DreadShinobi

I played an Ice Armor/Fire Melee tanker back on live, it was endurance stable with just SOs.

Lol what?

Rad Melee has extremely high self healing potential, ie higher than dark melee. Siphon Life with 99% enhanced heal and vigor alpha = 310 hp heal Radiation Siphon with the same = 620 hp heal It is not hard to find contaminated targets to heal off of. And even if you're Dark melee spamming siphon life, you have to cast it twice as much to get the same healing as Rad Melee casually grabbing the mega heals as the opportunities present themselves. Build Up/Fusion also guarantees contamination application, and Atom Smasher contaminates an entire spawn so you can chain heal with Radiation Siphon as well with consistency. I would say there is strong synergy with Shield Defense.

A taunt aura in the presence pool is honestly such a damn good suggestion and you should really make a thread for it over in suggestions. I'd sign on to it in a heartbeat. The presence pool still has some major issues of being a relevant choice outside some very niche builds with very minor impact. A taunt aura would be a solid improvement. The presence pool also really ___Really___ does not need TWO fear powers. I have also been hoping for a new IO set that includes a taunt proc, which doesn't exist at all otherwise.

Fiery aura brute with a primary that a scrapper has access to. Just pretend that youre a scrapper and be a brute with a functioning taunt aura, a better resist cap, and a higher hp. Fiery aura is what you want for the aoe carnage, it just doesnt work like it should for a scrapper.

If PFF is "suppressed when attacking" and not OAS, then you cant gain any benefit from it after attacking and needing to use it reactively. Unsigned. Honestly theres so many force field threads and the powerset is such a hot mess that would require some major adjustments to actually make it viable in comparison to other power sets that actually do more than 1 thing. Minor adjustments like this are just going to leave FF in the same place it was before. When FF actually gets a pass (if) it will be interesting to see the direction the developers take.

-Consume can be slotted with a knockdown proc -Consume provides end drain resistance (not just an end refill, it will protect you vs sappers) -Consume can be used as an aoe attack chain filler, which can be present even in ultra high recharge builds when only using aoe attacks (farming) -Actually does respectable damage with fury and moreso at the damage cap -If consume is not slotted for damage enhancement you can even gain more from a fully capped out damage buff with this power than your normally enhanced attacks -It can be slotted as a proc bomb, but the best procs that are unique, fury of gladiator and Armageddon will be in burn. -It can be used as an aoe taunt to pull/aggro an extra spawn while jousting out of the spawn during the cast time -consume can be a set bonus mule with perfect zinger(4 or 6), mocking beratement(6), eradication(3), or obliteration(6). -it is fun to cast consume and joust away and run away from the consumed flames that chase you :3

If you have an extra power slot and want to save an enhancement slot you can pick up RotP and use is as a mule for preventive medicine similar to lotg mules with just base slot investment. Outside of this, 100% skip. Healing flames is typically going to get 6 slot preventive medicine anyways unless youre a farm-only fiery aura brute which does not need healing flames at all, and so the base slot preventive medicine is best in this case

See the Savage Guide thread in the stalker forums by @Frosticus detailed discussion about hemorrhage change.

Thanks. I've always accepted that as fine. In reference to @Hjarkipost do you know why it was set to behave differently than other pseudopets?

@Bopper good sir can you confirm shield charge damage cap? first person that came to mind for a good fact check :3

Also shield charge typically does not benefit from +dmg buffs. It has a pseudopet damage cap, not your brute damage cap. It caps at +400%, of which 100% is base, about 100% is enhanced value, and about 180-190% from fury. Against all odds and any +dmg set bonuses will cap out your shield charge damage, leaving no room for benefit from build up, team buffs, or red insps. This is why shield defense is a much better set for scrappers and tanks than brutes, along with better scaling from AAO.

Even for a brute where damage buffs aren't as impactful as they are for ATs with higher base damage, I still wouldn't skip Build Up. With gaussians it is a 160% damage buff and with stone melee and the abundance of forcefeedback procs you can get very good uptime in combat with all the +rchg available. You're also otherwise lacking a +tohit tool to keep your dps up when you get tohit debuffed, when nemesis veng stack, or when you need to finish off that paragon protector that got their MoG off.

Certain tools thay make soloing on higher difficulties as a blaster easier, more smooth, or more comfortable are available to you regardless of your primary/secondary choice. These are base buffs, accolades, temp powers, p2w amplifiers, insps, and incarnate choices. With all the tools above adapted to your playstyle, most any blaster can solo easily.

