at Damage Per Second, and only at the first second, DPS is superior
If you look at damage over 3 Seconds: DOT should be superior and at worst equivalent
If you look at damage over 5 seconds: DOT should be superior.
I am advocating the damage of these special DOTs to be 75% of the normal DPS power and it does these 75% damage over next 3 impulses. Thus during those 3 impulses, the DPS does 3 Units, and the DOT does 4.5 units, granted the 4.5 may not be quite achieved because the target may regenerate and heal over this time, but the same can be said for straight Blaster within those 3 impulses.
I also contend while, it may take longer to kill a minion via a DOT than a straight blast, I do contend a Boss and better will actually be defeated in less time than straight damage. As far as I know, Blasters require a lot of hits to down an EB, its not a 2 hit and send in the next EB type of thing. If we keep the original proposed DOT ratio of 75% per impulse and the effect repeats itself 3 times, in the first 5 impulses, the DOT performs almost twice the damage of a straight blaster (9 versus the 5 of the straight blaster).
For those that need 9 powers to round the concept, fine, here is a proposal:
1. Energy Echo: 75% of Moderate Energy Damage, damage keeps repeating itself for 3 more pulses. Target interruptable powers are interrupted during those 3 pulses.
2. Energy Waves: 75% Moderate Energy Damage, Cone 45 degree, Range 75', damage continues for 3 more pulses. Target interruptable powers are interrupted during those 3 pulses.
3. Acid Echo: 75% High Toxic Damage, damage keeps repeating itself for 3 more pulses. Target interruptable powers are interrupted during those 3 pulses.
4. Acid Waves: 75% High Toxic Damage, Cone 45 degree, Range 75', damage keeps repeating itself for 3 more pulses. Target interruptable powers are interrupted during those 3 pulses.
5. Psionic Snipe Echo: 75% Extreme Psi Damage, damage keeps repeating itself for 3 more pulses. Target interruptable powers are interrupted during those 3 pulses.
6. Fire Echo: 75% Superior Fire Damage, damage keeps repeating itself for 3 more pulses. Target interruptable powers are interrupted during those 3 pulses.
7. Fire waves: 75% Superior Fire Damage, Cone 45 degree, range 75', damage keeps repeating itself for 3 more pulses. Target interruptable powers are interrupted during those 3 pulses.
8. Ice Vortex: 75% Superior Cold Damage, Targeted PBAOE, range 100' damage keeps repeating itself for 3 more pulses. Target interruptable powers are interrupted during those 3 pulses.
9. Pulsar Nova: 75% Extreme PBAOE Psi Damage, PBAOE, damage keeps repeating itself for 3 more pulses. Target interruptable powers are interrupted during those 3 pulses.
Notes: Possibly if we have to have secondary effects, I would recommend "Stun" MAG 3 that last the 3 pulses of the DOT.
I did not include an aim or boost power choice with this set, for they can be attained through secondary power set or epic power sets.
For argument sakes, can some of you go out there and kill a minion, LT, boss, and EB of your same level and count how many hits it really took you to accomplish each task? This may help us study the effects of straight versus DOT performances. I may want to point, that the DOT I propose is not the insultingly poor defender DOT.
Hugs
Stormy
You're still applying DPS wrong. That is the problem.
DPS is an average. It is the average damage done over time, and then reduced by the time to give you the average damage done each second. AS SUCH, you cannot say that your set would do more damage than a straight DPS set, because there is no DPS set. What you're talking about is burst damage. You're saying that your set would do more damage than a burst damage set. Not against a DPS set, but a burst damage set.
Your set would also be able to be compressed to DPS, since it's nothing more than an averaging of damage over time.
That is what people are saying. Not that your numbers are off, or that they don't get you, but that you are misapplying a term, and then drawing comparisons from that to how your set would work. It wouldn't work that way, because you're not using the term correctly.
And again, DoT powers do about 7% more damage over their timeframe than burst damage powers. Having a DoT over 3 seconds, with 3 tics of 75% of the burst-damage power's damage, would lead to 225% of the burst-damager's damage. That is VASTLY overpowered and underpowered at the same time (please, don't read that as balanced), because you'd be taking more damage in that time, too.
Fire Blast is one of the heaviest DoT blast sets that we have. And it's still mostly front-loaded. Try a fire blaster, and only use rain of fire. See how that goes for you.
Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I was just the one with the most unsolicited sombrero." - Traegus
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I think that makes for a very bad idea, sorry.|
Originally Posted by Stormfront_NA
Would also suggest, let the DOTs be pure damage, no secondary effcts such as stun, immobilization, etc. Just plain and pure damage.
What do you all think? |
Blasters are dependent on rapid delivery of very high doses of damage for their survival. Limiting not only how fast a Blaster can deliver that damage (by tying it up in DOTs) but also any forms of mitigation found within the vast majority of blast sets is just asking for an aggro-magnet with no means of defending itself.
What happens when this proposed Blaster unleashes an AoE against a spawn? They won't be dead for a while and they aren't mezzed.
Answer: They're gonna be angry and return fire. Which will likely make mincemeat out of said Blaster.
Head of TRICK, the all Trick Arrow and Traps SG
Part of the Repeat Offenders
Still waiting for his Official BackAlleyBrawler No-Prize
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But if they kill you and then your DoT kills them and you level up from the XP you get, that would be pretty funny.|
Originally Posted by Sigium
So, you're dead, and you might just kill them!
|
(I wonder, actually, if, say, a Fire Blaster has ever done that with Rain of Fire. Or does RoF stop when you die? I can't remember now. Oh well.)
The terminology here is all over the map.
DOT stands for Damage Over Time, and is, in this game, usually used to refer to the damage delivered by powers with damage over time components. DPS stands for Damage Per Second, and is used generally everywhere to refer to the damage delivered by a power over repeated uses over time. "DOT" in this case isn't a metric, it's a damage delivery system identifier. DPS is a metric, and it's calculated the full damage delivered by a power, divided by the sum of that power's recharge and animation times. Whether this power delivers its damage upfront, delayed or gradually doesn't matter, because the sum total of damage is taken as a single unit.
DPS is a metric which is "per second," but to illustrate the concept, we can calculate it per minute. What it will mean then is, if you cycle the same power over and over for a minute, how much damage will you have done in 60 seconds. Whether the power delivers its damage instantly upon casting or via DoT doesn't matter in this case.
Because of the above, saying "DOT can be more damaging than straight DPS" has no meaning. It's like saying lettuce is more than bricks. For a "DOT set" to deal more damage over time than a "straight DPS set," the former's attacks have to either recharge faster than the latter's, or they have to do more cumulative damage. There is a formula by which almost all attacks are calculated, which always gives a specific relationship between endurance cost, damage and recharge time. If you make the power do more damage per application, this raises both its cost and recharge. You can break this formula, but not by a lot, or powers become REALLY out of scale. For this "DOT set" to be truly meaningful, it has to both do a LOT more damage than a regular set, as well as do that damage over a LOT longer. I'm not talking a couple of seconds - this doesn't matter. I'm talking 5-10 seconds worth of DOT, and that's too much for a Blaster to survive on.
Generally, I don't see why a set has to be hamstrung on delivering its damage over time. I'm not opposed to a multi-element set, but I'm not a fan of it being all DOT. There's no reason for it.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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The terminology you want is burst vs sustained damage.
And, yes, in general, sustained damage specialists deal more damage than burst damage specialists. This is already the case.
In either case, a blaster's primary damage mitigation is the ability to do damage quickly enough that their enemy can't apply damage.
A DoT focused set, by which I assume you don't mean the fire set which is built around DoT, would almost require teaming. All in all, I'd make it a defender secondary set as defenders have mitigation options in their primary that the blasters lack.
Thrythlind's Deviant Art Page
"Notice at the end, there: Arcanaville did the math and KICKED IT INTO EXISTENCE." - Ironik on the power of Arcanaville's math
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Blasters are "make dead fast" characters, not "stand around and wait for things to die" characters. They don't have sufficient mitigation to appropriately manage having a primary with all DoT powers.|
Originally Posted by Stormfront_NA
I will try one last final time...
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And the more you explain and refine this suggestion, the worse it gets. It wouldn't be good. Accept that, let it go and move on. If you want to play characters with a lot of DoTs, play a controller or defender. Doing it as a blaster, especially with no secondary effects to assist in survival, is like asking to have Defiance removed and your character permanently locked at the debt cap.
