DreadShinobi

Clarion > CM

indeed.

AB only helps one person, 2 if you cheat with burnout. Even in it's own set Fortitude is much better than AB because it can be applied to 5-6 people.





Fulcrum Shift is the best buff in the game. Hands down. Nothing else can come close to giving a perma 300-400% dmg buff to 1-24 people. And while we're at it I'll throw in Sleet as the best Debuff in the game.

TBH I didn't find alot of the stuff he wrote about to be very important or I just didnt agree with it. Alot of it sounded more like a personal wishlist rather than the views of Massively.

I tried bringing up the same thing about EBs, particularily trapdoor, a little while ago which was met with much resentment. I agree with you, but alot of people apparantly don't. :/

It'd be cool if they started throwing that around to more sets, new or old. More choices = good.

Statesman loyalty program also ends in march, the thing keeping people subbed until i22 comes out while nothing else happens. March for i22 is a solid bet.

Oh really? I didn't know that. Good to know though. Either way I still think the current SG system we have right now is fine (base editting is a whole nother thing). I wouldn't want to pay money as a VIP (or Prem) to make a solo sg or have to transfer to a new system when I can already do that with the current system.

The ITF video was the only thing I had on hand (and I was pretty suprised it even worked as an example at all).

For manticore and any other mission that is just a boss at the end; You either start the mission with nothing and 5 seconds later you have 70% fury or you run to the end and you start combat with nothing and 5 seconds later you have your 70% fury. Regardless, you are going to have to build that fury at some point, so I don't really see it as a big deal as to when you initiate combat and start building it, and while you are building your fury you're still doing damage, and usually its enough to get the job done efficiently enough til you hit your fury cap. Will they be as fast doing low level speed content? Well, maybe, maybe not. Fury isn't the only thing to take into consideration.

Brutes have SS/FA, which Scrappers as of right now can't live up to, I would hardly consider /FA scrappers viable as they can't hold aggro worth a damn, the closest thing would probably be a fire/sd scrapper (it's really unfortunate shield defense can't be paired with titan weapons). I consider a fire/sd scrapper equal to a ss/fa brute (it's close enough). Being able to hold aggro is a large part of being a melee on the team, and as I quote from Silas' melee guide, a melee brings 2 things to a team, damage and aggro control. SD is really the only secondary scrappers have that can do both at it's best.

Lets say team A has 1 melee and 1-7 squishies, and team B has the same. The melee on team A is dealing more damage than the melee on team B, but the melee on team B is able to hold and control aggro because they're a Brute with a damage aura and taunt. The melee on Team A runs into a mob and drops their aoe and kills most of them, in sight of seeing everything die the boss/eb/av starts running all over the place because the melee on team A is a scrapper that isn't /SD. Team B's boss/eb/av stays in place and the team is able to dps it more thoroughly(sp?). Team B finishes before Team A even though the melee on team A is dealing more damage.

However let's say the scrapper is fire/sd. They're probably going to be doing more damage than the brute upfront and be able to hold aggro equally well. However once the brute gets going (which takes a matter of seconds) it's going to be keeping up with the scrapper in damage and potentially outdamaging it because it's an ss/fire. A Scrapper could potentially be TW to keep up with SS/FA's dps but they wouldn't be able to pair it with SD, which means they either keep the taunt aura with a non damage boosting secondary or (worse) lose their taunt aura to get a damage boosting secondary that can pair with TW. I'm only comparing the top combinations for each as it's too difficult to compare more. The raw numbers for scrappers might point to scrappers performing better, but brutes have access to alot more effective secondaries and alot more utility and ultimately perform better in more situations.

YMMV.

However you're right in that it's getting offtopic. Sorry for derailing the thread in any measure.

A scrapper is not twice as fast as a Brute when stealthing. The only thing I do in CoH is run content on speed. Brutes aren't disadvantaged compared to scrappers when running speed content.


