JuliusSeizure

The big problem is that even an ELA brute is running around with an ideal of 41% debuff resistance to most types. A Sonic Grenade still guts you to the high teens in Smashing/Lethal resistance, which is what LB do, too often causing a faceplant if you are lead Brute on a large team. You're also most often fightning +2 or greater opponents, which make that -40% far more potent.

41% debuff protection, from the set with the highest resistance values, is a fraction of what's available to the defense sets. Compare that to Super Reflexes or Shields that can receive debuff protection of 95% in both cases, or Energy Aura that still receives 51.6% outside of Overload.

The nature of resistance lessening debuffs is a double edged sword. One gets it regardless of AT, but the cap is limited to either 90%/85%/75% based upon AT (compared to 95% for defense). It's also tied to a value that is extremely limited outside of g-d modes and has been largely stepped over in the IO system in favor of defense. Fire, Dark, and Electric certainly recieve less debuff protection than SR, Shields, and Energy Aura do.

Limiting the amount of ressit bonuses in the IO system due to the nature of resstance is moot when SR and Shields are soft capping with 95% debuff protection.

Als, high DPS means nothing if the attack sequences are unsustainable due to endurance costs.

Power Sink basically lets you use chains that would normally be unsustainable for most other secondaries.

Yeah- that's the only skill where Gaussian's proc can make a solid contribution. Well, that and Blinding Feint I should say.

Ironically, the proc is better in a Toggle than in most click skills.

Simply replacing the 53% damage IO with the 33% negative energy procs will give you more DPS. These basically add 34 points of average damage while the damage IO adds 10% enhanced damage. It would take a skill with greater than 340 base DPA for the 53% damage IO to make more of a contribution to DPS when looking at 5 socket purple options. (It's basically impossible for the damage IO to contribute more than the procs.)

Another way to look at it is this: Gaussians checks upon the click of a skill-- which only happens once for obvious reasons. Build Up, Aim, and even Soul Drain can all grant the ability to run a procedure even if no targets are in range, unlike other procs that check against a MOB that has been attacked.

It's basically how they got the proc to work with skills like BU and Aim, but in turn made it largely uselss in Soul Drain.

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They fixed the Force Feedback proc a while ago so that it only checks once per power. That's why it used to be worth a lot and can now be gotten for reasonably cheap.

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That's not what happened. Force Feedback used to work 100% of the time, but had a cool down period of 20 seconds. This meant that any skill with the proc would give 100% recharge for 10 seconds any time a a knock back power was used, but there was a cool down period that prevented it from being activated again. It also couldn't stack.

It was expensive because it was broken and offered, basically, 50% global recharge to any set that had a least one knock back power.

It now checks like a normal proc, doesn't stack, and can check multiple times. This is why it's great in Foot Stomp, Shield Charge, and Lightning Rod.

Gaussians was limited to check once per click of a skill, so it's a waste in Soul Drain.

It doesn't work per target but per click. While Foot Stomp, Lightning Rod, Shield Charge and other great skills can run a Force Feedback check on each target hit, Gaussians does not work this way with Soul Drain.

(Or, at least it didn't when I tested it upon the release of toHit buff sets.)

Procs are your friend for DPS builds-- especially Hecatomb's %chance for negative and Apocalypse% chance for negative. You want to cycle that baby as often as possible in Flares and Charged Brawl...

(Edited for IO name mix-up.)

I'm not a fan of Plant/Psy. Seeds of Confusion is the most powerful skill in the set-- why would you want to lower enemy recharge by 50% with every application of PSW? Recharge reduction is basically causing your confused enemies to do less damage to each other. That's not synery, but disruption.

Ice/Psi and Earth/Psi get my vote here, emphasis on Ice for huge synergy on -recharge.

I use Tough on pretty much every Brute build, and Weave on a select few that can benefit from stacking defense.

However, even with SR, I just take Tough. Tough can socket the 3% defense to all from Steadfast Protection, basically making this skill worth 18% Sm/L resistance while granting 55% of the value of Weave without having to burn another power selection.

I can't see any offensive buffs coming to Tanks, not matter how you package it or work it as an AT inherent ability.

5% resist all would be roughly equal to 2.5% defense to all. That would be surprisingly useful and balanced, given that 3% defense to all is handed out twice.

Yeah, the text definitely needs clarification.