Damage over time Power... 10-13-2009 05:29 PM i see why you have rep disabled. you tend to be a jerk a lot.
ok this made me laugh. someone -repped me for the first post i had in this thread which i thought was straight to the point.
A question for anyone still reading the thread:
I think the idea is interesting but yeah, there will be issues...So what if, solo, the set is 'meh' because you have to wait for the full effect of your damage...but what if, on teams, it's like the 'Silent Aggro-less killer'?
Well, not actually aggro*less* but less aggro. So while a fire blaster can still yank aggro off a Tanker on occasion, the aforementioned DoT blast set can stay under the radar even with a Scrapper tanking.
Again, if the set had a summoned pet that tagged aggro to itself (and applying a smidgen of DoT itself) while you're throwing out some of yours, it's 'less aggro' status is even useful while solo.
Heck, the set's secondary effect could be 'Less Aggro' across all powers. How funny would it be to run in after a *Scrapper*, let go your DoT nuke, the enemies are still focused on the Scrap while you scurry behind cover to pop inspirations to recover from the crash, and *then* the enemy is all "Hey! That blaster just nuked us! Get hi*gulhk*" *fallsover dead*?
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It's an interesting idea, but I'm not a fan of Blaster sets that are even MORE team-inclined. Almost all meaningful problems a Blaster can face all but go away on a team if you keep your head in the game, which is, looked at inversely, penalty enough for not playing on a team. Having a set that is even WORSE at solo for the benefit of being better on a team isn't something I can get behind.
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Originally Posted by Leo_G
A question for anyone still reading the thread:
I think the idea is interesting but yeah, there will be issues...So what if, solo, the set is 'meh' because you have to wait for the full effect of your damage...but what if, on teams, it's like the 'Silent Aggro-less killer'? Well, not actually aggro*less* but less aggro. So while a fire blaster can still yank aggro off a Tanker on occasion, the aforementioned DoT blast set can stay under the radar even with a Scrapper tanking. Again, if the set had a summoned pet that tagged aggro to itself (and applying a smidgen of DoT itself) while you're throwing out some of yours, it's 'less aggro' status is even useful while solo. Heck, the set's secondary effect could be 'Less Aggro' across all powers. How funny would it be to run in after a *Scrapper*, let go your DoT nuke, the enemies are still focused on the Scrap while you scurry behind cover to pop inspirations to recover from the crash, and *then* the enemy is all "Hey! That blaster just nuked us! Get hi*gulhk*" *fallsover dead*? |
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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1: I didn't flame you.|
Originally Posted by Stormfront_NA
I must apologyse, I guess, for you not reading my post in its entirety, and your need to flame and feel like a big man.
It may be pointless with you, but if you actually bother to read my post, you may see that I actually spelled DPS, and described the contrast between DPS and DP-stock of time. From the various following posts, it is obvious that I failed to make that point clear, but it is hard to explain something to someone bent into misunderstanding you or just to disagree with you. |
2: you still used the wrong expression, allow me to explain how this works:
DPS or Damage Per Second, is the measurement of how much damage your character will deal in a given period. It's not really even a proper term for CoH of course, because CoH has a slightly different system.
In the games it comes from, it referred to the average damage you dealt per swing, vs the time it took you to swing, vs your chance to hit. (If I have a 75% chance to hit with this weapon, which will deal 235-305 damage and has a 3 second swing speed... The math is: 235+305 = 540/2 = 270 which gets us our average damage per hit. 270*.75 (Multiply average damage by chance to hit, netting the average damage per swing) = 202.5/3 = 67 DPS (divide the average damage per swing, by the number of second it takes to swing))
In Coh, it's more direct than that. It means, quite simply, on average how much damage your character will deal in a second, presuming no lag or down time on your part. This gives us an ultimately subjective value that isn't really based off of anything but.
"My attack chain took 10 seconds to complete, and dealt 1000 damage, so my DPS is 100."
It doesn't matter whether that attack chain is 1 attack that dealt 1000 damage straight up, or 10 attack that dealt 100, or 2 attacks that both dealt 5 ticks of 100 damage.
This is what it will always mean to gamers.
(.. Although here in the state of Arizona, is also means Department of Public Safety, AKA the Highway Patrol)
the comparison you should be making is Burst Damage vs. DOT.
DOT alone can be better than Burst alone, depending on situation. DOT and Burst, however, pwn all.
(spines/fire scrapper FTW!)
