I just dinged a fire/dark to 50 last night, i took scorpion shield. I have read different things, but most say that somewhere between 95-98% (depends on who said it really) of attacks in the game include soem form of smashing/lethal component to them. This includes debuffs and mez stuff to my understanding.
That said, my build has 37, almost 38% s/l defense. The tohit debuffs make up for the rest as far as im concerned.
EDIT: Forgot to mention, i didn't take any kind of leadership or fighting pool powers. If you start taking those powers, you will run into some serious endurance problem and make the dark mastery pool a must IMO.
My current build has a toggle on end use of 0.82/s
Switching to the capped S/L build would result in a end use of 0.7s.
So I do end up becoming less end heavy on toggles. Skills would be about the same if i used the immobilize to any great extent. I don't foresee it being a problem.
I just don't know if this is worth pursuing or not because it doesn't seem to be completely clear if capped S/L will improve my survival or not.
How much S/L do you have right now? If you have very little defense and then go to a soft capped or even a relatively high amount of defense (say 30+) with all the tohitdebuffs, you should see a huge difference.
With the enduranec usage, i was refering to if you were running tough, weave, and manuvers + your patron shield, you would probably see some problems.
7.7% S/L def and 29.1% S/L res.
I didn't really build with def or resist in mind since i was pretty much untouchable with all the to hit debuffs. But again its the stuns that get through that end up killing me because they detoggle Darkest Night and Oppressive Gloom, leaving me defenseless unless I can break out of the stun fast enough. Often times that is hard though, because its near instant death if Darkest Night drops.
Shadowfall never seems to detoggle when I am stunned, and if Scorpion shield has a low chance to detoggle as well it would stand to reason my defense would be intact even if the Darkest Night detoggled, Giving me a higher survival chance.
At least that's my theory.
Edit I'm usually converting all insp to purples anyways and using 2-3 per pull. But when they wear off or I run out things get harder.
Understandable.
If you go from 7% s/l def to 30 or more, you will definitely notice a difference. If you manage to softcap, you will notice an even bigger difference.
shadowfall and scorpion shield do not detoggle but may have their values decreased since they are "defensive toggles"
EDIT: Thought i would mention this but it is purely my point of view. Resistance toggles on squishies are not that useful. Sure you take a little less damage, but it still hurts!! It isnt a large amount of resistance and you do not have the HP of a brute or even a scrapper to be able to take many of them. That being the case, it is better to avoid as many attacks as you can, and only get hit by a couple attacks and take full damage from those few that actually hit.
And like i said, i am not positive but i do think that s/l defense will help with the stun issue
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My understanding is they don't detoggle but suppress. Meaning you'll lose all the buff/debuff (in this case the defense and resistance) they provided while you are mezzed. But as soon as you are no longer mezzed the buff/debuff they are providing will function again without your needing to spend any time or effort toggling powers back on.
| shadowfall and scorpion shield do not detoggle but may have their values decreased since they are "defensive toggles" |
Quote:
There is a fine line in this game. It's known as staying alive long enough to be offensive.|
Originally Posted by wasteomind
So the question I have, is this; Is there a tangible benefit to be had by capping S/L defense on my character over ranged defenses? What does one offer that the other doesn't? Would this help me in the long run, or just end up gimping my damage output for little reason?
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That being said, a large majority of people take measures to help their characters survive where others wouldn't so that they can continue on and fight the battle while their friends are sucking pavement.
The most popular method to do so on a squishy type is to focus through sets and a few additional powers in the build to raise your defense to a select type or types of incoming damage.
Smashing & Lethal: Lovingly referred to as S/L by many, this two guys combine and generally double to be roughly 90% of the incoming damage that you receive throughout your potentially short life as a squishy. 90%. Yes, that's quite a bit. Hence why is can be such an excellent idea to put into affect a trump card for Mr. S/L by making sure that any incoming S/L damage has only a 5% chance to hit you. (Which would be the softcap 45% that people talk about)
Range: Alternately every type of incoming damage gets classified into a "Positional" type of damage. Those would be: Melee-Ranged-Area of Effect
Adding a softcap to ranged defense obviously means that yes you guessed it: 95% of incoming ranged damage won't hit you. If you're evasive and your ability to maneuver in the heat of combat is sufficient you can keep Everything at range. Which amazingly enough makes you quite survivable.
Now, I can't tell you what it's like play a squishy without softcaped defense because I don't have any. But I can tell you that when they're kissing the ground I'm not.
Basic rule of thumb would be to softcap your Ranged defense if you're a flier or actually stay at range like a good squishy. Softcap your defense to my buddies S/L if you prefer the lighter side of battle that would involve diving headlong into the middle of everything in your path.
Enjoy
Space reserved for a super awesome Signature, someday...
OK sorry for posting on this but I've looked through 17 pages of threads and searches and just can't find the answer I'm looking for.
I'm currently playing a Fire/Dark cor using the new Dark Mastery pool. I love the end drain, damage buff, and aoe stun powers in this pool. The resistance shield is kinda meh, and the self res I ignored.
I love the damage and utility of this set, but I feel stuns are my greatest weakness and kill me more often then not with the amount of enemies I pull. My understanding it a lot of the damage in this game has S/L components to it. Does this include most enemy skills that stun?
If I was to change over to the Mace pool, it seems I could very easily cap S/L def with some slight revisions to my sets, and also gain an aoe immobilize power. But this would be at the loss of the dark skills I mentioned above which again are:
-a PBaoe end absorption skill, long recharge but pretty much eliminate the need for blue insp.
-a mag2 pbaoe stun which is great for minions that break lose of tarpatch. Also when used in conjunction with HT produces enough stun for LTs, and Bosses in some cases.
-a pbaoe damage buff (68%) that does damage close to fireball.
Now in a few posts I've seen people aiming for capped range defense by taking boxing/tough/weave/maneuvers in their builds and to me that is just something I won't do.
So the question I have, is this; Is there a tangible benefit to be had by capping S/L defense on my character over ranged defenses? What does one offer that the other doesn't? Would this help me in the long run, or just end up gimping my damage output for little reason?