Seldom

*Hobo waves sign reading "the end is near!"* He looks to his right....

Once he can stop gawking, he runs to the nearest Up-and-Away-Burger to have the biggest, best last meal he can buy.


If I am a winner, I permit NC Interactive, Inc. and NCsoft Europe Limited to use my name, likeness, photograph, hometown, and any comments that I may make about myself or this contest that I provide for advertising and promotional activities. I also certify that I am at least 13 years of age and am eligible to participate in this contest.

Coming from the bots/ff power, I find it invaluable. It's not interruptible like aid other, and the full heal+end is useful when one bot is in danger, and when the protectors run out of blue in a long, tough fight. For a full save, you have to time it well. But after playing empathy a while, healing timing is par for the course. (Though I admit the forcefields give the timing on this more room.)

Part of this whole Brute vs. Tanker thing is many are coming at it from the 90% cap perspective, not noting the 75%ish starting point. Looking at the two AT's and assuming outside buffs is not a good starting point, nor is noting crazy tricked out IO builds when comparing something so broad as entire archetypes. Some builds can do exceedingly well, others do okay.

Can a brute play tanker when teamed with a sonic resonance, forcefield, and empathy team capping their resists and defense and making them regenerate like no tomorrow? Definitely. But with that crazy protection, you can toss your brute to the curb and tank as a blaster, dominator, any other such high damage archetype with better AoE's.

IO's? Yes, your brute can be an untouchable tanker with excellent damage. But you can just as easily (Or more easily) make an indestructible tankermind that not only tanks but buffs and rampages, or go through the trouble to make a perma-dom that can lock down even arch-villains, making 'tanking' unnecessary. Or make a Illusion controller with permanent phantom army, adding not just indestructible 'tanks,' but a support secondary and controls. The above considerations are "better" than both tankers and brutes.

...But wait, those are in the game, though some on a more rare basis... they can and have and will play on teams that also contain brutes and/or tanks.

...why are we here again?

*Ponders*

Elec/elec dominators? Yes please!

*edit* Oooh..then we could finally make mu characters!

/\ Yup. I didn't know it for the longest time, but the Tiki lounge (Where the Pocket D transporter takes you) has a tailor just up the balcony area.

As many have stated, brutes and tanks really just have different roles.


At the heart of it, tankers are guardians, the 'tough guys' that put themselves in harm's way for the greater good. Some can do very good damage as well, but from the auto-hit taunt, to the highest threat level, to gauntlet, tankers are meant to take the beating, and make sure somebody else isn't. My tankers, as characters, are the 'tough fighter' characters, able to fight at times...but on a team, there's no mistaking that I'll taunt/pound the guy picking on the squishy and leave whatever I had been pounding on behind. Getting aggro is fast and easy, killing things takes time.

My brutes? They can be the attention divas...they like being the center of attention, but it's not always good for them. They get aggro to get the 'heart pounding,' but can easily get in over their heads. They're less guardians, and more warriors/berserkers. You CAN be the aggro magnet, but you're just as good, if not better, as the guy killing stuff (eliminating threats altogether) as the guy making sure each and every foe is picking on you, not anybody else. Why? You can take down many foes in two to four hits, once you're going. If a squishy is being harmed, throw down that few extra attack or two. Threat eliminated, then if you want pound on whatever is being so crass as to ignore you.

If you were looking for a crazy fighter character when you made the guardian-like tanker, I can see why somebody might be disappointed. But archetypes have different niches, and the similarities between tankers and brutes still don't make them share the same niche.

My hope for the Mutant booster temp power:

Evolve
You are capable of developing new abilities, of improving existing abilities spontaneously. (This power allows you to level up or switch builds from any location, outside of PvP.)

While I agree with this idea as a player, I don't think it will happen, or at least soon. Why?

They put the merits in.
They are the store.
They are the currency.

That said, if inflation goes too crazy they might do this. It sets a ceiling for prices, but the trick is this. With merits, the character themselves are the only ones that can earn...with influence, money transfer, both between characters, friends, and with gold farmers takes center stage.

