Efficiancy qestion

[ghoffman1928]

I hear conflicting statements about Efficiency cap.  Some people tell me a max Streamline and a max Fleeting Expertise is bad because you are exceeding the 175% efficiency cap while others tell me that the numbers on the character sheet max out at 175% but you are actually getting all the efficiency buffs.  has anyone confirmed this or is it really capped? 

[Guest]

Maxed Fleeting and Streamline will only show the effects on a channeling frame (e.g. Exalted Blade, WoF, Equinox Maim).

The duration is lowered by Fleeting, therefore making the abilities cost more in theory. However as Fleeting and Streamline's overflow still reduce the "greater cost" of the channeling per second, the actual energy/sec does not go above 25% of the base.

The math is such:

Titania channels Razorwing for 10e/s

Max Fleeting + streamline would theoretically bring that to 1e/s based on eff but the cap is 2.5e/s

Max Fleeting's negative would bring up 10e/s to 25e/s as 100% is 2.5x 40%

Hence 1e/s becomes 2.5 e/s, which is the cap anyway.

[Lannen]

The soft cap for efficiency in general is 175% because the cost of any ability can not be reduced below 25% of its base cost. You are still technically getting all of the efficiency your mods list, but your sheet will only display 175% because anything above that is overflow and not actually being used to calculate costs. So as far as using abilities (not channeling, the actual pressing of the button) yes 175% is your limit.

When it comes to channeling, ability duration also becomes a thing. Increased duration acts as increased efficiency for these abilities, but if you are running fleeting expertise it reduces duration, so it becomes a matter of reducing duration and thus increasing cost but then the "overflow" efficiency kicking in to offset that increase. The limit on drain is still 25% of the ability's base drain per sec, but the math gets more complex. 

For personal preference I find that using Streamline and a half ranked Fleeting Expertise to hit 170% efficiency and then stacking duration works better for almost all channeling frames. Primarily this is because there are usually other abilities that will likewise benefit from increased duration but not from the complex overlap math of duration vs efficiency (a frame like my girl Mesa comes to mind: Shooting Gallery and Shatter Shield both greatly benefit from the increased duration, so I let my efficiency sit at 170% and then just stack duration).