Umbral

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No, the increase in effectiveness would fade almost immediately after PBU fades. You've got to remember that toggles are not actually on-off switches. They are actually continually reapplied powers. Radiation Infection applies the debuff every .5 seconds. Choking Cloud applies its hold once every 5 seconds. They don't turn on a durationless effect that is reliant on continually having the toggle on. They simply refresh the power effect itself on a regular basis without consuming any animation time.

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Well that's no fun..at least it's good for damage and some trick arrow powers. Thanks

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It's actually useful for any long duration effect. The Force Field bubbles, Fortitude, and a number of other powers benefit from it rather significantly. I will concur that the power itself is generally more useful for increasing damage over the short term than actually providing buff/debuff support.

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DM would work great because you would be sapping end left and right from both dark comsumption and consume. Not to mention sapping life from Siphon life. Dang, I might just try that myself! ^_^

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It's not sapping for any of those powers because the term "sap" refers to a drain of some kind. Neither Dark Consumption nor Consume reduce the target's endurance, and Siphon Life's self heal is not at all dependent upon the amount of damage dealt (which would be a reasonably requirement for it to be a drain type effect).

The interesting thing about the DM/Fire combo, however, is that it doesn't need Stamina. Dark Consumption and Consume, when given decent slotting (re: 3 recharge; 1 acc maybe), grant much more end/sec than Stamina (DC and Consume = 100 end every ~95 seconds = 1.05 end/sec; Stamina = .81 end/sec) with the added benefit of not having to take 2 other Fitness powers.

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If you hit power build up and turn on say stealth and hover. Would it keep that defense bonus as long as the powers stay toggled? Or would the bonus wear off as soon as the pbu duration is over? And if anyone finds any info on this on the forums paste it here if you would. Appreciate your time and help!

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No, the increase in effectiveness would fade almost immediately after PBU fades. You've got to remember that toggles are not actually on-off switches. They are actually continually reapplied powers. Radiation Infection applies the debuff every .5 seconds. Choking Cloud applies its hold once every 5 seconds. They don't turn on a durationless effect that is reliant on continually having the toggle on. They simply refresh the power effect itself on a regular basis without consuming any animation time.

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The line of differentiation that I use is this:
Using technology: Tech Origin.
Having Technology fundamentally alter you: Science.

Which one you want to use for your guys is up to you.

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A better distinction in my mind would be that Technology requires constantly using said technology while Science would only require a single application. If the virus hit your character and then disappeared, then the origin would be Science. If the virus hit the character and stayed, and the absence of the virus would remove the powers, then the origin would be Technology.

My main (Umbral Fist) is technology because his blood was replaced with a highly potent, multi-purpose nano-fluid. It rebuilds his body and themselves, speeds up his synapses, stores his memories, and gathers external resources for the body itself. If all of his nanites were removed and the ability for the nanite factory in the base of his skull was nullified, he wouldn't have powers any more (and he would be dead rather quickly because his body can't regenerate or fight off infections on its own).

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I'm a little confused - this chart shows Scrappers with pools I don't see... how do you make a Super Strength Scrapper? That's not possible on my client....

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In general, all powers have a single power template for the powers from which they draw. To get the power in the form we actually see, the numbers are modified by the various AT scalars. Scrappers have a 1.125 damage scalar. Brutes have a .75. Recharge, endurance cost, activation time and all other values are identical (except when the set is modified significantly like with Fire Melee across all 3 ATs). The power set choices that are impossible were made simply by taking the all of the powers from the existing set and modifying the numbers to account for the different scalars (Scrapper Super Strength had all of the damage increased by 50%). There's no assurance that it would be identical to these numbers, but it's an excellent predictor of performance.

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It's pretty tricky though, slots are at a premium.

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You can do that? Do procs work that way too?

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The procs mentioned (Numina's, Miracle, Perf Shifter) all have to be slotted in a power that is actually active. The post you quoted is most likely referring to slotting the Numina's and Miracle into Health and the Perf Shifter into Stamina.

