Jade_Dragon

I REALLY doubt that. 0.65 damage with no Fury would not survive very long, even with a Brute's HP. Heck even a Tanker with 0.65 damage wouldn't be capable of soloing.

Of course you might mean "The damage output of defenders" as in "A team of Repeat Offenders steamrollering over everything in sight."

That's actually pretty good, I had reached the conclusion that 80% was impossible.

I guess the short answer is, it IS possible to raise your individual Fury cap, but it takes WAY more work than it did before.

I'd also be interested in seeing if the Fury gained with Frenzy decays so quickly as to be useless, or if it can be preserved if activated in combat.

I still agree that a lot of the issue is there's more unused bar than there used to be. It is frustrating to be shown a goal and be unable to achieve it.

Yes, but you can't have that number of meleers in range unless you have a team of that size to start with. So it simplifies the comparison.

If I were to nitpick, I would point out that assuming the Scrapper NEVER attacks anything but Lts and Bosses would be unrealistic. The 7.5% Critical rate used for the Brute comparison would probably be more fair. On the other hand, we're only talking about 5% one way or the other. If you use the 5% Crit rate, the Stalker needs an 18% Crit rate, if it's 10% the Stalker needs a 23% Crit rate. The Stalker gets 10% as base. So it's essentially 8-13%

To me, that 8-13% lower DPS is compensated for by a MUCH higher burst damage. To the point where a Stalker is, on average, fighting one less foe than a Scrapper, because he one-shotted him with his first attack. A Scrapper and Stalker will take about the same time to take down 5 foes, but the first two foes will fall faster for the Stalker. (And note this means the Stalker will be dealing damage to his second foe while the Scrapper is still attacking his first. So the Stalker starts out ahead and the Scrapper catches up)

And in my estimation, the added DPA from using Placate and/or AS in melee should provide another 5% or so DPS as well. Possibly as much as 10%. Which is what I said above. Without the melee allies in range, the Stalker would concentrate more on using his damage boosting tools for more DPA, whereas with them he has the option to just stand back and scrap. (Which he may have to because the other meleers are attracting AoEs that may interrupt his AS)

I would say in reference to the latency issue, that powers like Cosmic Balance and other scaling powers usually have a constant tic rate, at which time the allies within range can be calculated. If a Stalker calculates how many teammates are in range every time he makes an attack, this could be more often than a constant tic rate. This does mean, though, that a Stalker can fail to crit on one attack because no one is in melee with him, and yet on the next attack have seven people in range and have a much better chance to crit.

Perhaps a compromise would be for a power in the background to "tic" and calculate the number of allies in range. This calculation can the be used whenever the Stalker attacks within that tic. It might allow a longer range. However, I think the concept the devs may be going with is that allies in melee are a distraction, allowing the Stalker to strike by surprise. If so it may be a balancing issue that can be further tweaked. Either way, I'd like to see the range increased, even if not by a large amount.

That's incredibly rude.

But it's true.

The truth is, there were many factors that could interfere with Fury building besides player skill. But for the highest performance Brutes, for the most synergistic power sets, it was a nerf.

Brutes still work fine even with the nerf, though, and it's only about a 13% reduction in DPS, solo. And that's if you assume your Fury has fallen from 90% to 65%. (The so-called "30% reduction in +damage from Fury") I personally have no problem running around 75%.

Actually, ironically enough, my post here was partially in response to Supernumiphone, in which I was quoting his own position on the subject:

And again, I am not going to be drawn into an argument on the Brute forums, which essentially comes down to "Stalkers have not been buffed, therefore Brutes should not have been nerfed". Which seems kind of silly to me, as it is not just Scrappers but Brutes which Stalkers appeared to be underperforming relative to.

BTW, I will admit in retrospect that my use of the word "considerably" was perhaps unwise. Considering that Scrappers do not have "considerably" more hit points than Stalkers (they have 10% more) that qualifier was probably not necessary. I didn't even notice I had exaggerated it to that extent until I went back and read the post. At any rate, I apologize for speaking in generalities myself.

I don't have to. YOU are the one claiming that Scrappers do more single target damage than Stalkers. It is your responsibility to provide evidence for that. I am not required to support a negative.

My calculations are above. All a Stalker needs is 3 teammates to do as much damage per individual attack as a Scrapper, outside of Build Up, and 5 teammates would cover the difference there. As Criticals are "true" double damage, unlike Fury, buffs from teammates should remain in the same proportion as well. And I have not even begun to consider the effect of Assassin Strike and the use of Placate for free Criticals on top of that.

