Sweet some news for us Might lovers!

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So I was messing around just testing my Damage reduction, now with my gear I have 38% resistance to Energy and Physical. And Defiance should stack from either 5-10 times I actually have no idea, but I figured I would easily hit the resistance cap, which I personally have no idea what it is...BUT I noticed that my damage resistance, based on my combat log hits, was wildly shifting between 50% and 90% even when I took off my Defiance and fought I got only slightly worse resistance, so I bugged it, and this was the response I got. ( mind you during the defiance tests I was spamming Defensive Combo and I have the advantage that adds 2 stacks per 3 hits)

We would like to confirm that we are already aware of this particular issue...and then a bunch of stuff about how the world is ever changing...

But I hope this means that it will be fixed in the near future and I won't constantly be getting my face stomped on :D

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It stacks 6 times. Don't use Defiance- take Defensive Combo and find another passive.

Unless it was changed when I wasn't looking (and it could have), Surge of Strength only adds the chance of another proc of Defiance. The damage resistance is not the same as mitigation. A 50% resistance is a increase in time to live by 50% which is I think 33% mitigation.

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Well that's more than confusing....And since I'm 17 Levels in I can't really change now, and I want Defiance to be a viable option, and not have it just be another unused ability...

Defiance should be the best possible resistance you can get period. It takes time to ramp up and once you hit that cap you should be nigh indestructible. I guess in retrospect I should have taken Invulnerability and Defensive combo, but the End add on Defiance is nice, and it fits with my character concept, sort of berserkerish, the more damage I take the less it hurts and the more enraged I get etc.

I do feel that it isn't working correctly though, just from the variability in the absorption I notice in my combat log swinging wildly from 60% of damage absorbed to 90% of damage absorbed, these are the exact same attacks mind you, every hit was Righteous Fists from some MA NPCs

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Well that's more than confusing....And since I'm 17 Levels in I can't really change now, and I want Defiance to be a viable option, and not have it just be another unused ability...


I appreciate your attitude, and this is one of the reasons why full respecs are a bad idea. If everyone just specs out of something that is underpowered, then they never get fixed because nobody is using them or working to try and get them improved.

I like the idea that you want defiance to work and be comparable and not just give in to the FOTM mentality. Good on you.

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I appreciate your attitude, and this is one of the reasons why full respecs are a bad idea. If everyone just specs out of something that is underpowered, then they never get fixed because nobody is using them or working to try and get them improved.

I like the idea that you want defiance to work and be comparable and not just give in to the FOTM mentality. Good on you.

If people respec it will get powers fixed much faster because the devs have tools that say how many people get them.

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Have you guys never heard of character concepts?

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Have you guys never heard of character concepts?

Sure, but people also want powers that work. No sense in gimping yourself to roleplay.

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Yea I am starting to more and more dread my character I am having a hard time soloing at level 16 now, even with "full stacks" ( quotes cause I have no idea if it's even working) I 'm getting trounced by 2 green villains and 2 green henchmen, every fight I end at either 15%ish health or I die. I haven't had stars in a while. Might have such large charge times can't afford to just stand there getting hit with defiance in such disarray. I sent another ticket just reiterating what I had said originally because I got such a generic response, but I still notice the wild swings in mitigation during instances in time where my defiance stacks should be maxed. Had a mob hit me for 11 (89) which is very nice mitigation ( I assume the (89) is the original dmg, and the 11 is after the mitigation effects, but then the very same mob did the same attack and 36 (88) well, not so good I swing from 90%ish mit to 60%ish, which is kinda ridiculous.

I am taking Bountiful Chi Resurgence at 17 I know it isn't a strong heal but I hope coupled with my mitigation it will at least keep me running a bit.

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Might have such large charge times can't afford to just stand there getting hit with defiance in such disarray..

Don't charge. Just tap the power. They won't go flying, but you'll do more damage in less time.

I'd also suggest picking up some AoEs, if you don't have any. Helps to get the trash down quicker.

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Shockwave is glorious.

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Personally, I'm not getting defiance to stack at all. I'm not clear on whether I need to rank it up, or just boost my strength and con more, but it hits one stack and sits there, no matter how long uglies wail on me.

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Personally, I'm not getting defiance to stack at all. I'm not clear on whether I need to rank it up, or just boost my strength and con more, but it hits one stack and sits there, no matter how long uglies wail on me.

