Umbral

Mids already has the end reduction of all of the powers factored in. I simply took those values, added them up and then divided them by the total animation time of the attack string.

Already factored in homie.

I wouldn't really consider that an attack string simply because you're not using it cyclically. I would instead consider that an attack string segment or a burst damage attack string.

In an actual cycled attack string, it doesn't really matter where you have Burst simply because you're going to be cycling the attacks over and over again. I will cede that if you're using it as part of an AoE chain/segment and only using it to clean up survivors of the AoE onslaught then it's not really a particularly useful proc (which was part of a huge discussion on the Scrapper boards quite a few months ago), but if you're actually using it as part of a boss-killer attack string (which, I'll also admit isn't even remotely within AR's realm of expertise, much less AR/Dev's), then it's going to be worth it.

Yeah, with 57 second recharge, that would allow him to get 23.75-110 end back every 58 seconds for .41-1.93 end/sec, but that's also adding the additional problem of Hasten uptime (which is important for long recharging powers like DC because it's not actually going to be up that fast all the time because Hasten isn't perma) and Hasten endurance costs (15 endurance every Hasten cycle). With your build, Hasten is up once every 141 seconds which is an uptime of 85% for an average contribution of 59.5% +rech and a cost of .106 end/sec. Add that in to the 79.79% +rech you've got in DC and that 62.5% +rech you've got from set bonuses and that gives you DC with a recharge of 59.6 seconds so that you can use it once every ~61 seconds. 23.75-110 end every 61 seconds would amount to .39-1.8 end/sec.

Even including DC's contribution, you're still going to be hemorraging endurance with a constant attack string. With 3.41 end/sec without DC (passive + .22 for the Perf Shifter proc), you'd get 5.21 end/sec recovery with 1.75 end/sec consumption from toggles and Hasten. That gives you 3.46 end/sec to use for attacks. The optimal attack string while Hasten is up for your build is Gloom>Smite>MG>Gloom>Smite>Siphon which burns 3.99 end/sec. So it's not even sustainable under optimal DC conditions to run at full tilt.

The issue with this is that it's not going to be able to keep the weapon straight with such a wide grip. It's possible to have the weapon anchored at 2 body points, but this means that the weapon is going to be bent at each anchor point because the game knows how to draw a line between two points but not how to extrapolate a line for an object from 2 basic points. The game can't make the angle that the staff comes out of your hand change because that's not an anchor point, that's a static direction away from an anchor point. As far as we know, BABs can't make the weapon change this static direction, much less change it so that it's a variable direction based on the relative position of the two hand anchor points.

Also, using dual Blades with horizontal hands would just look... bad. I'm not even going to get into how off that would look.

Werner, you fudged your power name there. It's 235% +rech in MG. Smite requires 184% +rech.

The Perf Shifter proc provides more end/sec benefit than anything else you can slot into Stamina. Anything. I go into it in a bit more detail in this thread, but suffice it to say that the math is there.

As to the actually meaning of the original quote, it's not really true. The build is generating a crazy huge amount of end consumption. When I ran the numbers, even with Stamina, it was generating a net loss of endurance.

Depending on what you want to consider "normal playstyle", Stamina could easily have been the better option for you, especially considering that you weren't particularly set up for recharge, which is what makes DC so potent.

Consider this:

With 95% recharge from slotting and the 42.5% global +rech from slotting (127.5% total +rech), DC would have been available once every 80 seconds. Assuming you slotted it for something other than end mod (which is generally a waste, considering what it does with multiple targets), against a single target, that would only be a 95% chance for 25 end every 80 seconds for .296875 end/sec. Against more targets (re: enough to get 5 with every application and a tiny chance of missing that many), that's 110 end (cuz you're gonna get the accolades, right?) every 80 seconds, for 1.375 end/sec.

Now, consider Stamina: assuming you use the same slotting as you did for QR, that's 1.16 end/sec (Perf Shifter adds another .22 end/sec). 1.16 end/sec v. .296875-1.1375 end/sec.

