The statement was that an SR can ignore def debuffs. This is a wrong statement, it needs to be qualified to be accurate. The accurate statement is that an SR that builds to have a buffer against def debuffs can ignore them.
Soft cap means that an attribute is still increasable but will yield insignificant to no return afterwards. It's not called soft because it is fluffy or can be punctured by def debuffs. It's a term that has been used far longer than CoH exists.
I'm not sure for certain who first used the term "soft cap" to refer to any other attribute in City of Heroes, but unless Dr. Rock beat me to it on the Euro forums, the first person to use the term "soft cap" in reference to defense in City of Heroes was probably me, and I used it occasionally to answer people's questions about "how much defense do you need to X." Prior to I7, critters had variable tohit. So people would ask how much defense do I need to floor everything in an invincible mission, say. Prior to I5, I would say that the worst case scenario by default would be a +5 boss who would have a base 100% tohit, which required 95% defense to reduce him to the 5% floor. But defense debuffs and tohit buffs would adjust that picture dynamically.
Within the scope of City of Heroes, the term "soft cap" was originally used *not* as some think to refer to the fact that you can go higher but higher would have no effect. That was part of it, but the more significant aspect of the soft cap was also that higher values could help situationally. If you could buff defense higher than 95% but that would *never* have any better effect, that would not be a "soft-cap" that would be an "effective cap." The effective cap would be the point beyond which increases might be numerically possible but would do nothing.
Long before I7 which introduced the concept of base 50% critter tohit, we were using the term soft-cap for defense to refer to the amount of defense necessary for a particular situation: +3 missions, +2 AVs, hunting the turrets in Striga, etc. Each one had a different level of defense that was necessary to floor the attackers specified within that mission not counting dynamic effects like defense debuffs and tohit buffs.
The term was used infrequently until I7, when the term re-emerged essentially to refer to "45% defense" because all those different scenarios suddenly collapsed into just two: all standard critters from minions to AVs excluding pets and turrets from even con to +5, and everything else. However, when I7 came out I was quick to remind people that 45% was an *arbitrary* value situationally. More defense than the "soft cap" would help specifically against debuffs and foe tohit buffs, plus pets and turrets. The soft cap was soft, because more would be helpful, just situationally helpful. And there was no way to state what the effective cap was, because that was so highly variable. For SR today, the effective cap is about 50% defense against standard critters without tohit buffs. There's almost no way to stack enough defense to budge 50% SR defense below the mitigation soft cap of 45%. Unless the debuffs are autohitting and unresistable, in which case you're screwed either way.
Different games use the term "soft-cap" in different ways. In some games, the term is used to refer to the point of diminishing returns on an attribute. That is not how the term has ever been used here, and it would in fact contradict its usage here. In other games it refers to the point where a particular aspect of an attribute caps out, but the attribute as a whole doesn't. So a particular attribute might do two things, but one of them reaches its maximum at some point while the other keeps going. If the maxed attribute is considered the more important one, that point is sometimes referred to as a soft-cap on the attribute.
What they all have in common is the notion that the rule of thumb involving that attribute changes dramatically at that point, where upon increases beyond that point have either very small or situational benefit. But in City of Heroes, the term "soft-cap" has been used really only in one context: to refer to an attribute that can be numerically increased but increases beyond that point only have situational benefit and in most cases have no additional benefit.
Soft cap means that an attribute is still increasable but will yield insignificant to no return afterwards. It's not called soft because it is fluffy or can be punctured by def debuffs. It's a term that has been used far longer than CoH exists.
Within the scope of City of Heroes, the term "soft cap" was originally used *not* as some think to refer to the fact that you can go higher but higher would have no effect. That was part of it, but the more significant aspect of the soft cap was also that higher values could help situationally. If you could buff defense higher than 95% but that would *never* have any better effect, that would not be a "soft-cap" that would be an "effective cap." The effective cap would be the point beyond which increases might be numerically possible but would do nothing.
Long before I7 which introduced the concept of base 50% critter tohit, we were using the term soft-cap for defense to refer to the amount of defense necessary for a particular situation: +3 missions, +2 AVs, hunting the turrets in Striga, etc. Each one had a different level of defense that was necessary to floor the attackers specified within that mission not counting dynamic effects like defense debuffs and tohit buffs.
The term was used infrequently until I7, when the term re-emerged essentially to refer to "45% defense" because all those different scenarios suddenly collapsed into just two: all standard critters from minions to AVs excluding pets and turrets from even con to +5, and everything else. However, when I7 came out I was quick to remind people that 45% was an *arbitrary* value situationally. More defense than the "soft cap" would help specifically against debuffs and foe tohit buffs, plus pets and turrets. The soft cap was soft, because more would be helpful, just situationally helpful. And there was no way to state what the effective cap was, because that was so highly variable. For SR today, the effective cap is about 50% defense against standard critters without tohit buffs. There's almost no way to stack enough defense to budge 50% SR defense below the mitigation soft cap of 45%. Unless the debuffs are autohitting and unresistable, in which case you're screwed either way.
Different games use the term "soft-cap" in different ways. In some games, the term is used to refer to the point of diminishing returns on an attribute. That is not how the term has ever been used here, and it would in fact contradict its usage here. In other games it refers to the point where a particular aspect of an attribute caps out, but the attribute as a whole doesn't. So a particular attribute might do two things, but one of them reaches its maximum at some point while the other keeps going. If the maxed attribute is considered the more important one, that point is sometimes referred to as a soft-cap on the attribute.
What they all have in common is the notion that the rule of thumb involving that attribute changes dramatically at that point, where upon increases beyond that point have either very small or situational benefit. But in City of Heroes, the term "soft-cap" has been used really only in one context: to refer to an attribute that can be numerically increased but increases beyond that point only have situational benefit and in most cases have no additional benefit.
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