UberGuy

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Statesman, Jonyu and I all worked on translating the numbers in game to the Prima Guide. There are likely some typos and a transposed digit or two, but most of the numbers are accurate.

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So, does Aim have the same magnitude for both damage and toHit buff? (And is that true of the power for other ATs, or is the Corruptor version "special"?)

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Is there a listing somewhere of all the AT Modifiers and what they apply to? I'm not finding anything like that in the guide so far.

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Check Iakona's Power Standardization thread in the Player Guides forum. It's all in there. It's a big thread, but it's in there.

Always, always consider the numbers in the builders suspect. I love SherkSilver's planner and use it exclusively, but the numbers in there are very frequently wrong. I don't say that to denegrate SS in any way - he makes that program and its database updates for free in his free time, and he relies on players to provide him with updates which may or may not be good and which he may or may not have time to verify.

That's not to say you should trust the prima guide 100% either. It has some clear problems (as pointed out by Arcanaville for the pool powers - I hadn't even noticed they reported them that way). However, they also have a decent track record.

Of the two, I'd trust the prima guide more. For now.

Some people believe that any posting about a perceived problem or balance issue is whining. That every such post is a thinly veiled attempt by someone to get a buff for a character they like. That making powersets within ATs have parity is always driven by jealousy.

Some people can't accept that other people might like balance as an abstract concept, and strive for their peception of what's balanced as a goal unto itself.

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Im a little wary about some of the numbers. Ive heard of typos cropping up here and there.

As for build up and aim being different for each AT, I knew that, but...20% tohit buff for stalkers with buildup? Seems a bit low.

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But... based on what?

A 20% toHit boost is actually fairly tremendous. With one accuracy SO it would cap you against everything up to +3, and would put you at 90% toHit on a +4. If you slotted it for toHit, you could cap even +4s and maybe +5 (didn't check that).

For PvP, as the toHitBuff haters will point out, that still exceeds the base toggle+passive benefits of all the defense-based armor sets.

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I've been looking through the Prima Guide and notice that it lists the values for Aim and Build Up differently from how we've been assuming they all worked. We all had believed that Build-Up was +50% To-Hit, +100% Damage, and Aim was +100% To-Hit, +50% Damage.

According to the downloadable Prima guide, however, Build Up gives +20% To-Hit, +80% Damage, and Aim gives +42.5% To-Hit, +42.5% Damage.

What's up with that?

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BU for CoV ATs has been known to be 80% damage boost for a very long time. Only two ATs get a +100% boost BU: Scrappers and Blasters.

I can't make sense of the toHit numbers howver, based on what we think is going on due to Iakona's data mining.

Using Iakona's tables I get that the damage buff from Aim for a Corruptor should be 42.5%, which matches, but that the toHit buff should be 68%.

Maybe they changed the toHit scale for Aim in I7? Iakona has it at 8.0. Maybe they lowered it to 5.0? Or maybe that's just a typo in the guide.

Edit - I am thinking Iakona's sources for the buff scales of Aim are a dev post. There's no indication he found them anywhere in game.

I can only assume it's meant to be used exclusively from a position of distant stealth, where the long interrupt period is basically meaningless. It's the only explanation that makes any sense.

Notice that, according to the prima guide, the activation time is only a little more than 1 second, but that the interrupt time is six seconds.

I guess this bad boy wants interrupt reducers. Two even-level ones will drop the interrupt time to 55.6% (3.33 seconds). Two +3 ones will drop it to 52.1% (3.125 seconds).

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But do you think it's a mandatory pick just like the Dominator pets? Because Dominator pets are mandatory if you want to take full advantage of the set.

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No, I don't think they are mandatory. For example for the Corruptor version of Soul Mastery I very much want the armor toggle, hold, and Soul Drain.

