Behind the Mask: The power that changed the game

One of the difficult things about explaining complex systems is that sometimes too much detail is bad, and other times not enough detail is also bad. Last week I talked about the myriad defensive systems in Champions Online as a precursor to an analysis of the mighty Inertial Dampening Field. The big problem is that in a huge complex series of systems like CO's, it's difficult to get all the information into one column.

This week, we're going to skip talking about the new Inventor Archetype and the Gadgeteering revamp to talk more about the impact of IDF on the free-form hero game. IDF is probably the most game-changing power released in F2P, and its effects on Champions' gameplay is far-reaching.

Inertial Dampening Field is a Tier 3 power in the Force framework. IDF is a toggle aura that gives all allies a protective barrier that reduces damage at the cost of some energy strength and energy equilibrium. As a brief recap of last week: IDF falls in the "invul reduction" or "minus damage" category, subtracting a small amount of damage out of every attack dealt to a character. The damage subtraction occurs after all other forms of damage resistance.

Its placement in the Force framework means that it is very hard to get before level 23; IDF does not synergize well with the powers in Force, so aggressively selecting Force powers to get it early is generally a bad idea. Still, using good respec techniques, a hero can ride the low-tier Force game to get IDF safely around level 17 (if you're interested in the specifics, feel free to ask in the comments). Overall, IDF works best when selected as a complement to a well-built hero at or after level 23.

The energy issues caused by Inertial Dampening Field can be fixed by good energy management, as I mentioned quite a few months ago (although a few things in that post have changed, the vast majority of it is still relevant). Because the energy penalty is fairly minor, most well-built Free-Form characters can arm IDF in their late 20s or early 30s with no problem.

The devs know about the problem

Because IDF is a party buff and a toggle, one huge problem exists, and that is the problem of stacking. Multiple people can grant IDF to a party, which can be stacked to over 300 damage reduced from every incoming attack. Most enemies use medium speed one-second blasts that deal low amounts of damage, generally under 1000 damage a hit. Since most heroes receive 20% less damage before IDF (from gear defense), this typically ends with enemy attacks dealing tiny amounts of damage or none at all. Even boss attacks can be rendered relatively weak by blocking; a team-stacked IDF combined with the default block and defense can reduce an attack of 1000 damage to zero.

When combined with defense buffs, heals, and personal defense powers, team-stacked IDF magnifies the effects of already tanky characters to monstrous levels. The combination of Defiance, an R1 block, and team-stacked IDF can reduce 5000-damage attacks (which can one-shot a squishy hero) to nil. That's incredibly terrifying.

Fortunately, the devs have addressed that team-stacked IDF is a problem, and they intend to make changes to adjust the stacking issue. As Ame said in our interview, "We don't want to change its effectiveness on a single person -- one person using it I think is totally fine right now, but getting lots of people to stack it is problematic so we're looking at how to solve that."

Solo IDF and its implications

Initially I also thought that Inertial Dampening Field was mostly fine if it was not stacked. It has an energy penalty, after all, and even combined with Aura of Radiant Protection, it granted far less protection than something like Invulnerability or "real" defensive passives. However, I now think I was looking in the wrong place.

My first real exposure to the combat effectiveness of IDF came from a very typical AoRP support ally, granting me the resistance aura and IDF as well. He supported me with heals and Protection Field while I tanked along with Defiance. The protection he gave me was adequate. Defiance is very strong in general, and while IDF worked great against the rapid DoT attacks present in Demonflame, I didn't feel overly strong. I still had to block frequently, and we still had a few wipes due to poor boss management and unskilled teammates (our damage was laughably bad, my taunting was awful, and our other team members died often).

But really, I feel that IDF does not work very well with the default block, poor taunts, or Protection Field. In solo PvE, IDF is unnecessary. It gives an energy penalty, and unless you're a squishy character, it's probably overkill and will only make you kill slower. The average solo encounter has fewer than 10 foes, and most of those baddies will drop in a few seconds of maintained AoE damage. If your hero needs IDF to survive a group of two villains and six henchmen, you should probably consider a respec to get some healing powers, which will probably serve you better than IDF will -- they will only cost you energy when you actually need them, and not all the time.

