Interface and you...

Ok.. I've been wondering this for a while now so I'll just chuck it out there. We all know that the Reactive Interface is the "best" one to get- I mean who doesn't love extra damage? But what about all the other choices? Is there one you tend to gravitate towards above all else? Do some lend themselves thematically to certain sets?

Personally I decided to go Preemptive on my Elec/Elec characters- and love it! The End Drain is fantastic (after they buffed it). I think most can agree that Cognitive and Spectral are kinda meh. But does Cognitive work better with say a Ice Dom and their confuse aura or WoC? Would a Fire Tank or Blaster do better with Spectral using RoF or Burn? I have NEVER seen anyone use Gravitic other than my own Trick Arrow Archery Defender, and i went that route on him just to "complete" the range of Debuffs...

How do you all decide which Interface to go to.. do you look at theme? Or maybe you look at what's missing or what will compliment what your sets have.. or do you just think "must have more orange numbers!!!" and get Reactive?

I think the only reason anyone might have considered Reactive to be the "best" one was that it used to be the only one that provided a serious DoT effect. I honestly think that was the primary reason why we got the new ones because now we have at a least a few different options that include a similar DoT.

Everything I do revolves around my character's theme, and I am pretty rigid about it (i.e. none of my current 50s have level shifts because none of their concepts call for that level of power).

I have only taken an Interface power on one character so far: a t3 Paralytic on my Energy/Energy blaster. He is much like Ironman, using an armored suit, so I chose Paralytic as sort of a "tag and lock on" system. Each successfully landed attack helps him lock on to the target (by lowering their DEF).

I chose interface because it was the most useful one. I would have chosen an ice/cold themed one for thematic reasons but none exist.

Well even with the new ones that were added Reactive is still the best over the broadest range of circumstances. The devs were too worried about making them too strong and instead made none a real competitor for Reactive. The one consistent reason to take one of the others is just because other people are likely to be running Reactive and if you want your DoT to stack with theirs you need something different.

I don't worry about that, myself. I figure if the team is attacking enough to keep Reactive DoTs stacked consistently, the added DoT from a different Interface probably isn't needed. So I'll take the one that will help me solo and on smaller teams, that being Reactive.

The one exception is if I'm running something with a decent amount of end drain, I'll probably take the one that has that as the secondary effect. I don't remember the name of it.

Generally, I first go for what fits my concept best. I'm not overly concerned about what's "best."

So my dual blades scrapper who's only powers are being stronger/tougher/faster than an unpowered human can be (think Captain America or so level) I went with the Reactive Core path, playing the -RES effect as her sheering through their armor and stuff. I originally went with the Diamagnetic Core path on my plants/storm controller and later switched to Degenerative's Toxic DoT because it fit the concept and powers better. Same with my others. The new DoT procs are nice, just because they give us some variety that go nicely with concepts. Is there any real appreciative difference between a Fire DoT or a Negative Energy DoT? Not really, but one fits the concept better than the other.

If I can't find anything that really stands out on a concept, I go for utility. That, and some of the debuffs are easily explainable. The -Damage proc on my inv/energy tanker? That's just an effect of getting a giant robot fist in the face.

There is an exception to this. I almost always go for Diamagnetic's -ToHit effect on my defense based characters.

As a minmaxer, I went reactive on everyone. I play this game for fun, and the more powerful my characters are the more fun they become. That said...

I'm also a very strict concept player so I had to explain why everyone's attacks were setting people on fire. For some characters, e.g. my ice/cold corr, this took more thought than usual. The character's ice blasts are actually solidified air, so eventually I decided that at level 50, she'd gained the ability to selectively crystalize oxygen from the air rather than a mixture of all gases. The shards of ultra-pure oxygen she flings are a powerful chemical oxidant and, combined with the heat from the hypervelocity impact, sets things on fire.

I usually just go for the one that fits my characters concept the best. If none fits the concept I just pick the one that does the most damage and that's still reactive.

My main (a dark/dark corr) just got a new shiny T4 spectral even though she already has a T4 reactive.

My fire/pain corr has reactive for concept.

My tanking ss/invul brute has reactive because nothing really fit.

I'm planning on going Degenerative on my Rad/Rad defender.

Of the 5 (6?) or so toons that have Incarnate powers; 3 (4?) have Reactive; my main (EI) has the -tohit/-regen one.

My Mind/Emp Controller has the -tohit/-regen one too....

I'm still not at 50 with anyone so I haven't been able to try anything out, but honestly looking them over, Interface has probably been the hardest to pick for me since few of my characters fit into basic concepts like 'a fire guy' or 'tons of confuse!' 'ninja!' etc.

what the Hades are you talking about?

Doom/Batman in 2012

The Resistance has boobs too, and better hair!

I used to go Reactive with all characters, now I take a mix, but always from one of the DoT Interface paths.

My psychic mastermind (thugs/pain in this case) is going to LOVE Cognitive core path. Between his numerous pets basically upping the chance to confuse significantly, it fits with his theme of practically causing a psionic plague to breakout amongst his enemies.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

It depends really.

I have tried them all.

My Grav/FF/Psi Controller uses Diamagnetic. The theory is to lower their accuracy so that my friends and myself spend less time being hit.

On my Mind/Psi/Fire has access to all of the old interface options, and I find she uses Diamagnetic and Reactive the most. Mainly because she already has a regen debuff, and a defense debuff, so a resist debuff is always welcome.

My Blaster Dark/Mental/Electric, uses Diamagnetic Core with 100% - to hit, because combined with my fast recharging dark powers, and Diamagnetic stacking 4 times, that is a lot of -tohit, which makes my defenses better.

My Empath/Defender uses Reactive because she needs all the help damage wise she can get.

Those are my only incarnates.

Overall though, Diamagnetic is my favorite one. It's reliable, and I find it works on all of my toon excellently

Yes, Diamagnetic I find helps soo much on all my soft-capped (or close to it) toons. But I am thinking of testing out Spectral on my Inv/SS tank- my theory being if I can spam FS enough I can benefit from the Immob chance. I wonder if the Taunt bug is still active with Interface DoTs? I'll need to see.

I have been trying out Degenerative on Bench but I just don't see enough benefit yet.

I've found myself using Reactive far more often than the others because it fits more of my concepts than the rest. Now that there are more "and it does THIS kind of damage, too" options, I may start using some of them instead.

I chose Reactive for my brute mostly because I am a big believer of -Res at the higher levels. Bosses, EBs, AVs, and GMs have ludicrous levels of resistance, and anything that lowers it is a big win in the combat engine numbers game (I remember a rather enlightening player guide from back in the day with a provocative title like, "What 24 Radiation Defenders Can Do That 1000 Blaster Can't", which all centered on the benefits of stacked resistance debuffing over straight damage output/buffs). The fact that Reactive had a fire DOT effect wasn't even a consideration, mostly because I didn't really know about it; I saw the -Res primary effect and stopped reading the power's description any further. I was sold. But I too am someone who likes to build toons based on concept, and I have been going with the fire-based Incarnate powers with the concept that my character is lobbing fire grenades and molotov cocktails and other guerilla warfare type stuff at the enemy.

My first choice would be a DoT proc. Extra damage is always good. If my character has any kind of sleep power, then I would choose a non-DoT proc. That would be Diamagnetic, Gravitic, or Paralytic.