Scrapulous

[ QUOTE ]

I do question however about your emphasis on 'Enh value' (in the summary) however. The raw total is important - but it doesn't really tell the whole story.


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I am in total agreement. Choosing the highest possible Enhancement value without regard for circumstances is not the right way to approach slotting a power or, more significantly, building a character. You probably noticed that my recommendations are biased somewhat toward taking Set IO slotting 1, 2 or 3, mainly because I think that stacking set bonuses is the real way to unlock the power of IOs.

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For a fast recharging power (for example) it may not pay to max out that extra x% - if it's in recharge. If you have a functional attack chain - having each individual attack in the chain be suboptimal from an 'Enh value' standpoint may still yield an equally powerful character from the cumulative effects of the chain.


[/ QUOTE ]

Quite right. I leave it to the player to decide what enhancements are valuable for him and mix and match accordingly. I would like to write a small guide to mixing and matching with sets in order to maximize the enhancement types you're interested in, but the list of these things that I want to write is already very long. We'll see what I get around to... and when i9 goes live my priority will be rewriting the existing guides based on current feedback so that people will have an opportunity to benefit from the get-go.

I will say that even a complete attack chain can benefit from recharge enhancement if that recharge enhancement allows the chain to be reduced by one attack, even if it means that there is some downtime in an attack chain (contrary to intuition, some attack chains are better served by incorportating some downtime than by eliminating downtime by adding an inefficient attack or an attack with a long animation).

I make that point mainly as a way of paving the way for a point that I haven't yet made explicitly but intend to hammer home in my next guide: it's time to abandon conventional build wisdom. It's time to consider six-slotting health, six-slotting shields, slotting Brawl, and choosing formerly sub-optimal powers. Be willing to re-examine and throw out what you thought you knew about how to make a build, because IOs allow you to do impressive new things with dull old powers.


To reiterate, I can't take into account all the possible circumstances because every build will have different powersets, power pools, powers, slotting priorities, secondary power effects, set bonuses, thematic/conceptual considerations and playstyle factors that go into making it viable.

These slotting examples are, well, examples. They're not optimal slotting for everybody, they're not the only way to approach the subject, and they're certainly not going to work for every build. In fact, I'm sure that I've overlooked even more effective ways to slot. And it's obvious that I've ignored 80% of the melee sets when building the examples (mainly because 70% of the sets have fewer than six total enhancements - but that's actually a benefit when mixing and matching). This is not the whole story, it's just an introduction, or more accurately an invitation to discuss the story. I'm not an authority, I'm just somebody who wants to get discussion about this stuff going. I have no doubt that Arcanaville or iakona or EvilGeko or Stupid_Fanboy or any of the other better thinkers about powers have already worked out more effective slotting than I've done here.

Scrap

[ QUOTE ]

Please throw some brain power behind the khelds!


[/ QUOTE ]

I think that will be my next project after I do my fire tank write-up, which should appear some time tomorrow.

Incidentally, I did my Example IO slotting: Melee Attacks miniguide, but I posted it in the Inventions forum instead of here, since Ex Libris seemed to want us to move discussions there. But now that I'm watching both boards, it seems like this one is still where everything is happening. Oh, well

Scrap

IO slotting example: Melee Attacks

Melee damage sets present a lot of opportunity to customize one's character, simply because there are so many of them. There are two control procs and two damage procs, and after the first two set bonuses there is considerable variety. This allows Tankers, Scrappers, Blappers, Stalkers, Brutes, melee Dominators and some Kheldians quite a bit of flexibility when planning for set bonuses.

I propose to examine some of the choices facing characters at the high end of the game and to compare maximum effectiveness in i9 against maximum effectiveness in i8.

Assumptions:

1. We're considering a level 50 character using level 50 enhancements.
2. I've abandoned my hard cap assumption for ED. I'm now using Circeus' formula to calculate total benefit.
3. Attacks are six slotted. I will mention opportunities to free up slots when they are apparent, but a core assumption is that the attacks we want to slot are worth spending many slots on.
4. Maximizing damage is a priority for melee attacks.
5. Slotting examples are PvE focused, because that's what I know. The trade-offs involved will be similar for PvP builds, but the ideal slotting will probably not. In particular, PvP will have a greater emphasis on high accuracy, so HO slotting may become more desireable in that context.

Earlier examples:
IO slotting example: AOE holds
IO slotting example: Health


CONSIDERATIONS

Procs

A "proc" is a process that is executed when a power is activated. In the case of melee attacks, the procs all have a chance of affecting the target of the attack if the attack hits successfully. There are two damage procs and two control procs. The damage procs are a chance to do additional lethal damage from Mako's Bite, and a chance to do additional negative energy damage from Touch of Death. The control procs are a chance to knockdown from Kinetic Combat, and a chance to disorient from Pounding Slugfest.

Slotting procs is a matter of personal taste. Procs can be streaky, and some folks prefer more predictable performance from their powers. Some would also argue that the damage procs do too little damage to justify an entire slot. A counter-argument to this is that proc damage is unaffected by ED, so while it's not guaranteed, it's also a way to make an already ED-capped power perform just a little better. Sometimes.

If you have a choice to slot a proc in multiple different powers, or if you're going to be stacking the same set in 5 different powers but only have one of the procs for now, slot procs in the most frequently activated powers first. Procs have the same damage, same duration and same chance to fire no matter what power they're slotted into, but you'll get much more benefit from slotting a proc into a fast-firing power that you use a lot than you will from putting it into a very slow or situational power. Put more simply, a 20% chance to disorient or do 40 damage is a lot better if that chance comes every 3 seconds instead of every 30 seconds.


Set Bonuses

Melee damage sets are the first example in this series to have so many sets that we can really look at choosing a set based on its set bonuses.

For example, let's compare Crushing Impact and Mako's Bite, the two level 30-53 sets. Crushing Impact is totally dedicated to power enhancement, by which I mean every enhancement in the set actually enhances a facet of the power that it's slotted in. Mako's Bite, by contrast, has a proc, so only five of the IOs in Mako's Bite enhance the properties of the power it's slotted in.

Let's see how the numbers add up:

Crushing Impact (acc/dam, dam/end, dam/rch, acc/dam/rch, acc/dam/end, dam/end/rch)
acc: +68.9%
dam: +101.5% [reduced by ED from 143.1%]
end: +68.9%
rch: +68.9%

The damage bonus is far beyond the ED diminishing returns cap, which tells us that if we want to slot other enhancements into a power with Crushing Impact, our best opportunity to do so is to lose one of the dual-effect IOs (ideally one of the diminishing returns types, like dam/rch or dam/end).