It's only four Draysha Enforcers

I've been toying around with tank builds in CO for some time now. I'm not a big tanking player; I prefer support characters. However, I like finding extreme things in any game I play, and CO has a million ways to make characters tanky. It was just a natural thing for me to want to explore.

The problem was really my timing. My original design was to use Invulnerability, which shared IDF's damage reduction trait, along with a teammate using Aura of Radiant Protection, to get strong layered defense with minimal redundancy. My other defense came in the form of high PRE, self heals, and Laser Knight (which at the time was absolutely too good). Unfortunately, at the time I was also experimenting with my Defiance healer tank, which turned out to be a lot more useful (taunting was laughably bad back then) and more fun for me to play. My STR/PRE invul tank fell to the back burner, as Defiance was king and traditional tanking was not all that useful. Besides, I like playing support characters, and Defiance heal tanking was a wacky/fun concept.

IDF breathed new life into my project, and the buffs to Invulnerability gave me quite a bit of room to experiment. In general, F2P made a lot of changes to defense, and now there were all sorts of advantages that granted forcefields, dodge bonuses, or damage resistance. More importantly, though, were the changes to aggro mechanics. As tanky as I ended up, it would have been useless if not for the new aggro mechanics that allowed a tank to actually hold threat from large groups of enemies. That's another can of worms altogether, really.

My true test came in the form of Serpent Lantern, with the difficulty cranked and a team of four. SL is noteworthy for being brutal with lots of teammates, because the groups get huge and uber-tough Draysha Enforcers spawn. On top of that, the enemies tend to cluster together, making it very easy to pull three or four spawns when you only meant to get one. My teammates also liked to do fun things like get knocked into checkpoint commanders or aggro two or three groups while air support was incoming. If you like exercises in frustration, I highly advise you to PUG Serpent Lantern on Elite with five members.

However, my tank would have none of that frustration. That is not to say I never died, but I also managed to type "meh, it's only four draysha enforcers and spawns" while tanking, after my entire team had wiped and was flying back to me. To clarify: This character was survivable enough that I could stop clicking heals and blocking, type a message to my team, and not feel particularly threatened.

The real point of note was when I died, however. Oftentimes I would die minutes later because of one critical element -- I'd forget to toggle IDF on. The difference IDF made in my tank's survivability was astounding, especially against huge groups of enemies. Bleeds and DoT attacks dealt no damage, and rapid maintained attacks didn't even move my lifebar. With a bit of skillful blocking and generous use of self heals, even powerful charged attacks really posed no threat to my tank.

Is this normal? I'm not sure. What I am sure of, though, is that IDF makes rapid attacks like DoTs a whole lot less dangerous. One of the most dangerous PvP threats to a minion master is DoT attacks on the pets, since they ignore the pets' AoE resistance. However, IDF mitigates low damage ticks, making many counter-pet strategies less useful.

In closing, IDF is powerful. In my opinion, it's too good, but for now, I'm loving it. The PvE implications for team content are huge, even if stacking is removed. It simply impacts other defenses (especially Defiance and Lightning Reflexes) far too much to ignore. It's also simply too effective while blocking. In PvP, it also has dangerous synergy with pet spam, which is something nobody wants. I don't know what the answer is, to be honest. I do feel that my tank is a bit too extreme, but for most users of IDF (generally people with support passives), it's absolutely fine.

When he's not touring the streets of Millennium City or rolling mooks in Vibora Bay, Patrick Mackey goes Behind the Mask to bring you the nitty-gritty of the superhero world every Thursday. Whether it's expert analysis of Champions Online's game mechanics or his chronicled hatred of roleplaying vampires, Patrick holds nothing back.