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I think Umbral is currently your only rep you could PM him

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This is true. I'm so very alone right now.

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Has anyone doing the Hero TF see him use his phase power?

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I never saw it, but I will say that it seemed to me that using the temp powers (though it required multiple stacks) seemed to turn off the "unstoppable" (re: only taking 1 damage from an attack). I think the phase was replaced with crazy huge resists.

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I don't know which Reichsman you got, but the one we got had 226k HP, 70% resists to the type of damage scrappers do (which gives him effectively 767k HP, and a version of unstoppable that cycles on and off when he's less than 10% and a Dull Pain power he uses somewhat randomly when below 60% (or so).

Anyway, he regens 113 HP/sec.

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I was wondering what the final numbers Castle went with were. That puts Reichman at 12% regen. So all it should take is ~150% worth of regen debuffs (before resistance) to floor his regen as a +3. That's trivial. That also means that the time between his regen ticks is 100s.

Thanks for the info, Kong.

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I believe that Reichsman is actually set to have 100% base regen with the exception that his base regen level is simply lower. You would still need 715% -regen in order to completely negate his regeneration (just like with any other lvl 50 AV), it's just that each percent of regeneration counts for less. Pretty much, he's got roughly ten times the hit points of a normal AV but only roughly one tenth of their base regeneration, making him regen just as much as a normal AV from an hp/sec perspective.

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I tell ya Regen is not very Reactive at all its begining to turn into Proactive knowing when your gonna get bombarded to get that heal to hit right at the sweet spot so your not admiring the floor cause you waited to long...

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Yeah. My biggest point of contention with */regen right now, aside from the lack of any debuff resistance is the fact that the animations take up so much time and that the effects are often delayed, both of which severely hamper the twitch reflexive nature of the play style in active play circumstances. I'd really like to see the devs actually remove the animation times from at least Recon and MoG, making the animations only occur if you're not doing anything else (like with many of the toggle activation animations).

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If they made sparky either into a machine gun or do more dam, it may be all it needs..

It trades damage for safety IMO, but its not good by itself in the safety dept, unless paired just right.

Now that that is out of the way, what do you all think could be the highest DPS achievable by the kings of damage?

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I'm reasonably sure that fire/nrg and fire/elec should be capable of pulling more than 300 dps factoring in BU and Aim. Fire/elec could probably pull a tad bit more because of lighting field adding an extra 11 DPS and Shocking Grasp actually being a decent attack whereas Total Focus is rather bleh.

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Wow that's nice 20.76% more def debuff resistance from just 1 membrane to stack with it. I think i'll take that

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That's not 20.76% more. That's 20.76% total.

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the rest of your build and the situation at hand can make all the difference in the world.

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This is true. How often are you beating on a single target for more than a minute while surrounded by a large number of other targets? It's not a particularly common situation to be found in, even on TFs.

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True, true.

I do sacrifice DPS for safety it seems when I play my namesake, I mean, nothing was a threat to me after lvl 35, and after shocking grasp the game was a cakewalk.

However, by itself It cant do AoE blaptrolling, unless combined with /ice, /elec/ or /eng (due to more drain, ice's utility mixed with drains, or powerboost)

and when it cant do it's job in that sense, what does it have?

It has a pet which is essentially a Pwe-Pwe machine, yet it isnt too good at ST...the heck?

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I think that's my biggest problem: Elec gets an anemic pet in exchange for a tier 3 blast and doesn't really get anything to make it really zing. Short Circuit is horrible DPA. The secondary effect is painfully binary and hard to actually use. It's the only set I know of that has to largely borrow from its secondary in order to have a full suite of attacks. It's not bad because of it, but it's definitely not entirely competitive on the ST damage front.

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Why is it that Castle has adopted that rule? Why is it so earth shatteringly important that a power cannot be largely changed?

