Here Comes the Boom - a Combo Primer
May 13, 2017 19:30:34 GMT
capn233, Ghost Of N7_SP3CTR3, and 42 more like this
Post by lennybusker on May 13, 2017 19:30:34 GMT
Link to the Combo Damage Table from the ME:A Masterbook
With Andromeda bringing lots of new fans to the Mass Effect series, I thought it'd be a good idea to have a general combo mechanics guide in addition to the pure numbers found in the masterbook. There are some aspects which are intuitive and obvious, and some which are...well, not so much. So, onward to the:
Mass Effect Andromeda Multiplayer Combo Guide
"Combo" in the Mass Effect series refers to a specific mechanic in place when certain powers are used in combination. A "primer" power affects the enemy as it says on the tin, but it also primes the enemy for a massive combo detonation if a "detonator" power is used on the same enemy before the effect wears off. Primer + Detonator = Combo! In the character skill screen, primer powers are marked with a symbol that denotes it not only as a primer in general, but which *type* of primer it is, while detonator powers are all marked with the symbol that looks like a TNT blast. In-game, primers have circles while detonators have a blast icon - and some powers can have both.
One important thing to note is that some powers are secret primers - they can prime a combo even though they lack a priming symbol in the UI. Currently in patch 1.06, Throw and Overload are secret primers. There are no secret detonators, unfortunately. Also of note is that combos themselves, as well as explosive barrels, can also prime. Well, all combos and barrels except for biotics. Sorry, Adepts.
Combos have 4 separate categories: Biotic, Fire, Cryo, and Tech. Each category has different effects other than the simple damage and works differently versus different enemy defenses. Which type of combo you create depends solely upon the primer. Detonating Biotic Primers gives you a Biotic Combo, detonating Fire Primers gives you a Fire Combo, etc no matter which detonator you use. For a full list, refer to the Combo Damage Table. Here is a summary of Combos, their secondary effects, and their effects on enemy defenses.
One important distinction between different priming powers is that their priming duration varies. Some powers like Nova have a very short priming window, while Incinerate is quite lengthy. Detonator powers also vary in their use, with some powers like Lance needing to be carefully aimed, but other powers like Energy Drain basically auto-landing as long as the enemy is targeted. Info on primer duration will be added to the table soon. Ish.
Combo Damage
So how much damage do combos do? Quite a bit in 1.06, actually. Determining combo damage uses a big-looking but actually fairly straightfoward formula:
[DiffBase * (1+ ComboBonusDetonator) *(1+ ComboBonusPassive) * DetonatorMul ] * VsDefence * (1 + SumOfDebuffs)
Explanation of terms:
DiffBase - Difficulty-scaled Base Damage. Each combo type has a different base damage value scaled for each difficulty. Biotics receive the highest base damage value, Fire and Cryo are in the middle, with Tech being the lowest.
ComboBonusDetonator - Currently (patch 1.06) only two detonator powers have a skill evolution that can grant higher combo detonation damage: Throw 6B and Trip Mine 6A. This bonus is 30%, so it gives a 1.3 multiplier. Note that even though Throw can be a primer as well as a detonator, the combo bonus only applies if Throw is the detonator.
ComboBonusPassive - Two of the passive skills can grant a 50% bonus to Combo damage - Offensive Biotics 5B and Offensive Tech 4B. Two notes for Offensive Biotics: the Human Kineticist's version is called Ascension, but the evo is the same as OB, and even though Krogan Gladiator has OB, she does not have a combo bonus available. Sorry KGlad!
Since these two bonuses are multiplicative in the formula, taking them both gives you a 1.95 multiplier to combo damage (1.3 X 1.5)!
DetonatorMul - Detonator Multiplier. If you use Throw or Shockwave to detonate, the base combo damage is reduced, by 25% for Throw and by 50% for Shockwave. The assumption on our end is that this is due to a number of balance issues- for Throw, it has a low cooldown, and at rank 6 you can either take the combo bonus evo or the double throw evo, which can detonate two primed targets simultaneously. For Shockwave, it can detonate multiple targets simultaneously right out of the box. Be sure to take advantage of this to offset the lower combo damage.
VsDefence - Combo damage is amplified versus certain enemy defense types as mentioned in the table above. Basically every combo vs every defense is just a 1 for this term, except Fire/Cryo vs Armor and Tech vs Shields. Those situations get a 1.5 or 2.5 multiplier, respectively. This makes tech combos very impressive vs Shields!