I also wouldn't mind seeing the Tanker version of Taunt get even slightly better, with a radius increase of 2-3 feet and a cap of 7 targets rather than 5.

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I have read for quite some time that taunt from brutes is supposed to only be single target, but I am fairly sure that it is not just single target. I never expected it to work as a single target thing, but I always get more than just one mob if I activate taunt in a circumstance similar to the one you described.

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That hate-generating effect of Taunt for Brutes is the same as a Tank's. They are both AoE "taunts' that hold up to 5 opponent's attention.

The -75% range debuff is not, however, applied to all 5 targets of a Brute's Taunt. It is only applied to the MOB that is inside of your targeting recticle. A Tank's Taunt will apply the -75% range to all of the taunted targets.

--That's the difference and it is HUGE in actual game play. No one can clump a spawn better than a Tank, and no one can survive this agro role better. (Exception: a Zombie/Pain Tankermind with proper IOs can probably outlive almost any AT in this game.)

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If brute taunt's range debuff is only affecting the targeted enemy rather than all foes hit, then it's bugged and should be reported to Castle.

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But Castle specifically designed it this way. There was a post a while ago, well before the -range was implemented, that stated that all 3 ATs were getting the range debuff and that only Tankers could apply it to all targets.

This is a distinct difference between Brutes and Tanks, one that further cements a Tank as the superior agro magnet/spawn diver. And it is for this reason that I feel an agro grabbing Tank should take Taunt now-- it's just that good at what it does.

Well now, that 2.25% resist is equal to 1.125% defense to all.

Why does resistance get royally shafted again? 6% defense to all is available through silimar IOs-- or 12% resistance.

I think it's official that the developers favor defense by a factor of nearly 6:1.

(And yes, I was pretty pissed when I added it as well. Why the eff is resistance limited by AT modifiers for these globals while defense is not? Why can defense grant 2.5 times the protection value?)

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You are apparently incorrect:

Tank taunt: Max target 5 Autohit Foe
+41s Taunt (mag 4) PvE only
+10.25s Taunt (mag 4) PvP only, Not auto-hit
Range -75% for 12s [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
Unknown Null +1

Brute Taunt: Max targets 5 Autohit Foe
+41s Taunt (mag 4) PvE only
+10.25s Taunt (mag 4) PvP only, Not auto-hit
Range -75% for 12s [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
Unknown Null +1

The two taunts are identical in every way.

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Have you used both a Tank and a Brute Taunt against ranged foes, monitoring the behavior of targets other than the primary in the AoE of Taunt?

I have. I am 99% positive that the Brute's Taunt only applies the range debuff to a single target-- the one that the recticle is over.

Just because the descriptions read the same doesn't mean that the coding is the same. Please, test this and actually check my results from gameplay, bacause from my in-game experience there are three tiers of "Taunts" available:

<ul type="square">[*]Confront/Scrapper-- single target taunt, single target-75% range[*]Taunt/Brute-- AoE taunt, single target -75% range[*]Taunt/Tank-- AoE taunt, AoE -75% range[/list]
The method is quite easy. Log in as a Brute, Taunt the Goldbricker spawns in Cap Au Diable, and watch as just ONE of the Goldbrickers runs towards you to shoot while all the others draw a weapon and fire.

Log in as a Tank, Taunt a group of Hellions/whatever, and watch as the entire spawn runs towards you to draw a gun and shoot.

Let me know if you get different results from actual gameplay...

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I ask must ask, would improving the Tanker's aggro handling abilities

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Tanks alreaedy do this. Taunt for Tanks causes -75% range on all foes, often drawing them into mellee range. Taunt for Brutes is limited to debuffing only the target hit. The end result is that Tanks "clump" spawns much better than Brutes.

The only buff that Tanks might need is raising the max # of targets on their Taunt from 5 to 7 and increasing the radius by 2-3 feet. Perhaps raise the agro cap on Tanks to 20 as well.

Now, for the OP, I would MUCH rather play as my Brute, which is beyond fun-- allowing me to hold agro, do damage, and be buffed to insanity.

I would much rather team with a competent Tank that employs Taunt and doesn't shout "to here," actually slowing my xp/sec and fun/sec. An agro cap exists and this behavior should have died with that change.

Dark Regenearation, with its massive 20' radius, causes that proc to fire quite regularly in a team setting.

