Icesickle

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The worst possible thing that I can think of as a non-melee focused squishy is having a newb shielder standing next to me with a taunt aura running thinking he's saving me by granting me 13% defense.

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Good point. My Blasters' main defense is MOVEMENT. The last thing I want is some scrapper with a taunt aura chasing me around and yelling at me to stop so that they can give me an insignificant little buff.

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Mids is incorrect, GC is just under 14% def to others at base (scrappers) and around 23% def to all slotted up. Thats serious mitigation no matter how you look at it and is far from insignificant. You can see how effective it is on the mission with all the freak tanks at the end, if the tanks (of the hero variety) ventured outside the radius of my GC their HPs started to fall at an alarming rate.

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The power's failing is it's radius, not it's defense bonus.

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the radius is a side effect of its defence bonus, which is massive, significantly more than a FF defenders dispersion bubble or a SOA. You want the defence? Hug the scrapper, its a safe place to be, hes even got a taunt aura

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The worst possible thing that I can think of as a non-melee focused squishy is having a newb shielder standing next to me with a taunt aura running thinking he's saving me by granting me 13% defense.

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Good point. My Blasters' main defense is MOVEMENT. The last thing I want is some scrapper with a taunt aura chasing me around and yelling at me to stop so that they can give me an insignificant little buff.

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Mids is incorrect, GC is just under 14% def to others at base (scrappers) and around 23% def to all slotted up. Thats serious mitigation no matter how you look at it and is far from insignificant. You can see how effective it is on the mission with all the freak tanks at the end, if the tanks (of the hero variety) ventured outside the radius of my GC their HPs started to fall at an alarming rate.

its a great solo toon, you should have zero problems surviving as with DM/FA you get -

2 Heals

2 Endurance recovery powers

Its an energizer bunny, just keeps going.

For farming it will be terrible

I took it on my DM/SD, with siphon life I dont need aid self so have a couple of free powers, I even have it 6 slotted with red fortunes. I find it pretty invaluable at keeping people alive including tanks.

It still should give SOME defence to the player like PF

gloom is apprantly really really good dps fitted into an attack chain

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Elec/ is not even close to the best farming setup. I have an Elec/Elec with 85% global recharge, and my SS with minimal bonuses outpaces it. LR is not up enough, overkills minions by too much, still has broken procs and caps too low to match. Footstomp is the second best AoE in the game behind PSW, which is a standard LR is way off of.

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the problem with your elec/ is its secondary which is really poor synergy in spite of the name, its got terrible survivability being pure resistence, if you go aid self you are locked into the 4.33 second animation instead of punching faces and if you dont go aid self good luck getting to the agro cap and living. elec/sheild is a whole other ballgame.

Never get too "excited" over what is perceived to be "the best", ET was the best once, PSW is more than likely going to change to the blaster version with the upcoming dominator changes and Castle isnt happy with rage.

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I15 is yet another light issue with not much appeal. I14 has been the only big deal to come out since I have been playing (joined after i11).

I know the DEV team was minimal for a bit but they still charged us full sub. price during that time. Now with a rather large staff the game seems to be producing new stuff a bit more frequently. Unfortunately most of the new stuff is lame

The new costume patterns are weak.

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Dont forget issue 13 was actually called Architect and was the "meat" of that issue untill they pulled it out and gave it its own. It should have been in place last year so from one point of view we are 6 months into the year without any updates, merely what we should have had in i13.

i15 is a terrible issue, how they were unable to push out that mediocre TF/SF for the anniversary (you know, the name of the issue and all) is beyond me. Also on the patch notes it looks to me that they are including anything and everything (and half of it is listing the badges they are taking out) and double spacing to make it look like there is more in it


* face 197


* face 198


* face 199


* Fixed typo in something!!!!!


I cling to the hope that i16 will be magical, they have got to have been doing something with their time and it sure isnt in i15.

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damagewise its not.

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Well just comparing the 2 attacks it's not, but the DPS of FS will be better than LR.

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you dont need any higher DPS when LR and SC will kill your whole agro cap at once, by the time you get the next 16 ready to go they are recharged again

many lower mobs are weak to lethal if i remember correctly, this reverses late game and it becomes the most widely resisted damage type.

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Issue 15: Make your own damn story, you have the tools you lazy gits....oh fine, heres something we knocked out in 20 mins....add some merits and call it a Task force... voila

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Ironically, it's still better content than 90% of MA content

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I could go to sleep on my keyboard and write better content than 90% of whats in MA

Issue 15: Make your own damn story, you have the tools you lazy gits....oh fine, heres something we knocked out in 20 mins....add some merits and call it a Task force... voila

if you have a concept then roll with it

otherwise stipulate what you want out a brute and you will get planty of opinions.