I plan to take the pets on my Corruptors and Dominator (that's a ways off for my Dom) but not my Brutes and probably not on my Stalker. Of course a lot depends on how they perform on test. Because of the permanent choice aspect of the pools, I don't plan on taking the sets until I've played with them on test, which probably means deferring until I'm 47. The one exception to that is my Dark/Dark Corruptor, who I will take Soul Mastery on "on faith".

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What level will the pets be? and what does everyone think about them? worth taking or do you have to take it because it makes up the whole set? (just like the Control-pets?)

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Assuming they work like other pet powers, pets are your level.

There is a mission from Technician Naylor in which, if you save them from Longbow, you can have one of each of the "boss" critters from this list: Toxic Tarantula, Fortunata Mistress and Mu Guardian. Their rank in the mission is "pet". Thus, I assume it's a reasonable approximation of how they would function as actual pets.

The Toxic Tarantuala in particular is quite brutal in melee and has a hold of its own. The Fortunata Mistress is pretty good damage and lots of knockback. The Mu Guardian is quite nice because he heals you. The Guardian and the Mistress are comparatively fragile, since neither resist lethal or smashing damage, and the Guardian draws lots of aggro with his AoEs. It'd be interesting to see them in action slotted for damage.

In that mission, if you can keep all three pets alive (there's actually a fourth one - a Crab Warspider who's the actual mission objective) they're pretty unstoppable as a group if you support them at all. By the time I've had all three, the fourth boss holding the Warspider hostage becomes a walk in the park. This tells me that a team of players with such an assortment of pets can actually be quite powerful.

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Healing Flames isn't the only power that needs to be improved. Fire could use a boost in multiple areas. It is horrible...in PvP. I wasted 39 of my first CoV levels on a dark/fire brute.

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Meh, I made a SS/Fire Brute for the RV event and I wasn't particularly worse than anyone else when they didn't have their level 38 power (if any) up.

Don't utterly diss burn now, at least in PvE. I specifically made that character because I wanted to try Rage + Burn. With a set like SS that can keep mobs on their rump, flattening someone and dropping a burn patch on them didn't suck. I was ticking 12s off of Wardens. I couldn't keep them in place for continuous burning, but I could keep them in one burn patch for at least 3/4 of its duration - the patch doesn't live very long.

Also Rage + Fiery Embrace was just freaking gross for burst damage. I smacked a Scrapper for a 650 point KoB. It didn't make him very happy.

Now, given the conditions on offensive use of Burn (you need to be able to root or KD people) I still don't see the point in 17.5% vs 25% heal gimpage. But at least the recharge change is a positive start.

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you're kind of missing the burn-as-defensive-power aspect...buuut.. *shrug*

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And in this role I consider it of only the most moderate use. It makes foes retreat about 10 feet, at which point they simply turn and shoot at you. It does not last very long at all (less than most rain powers), meaning they will not stay at bay long.

I'm certainly not swayed by the argument that a power that might help me run away should be a good balance factor. :P

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Specifically, I said "One step at a time." The animation time was, technically, a bug I could fix (a number in the animation file was set too high.) The value of the heal on Healing Flames is a balance issue, which has to be dealt with as a team. So, we're looking at it, but no change is currently being made.

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Castle, I would really love if you could nudge someone with the big picture behind that balance to us here so this could be explained to us.

I say that because I am really missing why Fire "deserves" a lesser self-heal than other sets with a click heal.

*) Fire has the standard "holes" - no Psi and poor toxic resistance.
*) Fire lacks toggle knockdown and immob protection (KD is something it shares with Dark Armor, but DA has no comparable resistance gaps, and DA has immob protection)
*) To run its actual armors, FA is one of the cheapest defense sets outside of Regen, mostly because all its armor and status protection is in two toggles. However, it also lacks layered defensive capabilities of other sets with more toggles and effects to choose from.
*) Fire Aura does boost offense. Burn is now a fairly moderate and very conditional offense boost (and its real value is still debated). Fiery Embrace is very nice but again conditional.
*) Fire Aura lacks a tier-9 "ultimate" armor.

