1. Soft cap is what is considered the "maximum" that's usefull to have in normal situation.
It's mostly used for defense. If you're at 45% or 50%, it does the same thing. (unless you factor in def-debuff and other things.) Hard cap is the maximum the game lets you have. Like 90% for resistance with brute/tanker. For defense, i don't remember the number, but it's higher then 100%.
2. It's not a recovery cap (wich probably exist but you'll never reach it alone) it's a "recovery 2,5% bonuses cap". Meaning, any more 2,5% recovery bonus you had, will be ignored (and the two in red). But if you get a 1%, a 2%, a 5% or something like 100% from a defender buff, it will apply.
So don't get more then 5 times a % of bonus that you're aiming for. Only if the other bonuses after that are worth it.
"It's a scrapper. If he can't handle it, no one can." -BrandX
FireWyvern gave you the quick and dirty synopsis.
There are several guides in the Guides section which go into further detail about Combat Mechanics which is where the "soft cap" comes into play.
Paragon Wiki is an excellent resource overall and has articles on both these subjects.
Here's a snippet from the Paragon Wiki article on the limits to set bonuses. Note in particular the paragraph about Castle's clarification on the subject.
Quote:
Edit: Just thought I'd add you can see the "names" of the bonuses in your personal info under the powers tab
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The Law of Fives While a character can slot the same (full or partial) set multiple times in different powers, he cannot benefit from more than five copies of each named set bonus of the exact same attribute and amount. This is a stronger restriction than simply being limiting to five copies of each set. It means that if two different sets give the same size bonus to the same thing, the character can't get more than 5x that bonus even if he uses a mix of sets. Example: The Kinetic Combat set can give +1.5% Max Health and +3.3% Immobilization Resistance. The Mako's Bite set can give +1.5% Max Health and +2.75% Immobilization Resistance. If a character slots four partial sets of both, he will receive the full total of 24.2% Immobilization Resistance but only +7.5% Max Health because he cannot get more than five Max Health bonuses of exactly +1.5%. Castle further elaborated on the rule of five in I13 Closed Beta saying that the exclusion of more than five of the same bonuses is based on the name of the bonus and not its value. For example, a character can benefit from up to five global benefits of Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Recharge Speed, which gives a global +7.5% bonus to Recharge Rate, as well as up to five set bonuses of +7.5% Recharge. That's because the first bonus is named "Luck of the Gambler: Recharge Speed" while the second is "Huge Recharge Bonus". One can find the names of the bonuses listed in the Combat Attributes window. |
Yep, its the rule of five, it works on all set bonuses, if you were to have 6 +1.88% HP set bonuses you could only get the effect of 5 of them. It really sucks when i comes to some of the more common sets bonuses.
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@Caucasiafro
To make it more complicated, standalone global IO bonuses are seperate. IE: You can have 5x Luck of the Gambler +7.5 global recharges slotted, yet also still gain benefit from a set bonus elsewhere that grants 7.5% bonus
Currently working with Mids Builder, to look at variety of sets for my Brute. Being new to the crafted enhancements, I thought I would try a variety of sets to create a balance.
Couple of questions come to mind....
1. What is Soft Cap?
2. On Mids Builder, I see a statement on "View Active Sets" that says the
following:
"One or more set bonuses have exceeded the 5 bonus cap, and will not affect your stats. Scroll down this list to find bonuses marked as '>Cap'
In my case, it has to do with Recovery. Is their a cap on Recovery? Or is it just in Mids?
Here are a couple of examples:
Performance Shifter
(Electrifying Fences)
5% JumpSpeed, 5% JumpHeight, 5% FlySpeed, 5% RunSpeed
28.1 HP (1.88%) HitPoints`
2.5% (0.04 End/sec) Recovery >Cap
Impervium Armor
(Tough)
2.5% (0.04 End/sec) Recovery >Cap
1.88% Defense(Psionic)
2.25% Max End