Mako's Bite (acc/dam, dam/end, dam/rch, acc/dam/end/rch, acc/end/rch, lethal proc)
acc: +66.2%
dam: +94.7% [reduced by ED from 98%]
end: +66.2%
rch: +66.2%

Mako's Bite doesn't have as much room to drop enhancements as Crushing Impact does - procs and global effects are very expensive for mix and matchers. Its acc, end and rch bonuses are competitive with Crushing Impact, and its damage is sufficiently over the ED cap as to remain competitive as well. Where it wins in this comparison is that 20% of the time it will do extra damage which is undiminished by the ED cap.


But things change a bit when we look at the set bonuses for these sets.

Crushing Impact:
immob resistance +2.2%
max health +1.125%
tohit bonus +2.5%
recharge reduction 5%
psi resistance +2.5%

Mako's Bite:
immob resistance +3.3%
max health +1.5%
damage bonus +3%
hold resistance +3.3%
ranged defense +3.75%

Both sets have the unimpressive immobilization resistance as their first bonus. In fact, 7 of the 10 melee sets do, and one of the three that doesn't has the equally unimpressive sleep resistance instead. If we were talking about double digit resistance levels, I'd say that these are stackable to appreciable benefit, but as things stand I'm going to call them both equal on this count.

Both sets have the excellent max health bonus. Mako's Bite has the edge here, with a slightly larger bonus. The third bonus represents more divergence, with Crushing Impact adding global tohit buffs, and Mako's adding global damage; both of these are unbounded by ED. For the fourth set bonus, Crushing Impact offers an very good recharge reduction, while Mako's Bite has only an embarrassing hold resistance buff. For the fifth bonus, CI has something that many covet: psi resistance. It's not much, but it's stackable to respectable levels and will represent a very nice boost to survivability for those who can afford to stack it. Mako's Bite has a positional defense to ranged attack instead, and a rather large one. This is potentially very valuable to those who rely on SR and Ninjitsu for their defenses, but is merely a nice bonus for others, since it doesn't stack with the far more common typed defenses.

Which to choose?

Mako's Bite is the most attractive for those who want to maximize their damage and for those with positional defenses. Mako's Bite offers damage beyond ED caps in both the lethal proc and in the global damage buff set bonus.

CI should be more popular for folks who have accuracy problems or who plan to stack 4-5 CIs on top of other set tohit buffs in order that they can slot fewer accuracies into their other powers, or for people who plan to do the same with the -recharge time buff. It's also likely to be popular with tankers and other characters built to take hits with typed defenses: the boosts to max health combined with resistance to psi damage will represent a considerable boost in survivability for many tankers when stacked.


SLOTTING COMPARISONS

Let's get into the familiar format of comparing i8 slotting with potential i9 slotting and seeing how things shake out.


SO slotting: 1 acc, 3 dam, 1 end, 1 rch
acc: +33.3%
dam: +95% [reduced by ED from 99.9%]
end: +33.3%
rch: +33.3%
total: +194.9%

This is a safe generic slotting for melee attacks. It's not what everybody uses, but it's certainly a happy medium. This will be our baseline for comparison with current i8 slotting.


HO slotting: 3 acc/dam HOs; 2 rch SOs, 1 end SO
acc: +95% [reduced by ED from 99.9%]
dam: +95% [reduced by ED from 99.9%]
rch: +66.6%
end: +33.3%
total: +289.9%

One of the rch SOs could easily be replaced with an end SO, depending on the power and priorities for the build. In either case, the total is the same: 289.9% enhancement benefit, 48.7% greater than standard SO slotting. Of course, one of the benefits of HOs is that they allow similar investment for fewer slots, but let's maintain the six slotting convention for the sake of comparison. This is the maximum effectiveness that can be had in i8 today.


Common IO slotting #1: 1 acc, 3 dmg, 1 end, 1 rch
acc: +42.4%
dmg: +99.1% [reduced by ED from +127.2%]
rch: +42.4%
end: +42.4%
total: 226.3%

Not bad at all, and with no investment in sets or HOs. It's only 16.1% better than standard SO slotting,though, mainly because a lot of the IO potential is wasted in ED diminishing returns. So let's take a look at a less damaging but more efficient slotting scheme with common IOs:

Common IO slotting #2: 2 acc IOs, 2 dmg IOs, 1 end, 1 rch
acc: +84.8%
dmg: +84.8%
rch: +42.4%
end: +42.4%
total: 254.4%

Although less damaging per attack than the previous option, the total effective enhancement is much greater. This is 30.5% better than standard SO slotting, but still not as good as HO slotting. Let's see if we can do better with sets.


Set IO slotting #1: Mako's Bite, acc/dam, dam/end, dam/rch, acc/dam/end/rch, acc/end/rch, lethal proc
acc: +66.2%
dam: +94.7% [reduced by ED from 98%]
end: +66.2%
rch: +66.2%
total: 293.3%
Set bonuses:
immob resistance +3.3%
max health +1.5%
damage bonus +3%
hold resistance +3.3%
ranged defense +3.75%

Now we're talking! The total enhancement value is 50.5% greater than with SOs, even better than HO slotting. This doesn't even take set bonuses and the lethal proc into consideration.


Set IO slotting #2: Crushing Impact, acc/dam, dam/end, dam/rch, acc/dam/rch, acc/dam/end, dam/end/rch
acc: +68.9%
dam: +101.5% [reduced by ED from 143.1%]
end: +68.9%
rch: +68.9%
total: 308.2%
Set bonuses:
immob resistance +2.2%
max health +1.125%
tohit bonus +2.5%
recharge reduction 5%
psi resistance +2.5%

Crushing Impact is even more potent than Mako's Bite in terms of direct power enhancement: it's 58.1% better than SO standard. This slotting will do less damage over time than Mako's Bite (because the proc and 3.3% damage boost of MB will outweigh the extra tohit bonus and recharge reduction in CI), but it provides slightly better power enhancement.


Set IO slotting #3: Crushing Impact acc/dam/rch, acc/dam/end, dam/end/rch, Mako's Bite acc/dam/end/rch, acc/end/rch, acc/dam
acc: +96.3% [reduced by ED from +108.6%]
dam: +96.3% [reduced by ED from +108.6%]
end: +82.1%
rch: +82.1%
total: 356.8%
Set bonuses:
immob resistance +5.5%
max health +2.625%

This approach aims for maximum direct power enhancement at the expense of set bonuses by mixing IOs from two different sets. The total enhancement is a very impressive 355.2%, 83.1% better than our SO baseline. The drawback is that it sacrifices some of the better set bonuses from both sets: the tohit, recharge, damage and res/def bonuses are all lost.

This example illustrates how powerful the tri-effect and quad-effect set IOs are: each level 50 tri-effect enhancer provides almost as much raw enhancement as an even-level HO, and quad-effect enhancers provide 11% more enhancement value than an even-level HO.


