Draggynn
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Quote:gah, thank you for catching that, it is now fixed.Originally Posted by Rigel_Kent
Too sleepy to actually read right now, so all I have is a typo for ya.
Hmm, very true, I will shift that up to the standard section. It's in the basic description, but I will reiterate it in the basic slotting. I had a lot of trouble deciding what to qualify as standard and advanced and what to stick under strategy and what to stick under slotting.Quote:Maybe mention, in the basic version, that the resistance is only to three damage types. That's semi important and maybe shouldn't wait for the advanced part. -
Appendix: Steamy Mist
What is this defense soft cap?
When you hear the term soft cap in game, people are almost always referring to the defense soft cap. The soft cap is the amount of defense required to ensure that you are hit as little as the game allows by enemies. This value is 45% defense. This value is called the soft cap because it is possible to have more defense, there just isn't any difference between having 50% defense and 45% defense unless you are fighting enemies that are +6 to you. Of course having defense over the soft cap means that if your defense is debuffed you will still be at the defense cap.
To see why 45% is the soft cap look at the to hit formula:
HitChance = Clamp( AccMods × Clamp( BaseHitChance + ToHitMods DefMods ) )
HitChance: This is the chance that a mob will hit you
BaseHitChance: All mobs have a base to hit chance of 50%.
ToHitMod: any mob up to 5 levels higher than you has a ToHitModifier of 0. To see what happens with higher level mobs see: here
Clamp limits the value to being within the 95% to 5% range. so if the value inside clamp is under 5% it becomes 5%
DefMods: This value is how much defense you have. Because of the clamp, it is useless to lower this value below 5%, thus 45% (50%-45% = 5%)
AccMod: This is the accuracy modifier of the mob and depends on mob level:
0: 1.0
+1: 1.1
+2: 1.2
+3: 1.3
+4: 1.4
+5: 1.5
Thus even if you are at the soft cap for defense, a +4 enemy still has a 7% chance to hit you, and this value cannot be lowered any further using defense because of the Clamp.
What are Hamidon Origin Enhancements?
Hamidon Origin Enhancements and Synthetic Hamidon Origin enhancements are lvl 50 enhancements that are available by completing a Hamidon Raid or the Statesman's Task Force. (Although this guide doesn't apply to villains, the Lord Recluse Strike Force will also award them). Hamidon Origin Enhancements enhance multiple aspects of a power all at Single Origin Enhancement levels. They can also be combined like Single Origin enhancements so that you can actually slot the equivalent of lvl 52 Hamidon Origin enhancements. For a complete list of the enhancements see here.
What are Global Enhancements?
Global enhancements, are enhancements that provide a benefit to your character and not just to the power they are slotted in. Although there are also procs that provide these sorts of benefits, these enhancements provide their benefit regardless of whether the power they are slotted in is on and regardless of whether the power is greyed out (from exemplaring) as long as you are not more than three levels below the level of the enhancement. -
Steamy Mist (Basic Version):
Steamy Mist is a player based area of effect toggle that buffs your team. The power provides stealth; a defense buff; a resistance buff to fire, cold, and energy damage; and protection and resistance to confuse to all allies who stay within range of you. As a toggle it requires endurance to maintain and will shut off if you run out of endurance.
Should I take this Power? 5/5
Steamy Mist is a toggle buff that is quite potent. You can simply turn the power on and forget about it while providing a substantial buff to your team. It requires no thought to use, unlike most storm powers, and its main downside is that you have a cloud around you that some people may tease looks like you passed gas. It also has a bit of an endurance cost, but you should take this power turn it on, and never look back.
How Should I slot it? (basic version)
Seeing as you're going to be running this power permanently, you will probably want to devote at least one slot, maybe 2, to endurance reduction, although there are so many other things to slot for, this seems a shame. However Steamy Mist will take 30% of your base recovery or 1 endurance every 2 seconds. (That said if you are only going to slot endurance reductions one place, your attacks are often a better choice as typical low level attacks cost just slightly more endurance than their recharge, so they drain 1 endurance every second rather than the 0.5 of Steamy Mist) There are two ways to slot Steamy Mist (and if you can do both even better): resistance, and defense. Just looking at the numbers the resistance provided, 20%, is greater than the defense provided, 5%. Thus you get more bang for your buck by slotting resistance. However, it is not quite that simple, because defense becomes substantially more effective the more of it you have, so if you have other defense granting powers (maneuvers, combat jumping, hover, weave) or play with people that use other defense buffs or defense focused builds, you could consider slotting for defense. For a more detailed discussion of the tradeoffs, see the advanced section. Remember that due to Enhancement Diversification it is not worth slotting more than three Single Origin enhancement's worth of a single attribute in a power.
Steamy Mist (Advanced Version):
What are Steamy Mist's Stats? (For Defenders):
Available Level: 6
Activation Time: 1.87s
Recharge Time: 15.00s
Endurance Cost: 0.52/s
Accuracy: 1.00X
Power Type: Toggle
Target Type:Self Effect Area: AoE -- 40.00 ft. radius (255 targets max)
Effects @lvl 50:
+3500.00% stealth radius on target unresistable (PvE or 35 feet)
Strategy:
+38900.00% stealth radius on target unresistable (PvP or 389 feet)
+5% Defense to all (that's typed, positional, and psionic) unresistable
+20% resistance to fire/cold/energy damage on target
+216.25% resistance to confuse on target unresistable
+8.65 confuse protection on target unresistable
What happens if I get mezzed while running Steamy Mist?
Because Steamy Mist is a toggle buff when you are mezzed Steamy Mist's effects will suppress but the power will not turn off. (If a toggle power effects enemies then the toggle will shut off when you are mezzed (slept, stunned, held, terrorized) and you would need to turn the power back on.) Steamy Mist will continue to run, draining endurance, even though you will get no benefit from it. As soon as you are unmezzed the buffs from Steamy Mist will be restored.
Is Steamy Mist a defense or a resistance power?