I'm curious how you would know your current Defiance stacking since previously we could only see the basic buff without a number attached to it; I had to count out seconds since combat started and estimate based off of rank. Did this become more user-friendly and break at the same time? Haven't remade my Defiant chap yet.

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So I'd like to make sure I'm reading this right...

Def Combo + Invln >> Beatdown + Defiance?

Is Enrage any good w/out Defiance?

What's the deal on the AoEs? Roomsweeper vs Havoc Stomp vs Shockwave? I really hate chasing KB'ed mobs.

I'm trying to get a general idea where I want to be post lvl 8ish cause this respec system is freaking me out :).

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It stacks 6 times. Don't use Defiance- take Defensive Combo and find another passive.
Using that line of thought, Regen is useless and you should take Bountiful Chi Resurgence instead.

Defiance grants endurance where Defensive Combo eats it, and you have to spend time using a less powerful attack if you want to keep the buff up with DC. Same as BCR not being quite as powerful as Regen.

DC and BCR aren't bad, but they don't completely replace the Powers they simulate.
Personally, I'm not getting defiance to stack at all. I'm not clear on whether I need to rank it up, or just boost my strength and con more, but it hits one stack and sits there, no matter how long uglies wail on me.
You will not see additional icons for Defiance when it stacks, but it does stack.

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I'm curious how you would know your current Defiance stacking since previously we could only see the basic buff without a number attached to it; I had to count out seconds since combat started and estimate based off of rank. Did this become more user-friendly and break at the same time? Haven't remade my Defiant chap yet.

Oh. Well there you go. I'd simply assumed that like most other MMOs (including that other super hero MMO) when you had multiple stacks of a buff you would see it displayed as such.

Though I could've sworn I saw a tooltip *somewhere* that read "Stacks to: 1" I'll have to double-check when I get home tonight.

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Though I could've sworn I saw a tooltip *somewhere* that read "Stacks to: 1" I'll have to double-check when I get home tonight.
The tooltip and advanced description says "max 1 times", but that's refering to how often it can proc for its duration. At Rank 1 the duration is 5 seconds, 4 at Rank 2 and 3 at Rank 3. Shorter duration is good here, since it means you get the endurance and Defiant that much faster.

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Well I hit 17 and grabbed Bountiful Chi Resurgence and luckily it really helps, I grabbed the advantage that makes it not reduce my damage and I pretty much fire it off constantly throughout fights, really keeps my HP level...I still feel defiance needs a check just to level out the amount of mitigation you get at max stats since I still get wild fluctuations, but maybe that is the way the game is supposed to be....

On a side note I noticed that the Enrage Enlarge advantage is free, and it procs even off the Enrage stacks you get from Roomsweeper.....very fun :)

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Hrmmm I've been having problems with Defensive Combo, I don't know if this is an issue with the skill, Defiance itself, or a problem with displaying the icons of current effects under the players portrait. Or I could just be losing my mind. There were instances where I tested it, I ran my energy builder until I had full energy, then turned it off and used *nothing* except Defensive Combo over and over and I would not see the effect show up at all.

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Hrmmm I've been having problems with Defensive Combo, I don't know if this is an issue with the skill, Defiance itself, or a problem with displaying the icons of current effects under the players portrait. Or I could just be losing my mind. There were instances where I tested it, I ran my energy builder until I had full energy, then turned it off and used *nothing* except Defensive Combo over and over and I would not see the effect show up at all.

Hmmm this is interesting, like you weren't getting a buff....period? do you have Defiance? I wondered if they were going to nerf the, any other passive than defiance + defensive combo for mitigation, I was hoping they would just buff defiance a bit more to make Defiance + Def Combo more appealing, I guess maybe just getting rid of that ability to use Def Combo without Defiance is a way to handle that bleh.

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Hmmm this is interesting, like you weren't getting a buff....period? do you have Defiance? I wondered if they were going to nerf the, any other passive than defiance + defensive combo for mitigation, I was hoping they would just buff defiance a bit more to make Defiance + Def Combo more appealing, I guess maybe just getting rid of that ability to use Def Combo without Defiance is a way to handle that bleh.

Or, just set the max number of Defiance buffs to one, and six if you have the Defiance slotted passive active.