Given these things, both individually and in sum, I'm just not seeing why FA's overall balance calls for a lower self heal scale, even when all FE's other attributes compare to Regen/Reconstruction. I'd love to have someone explain it.

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One can also argue that the kin doesn't need the damage boost from soul drain either... to play devil's advocate. Fulcrum shift will pretty much cap you out. Of course, for smaller mobs, I'd imagine a fulcrum shift followed by a soul drain will help you rehit that cap, not to mention give you a nice aoe blast from soul drain if you do it after FC.... and the accuracy ALWAYS helps.

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The point really was that the playstyle is valid. Kin has very little to protect it in melee range, but it lingers there to gain devastating damage potential. Particularly for those with primary or secondary sets than can offer some control of spawns, Soul Drain is not that scary to use. I would say it offers less benefit than the better kinetics powers, so I probably wouldn't reccommend it unless the character does already have some mitigation other than just range.

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scrappers are already in melee though

for corrs its a bit riskier, since their "defense" is range

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This is not particularly true for many Corrs. Those with debuffs may not prefer to be in melee, but it's not especially horrible to do so. Dark and Rad in particular can usually take the risk. I would not use this power on a high-con boss or an AV, but I would definitely use it on a mixed group of minions and LTs.

Also, consider the average Kinectics Corruptor, who spends significant time in melee range to benefit from their own buffs and heals. There's plenty of precedent for getting "in their face" with Corruptors.

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Power Sink seems to be doing as much drain to PvE opponents as to PvP. That seems odd to me as I thought there was a coded difference into the drain % for each.

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I actually asked Castle about this. They've had a habit of forgetting to change the PvP attribute of end drain powers. Since I have no basis of PvE comparison (I've never had an end drain power before) I couldn't say if PS was draining too much. But they forgot to make Heat Loss different in PvP, so I wouldn't be shocked if they forgot this one.

Electricity Manipulation / Power Sink, however, looks exactly like the Brute version.

Stamina-less builds are, IMO, only viable in two cases.

*) You are playing on the default difficulty
*) You have a strong end recovery power that you can use reliably. The Energy Armor and Electric Armor for CoV Brutes contain such powers.

There is a third case - you don't mind standing around waiting for end to come back.

Stamina greatly decreases downtime, and when combined with end reduction in powers, can greatly extend your ability to "fire on all cylenders".

To play on the basic difficulty setting, Stamina is a "nice to have." It's not required at all. To move up the scale it becomes more and more important. Especially to play at the top two settings, IMO it is an absolute requirement. You have to attack more times to kill foes (they have more HP and take less damage), and you often need to kill them quickly to survive (so no standing around waiting for endurance).

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And don't get me wrong - I really like Electric Armor and am considering playing one up. I'm just seeing this as a power that the Devs will undoubtedly zero in on. And if they don't you can bet the bank that once good (read: know what they are doing and are very effective at sapping) /Elecs make it up to the PvP zones the whining on the boards will be pretty big.

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Perhaps I misunderstand how Transferrance works. My understanding is that it steals endurance no matter what. No one has to be in range for that to work, it's just that, if no one is in range no one gets endurance. It has a 60' base range. Of course, it is also single target, but has 1/2 the recharge of Power Sink. (Ranged AoE drain is truly a disgusting concept.)

As has been pointed out, Electric Armor/Power Sink and Energy Aura/Energy Drain seem to be identical powers.

How do you quantify the difference in performance in Ice Armor/Energy Absorbtion? Does EA just drain less end? I am honestly curious, because my SG-mate was commenting on how disgusting he felt the end drain of EA was. While EA does not transfer the endurance to the user, it seems strainge to me that the powers would be so vastly different.

I certainly expect Electric/PS and Energy/ED to be the same power. I'll be somewhat surprised if Ice/EA isn't comparable in end drain.

Well, I hadn't actually considered the Seer as weak, I just wanted the Mu Guardian more.

