Book of Oa/Parallax:Ultimate Light Guide

I've put together a list and sort of outline of what I'm seeing being needed corrected with Light. I have some of my own parsing and data and if anyone else could contribute to show what their getting that would be helpful. Please stick to providing your CR, SP, whether your modded. What type of cycle your using. I've compared both the range AoE to AoE, Single Target(Fan>IMP>GH>Fan), Melee Range, Clipping AM(CH/INS>HC>GH/Fan>IMP/HC>HC/Fan>IMP etc). This is to compare what Light's overall DPS potential is. Please no SC, Trinkets, Soders. Try to stick to solely what the AM is able to produce. Set the Parser to 1 min and test for at least 5 mins(preferably 10 mins or more). Let me know if this is on a single target or AoE(3 or 8 dummies).

While we can increase our damage slightly by using things such as PT, Trinkets, SC, Supply Drops, DoTs etc. I don't want to color the results.

If you can get some equally skilled League Mates/Friends to do the same of opposite powers that's even better for comparison sake.

I'm going to push for an update to the Combo AM since that is our strongest way of doing damage. It's also the original design intent. I'm going to ask that the Clipping AM be tweaked but it needs much more of a buff. Light is rare in the sense that we have been given two AM's to deal damage although only one is even close to being able to keep up in damage. I know a lot of players would love to see the Clipping AM do more damage so they can have that versatility in choosing how to play. No other powers really have two AM's though so that's a decision for the Dev's.

I'd also like to remind those that may not realize it that without the hit counter(testing on Sparring Targets) our damage will be lower. This is because the damage modifier will drop. Keep track of your net DPS number. We can factor that by the 60% and estimate what the Relentless Precision mod would help to buff. As well as CR increase for damage. Don't be shy if your only 82, 43, 105, 125. CR increase's damage done by about 10 % every time's it increases by one. If you test accurately it will still be beneficial.

Anyone that doesn't want to post their numbers here can PM them to me. I'll keep that stuff private if that is what you wish.

Thanks in advance. I'm going to post below what I think would be beneficial for the set. It's not a lot but I doubt it would all get done. Looking through most of the powers last updates they haven't received major updates. Please give it a like if you agree and I'll post a link with the message.

GU 43 gave Light an infinite combo AM. Since GU 43 many other powers have been buffed and the way damage is dealt has also been tweaked(GU 47). I'd like to propose some small changes to Light and its AM to help bring it in line with the other powers that we're already outperforming its DPS potential(and now the others that are being buffed up). This isn't to say that a skilled Light DPS cannot currently out DPS a mediocre other power DPS. But instead to bring it up to what many of the other powers are performing at from a DPS potential standpoint.

Lights suggested tweaks

Combo AM improvement

• Impact and Ram to deal 3 ticks at full range.
• Flatten Combo boost to kick in at 2.5 seconds
• Snap Trap to damage up to two targets( 60 degree cone)
• Ram and Impact will apply and capitalize on dazed targets.
• Overall buff to the flat amount of damage the melee rotation is doing. Currently it is vastly under performing and only doing a whopping 139 DPS more than its range counterpart.

Clipping AM improvement

• The Ram/Impact Dazing change will also benefit the clipping AM allowing players to utilize small degree cone's for AoE to AoE attacking when using the clipping mechanic.
• An enhanced state similar to Celestial and Rage. This could be activated by the use of Inspiration.
• Chompers to become a full strength DoT ending the overwriting issues. This was supposed to happen in GU 38. I know many didn't want this to happen but looking back it would have been for the best considering how we do damage and that Spike Quake was not functioning properly with WM.

As said earlier that would be quite a bit. Considering we have two AM's that would need tweaking. Perhaps just the combo AM and then later the clipping(or vice versa). Personally I'd like the combo AM since that's what the majority are currently using.
Please give it likes if you this is in line with what you'd like from the power set.

The only thing I would add to this, because this is a great list, is doing more damage at mid-range. Currently all the other controller powers' damage improved dramatically at mid range. Ours doesn't and I don't know that with those fixes it improves much at mid. I don't know specifically how to address that, maybe make the AM scale higher with proximity, or add ticks to minigun at mid range. Not sure. But for example a mass terror loadout will do 28-35k DPS. It's ranged Mass Lev loadout will run you 22-24k.

Other than that, I wholeheartedly support these changes, and have elsewhere that I've seen them posted. I'd suggest we use this as a working list for the HL community to rally around. If we're all suggesting the same thing it helps our case, I think.

I was figuring those changes would net the range/mid range play their about's the right DPS, while the Melee combo rotation needs an overall buff. It's flat out weak and needs to hit much harder.

I agree with you. In the end it would be up to the dev's to decide how to get our damage right, I'd just like to give em a direction the community would like to see it go. Better that people could enjoy the changes than have great numbers but hate how it plays.

Edited to include - Reread my post I want to clarify I totally like the proximity change. It could work similar to how the pet's do more damage at mid range.

I messaged Spord. I'll add any additional data that comes my way. Likely won't hear anything back right away. Please provide any supportive data you can.

So here are my results. This is part of an initiative on balance me and a handful of guys are working on. The idea is, we've seen several threads where one guy jumps onto the test server and does all the powers and compares them. As great as this is, often times you can notice the powers he or she is not as proficient with, and this potentially skews the results.

So per the initiative we rounded up a half-dozen or so players proficient in at least one power, and had them parse through a handful of tests with a uniform setup. Everyone is 126 CR test-server gear with 114 SP specced (enough for all crits, a WM and breakouts). No sodas, no trinkets, no SC (although I pushed to include those in a test). To date, I have tested HL and Mental. Here are my results.

