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So... about passives...

grifvindhgrifvindh Posts: 53 Arc User
edited September 2012 in Power Discussion
Some passive powers are labeled "defensive" and some are "offensive." I assumed those labels matched the role you were playing in, until I noticed the Unstoppable passive was labeled "offensive" but was available for the behemoth which is a tanker role. So now I'm not entirely sure what the deal is with passives.

You can only have one passive at a time, right? So if your role (tanker) inherently increases threat (thereby making it more likely that the entire world will start pounding on you) and you won't get the extra offensive bonuses that a more offense-oriented role gets, what's the advantage of using it for a tanker? If you were able to slot one defensive and one offensive passive, that might make more sense. Can you do that? I didn't think you could do that.
I was @Curveball in City of Heroes.
Post edited by grifvindh on

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    gerberatetragerberatetra Posts: 821 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    Okay, I'll run down the basics.

    A Passive is either Offensive, Support, Defensive or Balanced.

    Usually they are One of the first three and the last, balanced. Balanced isn't even a class of passive on it's own.



    This means you can use them while your character is in matching Role.

    Support uses support passives

    Tank Uses defensive passives

    Melee and Ranged Damage use Offensive passives.

    Hybrid     can use any passive.


    As for the Behemoth using Unstoppable, I assume you've either unlocked it as a free form, which means its no longer stuck in Tank role or.. something is broken..

    But as you've guessed Unstoppable wasn't meant for tanking. That's not to say you couln't Hybrid role and 'effectively' tank by putting the right advantages on your powers and getting a few other powers to bolster your defenses, and a really good self heal but it's not the way people usually do it.

    Here we are now going to the West Side
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    Some may come and some may stay
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    In game as @forgemccain
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    grifvindhgrifvindh Posts: 53 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    Ah, maybe I wasn't looking at it from the Behemoth tree, but in freeform and I saw other powers the Behemoth has and assumed incorrect. That actually makes more sense.

    So... it works the way I thought it did, I was just confusing myself. Thanks!
    I was @Curveball in City of Heroes.
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    konru2konru2 Posts: 49 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    You are correct that defensive, offensive, ans support passives match the appropriate role, with only Hybrids able to use all of them. But only one at a time.

    However, the Behemoth archetype does not use Unstoppable ever. The archetypes that do use that passive is Unleashed and the Devastator.

    If you are looking at freeform and those categories and rules then you should be aware that the same powers can have very different performance based on different advantages, passives, and form. Freeform heroes also have the option to change slotted passives and their role any time they are not in combat and even once during combat if necessary. It is possible to purchase both Defiance and Unstoppable, and then choose which role you want to be based on the situation. Team doesn't have a tank? Defiance and Tank role is the classic Behemoth. Team has too many tanks? Switch to Unstoppable and Melee role with a keypress (once you have your builds set up) and do massive damage. Actually, it's slightly more complicated than that because you would probably need to purchase both Beatdown and Defensive Combo in order to have attacks that draw threat or don't draw threat depending on where the team needs the threat to be. But it can work.


    Or maybe you are getting confused by Unbreakable? Is that what you noticed in the Behemoth's power list? Unbreakable is an active defense. When used, the Behemoth gets a 15 second damage shield that actually regenerates half its strength when hit. Very useful when you're taking a lot of attacks and need to buy time for the healer to work, to activate something otherwise interruptable when taking hits, or to buy time to finish a weakened opponent. It's very different from Unstoppable even though it sounds the same.
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    grifvindhgrifvindh Posts: 53 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    Yeah, I think I was looking at it in freeform but it was surrounded by powers I saw that were available for my behemoth so I assumed I was looking at the "behemoth set."

    Rookie mistake -- sorry!
    I was @Curveball in City of Heroes.
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    sockmunkeysockmunkey Posts: 4,504 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    It can be a tad confusing. Most of the power sets often have more then one passive available.

    For example, as you noticed, the Brick set has both Defiance (the defense passive) and Unstoppable (the offensive passive) Martial arts is similar with Lightening Reflexes and Way of the Warrior.

    Look at it as more freedom of choice without having to be, forced or encouraged, to go out of set to play how you want.
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