If you really want to go EM on a brute then pick a low-interactive secondary like WP, SR, EA and sheild

If you want something really difficult to play but had the ability to lock down anything uncluding hoards of bosses thenI would recommend SM/DA as fault + OG = mag 4 aoe stungasms. Brutes cloak of fear is also mag 3 so fears LTs, that may be a bit anti-fury though. Be warned it will suck your endurance like a mob of sappers.

I highly recommend Stone melee, its the best DPS ST damage set in the game now with the mitigation abilities of a whole secondary in the awesomeness of fault. Its aoe ability is mediocre but not terrible. Sure its all smash damage but its SO MUCH smash damage it hardly seems worth quibbling over

For secondaries anything will do, SR is great, EA will give you the endurance to do whatever you like, fires interactivity (heal spamming, end recovery and the second build up in FE) goes great with SMs fast animations (bar tremor but you cant have it all ) and sheild is great.

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So here's the real question:

Is the Brute versus Scrapper damage argument put to rest? Can we all agree that 3% damage difference is low enough to ignore?

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I think we can ignore it once scrapper health, def/res caps, and aggro mitigation is within 3% of brutes.

I love both of these AT's but it's pretty obvious that one of them has a clear advantage over the other, lol.

Good job on the calculations bill.

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But ones functionality is at the choosing of the player, for the other to get close they need to put themselves in considerable danger, taking agro for others never pausing for breath. There is why the extra mitigation needs to come in IMO. *edit* my sheild scrapper actually has more mitigation than my sheild brute, defences are the same but my scrapper actually has more HPs, true this is because I went and got the accolades but thats far more enjoyable blue side than it is red where you have to farm tedious things like 10mill damage and 1.2mill debt, not something general play will pull up on defense characters.

Also brutes attaining and retaining fury isnt easy on a full team with more than one melee character, on a mixed team its even worse with inconsiderate tanks "tanking" and blasters killing your fuel. Brutes are optimal if all the team forms up behind them and follows a set pattern but thats pretty boring for all concerned IMO.

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Bill is a soloist, but he enjoys huge mobs. That's the complete opposite of ST and it changes TONS of things.

No need to argue semantics, i explain for both side. I answered for the defence = defence sentance and for the defence meant "protection" side. /FA is extremely good for protection. It have decent resistance (35% is decent, try playing a invincibility-less ilvun, they have 20% to most) and an amazing heal.

Little side note for that, what the devs buffed is irrevelant of what the set's main mitigation is (though i aggree that the heal is extremely important for non-IOed FA). When they buffed energy aura, they gave it a heal, does that mean the heal is EA's main mitigation? No.

WHat i "do" with /FA can't be replicated by any other set. Sure i can give def to another secondary, but adding def to a def set will eventually "cap" at 45% and all the rest is wasted. And all the def adding won't provide layered mitigation on a set that only have def.

FA have one thign that can't be added via IOs. The heal. No matter how much +regen you get, it still won't be a controlled burst of HP. IOs can and does change FA's reliance on the heal. The attack's animations can't be changed, but it doesn't give mitigation.

With IOs, you can have a /FA that doesn't relay much on his heal. When you have around 30% defence to melee, 50% s/l , 35% to the others and your primary's mitigation (whatever that is) you don't need to spam healing flames that often. I'll often go for 1-2 missions without using it once. And when i do use it, it's once in a while, not as soon as it's up. And that's cause i try not to use insps. If i wanted, i could live happily without healing flames for 95% of my gameplay, thanks to green insps.

I might not have an EM/fire, but i does have a character with long animation primary that use healing, a EM blapper that always stay in melee and have to live with TF's long animation and i tried a few FA, one that his 46 now.
Just because i didn't do like you and make a character that doesn't fit my style, doesnt mean i know nothing. If i was to do a EM/FA i know i'd love it and wouldn't have as much problems as you do. Because i'm a ST person.

I hated my elec/WP because it was too aoe oriented for me. DO you see me crying over it on every post about elec or WP? No because i'm smart enough to know that combo doesn't work well WITH MY PLAYSTYLE.

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go make one, play it, get accolades, then come on back with some experience instead off your assumptions, a EM blaster is nothing like a brute. Theory and assumption do NOT equal reality. Really go do it because coming here telling us how SMART you are and how you KNOW you will love something without trying it just makes you look a fool as you cannot know something without trying it.

i have fears for the awesomness that is rage as Castle has cast his beady little eye on it several times and he isnt hapopy with the power.

