Clap On, Clap Off: The Complete Guide To Toggles 1.0

Introduction

In City of Heroes there are three different kinds of powers, click powers, static powers and toggle powers. This guide will be addressing the toggle powers. As of 28-Oct-04 all the data in this guide is correct. However be aware that Cryptic might change some of the values in future patches. I will try to update this guide as new information becomes available.

I have never played CoH as the situation I am in prevents that. However I will buy it and play it feverously when I get back to the good ol’ U S of A. The math used to calculate the power functionality and the hidden complexity of the character creation and template design is what draws me to CoH. I have made dozens of templates for my future characters. To maximize the potential of my characters I needed to know how to calculate toggle costs. After a week or so of research I found all the information I needed. I now present that information for others to use.

Contents

What is a toggle
Managing your toggles
Combat support
Toggle power and recovery numbers

What is a toggle

Toggle - A power that does not have a duration time. It will continually drain a small amount of endurance until it is shut off. A toggle may be shut off manually or will shut of automatically if the player runs out of endurance, is hit with a toggle stopping status effect (Hold, Disorient, Sleep), or the target mob is killed. The cost of a toggle is measured in an endurance per second drain.

Endurance Per Second (EPS) – Amount of endurance lost or gained on a by second basis.

Managing your toggles

A toggle is nothing more than a power that stays on. Instead of draining a certain amount of endurance when used, it slowly drains endurance while it is activated. You can run many toggles at once but doing so may cause a hindrance to your EPS gain. In fact if you run to many you won’t gain any endurance at all and will lose endurance. The combined EPS loss of all your toggles will be referred to as total drain.

The natural recovery rate for all players is 1.67 EPS. There are several powers that can increase your EPS gain. Stamina, Quick Recovery, and Accelerate Metabolism are just a few. The combined effects of these power and natural recovery will be referred to as total recovery.

You find your total recovery by adding all the powers that increase your EPS gain to your natural recovery rate. Since you can add recovery enhancements to certain powers you will have to use the enhancement equation to find the exact amount that each power will give. There is a list of the toggle power costs and endurance recovering powers at the end of this guide.

The equation for endurance recovery gain is:
Base Gain * (1 + Number of Enhancements * Enhancement Modifier)

Stamina has a base gain of 0.42 EPS, so slotted with 3 even SO enhancements will look like this:
0.42 * (1 + 3 * 0.333) = 0.90

If you only had Stamina 3 slotted then your total recovery would be 0.90 + 1.67 = 2.57 EPS

After you find the total recovery you need to find the total drain. Because toggle powers accept endurance reductions you will need to figure out the adjusted cost for each power after the enhancements.

The equation for calculating toggle cost with enhancements is:
Base Cost / (1 + Number of Enhancements * Enhancement Modifier)

Stealth has a base cost of 0.38 EPS, so 3 slotted with even SO enhancements will look like this:
0.38 / (1 + 3 * 0.333) = 0.19

Super Speed has a base cost of 0.54 EPS, so 3 slotted with even SO enhancements will look like this:
0.54 / (1 + 3 * 0.333) = 0.27

Total drain is 0.19 + 0.27 = 0.46

To find your net EPS rate subtract the total drain from the total recovery.
2.57 – 0.46 = 2.11 EPS

If you have Super Speed and Stealth running permanently you will have a constant gain of 2.11 EPS.

I created an excel spreadsheet that will calculate all of this for you. It might not be the best design but it is functional and I included a lot of other very useful information in it as well. It can be found at:
http://www.geocities.com/laportejd/CoH.xls

Combat Support

I like the idea of creating a character that only runs permanent toggles. I don’t want to turn them on or off any more than necessary. To do this you must pick a group of toggles that you can run at the same time and still maintain a combat reliable amount of EPS gain. I consider anything greater than 2 EPS acceptable but depending on how costly your character is you may need more. If you know what the endurance cost, activation and recharge times of your powers you can figure out how combat effective your setup will be.

During combat you will use the most endurance. By calculating your net EPS gain you can figure out how many attacks you can do before pausing. Remember even though you can string powers together you must still wait the activation times. During this time you will still gain endurance. If a power has an activation of 4 and your net gain is 2 then by the time the power is done you have lost the endurance for using the power but gained 8 endurance from recovery.