Honestly, because you're not packing any decent amount of recharge, you're best bet is to stick with Stamina simply because you need to constantly be fighting a glut of targets for it to be better. As soon as you drop down to a single target, you're not really going to be getting much out of it.

You may not know from you lack of experience with posting builds, but the "Official forums / UBB.threads" formatting code no longer works on the new boards. Repost that using the "phpBB / Zetaboards" formatting code if you want to make it decently legible.

I doubt it. A set full to the brim of various ranged attacks is about as Scrappery as Assault Rifle Melee.

If anything, I could see it existing some time in the future, but I would expect it to be a generic thrown projectiles set that allows you to reskin the various animations as the projectile of your choice (re: weapon customization allows you to pick whether you're throwing cards, knives, shuriken, etc). I wouldn't expect any of the Tanker style throwing powers (re: Hurl Boulder), though I would expect the ability to choose the individual projectiles on a power-for-power basis to come along with it (cuz that AoE you get could be a grenade, an exploding shuriken, or a doll and have nothing to do with the fact that most of the time you're throwing knives around).

If you're doing this off of melee damage scalars, you got the Scrapper number wrong. Their melee scalar is 1.125. Also, Brutes are going to equal Scrappers much earlier than 80% Fury (which is 160% +dam). Assuming both of them are slotting for 95% +dam, it would only take the Brute 59% fury to equal the Scrapper (assuming 7% average contribution from crits). If the Brute short slots to 66% +dam to get a bit more end redux, it would only take 74% fury to match damage with the 95% slotted Scrapper.

It would also behoove those numbers to more accurately dictate the exact contributions of the various critical mechanisms. Stalkers don't really get appreciably dangerous unless there are a number of other people around them (giving them a 31% crit rate when surrounded by 7 teammates). When solo, all they've got is the base 10% crit rate and guaranteed crits from hidden. Overall, you could probably rate them as having a 21% crit rate. Scrappers on the other hand get an average 7% crit for normal play (if you prefer AV fights or other situations that completely remove minions, 10% is your best bet).

You're also ignoring peak damage capability, though you bring up peak resistance. Tankers have a peak of 300% +dam, Scrappers and Stalkers have one of 400% +dam, and Brutes have one of 750% +dam. In general, you'll find that Brutes, Stalkers, and Scrapper all have roughly the same damage if you take their performance across the varies situations into account (solo, teamed, peak) while Tankers will be left in the dust for all situations.

A more accurate definition would be to simply give the numbers, since those are rather vague and (in the case of your Scrapper hp assignment, off by nearly 5%):
Tanker: 1874.1 base hp, 3212.7 max hp, .1 self defensive self buff modifier, 90% res cap
Scrapper: 1338.6 base hp, 2409.5 max hp, .075 defensive self buff modifier, 75% res cap
Brute: 1499.4 base hp, 3212.7 max hp, .075 defensive self buff modifier, 90% res cap
Stalker: 1204.8 base hp, 1606.4 max hp, .075 defensive self buff modifier, 75% res cap

Using Scrappers as a baseline, the first of each pair of numbers is the expected average and the second is absolute peak:
Tankers: 30-50% lower damage, 86-333% greater survivability
Brutes: 0-3% greater damage (assuming average performance can average 60% fury), 12-333% greater survivability
Stalkers: 0-6% greater damage, 10-33% lower survivability (ignoring placate capabilities)

Shadow Maul is friggin' gold for AoE if you know how to use it. If you can't, keep it for the IO mule. If you can, realize that the sets that you're going to mule it with give it awesome numbers.

That depends on two things: how you slot your attacks and what attack string you plan on using.

MG>Smite>Siphon>Smite will require 184% +rech in Smite, 235% +rech in MG, and 116% +rech in Siphon. You're probably going to want to get at least 140% +rech at least simply because MG is demanding.