Combo slotting #1: 3 acc/dam HOs; Crushing Impact dam/end/rch, dam/end, dam/rch
acc: +95% [reduced by ED from 99.9%]
dam: +106.1% [reduced by ED from +174.1%]
end: +47.7%
rch: +47.7%
total: 296.5%
Set bonuses:
immob resistance +2.2%
max health +1.125%

This attempt to mix HOs with a set is embarrassingly bad. It's only 52.1% better than SO baseline, slightly better than a full Mako's Bite set (not counting set bonuses and procs, which makes Mako's better than this), but worse than the other set options we've examined.

Why does combining with HOs do so much worse here than in the AOE Holds example? The first reason is that AOE holds have 3 enhancement dimensions that ideally should be maxed, while for attacks damage is the primary concern and acc can reasonably be lower than 90%, while end and rch can quite happily be lower than 90%. With more primary enhancement types that should be maxed, AOE Holds benefit more than melee attacks from the enhancement depth of HOs.

The second reason is that the hold sets distribute their enhancement values much more evenly across multiple enhancement types than melee attack sets do. Melee attack set enhancements nearly all have a damage component. Since that's also one of the applicable HO components, mixing HOs into melee damage sets will quickly run into ED limits. The best you can do is to remove the highest damage value enhancements from the sets (i.e. dual-effect enhancements) and replace them with HOs. Even then you run into very inefficient pre-ED damage values like the 174.1 number in this example.

But there's another potential approach that avoids the second problem. Let's try it:

Combo slotting #2: 3 acc/dam HOs; 2 rch common IOs, 1 end common IO
acc: +95% [reduced by ED from 99.9%]
dam: +95% [reduced by ED from 99.9%]
end: +42.4%
rch: +84.8%
total: 317.2%

We've got some more mileage from using common IOs, which allow us to avoid the problem of stacking too much enhancement effect into damage. But now we're hobbled by the weakness of common IOs compared to set IOs. Although this is an improvement at 62.8% better than SO slotting, it's not the best raw enhancement value we've seen so far. This also denies us any set bonuses. We're much better served by the Set slotting #3, which gives us better power enhancement and one nice set bonus and one forgettable set bonus.


Combo slotting #3: 5x Mako's Bite: acc/dam, dam/end, dam/rch, acc/dam/end/rch, acc/end/rch; 1 common IO rch
acc: +66.2%
dam: +94.7% [reduced by ED from 98%]
end: +66.2%
rch: +96.3% [reduced by ED from 108.6%]
total: 323.4%
Set bonuses:
immob resistance +3.3%
max health +1.5%
damage bonus +3%
hold resistance +3.3%

This is an attempt to rehabilitate Mako's Bite's performance by omitting the lethal proc in favor of a common IO. It's 65.9% better than SO standard slotting. Whether the loss of additional damage is worth the gain in recharge is a personal decision.


Specialty slotting #1: Kinetic Combat chance for knockdown; Pounding Slugfest chance to disorient; Touch of Death chance for negative energy damage; 3x Mako's Bite: chance for lethal damage, acc/dam, acc/dam/end/rch
acc: +45%
dam: +45%
end: +18.5%
rch: +18.5%
total: 127%
Set bonuses:
immob resistance +3.3%
max health +1.5%

This takes a different approach, and is not competitive in terms of raw enhancement power (43.8% worse than SO standard). It has all of the available melee set procs in it. One of Arcanaville's posts got me thinking about this, and she deserves credit for the idea.

For most of your attacks, this wouldn't be a great approach. But what about Brawl? Setting aside for the moment the expense of six-slotting Brawl, this gives you an extremely fast attack that gives you a 20% chance to do extra lethal damage, a "small" chance (the IO description doesn't provide the actual number - I presume 20%) to do extra negative energy damage, a 20% chance to knockdown, and a 10% chance to disorient with every hit. That ain't hay, folks.

Furthermore, Brawl is inherent, so there is no expense power-wise. Brawl recharges in 2 seconds and activates in .67 seconds, so assuming a perfectly even distribution of probability and use of Brawl at every opportunity (i.e. Brawl chained with other attacks that animate in less than 2 seconds), you'll be doing knockdown, extra lethal damage and extra negative damage every 13.35 seconds, and disorient every 26.7 seconds.

This isn't trivial, especially for those who use Brawl anyway. "Like who, Scrap?" Like Brutes, who typically use Brawl as a fury-builder early in their careers (some never stop). And like PvP folks, who may get a kick out of the combination of toggle dropping and procs in a Brawl slotted like this (and disorient is guaranteed to drop all toggles, so there's a small bonus in there).


SUMMARY

Here's a summary table of the comparitive enhancement values of each example above, omitting set bonus considerations. Enh value refers to the total enhancement value, and % improvement refers to how this example compares to the standard SO slotting baseline.

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Example name Desc Enh value % improvement

SO slotting i8 standard 194.9% 0.0%
HO slotting i8 best 289.9% 48.7%
Common IO #1 max dmg 226.3% 16.1%
Common IO #2 max efficiency 254.4% 30.5%
Set IO #1 full Mako's 293.3% 50.5%
Set IO #2 full Cr Impact 308.2% 58.1%
Set IO #3 mix Mako &amp; CI 356.8% 83.1%
Combo #1 HO + CI 296.5% 52.1%
Combo #2 HO + com. IO 317.2% 62.8%
Combo #3 Set + com. IO 323.4% 65.9%
Specialty #1 Proctastic 127.0% -43.8%
</pre><hr />


CONCLUSIONS

Once again, we see that the best available power enhancements come from mixing and matching sets. In this case, the most powerful single power enhancement comes from a mix of two sets (Set IO example #3). HOs are left in the cold comparatively in this case: although they can be credible enhancements, they offer no set bonuses and are scarcely better than full sets that offer desireable set bonuses.

Furthermore, this is the first example we've examined where we can really start to anticipate the effects of stacking set bonuses. It's not at all inconceivable that a character might have five powers fully slotted with Mako's Bite or Crushing Impact. Looking only at Crushing Impact, that would mean:

immob resistance: +11%
max health +5.625%
tohit bonus +12.5%
recharge reduction 25%
psi resistance +12.5%

These are serious bonuses. The recharge reduction alone is half of a Speed Boost's, and 5/6 of an AM's. You can see how choosing other complementary sets would allow you to build set bonuses that are equivalent to powers in their own rights.