There are a lot of existing DOT powers in CoH though, some may have the DOT as a secondary effect of course, but they are out there:
spines has a DOT effect.
Fire Melee, Fire Blast and Fire Control all of DOT properties.
Several other control sets have a DOT effect.
A lot of tanker primary sets have a DOT aura.
Radiation Blast has a couple of DOT powers.
the issue with what you pose is that.. the powers would have to be so carefully juggled..
First issue: Regeneration rates. For most baddies this isn't an issue, but AVs? Pair their resist and regeneration rate and your damage is absolutely wasted.
Second issue: Blasters are squishy. Honestly, I can't count how many times I've BARELY survived a fight, by getting an attack off just before the last foe did. If I had to wait even 2 seconds for that full damage, I would have to hope to hell they missed!
Third issue: Fixing the first two. If you boost the power to the point where the first two issues are solved, you run a very high risk of rendering the power set broken.
Now, if these issues can be solved, and a set that is interesting, unique, playable, and offers a new tactical option.. I'm all for it.
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It's subjective, but not unpredictable. IF you know the DPS of each of your powers and also know, on average, how long you let it lapse, you can still get a good estimate as to what DPS you're actually getting out of your attacks with your own playstyle. If you have a calculated, optimized attack chain, then you can actually predict that with quite a bit of certainty, though circumstances will, obviously, always skew results.|
Originally Posted by ToySoldierZolgar
In Coh, it's more direct than that. It means, quite simply, on average how much damage your character will deal in a second, presuming no lag or down time on your part. This gives us an ultimately subjective value that isn't really based off of anything but.
"My attack chain took 10 seconds to complete, and dealt 1000 damage, so my DPS is 100." It doesn't matter whether that attack chain is 1 attack that dealt 1000 damage straight up, or 10 attack that dealt 100, or 2 attacks that both dealt 5 ticks of 100 damage. |
Each attack has a cycle, which is how long it takes for it to animate and recharge, so that it can be used again. Not all attacks are often used with that cycle, however, as animation time is a big factor in City of Heroes, and you plain aren't always able to activate attacks as they recharge. From experience, I can say that, by and large, long-recharge, high-damage attacks usually get used close to, if not exactly to their cycle. They spend a considerably longer time recharging than they do animating, so it both feels natural and makes sense. Small attacks, on average, get used when big attacks aren't available, or when a low-health enemy needs to be chipped to death where a big attack would be a waste of energy.
As such, specific playstyle preferences notwithstanding, you can assume that the theoretical DPS of big attacks is likely to be close to reality, whereas the theoretical DPS on small attacks is likely to be markedly smaller, unless you specifically opt to use them as much as possible. If I had to guess, I'd say that's why larger attacks are balanced with recharge such that their DPS is lower. It may be lower, but they get used closer to their actual DPS than the smaller attacks with a higher DPS, which tends to even things out on average.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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Those were the days.........
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Originally Posted by Luminara
Doing it as a blaster, especially with no secondary effects to assist in survival, is like asking to have Defiance removed and your character permanently locked at the debt cap.
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Hi:
I was thinking how about a blaster power set, to begin with, that only has Damage Over Time (DOT) attacks, no straight damage. While the power has an inferior DPS than straight damage, over say 5 seconds, it would have done more damage than the straight DPS.
It would be so cool if the DOTs themselves were different, for example one DOT is actually an Acid Missile or Projection, which does Acid Damage over time (simulating the acid eating thru you), another could be a Psi attack, leaving you with a pounding headache, another could be a Fire attack, which leaves you burning, imagine getting hit by a lightning bolt and electrical tendrils traveling through your body for a few seconds, and Energy Blast which leaves you engulfed in plasma, etc. In all cases let the damage be pure, not mix damage types such as lethal/acid, smash/psi; let damage be pure psi, energy, electric, toxic, etc.
DOTs for this power set could be both single target or targeted AOEs, and snipe as well, would be cool to think of a unique snipe attack, perhaps a snipe which is randon on the damage DOT type, such as it may do fire once, then next time is ice, later is psi, and what not.
Of course all the damages are stackble, so any victim could be enduring several DOT effects at a time.
Would also suggest, let the DOTs be pure damage, no secondary effcts such as stun, immobilization, etc. Just plain and pure damage.
What do you all think?
Stormy