Crimsanotic

That's not really how that works. Defense doesn't equate to diversity. Additionally, there's not as many Energy/Negative/Ranged or Fire/Cold/AoE defense set bonuses as there are Smashing/Lethal/Melee so it doesn't even really encourage people to try and build for one of those other two things more than they already are. I'm also not sure how this change allows them to have "more freedom" with enemies either.

I think the set falls into the "middle of the pack" not because each individual power is average, but because some of them are pretty good, while others are, well, not so good. Fault, and to a lesser extent, Hurl Boulder, aren't very good in their current state. Even though Fault does damage now, it's still arguably the worst power in the entire set. Tremor just feels underwhelming, even if the ability itself is average. Also, I think having a power or two that do stand out isn't particularly a bad thing. Seismic Smash's fast animation for it's damage, for example. It gives a reason to play one set over another that isn't purely for flavor or concept. Though I was kind of disappointed Stone Melee didn't get the new seismic gimmick of the blast set. Regardless, I do agree that balancing specifically towards the high end is not the play.

True. Though some of the ranged attacks in the epic pools are pretty good. But some of them are also terribad. So the range of the attacks having anything to do with their damage mostly seems arbitrary to me. For the record, I don't really have an issue with Hurl Boulder. Like I said, it's ok.

Also, I second Croax's opinions on Fault. I really wanted to like it, but the long recharge and mediocre damage leaves a lot to be desired. I don't find the line attack part of it to be too awkward to use, though I think it's the only power in this game that really works like that, so I wouldn't expect a lot of people to be used to it. I also think I'd prefer if Tremor did more damage but had a longer recharge time and cost more end. Like Mass Levitate or Fire Sword Circle. Especially since it's the final power on every AT except one.

What kind of sense does this make? Fast snipes for Scrappers/Stalkers. Impale in Spines, Focus in Claws. Brutes and Tanks get access to Gloom and Mu Lightning for fast, heavy hitting ranged damage. I don't think Hurl Boulder is terrible, but it's not amazing. It's just kind of ok. But saying it should be subpar simply because it's a ranged attack feels arbitrary for no real reason. Especially since, as a melee character, you'll be using it in melee range 99% of the time anyway.

I'm aware that there are powers that follow this. But from my experience they also tend to be pretty unpopular. I'd say about half the Shield characters I see don't take One With The Shield, for instance. A power that has a prerequisite of two powers gives it an opportunity cost. Abilities with an opportunity cost should be be pretty good. An ability that is basically a Break Free is not. The up/down time itself isn't too terrible, though definitely worse for basically anyone who has an even decent amount of +recharge. If it's going to keep the forced 1/3 uptime, I'd rather it last longer and have a longer cooldown to match.

That would be dismal considering the amount of defense Unleash Potential gives. RoP's resistance is already questionable on some ATs, and defense tends to just be better than resistance when comparing the two. That being said, echoing what others have said about RoP: 40 seconds is way too short of an uptime. Forced cooldown is a little strange. Overall an unnecessarily complicated change.

I am once again reporting that Fire Sword Circle on Stalkers doesn't give Assassin's Focus.

Bumping because it's still bugged.

Hasten is pretty much mandatory on 99% of builds. I agree with OP on pretty much all fronts, otherwise.

Fire Sword Circle on Stalkers does not give a stack of Assassin's Focus at all.

The +special from Adrenal Boost doesn't seem to be working at all. Also, +healing is curiously missing from the Detailed Info, even if it was working. Not sure if that's intended or not. Either way, the rest of the set seems okay. And Hasten + AB is a nice combo.

Earth Sibyls of the Talons of Vengeance have several earth blast powers, including a nuke.

Quite a few damage buffs are AoE and FF and Cold Dom's buffs are AoE and permanent so neither of those sets are picking or choosing who to buff. Fortitude is one of the only single target defense buffs I can think of. Increasing their damage cap -is- an offensive buff though, since that means a tank can spam yet more reds than they could before, or benefit from Fulcrum better, or literally any other damage buff. And in addition to treading on brute territory, buffing tanks offensively gives them overlap with even scrappers.

Their damage cap was also increased by a fairly significant amount.

I 100% agree. Buffing tanks offensively is not the move.

Brutes with IOs and such can reach 90% S/L resistance, as well as defense softcap to everything (sans psi) with only one person near them with invincibility. Additionally, with dull pain, brutes can hit their HP hardcap which is about 300 hit points lower than the tank health hardcap. Brutes also get AoE taunts in their primaries, like tanks get in their secondaries. The brute taunts also reduce the range of enemies by 75% and it is the same magnitude taunt. Brutes also have the same generic threat generation level of tanks. The only thing tanks have that assists them in holding and maintaining aggro better is that, yes, their attacks AoE taunt instead of taunting only the enemy hit. Your statement that brutes are not tanks is false. What do you think villains did prior to Going Rogue? They were just able to do all of their content without a tank? No. They had brutes. On topic: I like OPs proposed change. It allows tanks to tank better by allowing them to hold larger groups of enemies. So there is really a trade-off between the two ATs. Since both tanks and brutes can effectively tank the same but brutes currently do more damage, there is little reason to play a tank. This is especially true when min/maxed and the differences between their durability becomes entirely negligible. OP's suggestion carves a further niche for tanks that they should hold.