For maximum individual power effectiveness, I would us the Set IO #3 slotting. If you're going instead for set bonuses, then I would look hard at Mako's Bite, Crushing Impact, and Touch of Death. If you like the Mako's Bite set and you have more than 5 six-slotted melee attacks, consider putting Mako's Bite in the first five and Touch of Death in the next five. Why? Because Touch of Death has similar bonuses to Mako's Bite:

Mako's Bite:
immob resistance +3.3%
max health +1.5%
damage bonus +3%
hold resistance +3.3%
ranged defense +3.75%

Touch of Death:
immob resistance: +2.75%
max health +1.5%
damage bonus +2.5%
hold resistance +2.75%
melee defense +3.13%

Because of the way set bonus stacking works (you can't stack more than 5 of the same strength and type of bonus), the different values work in our benefit. Here's an unrealistic but possible character with 10 attacks six slotted with 5 full Mako's and 5 full Touch sets:

immob resistance: +30.25%
max health: +7.5% (only stacks 5 times)
damage bonus: +27.5%
hold resistance: +30.25%
ranged defense: +18.75%
melee defense: +15.65%

The immob resistance is still forgettable. The health bonus is no better than if you just had 5 full sets of Mako's/Touch in any combination. The damage bonus, however, is impressive: it's almost an extra SO of damage that is totally unaffected by ED. The hold resistance is actually not bad for characters with status protection toggles, because it increases the hold stacking required to overcome it. And the defenses here are extremely good. For the sake of comparison, your ranged defense is almost as good as a Super Reflexes Scrapper's Focused Senses with 2 def SOs in it. And the melee defense is almost as good as a SR Scrapper's Focused Fighting with 1 def SO in it. So to everything but AoEs, this character is a junior SR Scrapper. And if you were a SR scrapper to begin with, this turns you into a tiny god and calls to mind the days of perma-Elude.

I'd like to reiterate at this point that this slotting is not entirely practical - it requires spending 50 of your 67 lifetime slots on single target melee attacks, and it means that your attack chain is probably filled with redundancy. On the other hand, if you can find 5 melee attacks and 5 defense sets whose bonuses complement one another and your build (either by filling gaps or enhancing existing power), then you can build remarkably effective characters. More on that in the next installment.

Scrap

By the way, the best regen buff I've been able to get for my fire/fire tank without seriously compromising her performance is +213.2%. This is an AE, Tough, Burn and former-Acrobatics tank, btw. Her single target attacks have been gutted to fully slot her AEs (6 slotted Burn!). So her ability to solo bosses and kill single targets in general is reduced, but her AE efficacy is only increased, and her overall defense is dramatically increased. It's a good example of how you can aim to maximize set bonuses but also have to pay the price of extreme specialization. Any powersets with many similar powers can do this, some more effectively than others (SR comes to mind as a less potent example).

Scrap

[ QUOTE ]

235% is like 1 slotted Integration or a bit better than 3 slotted Rooted.

This is no where near old school regen that had some thing like 2000% +regen when Instant Healing was a toggle.


[/ QUOTE ]

It's not game-breaking (a regen scrapper on Live today with 3-slotted, SOed Fast Healing and Health has a native regen buff of +224.825%), but it sure is intriguing. This is where I think a lot of the fun of set bonuses lies - in allowing builds to overcome some of their inherent weaknesses. Fire/fire tanks and brutes are a good example, because IOs allow them to overcome two of their most griped-about defects: lack of inherent knockback protection and lack of defense. This +235% regen will be excellent if layered on top of fiery aura's respectable resistances, and even better if further augmented with pool powers. Combined with the recent Healing Flames buff, I expect fire tankers to acquire a whiff of regen scrapping. It's nothing like regen levels of recovery, but then regen scrappers get nothing like fiery levels of resistance

For what it's worth, my next slotting example will be melee attacks, then I may toss out an example of a build to show how you can stack set bonuses for real, powerful, passive and free (endurance-wise) buffs. I expect to use a fire/fire tank as the build template, mainly because I've done most of the thought work and now it's just a matter of writing it up. From there I can do a toggle +res shield example exercise, click self heals, and PBAoEs without much trouble.

Of course, I've been on a business trip all week and so haven't had much time to do any writing. Tomorrow on the plane ride home, if the person in front of me doesn't recline.

Scrap

[ QUOTE ]

Right now people put 3 SOs a each power and know it is pretty much maxed out. It is very simple. You don't need tons of math to understand how to maximize an attribute. Whether you should is a different arguement.


[/ QUOTE ]

I see a difference here between understanding the system and merely following conventional wisdom. As far as I know, there is no place in-game that ED is explained. People know not to slot more than 3 SOs in powers because of word-of-mouth and persistent education from people in the community.

Just as "don't slot more than three of the same kind of IO" is conventional wisdom now, "toss each of the three Heal Set uniques into Health" will be conventional wisdom sometime after i9 goes live. Give the popularizers and explainers some time to work, and I think you'll find that IOs aren't the huge hurdle that they seem like now.

Again, I stress the difference between understanding how a system works and being able to use it. I didn't understand how ED worked until two days ago, when I looked Circeus' explanation up. But I knew how to slot with ED in effect. What we need is for people to know how to avoid most of the pitfalls, not for them to be experts in the mechanics.

Scrap

[ QUOTE ]

This just shows that virtually no casual player will ever be able to figure out how to use this system.

While flexible it is way to complex and not nearly intuitive enough. SOs you could explain to new players in a couple sentences. IOs new players will have to read a thesis, or more likely find a new game.


[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure I agree with this sentiment.

I remember learning about enhancements to be less simple than you're making it out to be. I found it totally counter-intuitive that slotted enhancements expire as you level up and that you constantly have to renew them. Given that forced expiration, I found the enhancement combination mechanism to be a strange step in the other direction, and then I found the limits on combining to be another step back in the first direction. I also found it strange that you buy them.

I acknowledge that the invention system adds complexity to the world of enhancements. I happen to enjoy the complexity, but that's another discussion. I think it's possible to introduce people to IOs in steps.

Step 1: explain common IOs. They're a lot like SOs except 1) they must be built from components instead of bought, 2) their enhancement strength depends on their absolute level instead of their level relative to you (which is what I expected when I first learned about enhancements way back when), and 3) they don't expire as you level up.

Step 2: Explain sets. Differences from common IOs: 1) set IOs are often multi-aspect; 2) some set IOs have global effects instead of enhancing just that power; 3) some set IOs have "procs" that affect just that power but are like adding an additional component to that power, like knockback, damage, a heal, etc; 4) only one of each IO from a set can be slotted in a given power; 5) some global set IOs can only be slotted once per character.

Step 3: Set bonuses. 1) Slotting more than one of a set in a power can give "set bonuses" that are always on and that stack with one another; 2) set bonuses apply to all of the character's powers always (yes, there is currently an exemplaring exception, waiting for that to shake out before I commit to explaining it).

I don't think this is the way to explain it, but it seems like a decent outline for an introduction to IOs. With recaps at the end of every section and a summary at the end, I think it could be a decent primer.

But I'm busy with my next miniguide

Scrap

The pet auras were buffed on Friday, hooray! From the patch notes:

[ QUOTE ]

Increased radius of Pet IO Enhancements which grant auras.