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There are probably a large number of reasons for the Cottage Rule. The IO set problem is one. Player outrage is another. Balance considerations are also more difficult because the balance heuristic is shifted significantly. That's why it's just easier to simply alter numbers rather than outright change function.

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Do SOs scale?

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No. I'm also reasonably sure that set IOs don't either. The only loss whenever you exemplar down as far as I know is the loss of powers that you are now too low level to use and set bonuses that use set IOs that are higher level that you would able to access at your exemplared level (exemplared level + 3). Even procs still function at full effectiveness for your level as long as you've still got the power with the proc in it.

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Truth, but i cast it before combat starts.

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You'd need to cast it right as combat was starting to get the full effect. Otherwise you'd have downtime eating your defiance buff.

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And wouldnt resummoning a free source of extra 33dps be worth it?

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Considering that Voltaic Sentinel is 3.3 second for 60 seconds of 33 DPS, which equates to 600 DPA, yeah, it's worth it. I've still never been much of a fan of the Voltaic Sentinel though.

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(just a thought, but if we can prove via this that Elec is actually far behind in DPS....think it could see a buff? )

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Something you've got to realize is that Elec isn't an ST damage set. It completely lacks a tier 3 blast which hurts it there pretty significantly. Personally, I've always found that it works better to consider Elec Blast to be an AoE Blaptroller set. Short Circuit is amazing if you can manage to keep the targets' blue bar down and it actually deals rather respectable damage (though the DPA is atrocious because the animation is god-awful long). Ball Lightning is actually just as good as Fire Ball if you discount the Fire secondary effect (re: the bonus DoT).

If any change were needed to damage, I'd like to see either Zapp or Tesla Cage be turned into a real attack, and I wouldn't even ask for a "real" tier 3 blast. The problem with turning Zapp into a regular attack is twofold: Cottage Rule might generate some conflicts (depending on how Castle views the difference between a snipe and a regular attack) and IO sets (re: what would happen if the power no longer accepts them). Turning Tesla Cage into a real blast would involve some possibly unpopular changes to its recharge that would make Elec Blast a good bit worse at hard control, but I'd be willing to venture that most Elec Blast players would actually be willing to accept a slight loss to hard control capability if Tesla Cage shared numbers with BIB.

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Hmn, I thought that the buff applied once the activation was done?

anywho, I use the sparky buff as a means to "get teh ball rolling", having done slightly more damage for 10sec of the chain, thus doing more damage total over the time i do it

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It's not really an appreciable increase since your "getting the ball rolling" is simply countering the fact that you don't have any stacked Defiance when you start. Even when you're applying it mid combat, you're simply getting back roughly as much +dam as you lost during the huge animation time.

Someone obviously doesn't know about all of the improvements the game has seen over the past 5 years that virtually every player takes for granted. The ability to change your costume and have multiple costume slots wasn't there at release. The ability to increase mission difficulty wasn't there at release. The ability to respec wasn't there at release. Badges weren't there at release. There wasn't a search function at release. There wasn't the ability to exemplar at release. There wasn't auto-exemplaring to do task forces at release. Capes weren't here at release. PvP wasn't here at release.

And that's not even everything that we've got now that we didn't when the game was released. I could name at least twice as many if I started picking features that were made available after I4. Seriously, the game has changed so much in the intervening 5 years that I'd have to say that it's 5 years of money well spent. You're just not noticing all of the actual changes that have happened, most likely through ignorance. The game has evolved a lot.

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If you were startled by potted plants in corners of offices while fighting DE, prepared to be even more surprised! Certain DE are now disguising themselves as trees indoors! Others are howling!

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That's been happening for a while. I'm reasonably sure that the changes have gone from happening in some story arcs and other specific times in which you see the enemy group to occurring in a greater number of situations, which means that more people now see them.

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I sure am hoping that Posi's blast, chance for eng damage checks for each and every ice chunk on blizzard. I thought it was so....