SumOfDebuffs - Debuff skills such as Annihlation with Damage Attractor, Offensive Biotics's passive Exposure, Offensive Techs's passive Elemental Tech, and others all get added up here into one multiplier. So for example with Asari Adept having Annihlation 5A and Offensive Biotics 5A, your combos primed by Annihilation will receive a (1 + .2 + .2) = 1.4 bonus for this term.
Combo damage is not affected by any other source - not power ranks, not equipment, and not boosters.
Barrel Explosions
The explosive barrels laying all over the place are actually based on the combo mechanics. They do damage that is based off of the combo type matching their contents - fire barrels = fire combos, and so on. The interesting thing about fire and tech barrels is that they can receive a massive damage multiplier dependent on difficulty and the enemy defense. Fire barrels get a 50x multiplier vs armor, replacing the normal 1.5 combo multiplier. That works out to 34000 damage on Gold. A Tech barrel vs shields replaces the 2.5 multiplier with a 100X multiplier, working out to 43200 damage on Gold! Bronze and Silver receive the same multipliers but do less overall damage due to lower base damage per difficulty. But of course enemies have fewer HP, so it still works out to one shot almost anything (of proper defense type).
Multi-Detonators, Combo Immunity, and the 'Cascade Effect'
It's mentioned above that Throw and Shockwave can detonate multiple targets simultaneously, but as of patch 1.06 there are two other powers that can do this as well: Charge 4B and Trip Mine 6A. Every other power, even if it is AOE by nature or has an AOE upgrade, only detonates one enemy at a time. Those 4, however, bring to light an interesting mechanic. Combos, if you didn't notice, do AOE damage to the target and to everyone in a modest radius nearby. So, a group of enemies that gets primed would be best comboed with a multi-detonator power, since multiple combos going off will hit everyone nearby. However, there is a short window of "combo immunity" on any target that gets primed and has their primer detonated. Due to this, if you prime a room full of enemies and then launch a wide-range multi-detonator like Shockwave or Charge, the AOE from every combo can touch everyone but doesn't do damage to every target every time a new one goes off. You see, as the game resolves the "stack" of AOE detonations and AOE combos, it will exclude previous targets who have already been detonated. So the first enemy hit will detonate and have their combo do AOE damage to everyone. Enemy number 2 will then be detonated and have their combo do AOE damage to everyone except enemy 1. Enemy 3 is up next, and Enemy 1 and 2 get immunity from his combo AOE. And so on, on down the line, in a cascading effect. Fellow MEA Research Team member srkm00b has a great gif of a multi-detonation and a damage log to help explain:
gfycat.com/ScratchyThirstyAsiaticlesserfreshwaterclam?speed=0.5
Sequential Combat Log from the gif. (You can watch the log in the gif if you don't believe me heh)
In the log, you can see the cascade effect a little more clearly. 6 targets are hit with Explosive Purge, priming them. As the target gets hit by Charge and triggers an explosion, it also triggers that target's combo immunity. That's why the colors disappear as you get farther down the list. You can also see that there's an oddity with Combo 2. The dark blue target 9E8474D0, was outside the combo radius of combo 2. He also did not get hit by Charge, otherwise there would be another 2 rows to the log showing it getting hit by Charge 6 / Combo Damage 6. Hope this illustrates the cascade combo effect a little more clearly, and why some targets (like the dark blue one) take massive damage and you're able to one shot some things that doesn't seem possible. This also applies to Krogan Gladiator Pull + Melee, although the "combo" radius is A LOT smaller and harder to cascade 4-5 times. Most likely you'll only get a double cascade or rarely a triple with Krogan Gladiator.
Conclusion
That's about it for this guide! I haven't listed every specific detail here, as they're all laid out in the Combo Damage Table. Still to come in the table is more info about priming (vs defense, priming duration, etc) and a few other tidbits like Kineticist Bowling. Have any questions or tips about combo mechanics that aren't covered here or in the table? Leave them below!