[/ QUOTE ]

and

[ QUOTE ]

Added visual graphics effects to Pet IO Enhancements which grant auras.


[/ QUOTE ]

I did some testing with Djeannie and we verified that the radius of the +def and +res auras is the same as Shadow Fall's radius, which is 40'. I think this change will make the auras more consistently useful for pet ATs.

We also noticed the red resistance buff animation for Sovereign Right's +res aura is now in place, this is good news, too.

I now have the taunt resist and placate resist aura from Commanding Presence slotted, but I see no visual indication of its buff (nor do I know what such a buff would look like), so I can't test the radius easily. I'm not certain that this aura needs a buff animation, but some indication that the buff isn't working wouldn't go awry. Buff icons would be nice for all of these powers, but I suspect we don't see them because adding them isn't straightforward.

Now that my houseguests are gone, I'll try to get some testing of who the auras affect done today.

Scrap

Consolidating responses so I don't flood this thread with responses...

Darkonne wrote:
[ QUOTE ]

On a minor formatting note, it would be nice if you could summarize the total +Regen and +Recovery of each setup after listing the individual effects.


[/ QUOTE ]

This is a good suggestion, thanks! The current format forces people to do a lot of reading, which isn't fair to the reader. I'll add a summary in the next version and in future installments.


ProcessedMeatSan wrote:
[ QUOTE ]

I encourage you (or maybe a Mod) to organize this stuff and post it in the Guides section so we don't lose it! Assuming you do more of them


[/ QUOTE ]

Eventually I will, although I'm not sure how to clump them together without making for a giant, superdense thread. I'll have to think a little about that - maybe an index post would be a good idea once enough of them have been written.

Right now, though, I'd rather not put them into the Guides section because i9 isn't live and because all of this is subject to change. Once i9 hits live, I'll revise whatever needs changing and then move this stuff to the Guides forum.

Icy_McFlame wrote:
[ QUOTE ]

Just a quick question. As set bonuses don't work when exemplared which would be better for a lvl 50 exemplared down, the new IOs without set bonuses or 3 slotting with SOs?


[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know. I've read Liquid's excellent thread tracking this stuff enough to know that it's not a straightforward problem, but I don't understand it well enough off the top of my head to comment. Furthermore, I don't think we know yet if this is a bug or (what's really more important) whether it will be fixed/changed before i9 hits Live. I'm hoping it is a bug and will be fixed somehow, but I'd rather avoid that particular wrinkle until we know for sure. I know that's not the answer you're looking for. I imagine the folks in that thread could tell you better than I can in any event.


HeckTender wrote:
[ QUOTE ]

I personally would find it more useful to compare the recovery rates to 3 slotted Stamina, since that's how pretty much everyone slots it, and it'll go a little further towards telling me if or when I can ditch Stamina altogether.


[/ QUOTE ]

It's a good point. Nobody with more than 50,000 (check out that sexy comma!) inf has unslotted Stamina.

Stamina at max value following my bogus ED hard cap assumption gives a 48.875% buff to recovery. The best recovery cases for Health give you a 27.5% buff. In order to achieve parity with 3 slotted stamina, you'd need 21.375% worth of recovery buffs from set bonuses. That seems like a lot to me, like you'd need around 10 or so set +recovery bonuses to get it. But recovery is a shallow set bonus and it's fairly plentiful, so you may be able to do it or get close enough for your own purposes.

This raises the question of how many slots is one power worth. It's different for every build, but I can definitely see cases where set bonuses will alter slotting in a multitude of other powers (+recharge and +tohit are notable cases).


Scrap

[ QUOTE ]

Good job. I came to a similar conclusion for Fast Healing the Regen starter power.


[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, and this reminds me that I was going to wrap up with a comment about Fast Healing and Health, mainly to the effect that you can't duplicate the best case slotting in both because the three uniques I used are... well, unique. So nine slots between Fast Healing and Health are the most you can efficiently use, unless you're willing to go for pure set bonus stacking in one of them. But if you go for nine slots between them, I strongly recommend putting 4 in one and 5 in the other so that you can get, theoretically, +24% regen buff and +5% recovery buff just from set bonuses (2 Numina's in each power, and 2 Miracle in each power). But putting the two together is a slightly more complicated analysis that I haven't done yet

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[ QUOTE ]

Nice read.


[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks to everybody who said so - I'm a-blushin'.

[ QUOTE ]

Now, get to work on all the other powers.


[/ QUOTE ]

This is actually my plan. There are many more sophisticated thinkers about powers around here, but I think IO sets are sufficiently complex that the information can stand to be popularized with some examples. I also think that it can spark some discussion about the best way to approach things, since I certainly won't think of everything. IO sets give such deep options that it's hard to see every facet of possibility.

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[ QUOTE ]

There is no END set, so Stamina will remain a 3 slot wonder.


[/ QUOTE ]

Unless you 2-slot it with common IOs for +84.8% endmod, which gives you a total recovery buff of 46.2%. That's not much worse than 48.875% (which is what you get at my artificial ED hard cap with 3 SO slots) - only 5.5% worse, really, and for many people that third marginal slot will have better applications elsewhere in the build.

IO slotting example: Health

Health is an odd duck. It's often seen as a stepping stone to Stamina, and because of this often gets no slots. Tankers sometimes three slot Health because it capitalizes on the one of their inherent traits: high hit point totals. I'd like to look at how the new world of IO affects health slotting.

Basics: Health gives a 40% regeneration buff unenhanced. It also gives sleep resistance, but that's unenhanceable and therefore outside the scope of this discussion.

Assumptions:
1) We're considering a level 50 character using level 50 enhancements.
2) ED has a hard cap at 95.5% for Schedule A. This is emphatically not true, but it's an assumption I'm using to save myself the trouble of calculating tenths of a percent of benefit at the high end of enhancement schedules. It also allows us to illustrate the relative benefit of the seemingly small but unbounded-by-ED set bonuses.


One Slot

Let's look first at the folks who can't or don't want to spare the slots to enhance Health. They have one slot and it's all they're likely to use. I believe that this is the most common Health slotting on Live in i8.

SO slotting:
1 heal SO
heal: +33.3%

This is pretty basic - there are no other options in i8. The regen buff becomes 53.32%.


Common IO slotting:
1 common heal IO
heal: +42.4%

Common IOs are better than SOs. The regen buff grows to 56.96.


Set IO slotting #1, regen:
1 Regenerative Tissue +25% regeneration global IO
heal: +0%

Here's where we start to see the real effects of IOs. Assuming no other regen buff powers and no other set bonuses, the regen buff is now 65%, which is considerably better than the previous two options.


