EmperorSteele

Yeah, but people still came for a run announced in VU2009. I dunno how they did, however.

You came to the Defnder boards with an idea for a "healer" build? Oy, talk about stirring up the hornets nest!

Well look, pragmatically speaking, by the time you can use a medicine power, you could have used any of your other heals TWICE (damn interupt time). So they're really not worth taking anyway.

Not that Medicine is useless for any OTHER primary. I have it on one of my Kins... seeing as Kin's only heal is an enemy based AoE, it's nice to have a single-target heal (and a rez) available if needed between battles. But since Empathy already HAS two ST heals, an AoE heal, a mez-breaking power, and a rez, all of which are better than the Medicine pool versions? Not needed.

Pick up Hover so you can survey the battle field and find allies in trouble easier. Or Leadership to buff up your crew. Or heck, how about Presence so you can "terrorize" the bad guys and make them not attack, which means no one will need as much healing? Or maybe the stealth pool to give everyone and yourself a little extra defensive edge?

Just... not Medicine.

Or you could combine... Go FF/Sonic. I have one and it's pretty nifty. Since FF/* has a few KB powers (that your team would thank you to skip), it opens up some room in your build for attacks and pool powers.

Just an idea.

Mechanically speaking, I'll tell you why it works.

*/Dark relies on ToHit checks for some of its buffs and defuffs.

Rad Blast/* Lowers the defense of your foes, making them easier to hit.

So basically, if you open up with your blasts, you're pretty much garuanteed to hit with your buffs/debuffs, which makes the battles easier =)

Yeah, PvP has "diminishing returns" which basically knocks down any bonuses you've IO'd out for. It even affects buffs/debuffs/healing so that your 300 point self heal? Does 200 the second time you use it. Then 100. Then 50. Then oops, dead. (note that this isn't a very long-lasting effect. Just if you heal more thanonce every 10 seconds)

I'd hit the PvP forums and ask for some build/playstyle advice if you're serious about being a contender.

Actually, I've seen a couple Brutes out-tank some Tanks >_> But those are outliers, of course.

There actually IS an issue with "why have more than one tank on a team?" A single Tank can handle just about anything, and adding a second or third is superfluous at best. Unlike say, an extra defender or controller or Blaster who help serve to multiply their individual effects, having multiple tankers actually takes AWAY from the one. Even if it's just a perception, it's a wide-spread one.

This only proves, however, that Tankers as a whole really don't need much help at all. They have their job, and they're SO GOOD at it that no team should want for another. And THAT, I think, is a problem. I've seen Tankers come to MoSTF Saturday on Virtue, and they get turned down because all the assembled teams already have "A" tank. You don't see teams turning down a second blaster or a second emp or a second kin or a second... anything. Besides tank. And when a team DOES take on two tankers? "Oh, hey, this guy's a stone tank. Hey mister shields, you wanna switch?" "Sure, i got a kin i can bring..." "Perfect!"

Well not always. Sometimes you'll have the "primary" tank and the "downgraded scrapper who will only jump in if something goes wrong with an AV" Tank.

Which is why I think Tanks should have some kind of stacking bonus. We don't need more damage... we need a good reason to have more than one on a team who's function or contribution wouldn't be insignificant compared to straight up more control or damage or debuffs.

Yeah, Venture doesn't like "anyone else" in "his" stories. To each their own.

I'll tell you why Levitate does more than lift: Grav gets an autonomous pet. Mind doesn't (unless you count confusing a horde of minions who can't hit one another once every 4 minutes).

Though it doesn't explain giving the dom version a damage boost =. *shrug*

The issue with making an MoSTF tanker is making sure you either have good support or a lot of tier 3 inspirations. No amount of regen will prevent Ghost Widow's hax hold, or Lord Recluse spamming Chaingun (2 hits will kill anything), or a moron teammate getting too close when an AV uses a nuke and getting flattened.

PS: I've tanked MoSTF on my invuln several times, so you don't "need" a Stone to do it =P

It would aliviate Tank stacking by giving a benifit to having more than one on a team beyond "oh hey a room with 50 guys" IE the Khan TF. True, the -slow isn't THAT huge a deal, but I'm specifically thinking of TF content and how sometimes a stray AoE can knock half a team senseless. If an AV is slowed down enough, they may never get the chance to do such a thing.

I was considering makigng Hesitation give a team-wide damage buff, but decided it might be over the top (and would essentially make Leadership: Assault useless), so i left it as a Tank-only option.

The current Tank stacking issue is that there is NO reason to have more than one on a team -short of a hami raid-, and in fact can be seen as counter-productive if there was. I'd like to think that a stacking debuff, plus a little extra damage, would help people change thier minds. Or I could be wrong, *shrug*

I think you're missing the obvious: you're enjoying quality time with someone you care about. There's an emotional investement in this character BECAUSE you're duoing with your gf. Even the most gimp build in the game couldn't spoil one's fun then.

Too bad you can't wait for GR, Demon summoning will be an MM Powerset =)

In the meantime, you might want to avoid a 4th pool and limit your APP choices, because Fire/Thermal is going to be pretty tightly packed. You'll need to skip at least 2 powers if you want RF, TP, Fitness and Hasten along with any 2 or 3 APPs. I can't see anything in Thermal worth skipping if you're going to be teaming constantly. Ring of Fire and Bonfire in Fire Control seem like they're avoidable...