And this thread is not the place for a Stalker discussion. This is the Brute forum. If you wish to continue the discussion in the Stalker forum, I would be happy to participate, but I would expect to see more than just generalizations there.

In what way? Stalkers have Assassin Strike. They then get more frequent Criticals with the same attacks as Scrappers. The only counterbalancing factor I can think of is, like Brutes, that they only get 80% of the self damage buffs. So for Shields (which Stalkers don't even get) or Kinetic the Scrappers will get much better stacking buffs.

While I can see individual Power Sets doing more DPS for Scrappers than for Stalkers, as with any such AT comparison, I don't believe Scrappers are doing more single target DPS OVERALL. Not unless you can point out a study across several Power Sets that supports this.

Stalkers certainly have less AoE. This is more than enough on which to base an argument. There is no reason to underestimate the ST damage of a Stalker to achieve this. (Keep in mind that all a Stalker needs to do is Critical 18.125% of the time to achieve the same damage as the Scrapper against Minions, disregarding self damage buffs. He can do this with three teammates on his team)

The issue with Stalkers is not damage, but attack selection. Stalkers do considerably more single target damage than Scrappers. All arguments to the contrary are pointing out the importance of AoE damage to a team.

THIS, I believe, is what is WAI. Castle never said that it was his intention for Stalkers to do less damage than Scrappers overall.

And I don't see this changing unless Assassination is made into a mechanic that will Crit AoE damage. By definition, it is currently a mechanic that doubles the Stalker's base for single target damage.

The maximum Fury has been reduced, but it's easier to get there, and you can stay there longer.

Yes.

Filling the bar does not take longer. It will rise faster, but cap sooner.

Yes. The rate of decay hasn't changed while you are not in combat, but it is much lower as long as you are in combat, even with a single foe. (Actually, I looked over the patch notes, and it looks like it was just reduced overall. But I'm going with it still decaying faster out of combat)

Yes. Possibly both.

All I can really recommend here is to take a screenshot of your trays. One suggestion might be to open a bunch of temporary (floating) trays, arrange them in a column at one side of your screen, and then take a snapshot of them. Then you can put them back after your respec. If you play full screen, hit the "start" key to open the start menu and bring up the Windows bar, and then hit PrtScn to snapshot the window, UI and all. Then paste it into Paint. That's the way I do it.

If you have 6 trays worth of Temp Powers, may I also recommend this little piece of organizational magic?

It means exactly what it says. There is the possiblity that Walk may become a power that can be used in combat. It would effectively be a power that you could use to limit your movement speed, if you are hit with Speed Boost or the like. Right now Walk cannot be used in combat only because BaB never developed animations that allowed attacks to be fired while in the "walk stance". Those animations could be developed, allowing the restriction that Walk disables all your powers to be removed.

I'm not saying what effects there might be, to allow Walk to be slotted, because I don't want to speculate on what effects could be added. But at the very least I would expect a recharge to be added, possibly an End cost. (Although conceptually I suppose it should offer an End discount)

I took Lucky, but not Evasion.

I actually still don't have Evasion. What?

As I solo most of the time, I don't have a lot of worry about AoE splash damage, and I just take out the AoE targets first. Likely I will work up a second build for teaming, but then with Elude I can compensate if I have to.

Prior to my respec, I did not have Agile or Dodge. I picked up both, to max out the scaling Res. I decided that and the DDR was higher priority than maxing the AoE Def.

A lot of these are efficiency tips I have myself discovered over time.

Since Endurance and Recharge are reductions, that means you have less effect the more you slot. 1 End cuts End cost down to 75%, 2 End cuts it to 60%, and 3 to 50%. So you get 25% for the first, 15% for the second, and only 10% for the third. It is far more efficient in term of EPS to slot two identical End cost powers with 2 End than to slot one with 1 and one with 3.

The primary conclusion of this is that Assault really only needs two slots, one if you use it situationally. If you are slotting Assault for three End, you can probably recover that 0.038 End just as easily by 2-slotting some other toggle. Plus, 0.21 End is about the standard cost of most defensive toggles.

There is nothing else Assault can be slotted for, since +Dam is an unslottable attribute. And in fact, Assault's +Dam is about 150% of what it should be, proportionally to the other Leadership toggles, because it CAN'T be slotted.