Going by the numbers, Steamy Mist is predominantly a resistance power as it provides 20% resistance only 5 % defense. Because defense and resistance are Schedule B the powers can only be enhanced 60% with enhancements. Thus you can get ~30% resistance and ~8% defense. However, the numbers obscure their relative importance. Whereas the resistance portion of the power will only have an effect on energy, fire, and cold damage, the defense will affect all damage types. Although energy damage is fairly common, there are a much smaller number of enemies who deal fire and cold damage with the majority of damage in the game being smashing or lethal.
Both resistance and defense become more effective as the total amount increases. Gaining 30% resistance when you have none, simply reduces the damage you take by 30%, however if you already have 40% resistance, then gaining 30% resistance reduces the damage you take by 50%. (30% of original damage as opposed to 60% of original damage). Because of the way calculations work in the game, whereas the goal for resistance is to hit 95% (for tanks, Epic ATs are limited to 85%, and everyone else to 75%: See here for characteristic limits) , the goal for defense is to hit the Soft Cap at 45%. See the appendix for an explanation of what the Soft Cap is! Not only is this number much lower than the 95% resistance goal, but there are lots of ways for all players to gain defense (Combat Jumping, Hover, Weave, Maneuvers, Stealth. However, Stealth and Invisibility will not stack with Steamy Mist for you) and lots of invention origin set bonuses that contribute towards this goal. Thus many players, especially at higher levels, will already have substantial defense, so your little bit extra can push players to the soft cap.
Furthermore resistance does nothing to stop you from getting hit, so any status effects of debuffs that go along with an attack will still be applied no matter how high your resistance. Defense on the other hand will stop attacks from getting through altogether, and because the attack never lands, you are not affected by any debuffs or status effects that might be associated with it. Since storm defenders have no status protection (except confuse) for themselves, this can be a good way to avoid getting mezzed.
Just for show, if you took Steamy Mist and Maneuvers and slotted them for defense you could get ~13.5 Defense for you team and if you took Weave and Combat Jumping and slotted them you could have ~25% defense for yourself. Effectively reducing the damage you take by half and that's without any set bonuses. Not that I necessarily recommend building this way, as you need to sacrifice several powers and make some hard cuts to do this, but it is one possibility.
How good is Steamy Mist's stealth?
A Typical Mob can you see you from 50 ft away (Minions 45, Lieutenants 50, bosses 54, Giant Monsters and Turrets 100, and Sniper 149). Steamy Mist reduces this distance by 35 ft which means that you can come within 15 feet of most enemies before they will be able to see you. Although the text for Steamy Mist claims that this stealth will not stack with any other powers, it only means that it cannot be used in conjunction with Stealth or Invisibility from the Concealment Power Pool. It will however stack with super speed (which only provides stealth in PvE of 35 ft) and a stealth IO proc (30 feet). Both of which will give you stealth above the 55 feet that bosses can see effectively making you invisible. Note that this stealth suppresses if you attack or are attacked.
However don't become completely complacent and think that no one can you see, remember that both Nemesis and Crey have snipers (identified by their classification as snipers rather than minions) that have significantly higher perception. There are also a handful of mobs: Rikti Drones, Rularuu Eyeballs (officially called Sentinels), and Knives of Artemis which ignore stealth altogether. It doesn't matter how much you have, to them, you have 0.
Do I need to turn Steamy Mist off for escorts?
Steamy Mist should not interfere with escort missions as stealth is negated once an NPC is rescued that needs to be escorted out. There have however been reports of this tech not working as intended. So, if you notice the NPC seems to get lost easily or has trouble following you or a teammate, then you can turn off Steamy Mist or use O2 Boost on the escort and that should solve the problem.
How does Steamy Mist protect me from confusion effects?
I'm just going to point you to the appendix on status effects, but in short, the confuse protection of 8.65 confuse means that it will take at least a magnitude 8.66 confuse to Confuse your teammates. If your teammates are confused by a magnitude confuse less than 8.65 all they need to do is reenter Steamy Mist and they will be freed of the status effect. If you or a teammate within Steamy Mist is hit with a total confuse magnitude greater than 8.65, thanks to the confuse resistance, the duration of the confuse will only be 31% as long.
Since confuse is a rarely seen effect, you may not be familiar with it. When a player becomes confused, the target of any power they use will be a randomly determined friend or foe regardless of who is currently targeted. Furthermore pets and pseudopets(those that don't show up in the pet window like freezing rain, tornado, Lightning Storm) will also become confused. This can be especially devastating if your Lightning Storm starts attacking you instead of enemies. Fortunately, Steamy Mist will provide you significant protection from this situation. Although confuse is rarely seen, most armor sets do not include protection from it, so in the rare cases where it is encountered Steamy Mist can be a valuable asset.
How should I slot it? (Advanced Version):
Should I slot for Resistance or Defense?
This is really a personal choice, and you should read the above section titled "Is Steamy Mist a Defense or a Resistance power?" to help you make up your mind.
If I slot an enhancement with a special effect does everyone within Steamy Mist get the benefit?
Unfortunately, no. Knockback protection, status protection, additional defense, additional resistance, and so on, all apply only to you. Of course enhancements that increase the defense or resistance of Steamy Mist through normal means (meaning not a +3% defense to all IO) will increase Steamy Mists effectiveness for everyone.
Should I put KB Protection enhancer in Steamy Mist?
Steamy Mist can except both the Steadfast Protection: Knockback Protection and the Karma: Knockback Protection enhancement. Since you may want to slot Steamy Mist for Defense, Resistance, and Endurance, I would check if you have other powers that could accept these IOs, before sticking them both in Steamy Mist. That said, once you start using KB IOs you will miss them on every character that does not have them. There is no more getting knocked down my council grenades, by ruin mages earthquakes, or many other of a slew of KB effects. Each enhancement provides 4 points of Knockback Protection. I advocate trying to fit both IOs into your build as 8 points will protect you from almost everything except Fake Nemesis Staffs (Mag 9). These are global enhancements.
How does the Aegis Psionic/Status Resistance IO Work?