Elec/sheild is lol-tastic though, i was a long time hater of elec melee for brutes, mainly down to the fact that brute thunderstrike did less damage than the one defenders got (yes I know it does KD not KB) but I made one for kicks and it was pure awesome.

on my elec/sheild/mu i like ball lightning i dont like the range on fences though

I will do both, as I have always done as they are different ATs with different "flavours"

always remember that phalanx fighting gives you a defence of 3.75% only when solo no matter how much defence you put in it, mids lists it at 6.

heres mine all at 45%+ except aoe which is a meagre 44.9%, no purples, solos AVs etc etc

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Level 50 Science Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Dark Melee
Secondary Power Set: Shield Defense
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Shadow Punch -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(7), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(9), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(9), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11), T'Death-Dam%(17)
Level 1: Deflection -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(3), DefBuff-I(3), ResDam-I(5), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(5), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(7)
Level 2: Smite -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(19), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(19), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(25), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(33), T'Death-Dam%(33)
Level 4: True Grit -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), Heal-I(33), Heal-I(34), ResDam-I(39), ResDam-I(39)
Level 6: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(34), RechRdx-I(34)
Level 8: Siphon Life -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(40), Dmg-I(42), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(43), Heal-I(43)
Level 10: Active Defense -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(11)
Level 12: Battle Agility -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(13), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(13), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(15), RedFtn-Def(15), RedFtn-EndRdx(17)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(45), Zephyr-ResKB(45)
Level 16: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 18: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Mrcl-Rcvry+(43)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(21), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(21), P'Shift-Acc/Rchg(23), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(23), P'Shift-End%(25)
Level 22: Against All Odds -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(45), EndRdx-I(46)
Level 24: Phalanx Fighting -- DefBuff-I(A)
Level 26: Soul Drain -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(27), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(27), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(31), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31), Oblit-%Dam(31)
Level 28: Combat Jumping -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(29), Zephyr-ResKB(29)
Level 30: Super Jump -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(39), Zephyr-ResKB(40)
Level 32: Grant Cover -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(40), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(46), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(46), RedFtn-Def(48), RedFtn-EndRdx(50)
Level 35: Shield Charge -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(36), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(36), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37), Oblit-%Dam(37)
Level 38: One with the Shield -- ResDam-I(A)
Level 41: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(42), RechRdx-I(42)
Level 44: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 47: Tough -- HO:Ribo(A), HO:Ribo(48), HO:Ribo(48)
Level 49: Weave -- HO:Enzym(A), HO:Enzym(50), HO:Enzym(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit

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The guy have a concept for a character that's going to be very good. Telling him not to do it just because another character is better doesn't make sense. If the guy wanted a FoTM character, he'd just have checked the last 395485984358 posts about it.

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dude... nothing kills a "concept character" like sets that dont gel together. EMs mitigation is massively tragic and fire armours defences are not awesome to say the least, the heal is but you cant fire that off during animations and standing there in TF and ETs massive long animations watching yourself die because its unable to fire isnt fun. Thats probably the main downside, fires mitigation is in its heal and that cannot function during the glacial attacks.

He asked how they fit together, and the answer is BADLY. If he wants EM he wants a non-interactive secondary like WP or SR, if he wants fire armour he wants FAST firing animations like DM/FM/SM so he is able to react and utilise its main mitigation power.

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They don't fit BADLY together. Specialy in a soloist setting, wich is what the OP asked for. EM's mitigation isn't massively tragic. You can easily perma stun one enemie, wich is a lot when you're only fighting 4-5 enemies MAX. Against EBs and higher, pretty much all the normal mitigation doesn't work. (stun, hold, KB) and debuffs are heavily resisted for the most.

Fire armor's defence isn't awesome? I hope so, they don't have any defence powers. If you meant defence as in "protective power", then you are extremely wrong. /FA is extremely good, specialy in solo setting and/or if you use IOs.

The "long animation" problems with healing flames isn't likely to be a problem in solo setting. Against an EB or AV, you can easily get the timing of his attacks to avoid getting killed.

/FA with IO is extremely good, because /FA starts without def, the easiest thing to add. He have decent resistance ( hard to get with IOs, only s/l via pools) and one of the best heal in the game. (impossible to get, with IOs or pools)

BillZBubba, i've seen your post a long while ago about your EM/FA. If i remember correctly, you were disapointed of not being able to do the RWZ challenge and you're normal play style is the "dive in a 8 man team alone". EM/FA is NOT an aoe machine. It's obvious he'll fair badly in all that. And it's no wonder then even a non IO stone/WP will work better for that. stone have great aoe mitigation and WP is one of the two "vs huge mob" set.


The poster asked for soloing and ST. In that case, EM/FA would be awesome. Now that i've taught about it, i'd probably make one if i wasn't going on a break of CoX in two days.