Acknowledgements: The MEA Reseach Team: aryantes , huntedhunt , capn233 , hardcoresalmon , hanskey , peddroelm , /u/Hello_Isaac, and srkm00b
With Andromeda bringing lots of new fans to the Mass Effect series, I thought it'd be a good idea to have a general combo mechanics guide in addition to the pure numbers found in the masterbook. There are some aspects which are intuitive and obvious, and some which are...well, not so much. So, onward to the:
Mass Effect Andromeda Multiplayer Combo Guide
"Combo" in the Mass Effect series refers to a specific mechanic in place when certain powers are used in combination. A "primer" power affects the enemy as it says on the tin, but it also primes the enemy for a massive combo detonation if a "detonator" power is used on the same enemy before the effect wears off. Primer + Detonator = Combo! In the character skill screen, primer powers are marked with a symbol that denotes it not only as a primer in general, but which *type* of primer it is, while detonator powers are all marked with the symbol that looks like a TNT blast. In-game, primers have circles while detonators have a blast icon - and some powers can have both.
One important thing to note is that some powers are secret primers - they can prime a combo even though they lack a priming symbol in the UI. Currently in patch 1.06, Throw and Overload are secret primers. There are no secret detonators, unfortunately. Also of note is that combos themselves, as well as explosive barrels, can also prime. Well, all combos and barrels except for biotics. Sorry, Adepts.
Combos have 4 separate categories: Biotic, Fire, Cryo, and Tech. Each category has different effects other than the simple damage and works differently versus different enemy defenses. Which type of combo you create depends solely upon the primer. Detonating Biotic Primers gives you a Biotic Combo, detonating Fire Primers gives you a Fire Combo, etc no matter which detonator you use. For a full list, refer to the Combo Damage Table. Here is a summary of Combos, their secondary effects, and their effects on enemy defenses.
| Combo | Biotic | Cryo | Fire | Tech |
| Effect | Extra Force | AOE Chill or Snap Freeze | Enemy-based DOT | Ground-based DOT |
| vs HP | Normal Damage | Normal Damage | Normal Damage | Normal Damage |
| vs Armor | Normal Damage | 1.5 Damage Multiplier | 1.5 Damage Multiplier | Normal Damage |
| vs Shields | Normal Damage | Normal Damage | Normal Damage | 2.5 Damage Multiplier |
One important distinction between different priming powers is that their priming duration varies. Some powers like Nova have a very short priming window, while Incinerate is quite lengthy. Detonator powers also vary in their use, with some powers like Lance needing to be carefully aimed, but other powers like Energy Drain basically auto-landing as long as the enemy is targeted. Info on primer duration will be added to the table soon. Ish.
Combo Damage
So how much damage do combos do? Quite a bit in 1.06, actually. Determining combo damage uses a big-looking but actually fairly straightfoward formula:
[DiffBase * (1+ ComboBonusDetonator) *(1+ ComboBonusPassive) * DetonatorMul ] * VsDefence * (1 + SumOfDebuffs)
Explanation of terms:
DiffBase - Difficulty-scaled Base Damage. Each combo type has a different base damage value scaled for each difficulty. Biotics receive the highest base damage value, Fire and Cryo are in the middle, with Tech being the lowest.
ComboBonusDetonator - Currently (patch 1.06) only two detonator powers have a skill evolution that can grant higher combo detonation damage: Throw 6B and Trip Mine 6A. This bonus is 30%, so it gives a 1.3 multiplier. Note that even though Throw can be a primer as well as a detonator, the combo bonus only applies if Throw is the detonator.
ComboBonusPassive - Two of the passive skills can grant a 50% bonus to Combo damage - Offensive Biotics 5B and Offensive Tech 4B. Two notes for Offensive Biotics: the Human Kineticist's version is called Ascension, but the evo is the same as OB, and even though Krogan Gladiator has OB, she does not have a combo bonus available. Sorry KGlad!
Since these two bonuses are multiplicative in the formula, taking them both gives you a 1.95 multiplier to combo damage (1.3 X 1.5)!
DetonatorMul - Detonator Multiplier. If you use Throw or Shockwave to detonate, the base combo damage is reduced, by 25% for Throw and by 50% for Shockwave. The assumption on our end is that this is due to a number of balance issues- for Throw, it has a low cooldown, and at rank 6 you can either take the combo bonus evo or the double throw evo, which can detonate two primed targets simultaneously. For Shockwave, it can detonate multiple targets simultaneously right out of the box. Be sure to take advantage of this to offset the lower combo damage.