**NOTE THIS MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE** The functioning of the Aegis Proc was changed in i17 and may be further modified in the near future. To be clear, the IO provides resistance to status effects, not protection. This means that it will reduce the duration of the effects, but have no impact on whether you are affected by a status effect or not. See the appendix for more information on status protection and status resistance. Although the Aegis enhancment claims that it will provide a 20% reduction in status effect duration (it used to) currently is will only grant 20% resistance to status effects which will result in a 16.7% reduction in duration. If slotted in Steamy Mist, or any toggle power, you will get this bonus as long as the power is on, and 10 seconds after you shut the power off. This bonus remains active even if you are mezzed and Steamy Mist's other effects are suppressed. If this enhancement were slotted in a click power, you would only get the 20% resistance for the 10 seconds after you activate the power.
The psionic resistance of the power is hardly worth mentioning at 3% (you will take 3% less damage from psionic attacks) but works as a global enhancement.
Should I Slot Impervious Skin: Status Resistance?
Like the Aegis enhancement discussed above, the Impervious Skin enhancement provides Status Effect Resistance, not protection. See the appendix for more on status protection and resistance. So it will reduce the duration of Status Effects on you, but not prevent a status effect from being applied. This enhancement only provides 7.5 status resistance. The text for the enhancement claims that it provides a 7.5% reduction in duration, however the duration reduction is only (1 - 1/(1+.075) =~7%). If you have already slotted the Aegis IO, then you only get ~5% additional duration reduction (1-/(1+.2+.075) = 21.6%). Thus If you are going to slot a Status Resistance IO, go with the Aegis, and don't even bother with the Impervious Skin. However, if you are desperate for every bit of status resistance you can find, you can slot 5 up to five of this enhancement (although they must go in a resistance power and you may only slot 1 in a power so you are unlikely to have 5 slots where you could put them) .
The Impervious Skin: Status Resistance is a global enhancement.
In most cases, however, a defenders best protection against getting mezzed is a good offense. Take out the mezzers before they take you out.
Should I slot the Luck of The Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed?
The Luck of the Gambler enhancement has two components. The defense components works like any other dual aspect invention enhancement, but the recharge component effects your global recharge, meaning that it increases the recharge of all powers by 7.5%. Because Storm Summoning has several powerful abilities on relatively long recharges (Freezing Rain, Tornado, Lightning Storm, and to a lesser extent Thunder Clap[LINKED IN FINAL GUIDE]) the set can really benefit from additional recharge. I highly recommend, when slotting invention sets to attempt to maximize the recharge in your build and one slot for 7.5% bonus is an excellent way to do that since most recharge bonuses are at the 5 enhancement mark.
Also, the Luck of the Gambler is not unique, so you can slot 5 of these in your build if you have 5 powers that take defense enhancements.
The global recharge operates as a global enhancement.
Should I slot a Steadfast Protection: Resistance/Defense or the Gladiator's Armor: TP Protection, +Def(All) ?
This decision goes along with the "Is Steamy Mist a defense or a resistance power?" Each of these enhancements will provide you with an additional 3% defense to all (that's to all positional types and all damage types including psionic). Thus if you are designing a defense focused build these two enhancements would net you an additional 6% defense. Read the discussion above regarding resistance vs defense to determine if this option would be good for you. Although the Gladiator's Armor enhancement may seem appealing, because it is a PvP enhancement, it only drops from other players and is thus extremely rare. If you intend to purchase one of these, be prepared to spend 2 billion influence (that is the maximum amount of influence that a player can possess at one time).
The resistance component of Steadfast Protection works like any other IO and thus can be an excellent choice in Steamy Mist since it has a sizeable resistance aspect to enhance. The Gladiator's armor IO on the other hand can just as easily be put in any other power (and if you're building for defense you surely have other defense powers) and I would advise you to save the Steamy Mist slots for other options.
The TP protection that comes with the Gladiator's Armor IO only matters in PvP where other players may attempt to use teleport foe (or wormhole) on you and the TP protection can help protect you.
These enhancements are global enhancements.
What about Impervium Armor: +Psionic Resistance, Kismet: Increased to Hit, Shield Wall: TP Protection, Resist(All)?
In my opinion none of these enhancements are worth slotting. They all provide benefits that are too small to justify the slots. All of these enhancements are global enhancements.
The Impervium Armor will provide you with 3% resistance to psionic damage which means that instead of taking 100 damage, you will take 97. The Kismet IO will provide you with a 6% to hit bonus, but with freezing rain you really shouldn't be having trouble hitting anything. Shield Wall provides TP protection which is only useful in PvP and 3% resistance which means that instead of taking 100 damage you will take 97. If you happen to slot Steamy Mist for 30% resistance then against Fire/Cold/Energy damage you will go from with just steam mist taking 70 out of 100 damage, to with the enhancement taking 67/100 damage: a 4.3% improvement.
So which invention sets should I slot?
Which invention sets look good will obviously depend a lot on how many other global enhancements you choose to put in Steamy Mist, and whether you decide to go for defense or resistance. Personally I prefer to fill Steamy Mist with Hamidon Enhancements which provide a full single origin enhancement's worth of defense or resistance AND a full single origin enhancement's worth of endurance reduction. For defense you can slot either Cytoskeletons or, due to a bug, Enzymes. The risk with slotting Enzymes is that if the bug gets fixed the Hamidon enhancement will no longer increase defense and only enhance endurance. For resistance you can use the Ribosome Exposure. At that point you can use the other slots to reach the enhancment diversification limit for defense and resistance, or slot some of the various global IOs discussed above.
If you decide to fill out Steamy Mist with invention sets, consider sets that provide recovery bonuses as Storm is very endurance heavy and the recovery bonus only requires two slots. If you are slotting multiple X/end IOs you may want to swap out one of the Hamidon Enhancements so that the endurance component isn't wasted, since a lvl 50 defense or resistance invention enhancement is better than the a twice combined Hamidon Enhancement, so if you are already at the enhancment diversification cap for endurance, there are better choices.