I wasnt thrilled with the RoP gutting, but not something to rant about. I only used it on 2 characters, given time i probably would have looked into fitting it into other characters with some high recharge shenanigans, but i probably won't now. The 2 characters I have it on will probably still keep the power, because the RoP rhythm is a unique playstyle that I grew fond of with those blasters. It just isn't something that I'll likely be looking to design other characters around in the future, because for me bringing RoP into a build that was stacking heavy recharge buffs was what interested me, and that is what was removed. I don't disagree that the effectiveness of the power didn't deserve to be looked at, it was just not the direction I would have taken to address larger balance issues that RoP just happened to be one of few tools available that was helping to tighten the gap. Clarion is a bandaid on a broken system and break frees are archetypally discriminant. RoP's addition to the game was a healthy one, whether or not you agree or disagree with it being overtuned, because it added variety to how you could respond to how an enemy faction interacts with your character. -mez protection disparity between archetypes, -inspiration tax -an outdated binary combat system, -lack of challenging enemy factions that can strain archetypes more evenly (ie mezzes that can affect a tank/brute/scrapper/dom/rop active squishy, -an outdated difficulty tiered system based on levels and mobsize rather than giving enemy groups utility powers at higher difficulties such as more mezzes, buffs, or debuffs, and higher innate damage resistance, -pool power balance specifically with click powers typically being worse than toggle powers that are passive in nature (fighting, leadership, cj) -a lacking of relevant non-perma situational powers that are worthwhile build considerations that are competitive in nature to old RoP that would help meet new difficulty standards. Oh yes I'm overreaching on my desires for this game, but these are just some of the things that ive thought about more closely with the attention given to RoP's adjustment. Quite frankly I don't care that RoP was nerfed, it may have been the right thing to do for the current game state, my hope is just that there will be more attention given to the mez system, archetypal balance, interactiveness with enemy factions, and the difficulty settings as more updates come down the road.

Theyre for concept characters, and as we all know building for concept means sacrificing effectiveness and purpose. ^^

Stamina only required you to pick up hurdle and health. Nobody took swift because hurdle was the bees knees. Getting Hurdle, Health, and Stamina as inherent was great, but getting Swift on top was even better cause it was a pick you never took anyways, so everyone got that extra bit of unsuppressed movement speed on top of what they were already used to.

Taunt also has the -75% range component. Even if you're not using it to secure aggro for a team, it is still a useful tool for ranged pulling when engaging with multiple spawns and clumping multiple spawns closer together. Taunt IO sets also have some nice set bonuses if you have slots to spare. With 3 slots you can get Tox/Psi resist, regen, and 5% rchg from Perfect Zinger. With 5 slots and Mocking Beratement, you can get +end, S/L resist, S/L defense, F/C def, and 7.5% rchg. Of course it also works just fine with base slot, but those can be some nice set bonuses to snag for most build goals.

Rune of Protection and charged armor are my preference for a beefy blaster. Scorpion Shield and ice armor are convenient for softcaps but tend to put your blaster into a spot where their defenses are more likely to fail and have a lower maximum potential. Tough and weave are nice but not required. Get the steadfast, glad armor, reactive defense, and shield wall uniques. Combat jumping and maneuvers are good defense pads that don't require prerequisites. Build to 20-32.5% defense and use purple insps 1-2 at a time when RoP/nuke is on cooldown. Build in defense that comes comfortably, rather than going overboard to achieve softcap on a blaster that may come with offensive trade-offs has been my mode of operation that has worked well for me.

It is really just Burn advantage. Fiery aura has some nice convenience value in capping out your fire resist and fire defense softcap being so easily accessed with IOs, but it is Burn that differentiates itself from every other armor set. If Fiery aura was chosen just to have ultra survivability in a mono-damage type environment, then every other set could function just as well in an AE map tailored to their strength, but that isn't the case. Once you meet the survivability threshold for farming 4/8 the only thing that matters in farming is your clear speed. This is where fiery aura eclipses every other set. Electric armor is a good example of a set that can farm just fine because you can meet the survivability threshold just as easily as fiery aura. It has a damage aura like fiery aura (slightly lower damage). But it is uncompetitive with fiery aura for farming because it lacks Burn (and to a lesser extent fiery embrace), because farming is about efficiency. Efficiency is met by maximizing your clear speed, not your survivability. Fiery aura can also do just as well in a S/L farm if built in that way, which is also a good way to build if you intend to dual-purpose the character for general content without spending the inf for 2 builds. I have a spines/fire brute that is built with 45% fire defense that I can throw into the AE moon map, put burn on auto, walk away, and come back whenever I feel like it to reset the mission. Then I also have rad/fire brute which is built for general content and who I also got to 1500 badges on. The rad/fire farms just as fast, I just can't afk it.

