Erratic1

A blaster plays in melee every bit as much as a scrapper? Clearly I have been playing my blasters incorrectly. What sold me on Seismic Blast as a set? When I copied to the test server, whipped up a level 22ish character and took out a spawn of Warriors without them ever getting to launch an attack at me...while at range. Scrappers don't ever do that.

It dawned on me the other day there was another character I could pay homage to with my Stj/Inv Brute.... I really like the original costume I came up for him in my previous post, but these look too nifty not to use from time to time.

Clearly I play too many character for whom Energy is not much of a consideration.

25% Smash/Energy. Also slows movement.

It is amazing how specific he suddenly becomes when responding to what someone else says. Moving target. 😛

Well since we're nitpicking, there is considerable difference between a power being accessible and a character having it. And having played and read on Kinetics considerably (nevermind having a few) amongst the most commonly regarded powers for skipping is Increased Density. I will grant you Fortitude but Increased Density? I do not think I have ever had it cast on me and I have only once taken it and think I later respec'd out of it.

I already covered this upthread. It is like you cannot recognize the ground has already been gone over. Just being on a team does not bring up a Brute's defense or resistance--the composition of the team matters. Bring along a Kinetics Controller and an Empathy Defender nobody will complain but the Brute will not be getting any tougher. Without set bonuses (around which the game is NOT balanced) or incarnate buffs brutes get the same defense and resistance values out of their powers that Scrappers do. SCRAPPER...NOT TANKS. My level 33 brute with 3 basic IOs in his secondary powerset's power is only tougher than a scrapper due to hit points, not by defense or resistance value. A tanker with the same investment is plainly better off. Lest you back-peddle and try to make your statement about teams, the wording was, " They already do - especially when teamed", which means they do when not on a team and moreso on a team. Points (1) and (2) say otherwise. I know, I know...I have been quite content to ignore your casual bending of facts and I am broadly content to let you carry on and trust other that you have been doing so. So do not take that invoking me with an @ mention is a way to provoke a response. But I had memed and so figured in for a penny in for a pound. Feel free to get back to stomping all over any view other than your own.

If you're going to go by that metric, can you not argue that Tankers need more loving? "After all, if they were properly balanced more people would be playing them," is the cousin of the logic you are suggesting. Popularity is not a meaningless metric, but you have to consider what feeds into it.

That is certainly the claim put forward by a certain someone. I will repeat myself from upthread: It is not a matter of Brute vs Tanker but rather where does the Brute fit and is their play fulfilling/worthwhile on the whole.

If anything, Brutes should have gotten the current Tranker proc and Tankers should have gotten a daamge boosting proc (or perhaps something that drop Res debuff on nearby opponents). As is, I use Brute ATOs for the set bonus. I am not seeing how it helps Brutes for other AT's ATO procs to be nerfed.

The description for Spinning Strike is: In the Enhancement screen, mousing over the power shows: Under the power name it is listed as Melee (Targeted AoE). And yet under Allowed Enhancement Set Categories it is included in Ranged AoE Damage.

With 7 Corruptors/Defenders I think you could probably use a Blaster as a damage sponge. So not sure that is really saying much about a Brute being special in that situation. A Tanker does better and you take an utterly unsignificant damage hit and a Scrapper could likely do the job for more damage (though things get interesting in the case of a one-shot that gets through).

Well yeah, an 8th person with a pulse doing anything will expedite a faster TF. The point is that the difference between a buffed Tanker's damage and a buffed Brute's damage when factored against the rest of the team's damage when everyone else is a buffer doesn't seem like it's going to be earthshaking. Let's go with 4 Defenders (ranged damage scale 0.65, damage limit 400%), 3 Corruptors (ranged damage scale 0.75, damage limit 500%)...that is 4*0.65*4 + 3*0.75*5 = 21.65. Then add a Brute (damage scale 0.75, damage limit 700%) or Tanker (damage scale 0.95, damage limit 500%) to end up with 26.9 for adding the Brute or 26.4 for the Tankers. That is under 2% difference. I get people want of finish as fast as possible but if it takes the Tanker team 2 hours to finish the content the Brute team is only beating them by 1 minute and 6 seconds. And that if the Tanker's greater AoE did not come into play.

Pretty sure with 7 Corruptors/Defenders the 8th person could be afk.

At the point where you have 7 Corruptors/Defenders I seriously question that the 8th person matters.

SS at that point laughs at the Purple patch. +6? Bring it on!!!

I really do not see a direct damage increase in the cards given last time Brutes were touched it was to lower their damage potential. Nor do I think improving Brutes or securing a niche for them has to come at the expense of other ATs. Indirectly, how about a "focus" mechanism which increases To-Hit, either via ATO proc or class mechanic judging the targeted foe has not changed? "YOU GOT MY ATTENTION...NOW I'M GONNA SMASH YOU!"

While that is not an unreasonable stance it does lock out a familiar comic trope of the reformed bad guy and its less common mirror the fallen hero.

Something like: Bioss.costume Set your Bio power effects to Minimal FX then for powers which only have Original or Color Tintable, choose Color Tintable and set the primary to match the skin and the secondary to the lightest brown you can find. Edit: In a bit of rush this morning. Did not address the left eye. Perhaps tonight when I get home.

Damage deferment. Convert a certain percentage (could be based on Fury level at damage application) to a DoT. Of course you could end up in a situation where too much damage over time is coming in..... Another downside is it would delay when a rest cod could begin unless you code the application differently. Edit: And tired it to the AT IO.

Keeping this short because it is clear you're not reading and I lack the strength to waste time on that behavior. (1) I wrote of the difference between TFs, which typically have more players and hence a greater likelihood of buffing/support vs other teaming, such as two-man. (2) I wrote about Tankers and Tough/Weave. I never remotely suggested other melees not taking and fully using those powers. In fact I said the opposite. But hey, why would you let that get in the way of being insulting? Since you are perfectly right in all your pronouncements, I am not going fo bother to say otherwise to you. Edit: I wrote in comparison to my previous (and mentioned) DM/Elec, which clearly is going to trump the SM/Elec. But again on the not reading and clearly always being right

Why I specified a generic you.

Don't tell me Brutes are fine is what it should say.

@Snarky, I have two brutes I am currently levelling. The Savage Melee/Electrical Armor, because I want to try to wring as much out of Savage and DoTs as possible, and there StJ/Inv because I had never played up StJ before and had no current Inv characters. They are enjoyable in the abstract as they work their way to final form and improve but... SM/Elec s never going to be as tough as other pairings of powersets. I worry about how survivable he will be in the end and am certain it will be less than the DM/Elec I had on Live or the SS/Bio who is my pride and joy as goes Btutes. The StJ/Inv should be incredible as goes surviving, but he is going to be very pricey--at least twice what went into SS/Bio and maybe more. While I enjoy levelling them, they feel like chores with questionable payoff. By contrast, WM/Nin scrapper is a constant set of joy whose end I look forward to.