Siphon Life is the least demanding power in your attack chain. You can easily ignore +rech and pick up some heal but you will lose some set bonuses. Considering how much additional survivability you get by frankenslotting +heal into Siphon and how much damage you would lose by not slotting it with +dam, your best bet is to frankenslot it and do without the set bonuses.

One last comment. Demobot, I'm the only Umbral. The original. Anyone else that steals my name is but a pale imitation that shall die in a shower of blood, intestines, and darkness. You've been warned.

Archvillain debuff resistances vary with level. At 50, they've got 85% resistance to most debuffs. Das link for more info.

But the point is that he didn't prevent the tank from tanking Rommy and the Nicti. He body pulled them. It's not like he prevented the tank from getting aggro after that. Honestly, if the tank thinks that taking the alpha is all that big of a deal within the long run, he's sadly mistaken, (especially when it's rather obvious from what we've been told that the tank was being rather laggard for the rest of the TF).

It's like I always say, if the Tanker isn't having to bust his *** to beat the Scrapper to the next spawn, the Scrapper isn't doing his job. If the Scrapper isn't having to bust his *** to beat the Tanker to the next spawn, the Tanker isn't doing his job. The Tanker obviously wasn't doing his job.

There isn't a vBulletin option. This is why you use the "phpBB / Zetaboards" option that the forums use.

There isn't any method you can use to counter the specific weakness to energy that */DA has (well, you could go heavy on typed energy defense, but that's gonna be mostly a waste). Your best bet is simply to load up on stuff to help your blue bar (Stamina is a must, +end is awesome, as much +recov as you can) to make Dark Regen less painful and stack up on positional defense. You'll still be weaker to energy damage than anything else due simply to having less resistance to it than any other type, but you'll be safe enough that it won't matter much.

First off, what do you mean by Force Field Scrapper? There isn't an FF secondary for Scrappers. Do you mean */Shield? */SR? */Invuln?

As to the toggles, DA has 7 but you should only be running 6 of them (choose either OG or CoF, not both), and the costs aren't too bad. Depending on whether you IO yourself while leveling, you'll probably want to pick up Acrobatics (and Combat Jumping as a pre-req). The Fighting Pool is simply golden for all types of Scrappers. All of that will be 10 toggles, which isn't really as much as you might think.

Achilles' Heel fires off often enough for it to make a substantial benefit if you actually use the attack reasonably often. The important thing to remember is that, in order to see a decent return, you need to actually use the power reasonably often.

Surveillance is, of course, the better option simply because it's trading 1.716 seconds every ~20 seconds for a 14% reduction in resistance. AH has the advantage of trading no animation time (because it's a proc) for a chance at a 20% reduction in resistance for 10 seconds. The uptime is then related to how often you actually check it. If you check 4 times every 10 seconds (re: use an average of 4 attacks with an AH proc slotted every 10 seconds), you're going to average 11.81% -res. If you check 6 times, you'll average 14.76%.

The AH proc isn't really all that wonderful when put into an attack that isn't often used but if you put it into an attack that you use almost every other time (which you should be using as often as possible simply because it's your best ST attack), it's a wonderful contributor.

Honestly, I don't really see a problem with allowing the 5% end redux to stack 5 times. It's not like it's any more powerful than being able to stack 5 KB protection IOs or 5 LotG +rech IOs.

Keep in mind that 25% end redux isn't actually a 25% reduction in endurance costs. It would be a 20% reduction in endurance costs, assuming that there is no other endurance reduction in any of those powers. Endurance costs are calculated by dividing the original cost of the power by (1 + end redux), which means that you get rather potent diminishing returns. 100% end redux reduces the cost of a power by half. 200% reduces it by a third. And so on.

I don't blame the OP for taking the lead at all though. If the Tanker had a problem with someone else taking the alpha, then he should have made sure to either be built to move (with +movement set bonuses) or brought a kin along. The OP did make a faux pas though when he initiated the fight with Rommy, knowing that the Tanker wanted to tank it, though it's not as if taking the alpha is the sole functionality of Tanker.

