Natsuki

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However, I have to say that I've been having some lousy luck lately. I expect that popping three 25% defense inspirations is neigh invulnerability against an even-con batch of foes, and yet, I've been getting taken down quite consistently from them. Are you trying to break us into some bad news here, _Castle_? You're going to have to start using Geko's old "accuracy has >not< been nerfed" sig if you keep this up.

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FYI, the lowest Luck Inspiration do not give a boost of 25% as they list. Check Arcanaville's guide to Defense, I think it's actually around 12.5% or so. (With small insights listed at 25% giving an actual boost of 7.5%)

I had to think about this one for a long time, let it stew. And.. if I were to make a game, I would make it very similar to how Guild Wars did their ToHit mechanism. I'd throw it out the window essentially.

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1) You have the default To Hit value (ie no buffs), your target has no Defense value. How often do you WANT to hit him? Conversely, as the defender, how often do you expect to be missed?

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If there are no buffs to defense then I would expect to hit 100% of the time and be hit 100% of the time.

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2) You have the maximum possible To Hit value, and your target has no defense value. How often do you WANT to hit him? Conversely, as the defender, how often do you expect to be missed?

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This would be the same as #1, if my foe has no defenses, I should not need to use any defense piercing ability to hit 100% of the time.

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3) You have the default To Hit value, and your target has the maximum possible defense value. How often do you WANT to hit him? Conversely, as the defender, how often do you expect to be missed?

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Either be able to hit at around 10% or 20% of the time. And as the defender I expect to be missed either 80% of the time or 90% of the time. While at the maxiumum possible defense value, which should be short lived.

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4) You have the maximum possible To Hit value, and your target has the maximum possible defense value. How often do you WANT to hit him? Conversely, as the defender, how often do you expect to be missed?

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If I have invested myself in the ability to pierce all types of defense I expect to hit 100% of the time. I also expect should my opponent be invested in the ability to pierce all types of defense that I should be hit 100%. However, I do not expect to be able to "alpha-strike" my opponent if I have invested in the ability to completely negate his defenses, nor do I expect my foe to "alpha-strike" me if he invested in the ability to completely negate my defenses.


Why do I point towards the style that Guild Wars went with? To me it feels 'right', and I find it's less frustrating.

When I play First-Person Shooter games, I do not "Miss". I am not saying I am so good I hit my target everytime, I am saying I am good enough to not "Miss" instead /something/ has forced me to not hit. It could be a flashbang that momentarily blinds me, could be getting struck by someone else, or my foe rolled at the very last second, etc.

That is the style that Guild Wars represents, the warriors (generic term for any combatant in this case) are so skilled their weapons are an extension of their own body, and I expect no less from being a "Super Hero" or a "Super Villain".

Instead I expect my foe to /force/ me to miss. They may be just very good at dodging at the very last second, or they may have a shield to block my attack or even a force field that deflects my attack, maybe someone tossed blinding powder in my face, dunno dun care what it was (well except to counter it). I just feel the inherent "miss" factor is, needless.

I am rather tired of having an enemy standing in front of me, just standing there picking his nose while I fire Energy Bolt, then Energy Blast, followed by Energy Burst to only have all three shoot up into the sky... (I'm also tired of seeing a BU->A-Strike miss more often than A-Strike without BU, yes, I AM that unlucky when it comes to die-rolls)

Now, while I have not done any "Combat Archery" I am also not a "Super Hero". However, when I am at an archery range at 100ft, I do NOT miss my target, I may only get 6 or 7 bullseyes out of 10, but, I do not miss the target completely. Which is why when playing a "Super Hero" game I just.. get flabbergasted watching this archer miss at point blank range, yes I know IRL shooting a bow at close range is quite tricky (A lot less tricky with a drawlock however and using a short compound bow for the shorter draw-length), but when we are talking in the contexts of "Super Hero"s I expect them to make these shots I know I could do if I was that "Super Hero".

A little unrealistic to get this for CoV at this point in the game? Most likely. If there was one thing that GW did right by me, it was their ToHit system, it just felt right. Granted, the rest of the game I prefer CoV over GW <laughs>

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First, all of those games mentioned have healthy, strong MOD communities which constantly churn out new maps, weaponry, and options. None of them are remotely the same as they were the day they were released, and most of the modifications come from fans who donated their time to create/alter content.

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I have always wondered why MMORPGs did not try harder to develop ways for fan-based content to be published. Players on this forum have asked numerous times for the ability to design missions, and even given certain constraints to avoid "freebie" designs that gave too much reward for the risk, it sure seems like players would happily generate content for each other.

I fully realize that such a system would still have costs - developers would have to review content before publishing, which is no small task - but I still wonder if, ultimately, this would be a better use of the subscription dollars than doing all the content development centrally. (In a way, it's like the Cathedral vs. the Bazaar all over again.)

