Global recharge reduction, how does it work?

Hello friends. I'm not sure if "global" is the right term here, but here's my question: I have a level 50 illusion/radiation controller, and I'm just starting to outfit him with some of the more inexpensive IO sets. I'm using one of Local Man's excellent slotting guides as a basis. I won't have perma-anything for a while but any improvement will be useful, since I've been slotting mostly normal IO's and even some SO's until now.

I've got 5 Doctored Wounds in my heal power, and the set bonuses are lit up, with the 5-piece bonus being a 5% recharge reduction on all my powers. I also managed to get 4 of the Dark Watcher's set into Radiation Infection, and the 4-piece bonus is also 5% recharge reduction on "all powers". But how do I know if I am actually getting any reduction? When I mouse over Phantom Army, it shows an enhanced recharge of 2 minutes 10 seconds, which is exactly what it showed before I slotted either set. OK, so...maybe it doesn't display on the power, I thought. So I just did a test with a cell phone stopwatch (not completely scientific, but oh well) and PA took a good 2 minutes and 8 seconds to recharge. That, to me, is essentially the same as it was before I slotted either of the IO sets. I certainly do not appear to be getting a 10% reduction.

I'm new to the IO set business so maybe I am missing something? I did all of this in Steel Canyon, I was not in combat, does that make a difference? I just want to know that I'm on the right path, before spending millions more in influence. Is there any in-game indicator to show that set bonuses are working? Thanks in advance.

The numbers for recharge aren't quite as obvious as the numbers for, say, damage or accuracy.. With damage if you get a 5% increase you can take your base damage numbers and multiply by 1.05 to get your result. Simple and straightforward.

Recharge doesn't work like that, though. Recharge numbers act as a denominator in a fraction. So for your phantom army, without anything else, you have 240/1 (240 seconds = 4 minutes) and then you stack recharge under there. With the aforementioned maximum recharge with normal enhancements you can cut the recharge almost in half, you get 240/(1 + 0.99) or 240/1.99 which is just over 120 seconds (the extra few seconds in the previous post come from the casting time, I think)

Global recharge adds on to that, so with another 10% you have 240/(1 + 0.99 + 0.10) or 240/2.19 which is around 115 seconds.

My math may be a bit off, as our numbers don't quite match up, but that's the general gist of it.

You will notice that as you keep cramming in more recharge, you get less and less out of it. If you managed to get up to 200% recharge enhancement somehow, you would have 240/(1 + 2.00) which is 80 second. The first 100 percent is 120 seconds. The second 100 percent is 40 seconds.

It's still very useful, but you will have to put in more and more to see tangible results. Good luck!

Ill/Rad?

I summon LOCAL MAN to field any further questions!

The values in your enhancements screen show you just the effects of the enhancements in that power. Global set bonuses, or the effects of Hasten, AM or Speed Boost, are not displayed there.

You can use your Combat Attributes tab to display your global recharge value, which shows you a percentage for set bonuses, Hasten and other buffs. e.g. with your two sets, you'll see 10% there, 80% if Hasten goes off, and so on.

But the game will not display the actual recharge time for Phantom Army anywhere.

So yeah, Local Man never sees "1m 0s" anywhere.

Keep chasing the bonuses though. They do become noticeable as they stack up. Hasten and AM fire off mroe quickly too, so the effect amplifies.

But I know that I have perma-PA when my "combat attributes" shows Recharge as 206% . . . I have never really tried to use the in-game numbers to confirm the recharge on PA, because I know it works.

I never tracked my recharge incrementally. I went from a standard build with some decent recharge to saving up all the stuff I needed for the final build as my second build -- I still have the old one. What others have said about how additional recharge does less and less is certainly true . . . adding much more recharge does very little and costs a ton.

I'll take a look in game to see what it says on the recharge for PA . . . but I suspect that those numbers only reflect the recharge in the power itself and not the global recharge. Easy to test -- run it once without Hasten and/or AM, then run it again with them.

Edit: I went and checked: My recharge in PA shows 2 min, 2 sec. Then I hit Hasten and AM, no change.