Erratic1

Decided to try my hand at EnM/Inv: Not completely satisfied but might give it a whirl.

When I factor in healing recycle plus regen moderated by resistance the two come out amazingly close in terms of the amount of incoming damage necessary to drive their health bars down: 106.57 dps for Inv vs 98.73 for EnA when looking at Smashing/Lethal damage and ignoring defense. That is assuming perma-Hasten on both sides even though it is not quite perma on the Inv side since Kick is probably not part of the attack chain and the buff lasts for a very short duration. (It is not actually showing perma either on the EnA side either but Entropic Aura pushes it to actual perma with 1 foe--which there will be if you're fighting) so the 7.84 dps gap between them shrinks by some amount. Not even going to attempt napkin math here but gut would suggest to me an actual difference of probably around 7dps all said and done. Against non-Smashing/Lethal damage EnA looks to be a bit up over Inv. What it takes for those values to be delivered hinges on how much Defense on either character has been debuffed, how many attacks are coming in, and how big they are. DDR is almost identical--50% for Inv, 51.9% for EnA so they should fair identically in how their defense is degraded. Defense given by Invincibility scales better than that given by Energy Drain. Also Invincibility is always on (unless you insanely toggle it off) whereas Energy Drain requires use near targets and then persists. On the upside for Energy Drain though, it cycles in under half the time the Defense boost persists so it might stack higher in the end (though honestly I doubt that is going to be beneficial in most circumstances even assuming the new stacks add to existing ones). The place Inv pulls ahead is with the boost to total HP. This will be most meaningful in big hit and being whittled down circumstances. It is not as apples to apples a comparison as it could be because of the difference in offensive sets and the impact that has on what can be slotted but its more than good enough I think for government work. I would be interested in seeing what you might build for Energy Melee/Invulnerability Hyperstrike. Edit: As goes Thrax's build (which is EnM, so a bit more apples to apples), I think the gap between the two narrows somewhat. Without doing math, my gut would be Inv still is more survivable but the gap narrows because the Defense values are not so high, at least when fighting against above even level opponents. Edit 2: Now I am all fired up to go against at Energy Aura. Darn my aversion to matching themes on primary and secondary powersets though...EnM/EnA looks to be pretty good. I could console myself with EnM/Inv but I already have a current StJ/Inv brute I'm working on.

FWIW, I never, ever, every have taken paired theme primary and secondary powersets. Energy Melee/Energy Aura is the only such pairing which tempts me. Invulnerability is godly. My first scrapper, created in the first month of release back on Live was DM/Inv. So I know how good it is. Even so, I think there are real merits to Energy Aura.

I agree to an extent but not completely. Compare to a possible Energy Aura build: The builds are comparable in terms of defense with Energy Aura notably lagging in terms of S/L resistance. But Energy Aura comes with a healing power which is up more often.* It also manages higher Regen. If I were not out the door right now for a family function, I might try to convert the HP/sec of having Energize every 35sec into equivalent resistance. * Energy Aura also recovers endurance, but that is indirectly tied to toughness in that a good offense being a good defense require endurance to feed it. 😛

A winner so far as what? Offensively, if you can stay in Offensive Stance while maintaining suitable defenses/resistance you will get a Damage buff out of Bio along with the area damage field Bio has. Defensively...well, the original poster has already ranked Bio several steps above Willpower. While I do not have one myself, I do play from time to time with someone who runs a Bio/Staff Tanker. She's a beast.

Not sure if that is directed to me or not. All I have done is provide information on how to use the forum interface more effectively than how they were instructed. I have no horse in this race.

Faster method is to highlight the person's avatar (next to thier post) by hovering over it. Bottom right corner has [Ignore]. Click on it.

Not likely a problem since as a ranged character playing with a Tanker buddy, the enemy should not be hitting the Defender much. And with the Tanker holding aggro, being close for Transfusion or Transference is less risky. On my Kinetics characters I sometimes zip in for an effect then retreat to range.

A worthy sacrifice for the sins of other powersets? 😛

I am not moving goalposts since the sequence of events is you responding to me, not the other way around. All day I have been tolerating the aggression in your posts and ignoring it because I reasoned that what I was seeing may not have been there. The phrasing of your last post makes clear your nature. Feel free to last word since when I note I am done with someone, I am and feel no need to make little digs like you just did.

So you're saying it needs to be nerfed?

It can be because "all the data" does not necessarily cover all the possibilities. And in fact many times you can know the data doesn't do so. As example, all the data on builds from what is posted on the forums would suggest IO sets are heavily used. But the reality of what people play stands to be different. The developers can look at everyone that is playing but if AT 《X》 with Powerset 1/Powerset 2 is relatively unplayed and and it just so happens that population of players happens to enjoy leisurely pacing themselves, just looking at xp/hr is not really going to reflect what is truly possible. Controlled testing is going to tell you more than just just looking at all the data. Depends on what one is debating. I was contesting the contradiction I saw in a statement. You seem to have repeatedly read it as a matter about Bio.