Honestly, the OP did a little wrong, starting the fight with Rommy knowing that the Tank specifically wanted to jump in and take it, but the Tanker could just as easily have used Taunt/an attack to get in and start taking it to the face as he wanted to without much effort rather than kicking out of impotent rage, so it wouldn't really be a kicking offense. Honestly, I'm surprised no one simply told the Tank to hurry up since he was obviously not being much use in fights when everyone else gets involved before he did.

It's not so much that it would make the Scrapper/Stalker inherents no longer special. It's that it doesn't benefit those ATs as much as it would everyone else that is simply getting the 5% increase to their damage.

Here's a quick explanation for the numbers I posted ((re: 12 * 1.05 > 10 * (1.2 + .05)):

AT a and AT b are balanced for damage. They both have a total damage capability of 12. AT a accomplishes this by simply having a large amount of damage that it dishes out (12 damage capability). AT b accomplishes this by having less damage normally (10 damage capability) but a 20% chance to double it (generating a 20% increase in average damage for a total capability of 12). The "math" for this would look like "12 = 10 * 1.2". If you gave this effect to both of the ATs, AT a would get more out of it than AT b simply because the extra 5 percent is affecting the 12 damage capacity of AT a and only affecting the 10 damage capacity of AT b (12 * 1.05 v. 10 * (1.2 + .05)).

As to the mechanics of it, look at the real numbers for the Brute version of a power and the Scrapper version of the power. Aside from the differences in damage, the powers also have different effects that are hard coded into the power's entry. Critical for Scrappers isn't an external capability that checks for each power. It's a specifically coded in capability of the power (which is also why it's a proc that is affected by +dam whereas enhancement procs are not).

As to seeing Scourge more than you see Critical for a Scrapper, your perception is getting in the way of reliable number generation (they actually appear at roughly the same rate, irrc), plus you're ignoring the fact that the rate of activation plays a significant part in balance. Scrappers and Stalkers have roughly similar damage over time but Stalkers will get double damage from Assassination a lot more than a Scrapper will see crit. This is because Stalkers have lower base damage (1.00 damage scalar) that is balanced by the fact that they will get double damage significantly more often than a Scrapper (with a 1.125 damage scalar) will.

BABs has commented that an Escrima type set (re: Dual Blades as smashing with flavor tweaks) would be much more likely than a Bo, Staff, or Polearm based set simply because of the animations.

The reason for this is derived from how weapons are generated as visual effects. They're all only held in a single hand and the location that the weapon is held at will never change. For a polearm/staff set, it doesn't make much sense to have a very close grip on it and wouldn't really allow BABs to generate powers that players would want (you know someone would want to spin their weapon in front of them as an attack). If the grip was spread out, there's no real way to ensure that the second hand will actually be holding on to the weapon while simultaneously ensuring that the weapon won't be bent strangely to the additional hand that it is anchored to (not to mention that it would need to be permanently anchored meaning that you wouldn't be able to shift grip).

If you want an example of this, make a Katana/* character that is as large as possible with shoulders as wide as possible. Enter the game, enter combat mode (re: activate an attack power with no target), and zoom in on your hands. The right hand won't actually be holding on to the weapon. This is because the Katana is actually anchored to the left hand and the right hand is simply in roughly the right spot.

Would you similarly ignore MoG for a */regen Scrapper, RoA for an arch/* blaster, Granite Armor for a stone/* tanker, Dark Servant for a dark/* defender, or any of the other tier 9s that are used all the time rather than being reserved for "oh-****" occasions?

Fulcrum Shift is on such a short recharge with a sufficiently long duration that its baseline uptime is 75%. That's not a power you ignore. And it's not like Fulcrum costs an inordinate amount of endurance, much less that endurance might be a problem for a kinetics.

Some tier 9s are ignorable because they're not standard usage. Fulcrum Shift isn't one of those.