Follow the example:

Your net recovery after stamina and toggles is +2 EPS

You use the following 3 attacks

Power	Cost	Activation
Punch	8	2
Kick	10	3
Throw	14	2

Starting with 100 endurance

You throw a punch:
This will reduce your endurance by 8 or 100 - 8 = 92
The activation time is 2 so by the time punch is done you gain 2 * 2 = 4 endurance
The new total is 96 (92 + 4)

Then you immediately do a kick reducing your endurance by 10 or 96 - 10 = 86
The activation time is 3 so when the kick is done you gain 3 * 2 = 6 endurance
The new total is 92 (86 + 6)

Then you immediately do a throw reducing your endurance by 14 or 92 - 14 = 78
The activation time is 2 so when the throw is done you gain 2 * 2 = 4 endurance
The new total is 82 (78 + 4)

Assuming that all the recharge timers are now done you can start the combo again. You would look at a drain of 18 for every 3 hit combo. This would allow you to perform 5 combos continuously without stopping. Fill in your attack powers, their activation times and costs and you can figure how much you will lose and gain in combat.

Toggle power and recovery numbers

Below is a list of all known toggle power costs. Most of this information was taken from a thread on the main CoH boards located here.
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=1139647

There is some data missing. If you would like to help in finding this information go to the official thread on it, follow the directions for testing toggle cost and make a post with the data you get.


Endurance Recovery Powers

Natural Recovery	1.67
Stamina	0.42
Quick Recovery	0.56
Accelerate Metabolism	?

Toggle Power Costs

Inherent
Sprint	0.35

Concealment Pool
Stealth	0.38
Invisibility	1.51
Phase Shift	2.98

Fighting Pool
Tough	0.22
Weave	0.20

Flight Pool
Hover	0.22
Flight	2.03
Group Fly	?

Leadership Pool
Maneuvers	0.45
Assault	0.45
Tactics	0.45

Leaping Pool
Combat Jumping	0.08
Super Jump	0.54
Acrobatics	0.32

Speed Pool
Super Speed	0.54
Whirlwind	1.15

Devices
Targeting Drone	0.35
Cloaking Device	0.29

Electricity Manipulation
Lightning Field	?

Fire Manipulation
Hot Feet	?
Blazing Aura	0.75

Ice Manipulation
Chilling Embrace	?

Fiery Aura
Blazing Aura	?
Fire Shield	0.38
Plasma Shield	?

Ice Armor
Frozen Armor	?
Chilling Embrace	?
Wet Ice	?
Icicles	?
Glacial Armor	?
Hibernate	?

Invulnerability
Temp Invulnerability	?
Unyielding Stance	0.28
Invincibility	0.28

Stone Armor
Rock Armor	0.35
Mud Pots	1.13
Rooted	?
Brimstone Armor	?
Mineral Armor	?
Crystal Armor	?
Granite Armor	?

Force Field
Personal Force Field	0.38
Dispersion Bubble	0.75
Repulsion Field	?
Force Bubble	4.59

Storm Summoning
Snow Storm	0.76
Steamy Mist	0.76
Hurricane	0.94

Kinetics
Repel	?

Radiation Emission
Radiation Infection	0.58
Enervating Field	1.48
Choking Cloud	1.21

Dark Miasma
Darkest Night	?
Shadow Fall	0.75

Ice Control
Arctic Air	1.46

Fire Control
Hot Feet	?

Illusion Control
Superior Invisibility	1.42

Mind Control
Telekinesis	?

Spines
Quills	0.73

Regeneration
Integration	0.77
Instant Healing	1.54

Super Reflexes
Focused Fighting	0.38
Focused Senses	0.38
Evasion	?

Dark Armor
Dark Embrace	0.39
Death Shroud	0.71
Murky Cloud	?
Obsidian Shield	?
Cloak of Darkness	0.39
Cloak of Fear	?
Oppressive Gloom	0.12

Conclusion

Thank you for reading my guide. I hope it was useful to you. I would also like to thank everyone who provided me with the hard data for this guide including everyone on the Official toggle cost thread. In the event I get a copy of Visual Basic, I plan on making a program dedicated to managing toggles. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions then feel free to contact me at:

Xidrablog@yahoo.com