I don't think there any especially compelling sets for Steamy Mist but if you are set on set bonuses, it's worth noting that 5 Aegises, which can includes the global status protection enhancement will net you 4.7% defense to fire/cold/area of effect. Of course, most likely if you are building for defense you are looking to soft cap ranged. If you are looking to maximize your -recharge, 5 Red Fortunes will provide you with 5% recharge, but if you're going to do that, you had better make the 6th slot a Luck of the Gambler, otherwise you could have just slotted the one enhancement and gotten a better (+7.5% recharge) bonus. -
And Here I was looking forward to writing the Steamy Mist section because I was sure it would be short...silly Draggynn. Now I'm looking forward to Thunderclap...because that one has to be short right?? At least that power only does 1 thing. I'm starting to get a little burned out, so I think this reads much blander than the other sections, so I may try to give it a little more "attitude" when I revise for the final guide.
If you are interested in reading the other sections:
Gale
O2 Boost
Snow Storm
Freezing Rain
Hurricane
Thunder Clap
Tornado
The original target of the guide (over a year ago) was for relatively experienced players, but those that didn't have a firm grasp of underlying game mechanics. The goal of this guide was also to be one stop shopping for any questions you might have about Storm Summoning so it is quite comprehensive (I hope). Based on feedback I have modified the structure of the guide to attempt to make it more accessible to new players, although it now has a strange combination of treating you like you know a lot and like you know nothing.
Although the guide is intended to be comprehensive, I would not call it objective and is certainly subject to my biases, although I attempt to present contrasting view points as well.
All feedback is welcome, although I wouldn't worry too much about grammar at this stage as I have not done a thorough proofreading seeing as the guide is likely to change. I am particularly interested in any questions you have about Steamy Mist that you don't see answered, or information that you believe I have wrong or that I have omitted.
And I believe the guide is now posted with all links active. If you notice anything that looks like it should be linked and isn't, or is linked improperly, please let me know. -
Quote:Like I said the proc is beneficial against hard targets and on teams, but I don't think it is head and shoulders above the damage proc solo against large groups though (for example +0x8 no bosses). In order for the -res proc to be worthwhile you need to deal 360 damage to the targets hit by the proc. Doing some rough calculations I think that a ill troller can reasonable hit this goal on 10 targets so I think in groups of less than 10 the -res proc can probably outperform. (I assumed enough recharge bonuses for 300% rechange on powers and that all of your uncontrollable pets generally chose different targets, and ignored containment since it's hard for illusion controllers). The problem though is that with group of 16, since you can't control your pets, you need to hope that the enemies they are targetting are the ones that get hit with the debuff, a problem that you don't need to worry about with the damage proc.Originally Posted by Frosticus
A well built ill/storm will vaporize minions at a speed that makes blasters dizzy. They aren't why you slot -res proc in FR. Luts and higher are why you slot it and because the additional -res benefits everyone including you, PA, Phantasm, nado, LS, and your entire team. Solo it takes mere seconds for it to be more beneficial than a damage proc. In a team it happens in less than a second.
Now of course, there's not really a good reason for an ill/storm to run without bosses, and since bosses are more likely to live longer and thus have fire focused on them when there's a proc the -res proc is a good choice. However, I continue to maintain that solo the damage procs can often match or occasionally outperform (depending on how fire is focued) a -res proc and to call them lame is misleading. -
Quote:You can look at my post in the defenders section, here if you are interested in understanding why this proc is worthless. controller numbers are -62.5% for snow storm and -40% recharge for Freezing Rain.Originally Posted by Frosticus
-snowstorm - slot for end reduction, the proc does next to nothing
Recharge should definitely be your top priority. The res proc is better against tough targets, although the damage procs are actually better against typical mobs. A damage proc deals ~72 damage. Thus inorder to get that benefit from the the -res proc you need to deal 360 damage. A minion only has 430 hit points at lvl 50, which means you (if you didn't round) can just barely make out better with the -res proc, but only if the minions have taken no damage when the proc was applied. And only if you can deal 360 damage in 10 seconds.Quote:-Freezing rain needs recharge. The damage procs are fairly lame (-res proc is great).
Now this is for the proc in a typical power. Because FR has a -res component, the minion will be dead long before you deal that 430 damage. Also, since there are two chances for proccing with Freezing Rain, the damage proc can actually prove much more beneficial against minions.
Facing larger targets there are obviously more hit points so you are not at the same risk of reaching the cap, and on larger teams, the damage is easier to reach. Furthermore -res is not subject to the resistance that the damage procs are, so I would agree that the -res proc is better, but it depends on your application and I wouldn't call the damage procs that much worse than the heel.
I know that the apoc proc still has a chance to damage you, and I believe that all damage procs in LS are subject to this effect. Of course, this only occurs when LS is summoned, and I find it to be a generally ignorable ammount of damage. Personally, I love the proc in LS, but as Frosticus says it will depend on how good you are positioning your mobs if you can get enough milage out of it.Quote:-Last time I used apoc set in LS the proc did damage to you as well. I dunno if it was ever fixed. As to whether apoc is better in LS or spec, it just depends on how you are using the toon and what content you are facing. -
Quote:If it was always the intention of the power to only provide 20% resistance the text (as well as that of Impervious Skin for that matter) should be updated to say that they provide 20% and 7.5% Status Resistance rather than reduction in duration. The Aegis at least used to be accurate.Originally Posted by Katze
The bug was that it used to give 25% bonus to Status Resistance, so 1/(1+0.25) gave a combat display of 20%.
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So this should probably go on the ParagonWiki forums but I couldn't figure out where to stick it...so I'm just going to drop it here and hope someone will see it.
Never having used a wiki before I'm not sure how to go about making modifications. What is the policy for changing entries? There are some entries that are outdated and wrong (and have been for a while now). Force Feedback Proc...I'm looking at you. Should I just go in and modify them? Is there someone that I notify? Are there formating guidelines somewhere that I need to follow?
The two changes I would make are
1) The Force Feedback proc no longer triggers a suppression period, it simply ignores all procs while the power is active so the lovely graph that is up there is no longer true.