HL Extended Combos Build: Light Barrier, Robot Sidekick, Fan, GH, Strafing Run, Claw.
HL Rotation: (AOE) Fan-Impact-LB-MG-R-F~ At full range I held my channeled combos for their duration. At mid-range I combo'd rapidly to triple tick. It's worth noting that the triple-tick range on Ram and Impact is markedly shorter than Mass Terror and several other "mid range" AM abilities for various other powers.

For single target with HL I went GH-F-I-GH~

On Speccing: For the HL AM I spec full precision, plus I forewent the affinity and modded Precision VII in both ability crit sockets. I did the inverse for mental's AM, speccing straight might and Might VII in the weapon crit socket affinities. For HL's WM and Clipping AM builds, I went with affinities in all sockets, straight Precision VII in the reds.

On testing: Tests were conducted on the test server targets that record a hit counter. Each set of numbers represents one series of rotations for the proscribed amount of time. For example, in the first table, each entry represents one 60-second snapshot of a no-mistakes rotation. For the 30-second tests, the goal was to try and capture ramp-up time variation, so at 30-seconds combat was stopped, the sparring targets were reset, the parser was cleared, and combat resumed.

It's also worth noting I really didn't test the melee rotation as it's impractical in most end-game raids and Survival Mode. Further, on test server I was having input issues with hold claw into entrap swing - consistently - but no other combos were issues for me anywhere else on any other tests. On the one clean 60-second rotation vs. AOE that I managed before moving on, I did 19849 DPS, with a max hit of 15998 and a 30.4% crit chance.

Ok, the tables I'm doing are awful. Spreadsheet is here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6vHEgOj4frCNXdRVGdDcW14c28/view?usp=sharing

Conclusions: It's more of what we've been harping on for some time now. Our mid-range, which is shorter than other powers' mid range, is barely competitive, often less-so, with other powers' full-range abilities. At full range vs. full range, we lose. At mid range vs. mid range, we lose. The WM and Clipping AM options don't offer much help, in fact the Clipping AM is severely lacking in AOE and only really keeps up at full range vs. other full range.

Further, the crit chance seems goofy for the extended combo mechanic, for an AM that hits as many times per second as ours does, we really do not see many crits. That may be part of the problem, but does not seem to account for all of it.

I made my own summery as well and I was going to post it but wer moving to a new city so that made a delay . Don't worry tho I'll post them today or tmr . I have a lot to show and a lot to discuss . I'll upload a video as well and I provide a lot of details for devs as well . Hang tight guys

Am with u 100% and to add , I would love if they just increase hl damage to match all powers , gadget ice fire mental quantum all doing super crazy damage . We need to bring hl up to that point

It we could ask them to just cut down the animation times and dovetails to something much more resembling the pre-GU36 speed of HL. Many of those powers went from .5-second animation times to 1.0- 1.2-second animation times. Cutting the speed of the animations would just as well boost the DPS as would buffing specific abilities, all while making the power play more like it used to.

I noticed that a while back. I was curious just what Tunso meant when he said the INS buff would be included in the AM damage. I'm curious if that only meant the Precision increase or if something isn't activating. In the message I provided Spord with a comparison of running INS over 1 min parse' and just using the combo mechanic. I then asked for clarification on what Tunso meant by that. Using INS will increase the crit % to a range of 35 - 40 %. Without it I had on live 21 - 28 % for avg range.

I've included a summary of your post and sent him the spread sheet. Looking at your data the gap isn't horrible at full range. Compared to other powers and what they'll be doing after the next update we'll definately still need IMP/Ram to hit 3 times at full range. Then perhaps a proximity mechanic as you eluded to earlier. That way we can get that extra damage for being in mid range. With our Melee based powers we're not able to apply damage similar to how an EMP/MT would so we can't really stand about 10 - 12 in game meters away and cast. I think that alone should help to qualify a proximity mechanic since there is clearly places we cannot melee.

I doubt he'll post any time soon. Maybe a few days from now earliest.

On a side note I also sent a video of the LW thing. I think I was in the hospital while this was really catching attention. They may already be working on something(or have) I'm a little outta the loop.

Would you be able to try and get a comparison of the AoE to AoE melee rotation. That is way off by my test. It can only be used at point blank Melee as we'll be continually Lunging EVERYTHING in the face. I know LS was being stupid. Sorry. It'd just help to have that to compare as well.

The problem is , I don't see any increase in damage when I do my rotation same numbers !

I love your idea!

But that would be like admitting they were wrong to nerf the clipping mechancis to begin with. My impression is they want longer animations for slower power casting times making the uper tier of DPSing avaliable to the casual player. It's very unlikely to change much to my dismay.

Can you clarify. Is this for the full range or Melee? The numbers should increase. If you set the combat log you can just start by casting IMP>LB>MG and let them play out. Your first couple of LB ticks should be smaller(probably in the hundreds), after that the range of damage for LB>MG should increase significantly to over the 1000's. My typical LB tick(non Crit) is in a range of around 1600 - 2400(going from memory).

It's the same for the melee rotation. The first 4 seconds we'd see basic damage and then an increase after that. One easy way to check is to use Entrap or Claw as by the end you'll be through the ramp up time.

I still believe overall the ramp up time should be lowered. It's a small adjustment since once in combat it drops. The change would be barely noticeable.

Let me know if your AM isn't activating for you that may be a bug or if your just being whimsical about the damage numbers.

I would love this but I don't think it'll happen. It would be looked at as too good for PvP. The animation pass was done on all powers and really changed Light and probably Gadgets the most. We kinda got the short end of that stick. I'm sure they'll find a way to make it work.

As much as I 'd like to see animation changes I find it highly unlikely since it would unbalance PvP more so and other powers would cry foul(more so than already).

No it can happn cuz they can do disable in pvp like for how they did in mental situation