Deeper look into core BH skills.

[Poombibio]

I’m having a hard setting up a rotation due to some lost synergy in the way the talents were set up around Rocket Punch. The main culprit is the Flame Shield talent is in how it ends the Rocket Punch(RP) CD. As my math shows, having this effect on RP is counterproductive to the synergy and would be of better use on another attack, Flame Burst, or possibly Rail Shot, or Heat Blast. Check it out.

1. All the talent bonuses to RP means that you can’t afford to not use it when the CD is up, it’s too important.(ex. Ion Cylinder Proc, Flame Shield(+30% crit%), Flame Surge(+30% crit damage). Thus you have to build the rotation around it.

2. However, the math doesn’t support relying on RP more than once every 9 seconds, in spite of the Flame Shield talent.
a. I would put the Shield chance around 20% for a high level PT ST tank.(Empowered Tech talents is +10%). Let me know if someone has any better insider #s.
b. Flame Shield talent says 50% of successful shields will finish the CD of RP, minimum every 4.5 seconds.
c. So the math says that @20% shield chance, there is only a 10% chance that this will proc per attack.
d. Such a low % of proc in such a short CD(9secs) is essentially useless to a tank which only thrives when it is reliable.
i. For example, if attacked at once per second(reasonable), there is a 20% chance it will not proc in <9 seconds){10% chance for the first 8 attacks, 9th attack doesn’t matter as the CD is over anyway}
ii. Furthermore, I would take away the last 1.5 secs(GCD) of the CD, from 7.5 to 9, as you will want to use a different attack in that time frame of the rotation to prep for using RP as soon as the CD is up. Therefore, there is more like a 30% chance that that either the proc will not happen or you cannot take advantage. That is much too high to rely on and build a rotation around other than @9 seconds.

There are also other reasons why having this proc for RP doesn’t create synergy.

1. Counterproductive versus # of opponents: It doesn’t scale up.
a. If tanking 1 mob, the rate of attacks is low, thus there is less % of this adding any advantage to RP, a heavy single target attack.
b. If tanking AoE, the rate of attacks is high, there is a significantly higher % of proc, but once the proc happens, RP is only a single target attack, thus reducing the effectiveness of AoE tanking.
2. Any proc at range >4m or during transitions is likely wasted as you still have to close the gap.(ex. On RP CD, get blown back, get shot at, procs, close the gap, and be ready for RP: there’s a very good chance that you would already be off RP CD without the proc as its only 9sec CD)

They could change the Flame Shield talent to proc at a higher % but I think that would be the wrong way to create synergy using this proc idea. Not only would RP be OP unless they nerfed other talents, but it would take a huge amount of variation out of the BH tanking game. Idk about you but, I don’t wanna spend my time punching a guy in the face every 4.5 seconds and having to stay inside 4m to be effective despite 90% of my weapons being effective at 8m or greater.

Now, if they changed the talent to end the CD of Flame Burst, it would drive a huge amount of rotation synergy between Rocket Punch and Flame Burst, and allowing for a vastly more varied and interesting gameplay. I could go into this but that’s for another day.

[SlimX]

(10-14-2011 05:36 AM)Poombibio Wrote:  a. I would put the Shield chance around 20% for a high level PT ST tank.(Empowered Tech talents is +10%). Let me know if someone has any better insider #s.

Equipping a shield generator gives you a 20% base chance to block. As far as I could tell, this did not change by gaining levels.

Fully talented, you gain an additional 12% chance to block (Shield Vents + Empowered Tech) for a minimum of 32% block chance just for being a ST specced BH.

On top of that, you potentially have additonal block chance from block rating gear. No way to say yet how plentiful or useful it will be, compared to defense raiting, but you might want to toss a few extra % into the equation as a guess: something like 35%, perhaps.

[Poombibio]

(10-14-2011 06:10 AM)SlimX Wrote:  

(10-14-2011 05:36 AM)Poombibio Wrote:  a. I would put the Shield chance around 20% for a high level PT ST tank.(Empowered Tech talents is +10%). Let me know if someone has any better insider #s.

Equipping a shield generator gives you a 20% base chance to block. As far as I could tell, this did not change by gaining levels.

Fully talented, you gain an additional 12% chance to block (Shield Vents + Empowered Tech) for a minimum of 32% block chance just for being a ST specced BH.

On top of that, you potentially have additonal block chance from block rating gear. No way to say yet how plentiful or useful it will be, compared to defense raiting, but you might want to toss a few extra % into the equation as a guess: something like 35%, perhaps.

Thanks, forgot about the shield generator.
Puts the Proc% per at attack at 17-20%.(allowing up to 40% block). Still very hard to set a reliable rotation up with that kind of percentage. I would still be inclined to forget about it, and just plan on RP at about 9sec intervals. There's other things to worry about as a tank.

[Alratan]

(10-14-2011 06:10 AM)SlimX Wrote:  Equipping a shield generator gives you a 20% base chance to block. As far as I could tell, this did not change by gaining levels.

Fully talented, you gain an additional 12% chance to block (Shield Vents + Empowered Tech) for a minimum of 32% block chance just for being a ST specced BH.

On top of that, you potentially have additonal block chance from block rating gear. No way to say yet how plentiful or useful it will be, compared to defense raiting, but you might want to toss a few extra % into the equation as a guess: something like 35%, perhaps.

Unless this has changed, the % granted from a shield generator is based on the quality of the generator (Uncommon, Prototype, etc.), with Prototypes onwards giving 20%. It's reasonable to assume that anyone in a raid situation will always have 20%.

I think that about +5-10% would be reasonable for an all round and well-geared tank, as the developers seem to want us to spread around between shield, absorb and defence rather than focusing too much.

[SlimX]

I should have been more specific. During the 10/07 weekend test, the earliest green quality generators gave 20% base. I have no knowledge of the generators of higher quality.