Why? Impatient people look at the market, don't find what they want, so they simply beg their SG, or pay for the influence through a RMT'er. The guy with a bunch of high level characters can use those characters' resources to directly access stuff for a new alt in ways those of earlier level could not, and that circumvents a lot of the in-game's economy. As it is, recipes are tethered directly not just to your account, but your character that's being played, or by what other players who are playing receive. What is being proposed makes this far more amorphous...guy playing the market doesn't just fiddle with what's out there, he can directly create supply. Person playing a level 50 makes way more supply than mr. casual gamer playing his multiple level 20 alts. You get the idea.

This is how you know (A) you're off your meds, or (B) you're in Paragon.

If I am a winner, I permit NC Interactive, Inc. and NCsoft Europe Limited to use my name, likeness, photograph, hometown, and any comments that I may make about myself or this contest that I provide for advertising and promotional activities. I also certify that I am at least 13 years of age and am eligible to participate in this contest.

Magnitude is how 'powerful' the control has to be to affect the target. Kuji-In Rin givesa starting -10.38 to Stun, Hold, Sleep, Immobilize, Confuse, and Terrorize effects. So when a boss lays a magnitude +3 hold on you, Kuji-In Rin gives does this+ You have -10.38 mez on you. To get you to be held, the boss needs MORE power, until the magnitude of the hold is positive. So in this case, you are taking away 10.38 magnitude from any of those effects that hit you. The boss hits you with +3 magnitude, but Kuji-In Rin knocks that down to -7.38. A Hold that is negative 7.38 in power is weaksauce.

But let's say four bosses lay a mag 3 hold on you. Kuji-In Rin takes away 10.38 from the first to hit, making the power -7.38. All good, as we said earlier. The second hold hits, it has already used up -3, so it's +3 vs. -7.38, leaving Kuji-In Rin at -4.38 in its magnitude-lowering power. Uh-oh, that third hold? You're down to -1.38 power. But it's still negative, so you aren't held. But wait, one last hold is +3 vs. -1.38, leaving the hold at + 1.62. At this point, you get held.

A note on this thing: it's mislabeled. It's actually +tohit. This makes it more potent, as it's multiplicative with accuracy enhancement, rather than additive.

It might also be noted that a good portion of focused accuracy was moved from being +tohit to being +accuracy.

Just as a sidenote, not sure if this helps, but my laptop was having trouble with windows update. (I'm on vista 64 bit there.) I tried all sorts of scans, restores, nada. It couldn't update. Then I went into program permissions, and saw that update had limited permissions under my user setup. I gave it full rights, and it works well now.

Again, not sure if this helps you, but it seemed somewhat similar.

The trick with this power is this: its purpose is to help others fly, without being so good that people skip flight. It suffers numerous concerns:

1. The way its speed and range function, it somewhat fails at providing others with flight Other people can fall out of it easily when the anchoring character out-paces them, or they otherwise leave the range.

2. The aforementioned tohit debuff makes it prohibitive to use in battle.

3. Some powers cannot work in the current forced flight.

4. Many players are uncomfortable with fighting in flight, and there is no 'opt out' for this power. When they play along, there's concern #2 to worry about.

5. Though this is not within the power, the mayhem/safeguard/grandville/zulu jetpacks are more flexible and reliable.

The only real reason to use this, in my mind, is to provide flight for pets or longer term flight for players in Hammi raids. Even at that concerns #1 & #2 make it questionable in usage. Which is a shame, as it is one of those really cool looking powers.

Now team your mastermind with a kinetics controller. Controlled enemies can't squish the pets well, pets get damage capped via fulcrum shift.

...And 'tis done!

After some silly message tag and such, we manage to figure it out.

Let it be known that GavinRuneblade is not just a gentleman and scholar, but a darned swell guy to boot. He transfered around and respec'd just to get me (a total stranger) the shiny trinket I desired...my thanks to you again, sir. You're awesome.