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It doesn't. Blizzard functions the same as the other Rain powers: it summons a pet that does the attack but the proc for the pet is on a 10 second cooldown. The interesting thing about this however is that because the Blizzard lasts 15 seconds, it will actually check the proc against all targets affected twice: one at the initial tick of damage and a second after 10 seconds.

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I remember reading that if you slot a Membrane Exposure in Active Defense it raises your defense debuff resistance. It doesn't show it in Mid's but in game it shows.

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Does anyone know how much defense debuff resistance it would offer? I about have just enough for it but yea it doesn't show up in mids.

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Membrane would increase the debuff resistance by the exact amount of +def you're enhancing it with. A single Membrane would increase it by 20%, two by 40%, and three by 56% (ED is fun). The def debuff resistance values for these various stages would be 20.76%, 24.22%, and 26.99%.

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Ok, an update to my old chain:

Voltaic Sentinel / / Def Timer: 0.0 sec
C. Brawl(1st): (109*(1+.205+.255+.9749)) = 265.40 / Act: .924 / Def Timer: .924 sec / 0 sec
C. Bolt(1st): (62.6*(1+.26+.255+1.009)) = 158 / Act: 1.188 / Def Timer: 2.112 sec / 1.188
L. Bolt(1st): (102.6*(1+.326+.255+1.009)) = 265.73 / Act: 1.848 / Def Timer: 3.96 / 3.036
C.Brawl(2nd): (109*(1+.436+.255+.9749)) = 290.58 / Act: .924 / Def Timer: 4.884 / 3.96
C.Bolt(2nd): (62.6*(1+.491+.255+1.009)) = 172.46 / Act: 1.188 / Def Timer: 6.072 / 5.148
L. Bolt (2nd): (102.6*(1+.557+.255+1.009)) = 289.43 / Act: 1.848 / Def Timer: 7.92 / 6.996
C.Brawl (3rd): (109*(1+.667+.255+.9749)) = 315.76 / Act: .924 / Def Timer: 8.844 / 7.92
C. Bolt (3rd): (62.6*(1+.722+.255+1.009)) = 186.92 / Act: 1.188 / Def Timer: 10.032 / 9.108<- last attack effected by 1st CB buff
L.Bolt (3rd): (102.6*(1+(.788-.055)+.255+1.009)) = 307.49 / Act: 1.848 / Def Timer: 11.88 <-last attack effected by sparky buff.

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You're still only getting the Defiance benefit only marginally right. The buff only last 7.5 seconds after the power itself ends and, thanks to your attack string, this means that it lasts for 2 full iterations of the attack string. The Charged Brawl Defiance buff lasts until you activate Charged Brawl the second time. This means that, with your attack string, after you get to the third iteration, you're packing 46.2% +dam from defiance for all of your powers (the buff drops off in the middle of the second activation but, thanks to how the game reads said effects, it uses the value whenever you activate rather than when the damage starts happening). Voltaic Sentinel would apply the 20.5% +dam to the first 2 iterations of the attack string (Charged Brawl 1 to Lightning Bolt 2). If you're trying to figure out sustained damage, since you're spending 3.3 seconds every 63.3 seconds, it's not really viable to calculate with the voltaic sentinel buff as a reliable contributor.

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Another question that pop in my mind, i understand there is a Max cap on hit points. What might that be for a scrapper??

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The max hp for Scrappers is base*1.8 or 1338.6*1.8 or 2409.5. If you slot with the 5 piece doctored wounds, all but heal/end, you'll get 57.6% +maxhp or 771.2 +maxhp. If you've also gotten the 4 passive accolades, you'll have a passive 20% +hp (and a nice little 10% +end), meaning that you're only barely short (re: 31.5). In general, my recommendation is that you not even bother trying to get maxhp set bonuses. If you slot for IOs even a bit, you'll quickly find that you can get the last 2.4% +maxhp rather easily and oftentimes be sitting above cap when you finish.