Set IO slotting #2, recovery:
1 Miracle 15% recovery global IO
heal: +0%

This is an alternate approach which eschews regen buffs in favor of recovery (that is, how fast endurance comes back, the same stat that Stamina buffs). The regen buff remains at the unenhanced 40%, but stamina recovery is buffed 15%. That is 3/5 as effective as unslotted Stamina. Another way of looking at it is to look at what each enhancement slot in Stamina does for your recovery boost:

1 even level SO endmod in Stamina: +8.325% recovery
1 even level IO endmod in Stamina: +10.6% recovery
1 Miracle recovery global IO in Health: +15% recovery

For builds that plan to maximize regen buffs with minimum investment, the Miracle +recovery global IO is an excellent approach.


Set IO slotting #3, compromise:
1 Numina's Convalescence +20% regen, +10% recovery global IO
heal: +0%

This third option is an excellent compromise between the two. For builds that can use extra recovery and more health (like, say, a fire/fire tank without Consume), this is a strong option, providing a 60% regen buff and a 10% recovery buff.


Three Slots

Three slots will be the next situation we examine, because it represents the greatest efficient use of slots in Health by i8 standards, so it's probably the next most popular i8 slotting configuration after one slot. This gives us a chance to compare again how i9 impacts i8 builds.

SO slotting:
3 heal SOs
heal: +95.5%

Again, the basic i8 3 slot Health. There aren't other options. The Regen benefit here is 78.2%, which is more than the best single slot option we explored above (65%), but not by much. This tells us that we can probably do some interesting things with IOs in our three slots.


Common IO slotting:
3 common heal IOs
heal: +95.5%

This is identical to SO slotting (78.2% regen buff), but it's worth observing that only two slots with common heal IOs would give 84.8% heal benefit, which results in a total regen buff of 73.92%, which is only 5.5% worse than SO slotting. This could be a nice way to shave a slot off an i8 build for minimal loss in effectiveness.


Set IO slotting #1, regen:
1 Regenerative Tissue +25% regeneration global IO,
1 Numina's Convalescence +20% regen, +10% recovery global IO,
1 Numina's Convalescence heal IO
heal: +42.4%
Set bonus:
regeneration: +12%

This uses the two unique heal set IOs that provide independent (non-set-bonus) +regen, and the third slot takes the heal IO from Numina's Convalescence, giving us our first set bonus, which is the excellent +12% regeneration from Numina's Convalescence. The total regeneration buff here is 113.96%, which is 45.7% more than SO slotting. There is also a 10% recovery buff, (2/5 of unslotted Stamina). This represents a huge improvement over i8 performance.

Incidentally, you could also lose the heal IO slot for a total regen buff of 85%. This frees a slot and still beats 3 SO heals and 3 common IO heals.


Set IO slotting #2, recovery:
1 Miracle 15% recovery global IO,
1 Numina's Convalescence +20% regen, +10% recovery global IO,
1 Miracle heal IO
heal: +42.4%
Set bonus:
recovery: +2.5%

This uses the two unique heal set IOs that provide independent +recovery and the heal IO from the Miracle set. The set bonus here is a respectable +2.5% to recovery. Our recovery buff is 27.5%, 10% better than unslotted Stamina. Our regen buff is not bad, either: 76.96%, almost as good as SO slotting.


Set IO slotting #3, combination:
1 Miracle 15% recovery global IO,
1 Regenerative Tissue +25% regeneration global IO,
1 Numina's Convalescence +20% regen, +10% recovery global IO
heal: +0%

This employs all of the unique Heal set IOs. The total benefit is an 85% regeneration buff (8.7% better than SO slotting) and a 25% recovery buff (equal to unslotted Stamina). This is an interesting middle road, although it's worth noting that it's not far different from the recovery slotting above: about 10% better regen and 10% worse recovery. This is a small example of how set bonuses can start to mitigate otherwise


Six Slots

I'd like to look at what we can do with six slots next. This is illustrative of another often overlooked facet of the invention system: powers which previously only benefited from a few slots can now perform well with more. Our baseline SO slotting will remain 3 slots, because that's the maximum efficient benefit that can be found in i8.


SO slotting:
3 heal SOs
heal: +95.5%

This is our i8 baseline; 78.2% regen buff.


Set IO slotting #1, regen:
1 Miracle 15% recovery global IO,
1 Regenerative Tissue +25% regeneration global IO,
1 Numina's Convalescence +20% regen, +10% recovery global IO,
1 Numina's Convalescence heal IO,
1 Numina's Convalescence end/heal IO,
1 Numina's Convalescence heal/rch IO
heal: +95.4%
Set bonuses:
regeneration: +12%
max health: +1.88%
heal: +6%

This uses four of the Numina's Convalescence set to acquire three set bonuses. The straight regen buff is 135.16%. This is 18.96% better than the best 3 slot scenario, and 72.8% better than SO slotting.

This ignores the effects of the max health set bonus: the way regeneration works, increases in max health increase the regeneration amount. My understanding is that this works not additively (which would result in a 137.04% effective regen boost), but multiplicatively (which results in a 137.7% effective regen boost). But since many characters have health boosting accolades and powers, I've left the effects of the health boost out of my numbers. Suffice to say that it boosts survivability along two axes, not just one, and consider that it is a common and easily stackable set bonus.

The 6% heal bonus may or may not apply to regen. I suspect that it does not, because heal and regen are discrete effects, but I don't know certainly one way or the other. If you have no heal powers or would prefer more recovery, the next slotting option is likely to be better for you.

The endurance and recharge enhancement values from the Numina's end/heal and heal/rch are wasted in Health, and so I haven't counted them.

So the final analysis for this combination gives us a 135.16% pure regen buff, a 25% recovery buff, a 1.88% max health buff, and a 6% heal buff which applies to all heal powers. These bonuses are all passive.


Set IO slotting #2, recovery:
1 Miracle 15% recovery global IO,
1 Miracle heal IO,
1 Regenerative Tissue +25% regeneration global IO,
1 Numina's Convalescence +20% regen, +10% recovery global IO,
1 Numina's Convalescence heal IO,
1 Numina's Convalescence heal/rch OR end/heal IO

OR:

1 Miracle 15% recovery global IO,
1 Miracle heal IO,
1 Miracle heal/end OR heal/rch IO,
1 Regenerative Tissue +25% regeneration global IO,
1 Numina's Convalescence +20% regen, +10% recovery global IO,
1 Numina's Convalescence heal IO,

heal: +95.5%
Set bonuses:
regeneration: +12%
recovery: +2.5%
max health: +1.88%

Here we have split the set bonuses across Numina's Convalescence and Miracle. The second set bonus in each set is identical, so it doesn't matter whether you pick it up by slotting 3 Numinas or 3 Miracles.