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At the end of beta I had a lvl 22 might in defensive build with lvl 3 defiance and shockwave. Focussing on Str and Con so much, I never really had a lot of energy but I did have a ton of hp. Whatever the effect of defiance, I think the end boosts are worth it alone. I would start shockwave with a full energy bar and it would drain rapidly but as I was being hit it would surge back up every couple seconds to keep me going. Uppercut too, just standing there and charging it to full and being hit a couple times made the move free.

At the end of beta, with lvl 40 vs the giant destroid guys I ran around in the peons to build up defiance, ran into melee with the big guy, hit my lvl 3 enrage and lvl 3 uppercut clocked him for around 3,500 damage (and sometimes I had the dmg penalty from bountiful chi resurgance going). In defensive build. I was hitting him hard enough to actually see slivers of his life fall away. They usually responded unkindly, nailing me with some god-awfull attack for almost 8,000 damage. :D

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LOL! Yea my TK/Munitions 40 in OB would get one-shot by those guys, for ya like 8k when he had like 4k HP heh. Good to hear that with levels Might balances out a bit, just picking up Bountiful Chi Resurgence (and the Advantage to get rid of the dmg penalty) seems to have helped a tremendous amount, but in the end you need a basic heal over time, you have no other way to keep yourself up. I do need to boost more presence if I can, though I contemplate just getting STR/CON/END, and you're right the END regen on Defiance is pretty awesome, I don't need any recovery cause the second I step into battle I get a huge boost of Endurance.

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defiance is working fine for me, i'm on rank 2...

the only thing i dislike right now is the lack of visual effect, i rather liked the glow.

you guys must be doing it wrong. or maybe you don't realise might is a damage mitigation set...

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It's not that it doesn't work it's that if you watch the damage you take even at max stacks, it will fluctuate pretty wildly anywhere from 60% to 90% mitigation which really shouldn't happen. Unless they calculate physical damage/resistance the same as they would elemental where you only partially resist damage based on your current resistance number so the random flucuations would make sense (like if you played WoW, wearing all the FR gear in MC made you resist fire dmg but it was always a random percentage), but if this was the case then there should be chances for full resist and I've never seen that.

I just think that in its current state something is up with mitigation, if we plan...in the future to tank with our Might characters...which I intend to, this random mitigation is going to make it increasingly tough to heal, fight could seem fine with back to back 80%+ reistances, but then all of a sudden it drops to 40% and you die instantly....

And yes Might has a lot of knockback for mitigation, but the problem is almost every mob has a ranged attack so when I knock them out of range with roomsweeper they then proceed to stand OOR and shoot me. Might needs an AoE Knock-Up like Uppercut but AoE based, same long charge to get the full effect.

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I want to see a ranged knockup move where you rear up and stomp the ground with one foot and a second later an target within like 50' shoots up into the air.

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Have you guys never heard of character concepts?

go make a PSI character right now, try to claim that is balanced. Try to claim that concept is viable.


I dare you.

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Using that line of thought, Regen is useless and you should take Bountiful Chi Resurgence instead.

No, those two lines of thought aren't similar at all. From a defensive perspective on a cost benefit analysis, Defensive Combo is FAR superior to Defiance.

1.) Does not take up the only passive slot you have.
2.) Stacks faster
3.) Is 4 advantage points cheaper.

I'm not as familiar with Regen anymore, but it has been a very good defensive power- healling substantially more than BCR.

Defiance grants endurance where Defensive Combo eats it, and you have to spend time using a less powerful attack if you want to keep the buff up with DC. Same as BCR not being quite as powerful as Regen.

I've touched on much of this before-

1.) Defensive Combo is very cheap endurance wise- defensively, DC is MORE powerful than Defiance because it stacks faster.
2.) There are far better endurance builders than Defiance.
3.) Defensive Combo allows another passive to be slotted which can: increase damage- making damage powers more endurance efficient *OR* mitigate damage- making healing more efficient and increasing survivability. You don't get locked into a stance. You can do whatever you want and maintain the defensive benifits of the Defiance! buff.
4.) BCR and Regen stack with each other. Defiance and DC have very minimal stacking- Defiance is basically reduced to the role of an endurance builder (see 2)

DC and BCR aren't bad, but they don't completely replace the Powers they simulate.