When I stop to think about potential weaknesses:

*) They use Mental Blast a lot. That thing has a horrible animation+flight time.
*) They don't have any real resistances to normal damage. (Something I believe they share with Mu pets, I believe.) They are highly resistant to most mezzing and to other Psi damage, but most damage is smash/lethal or fire.

There's a lot of merit in looking at the boss pet for each AT if you want to squeeze benefit out of the pet power. Even if their damage is normalized to "pet rank" damage levels, the boss pets have a longer list of powers. This means they will spend more time attacking, because they have more powers to choose from while others are still recharging.

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but as it stands this power is as good as Transference - and melees probably shouldn't be running around with that capability.

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I don't understand this statement. Why can't a melee have this sort of capability when it requires them to, you know, be in melee? If a Kinetics character can do it at range, what's the issue?

Now if this has slipped under the covers as one of those "we forgot to reduce it to 25% of PvE" things, then sure.

Honestly, desptite 3-slotting it for end mod, I was mostly interested in the effect on my own endurance, not how much I was stealing. I actually didn't notice.

Is this particularly stronger than Ice/Energy Absorbtion? That also is auto-hit and shares the same recharge time.

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Shouldnt matter if this is a holiday or not....I7 has been long in the making and theyve been putting this off for way to long. They need to get in gear and get it on LIVE ASAP. Some of us are tired of waiting and others are trying to make their vacation times around it and cant when they keep putting it off. Come on guys....lets get it moving already.

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I'll never understand this sentiment. It's broken.

I'm sick to death of QoL bugs and stupid crap like missions being broken in past issues. If it takes them another month to release it I'd be overjoyed if the result was a balanced, low-bug-count release.

You can't always fix problems faster. There are only so many hours in a day.

Power sink does not seem to miss at all. It cannot be slotted for accuracy.

In several hours of usage I did not see it miss.

I posted in the main Test forum before it ocurred to me to post here. I was knocked back, up and down (Gale, Knockout Blow, and Headsplitter) quite extensively. I was definitely on the ground for most of them - if I hadn't been I would have considered it normal.

Very specifically you regain 5% of your endurance bar every (3 / (1 + RecoveryBoost)) seconds.

Stamina is a 25% RecoveryBoost. It works on schedule A (33% enhancers).

So if you have 3-slotted Stamina you get back (about) 5% every

3 / (1+ .25 (1 + 0.95)) seconds = 1.4625 seconds.

Normal recovery = 5% / 3sec = 1.6667% / sec

With 3-slot Stamina = 5% / 3 sec * 1.4625 = 2.4375%/sec

Obviously, if you have 100 endurance, 1% recovered per second is 1 endurance per second. But if you have 110 endurance, then 1% recovery is 1.1 endurance.

It's also worth noting that these numbers may seem small, but when you combine them with endurance reduction slotting, the results are dramatic. If you analyze time-to-empty based on endurance burn vs. recovery, the number representing how long youy can fight ends up with your net endurance burn in the denominator. If you can make that net burn small, your time-to-empty becomes very large.

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Any Soul Mastery pics? I know they're recycled attacks but I've seen a glimpse of some of the powers and they seem to have a more GW-ish reworked animation. So, any pics? (preferrably MM powers.)

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I am severly disappointed with the lack of actual pics and hard numbers on not only GW's set but all of the Patrons. To think we are gonna go Live this way also scares me. At this point I am going to level to 50 taking regular pool powers and then respec into one of the Patrons after they have a thorough guide compiled on them.

Rubbish.

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This is excatly what I'm likely to do in at least one case.

On the other hand, I can't see any good reason I wouldn't take Soul Mastery on my dark/dark. I've got an Ice/Dark I have regular powers I still want, but my Dark/Dark is pretty much done with the pri/2nd powers, and I really want the thematic match (not just the powers; the character would identify with Ghost Widow, and wouldn't reject patronage).

Do note today's change in pets accepting recharge. This change alone is huge IMO. It makes the sets much more useful to me in PvE, which is what I care about.