Given how varied people are in how they play, the impact of paired damage powersets, and the dangers of generalizing from small samples (which factoring in all the variety is going to leave onevwith), I am not sure that is a good choice for a metric. Saying, "...until it gets nerfed" most assuredly is invoking one. Moreover, I am not claiming hurdles, I am mentioning factors which come into play. That is clarification as your wording suggests a different understanding of what I was trying to impart than what I intended. I am not particularly worried about a Bio nerf and despite whatever sentiment there may be for one there are points which would argue against it too. I would much more expect attention to be directed to proc abuse, but that is me. Nothing I have ever suggested or implied at any point.

If it takes and inordinate amount of time (clicks) to use, that is a cost (detriment), which is a balancing factor compared to other sets without need for so much clicking. Saying something takes skill is basically saying there are unidentified factors which other sets do not deal with which are points of potential problem/failure. I seem to recall a couple of powersets touted for not requiring attention. I can assure you that is not how Bio works. While I most assuredly believe nerfs are called on at times I also see them get invoked due to failure to look at a sufficiently large context. But if we're talking nerfs to how it performs on Tankers only, that might be another matter.

Not sure how to reconcile, "...it takes a measure of skill to play" (especially from a Tanker standpoint) with it needing nerfs, and that before considering all the, "Its so clicky" comments one encounters.

Was feeling the urge to once again try to level up a redside character and ended up on the idea of a stealthy bludgeoner because I wanted to play War Mace, had never played Ninjitsu to 50, and the idea of a stealthy bludgeoner with a massive hammer was entertaining. He is a smart thug who, having realized that magic can do things people don't expect, went all in with "collecting" items to further his capacity to commit crime. As such, he uses items from widely different backgrounds and his fashion is a little disjointed.

Looks to be Hats/Imperial Defense with Detail 2/Cybertech 3 using Supernatural Face 10

As I understand it currently if an attack has multiple damage components then the highest defense you have against ANY of those components applies to the entire attack (i.e., all of typed defenses are checked along with the positional typing with the highest of any of your typed defenses applying to the entirety of the attack). This means that multiple damage type attacks are at a disadvantage because while you might be unlucky and have low typed defense to one type if the other component of the attack applied to a higher typed defense you have that results in a greater chance of the entire not fitting through. The change does not impact positional versus type checks at all. The wording "up to one" is meaningless as goes positional since no attacks come at you with multiple positional components (e.g. a ranged/melee attack). The key word which keeps getting missed is "and": The attack typing on all NPC attacks have been revamped to only check against up to one Positional defense and up to one Type defense. Since most protective sets only boost one flavor of protection (resistance, typed defense, or positional defense) the system as it currently is does not matter too much to people relying on positional defenses--the big thing they are checking is position, not damage type. Hybrid protection powersets and IOs throw a wrinkle in this because both give you some protection in all three realms. A character using Super Reflexes, a positional defense set, isn't going to care too much about the change most likely. Someone using Energy Aura, a typed defense set, stands to be a bit more concerned. Edit: Checking the Feedback thread, the phrasing in the post I see is: The attack typing on all NPC attacks have been revamped to only utilize a total of two defense types: Positional & Primary Damage Again, both position and damage type are checked but the word "primary" makes it clear what the change is. They also give an example: EXAMPLE: Previously, attacks checked for defense typings of any damage types involved in the attack. For example, most Ice Blast attacks are Cold/Smashing and when checked against a player's defenses, it would look at both Cold and Smashing defenses and use whichever was highest. After this adjustment, an attack will only target the defense of the attack's highest damage type. Using the aforementioned Ice Blast, those attacks will now only target Cold defense, even though they have a Smashing component, as Cold is the majority damage in those attacks. Mind you, the example is only looking at the impact to Typed defense because there is no impact to the positional portion of how attacks are resolved. As Ice Blast is a ranged attack, it will check Ranged defense as well.

My solution tends to be suffering until submitting to slotting IOs (which admittedly is not using Incarnates but isn't exactly doing a pure SO build either).

I've had builds where double End Redux in everything wasn't preventing hemorrhaging endurance. Came very close to abandoning what went on to be my favorite Tank because he was a virtual black hole of endurance consumption. Some powersets are quite unfriendly along the way (looking hard at you Radiation Melee--a powerset which on every character I have ever played it on has been problematic*). * I cannot even begin to imagine how punishing Radiation Melee and Dark Armor would be when combined.

Could be worse. You could be trying Dark Armor/Rad Melee. 😈

Heh yeah. I have yet to see a single combo posted yet that matches a character I've played, let alone the ones I have truly enjoyed.

As much fun as it was to homage a comic book character it feels a bit wrong to always be running around in the character's costume. So I have come up with a costume which drops me from referencing name and look to just referencing the name.

Think you just type @<name>, like @Infinitum Should mention that after you type @ you will get a list of names based on what you follow it with and you should click the name. Also, doing so will notify the user they have been mentioned, like @Hyperstrike should have just done for you.

You can have more than one build.