A few enhancement choice questions from a newbie. <3

Hi folks,

Jax the newbie here with a few more questions as he tries to cross the bridge from greenhorn to competent. In any case, my Robo/FF MM should hit 40 just after the server comes back up, so I'm looking forward to my final trek to 50. =)

Anyway, to make a long story short, I come from a WoW background where when gearing for top level content, a dps character would try to reach 'hit cap' before focusing on damage, as regardless of how much damage an ability could do, it was meaningless if it didn't hit. Basically, it was seen like this: if you were at a 50% chance to hit a raid boss, and your attack did 100 damage, and you got the chance to increase it to a 75% chance to hit (50% increase) or do 150 damage per hit, you'd take the hit increase as although the damage increase is the same between both (over a large number of samples), the reliability of hit is much more desired as it makes your damage more consistent and less luck based. You wouldn't get some fights where you do insane damage and some where you do very little at all. Besides this, once you were hit capped against raid bosses you could focus entirely on damage without worrying about being under the hit cap.

So with that in mind, I've been socketing accuracy as my primary enchancement with most enhancements that take it, and that I care about.

Question one: is this a good idea? Is accuracy the first enhancement I should be going for in abilities such as Detention Field, Battle Drones and Force Bolt?

Beyond this, I've been socketing my enhancements for 3 accuracy SO's (technically lv 25 IO's, which I like to call pseudo-SO's as they're practically the same) where applicable, as I'm trying to get as much 'hit' as possible.

Question two: is this also a good idea? I'm aware that for pretty much any mob that is 2 levels or less higher that 2 SO's should suffice (potential buffs/debuffs aside), but the way I've been thinking is that if I encounter a very tough enemy, or want to fight something even tougher than a +2 (perhaps help with a giant moster or take part in a lv 50 task force), that having the 3 is more ideal. Keep in mind that I'll probably be using the lv 25 IO's for quite a while as I don't want to invest in really good enhancements until I'm comfortable with my understanding of the game.

Beyond this, the final, general question;

Question three: what are some good general rules of thumb with choosing enhancements to socket in any given power? There's a lot of choice and it feels overwhelming at times. For example, I've generally been going 3 acc and 3 dam for a lot of my damage type powers, in order to get them as much hit as possible (before ED starts to take a significant toll), and then get them doing as much damage as possible. Is this the best idea for a damage type power, for example, Lightning Bolt? It seems that way, and my logic is making me think it is, but I am a new player - even a new player I could see how something like 2 acc 3 dam 1 rech red would be better for anything that isn't the toughest mobs, but is it a better overall scheme? Gah, it's so confusing at times!

Anyway, I think I'll stop there before it starts becoming too much of an essay. Thankyou very, very much to anyone who's willing to try and help, I really do appreciate it as I try to become better at the game! =)

Jax

1) Yes, slotting with accuracy is a good way to do it. However, depending on what you're fighting, there is only so much that you need. For instance, against +0 enemies, one Acc SO caps your chances to hit, so you don't need more. I think that two SOs worth will cap you up to +3s, but someone else may correct me there.

2) 3 Acc is likely a waste, because you'll want to enhance for damage, endurance reduction, and recharge reduction as well. I think 2 is a good place to start. Once you get into putting in set enhancements, 3 SOs worth of Acc is sometimes easy to come by, depending on the sets in question. But hitting more often for less damage isn't as good as hitting more often for more damage. You'll need to find the right balance of Acc, damage, and other aspects. It is also going to depend highly on the sets in question.

3) General slotting can be up to you. However, the common slotting that I see on the boards is either 1 Acc, 3 Damage, 1 EndRed, 1 RecRed, or 2 Acc, 3 Damage, 1 EndRed OR RecRed. For defensive toggles, 3 Defense or Resistance enhancements, and maybe one EndRed (attacks use FAR more endurance than defensive toggles). For auto powers, 3 of whatever the effect is.

However, this is pretty simplistic, and you'll find that there are a lot of exceptions and odd powers that need different slotting. Basically, see what you think is needed, and go with that.