VsDefence - Combo damage is amplified versus certain enemy defense types as mentioned in the table above. Basically every combo vs every defense is just a 1 for this term, except Fire/Cryo vs Armor and Tech vs Shields. Those situations get a 1.5 or 2.5 multiplier, respectively. This makes tech combos very impressive vs Shields!
SumOfDebuffs - Debuff skills such as Annihlation with Damage Attractor, Offensive Biotics's passive Exposure, Offensive Techs's passive Elemental Tech, and others all get added up here into one multiplier. So for example with Asari Adept having Annihlation 5A and Offensive Biotics 5A, your combos primed by Annihilation will receive a (1 + .2 + .2) = 1.4 bonus for this term.
Combo damage is not affected by any other source - not power ranks, not equipment, and not boosters.
Barrel Explosions
The explosive barrels laying all over the place are actually based on the combo mechanics. They do damage that is based off of the combo type matching their contents - fire barrels = fire combos, and so on. The interesting thing about fire and tech barrels is that they can receive a massive damage multiplier dependent on difficulty and the enemy defense. Fire barrels get a 50x multiplier vs armor, replacing the normal 1.5 combo multiplier. That works out to 34000 damage on Gold. A Tech barrel vs shields replaces the 2.5 multiplier with a 100X multiplier, working out to 43200 damage on Gold! Bronze and Silver receive the same multipliers but do less overall damage due to lower base damage per difficulty. But of course enemies have fewer HP, so it still works out to one shot almost anything (of proper defense type).
Multi-Detonators, Combo Immunity, and the 'Cascade Effect'
It's mentioned above that Throw and Shockwave can detonate multiple targets simultaneously, but as of patch 1.06 there are two other powers that can do this as well: Charge 4B and Trip Mine 6A. Every other power, even if it is AOE by nature or has an AOE upgrade, only detonates one enemy at a time. Those 4, however, bring to light an interesting mechanic. Combos, if you didn't notice, do AOE damage to the target and to everyone in a modest radius nearby. So, a group of enemies that gets primed would be best comboed with a multi-detonator power, since multiple combos going off will hit everyone nearby. However, there is a short window of "combo immunity" on any target that gets primed and has their primer detonated. Due to this, if you prime a room full of enemies and then launch a wide-range multi-detonator like Shockwave or Charge, the AOE from every combo can touch everyone but doesn't do damage to every target every time a new one goes off. You see, as the game resolves the "stack" of AOE detonations and AOE combos, it will exclude previous targets who have already been detonated. So the first enemy hit will detonate and have their combo do AOE damage to everyone. Enemy number 2 will then be detonated and have their combo do AOE damage to everyone except enemy 1. Enemy 3 is up next, and Enemy 1 and 2 get immunity from his combo AOE. And so on, on down the line, in a cascading effect. Fellow MEA Research Team member srkm00b has a great gif of a multi-detonation and a damage log to help explain:
gfycat.com/ScratchyThirstyAsiaticlesserfreshwaterclam?speed=0.5
In the log, you can see the cascade effect a little more clearly. 6 targets are hit with Explosive Purge, priming them. As the target gets hit by Charge and triggers an explosion, it also triggers that target's combo immunity. That's why the colors disappear as you get farther down the list. You can also see that there's an oddity with Combo 2. The dark blue target 9E8474D0, was outside the combo radius of combo 2. He also did not get hit by Charge, otherwise there would be another 2 rows to the log showing it getting hit by Charge 6 / Combo Damage 6. Hope this illustrates the cascade combo effect a little more clearly, and why some targets (like the dark blue one) take massive damage and you're able to one shot some things that doesn't seem possible. This also applies to Krogan Gladiator Pull + Melee, although the "combo" radius is A LOT smaller and harder to cascade 4-5 times. Most likely you'll only get a double cascade or rarely a triple with Krogan Gladiator.
Conclusion
That's about it for this guide! I haven't listed every specific detail here, as they're all laid out in the Combo Damage Table. Still to come in the table is more info about priming (vs defense, priming duration, etc) and a few other tidbits like Kineticist Bowling. Have any questions or tips about combo mechanics that aren't covered here or in the table? Leave them below!
Acknowledgements: The MEA Reseach Team: aryantes , huntedhunt , capn233 , hardcoresalmon , hanskey , peddroelm , /u/Hello_Isaac, and srkm00b