Here are the values of it firing at least once per number of targets hit.
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Targets %Chance
1 20%
2 36%
3 49.8%
4 59.1%
5 67.3%
6 74.8%
7 79.1%
8 83.3%
9 86.6%
10 89.3%
</pre><hr />

I would say that, on average, I hit about 4 targets with Dark regeneration. On a team setting, this value is closer to 6, while solo it's closer to 2.5. If you average 4 targets hit, the proc fires at least once about 60% of the time, and in that 60% there are chances for double, triple, and quadruple procedures.

I sometimes gain endurance by using Dark Regeneartion in a team setting.

I have always maintained that Dark Regeneration is the most powerful skill in the game. The Theft of Essence: Chance for +end proc is pure insanity in this skill.

With some defense and regenration from IOs, Dark Armor can be an absolute beast.

That's a sweet score, and a good call on taking 400 million for it.

The odds of you ever getting another are probably nil... But enjoy the many many valuable items that you can now socket.

ELA is definitely not worthless, but is is a bit finicky and offers pretty poor levels of mitigation-- particularly in a team setting. Unless a MOB is drained of endurance and using lesser tier attacks, it is without a doubt the worst secondary in the game.

I like Darkmaster's suggestions above. Moving Power Sink to level 28 would be a great QOL improvement.

To play ELA properly, you pretty much need to use Power Sink at the beginning of a fight and let Lightning Field and the ensuing attacks from the MOBs drain their endurance. This play style would be very conducive to adding a per-MOB +resist or +regen to Power Sink, similar to what has been done to Energy Absorption from Ice Armor. Energy Absorption adds +defense per MOB hit, and is a form of protection that scales with the amount of enemies around you, similar to Invincibility or RTTC. This would address ELAs survivability on large teams but not overpower it against single targets. It also fits the natural play style of ELA, having to lead with Power Sink as soon as possible in a spawn.

The problem with ELA is that it has two layers of mitigation-- resistance and endurance drain. Only resistance is functional 100% of the time. The second layer, endurance drain, is only noticeable once a MOB has had its endurance reduced to the point where lesser tier attacks are used or they simply can't attack at all. You are stuck with a single layer of reliable protection and a second layer of binary protection that does nothing until a MOB has had its endurance reduced dramatically. Even worse, the skill that drains endurance comes at level 35, so you are SOL until then.

This is a HUGE flaw in the design of ELA. During the vast majority of game play, ELA is basically running around with a single layer of protection totalling 42% Sm/L/Fire/Cold/Psi, 31% Neg, 0% toxic and 90% energy. This is a joke compared to any defense based set. You're basically playing a toon that has roughly equivalent mitigation of 21% defense to SM/L/Fire/Cold/Psi, 16% Neg, 0% Toxic, and 45% energy with no second layer of mitigation unless endurance drain has kicked in. That's worse than Ninitsu's mitigation against all but Energy, and Ninjitsu has a 50% heal, AoE confuse/sleep, Caltrops, and Smoke Flash as additional layers of protection.

Global defense bonuses and defense boosting Pool Powers are also so prolific that any defense based toon can easily push their total base mitigation value to the equivalent of ELA in Power Surge. Resistance bonuses are, unfortunately, largely forgotten in the IO system.

Now, ELA does have some perks-- namely limitless endurance and and immunity to endurance drain. Unfortunately, these perks are largely mollified by the IO system. A soft-sapped defense toon has up to 95% endurance drain protection just by causing misses from Sappers and Carnis. Endurance issues are also largely solved by a great many IOs, further reducing the value of Power Sink and Conserve Power.

ELA is very tough against enemies that rely heavily upon energy typed attacks, and truly shines against Rikti.

Is this issue largely solo or teamed?

I plan to roll a Necromancy/Pain Mastermind as my first pet set toon ever and have a few questions.

1- It seems that the tier 1 pets are lacking in attacks compared to other minion counterparts. They just have Zombie Brawl on a 4 second timer, two vomits on 12 second timers, and Siphon Life on a 30 second timer. Is this as anemic as it seems? I can't believe that they don't have at least one generic ranged attack that's not on an AoE timer.

2- The Grave Knights look to be amazing. Does anyone use the damage procs from defense debuff and to-hit debuff sets on these toons? Seems like they'd be a nice boost in damage.

3- Am I correct in socketing Lich primarily for toHit debuff and mez?

4- Has a developer ever commented on why Soul Extraction can't take recharge intensive pet sets? It seems odd that Gang War is allowed to do such but not Soul Extraction.