My rule of thumb for any power that needs to hit is at least 2 SOs worth of accuracy (you can get better boost percentages with IOs). If I feel that I need more, and I usually do, then I will take up the Leadership power pool to get Tactics. While I'd need 2 power picks to get Tactics (prerequisite, then Tactics), I feel it is a good trade off for saving slot allocations, plus Tactics benefits your henchmen and your other "pets" (aka your team mates).

Thanks for all the input guys. =)

I've been working with Mids, but without a solid grasp on this acc thing even that was proving difficult. I think I've got a better grasp now, but just so even when I'm at cap and starting to 'power up' I have the right idea:

Even at lv 50 and doing end game content, will the equivalent of 2 SOs of acc be enough for those encounters? Equivalent of 2 50 IOs? Just trying to get a rough guage of how much I should be socketing for. =)

If you've already got a fair bit of accuracy buffs (from enhancements and set bonuses), I'd opt to try to get some +tohit buffs, as they're multiplicative with accuracy buffs. Theres a tohit buff IO that's fairly cheap that can be slotted in a defensive power, like Combat Jumping or Hover, that'll boost the tohit of all your other powers (but it won't help pets). Also, as mentioned, there's Tactics, which'd be a better option for someone with lots of pets.

Personally, around 60% accuracy enhancement is what I aim for as a minimum, less if I have extra tohit or it has a raised base chance.

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

I have characters that don't even slot for accuracy any more (except incidentally via multi-aspect IOs) because of accuracy bonuses and tohit buffs. I rarely exemplar with those characters, so I don't have to worry about losing my set bonuses and whiffing.

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Attack_Mechanics - this page is long, but full of delicious, delicious information.

Quickie:
You have a 75% chance to hit even-level enemies with most powers - though some are higher (e.g. controller ST holds) and some are lower (e.g. controller AoE holds). This is true from level 20 to 50, as there is a feature that boosts low levels so that you're not feeling like a whiffing wimp, and it degrades down to 75% at level 20. There is a tohit cap of 95% - you will ALWAYS have a 5% chance to miss, no matter what, unless the power is flagged as 'autohit'. (There are few of those.)

Assuming a normal, 75% tohit power, on a character with no extra boosts, against an enemy that has no extra defenses.

One even-level, white SO (+33%) caps your tohit against even-level enemies (99.75% final tohit), and comes reasonably close to capping plus-one (86.45%). Two white SOs (+66%) caps plus-ones (107.9% final tohit) and NEARLY caps plus-twos (92.96%).

One level 50 IO (+42.5%) caps even-level enemies, NEARLY caps plus-one (92.625%), and comes moderately close to capping plus-two (79.8%).

Keep in mind that some enemies have higher defense, which requires additional tohit or accuracy to overcome. Additionally, accuracy and tohit boosts are plentiful and means you can drop your accuracy requirements if planned properly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

I'd like to third the option wherein you take Tactics - against enemies that are higher level or come equipped with defense, Tactics makes a massive difference. You might also look into invention sets that grant accuracy bonuses. You can get accuracy bonuses from the following:

Slotting 4 different Thunderstrike enhancements in the same Ranged Damage power (eg, your gun attacks)
Slotting 4 different Positron's Blast enhancements in the same Targetted AoE power (eg, Photon Grenade)
Slotting 4 different Luck of the Gambler enhancements in the same Defense Power (your forcefield powers) *This set can be very expensive
Slotting 4 different Adjusted Targetting enhancements in the same To Hit buff power (eg, Tactics)

...those aren't the only sets that give Accuracy bonuses, but they will probably be the most useful to your powersets, as there's a fairly good chance you'll have selected some of the above powers and slotted them at least 4 times.

Note that a given "bonus amount" (eg, +9% Accuracy) can only be used up to 5 times. This means that if you slot 4 Positron's Blast enhancements in 4 powers, and 4 Luck of the Gambler enhancements in 2 powers, you'll only get 45% (9% x 5) of the 54% bonus it would normally add up to. Note also, that 45% in global accuracy will probably be more than enough (combined with an SO worth of slotted accuracy) than you need to cap your hit chance against neary anything you fight.