Right on the second one- dead wrong on the first one. If you are going to play defensively, you are going to get the money block ability- Force Shield and get Force Sheath. This completely negates the endurance building aspect of Defiance. Then you have the option of getting Defiance and decreasing your maximum defensive capabilities and decreasing the time before you max out the Defiance! buff and spending 4 advantage points, or spending another power slot to gain a marginal benefit and probably still spending 4 advantage points, or slotting something like invulnerability which will give you a significant boost to your maximum defensive capabilities and picking up Defensive Combo.

The real difference between DC vs. Defiance and BCR vs. Regen is that BCR doesn't heal for more than Regen- if it did, then it would be like DC is to Defiance.

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or you guys can just pick whatever suits you

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defiance is working fine for me, i'm on rank 2...

the only thing i dislike right now is the lack of visual effect, i rather liked the glow.

you guys must be doing it wrong. or maybe you don't realise might is a damage mitigation set...

It's not that we're doing it wrong or that you're doing it wrong. It's just that we're doing it much better- better Endurance regen and better mitigation- probably MUCH, MUCH better mitigation as you probably aren't taking a defensive oriented block.

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Yea I am starting to more and more dread my character I am having a hard time soloing at level 16 now, even with "full stacks" ( quotes cause I have no idea if it's even working) I 'm getting trounced by 2 green villains and 2 green henchmen, every fight I end at either 15%ish health or I die. I haven't had stars in a while. Might have such large charge times can't afford to just stand there getting hit with defiance in such disarray. I sent another ticket just reiterating what I had said originally because I got such a generic response, but I still notice the wild swings in mitigation during instances in time where my defiance stacks should be maxed. Had a mob hit me for 11 (89) which is very nice mitigation ( I assume the (89) is the original dmg, and the 11 is after the mitigation effects, but then the very same mob did the same attack and 36 (88) well, not so good I swing from 90%ish mit to 60%ish, which is kinda ridiculous.

I am taking Bountiful Chi Resurgence at 17 I know it isn't a strong heal but I hope coupled with my mitigation it will at least keep me running a bit.

I'm playing Might with Defiance. I'm at 18 now and was soloing mobs above my level easily. Shockwave is, indeed, glorious. I think your problem is not defense, but offense. The only PvE problems I've had (aside from bosses) are with Gadroons, and that was with big groups of them.

Also:

I've never looked at the mitigation numbers, but if you have such wild swings you should check what damage type you are talking about. I have a Primary Defense slotted that gives me %50 energy damage resistance. So I would expect to see a big difference if a mob hit me with a punch and then zapped me with a laser.

Is that the kind of numbers you're looking at?

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Related question:

Is there a way to tell how many stacks you have? I see that I have Defiance, and I see how many secons I have left on my 20 seconds, but I don't see anyway to know how many stacks I have.

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no way to tell
they should really put up a little number on the icon

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I use Defiance (Rank 3). I walk up to a group of 4 mobs (or more if others close by) and aggro them. They start blasting away. My endurance goes to full and I take very little damage. I then charge Shockwave and the whole group dies. If there are any villains they will be at half or under and will be knocked down by shockwave. I then finish them off with and upper cut or two with Enrage (should be maxed by then). Master villains are pretty much cake with Uppercut doing around 600-700 at lvl 21 with Enrage.

If I get into trouble or get a few groups, I pop resurgence which is on a fairly short cooldown and keep going. I was planning on taking force sheild for faster END building/damage reduction but havnt needed it much. Resurgence has made a big difference since it heals me to pretty much full at lvl 21.

I prefer the passive endurance building of Defiance rather than the active Defensive combo route. Although i did toy with taking DC in combo with Defiance but its probably over kill unless I need the aggro boost from DC in a pure tanking situation.

My powers:
Clobber (energy builder)
Beatdown (was too late to spec out of it but the stun is nice)
Defiance (Passive defense/end builder)
Thunderclap (PBAoE with stun)
Resurgence (Self Heal)
Shockwave (Range AoE/Cone)
Uppercut (Single target DPS/Knock up)
Enrage (Damage booster)
Superjump (Travel)

Superstats: STR/CON

I have very little down time and die pretty rarely on anything even con or 1 lvl higher, even Master Villains.

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shockwave is soooo op, i love it

also i prefer haymaker to uppercut
but thats just me

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Related question:

Is there a way to tell how many stacks you have? I see that I have Defiance, and I see how many secons I have left on my 20 seconds, but I don't see anyway to know how many stacks I have.

Not that I know of. It would really help, and it's pretty pitiful that it wasn't part of the interface for head start.