Something not mentioned is that Sonic Blast is a very endurance light set. It works very well with sets that have no endurance management tools, like Thermal, Force Fields, Storm Summoning, and Poison. Never made FF/Sonic but it gets a nod because of how passive it is alongside a set that you want to be continually spamming your shrieks and screams. Sonic/Therm was one of my favorites pre-shut down because it was a character that I never threw IOs into but always felt like I was relevant and effective playing with full IO groups on speed runs and master badge attempts even with just SOs. Very efficient. On Homecoming I have remade my Sonic/Therm corr as a defender, and also made Storm/Sonic, Poison/Sonic, Kin/Sonic, and Sonic/Sonic. For Defenders, I consider it the premier choice, and the only other defender I play is a Poison/Fire, which is absolutely the most fun to play, followed by the Storm/Sonic. I will point out Storm/Sonic as probably the best of my Sonic Defender choices and sees the most play among them because it shreds hard targets absurdly quickly. The -res from sonic blasting buffs your tornado and lightning storm damage. Sonic Blasting puts no endurance strain on the more endurance heavy storm summoning. You get an additional -35% long duration resistance debuff from freezing rain. But most of all, it was Burnout that made this set shine, being able to double cast Freezing Rain/Tornado/Lightning Storm/Dreadful wail, which is where the AV/GM/Hamidon shredding really shines. There is something about playing Sonic Blast that is a fun minigame in itself. I consider Sonic Blasting to have a higher skill cap than your average blast set because -res is only as effective as the amount of damage applied to the target before the debuff wears off, or you surpass the kill threshold. It is also a set that requires you to hit the target before your allies apply their damage, and requires some anticipation and awareness about what your nearby allies are going to do. If you choose to start sonic blasting away at that freakshow boss but your allies don't follow up when you were expecting them to, you can end up with alot of wasted time on your hands. I will also make a mention about Shriek, being one of the best t1 power choices in the game, across any archetype or powerset, if you are going to be locked into your T1 power pick, which defenders are in the case of their blast sets, Shriek is absolutely top tier. The debuff only lasts 5 seconds, but the animation time is 1 second, and the projectile speed is very fast, meaning you are often able to hit your target and debuff their resistance before your nearby ally finishes casting their Knockout Blow, even if you started casting Shriek after they started casting Knockout Blow. If you are using Shriek effectively in standard mob clearing, the 5 second duration doesnt matter because your target will be dead in 5 seconds or within the kill threshold, and we already know sonic blasting is extremely strong in AV fights. In standard mob clearing, casting Shriek on the targeted boss of the spawn with correct anticipation of ally follow up damage, is very similar to a stalker's role in mob clearing with assassins strike. You Howl at the group, and then add a couple extra debuffs to the bosses, and everything melts. Also none of my sonic blasting defenders use Sirens Song or Shockwave. Neither provides -res. I tried to like Shockwave once, and its just not worth taking time away from applying early/initial -res or cutting into your stacking potential. Also note Shockwave has 1/3rd the damage of Fire Breath, only 10 ft longer range, the same radius, and requires an extra slot to kb>kd. Shockwave isn't worth it and Sirens Song has even lower value IMO.

Kinetics for MMs works best with demons or beasts imo. Demons have some insane force multiplier potential including good personal attacks to take advantage of being at the damage cap yourself. Once youre at the damage cap only procs and -res can deliver more damage. Both the personal attacks and some demon pet attacks cause -res. Demon/kin works very similarly to a kin/sonic defender as a dual force multiplier, but with alot more damage output. Lash is incredible with 5-6 damage procs at the damage cap. Beast pets can softcap themselves without secondary assistance so would be the other side of functioning compared to demon/kin as the more safe and survivable option but with a lower top end performance cap. As mentioned, bots prefer ranged combat, you can pull them into melee with the follow command before you fulcrum shift, but primaries like demon or beasts already function best in melee combat.

I think it was right to look at the discrepancy between RoP functioning at an SO enhanced level vs an IO level. I also believe that the RoP change sets a precedent for future game balance decisions, and that does make the discussion around the mez system and how it interacts on a very uneven level between archetypes have a relevant place in the RoP discussion. Yes we all did just fine before RoP existed. I only have RoP on a couple characters. RoP's addition to the game was a welcome one and one where there should be more tools that function similarly as build choices. RoP's addition to the game brought light on mez discrepency between archetypes that was long overdue to take place.

I disagree that your opinion is any more valid than anyone elses. Suggesting balance between archetypes is not power creep. The current mez system is extremely binary and should not be meant to put half the archetypes 'in their place' while the other half don't just have an eased experience with basic combat mechanics, they ignore it completely 100%. My suggestions have all been that mez protection and survivability options, tools, and build choices should be more widely proliferated, AND enemy factions should more widely be able to challenge an increased level of protection tools that has an effect on ALL archetypes. Current CoH mez mechanics and challenges are so binary to the point that there is little scale between archetypal difference, it is zero or 100% immunity button mash til everything is dead around you. My suggestions are for more tools for the zero to be able to adapt to a challenging situation some of the time, that the 100% immunity cases have to consider how they adapt to different combat situations more often, and that enemy abilities would be looked at so that even if you have mez protection or soft capped defenses or whatever that it isn't just a faceroll over your keyboard. Proliferating mez protection is not a power creep proposal. It is an archetypal balance proposal targeting a system that is highly discriminatory.

My mindset completely. Its an archetypal imbalance, and an MMO trinity ideology that CoH has never adhered to.