Some questions about the fundamentals of 'building' a hero

[Carravaggio]

I've been playing COX for about six months now, and I'm really enjoying it, but, to be honest, the fan forum is a horrid mess of a layout, and certain information is eluding me.
I figured the friendly gals and guys here at FR might be able to give me a hand in regards to some questions. So i'll post what it is i'm trying to work out and hopefully someone will be able to supply the relevant facts.

Firstly, slotting powers etc. Which way do enhancements work? If i have a bunch of end cost reduction enhancements (25% endurance red) and i throw four of them on a power, will it reduce the end cost of the power by 100% (25 x 4) OR will it reduce the end cost by 25%, then a further 25% or the remaining 75% etc.?

In short is it possible to make powers that cost next to no end?

Similarly, when making a power that increases your damage resistance, does a 25% damage reduction enhancement reduce the amount of damage you take by 25%, or does it increase your base resistance to that type of damage by 25%? and again, is it therefore possible to make a character that is almost invincible (from physical attacks anyway)

If someone even knows of a site or location of this sort of data and can link it for me that would be fine too. I'm just unsure how the enhancements work, and understanding that would be helpful in building a more powerful character.

[Ephemeris]

Every power has a base number for each aspect that can be slotted.  Your enhancements boost those base numbers by X%.  So...

If a power does an assumed 100 damage unslotted,
it would do 133 damage with 1 SO (assuming it's even level and 33%),
it would do 166 damage with 2 SO's,
it would do 194 damage with 3 SO's,
anything beyond 3 of the same SO's is virtually wasted because it's only adding about 4%/enhancer.  Better off using those enhancements elsewhere.

Endurance reduction numbers would look something like this:
assuming 100 end cost unslotted,
75 end with one SO (33%),
60 end with two SO's,
51 end with 3 SO's,
same rule applies...4 so's is overkill normally
Formula is basically base/(1+enhancement), which in this case is 100/(1+.33)
So no, it's not possible to make powers with an endurance cost, cost no endurance.  You can appoximately cut the cost in half.

Damage resistance SO  will increase resistance based the base number. 
So if you resist an assumed base 50% of smash/lethal damage unslotted (half the damage of all incoming hits),
with one SO (20%) you will resist 60% of the incoming damage 50*(1+.20)
with 2 SO's, you will resist 70%,
with 3 SO's, you will resist 78%,
again there is a drop off starting with the 3rd SO.  Usually not worth slotting anymore than 3 SO's.

Most Damage resistance bases are not as high as 50%.  If you have multiple resistance powers, resistance of the same type becomes additive.  So a fully slotted power with 25% fire resistance would add with another 25% fire resistance power for a total of 50% resistance.

Since it looks like you might be using 25% IO's, the cut-off before the drop-off is in the neighborhood of 90-95% enhanced.  Slotting four 25% IO's is not quite overkill.

Lastly, assume a power may have a base set of numbers that looks like this:  30% acc, 100 dam, 10 end cost, 10 recharge.  Slotting one SO for each, the results would be: 39.9% acc, 133 dam, 7.5 end cost, 7.5 recharge.  Magnitude of the base should be a consideration when enhancing.  Slotting for endurance or recharge would not be noticable in this example, because their bases are so low.  If the power is a long recharging power of 240 sec, then one SO would make it 180 sec recharge...a significant improvement.

*All the base numbers for powers were assumed for easy calcs.  Most powers within the game have never had their base numbers released.  Some people have 'pinpointed' the numbers based on trial and error.  Not sure where you could find those.

I hope that was clear, it's late....

[MJB]

Makes sense to me!

-MJB  <--n00b

[GhostMachine]

Carr, I'm too lazy to post a link, but download Sherksilver's Hero Builder and play around with it. Its not only good for building characters, but it helps figuring out slotting and end usage. (Won't help with building a Thugs MM as its never been updated with the proper descriptions for the various Thugs henchmen, or with using IOs, though)

[Tortuga]

What Ephy said.

Glad to see you in CoH, Carra!  What server are you playing on?  Why aren't you on Freedom with the rest of us?  It's fun times!

[Carravaggio]

Thanks for th info guys, Eph, maths is not my strong point but i get what you said, thanks for that.
GM, i downlaoded the tool, its got a bit of a learning curve, but i'll stick with it, it'll be very useful to see where i'll be at 50.
Tort, I mostly play on Pinnacle (no reason, just what was picked) i use MMOs as a way to hang out with my best friend; my brother, who lives far away from me. While i'd love to hang out with the FR crew, TBH i dont get that much time to spend on it (its taken me 6 months to get to 20) and my PC is painfully slow. I wouldn't want to inflict the horrid loading times and lag on anyone else (fortunately my brother is patient ).
Maybe next year when i FINALLY graduate, get a career underway and get this damn PC ive been eyeing for waaaay to long i'll be able to join up with FR. It'd be nice to be part of a supergroup. As it is, My brother and I just run as a duo.
thanks again for the replies guys, i hope to see you on there some day :)

[Reepicheep]

We shall now proceed to hunting you down.

[Carravaggio]

We shall now proceed to hunting you down.

:)
Hey man, this one of two forums/boards i frequent, i dont have a myspace or any sort of web presence. I dont have a blog or any of that jazz. FR is my Internet home away from home, if i had the time and resources, I'd be right alongside you guys, defending justice and righting wrongs (or committing them on COV).
I'll look into the groups that exist on FR/freedom server, i know the carnival/circus themed one, i'm guessing FR is somthing like avengers, where you are who you are?

[Uncle Yuan]

At least throw your global on the list so we can chat with you (if our schedules ever mesh).  My son plays on my account and has his toons on Pinnacle, but he only plays rarely.

[Carravaggio]

done and done