Ill/Rad - Recharge Mechanics and Perma PA

Hi All,

I created my first Controller for 2x XP weekend and have some questions on how Recharge works from different sources. The bulk of my confusion comes from pairing PA with Hasten and Accelerate Metabolism.

If I Slot the 3 above abilities with level 50 Recharges and activated both AM and Hasten, the recharge times look like:

141s AM
150s Hasten
80.25s PA

Do AM and Hasten help reduce each others cooldown? If I'm refreshing AM and Hasten every time they're available, am I really only looking at a 20 second downtime for PA?

I duo a lot with a Fire/Kin. If the Kin keeps speed boost on me, wouldn't that keep AM, Hasten, and PA with a cooldown lower than the recharge, essentially giving me Perma PA for free without having to spend on LOTGs and other set bonuses?

Am I missing something?

Thanks!

edit: I should note I'm incredibly new to the game and don't understand most of the mechanics. I've never gotten a character to the point that I've started worrying about 'perma'ing things or building for set bonuses.

Yes they will all stack. Ill/rads or rads in general can achieve some of the highest recharge in the game without depending on ally buffs or enemy siphons.

I cant say for sure if a single speed boost will make everything perma but you should be close.

I'm sure Local_Man will be by soon to give you some more detailed info.

Hasten provides a 70% recharge while it is active. Accelerate Metabolism provides a 30% recharge while it is active. Both of them are additive and both act on themselves, so they provide about 100% Global Recharge. AM and Hasten both require about 180% total Global Recharge to be made "perma," not including the Recharge slotted in the two powers themselves.

Phantom Army has a 240 second Recharge and a 60 second duration. Fully slotting PA cuts its recharge nearly in half, so Phantom Army goes to nearly 120 second recharge. I'm not going to go through all the calculations (because I'm lazy), but it takes approximately 203% minimum Recharge to get Perma PA assuming you are slotting PA, Hasten and AM for enough Recharge. Hasten and AM handle 100% of that 203%. The rest has to come from sets or some outside source. But that 203% assumes that you have Hasten on Auto-fire and are able to re-cast AM the moment it expires . . . all the time, which is kind of tough. And it will be just exactly recharging the moment that the Phantom Army disappear. So you really want to get a little bit over 203%.

My Ill/Rad build actually had Recharge at 206.25% before the Spiritual Boost. With a couple of other touches and the Spiritual Boost, I'm up to about 216%.

Speed Boost will provide 50% of that 103% you need for Perma PA after Hasten and AM. So, yes, you could cut out some of the expensive sets . . . IF you can rely upon being Speed Boosted continually whenever you need Perma PA.

Truthfully, those LotG Recharge IOs are pretty easy to get now-a-days, if you are just patient. It takes 2 days of running Hero (or Villain) Tip Missions to earn an Allignment Merit, or you can spend 50 Reward Merits and 20 Mil to buy one (limit one per day). It takes 2 Allignment Merits to get a LotG Recharge. You can earn a LotG Recharge in 4 days worth of Tip Missions (which are amazingly easy with my Ill/Rad). If you are in a bit more of a hurry, it will cost you 2 days, 50 Merits and 20 Mil Infl to earn/buy the two A-Merits needed for a Luck of the Gambler Recharge.

Where you need to spend some Influence is the Confuse purple set and maybe the Baz Gaze sets (which can also be earned with A-Merits). The recent changes to the game have made it much easier to earn your way to what would have been a very expensive build in earlier days.

By the way, welcome to the Game. Take your time, read the stories, learn how to play your character. If you are interested, take a look at my Illusion/Radiation Guide, linked in my sig. You will learn a lot about the game in general as well as specific things about your character. I included strategies and recommended builds for leveling up. I haven't quite finished updating the last few sections, but the Guide is up to date through the first 5 or 6 sections.

Hello Son In Law, welcme to the "City of Heroes"!!! I believe you will enjoy the game very much. It is intensely an amazing game.

Anyways, Controllers are the most powerful AT in the game that you can play, others may say the Dominator is the better. Most folks that play will argue of which AT is the most Powerful (because we favor certain AT/s personally), and there are those that LOVES to provide Empathy which too adds to arguement if any at all, (just sayien) but it all comes down to the nitty gritty of what you like to do and what mood you are in to play with what you may have available to play.