Ill just leave this here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euK0vPcqdjM

This was a video of a pre-i19 speed ITF (2 secs short of the record at that time) that I lead. It was recorded by Cam who was playing his brute (and also lagging pretty heavily from running fraps) and it gives a pretty good demonstration of fury levels throughout the TF and at no point was he having any issues dealing effective damage (though there was quite a bit of fulcrum shift flowing, but his fury bar is still there to look at). This would be an extreme example and at a slightly slower speed it would probably be easier to keep fury as well as more time in each spawn to build it, and even with the other people on the team running ahead of him preventing alpha absorbing he was still quite capable of getting the 70% fury.

Overall I'd say it is a pretty good demonstration of fury generation in speed content.

I dunno. I'll lose my fury at times, sure. However it only takes a matter of seconds to get it back and keep it there for as long as I need it. If your mission objective is just to collect glowies why would you need fury? If it's just 1 glowie along the way you shouldn't be losing much fury over a 2 second glowie click. I assume by escapee phase you mean BAF? I don't really have fury issues there unless I don't have confuse protection so I can't sit on a door.

I could also agree with you in that it could well be us that is the abnormal scenario, I don't have a whole lot of insight into what others experience. I should have said that I /personally/ do not see such outstanding issues with Fury that would result in me deeming brutes to have sucky damage compared to scrappers.

Also, what is the Blue Cave? >_>

All Corruptor secondaries increase their own damage output in varying degrees (as well as everyone else's damage, with therm and pain on the low end and kin and cold on the high end). If you look at corruptors as buffbots or if you look at them as blasters you aren't looking at them in the right way. Corruptors are sort of like Doms in that they effectively have 2 primaries. Both their blasts and buffs have equal importance in playing one and if you don't value one of course you are going to get the scenario which you described above. When played right and depending on your powersets, you can do competitve damage with blasters AND apply force multipliers for your entire team, which can push the total team dps far higher than a team with a blaster instead of a corr.

Why are suggesting that (_alot_ of) people be forced to pay money for something we have for free right now? Alot of people like their personal SGs, and just because only 1 person is in it doesn't make it any less of a super group (especially if you have multiple of your own toons in it)

You're making the fury build up sound like a much bigger issue than it actually is. Before the fury changes I could potentially agree with you, with some reservation.... now? Absolutely not. It's so easy to get to and hold 70% or so fury now it's barely worth mentioning unless you have an abnormally slow playstyle or you play at work or something. After taking an alpha (and I would hope you would be taking the alpha) you should have enough fury to start hitting hard enough.

Then there is also frenzy, which I don't use personally, but you can use it before you run into the spawn and it brings your fury to 100% when popped if you are pure villain.

As far as "perfect AT" goes, Corrs beat Brutes hands down, even moreso when you're talking about high end gameplay. Specifically Fire/Kin and Fire/Cold Corrs are some of the most broken things in the game. A brute (and when I say Brute I mean SS/FA or TW/Elec) will win out in most scenarios when Solo compared to a corr, however as soon as you add more people, the corr will be infinitely better as they will be doing similar damage to the brute and applying force multipliers to everyone else in the group. That's not to say brutes are bad by any means, really Brutes are fabulous and I love them, I just give the edge to corrs as in most high end team instances (which optimally would be 2 ss/fa brutes, 3-4 fire/cold corrs, 1-2 fiire/kin corrs, and 1 fire/mm blaster (just an example)). And then there are itrials, in which case everyone and their mom is playing melee in which case you being on a corr is the best possible thing for your league.

Corrs are what make things melt. A brute on the receiving end of a corr is best, but you can't get that without the corr.

Ditto.

Make macros of instructions. They really minimize how many instructions you have to type.