This slotting represents a very slightly better regen buff than the last one (because the two single-effect IOs take us to 95.5% enhancement, our hypothetical enhancement cap). The total regen buff here is 135.2%. The recovery buff is 27.5%, and the max heath buff is 1.88%. This slotting seems to be the best 6 slot option for anybody who doesn't have deal powers.


Health is an interesting case; because there is no room for HO slotting, so IOs beat i8 slotting in every case. This is an example of how even the most effective i8 slotting available is inferior to IO slotting.

Scrap

[ QUOTE ]

Ummm you are comparing 6 IO's to 3 HO's + 3 SO's. There is no doubt in my mind that the 6 IO's would come out ahead. A more accurate test would be to compare 6 IO's to 6 HOs.


[/ QUOTE ]

As Vid pointed out, I was writing about AOE holds. I don't know a way to make 6 HOs efficiently effective in an AOE hold.

If folks find this sort of thing useful, I may post a series of them. ST holds would definitely be in that series, although they're a more in-depth discussion because many of them accept more than one set type (holds and ranged damage, or holds and melee damage). If I write such a post, I'd like to take into account what you've written here. FlyingCodeMonkey also suggested a very effective set combination for melee damage ST holds that looked like it might be competitive with your HO slotting.


[ QUOTE ]

1 Ribo (Dam Res/End reduce) [This HO will enhance Blind's damage - the reason for it is for another discussion, but rest assure that it will buff both the damage and reduce endurance]


[/ QUOTE ]

My understanding is that getting enhancement effects that are not intended or not in an enhancement's description is considered an exploit. Is that not correct?


[ QUOTE ]

At the same time, Essence of the Curate is one of the "better" sets, while MANY other IO sets have garbage buffs that are either useless, undesirable or have a retarded inflated component (such as End Reduce).


[/ QUOTE ]

Are you saying that it's better than the other hold sets, or that hold sets are better than other set types?


[ QUOTE ]

As an additional benefit, with the exception of that single Ribo, everything else combined (2 endos, 1 perox, 1 cent, 1 recharge SO) sure will be 10 times easier to get than having to find/farm/bid the recipes and salvage, plus the 3 million influence (maybe more?) that you'll need to put everything together.


[/ QUOTE ]

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

[ QUOTE ]

I've found since the GCN (Great Controller Nerf) of i5 that aoe holds are not worth the slots. I've been doing them with 4. 2 acc, 2 hold duration. The duration in general sucks so bad and the recharge sucks so bad why waste the slots when other more useful powers can be slotted up instead? The set IO's are pretty sad too for aoe holds. :/


[/ QUOTE ]

What's more, it's harder to mix and match when you have fewer slots. Four isn't horrible, but it does make it harder to swap things out and maintain acceptable depth and breadth of enhancement when dealing with IO sets. HOs really shine in powers with 2-4 slots because you can stack them and build depth very quickly with moderate breadth, or use a variety of them to get wide breadth with moderate depth. It's hard to replicate that with sets because no two IOs in a set have identical bonuses.

IOs really reward six-slotting, and for six-slotted powers they give you surprising flexibility. At least, it still surprises me.


[ QUOTE ]

That being said, Great Guide Scrapulous!


[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks to you and to the other folks who have expressed that sentiment. I don't think that what I've come up with is the best slotting, but I want to put up some examples of possible ways to do it so that more sophisticated thinkers can challenge and improve on what I've come up with.

Scrap

I see a lot of questions on test about ideal ways to slot. I also see a lot of sentiment that "IO sets are worse than HO slotting" and people who are discouraged with what Inventions offer.

I suggest that there is more meat to be had in the IO sets than some people are finding, and that this meat is to be found by mixing and matching, as the rednames themselves have suggested.

For the purposes of this discussion, let's look at AE holds, because they have a straightforward slotting convention that makes for easy comparisons. Note: all enhancement numbers are taken for level 50 enhancements.

AE Hold

First let's establish a baseline:

SO slotting: 2 acc, 2 hold, 2 rch
acc: +66.6%
hold: +66.6%
rch: +66.6%
total: +199.8%

Let's use this as our current popular Live slotting for baseline comparison purposes.


Now let's see how common IOs compare:

Common IO slotting: 2 acc, 2 hold, 2 rch
acc: +84.8%
hold: +84.8%
rch: +84.8%
total: +254.4%

The non-set IOs take us into impressive territory compared to SOs. This represents a 27.3% improvement over SO slotting, which is not too shabby. This is good news for all characters who don't have or aren't high enough level to use HOs.


Let's look at how things stack up for those who do have and can use HOs:

HO slotting: 3 acc/mez HOs, 3 recharge SOs
acc: +95.5%
hold: +95.5%
rch: +95.5%
total: +286.5%

This HO slotting has every major enhancement category pushed to the ED caps, and represents a 43.4% improvement over SO slotting and a 12.6% improvement over Common IO slotting.


So lets dig into the most enhancement-potent hold set, Essence of Curare:

Set IO slotting: 6x Essence of Curare (acc/rch, end/hold, acc/end, hold/rng, acc/hold, acc/hold/rch)
acc: +100.7% (treated as 95.5% for totaling purposes)
hold: +100.7% (treated as 95.5% for totaling purposes)
rch: +47.7%
end: +53%
rng: +16% (normalized to schedule A, 26.5% for totaling purposes)
total: 318.2%
Set bonuses:
fear, confuse and stun resistance: +1.65%
hold duration: +1.5% (unconstrained by ED so not included above)
ranged defense: +1.88%


This slotting gives us more total enhancement, but spread across more categories. It is nominally 11% better than HO slotting, but some of that enhancement is in less-desired areas (end, range). For the Control Holy Trinity of acc, mez and recharge, its total is only 238.7% and thus it's actually 16.7% worse than HO slotting.


But let's look at how we can mitigate that with a little creative mix-and-matching. There are a couple of ways to approach this, but mine has been to eliminate the hold/rng and acc/end enhancements, since those enhance less important facets of the power. This gives us:

Combo: Essence of Curare x4: acc/rech, end/hold, acc/hold, acc/hold/rch; 1 acc/mez HO, 1 IO rech
acc: +107.5% (treated as 95.5% for totaling purposes)
hold: +107.5% (treated as 95.5% for totaling purposes)
rech: +90.1%
end: +26.5%
total: +307.6%
Set bonuses:
fear, confuse and stun resistance: +1.65%

This slotting gives us slightly less enhancement than the Set IO slotting. But when we look at the Control Holy Trinity, it fares much better: 281.1%, which is only 1.9% worse than HO slotting, plus we get a small break on endurance and a few set bonuses.


This can be done with Ghost Widow's Embrace, too, which might be more attractive for those who are looking to stack set bonuses.

