A numbers question on multi-aspect enhancements

Wait... Isn't Against All Odds a toggle? I know toggles can take recharge reducers, but I've never found those to be particularly useful. And I don't think it slots for defence at all.

Oh, wait, you mean Active Defence, the status protection power? Does that even grant defence debuff resistance? More importantly, can it be slotted for defence? Because if you mean to "sneak in" defence slotting by Hamidon enhancements, I'm pretty sure Castle had a comment recently about how highly unintentional that option was, and I'm willing to respect his decision.

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.

In order: Yes, yes, and while it's unintentional, Widows and Forts have been slotting Def/Rech IOs and Def/Tohit/Rech HOs in Mind Link for a long time despite Mind Link not taking straight Rech enhancements, and this at least has been specifically stated as WAI. I can't find a consistent dev position on enhancing aspects of a power that you can't slot SOs for by using IOs or HOs. But if you feel like taking a conservative stance against future changes, that's reasonable.

On the larger question of generic dual aspect enhancements: I do not think the absence of certain combinations of aspect enhancements is always a mere oversight, for more reasons than just the technical ones.

I also feel that the invention system is not nearly as complex or as impenetrable as you feel it is. Sufficient information is available in-game to at least pick out a combination of IOs to enhance desired properties, and copious further information is available on the forums and community-run information sites. But that's a personal opinion.

Exemplar Effects on Enhancements

1. The Minor Bonus Threshold. The game doesn't scale down bonuses that are small to begin with. Any individual benefits of 20% or less are unaffected by Exemplaring down as far as level 21. Enhancement benefits of 10% or less are unaffected by Exemplaring to levels 11-20. Benefits of 5% or less are never reduced by Exemplaring. Ignore Steps 2 and 3 for each separate bonus you have that's at or below these minimums.
This step often comes into play with multi-aspect IOs, especially ones that boost three or four different attributes.

2. The Maximum Bonus Cap. If your Exemplar level is 45 or less, each individual benefit is first capped at 41.5%. This is an extra step done before the normal reduction. If your Exemplar level is 46+, skip this step.
This step rarely has a big impact. It only has a significant effect on Knockback Distance and Interrupt Time Reduction bonuses from SOs, HOs, and mid- to high-level one-aspect IOs. It will also reduce the benefits of Schedule A one-aspect IOs of levels 48+, but only by a small amount — less than 1%, even in the worst case.

3. The Actual Scaling. Look up the factors for both your Exemplar level and your true level in the following table, and divide the first value by the second. This gives you your universal scaling factor. Multiply all your affected Enhancement benefits by it.

4. Apply Enhancement Diversification to your grand totals at the very end.

Example 1: You are level 40 and elect to help a friend with the first Respec Trial. You are auto-Exemplared to 33. The value for level 33 is 1.0, and the value for 40 is 1.0, so your Enhancement benefits won't change (1.0 ÷ 1.0 = 1.0).

Example 2: You are level 30 and enter Bloody Bay. Bloody Bay adjusts all characters to a Combat Level of 25. The value for level 25 is 0.733, and the value for level 30 is 0.935, so your Enhancement benefits will scale to 0.784 times normal (0.733 ÷ 0.935).

Example 3: You call your level 50 Scrapper out of retirement to help a team in Steel Canyon. You get Exemplared to a level 13 Controller. Your Enhancements will provide roughly one-third their normal benefit (0.331 ÷ 1.0 = 0.331).

You know... I can't find the post I was thinking about. I wonder if it was from an old thread or something, or if maybe it wasn't from Castle or not from recently... Right, I think I may have spotted it in one of the necrothreads. Basically, it went along the lines that it's not an exploit and not something that people are really going to get banned for doing, but it's an artefact that they're not at all happy with and which may actually change at some point.

Either way, I AM taking a conservative stance on the matter. If it doesn't take a certain kind of enhancement, I'm not enhancing it for that aspect.

It's not a question of complexity. It is kind of a question of doing work, but that's not the actual problem, either. My beef with Inventions is, and has always been, the fact that they are split up into abstract sets defined and unified by concept, rather than by function. However, I will never see enhancements as a concept thing, because they are pure numbers. To me, these sets are at the same time restrictive and redundant, and they represent a construct that I am so unhappy with that I'm not going to touch with a 10-foot pole. And it's not their complexity or the math behind them that stops me, it's the fact that they break the one cardinal rule I exact on any type of enhancements in this game.

An enhancement needs to exist to slot every aspect of every power (that the power permits) at all levels and in all slots. Whether doing so is actually optimal or even smart is besides the point. Whether doing this is even economically feasible is, again, irrelevant. These enhancements need to exist and be attainable.

And again, if this seems like a tall order, consider that it's true for Training enhancements, SOs, DOs and Common Inventions, coincidentally all the things that people who insist they hate Inventions tend to use. Consider that I can say the following about any of the above: an enhancement exists that can slot every aspect of every power that the power permits at all levels in all slots. If I want 6-slot my attacks for damage, I can do so at every level. If I want to 6-slot my toggles for endurance reduction, I can do so at every level. Granted, DOs show up 12+ and SOs 22+, but I tend to consider Trainings, DOs and SOs to all be part of the same system, much like how Inventions scale up in percentage. They just do so in a much more ***-backwards way.

Of course, the other source of frustration is the cost and availability of Inventions Sets. People continually explain to me that, for the most part, I CAN get everything in a few copies, but a lot of people forget that not all copies are easy to come by, with a few people making caveats that "Yeah, it exists, but it's a Purple recipe." Furthermore, I can bet my peg leg that you simply don't get the exact same set functionality throughout the levels. I mean, it'd be kind of pointless to have different sets at different levels otherwise. This is another problem that violates the above condition. Even if I can't get SOs at level 15, I can get DOs that enhance the same aspects in the same way, just with a smaller percentage.

In just one sentence: What I hate about Set Inventions are the set designations, the lack of availability of all combinations in sufficient qualities applicable per power and the need to represent them as some kind of epic loot, in part or in whole. What I'm suggesting is more along the lines of currently-existing Common enhancements, which I strongly believe is about the only common ground between high-end Set-lovers and low-end Set-haters (like me). Expanding it a little ought to be good for the game, especially for people who would otherwise stay away from more conventional Sets.

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.

Thank you, Leo, that was the page I needed!

I had conflated the loss of set bonuses at 3 levels below the enhancement with the enhancement bonus itself. It's good to know I'm losing less than I thought I was when I exemp down.