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wow you just dont get the set synergy, I have a EM/fire I can tell him exactly how they work together, you are merely offering conjecture, you SUSPECT it would be good, either go out and make it and then come back or listen to myself and Bill who have had EM/fires for a long time in insane IO builds. Bill is a soloist and doing all he can to make his toon function and even he can see it is NO LONGER a good fit.

Do you really want to start arguing semantics? That shows just how weak your presumptions are, a tanks armour plating is its defence but it doesnt mean the tank is more able to dodge attacks. Fire armours resistences are NOT high, its mitigation is in its HEAL, when fire armour was buffed it was the HEAL that was made stronger increasing the sets reliance on it. 35% res is mediocre. It has no other mitigation outside of the heal and resistences and the fear affectfrom burn which can be a double edged sword, no defence, no -tohit, no -damage.

Fire armour is an OFFENSIVE secondary which is why its mitigation is so weak, it has a damage aura, a end recovery power, and essentially a second build up. It also lacks a traditional god mode so you can pick yourself up off the floor.

Solo EM/Fire is junk compared with other sets, they dont GEL, if you cant figure this out then try it for yourself. As I stated for the glacia animations of EM you need a NON INTERACTIVE secondary to gain the best from it as for a INTERACTIVE secondary like FA where you are clicking the heal all the time you need fast attacks or you are going to need to be taking that tier 9 rez.

Whatever you do to EM/fire can be done to other sets that function better together for far better results because the one thing IOs CANNOT change is the animations and FAs reliance on its heal.

Go make your em/fire, level it to 50, spend a billion on it, get all your accolades then come on back so you can speak with some experience. You have NO CLUE if the set would be good for soloing, teams or anything because you dont play one.

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It appears low on their priority list since this has been around for a year or two, if not longer.

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came about in i12 afaik when the devs were trying to lock people out of being able to peek at the new veat powers in the closed beta

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My real question is SHOULD damage for Brutes = Scrappers? What is the design role difference?

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Scrappers damage is scrappers damage, they can pick and choose their battles and pass off the agro. Brutes NEED to seek out combat to reach scrapper levels and place themselves in danger with mob diving one after the other without a pause for breath (whilst scrappers lose nothing from taking a breather) Thats why they need their higher HPs, thats why they have aoe taunt and not confront, by their very nature they will be in more danger because they need to be to function.

Whats their design role difference? Scrapper = scrapper, Brute = scranker. They had to step up to the red side tank role due to the hole that the devs left when they thought MMs would make a good tank class......

IMO the comparable performance (with caveats) is a triumph as its not just "rogue combinations" allowing for above par performance like fire/kins

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The Devs never intended to have Rikti Comm Officers act the way they did, it was a complete oversight on their part, when the "Special" versions were included in the MA. That was their fault, as they should have realized the differences in the Spawn of that Critter.


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Not true. Before alot of you started playing, Rikti Comm Officers gave normal xp but the Rikti Portals and minions also gave xp. The portals gave ridiculous amounts. People were farming the Comm Officers for the Portals. When they nerfed it, they increased the XP of Comm Officers.

If I recall, the other NPC that got nerfed around the same time were the BP Death Shamans.

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I dont recall the summoned rikti giving xp but i know the portals gave large xp up untill very recently when they took all XP from portals but gave comms rikti LT xp but minion HPs. Reason being in the RWZ people were running around tagging the portals and running off, after a while they despawned and the free xp would flow.

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The guy have a concept for a character that's going to be very good. Telling him not to do it just because another character is better doesn't make sense. If the guy wanted a FoTM character, he'd just have checked the last 395485984358 posts about it.

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dude... nothing kills a "concept character" like sets that dont gel together. EMs mitigation is massively tragic and fire armours defences are not awesome to say the least, the heal is but you cant fire that off during animations and standing there in TF and ETs massive long animations watching yourself die because its unable to fire isnt fun. Thats probably the main downside, fires mitigation is in its heal and that cannot function during the glacial attacks.

He asked how they fit together, and the answer is BADLY. If he wants EM he wants a non-interactive secondary like WP or SR, if he wants fire armour he wants FAST firing animations like DM/FM/SM so he is able to react and utilise its main mitigation power.

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So what would you guys suggest I take with DM to become a PVE killing machine?

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sheild

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I suspect it would be very good, specialy for ST, wich is what you want.

EM is still very good, unless you obsolutly want to be the "omg bestest set evah!!!" or saw your favorite character get nerfed.

Fire doesn't really have problems with alpha. It have good resistance and if you use the heal just after it, you'll be full again. By then, your team should have helped you. ( if you're trying to solo a 8 man team alone.... it's obvious that a ST character would have problem =P )

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Thing is SM pumps out far more ST DPS than EM does now AND a SM/Fire can happily solo mobs spawned for 8 with the awesomeness of fault and the "not too bad for an aoe" of tremor.