Combo: GWEx4: acc/rech, end/hold, hold/rng, acc/hold/rch; 1 acc/mez HO, 1 IO rech
acc: +81%
hold: +107.5% (treated as 95.5% for totaling purposes)
rech: +90.1%
end: +26.5%
rng: +16% (normalized to schedule A, 26.5% for totaling purposes)
total: +319.6%
run +5%
health +1.88%
end +2.25%

GWE is a little less flexible than Curare because it has a non-enhancing psi damage proc instead of Curare's excellent acc/hold. But even without the acc/hold to play with, we still get very respectable numbers. The total enhancement is actually higher than the Essence of Curare example (because we're not losing effective enhancement to ED caps). The Control Holy Trinity comparison is not unfavorable, either: 266.6%, only 6.9% worse than HO slotting, and we get much better set bonuses than Essence of Curare.


Hopefully this demonstrates how a mixed approach to slotting can bring together some of the best of both worlds: the ED-capped (or near-ED-cap) goodness that we've come to know from HO slotting, and the set bonuses from IOs.

Scrap

[ QUOTE ]

it even affects the npc pets that you can pick up in a mission.


[/ QUOTE ]

OK, this comment may need to be revised. Last night I was playing Vernon von Grun's missions, and the Deathspores I summoned didn't get the purple defbuff shields. I was fairly certain the Ghost Widows I mentioned in the OP did, but maybe Ghost Widows have a defbuff natively and that's what I was seeing. I'll do more testing to verify.

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I'm not saying that there is no way to make a 20' aura useful (the goto command is another workaround that doesn't require deep investment into a particular travel pool), just that it's a rather tight constraint given other similar powers.

Scrap

The benefit of the aura enhancements is independent of the enhancement level. A level 25 res aura IO has the same effect as a level 53 res aura IO. In fact, if there's a way for these enhancements to be made level 1 always, I think that would be a good idea.

Also, I forgot to mention that in the recipe title for Edict of the Master: defense bonus, it suggests that the bonus is 10%, while the enhancement description says that it's 5%.

Scrap

Assessment of Pet set aura IOs (preliminary)

So I've been doing a lot of testing on my mastermind, and I've managed to get my hands on Edict of the Master's +def aura (thanks to Djeannie), and Sovereign Right's +res aura. I haven't got my hands on Commanding Presence's taunt resistance and placate resistance aura piece yet - if anybody has one villain side and is willing to donate or trade for it, I'd be grateful for the help.

If anybody has more or different experiences or comments on the below, please post.

Here are my observations:

1) These are passive abilities. They are unique among "Global" effects slotted in click powers in that they are active 100% of the time. _Castle_ lived up to his promise and it's an excellent result.

What exactly does this mean? Let's say you're a Thugs Mastermind. You have slotted the Edict of the Master defense aura into your Call Enforcer power so that you can get some nice stacking with the Enforcers' Maneuvers. When you use the Call Thugs power, they will have the defense buff as long as they are within 20 feet of you. Think of it more like Supremacy than anything else - it even affects the npc pets that you can pick up in a mission. I had a couple of Lt Night Widows running around with me in a Longbow mission, and they were impressively durable with Shadow Fall, the +res aura and the +def aura. Then again, they're pretty impressive to begin with.

2) The description of the IO says that the radius for both powers is 20 feet. My own testing supports this.

3) Edict of the Master's defense buff creates the spinning purple defense buff shields (the ones you get when you use a Luck) around your pets and any other mobs it affects. This is how I was able to test the radius of the buff and how I was able to determine that it affects npc allies.

4) I can't tell if Sovereign Right's resistance buff has a buff animation that it applies. It certainly does not have the spinning red resistance buff shields (the ones you get when you use a Sturdy) around your pets. It may apply the defense buff shields, but I can't tell because I got and slotted Edict of the Master before Sovereign Right. If I can find another Sovereign Right aura IO, I will test it alone in another copy of this character. If I can't, I will burn a respec to get the Edict of the Master IO out of there.

5) Unfortunately, the auras do not have discrete buff icons. This is my biggest complaint about them. Buff icons are very important for masterminds, because they let us know whether we're buffing our pets appropriately. Every MM has at least one PBAE buff (Supremacy), very many have more from Leadership, and two of the secondaries have PBAE buff toggles. If the radius were at least the same as Supremacy, then we could use that buff icon as a visual indicator.

6) The 20' radius is rather low. Compare to Supremacy, Maneuvers, Assault, Tactics (60'), Force Bubble (50'), Shadow Fall (40'), and Dispersion Bubble (25'). It's tougher for MMs whose pets prefer melee, because their pets will spread out more than those who prefer ranged combat.


Recommendations:

1) The auras should have buff icons if possible.

2) If not possible, the auras should have their radius increased to match Supremacy, so that Supremacy's icon can function as the buff icon for these powers. Incidentally, this wouldn't be a bad change to make in any event, because the tight radius unfairly constrains masterminds with melee henchmen.

3) The resistance aura should give the revolving red shield buff animation. Currently it either doesn't do this at all, or doesn't do it when the defense aura is also present.


Yet to test:

1) Placate/Confuse resistance aura.

2) Verify the resistance against a number of different damage types.

3) Resistance aura animation without the defense aura active.


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Lethargic Repose: Acc/End is Pool A.

Scrap

Detonation: Dam/Range, Extreme Measures: Dam/End, Nightmare: End/Fear/Rech and Red Fortune: Defense all seem to be pool A, and all are uncommon.

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[ QUOTE ]

Here is the advancement table. It lists the level of the enhancement and the bonus it gives to a single attribute.


[/ QUOTE ]

Does this mean that the improved advancement table for set IOs that was leaked was reversed? Perhaps a more clear question for those without that context is: do set IOs and common IOs now have the same base values (before factoring in the number of effects on set IOs)?

Scrap

[ QUOTE ]

Iakona's beta planner for Excel (he's got one for OpenOffice too) makes this a bit easier.


[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not absolutely sure, but this seems to be the same version that was around a few weeks ago, and at least two of the sets in the .xls don't match the in-game descriptions of the sets. Do you know if there's an updated version?

Scrap

Recipe Name (type) - Rope-a-dope: Acc/Stun (ACC/STUN)
Drop circumstances - defeated DE boulder
Likely Pool - A

Recipe Name (type) - Soaring: Endurance (END)
Drop circumstances - defeated DE boulder
Likely Pool - A

Recipe Name (type) - Glimpse of the Abyss: Fear/Rech (FEAR/RNG) **
Drop circumstances - Completed Crimson's "stop Nemesis from infiltrating Malta" mission
Likely Pool - B

** Note: The name of the Glimpse of the Abyss recipe suggests that it enhances fear and recharge, but two places in the long description of the recipe suggest that it enhances fear and range. Furthermore, the list of enhancements in the set show a fear/rng enhancement but no fear/rchg enhancement, so I suspect fear/range is what it actually does.

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