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Oh and another question, some sets like the numina convalence give at (4) 6%enhancement (heal)
Is that a 6% extra to that power, so it goes from 50%heal to 56% heal enhancement. Or is it 6% heal extra for my totalt regenation wich it alot extra ????

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All of the set bonuses increase the buff value rather than providing an end multiplier. The 6% +heal set bonus from Numina's Convalescence will, functionally, give you 6% more from enhancements that isn't affected by ED. Something to realize though is that Reconstruction, Healing Flames, and any other heal that accepts resistance IOs are all unaffected by buffs and debuffs. This means that, while the set bonus will increase the size of your Dull Pain's heal effect, it won't affect Reconstruction in the least.

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Because i see some that says recharges, and if that gives to all powers then its crazzyyyy..

Some like a few says Damages3%(all) so thats why im wondering about the others..

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The set bonuses like this don't decrease the recharge or increase the damage by a further quantity (damage isn't multiplied by another 3% and recharge isn't reduced by another 5%). They simply give more +recharge or +dam to the power. This means that, if you've got 95% +recharge slotted into the power, dividing the base recharge by 1.95 for the end recharge, with a 5% recharge set bonus, you'd instead be dividing the base recharge of the power by (1.95+.05), or 2. An attack with 95% +dam from slotting would be dealing 1.98 times the base damage, not 1.95*1.03. The set bonuses are treated exactly like buffs applied by an outside party.

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Oh feel free to chat with me ingame on virtue if you got time for more info.
@asolar
Cloe Leaf (atm lvl 38 scrapper claw/regen)

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Anyone anywhere with any questions about whatever can feel free to send me a tell whenever I'm on. My global is in my signature (@Umbral Fist).

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1. (I know this has been asked before but I can't remember the answer) Is there any icon that appears in your buffs when the proc triggers. One of mine is a +To Hit proc so I figured there might be an icon when it goes off.

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No, there isn't, but, if you have your combat attributes window open, you'll b able to see the name of the buff on you. It's always the name of the set in question. If you're simply tracking the attribute in question, if it's not a highly variable value like hp or endurance, you can generally track it just by looking for a substantial gain.

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2. For an aoe proc, does it do a roll for each individual enemie that's hit with the attack? I have a chance for build up slotted in my soul drain and was wondering if it might go off twice or so if I get 10 guys in the attack. If it's just a roll for each time the power is used then I might rather put it in FA later when I respec.

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It depends on the proc, but, if you're using the Gaussian's Chance for Build Up proc, it only checks a single time per activation, not per target. In general, the rule of thumb is that, if it affects yourself, it will only check once. If it affects the target, it will affect every enemy you target.

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3. What's the rule with toggles again? I seem to remember something like it triggers every minute or two or something like that.

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Toggles will only check the proc after a 10 second cool down period and will check again when the toggle reactivates the effect. In general, these occur simultaneously (because the toggle has an activation period evenly divisible by 10 causing the 10 seconds to come up right when the toggle activates), but there are a few powers that, because of their activation cycles (Cloak of Fear, World of Confusion; both have activation cycles of 4 seconds), check procs less often than once every 10 seconds (both of those powers instead check once every 12 seconds).

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4. What are some good procs for Dark Melee/Shield Scrappers. I'm only really interested in cheap ones that are nice to have, not the ones that'll cost 400 mil influence.

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Procs that you'll definitely want are the Performance Shifter +End proc in Stamina, any number of the damage procs for attacks, Force Feedback +rech proc works great in Shield Charge, the Steadfast Protection 3% +def proc, the 3 heal IO set procs (Numina, Miracle, Regenerative Tissue). Something to keep in mind: some procs (like the heal IO set procs, Steadfast IO 3% +def proc and the Performance Shifter proc) work better in passive and toggle powers; others (like the damage procs) nearly universally work better in attacks. It depends pretty heavily on the proc itself and the specifics of its effect, chance, and duration.