Knockback Protection IOs

[dixey]

Again, this is information I haven't seen posted anywhere so I just figured I'd share my personal experience. IMO, it's some of the most useful practical information I've found in applying anything IO. These IOs are now my absolute favorite new addition to the game.

The two IOs in question are -
Karma: Knockback Protection

Comments

[bittercupojoe]

I really wish they would make the status resistance IOs into status protection IOs. Status resistance is just this side of useless, but protection... man, I'd love to have a blaster that didn't have to worry about getting held/slept/stunned.

[dixey]

I absolutely totally completely agree. Even if you had to get each type of status protection seperately and therefore would likely have to pick and choose. Combined with the fact that you cannot get the duration to zero (or even beyond 50%), so worthless the way it is now. I'm only bothering with the status resistance IOs on characters like my Raiding Empath. The rest... a toggle drop is a toggle drop is a toggle drop and it'll cost me a breakfree and the recharge time no matter how you look at it.

[terrycloth]

On tanks and scrappers, the resistance will prevent toggle drops by keeping enemies from stacking mag to defeat your protection.

On squishies... a 3-second stun is probably survivable, a 6-second stun is likely fatal. It still matters. Especially if it can make their mez non-perma. Toggles still drop, but that's usually just an inconvenience (with the exception of rad/ defenders) (/rad trollers and dark/ defenders have ways of coping, and hurricane's debuff lingers for a bit).

I didn't know the status resist IOs were effectively set bonuses, though -- I thought they only stayed on as long as the toggles were up, which *would* make them useless. Haven't tried them out, though.

And yeah, protection would be better. Except in PvP, where there's too much protection already.

[bittercupojoe]

True, but survivable doesn't necessarily mean fun. And it makes, for example, leaving hover on quite a bit more dangerous. If they would make it so that certain toggles didn't get turned off by status effects, that would be just fine by me.

Beyond that, the fact that there is no really consistent way to keep toggles up for squishies means that the fighting pool's pretty much worthless to them, and the tactics pool is a constant game of "Let's Retoggle!" Hell, if they suppressed the effects of toggles instead of turning them off, things would be better, for that matter. The whole defense system being so dependent on toggles is one of my least favorite things about CoH, really.

[terrycloth]

Personally, I wish they made it so that stun didn't drop toggles, since it's the most common one to just randomly happen to you thanks to all the enemies with energy melee and super-strength.

Holds and Sleeps it kind of makes sense... sleep shouldn't be the *only* one, and if sleep didn't drop toggles it'd be no threat whatsoever in PvE.

Yeah, toggle-heavy squishie builds can be a pain... hover isn't so bad since hover has basically no activation or recharge time, but leadership is, or [shudder] Radiation Infection and darkest night, with 3-second activation times and non-negligible recharge.

[bittercupojoe]

I dunno. Sleep's length makes it a huge pain in the ass. The equivalent in WoW is Polymorph, and people hate getting hit with that, since it takes them out of the fight for 20 seconds, which can be an eternity in a pitched fight. Of course, it requires a certain restraint from one's teammates to use properly.

[terrycloth]

In teams there's usually someone with a heal of some sort who can break you out (since healing counts as negative damage or something, for the purposes of breaking sleep), and solo the enemies generally do it for you almost instantly.

The AI *was* changed to try to ignore sleeping targets unless there's no one else to fight, though.

[dixey]

Meh. The big problem comes when you are the one with the heal, which is generally my problem with Sleeps.