Interface powers - a few questions.

Hi folks,

Jax the slowly-becoming-a-non-newb here. =P Today I've got a few questions about the Interface powers in the incarnate system - primarily the Reactive powers.

1. Do these powers affect pet abilities? Given how the Alpha slot works I'm inclined to think they do (and as a MM if they don't then none of the interface powers are going to do anything for me anyway =P), but confirmation from someone would be nice. =)

2. For the debuffs that are applied, do these stack? Kind of unsure about this one; depending on the size and duration of the debuffs stacking may or may not be important.

3. Do most AVs heavily resist these debuffs? Depending on whether they stack or not and how long they last some of them could dramatically change how fights unfold.

4. As for the specific powers themselves (unfortunately the in game info doesn't give a lot of details):
Paralytic: is it possible to debuff someone's (ie. an AV) damage down to 0%? I know chance to hit has a margin of 5%-95%, but was unsure if someone could actually get down to 0%, power mechanics not withstanding.
Reactive: the big one, as I'm likely to get it if the way the ability works (questions 1 and 2) are in my favour. Can the Fire debuff stack? Also, damage resistance can get in the -% can't it? While I couldn't find anything here ( http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Resistance_(Mechanics) ), the way rest works certainly made it seem likely (-1000% resistance).

5. This is a more opinion based question, but is Reactive as good as it sounds? If my understanding that you can get -% resistance is correct, then it basically reads "has a chance on each attack to increase your league's overall damage". That's generally a very good ability. =)

Thanks in advance for any help!

Jax

1) Yes
2) Yes, up to 4 times per mob (regardless of who they're from)
3) The same as they would resist any buff of that type
4) You can't make damage 0 but you can make negative RES *however* you can't do either just using the Interface procs (see point 2)
5) It seems to be the most popular, most because of the damage, but the -RES is pretty small and see point 2

Edit: Re point 2, it looks like some of them stack more than 4 times - the damage from Reactive seems to stack up to 6, so it varies, but it's still a low number.

Do the procs carry over to pet damage like Phantom Army? I'm fairly sure they do for Phantasm and other permanent pets, but I haven't seen anything about PA yet.

How often do they proc in something like Tornado or Freezing Rain? What about Carrion Creepers?

Currently they proc every time damage is done and ignore the whole "every 10 seconds" limitation of normal procs. Reactive turns caltrops into a burn patch.

I stronly urge people to consider taking something other than Reactive, or at least taking a second Judgement for teaming. Almost everyone will have Judgement, which means critters will be at their debuff cap for that power, but not have any of the other great debuffs available to us.

It does indeed work with pets and pseudopets. Heck, it works with Caltrops. And by that I mean every tick where Caltrops applies damage, the game rolls to check if the debuff is applied. On a high chance debuff, like Diamagnetic's 75% or 100% chance of ToHit debuff, it means you'll get the four applications on almost immediately. Which is awesome.

The debuff from Reactive is about -2.5% Resistance per application of the proc. At best, you'll get -10% Resistance on the target. Which ain't much, though isn't anything to sneeze at either. On a team against something heavy like an AV, GM or a heavily armored EB (like War Walkers), reducing their resistance by 10% can really help. I took it on my Dual Blades scrapper mainly because everything and their moms have absolutely obscene Lethal damage resistance, and it fit my concept. The fire proc from Reactive is apparently pretty decent, though I'm not a huge fan of DoTs myself. As mentioned, Reactive is by far the most popular choice, so you might consider looking at the other three if you team a lot. The DoTs function the same way the other debuffs do in the Interface powers, as in that only four can be applied at a time. So even if you've got 8 people firing this off at a guy, only four DoTs. A reason to consider diversification, especially when teaming.

The Diamagnetic power is great. -5% ToHit per application, and at higher levels, potentially -15% Regeneration per application. It fires a lot, up to 100% at the Rare level (at Very Rare, one debuff fires 100% of the time, the other 50% of the time). With the boosted ToHits of high level enemies, being able to reduce their ToHit by up to 20% is handy and makes the lives of both you and your teammates easier. The Regen debuff adds up to about one application of Envenomed Daggers... which isn't going to stop a big AV from regenerating, but it'll slow them down a bit and isn't too shabby. I took this power on my plants/storm controller, and near as I can tell, Carrion Creepers and Tornado are applying it. Obviously, this power is really handy for people with Force Fields, Ice Armor, Shield Defense, Super Reflexes, Ninjitsu, Energy Aura, etc. I am unsure if and how this power stacks with other -ToHit debuffs, like those from Dark Blast and Dark Miasma.

The Paralytic power is really good on non-defense based tankers, and a very good option for melee people in general, as well as buffers (if your teammates take less damage, your life is easier). The -Defense part is only -2.5% and kinda meh. But we don't care about that. We care about the -5% Damage debuff. Don't think of it as a debuff so much as a potentially 20% Resistance to that guy you just punched in the face. Nice for teams, too, as he does less damage to them too. It's also nice because a lot of high level content uses Energy damage instead of Smash/Lethal, which kind of leaves us poor Inv tankers in a rough spot, and this helps shore that up. The catch is the -Damage debuff isn't available until the second tier, so you'll want to invest in this a bit. Get it to at least Uncommon if not Rare, focusing exclusively on getting the highest chance for the -Damage debuff. I'm taking this on my inv/energy tanker, and if you're planning on increasing your survivability (either your own or your teammates), I'd recommend either this or Diamagnetic, dependent on your powers and preference.

The Gravitic power... I don't really know much about that. This seems to be the least popular one. At base, it's -10% Recharge per application, and later on picks up a grab bag of potential debuffs including -10% Recovery, -10% Speed and/or -10% Secondary Effects. That last one means you're making their holds, immobs, buffs, debuffs, heals, etc, all weaker. It's kind of an odd debuff, and I'm not sure what to make of it. I mean, yeah, enemy buffs are a pain in the neck, but how big of a difference will it make? And while -Recharge is a nice debuff... not sure how much difference in gameplay even -40% will make. Same time, because it's so uncommon you don't have to worry as much in big teams about your debuff not making a difference because an enemy already has four applications of it on (something that comes up a lot with Reactive). I'm thinking, though, about taking this set on my elec/earth dominator in order to improve the effectiveness of his end draining powers.

Another option to consider is that you are hardly limited to taking just one path. Incarnate powers are not like IOs. They're not locked into that slot. You can get a couple Uncommon level Interface powers pretty easily, so consider crafting more than one set and swapping them out as conditions warrant. The Interface powers don't have the level shift, so swapping down from a Rare to an Uncommon won't gimp you. Like, say, having Reactives for soloing or small team stuff, where you're really more concerned about raw firepower, and something else for teaming and need to switch to a more supportive footing. In your case, I'd recommend Diamagnetic. It should synergize well with your Force Fields, especially in the high level stuff against enemies with very high accuracy.

Anyone have any idea if they proc in damage auras? Glad to see they do in tick powers like caltrops but haven't seen any confirmation one way or the other on auras - only the vague 'most powers' description.

So, Rain of Fire?

I'll very happily be wrong and need to do some actual testing but I don't remember ever seeing it fire off during Freezing rain. You'd think I'd notice someone bursting into flame.