Tactics can be useful situationally for the +Perception. Just one slot it with End, and only turn it on when fighting ghosts.

Defense in most Pool powers is not worth slotting until you have nothing else that can be slotted. You're increasing a base 2.5%, at the most, by no more than 60%. It's actually more efficient in the long run to pick up a second Pool Power that gives you 2.5% Def. Weave is the exception, but even at double that it's still at best the first and only Pool defense you should slot. Manuevers is probably a matter of some debate, but IMHO you would really only slot it if you're already close to the Def cap. In short, if you've got somewhere else to put a Def, put it there instead.

Combat Jumping basically needs nothing out of the box. Its End cost is negligible, it might as well have no End cost, like Hide and Brawl. Its jump height is worth slotting if you want jump height to be a primary trait of your character, but it's high enough. Its Def is not worth slotting for the reason above, but still probably the best to slot ANYWAY, since you need to put SOMETHING there.

Speaking of which, if you still have Brawl slotted for End, go remove that. I'm sure most people don't have Brawl slotted at all, but I did find a couple of places where I could remove it, back when Brawl was made to have no End cost.

Tough is somewhat different, as it is limited to only Smashing/Lethal damage, and thus is proportionally much stronger than Weave. If you assume 1 Def = 2 Res, Weave is the equivalent of 10% Res to a Tanker, while Tough is 15%. More importantly, three slotted Tough is 24% Def, while Weave is only 16%. (And remember, other Pool Defense powers would be only half of Weave)

Recall Friend and Teleport Foe only need the one slot. Teleport Foe needs an Accuracy, but Recall really just needs Range. You should not be using it in combat, so it doesn't need to be overly efficient.

The Presence Pool should probably be avoided if you don't have the slots. Challenge or Provoke can be used with only one slot, (Acc) but they won't work very well for tanking unless they're slotted. The Fear powers need to be fully slotted to be of any use at all. Challenge CAN be used as a pulling tool, though, or to stop runners.

Hasten, Hover, Aid Self and even Stamina are powers that I find most people end up fully slotting, but which are actually pretty good right out of the box. Hasten can always help you any time it's up, even if it's not perma. You also only have one choice for slotting it. Hover is quite fast now, and doesn't really need End slotting, just a single Fly enhancement can enable you to fight well in the air if you do it only occasionally. Aid Self can be used out of combat as a MUCH faster Rest. And seriously, Stamina is so good just on the base slot that removing a slot from it is an option if you need one.

Heheh. I like that.

The thing is, you can't really slot "the exact same way". No matter what you do, you've got 4 powers you never had before. If you had Fitness you get to pick three more powers, and you get to add Swift or Hurdle as well. If you didn't have Fitness, you now have Fitness, all four powers.

Slotting "the exact same way" means you don't put any slots in any powers you didn't have before. Because you didn't have them before. You may only get one slot in that power that you didn't have before, BUT IT'S STILL BETTER THAN NOT HAVING IT.

Epic = tied to a storyline, not "zomghitabuttonkillthezone." And they are. (As are the veats, even if the VEAT story absolutely sucks, like it was banged out in a night.)[/QUOTE]

Honestly, while it is an irritation to some that EATs are now unlocked at 20, it is more truth in advertising to have them unlocked at 20, instead of leaving them unlocked at 50 and spending time and effort tweaking them into that fine line between "epic" and "uber godmode".

I believe Incarnates are supposed to be the real "Epic", but whether or not that turns out to be true remains to be seen.

I like that they have to be unlocked, honestly. The mechanic of shapeshifting/branching is fun. Although I wouldn't cry like a baby if the Crab/Bane/Night Widow/Fortunata respec could take place at 20 instead of 24.

They really, really, really, really need to fix this. It's possible to work around, you just have to make sure, when dropping back to human form, you have no powers currently animating, but that in and of itself is irritating. The human form drop isn't supposed to take any time, and yet you have to hesitate by an amount about equal to your normal reaction time.

It would be easier to just have a transform to Form animation that takes about half the time it currently does, and a transform to Human form animation, that takes the same amount of time. Even if Castle's kludge of adding a power that has no purpose but to toggle off the Forms is the way to do it. It's annoying and it's time it was fixed.

It does not appear to, although I haven't used the set myself. I wish I could recommend something other than Ninjitsu but really, I've only ever played that, Regen, and Energy. I think the problem with Electric and Dark is that they aren't as good at avoiding damage in the first place as the Def-based sets. But they both sound like they might be interesting.