Small heal? Really? It's stronger than Heal Other and applies to every ally within an area. That's not "little". That's "quite potent". Of course, that's within the context of heals, of which their comprehensive effectiveness is within question. But it's not a "small heal". It's the biggest one that you can get without hurting yourself (Absorb Pain).

GC: 3 sec base recharge, 1.584 needed, 90% +rech needed
GD: 12 sec base recharge, 3.432 needed, 250% +rech needed
SD: 9 sec base recharge, 3.828 needed, 135% +rech needed

You did fine on exporting, though there was some questionable slotting. Tactics is a better spot for the Gaussian's set than Build Up simply because Gaussian's is light on the recharge. The third LotG +rech in MoG is redundant simply because you'll already be over the hp cap if you get the +hp accolades (and you're planning on getting those, right?). You're better off just putting in another common rech IO. Stamina need identical slotting to QR. It gets you a bit more movement speed and the Perf Shifter proc is simply the best thing you can put into Stamina ever, as far as your blue bar is concerned. I switched out 6 piece Oblit for 5 piece Scirocco's (and put the extra slot into Resilience for the other 3% +def IO) because you don't need the melee def all that much because you've got Parry and are already over the rule of 5 for 5% +rech bonuses. Optimized your slotting in Fast Healing a bit (it's a really weak power in the grand scheme of things) and got some spare slots to throw around. Got some more out of Vengeance (pointless set bonuses make Umbral cry), Assault (as if you'd ever have problems with your blue bar) and put them into Hover and Fly (after switching Hover and Fly so that the build is actually possible) for triple BotZ goodness.

Not much in the way of actually changing it. Just more optimizing it than anything else.


Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

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Level 50 Natural Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Broad Sword
Secondary Power Set: Regeneration
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Leadership

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Hack -- Hectmb-Dmg/EndRdx(A), Hectmb-Dmg/Rchg(3), Hectmb-Dam%(5), Hectmb-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), Hectmb-Acc/Rchg(7), Achilles-ResDeb%(45)
Level 1: Fast Healing -- Numna-Heal(A), Mrcl-Rcvry+(11), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(19)
Level 2: Slice -- Sciroc-Acc/Dmg(A), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(9), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg(9), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(11)
Level 4: Reconstruction -- Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(13), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(13), Dct'dW-Heal(15), Dct'dW-Rchg(15)
Level 6: Quick Recovery -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-End%(7), EndMod-I(17)
Level 8: Parry -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(21), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(23), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(23), LkGmblr-Rchg+(43)
Level 10: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 12: Dull Pain -- Dct'dW-Heal(A), Dct'dW-Rchg(17), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(19), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(25), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(25)
Level 14: Health -- RgnTis-Regen+(A)
Level 16: Integration -- Numna-Heal/EndRdx(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(27), Numna-Heal(27)
Level 18: Whirling Sword -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(29), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(29), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(31), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31), Oblit-%Dam(48)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%(A), P'Shift-EndMod(31), EndMod-I(33)
Level 22: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(33), RechRdx-I(33)
Level 24: Resilience -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), Empty(39)
Level 26: Disembowel -- Mako-Acc/Dmg(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(34), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(34), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Mako-Dam%(36), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36)
Level 28: Build Up -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(43)
Level 30: Hover -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(43), Zephyr-Travel(46), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(46), Zephyr-ResKB(48)
Level 32: Head Splitter -- Armgdn-Dmg/Rchg(A), Armgdn-Dmg/EndRdx(39), Armgdn-Dam%(39), Armgdn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), Armgdn-Acc/Rchg(40), Achilles-ResDeb%(40)
Level 35: Instant Healing -- Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(36), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(37), Dct'dW-Heal(37), Dct'dW-Rchg(37)
Level 38: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 41: Moment of Glory -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(42), RechRdx-I(42), RechRdx-I(42)
Level 44: Tactics -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(45), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(45), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(46), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(48), GSFC-Build%(50)
Level 47: Vengeance -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 49: Fly -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(50), Zephyr-ResKB(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit