Energy Aura: Add 33.1 DDR To Energy Drain


Daemodand

 

Posted

Energy Aura has come a long way since the old days, but the set is still under-performing. The reason is actually pretty simple: it's nearly as dependent as Super Reflexes is on Defense for its survival, but lacks the strong Defense Debuff Resistance to keep its protection up to necessary levels.

Now, Super Reflexes gets 95% DDR on Scrappers and Brutes. Unlike EA, SR has no heal, so giving EA 95% DDR would be too much. So what if we add 33.1% DDR to Energy Drain? You would get 3.31% DDR per mob hit, for 30 seconds. This DDR would not stack from same caster, so with 10 mobs hit you would get your DDR up to 85% when combined with the set's native 51.9% DDR, and would leave you with less DDR when fewer mobs were hit by the power. Given the Heal the set has, I would say this seems balanced and would make Energy Aura a much more playable set, and nicely balanced with other Defense sets.

I can see an argument for taking the DDR to as low as 75% max, depending how much value you place on the heal, but below that it fails to serve much purpose, and I don't think the 85% figure, especially since it's mob-count dependent and fades after 30 seconds (requiring another use of Energy Drain to renew) is overpowered given the set's heal.

One other issue is Overload would get you to 95% DDR, but I don't consider that imbalanced as it is a tier 9 defensive power, has an Endurance crash, and cannot have 100% uptime (SR lives in 95% DDR by comparison). If this was considered too much DDR for the set, the DDR in Overload could simply be removed, or reduced to something very minor, like 5%.

Two optional additional modifications for the set:
1. Increase the Energy Defense of the set to 45% enhanced and increase the Energy Resist to 17.66% enhanced (an auto, energy-oriented version of Tough). This is the set's theme, it should be strong against Energy attacks.

2. Purely cosmetic: allow a no-fade option for Energy Cloak. It'd be nice to see my costume once in a while. Even an EA Stalker sees their costume every now and then.

P.S. The Stalker version would cap out at 75% instead of 85%. Stalkers are thematically more squishy than Brutes or Scrappers, and Stalker SR gives around 85% DDR IIRC.

TL;DR: Let Energy Drain give 3.31% DDR per mob hit (33.1%@10 targets hit) for 30 seconds, not stacking from same caster.


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Posted

Minor difference is that Energy isn't purely defense - it's a mix of defense and resistance already. And IIRC there is some debuff protection in the set already - but I'm going from memory there.

That said, I have nothing *against* the idea. I'll let the numbers people play with it, though. (I'd still like to see Energy Drain's heal component buffed up a bit, though. It's better than not having it at all, yes, but it's still awfully weak.)

And as an aside, I will forever read "DDR" as "Dance Dance Revolution," which makes reading titles and posts like this just a bit odd.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill View Post
And as an aside, I will forever read "DDR" as "Dance Dance Revolution," which makes reading titles and posts like this just a bit odd.
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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill View Post
Minor difference is that Energy isn't purely defense - it's a mix of defense and resistance already. And IIRC there is some debuff protection in the set already - but I'm going from memory there.
Every time I see someone mention this, I want to beat my head against a wall.

Take a good, long look at the Resistance Values available to Energy Aura. Don't include Tough, or any resistance bonuses. What do you have?

7.5 S/L/Neg Resistance, and 9.4 Energy/Toxic resistance. Those numbers become 11.7 and 14.6 respectively, if you enhance them to the cap.

What do those number mean, in terms of protecting your character?

Absolutely Nothing! Super Reflexes scaling resistance has a greater impact on character survivability than those do. As far as I can tell, anything less than 20% resistance may as well not be there, for all the effect it ultimately has on survivability.

So no, I don't think of Energy Aura as a Defense/Resistance set. It's Heck, Shield Defense provides more resistance than Energy Aura, and it's still considered a 'Defense' set! So, Energy Aura is as well.

As for adding more DDR to the set... sure. Adding it to Energy Drain... NO! For the love of Pete, the Devs have already smashed more into that power than there ever should have been. There are other places in the set that can be tweaked, use one of them! Leave Energy Drain alone!


-This Space Intentionally Left Blank.-

 

Posted

I could take or leave a DDR buff for my DM/EA brute honestly, what I would like though is for the Heal in ED to be frontloaded like the Damage and ToHit buffs in Dark's Soul drain.

As is vs a single target (such as a problem boss or AV) ED's heal is absolutely useless (provides a 3% base heal). Hell I would say that vs anything but 4 or more mobs it's virtually useless (12%base heal).

I'd like to see it switched from 3% per mob up to 10 mobs (3% for 1 mob to 30% for 10 mobs) to 10% first mob +2% per mob (12%for 1 mob to 30% for 10 mobs). Normally this wouldn't be possible, cause a heal isn't a duration based buff, however I believe it's possible to do this in this case because there is a delay on the heal (0.25seconds) where the game basically stores a buff that says *heal you this many times after this amount of time* and the 10% heal wouldn't be allowed to stack.

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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill View Post
Minor difference is that Energy isn't purely defense - it's a mix of defense and resistance already. And IIRC there is some debuff protection in the set already - but I'm going from memory there. That said, I have nothing *against* the idea. I'll let the numbers people play with it, though.
Among the secondary sets for brutes, there are 5 power sets that offer DDR. Willpower's DDR is pretty low, and SR is at the maximum. The other 3 power sets (invulnerability, shield, and EA) have around ~50% DDR. Among these 3 sets, I would say EA is closer to being a purely defense set. It is quite reasonable to ask for a DDR value between 50% and 95%, or make it enhanceable like shield.

I think the issue is that the current DDR value of 50% is not really too low or wrong. It is not easy to make a strong argument saying that such change need to be done. If we end up having to talk about numbers and gauge secondary power sets under a metric to proof our point, then it would be very problematic.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Daemodand View Post
Now, Super Reflexes gets 95% DDR on Scrappers and Brutes. Unlike EA, SR has no heal, so giving EA 95% DDR would be too much. So what if we add 33.1% DDR to Energy Drain? You would get 3.31% DDR per mob hit, for 30 seconds. This DDR would not stack from same caster, so with 10 mobs hit you would get your DDR up to 85% when combined with the set's native 51.9% DDR, and would leave you with less DDR when fewer mobs were hit by the power.
I believe if DDR were added to energy drain, a typical usage was to use energy drain immediately at the beginning of the fight. Given the healing and endurance abilities of energy drain, I think the beginning of a fight is probably not the best time to use the power. I would add the DDR somewhere else.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Oathbound View Post
...what I would like though is for the Heal in ED to be frontloaded...
This! Make the first target make up half the heal, and each target after that can balance out to make a ED-capped 10-foe heal the 50% it is now. Also, kill the delay between the activation and the heal.

And, since we're talking about EA, I'm going to throw in my suggestion I've made before:

Make Conserve Power a Taunt Aura and let it debuff recovery from foes while giving an End Discount % per foe in range. Maybe 3% per foe. Number gurus will probably find a more balanced number for that.

Adding DDR? Sure, but I can't see a lot more added. 60-75% probably. And yeah, not in Drain, that power is loaded up enough already. Just boost it's current DDR numbers.


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