Other than that, what's your GF rolling? For instance, if she's going to take a ton of AoEs, then you definitely want to make sure you're taking all your AoEs to keep your foes tightly packed. If she's focusing on Single Target damage, then you'll need a build that can control multiple baddies for longer (in which case Bonfire might be useful as a mitigation tool).

Also, if you're willing to sacrifice a few MORE powers, maybe you both should consider fitting Leadership into your builds for a bit of extra protection and damage. Though the buff you'llbe getting from her as a Blaster will be so low that it might not be worth it.

Well, given that Controllers massively outperform Defenders*, and given how Corruptors out-damage Defenders (which is relevant with GR coming around the bend), I do think some concession needs to be made for Defenders. Raising thier buff values and HP, along with maybe a minor nerf to Controller/Corruptor secondaries might be the only thing that keeps most non-Empath Defenders viable.

*Based on my Controllers being able to do anything short of soloing AVs while my defenders have trouble taking down 3 even con minions solo... YMMV

I've been reading the tanker forums for a while. And there seems to be a lot of desire to make Tanks "better", even though, IMO, Tanks are just fine (I'll concede however i only have one tank at level 50, and she's heavily IO'd out). One of the issues that comes up a lot is "why have more than one tank on a team?" Well, I think I've figured out a way to not only solve this problem, but other issues surrounding tanks overall.

I believe that, when an enemy is agrod by more than one source (over a certain agro value as to not allow blasters to butt-in), then they should be forced to "Hesitate" (I'm amenable to calling this mechanic something else). Basically, an enemy sees two (or more) threats and, suffering from fight or flight, is unable to choose who to attack and who to risk ignoring. This can take effect as an irresistible -recharge debuff that hits -20% at two tanks, and gains another 5% for each tank on the team who is actively attacking/taunting enough to hit a certain agro value. This way, the tanks are safer, the team is safer, and multiple tanks are effectively debuffing an AV.

Another facet of Hesitation would be that the affected enemies would not know where the next attack is coming from, leaving them open to a critical blow. The mechanic would be as such: If a tank does NOT have agro on an enemy as they attack, they get a +10% damage buff. This only applies if a second player currently has agro (could even be a non-tank). Also, with a buff in damage, the second tank risks taking agro away from the first, which balances this out a little bit.

Well, that's my idea. It does nothing for endurance consumption, but i figured adding in a +recovery or -end use property to this mechanic might make it overpowered.

Additionally, this would not replace Gauntlet... maybe ADDED to it, but I kinda like punch-voke *shrugs*

Pretty much what Local_Man intoned, it's nice to have a full stable of different controllers so that you can bring whatever's needed.

On TFs, you're going to run into lots of EBs and AVs, so you want a controller that can hold or distract such foes if for some reason the Tank isn't up to snuff. Illu is the best at this, but since you want to get away from that, i'll vote Mind/TA (or Mind/Rad or Grav/TA)... anything that'll help you stack Hold or Immob magnitude. Mind is great because Mesmerize can one-shot sleep a foe if for some reason the team needs to run, and it's also good at shutting down an AV's toggles. Also, chaining TK, Dominate, Total Dom, and slotting your attacks with extra chance to hold procs = Held AV. If there's another troller on your team, you can probably even hold 'em through the PToD.

Just my 2 inf.

Well, this would be nice to a point. However, i must add that once your base is running and you've banked a lot of prestige, you wouldn't need the discounts anymore and it'd be a little unfair, getting everything for half off.

Additionally, as someone who has a solo SG, i can tell you right now that having all that extra salvage and enhancement storage space all to myself is really kinda unbalanced. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it's there, but I'm hoarding so much crap right now it's not even funny. If it had been cheaper, well, gee, i would never need to keep my lowbies in SG mode. The way I see it, having to pay for the entire base myself is a trade-off for getting to have 300 extra salvage slots and 200 extra enhancements at my disposal, as well as being able to trade those things between my alts, without worrying about someone else stealing my stuff.

Also, the fact that you get bonus prestge when a new member joins (up to 15) can already be seen as a "discount" for a low-membership SG.

Now if you really wanted to limit this to one CHARACTER, no alts no nothing... mmmaybe you should get a discount of some sort, but I think there'd need to be more storage restrictions or something. Just my 2 inf.

I'd say nix Unstoppable and fit in RPD. If you're looking to hit the defense cap, you'll almost never need your tier 9. Also, what's up with heal other/aid self? You already HAVE a self-heal. Swap 'em for ResEn and Hasten, and IO out for recharge to get DP perma.

Holy ****balls!

XD

Well half the market posts were about avilability and usage of IOs, so they kinda go hand in hand. Let's just ride this out and see how the forum goes along and if it gets to be a problem, i'm sure the community staff will gladly re-seperate our play-pens.

Overall, i'm a bit unsold on the new look, but the old look, while functional, looked like a fansite BBS and had to go. So I guess it's all for the better =)

ps: testing

Eastern is an hour in the future compared to central.

The further east you go, the more ahead time is.

Until you get past New Zealand.

Will you two quit spanking it at each other? You're getting manlove all over the walls!

IO up for accuracy.

Why? Because you need to HIT things to use your self buffs. Transference, Transfusion, Siphon Power, Fulcrum Shift, and Siphon Speed all have to hit their targets first. Sure, one acc IO will cover most of your needs, but if you want to farm bosses or anything higher than even con mobs, you'll want the acc boost.