New Dawn

"A scrapper being able to completely control 2 level 54 AVs is absurd. I am not saying they can't do it, I am saying they shouldn't be able to, UNLESS they fix tanks in a fashion that makes them more team viable."

I can do it. I don't go 3 AVs because it would, no matter how I do it, would be in so much of a virtual sense, it'll be too high a risk. Some other players may have to keep their threat level down when I do 2 AVs, be it my scrapper mates with their auras or one of my Ill/stormie friends with his pets. Tankers who have great taunt control wouldn't really need to give a monkeys and can taunt upto 5 AVs. Scrappers confront is a one at a time job so target changes is needed, mess that up and I could lose an AV. Presence pool taunts are like mickey mouse watches, good for stonetanks on unkept teams.

Let me assure you that should you hear of a scrapper what can tank the entire STF undefeated without a defender or controller in the team they will still will not be as potentially capable as tanks can be. I am sure.

Brutes on the other hand. They're definitely the ones up the Tankers backside imo.

To certain extents every AT is interchangeable. Alvans blaster on Union is Fire/Fire with presence pool taunts, both of them (because they are pants on their own) well anyway he tanks AVs as well as probably crowd controls. In no way can it bother me and we know tankers can deal with more.

Scrappers beat up AVs, they were initially, in the early days of the game described as the best ATs to fight AVs I think; but with the occasional death . They are the boss droppers really. They fulfil that role well. Brutes can build fury filling their chain with brawl quite quickly and then merely maintaining so they don't have to tank, but if they had to tank then yeah with lesser survivability they need the extra damage to cut the fight duration down before they get mullered. I see too few brutes build to play tanker and/or play like a tanker to worry really. Tanks gauntlet hits 5 and generally can better self achieve hp cap which doesn't balance things that much really.

The one thing that keeps me from being worried about brutes is that I don't see many Brutes truly Tank minded but if they were, then that would be different, I think, as many people do seem to be choosing friends based on efficiency.

I know of areas where Brutes can't compete really but they can be made to compete by other people in the team and that itself does lead to a less flexible team make up but most likely a more assuredly more efficient one.

I like where you're going I really do as its sounds like a valid point to make.

The running away is a good thing. Especially if the runner is an anchor or has a player chasing him into more angry mobs.

On the STF I remember Wretch saying to us "All heroes die!" then he ran off looking for some.

AE is more busted to me than PvP but I doubt some PvPers are picketing the lines about that.

I have wasted so much money over so years to achieve what someone who joined last month has achieved.Actually..

I am not bothered. I would fail in my attempts at Stoicism if I was and that's something for me to worry like hell about.

For AE farm teams I think Brutes could kick tanks to the kerb but that's it. AE is imo still broke, I don't bother with broken stuff and so its np to me. In those sort of missions it probably won't matter what type of Brute you are, against 54 bosses, "it looked to me" like you can have friendly NPCs with all the lovely AoE buffs (Dispersion) following you around as you kill everything. The team could just stand back and watch as well. A bit like it was pre ED.

The aggro cap isn't a problem with me, especially considering how much I learned to hate people asking me to farm Dreck. The AoEs only go upto hitting 16 as well. At times the team can split into 2 if its better to do so. I am confident in that working out well.

When it comes to scrappers, I like the fact that they can fill in for a tanker but I know damn well that they shouldn't be as good at it. Controllers can fill in for Defenders and Defenders can be made to fill in for Blasters, it goes on and on and its all by design.

I got Shield Mace, I tend to make pure builds with like full primary and full secondary leveling up. I had relatively little trouble until I ran into a group which had a pet that made me unmissable, but Clobber from the secondary put an end to that.

I think leveling up should be your teacher really, you can learn to play a build that suits your concept and/or play a build that is more fun and confident given the team dynamics.

Shields is pretty much like SR to me and with Aid Self its pretty much off its head but it does depend on how you play it though.

You won't have to put a lot of money to into a Shield/Any to make it viable for anything in PvE Dev created. SO builds can achieve the same goals however your performance and techniques should differ. So yes it is viable.

I loved this guide but was unable to say when you first wrote it. I wish all guides were this good.

With the powers I see knock up but no damage taken outside of the rage crash.

At 45% def I have generally been successful with 1 interrupt which in game is just good enough for Silver Mantis Spike Trap hit right. I would probably prefer 2 Ints but its never been a real problem and it allows me to 5 set the rest of the power. My problem with Aid self is that the cast time is too lengthy.

Frankenslotting is just a matter of going for a certain performance from a power and only striving for the bonuses you want. Its not hard to look at other enhancement sets and reading them and thinking, I only need the first 3 enhancements of that set and I could do with 2 enhancements of the other set.

Every time you frankenstein you lose out on a set bonus but clearly there are bonuses that don't really matter.

I am seeing builds with fitness pool, now MMV but in the last few levels once you've fully slotted it may not be something that is a requirement. It maybe something that looks like it is in the first few levels due to enhancements and lack of slots but later in levels one can't always be sure even when exemping down.

Post edited further down for anyone who doesn't follow my meaning.

Should get a Mod to sticky this for people.

When it comes to aoes you don't get enough effect per endurance point unless you use it on a certain amount of targets, generally if I am looking at less than 4 targets I would probably turn them off however there are sometimes reasons to keep them on. With cone attacks given the option I generally would not use them unless I feel I would hit atleast 2 targets. Its about trying to get the same effect per endpoint as you would with a single target attack. It generally matters most to me from the lower levels and matters less in the higher ones due to gaining slots.

I don't think we pay as much as you, probably down to times on, prices fluctuate well over a day.

Deth done a good job for the speed he done it in and I picked up a couple of good things from it as most of the build was what he had already done, I just changed some of it for what would be additional flexibility that I like at the cost of some damage.

Edit: And I spent ages.