Since you are new to the game, I am wondering do you have a Mids Hero Designer? If not you can download it from this site:

http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index....ic,3650.0.html

it is the newest version. It may seem complicated but trust me, it is eeeaaassssyyyy to understand. The "Info Box" in the lowest left hand corner you must understand, it allows you to see all the relavent details per power such as activation time, endu use, recharge time, Accuracy, Casting time, Radius of a power (AoE or PBAoE or "NUKE" perhaps) it just takes time and patience and before you know it, you are probably making wonderful builds with it and, "you can copy & paste" that funny looking coded paragraph (just the block of codes and line ---> | <--- (coded letters) to ---> | <---- those lines (including the lines) to view someone's build they've posted. To do so, "Import/Export" up above is a click to do it with. There is one coded paragraph thingy beneath the set bonus mentioned below (My present build BTW).
[*]12.5% DamageBuff(Lethal)[*]12.5% DamageBuff(Fire)[*]12.5% DamageBuff(Cold)[*]12.5% DamageBuff(Energy)[*]12.5% DamageBuff(Negative)[*]12.5% DamageBuff(Toxic)[*]12.5% DamageBuff(Psionic)[*]5% Defense(Energy)[*]5% Defense(Negative)[*]6.25% Defense(Ranged)[*]5.4% Max End[*]1.5% Enhancement(JumpSpeed)[*]4% Enhancement(Confused)[*]1.5% Enhancement(JumpHeight)[*]42% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*]110% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*]1.5% Enhancement(RunSpeed)[*]4% Enhancement(Heal)[*]1.5% Enhancement(FlySpeed)[*]5% FlySpeed[*]76.3 HP (7.503%) HitPoints[*]5% JumpHeight[*]5% JumpSpeed[*]MezResist(Confused) 5%[*]MezResist(Held) 5%[*]MezResist(Immobilize) 10.5%[*]MezResist(Sleep) 5%[*]MezResist(Stun) 5%[*]MezResist(Terrorized) 7.2%[*]18% (0.301 End/sec) Recovery[*]46% (1.953 HP/sec) Regeneration[*]20% ResEffect(FlySpeed)[*]20% ResEffect(RechargeTime)[*]20% ResEffect(RunSpeed)[*]5.355% Resistance(Fire)[*]5.355% Resistance(Cold)[*]5% RunSpeed[/list]------------
Set Bonuses:
Decimation
(Spectral Wounds)

• MezResist(Immobilize) 2.75%
• 11.45 HP (1.125%) HitPoints
• 2.25% Max End
• 6.25% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

• MezResist(Terrorized) 2.2%
• 1.26% Resistance(Fire,Cold)
• 4% Enhancement(Heal)
• 5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

• 4% (0.067 End/sec) Recovery
• 4% Enhancement(Confused)
• 4% DamageBuff(All)
• 10% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
• 5% Defense(Ranged), 2.5% Defense(Energy), 2.5% Defense(Negative)

• 11.45 HP (1.125%) HitPoints
• 1.5% (0.025 End/sec) Recovery
• 10% (0.425 HP/sec) Regeneration
• 2.5% DamageBuff(All)
• 5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

• 2.5% Defense(Energy,Negative), 1.25% Defense(Ranged)
• 2% (0.033 End/sec) Recovery
• 7.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

• 10% (0.425 HP/sec) Regeneration
• 11.45 HP (1.125%) HitPoints
• 9% Enhancement(Accuracy)
• 7.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

• Status Resistance 2.5%
• 3% DamageBuff(All)
• 6.25% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

• 16% (0.679 HP/sec) Regeneration

• 10% (0.425 HP/sec) Regeneration
• 11.45 HP (1.125%) HitPoints
• 9% Enhancement(Accuracy)
• 7.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

• 7.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

• 20% ResEffect(RunSpeed), 20% ResEffect(RechargeTime), 20% ResEffect(FlySpeed)

• 4% (0.067 End/sec) Recovery
• 2.52% Resistance(Fire,Cold)
• 15% Enhancement(Accuracy)
• 10% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

• Status Resistance 2.5%
• 3% DamageBuff(All)
• 6.25% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

• 7.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

• 7.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

• MezResist(Immobilize) 2.75%
• 11.45 HP (1.125%) HitPoints
• 2.25% Max End
• 6.25% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

• 2.5% (0.042 End/sec) Recovery
• 1.575% Resistance(Fire,Cold)
• 9% Enhancement(Accuracy)
• 6.25% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

• 1.5% (0.025 End/sec) Recovery
• 1.5% Enhancement(Slow)
• 0.9% Max End
• 3.75% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

• 5% JumpSpeed, 5% JumpHeight, 5% FlySpeed, 5% RunSpeed
• 19.08 HP (1.876%) HitPoints
• 2.5% (0.042 End/sec) Recovery

| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
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