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Amen, Protea.

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There is an MMO out there that does just that. It's called Ryzom.

Here's the kicker, because it's player created content, you take full risk and there is no reward. You do not get xp, you do not get loot, you get nothing. (Unless the creator of the content happens to be there DM'ing and gives you a piece of loot he had earned elsewhere).

I myself, can not imagine a completely non-gameable content creator. Player's are either a) Going to make something that gives ludicrous xp for little risk or b) Will purposefully make a mission designed to give those running it perma-debt.

Dev created content is fully accessible to everyone, there are few secrets out there (though some players do not know about nofuture.org.uk). With Player-created content, that allows rewards, then those players who /know/ about the right content to play will have an unfair advantage over other players who do not know. And this player-created content can continually change one day one thing is good, the next a different, etc. This will make it even harder on the casual gamer, what he just did the other day may no longer exist or exists in such a way that it's bad.

When there is player-created content for a game that has /protected/ servers, that player-created content absolutely can not be gameable in any way, and we all know how creative players are at just doing that. Which is why the better solution for developers with /protected/ servers is to either a) Make player-created content have no reward for any amount of risk or b) Disallow player-created content completely.

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I'm glad you're amused. However, I'll reiterate for the sake of clarity that I don't believe travel powers ever were in any way being "exploited" in PvE. In fact, I believe travel suppression wasn't even REMOTELY a PvE consequence. Ironically, it wasn't until folks were getting pwned in the Arena when the devs starting justifying how imbalanced the PvE had become. The only things complex about this were the dance steps to sell it, sir.

This is a superhero/supervillain MMO. At a "minimum", comic lore does not support what our dev team justified needing to be done to travel powers. IMO, PvP balance is what supported it and PvE play fell victim to the excuse. We appear to disagree. And while that's ok, I feel compelled to distinguish your use of the term exploit from mine in the proper context.

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Sorry, I have to chime in with Thorizdin. I myself also used the travel powers, with BOTH Ranged and Melee archetypes to my advantage, and, I still do.

If an enemy is far too deadly for me in Melee, but I can shrug off their Ranged attacks, I joust /now/, and I can /still/ joust very effectively. Is this exploiting the AI? I suppose in some respects it is, however, I still see it as taking advantage of a distracted enemy. That is while they are animating their Ranged attack and are unable to retaliate with a melee attack, I run in jump at the last second with a melee attack queued, hit them and land just out of their melee range having hit them hard.

Currently, against enemies such as Mook Capo's, and other family who have Super Strength in melee, and the tommy gun for ranged. The difference in damage I take is staggering if I joust them. Full Auto has piss for damage per activation compared to the Super Strength attacks. By jousting and only being hit by ranged attacks I can take 1/10th of the damage compared to if I slugged it out in melee. Yes, that is /after/ suppression. I can, due to being quite adept at jousting, leave my defense toggles off for my Brute or Stalker and not go below 75% life against these foes, if I try to slug it out in melee with my toggles on I have to use two or three greens (assuming A-Strike misses that, or I am playing a Brute).

Is this exploiting the AI? Or is it just tactical use of a distracted enemy (aka still animating a ranged attack)? Probably the former to the dev's and the latter to the player's.

Though I do agree that jousting in PvP is a much larger problem then it ever has been in PvE, and I feel it still is a problem in PvP unfortunately but I feel they should do a fix for the PvP side only this time.

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Player Auction houses are a great example of PvP content

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That's a very easy one

Player vs Player, in other words, is Player's COMPETING with each other.

In an Auction House system, you have player's competing to supply items at a reasonable price, and you have player's competing to get the rarest items no matter the cost.

Hell, even the PvE content can be PvP! Sure, I might not be shooting my friend's blaster, but, he's gonna be going "Did you see that Nova?" and I say "Yah, but did you see what my Oil Slick Arrow and Rain of Arrows does every single spawn?" and he shuts up.

Considering how much I detest raid content, I just don't find it fun to have 50 odd heros or villains beating up on one enemy (Yes, I know there's mito's too but they're technically one enemy, Hamidon).

Even knowing that Hamidon is going to get harder in I9, I am still missing out over 70% of the hamidon raids on live. Not because I'm not online for them, I am around, I just have things I feel more important, i.e. lackeying my friends to me and running missions which gets me and my friends xp (and in I9 would give both of us a chance at lv 45+ sets even though my friend wouldn't be able to use them).

The LRSF, and STF, on the other hand, I would find fun. For the mere fact we're fighting several different AV's/Hero's with different capabilities (Yes, I know the difference between yellow/green/blue mito's).