This is what I have for UGT:

/macro Targ1 "lc Throughout the trial we will be fighting 3 Warwalker AVs. Each Warwalker uses a special mechanic that targets random members of the league. If you are targetted you will see bright red text under your hp bar saying 'targetted'"
/macro Targ2 "lc It is extremely important that you constantly watch your hp/status bar for targetted status. If you are targetted you need to move FAR away from every other league member, stay away until your targetted status is gone."
/macro Glowies "lc I will be collecting the Glowing Lichen that are used on the Regenerating Warwalker. For ease of use I will be the only one collecting these, no one else needs to bother with them"
/macro Pull1 "lc We will be fighting WW AVs next. $target will be pulling the Regenerating WW towards us where we come in. Please wait at the elevator until called to move up and attack."
/macro Pull2 "lc When the Regenerating WW dies $target will pull the Lichen Infested WW into the far left corner of the room, stay where you are until called to move up and attack"
/macro Trap "lc The Crystal Trap room is ahead. We will need to defeat all 4 crystals to move on. Start with the Crystal on your left as you enter. If you have a taunt, pull DE away from the crystals to stop its regeneration"
/macro Bomb "lc Continue clearing mobs. $target will be running ahead to trigger bombs. When we reach the Spore Tunnel run to the end of it, if you have Desdemona make sure not to lose her. When you reach more mobs, start clearing them again."
/macro Avatar "lc We will be fighting the Avatar soon. During this fight he will use [Grasp of Gaea] aka Will of the Earth on 1 random league member. If this is you, you will need to quickly move away from everyone else or he will be healed."
/macro Final "lc This is the final floor. There are 3 mobs on this floor followed by Avatar of the Hamidon. When we reach the 3rd mob STOP and do not go any further. Gather close, we will buff up first. Save all uses of Destiny and Lore until called for."


And this is what I have for keyes:
(I also split the teams into high dps/high level shifted toons onto the reactor team and low dps/low lvl shifted toons onto the cells team, and I use a targetting macro to call out those who are disinitgrating when fighting antimatter)

/macro Reactor "lc Team $target will be clearing Warworks off the 2nd and 3rd floor of the reactor, Warworks on the first floor do not need to be killed."
/macro Cells "lc Team $target will be responsible for collecting and using power cells on the 2nd and 3rd floor of the reactor. Do Not use any power cells on the first floor"
/macro MyGrp "lc My team will be clearing Warworks off the 2nd and 3rd floor of the reactor, Warworks on the first floor do not need to be killed. When antimatter spawns $target will pick him up. Please keep $target buffed"
/macro 2nd "lc At this Reactor all 3 teams will focus on killing the EB Warwalkers as quickly as possible. If you get a power cell use it on the 2nd and 3rd floor of the reactor ASAP, do not use any power cells on the first floor"
/macro Tag "lc If possible, use 1 power cell on each of the top 6 Terminals to keep them unlocked when antimatter spawns. After all of the top 6 are tagged start filling them up"
/macro 3rd "lc At this Reactor all 3 team break into Bunkers. After all 3 Bunkers are broken into, dps teams head up to clear the top 2 floors of the reactor, cell collection team continue to collect power cells from bunkers as they restock"
/macro USE "lc Use any power cells you have acquired NOW! Only use power cells on the top 2 floors of the reactor, do not use any cells on the first floor"
/macro Dsnt "lc We will be fighting Antimatter next. If you are targetted by disintigration back away from other players and Antimatter. SHOUT OUT so that people know you are disintigrating. Pop Greens if necessary to survive."
/macro Pull "Bring Antimatter to the next Terminal at my location. Everyone back off of Antimatter and come to me. Use Taunts if necessary to move him over.

I don't have any macros for Lam and Baf because of their aforementioned lack of needing instruction. But yeah, the whole having to type out a novel thing doesnt really matter when you have macros to do it for you. Mine are just an example and fill my needs when I lead, you can of course make the macros however you want if you choose to do so.

Why do you think people do it now? Because its mind numbingly easy and has rewards that far exceed the risk. Just because it's getting farmed doesn't mean it's good.

I enjoy the current trials, and by that I mean all of them, I typically run Keyes, TPN, and MoM significantly more than BAF/Lam (rarely ever do baf). However when I run them I usually form them with the minimum number of people. It takes less time to form and typically have a higher % of people which I'm friends with, which typically means faster trial and higher success rate.

If the devs added new smaller trials with somewhat equivalent rewards I definitely would be running them more, but it has nothing to do with being greedy, it just means I prefer to just group with friends.

Nice pics and idea.