2) The changes to the Aegis IO did not make the bonuses global. The 3% Psi Resistance is, but the 20% status protection portion boosts your status resistance for 10 seconds. (Like Numina except 10 seconds instead of 120) -
Quote:Actually, I suspect this is a bug. The Aegis IO has long been a screwy IO in that it provided you 20% mez duration reduction, however it was applied in 5% segments as a set bonus until you had 25% resistance (the rule of 5s) and thus 20% duration reduction. When the IO was modified (very recently I suspect as I just noticed it today) It was modified to apply the entire buff at once. Furthermore the buff used to be permanently active until you zoned once you received it, but now in toggle powers only works as long as the buff is active. Unfortunately, the new buff is set to 20% instead of 25%.Originally Posted by Agonist_NA
On multiple toons, the Aegis status protection only goes to 16.67%, rather than 20%
Bug?
I suspect this may just have been an oversight on the part of the programmer who fixed the power. -
Quote:That is quite a comprehensive guide. I may link to it much the way I do ParagonWiki pages for more information, but want the guide itself to be geared specifically to Storm Defenders (In particular because calculations with Freezing Rain can become a bit confusing as it has two phases of debuff, can be stacked....and apparently is bugged againOriginally Posted by Oedipus_Tex
Nice guide so far.
I wrote a long post about -Recharge some time ago but never made it a complete guide. You're welcome to source from it if you want or even just tack it on as an appendix.
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=218111
).
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Quote:I do make a mention of Wolves resistance to slows (I believe that it's just a resistance so high that they are effectively immune, but not 100% certain) but perhaps a more explicit caution would be useful.Originally Posted by Scientist
I don't know if its worth adding a mention to never use Snowstorm on Wolves, since they (1) are largely (entirely? not sure) immune, and (2) run around like mad at high speeds, so will definitely aggro other mobs.
There are no End/Slow IOs, only End/Slow/Recharge IOs, and I agree that if you are slotting IOs they are a good choice.Quote:I tend to like a End/Slow IO for my default slot in it, since I don't always have Sleet/Freezing Rain stacked with it, depending on the situation (second spawn, still recharging, etc.). You can often buy those IOs for less then crafting cost.
Hmm, good to know that.Quote:One other fairly important interruptable item is in the STF, if Lord Recluse isn't damaged and has a toggle debuff on him he doesn't spawn his lvl 54 Bane bosses. Snowstorm is one of the few (along with the rad and dark toggles) powers that can do this.
These numbers are HUGELY misleading. Because Snow Storm does nothing to mitigate an alpha strike, or a beta strike, and since -recharge doesn't have an impact until after mobs have fired off their powers, teams may still take a fair amount of damage with Snow Storm. To claim that it provides protection equivalent to granite sets up unrealistic expectations. Although most enemies don't have full attack chains, with those that do you will see significantly less benefit from -recharge effects as well.Quote:Finally, a lot of people don't really "get" what -recharge on mobs is doing to help them. It might be worth adding a sentence or two comparing that to something people have more familiarity with. Unslotted granite armor is 20% Def, 50% resist, reducing incoming damage by roughly 70%. Unslotted (for slow) Snowstorm with -62% recharge will be reducing incoming damage by roughly 62%, and it has the advantages of "defense" rather then "resistance" since a mob firing a mezzing attack half as often is equivalent to them firing at normal rate and missing half the time. Better yet, its defense that doesn't get debuffed. Do you think people should be recruiting characters to their teams who can provide near Granite levels of protection to the entire team? 
I may expand on the "How does -recharge work" section in the appendix (because it applies to both Snow Storm and Freezing Rain) and go into more detail about the importance of -recharge debuffs, but I am against providing numbers to compare -recharge to other forms of protection.
On an unrelated note, slotting Snow Storm for slow will have no impact on its -recharge component. -
Quote:Maybe I'm just being naive here, but a phonebook wouldn't typically have short term advertisements like a missing pet, or a kitty looking for a home. Or did old style community phone books used to come out more frequently than once a year so short term ads were worthwhile, or were/are classifieds typically printed on yellow paper because its cheaper?Originally Posted by StormVyxen
To me, it looks like an old style community phone book/classified advertisement page, which the yellow would make perfect sense for.
Oh well, really doesn't matter, just curious. -
Quote:Bleh, back in i15 when I was testing this in AE it was finally quashed. I'm sorry to hear that this is back on live.Originally Posted by Rigel_Kent
If an enemy leaves Freezing Rain's area of effect before the rain expires, the debuffs will last 45 seconds from the last tick to hit the enemy, as expected. If any enemy is inside Freezing Rain's area of effect when the rain expires, the debuffs may last 45 seconds, or may cancel immediately. I can't figure out exactly what causes this, but my intuition says it's related to the Oil Slick lighting bug. This is still happening as of the last live patch.
True, a mention of not having line of sight as a form of alpha mitigation certainly bears mentioning.Quote:Originally Posted by Garent
I think that corner herding should be mentioned in some way. It's a situation in which it's viable to use snow storm before freezing rain. -
Quote:YAY! More Entries! And I Continue to find the advertisement amusing!!Originally Posted by Bubbawheat
Here's a couple more, and with at least one spot left to fill... still not entirely sure about this, but whatcha gonna do?
Although now I'm a tad confused about the intention. Originally I thought this was a a phone book type page, based on the color. But now, with the additional advertisements it looks more like a classifieds page, and the yellow color is throwing me off.
Did the theme change? And are there yellow classified pages I just don't know about? -
Quote:It really depends on the sort of person you want to be. Yes, there are people in the world who are overly sensitive, and the people that can keep from offending them are the ones who I truly admire. I endeavor in my life to avoid offending people whenever possible, and yes, there are some people who no matter how hard I try seem to take things the wrong way, but at least I know I tried.Originally Posted by TrueMetal
I disagree strongly with this. People get offended by anything. If you take offense to a comment that wasn't intended to be offensive the problem lies with you, not with the person stating the comment.
If someone takes something I say the wrong way, I may elaborate trying to express my meaning better, but I see no need to apologise for any perceived offense on his part.
It all depends on the qualities that you value in people. Some people put great weight on those that are "Outspoken and speak their mind", personally I put great emphasis on empathy. Which to me means that if a comment "causes resentful displeasure", even it one person, it is offensive. Yes, this is a much harder criteria to attempt to meet to avoid being offensive, but it's one that I strive for. -
Quote:The problem with the term normal is that it doesn't only mean "most common" or "most prevalent". It can also mean "occurring naturally" or "free from mental disorder". To describe someone with stereotypically gay mannerisms (or anyone for that matter) as acting "abnormal" can imply that there is something about them that goes against human nature and is unnatural or that they simply have a mental disease.Originally Posted by Stasisesque
Normal, the norm, that which is most common, what we are used to and accept as prevalent. Average, the same, normal.
This is a pet peeve of mine; normal is not bad, abnormal is not bad (unless specifically bad, such as "an abnormal tumour" but even a normal one would be a bad, so we're ignoring those) it's just a way of catagorising things. If someone was to say to me, "You're not normal," I'd automatically assume I was abnormal to them, but I'd not take offence until I was sure whether they meant it cruelly, or if it was just born from ignorance or naivety. It's just an easier way of going about life.
Although the user may simply intend the word to mean "most prevalent", there are many users who instead intend to invoke these negative connotations, thus making it a risky term for everyone to use. It is good that you are not offended by the terms normal and abnormal, but many people may be. As I said in a post much earlier in this thread, I believe that the measure of whether a term is offensive should not be "Did I intend to offend someone?", but rather "Was someone offended?".
Thank you, that was phrased much better than I did.Quote:Originally Posted by Zortel
"Doesn't act with the stereotypical mannerisms attributed to the sexuality of their choice."
"You don't seem stereotypically <sexuality>." It's acknowledging the presence of the stereotype and how they are not associated with the stereotype. It's fine to be like the stereotype, really, knock yourselves out. Just like it's fine to be -not- like the stereotype. Great! -
Quote:Poofing Freezing Rains debuff bug? Are you talking about the bug where the debuff lasts 15 seconds instead of 45, because the last time I did extensive test (1 year ago) that bug had finally been quashed, but perhaps it's been reintroduced again (I will do extensive testing again once I get to the FR section).Originally Posted by Rigel_Kent
I have started slotting Slows in Snow Storm lately due to the poofing Freezing Rain debuffs bug.
Or are you referring to a new or different bug? -
Quote:Quite often is a 15% chance, which is nothing to scoff at. If you happened to take an immobilize at some point (electric fence is open to all defenders), the Gravitational Anchor Chance for Hold Proc has a 25% chance of going off.Originally Posted by Biospark
. Almost forgot, the Hold proc in Devastation is REALLY nice. It procs quite often.
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Quote:Originally Posted by Draggynn
All feedback is welcome, although I wouldn't worry too much about grammar at this stage as I have not done a thorough proofreading seeing as the guide is likely to change. I am particularly interested in any questions you have about Snow Storm that you don't see answered, or information that you believe I have wrong or that I have omitted.I have no reason to hate "but", that's exactly why I'm posting the guide in stages like this.Quote:Originally Posted by Psylenz
You did a lot of hard work in writing up and describing the ins and outs of snowstorm, but (don't you hate that word) I believe you left something out.
I don't pretend that it's a complete work.
Hmm, cool I learned something new too. In 6 years of playing I don't think I ever noticed that, or if I did, I long ago forgot. I will go test it.Quote:Snowstorm has an AoE interrupt that will prevent certain foes from doing certain nasty things. Embalmed vahzilok are unable to detonate in the area of snowstorm. Certain self-destructive Circle of Thorn mages also are unable to explode in a snowstorm. My favorite interruption is that skyraider raider engineers are unable to set up forcefield generators while under the effect of snowstorm. I am sure there are other interruptions I have missed - oh I think snowstorm interrupts Rikti communications officers from opening portals. -
Quote:Not having spent much time on villain side (my first few outings landed me on PUGs with people so offensive that I decided I was not interested in the sort of people that were drawn to CoV) I don't feel remotely qualified to comment on using Storm as a Corruptor or a Mastermind, So the advice in this guide is targeted at defenders who use Storm Summoning as a primary. Although some of the advice would undoubtedly pertain to other ATs as well, I leave it up to those people to determine which aspects of the guide pertain to them.Originally Posted by StormyDarkness
The thought occurred to me while I was reading the snow storm thread, even though it doesn't apply to Snow Storm. Are you intending this as a one stop shop for all AT that have snow storm, or just defender values. If it's just Defender side, you're fine; however, you are going down a possible slippery road when you consider Corruptors, Controllers, and Masterminds. Not a long slippery slope for the first two, but the latter one (to my understanding) changes your thinking a lot of strategies.
If you think it would be useful, I could include as one of the appendices the real numbers for other ATs but I have no intention of pretending to know anything about villain ATs (and it would seem strange to me to handle controllers but not the other Storm users) and I will make that explicit in the introduction to the guide, and when the stats are listed that these are Defender Stats.
In addition including other ATs would require replicating all of the real numbers work, which I think would simply make the guide too bulky, it's already bloated as it is
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APPENDIX II (relevant to Snow Storm)
What is the Purple Patch?
The purple patch refers to the way in which effects scale based on the relative level between you and the target. The term purple patch comes from enemies substantially above your level being purple. The purple patch effects debuff strength, mez duration, knockback magnitude, and damage. The modifiers are based on the relative level of the target
-3: 1.33 +4: 0.48
-2: 1.22 +3: 0.65
-1: 1.11 +2: 0.80
0: 1.00 +1: 0.90
The full table can be found here
So if your attack normally deals 100 damage and you are attacking an enemy that is 3 levels above you, your base damage will be only 65 before resistances are taken into account.
How does -recharge work, and what is the -recharge cap?
Recharge debuffs are calculated the same way that recharge buffs are calculated which is:
Recharge_Time = Base_Recharge/(1+Recharge_Modifier). This means for a power to recharge in half the time you need a Recharge_Modifier of 100%. To calculated -Recharge simply enter a negative value: Snow Storm provides a -62.5% reduction to recharge which is Base_Recharge/(1-.625 ) = 2.67*Base_Recharge.
Freezing Rain on the other hand provides -50% recharge reduction which is Base_Recharge/(1-.50)=2*Base_Recharge.
