Just going to hop in and mention that this:
"C.) Defense caps on all AT's are higher than the Res cap on any AT"
is a good reason for Defense to have a higher value, and doesn't support your argument. Though you should probably mention that soft capping defense (45%) is enough, and anything over that, and towards the cap, should be reserved for things that hit more accurately, or are scaled (like LTs, Bosses, EBs, AVs). In which case you should mention that hitting the Resistance cap, will ALWAYS be the resistance cap no matter what you fight (from that -1 minion to the +4 AV, you'll still resist the damage).
Honestly, I like all your suggested improvements, except the one about doubling value. I'm not convinced that's required.
I don't really agree with mez resistance, seeing as that's more the providence of break frees in my opinion, however, I would more than appreciate an increase to the effectiveness of orange insps to the order of 15/22.5/30% +res and some kind of debuff resistance added to them (of the same magnitude).
IIRC, the inspiration numbers are an artifact of how defense operated back when orange inspirations were first added. Resistance was considered to be significantly stronger than defense because resistance was a flat reduction whereas defense was a chance based reduction and actually contributed much less when enemies received +tohit rather than +acc against lower level players.
Yes the suggestion to make them better was thrown in last minute, any other more mathematically sound suggestions would be welcome.
As far as hitting the defense vs res cap is concerned, it is the disparity between AT based res caps, vs the universality of a high defense cap in question.
If all "could" hit res caps, and if res caps were higher for squishy classes (though hard to obtain, like soft capping is) then we might see people trying to using resistance to it's advantages (as in the example you provided) rather than building towards defense caps since it is well, possible given that most can reach defense cap through bonuses, or at least get close enough that a single purple will throw them over and because it provides pseudo-mez defense. Where as that is not even a possibility to many due to low +res set bonuses/inspiration values, and typed vs positional damage.
However, to those not familiar with the workings of defense vs enemy tohit, thanks for providing the information.
"Fascinating. I'm not bored at all, I swear." -Kikuchiyo
[ QUOTE ]
IIRC, the inspiration numbers are an artifact of how defense operated back when orange inspirations were first added. Resistance was considered to be significantly stronger than defense because resistance was a flat reduction whereas defense was a chance based reduction and actually contributed much less when enemies received +tohit rather than +acc against lower level players.
[/ QUOTE ]
I am beginning to find that many problems in this game are based on global rule changes affecting powers that are not adjusted to compensate.
Usually these are not overly obvious and can be dealt with by ignoring(as they have been) but for some reason I've been noticing them more often lately.
Maybe it's because I'm less busy playing the game so when I look at things like numbers, problems appear that it's harder to say "it's fine, I'll live" when it simply looks wrong
"Fascinating. I'm not bored at all, I swear." -Kikuchiyo
My primary is a level fifty /Invulnerability brute, with a fair amount of Resistance and Defense, and yes, I strongly agree that purples go so much further towards not dying in nearly every instance. I have soloed some rather difficult AVs using nothing but a full tray of purples, wheras oranges just.. aren't helpful. The fact that purples protect me from the secondary effects of attacks, such as the energy drain of Elec powers and the slow of Ice powers, makes them signfiicantly better even if they DID provide the same amount of damage mitigation.
But as said, they don't provide even remotely the same mitigation.
If a character with no form of resistance or defense uses a medium purple, he goes from taking about 50% of his foe's attacks to about 25%. This cuts his damage intake by half, 50%.
If he uses a medium orange, he cuts his damage intake by...15%.
So a medium purple has a "base" mitigation of 50% and a medium orange has a base mitigation of 15%.
The character uses a second medium purple. He is now taking 5% of his enemy's attacks, so 10% of what he originally was. The second orange means he's taking 30% less damage, so 70% of what he originally was.
Two purples are 90% effective at preventing damage. Two oranges are 30% effective.
I vote upping the size of the oranges to 20, 40, and 60% damage resistances. It's huge numbers, yes, but it's more on par with the sort of bonuses Purples give, and it STILL leaves them weaker due to the fact that defense debuffs and enemy to hit buffs are more common than enemies hitting you with -Res.
NPCs: A Single Method to Greatly Expand Bases
What I'd like to see added to oranges is Res(Effects). Slow, endurance, -dam, -tohit etc.
What shall claim a Sky Kings' Ransom?
PPD & Resistance Epic Archetypes
Also -fly. Let oranges protect you from -fly and -jump.
NPCs: A Single Method to Greatly Expand Bases
Make em better.
Defense inspirations are far more powerful than Resistance insps in every possible way. Reasoning?
Defense insps move up in larger increments per rank and start higher
small: 12.5%
medium: 25% (+12.5)
Large: 33% (+8)
vs Orange
small: 10%
medium: 15%(+5)
large: 20%(+5)
This makes absolutely no sense considering
A.) Defense is roughly twice as effective at mitigating regular damage
B.) Defense provides mez defense vs all via dodging completely
C.) Defense caps on all AT's are higher than the Res cap on any AT
D.) Hitting defense cap on any AT via purples can be done with far less inspirations (<=4) and leaves you godlike for the duration
E.) Hitting res cap takes in all scenarios (except smalls at 7) twice as many insps to hit cap, and if you're a squishy class (70% res cap) than that actually means you still can't very safe and all mezzes will still land.
F.) Oranges new bonus was providing teleport res. Defense actually does that too, via dodging.
Okay.
So oranges. Make em better.
*edit* oh, right how they could be made better?
Double the values of each insp, that does not make them overpowered actually. Also, add a small bit of mez [u]resistance[u], that would not make them in anyway superior to breakfree since the effect is not immediate, nor does it prevent detoggling. Should include KB prot mag 1,2 and 3, considering "resistance" is thematic with that.
That would bring it in line with purples, almost, but close enough.
"Fascinating. I'm not bored at all, I swear." -Kikuchiyo