Bottom line is, I am most likely to earn one HO every two or three day's compared to earning IO recipes on a basis of several hours or so depending on my luck each day. (I am factoring in both finding drops I need, and selling/trading drops I don't for ones I do)

Hehe, it's in one of the links in your guide where Castle mentioned that. ^_^

And, thanks for that update. Hmm, just helps me understand the cascade effect better for Defense sets.

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My analysis admittedly ignores availability. But it's also worth noting that characters can start assembling sets long before they can start accumulating HOs.

And so far on test I have found full sets much easier to acquire than six HOs. Maybe that will change as Hami raid tactics and STF tactics shake out.


Scrap

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Totally agree here.

I'm much likely to fully IO a char out then I am to get half HO's. After being a 24 month veteran, I only have six, maybe seven HO's currently, three of which were just give to me because a friend had too man. (Centriole's, and Acc/Mez which were useful to my defender but not to the other defenders)

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Finally, Blind has a damage component while other holds do not.

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Blind does 30.59 Psy Damage
Fossilize does 30.59 Smashing Damage
Char does 5 ticks of 6.73 Fire Damage (33.65)
Gravity Distortion does 5 ticks of 6.73 Smashing Damage (33.65)
Block of Ice does 30.59 Cold Damage
Dominate does 30.59 Psy Damage

Umm, that would be ALL of the single target holds that Controllers have access to in their primaries. So, wth is this about Blind having a damage component other holds do not?....

And, for the record, Strangler does 39.75 Smashing Damage. (Higher than Controllers due to Dominators having a higher ranged modifier)

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Arcana, have we ever gotten confirmation on how the Defense Debuff Resistance works?

Castle said that sometimes it effects the magnitude and other times the duration. For when it effects the magnitude is a straight out resist? Like say I have 10% Defense Debuff resistance currently, does that mean I ignore the first -10% Defense Debuff, so if I get hit by -15% Defense Debuff I now have -5%, and any more Defense Debuff stacked keeps going up? Or does it mean I reduce it by 10% so, I am effected by -13.5% Defense Debuff? Or does it work in the wierd manner that Mez Resist does i.e. 15/(1+0.1) = 13.63% Defense Debuff I get effected by?

Just asking because I haven't seen anything new about this, and it's not exactly easy to test I understand. Would be nice if we could get a dev explaining how it works sometime.

http://cov.nofuture.org.uk/powersets/powersets.php

Smoke Flash has an inherent 1.4 Accuracy, there is no penalty on it.

Blinding Powder has an inherent 1.0 Accuracy, no bonus, nor penalty. Not all cone attacks (I'm speaking about non-control ones, such as Buckshot, Fistful of Arrows, and Energy Torrent) have bonus Accuracy to them.

Yes! I love doing that trick with my trick archer. And oh my god is that too hilarious about BAB, a new sig finally!

I rarely get a Dark Miasma on the same team as my trick archer, but, I do often have a kinetics, and when we need a heal sometimes I drop a oil slick for the heck of it! Granted, thats more with my Mastermind than anything because the Pet AI is still going wonky.........

Great guide, though Entangling Arrow has a +20% Acc bonus, not +5%.

Its Archery that gets the inherent accuracy bonus ^_^
Trick Arrow doesn't unfortunately. Except for Entangling that is (Which is the same as all Controller Entangles). Just one of those confusions that happened when Archery and Trick Arrow got introduced.

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3) Trick Arrows are Accurate: The bow already has an inherit accuracy bonus for a drawn weapon and most arrows themselves auto-hit. Only three commonly used arrows require an accuracy check in PvE (Entangle Arrow, Ice Arrow, Acid Arrow). EMP Arrow has an accuracy check too, but it’s not as commonly used. With good accuracy, the build’s enhancements are pretty flexible

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That's not true. Entangling Arrow has a 1.2 Acc, and all other arrows have standard 1.0 Acc. Otherwise, I agree with your assessment of Trick Arrow (I use it with my Thugs, I tried a Nin/TA before but eh, I don't like Ninja's I think. I might try it again sometime though dunno).

Couple of nitpicks. You go and list the Endurance cost for Toggles, but not their Activate time. Death Shroud activates every 2, and the defense shields are every 0.5. Which makes Death Should cost 0.52 EPS, and each shield cost 0.26 EPS. Oppressive Gloom activates every 2 seconds, so its a 0.08 EPS, and Cloak of Fear activates every 5 seconds, so its a 0.52 EPS. (Combat Jumping costs 0.03 every 0.5, putting it 0.06 EPS about what OG costs)

The other nitpick being that you state Dark Armor as being "low resist".... It's not low, its normal. Fire Shield, Dark Embrace, and Temp Invuln /all/ have 22.5% Resist to Lethal/Smash. Electric Armor is the only set that has above normal levels of Resist.

Otherwise, good guide overall.

Great guide. My Mind/Ice Dom I made opened me up to playing like this again (I used to back when CoH first released, then kinda got into min/max'ing for a long time).

Going with the whole Experimenting thing, I actually settled on a Stamina-Less build for my Mind/Ice Dom that I absolute adore. So many combo's I can make, and so many more options now.

The effect of the +5 End is rather negligible considering the issues some players have been describing.

Without Stamina, +5 End is +0.08 End Per Sec.

With Stamina with three even level SO's, +5 End is +0.12 End Per Sec.

Helpful? Sure.
Going to cause the issues players have been having going from 105 End to 100? I don't think so.


EDIT:

Just had a thought. We have "Conserve Power" which for a duration reduces the cost of all powers.

What if Life Insurance is an auto-power that has that in reverse by accident? Like, it slightly increases the cost of all powers. If it's something like a 10% Increase to Endurance Costs, than it would be unnoticeable with the majority of powers we use a lot (I mean in looking at the End Bar, a 5.2 end power that costs 10% more would be 5.7), but would be noticeable with powers that have 25+ Endurance Cost (A power with 25 End would be 27, and something with 30+ End would be 33), so perhaps this could be something that could be looked into. (Multiple AT's and multiple powers tested would be best of course)

Something like this would actually be close to what Frosticus experienced. Frosticus calc'd out the EPS of her slotting.

3.98 EPS before I7
3.73 EPS after I7

Now, let's factor in my theoretical 10% increase in endurance, and that 3.73 EPS becomes 4.1 EPS. Which quite well mirrors Frosticus' two vids.

Except, that Frosticus doens't have Life Insurance in the After I7. =\ Still, something somewhere seems to be increasing costs by around 10% it seems.

Whats even more interesting about Frosticus' two vids. The After I7 one, has the Blue Icon Accolade that the before didn't, which isn't it a +5 End boost? So, maybe its there too? Not sure of course, just kinda tossing out ideas now.

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Suggestion: spit out endurance numbers to a log so we can more easily document things like this and give you ample data to pin this down..

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Agreed. I think it would be helpful for more than just debugging, but thats me.

We should have "Endurance" channels like we have "Heal" channels. Like, Endurance Heal, Endurance Drain (for the restore/attack), Endurance Usage (So we always know just how much endurance a power uses), and Endurance Toggle Usage (which would be 'spammy' and off by default).

Don't need all of those channels, but would be nice. I've gotten quite tired of the "X has drain 'some' endurance from you" which turns out to be 80 pts of Endurance. Or "Charged Bolts restores 'some' endurance to you" some? How much? I didn't notice it.

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Great guide Brev. Wish I saw your draft sooner, I have one addition. Shouldn't the 'special' for Chum Spray be listed as DoT Damage?

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Well I listed its total damage including the DoT. Unlike Fire, Thorns etc. it always has exactly the same number of ticks (unless the target is defeated before they are all delivered of course). I was basically meaning the 'specials' to be anything over and above the total damage that they do.

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Oh, neat, I didn't know that. Thanks for the info

Great guide Brev. Wish I saw your draft sooner, I have one addition. Shouldn't the 'special' for Chum Spray be listed as DoT Damage?

Much like how Spines, Thorns, and Fire has bonus DoT Damage.

Thank you very much Brev. Your guide is the only one I've seen with such detail about the Carrion Creepers (went looking for it just now).

Very excellent information that other guides seem to be lacking these days.

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I have a question about this statement and your math:

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BaseToHit + ToHitBuffs

So if your base tohit is 75%, and you use or receive a 60% tohit buff, your modified tohit becomes:

0.75 + 0.60 = 1.35 = 135%

Note that this is higher than 100%: see tohit floors and tohit ceilings below.


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If it was a 60% buff, shouldn't the math look like this?
0.75 * 1.60 = 1.20 = 120%


Because by your math, from 75 to 135 equals an 80% increase, not 60.

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Wrong. Tohit Buffs are Additive. Accuracy Enhancements and Inherent Accuracy are Multiplicative into the ToHit total (after +/- Tohit bonuses)

Post deleted by Natsuki

Mm, perhaps I'm using the wrong wording still. I dislike (perhaps this is the word I shoulda used) having it said that for Natural Concept's taking Teleport is nonviable, and would weaken their concept.

While in our world, it may be exotic science for Teleportation, but it surely does not seem that way in the CoX world. Remember, Dimension traveling -started- in 1988. Now, in the present day of CoX all Hero's have access to Portal Corps, even sidekicks at any level have that same access.

To put something as 'simple' as teleportation as Nonviable just seems extreme to me when we are looking at the world of CoX.