Now the maximum -recharge permitted by the game is 75%which is reached by Freezing Rain and Snow Storm together for a total recharge of 4*Base_Recharge.
How does -recharge work on AVs and Higher Level targets?
Like damage, -recharge debuffs are affected by purple patch which reduces the effectiveness of powers as foes become a higher level than you. Together, Snow Storm and Freezing Rain provide (62.5% + 50%) = 112.5% recharge which even with the purple patch is the recharge floor for anything up to +3 Mobs (Okay, so +3 mobs are technically -73.13%, but still.)
Unfortunately things get a little trickier when dealing with Arch Villains since they resist debuffs by 85%. (@lvl 50, 60% @lvl 1 see here for complete scale.) This means that before level scaling your recharge is only 16.9% which is only a 20% increase in recharge.
How does -Speed work, and what is the -Speed Cap?
Speed debuffs are very straightforward. A -50% speed debuff means that enemies move at half the speed. A -75% speed debuff means that enemies move at 1/4 of the speed. However, all enemies and players have a -speed floor of 90%. This means that you can't slow enemies to less than 1/10th of their original speed. However, some enemies, such as Werewolves are resistant to -speed effects.
How does -Speed work on AVs and Higher Level targets?
Like damage, -speed debuffs are affected by the purple patch and are less effective against mobs that are a higher level than you. Together Snow Storm and Freezing Rain provide a (-62.5%+-70%) -132.5% recharge debuff. This means that even with the Purple Patch, any regular mobs up to +3 of your level will be at the -slow floor (Okay, so +3 mobs are technically only at -86%). As with most debuffs AVs resist the -speed debuff by 85% (@lvl 50, 60% @lvl 1 see here for complete scale) so an even level AV will only be slowed by ~20%. With enhancing to the ED cap this can become ~40% on even level AVs. At 20% it will take then enemy 25% (1/(1-.2)=1.25) longer to reach their destination and at 40% it will take an enemy 67% (1/(1-.4)=1.67) longer to reach their destination. -
Snow Storm (Basic Version):
Snow Storm is an auto-hit power anchored on an enemy that reduces all enemies' movement speed and recharge in an area around that enemy. Snow Storm will also prevent enemies from flying while within its effect. Snow Storm is a toggle that requires endurance to maintain and will end once the target dies, the enemy moves out of range, or you run out of endurance.
Should I take this Power? 3/5
At lower levels, absolutely! The recharge debuff means that enemies take longer between attacks and therefore deal less damage to your team, while the slow movement effect means that any time the enemy tries to move, say switching between ranged and melee attacks, they will take longer to get there, also buying your team more time. However, at the higher levels, your team's damage output is often so high that they kill everything before Snow Storm would have an appreciable effect, and the team doesn't need the extra time that Snow Storm would buy you.
How should I slot it? (basic version)
Slotting Slow Enhancers in Snow Storm will not increase it's -recharge, but only it's -speed. Combined with Freezing Rain, you will have hit the -speed cap (90%) so there is no need to slot for slow, unless you intend to use snow storm on its own or against VERY strong enemies because of the purple patch. The number of endurance enhancers you want will depend on how often you use snow storm: 1 endurance slot may be sufficient, but if you find you are using it a lot, you may find 2 slots useful. Depending on how reliant you are on Snow Storm, you may also find recharge to be useful in a team setting, so that you can get the storm back up faster after your anchor is killed, although I find its better to get incidental recharge as part of IO Sets rather than slotting for it explicitly.
Snow Storm (Advanced Version):
What are Snow Storm's stats?
Available Level: 2
Activation Time:2.03s
Recharge Time:10.00s
Endurance Cost:0.52/s
Power Type:Toggle
Target Type:Enemies
Power Range:80.00 ft.
Effect Area:AoE -- 25.00 ft. radius (10 targets max)
Attack Types:AoE, cold
effects @lvl 50 (although only -max run speed changes with level):-62.50% run speed on target
-62.50% strength to recharge on target Ignores buffs and enhancements
-3.50 max run speed on target Ignores buffs and enhancements
-62.50% strength to jump height on target Ignores buffs and enhancements
-62.50% jump speed on target
-62.50% fly speed on target
1.60 fly protection on target
Strategy:
Should I open with Snow Storm?
Too often I see Stormies open with Snow Storm. Opening with Snow Storm is a HORRIBLE idea, don't do it! Snow Storm provides a sizeable recharge debuff and a runspeed debuff, but provides no damage mitigation for an alpha strike (the first volley from enemies). At the start of the fight, all mobs have all of their powers recharged so opening with snow storm simply lets them know that you are there and lets them aim all of their fire power at you. If you are providing the opening, Snow Storm is best used after Freezing Rain which will provide some damage mitigation with its knockdown. Even if you are not providing the opening, you should apply Freezing Rain before Snow Storm, both for the damage mitigation and because your team will thank you for the -res debuff.
If you're on a team, pay attention to the way the person responsible for managing aggro is playing. Sometimes the tank or scrapper will want to round up a couple mobs and/or hide behind an object to get the mobs to clump up (herding). If it is a crowded room, sometimes the tank (or any other AT) will attempt to attract the attention of just small number of enemies (pulling). If they appear to be doing this, wait until after the mobs have come to the tank or the group to apply snow storm. If you apply it before then, it will simply slow those mobs down and make it take longer for them to reach a nice clump where they can be mowed down with a couple of your team's AoEs. If you are apply too early in a pulling situation, you could end up attracting the attnetion of the whole group, thus defeating the purpose of pulling. As before, if you have Freezing Rain, you should usually apply that before Snow Storm. If you don't yet have Freezing Rain, or it is still recharging, and there is not a hero herding mobs to a particular location, then you should wait until the heroes taking the alpha strike jump in to apply Snow Storm (they do not need to have firmly established aggro, but you don't want snow storm to be the only thing the mobs take into consideration).
How do I make use of Snow Storm's -fly?
Easy, just target the flyer and toggle Snow Storm on. This can be extremely useful fighting enemies with mobs that like to take off and flee (freakshow for example) and to ground flying AVs, making it easier for the team to take them down and keeping the flyers from going out of range of melee characters. It works very well as a "Get Down Here!" power.
How do I choose an Anchor?
Because Snow Storm is an AoE effect anchored around a particular mob and will stay active until that mob dies choosing the right mob can make a difference. However, Snow Storm has a large enough AOE that the location of the anchor inside the spawn is not all that important. Your primary consideration is choosing a mob that will be killed last. Although some people advocate shouting out "XYZ is the anchor, kill it last" most teams won't pay attention and to be honest it doesn't really matter. I recommend watching your team and seeing which mobs they tend to kill last. Minions tend to die rapidly from AoE attacks, so they are almost always a bad choice. Some teams have heroes that go straight for the bosses since they're the biggest threat and take them down first (in which case choose the Lts.) other teams tend to take on everything with equal vigor in which case bosses are a good choice because they will stay alive longer.
I also advise choosing a target towards the back of the spawn since it will usually take your team longer to get to those mobs. If your team keeps killing your anchor, don't get upset about, Snow Storm recharges fairly quickly, so simply choose a new anchor, and recast it when it comes back up. If your team is killing your anchor faster than you can choose them, then the team probably doesn't need the additional debuff from snow storm and you can skip it until your team finds enemies that it takes them longer to kill.
Additionally, you should keep an eye on your anchor. If your anchor starts to run away from the group you may consider cancelling Snow Storm so that if he runs into another group, it won't attract that group as well. Depending on how quickly your Snow Storm recharges you may choose to switch to a mob that is still in the middle of the fray rather than one that is fleeing on the other side of the room. Fortunately, your enemy will be running away very slowly so you will have time to react.
How should I slot it? (Advanced Version):
Why shouldn't I slot slows in Snow Storm?
Remember that slow enhancers don't effect the -recharge of snow storm. Together, Freezing Rain and Snow Storm will put non Arch Villain mobs (up to +3, read here about the purple patch and AV Resistance) at the -recharge cap and -speed cap. The only fights in which additional slow might be useful are AV fights. Ideally in an AV fight, the AV will not be running so the -slow should do nothing. If, however, you decide to slot Snow Storm and Freezing Rain for slow you can reduce the AVs -speed from -20% to -40% which means that it will take him 30% longer (if it would normally take the AV 10 seconds to travel a distance, with unenhanced Snow Storm and Freezing Rain it would take 12.5 seconds, and enhanced it would take 16.6 seconds). See the appendix for more detailed calculations.
Should I slot the Pacing of the Turtle: Chance for -Recharge?
In general, no. With Snow Storm and Freezing Rain on a target, enemies up to +3 will be at the -recharge cap as shown here, so an extra dose of -recharge isn't going to do anything. The only enemies against whom this proc might be useful are AVs. The proc provides a 20% chance to apply a 20% recharge debuff for 20 seconds. Against AVs this 20% debuff is reduced to 3% making it worthless. Since you should always be using Freezing Rain, this proc really only makes sense if you are not going to use Snow Storm and you want to slot it in Freezing Rain instead.
What happens if I slot the damage proc in Snow Storm?
The Impeded Swiftness: Chance for Smashing Damage will have a chance to proc every 10 seconds on every mob affected by Snow Storm at that point. This is the way all procs in toggle powers work, they check every 10 seconds. This proc is really only useful against large mobs where the proc might get you some useful hits against minions. The proc provides a 20% chance to deal ~72 damage (@lvl 50 click here for damage scaling) which works out to 1.44 damage/sec/target making it next to useless on hard/small numbers of targets.
Which IO sets should I slot?
Accuracy and Damage are wasted in Snow Storm, since it is auto hit and doesn't deal damage, so slotting any of the slow sets is usually a waste. I like slotting the Tempered Readiness and the Pacing of the Turtle End/Rech/Slow personally. But whether Snow Storm warrants another slot will depend on how much you use it. -
This is an exerpt for my guide on Storm Summoning featuring the power Snow Storm. For other sections of my guide posted for feedback see:
Gale
O2 Boost
Steamy Mist
Freezing Rain
Hurricane
Thunder Clap
Tornado
I have already posted my guide to Gale and O2 Boost for feedback which can be found in this thread.
The original target of the guide (over a year ago) was for relatively experienced players, but those that didn't have a firm grasp of underlying game mechanics. The goal of this guide was also to be one stop shopping for any questions you might have about Storm Summoning so it is quite comprehensive (I hope). Based on feedback I have modified the structure of the guide to attempt to make it more accessible to new players, although it now has a strange combination of treating you like you know a lot and like you know nothing.
Although the guide is intended to be comprehensive, I would not call it objective and is certainly subject to my biases, although I attempt to present contrasting view points as well.
All feedback is welcome, although I wouldn't worry too much about grammar at this stage as I have not done a thorough proofreading seeing as the guide is likely to change. I am particularly interested in any questions you have about Snow Storm that you don't see answered, or information that you believe I have wrong or that I have omitted.
And I think the guide should now be up and links active. If I appeared to have missed connecting any links, please let me know. -
Alright, I think I have the Snow Storm section done. I thought I would check if there were any thoughts about how I should handle posting it. Should I start a new thread to post the Snow Storm Section in? Should I start a new thread to post the updated Gale, O2 Boost, and Snow Storm in? Should I just post Snow Storm in this thread to avoid cluttering the defender Forum?
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Unfortunately, there isn't really a good way to reduce your stuns on a defender and your best strategy is to tesla cage the stunners before they attack you.
There are some IOs which can help: the Aegis Psionic/Mez Resist IO which is slotted in a resistance power will provide you with up to 25% mez resist or a 20% reduction in duration. Unfortunatley the way the power works, each time the power with the IO is used your resistance increases 5% permanently (until you zone) up to a 25% max. Thus, this is best places in a toggle power that is always on so that after 40 seconds you will be at full resist. Unfortunately, with your sets that leaves your epic armor as the only good option.
There is also the impervious skin mez resistance IO which provides a 7.5% mez duration reduction, and you can slot 5 of these if you have the powers. However Mez Duration is calculated according to the formula Duration/(1+X) where X is resistance, so it takes 100% mez resistance to cut the mez duration in half.